Starting an E-Business From Scratch: Part 2

Installation
In the first installment of "Starting an E-Business from Scratch," we covered some of the basics: operating systems, hardware and software. We also defined our project so that all our actions could be tied back to its basic premise, allowing us to gauge how well we're doing.

One aspect we didn't talk about is how vulnerable an operating system might be to a hacking attack. If you look at the BUGTRAQ Vulnerability Database Statistics Web site (www.securityfocus.com/frames/?content=/vdb/stats.html) you will notice that FreeBSD has a very small number of vulnerabilities as compared with Windows. While I firmly believe no system is a fortress, with constant diligence and updating of your software, you can minimize your chances of problems.

Operating System Installation
FreeBSD can be installed in many different ways, and different can mean a variety of things when it comes to Unix. From media type (though the Internet, by CD-ROM or diskette) to optional software selected at installation, we need to decide what we will be using.

Let's assume we purchased the CD-ROM version of FreeBSD 4. (FreeBSD has had different development trees; versions 3.x and 4.x have existed for a couple years together, with each tree having two branches--stable and current). Installation of version 4.x is not the same as installing a Windows box, but it isn't that much more difficult. The best way of putting it is that it's just different. In some respects, it is very close to Novell Netware 3.1 in installation.

Before you begin, know what types (manufacturer, product number) of hardware you have installed in your computer. FreeBSD installs a generic kernel, which consists of support for every piece of hardware that FreeBSD currently supports. There is no need to install the default-default kernel. With a little patience, you can pare down the kernel to match your system more closely. That will result in a faster boot time and a smaller memory footprint for your machine. Advanced users should rebuild their kernels to improve their systems' performance and reduce/remove more unwanted device drivers.

The hard disk configuration screens should be looked at very closely. After installing FreeBSD several times, we have found the defaults not suitable for our installations. We have actually run out of room on some of our partitions, due to the acceptance of the default configuration.

Like Novell Netware, you have to create partitions on your hard drive. FreeBSD requires/suggests four: root, var, usr and swap. We typically choose 250 MB for root, var and swap, with the remainder for usr (assuming one hard drive). If you are going to use a back-up system (such as Amanda), we might suggest increasing each of the aforementioned sections to 300 MB. Even with the increase in size, you will only be using 1 GB of storage.

In addition, if you are going to have large numbers of mailboxes, you might want to move them to your usr partition (or another drive entirely). This also goes for Web sites and SQL databases. Moving databases requires some understanding of Symlinks (like Win 9.x shortcuts), and how they work, since most of the software you'll install already have default paths.

The rest of the installation should proceed quickly, and without problems if you're using well-known hardware. The last two computers we installed FreeBSD on were Dell Dimension, and an old 486 machine. Our only problem on the Dell was a SCSI termination problem with the tape drive. We reconfigured the SCSI devices and, due to our oversight, did not properly terminate. On the 486, we went through our entire stock of ISA cards until we determined we needed to purchase a new card. Once installed, installation went like clockwork.

Once the basic system is installed, you actually have a working, networkable, multiuser Unix computer. Part of the basic install is Sendmail < a href="http://www.sendmail.org">(www.sendmail.org), BIND (DNS, www.isc.org) and FTP. Don't disable Sendmail. If you don't want this computer to be your e-mail server, then don't point any MX records towards it. FreeBSD needs Sendmail to send system messages to the Root User. The hours it would take to reconfigure the machine and remove Sendmail just isn't worth the trouble or effort.

FreeBSD currently has close to 4,000 ported applications. A ported application is one that has been tested to run on a certain version of FreeBSD and is configured to install with little or no fuss. These applications will just drop into place, and are available either on your CD-ROM or via FTP.

Some of the applications we always install are EMACS (a text editor, www.emacs.org), Less (a program similar to More) and SSH (for secured telnet sessions, www.openssh.org).

Choosing the Web Server
FreeBSD lists half a dozen different Web servers in the ports list. The most popular Web server is Apache (www.apache.org). However, we've been using Roxen Challenger 3.x (www.roxen.com) for several years and are quite happy with the results.

Why Roxen? Because it has a graphical configuration interface as opposed to Apache, which is command-line generated. Roxen also has some very interesting modules that allow you to enhance your Web sites with little or no additional programming. Roxen now has a new development branch, version 2.x. The Caudium Project (www.caudium.org) has taken over the development of the 1.3x line.

Whichever Web server you choose, make sure it is the 128-bit SSL version. Also, remember that with any Web server you can have multiple (virtual) Web sites bound with one IP address. However, only one IP address can be bound to the SSL port. That means if you require multiple secure servers on a single computer, you will need multiple IP addresses.

E-Commerce Software
As mentioned in part one, ShopSite (www.shopsite.com) has been selected as our e-commerce software. ShopSite is easy to install. Companies using ShopSite include Ameritrade-Shop.com, Sony.Com and Ingram-Micro, which all use Open Markets Transact.

ShopSite is sold through ISPs. For the ShopSite program, you don't need to use those ISPs to host your site. However, if you want to take advantage of the other applications available as high-end add-ons to ShopSite, then you will need to team up with a ShopSite Application Provider, called a commerce service provider (CSP).

Read the instructions carefully and pre-plan your shopping cart. An error in selecting the URL for the secure server and shopping cart can be costly, inasmuch as Open Market (the makers of ShopSite) will charge the client for these types of errors.

ShopSite itself has three products, a "lite" line, that's not even worth looking at, a Pro and a Manager series. The major differences between Manager and Pro are the ability to add a product search engine, page extensions, universal edit plus a whole host of merchandising tools, such as discounts, per-attribute pricing and associate tracking.

There are other differences, but these are tied to "advanced features" such as order tracking and smart receipt. Those need the services of a CSP, and have additional costs associated with each of them.

ShopSite enables the client to download the product database and do wholesale changes in the spreadsheet of choice. After modification, you can upload your new databases. In addition, online you can add or modify products one at a time or en masse, as well as product pages.

Summary
We have moved from our mission statement and stated goals to completing the tasks of identifying our hardware and software needs. We've discussed the installation steps and are ready to tie up our package.

Up Next--Budget preparation for our journey into e-commerce.

Wayne Spivak is the president of SBA Consulting LTD of Bellmore, N.Y.