DNS Knowledge

To provide services beyond the host machine, adjust the router's DNS settings. A look at the documentation [19] is helpful. However, beginners can follow the example and use one of the two YunoHost domains for a start. Multiple domains are possible, and you are allowed to mix your own domains and subdomains with YunoHost domains.

In the example without your own domain, enter the desired subdomain in the dialog and select one of the two domains offered to you. When assigning names, keep in mind that everyone who logs into the server uses this default domain.

In the example, ft is used as a subdomain. The default domain is ft.nohost.me. A first attempt with yunohost as a subdomain failed, because the system was not able to complete the configuration – but for no apparent reason.

Time for a Cup of Tea

After creating a server administration password, you'll need to set up the network, which may take a few minutes. You will then find yourself in the administration interface.

The first step is to update the system. Import new packages from both the Debian server and YunoHost (Figure 3) under the System update category. Be sure to update the system at regular intervals, because only an up-to-date server system offers sufficient security.

Figure 3: I recommend periodically updating the system to patch security vulnerabilities in the installed packages.

For all actions, you will see a status display at the top right-hand corner of the screen that displays the actions currently running. A list of actions in progress is displayed when you mouse over the items.

Next, you should create at least one user to log in to the user area. Afterwards, start installing applications. For this test, the first choices were Baikal, Wallabag, and Nextcloud. The installation and basic configuration required only one mouse click (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Wallabag was chosen for the test; the package comes from the company's official repository.

To test the installed applications, log in as the previously created user and access the services (Figure 5). The initial configuration of the apps I installed proved to be very good. For example, Nextcloud already had the required LDAP information.

Figure 5: You can log in to all apps using single sign-on.

Full of Apps

The easy installation steps only apply to the company's official apps. For the far larger number of custom apps, which come from and are managed by the community, you'll find an Install user-defined app submenu at the end of the official apps list.

Enter the application's GitHub URL. You can find the GitHub URL with the information provided for the app. For example, I installed the Piwigo photo gallery, which had the URL https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/piwigo_ynh (Figure 6).

Figure 6: If the packages from the official repository do not meet all your needs, you can turn to community software.

In the Domains category, it is possible to define additional domains, change the standard, and add certificates. In the test, I created a subdomain of my own domain as the second domain, which worked fine after DNS was set to the IP address defined in /etc/hosts (or alternatively on the router).