Here are simplified instructions for installing Aegir on a server, quickly and easily.

The fastest way to install Aegir is on the latest Ubuntu Server LTS Release (Long Term Support). This release always begins with the year it was released and ends with ".04". Currently 11.04

This document was originally based on http://community.aegirproject.org/installing/debian but has been trimmed down to list only the steps you need to get Aegir up and running.

Installation Instructions

1. Fire up a new server

   • Use Ubuntu 11.04 Server Edition for the smoothest and most reliable installation experience.
   • Make sure it has at least 1024MB, preferably 2048MB of memory. Depending on your host you will have to configure a hostname. It can be convenient to call this 'aegir'.
   • If you want the smoothest installation, create a brand new server. There will be the least chance of conflicts if you start with a brand new Ubuntu 11.04 server. If you use Ubuntu Desktop, you should be able follow these instructions without any problems.

2. Add the project repositories and archive key

   Use this command to add the Aegir package "Software Source" repository to your system:

   echo "deb http://debian.aegirproject.org stable main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/aegir-stable.list
   Use this command to add the archive key to your keyring:
   wget -q http://debian.aegirproject.org/key.asc -O- | apt-key add -
   Then, finally, update your apt repositories:
   apt-get update

3. Install configure Aegir and dependencies

   Once you have added the repositories, you can now fire off the standard debian installation command:

   apt-get install aegir
   This fires off the installation script for AEgir, along all dependencies including Apache, MySQ and PHP. You will be asked a number of questions about your server.
   • You will be asked to create a MySQL root user password. Make this long and random and type it down somewhere safe, you won't need it very often, but you will need it later on in the installation process.
   • In Postfix Configuration: Choose Internet Site, unless you have a reason otherwise. When asked for the System mail name, pick either the hostname (default) or the domain name you will be hosting this server on.
   • In Configure aegir-hostmaster, you will be asked to choose a "URL of the hostmaster frontend". This should be either the hostname (default) or the domain name the server will be hosting, with "aegir" as a subdomain. For example, "aegir.example.com". You may want to change this to whatever you prefer, just don't forget it as it will be where you use the Aegir front-end.
   • After entering your domain, Aegir Hostmaster installation will ask you for the MySQL root password you created earlier. You did write it down, didn't you?
     NOTE: The current DEB package requires you to enter the MySQL root password twice. When this script is done, if everything went ok, after a lot of other interesting information, you should see this:
     Aegir is now installed. You can visit it at http://test/user/reset/1/1329504351/eda205d9a27abde400a27cf160dff69a
***... frontend bootstrap correctly, operation was a success!
Setting up aegir (1.6-1) ...
Setting up libhtml-template-perl (2.9-2) ...
Setting up mysql-server (5.1.54-1ubuntu4) ...
Setting up php5 (5.3.5-1ubuntu7.7) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
root@test:~#

   At this point, everything is installed. Visit the link the script provided you to check out the frontend. Switch to the aegir user to check out the backend:

   su - aegir

   Once you are the aegir user, check out the drush site aliases it gives you:

   drush site-aliases

   @hostmaster is the alias for the new front-end you created. You will get new site aliases for every platform and site you create.

4. Give yourself access to the server

   As the "Administrators Manual" can tell you, you should only manage the Aegir server from the backend as the aegir user.

   However, by default, the aegir user cannot sudo (except to restart apache). The aegir user also does not have a password. Therefor, the only way to become aegir is to sudo su - aegir from a user that can.

   So, to finish the server, you should give yourself a personal account that you can use to login to the server with a password in case all of your SSH keys get lost.

   To add yourself as a user:

   adduser yourname
   Then fill out the little wizard it gives you.

   You will want to also be a part of the aegir and www-data groups so you can write to some of their files:

   addgroup yourname aegir
addgroup yourname www-data

   //@TODO: Add some helpful notes about SSH keys and remote aliases.

5. Start Using!

   Now that aegir is installed, head to the User Manual page to get your first platform and site up and running.