I recently bought a brand new VPS which had CentOS pre-installed. Here's how I hosted my first website on CentOS and a new VPS server which had nothing installed.

I had to browse a lot of internet to find  a solution and hence here I share how I did it.

First, I installed ZPanel on my server. ZPanel is an alternate to CPanel for people like me who cannot afford CPanel. ZPanel is an open-source solution and it works like magic. 

Before installing ZPanel please make sure your system doesn't have PHP or MySQL installed. ZPanel installs both of them and a lot more services automatically. These services can clash with the process and your installation can stop in between. 

Chances are, like me, you might be browsing the internet for a long time and you might have installed both these apps along with others too! I would recommend you to reset your VPS. Look in the panel provided by your host, there's always an option to reset VPS to installation settings.

So, to install ZPanel, you'll have to download it first to your home directory. You can do this by logging in to the SSH of your server. After logging in run this command:

yum -y update

After updating your system, download the file using the following command:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zpanel/installers/master/install/CentOS-6_4/10_1_1.sh

After downloading, you'll have to change permissions of the file which you can do by running:

chmod +x 10_1_1.sh

And finally execute the installer by running: 

./10_1_1.sh




This will install ZPanel on your Server. You'll get passwords and some important stuff printed in your console. Don't forget to save that in a file.

After ZPanel has been installed, you can access it using your IP address. 

This is how your home screen will look like after you log in. 

Now after successful installation of ZPanel, its time to add a new domain. You can do this by clicking the Domains option in Domains module of the home screen.

You'll get a screen similar the one above. 

Now, Add your own domain and click on "Create a new home directory" option.

After your domain has been added, click on DNS Manager under Domains module. 

Select your domain and click edit. You'll see all the DNS entries for your domain. 

Click on "NS" and copy the NS Records of your website. 

Now, go to your Domain Provider's website and access the panel provided to you by your domain provider. Click on the domain you want to host and check its configuration. Under the domain configuration, you'll get the option to save Name Servers. 

Use the newly created Name Servers for your domain and wait until your domain name propagates. 

Your new website will be functional in 30-60 minutes.