after installation and re-boot, for your sake install the SSH server:

#apt-get install ssh
Now you can log-on from your desktop machine into your fresh debian server by using Putty (and the best of all, copying and pasting parts of this manual directly into your terminal).

Configure your network interfaces:

#vi /etc/network/interfaces

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#allow-hotplug eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.201
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1

Now run

echo your.defined.hostname > /etc/hostname

Reboot the system:

#shutdown -r now

Afterwards, run:
#hostname
#hostname -f

Both should show your hostname (like server1.example.com)

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and comment out the cd-rom entry:
#vi /etc/apt/sources.list

#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r0 _Etch_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20070407-11:29]/ etch contrib main

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r0 _Etch_ - Official i386 NETINST Binary-1 20070407-11:29]/ etch contrib main

deb http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/ etch main
deb-src http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/ etch main

deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib

save the file and exit.

Then run:
#apt-get update

And run:

#apt-get upgrade

Now, install the MySQL server (MySQL5):

#apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient15-dev phpmyadmin

We want MySQL to listen on all interfaces, not just localhost, so:

#vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf

find the line “bind-address = 127.0.0.1″ and comment it out:
# bind-address = 127.0.0.1

then, we restart MySQL:
#/etc/init.d/mysql restart

now check that networking is enabled, run:
#netstat -tap

You should see a line like this:
tcp 0 0 *:mysql *:* LISTEN 3281/mysqld

Run
#mysqladmin -u root password yourpassword
#mysqladmin -h server1.example.com -u root password yourpassword

(replace yourpassword with your desired password, replace server1.example.com with the hostname you set at installation)

next we install Apache 2(.2) with PHP5

#apt-get install apache2 apache2-doc apache2-mpm-prefork apache2.2-common apache2-utils libexpat1 ssl-cert

next we install php5

#apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php5-common php5-curl php5-dev php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-json php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-mysql php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl

you will be asked the following question:

Continue installing libc-client without Maildir support?

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml index.cgi index.php index.php3 index.pl index.xhtml

edit /etc/apache2/ports.conf and add Listen 443:

#vi /etc/apache2/ports.conf

Listen 80
Listen 443

now we have to enable some Apache modules (SSL, rewrite, suexec, and include):
#a2enmod ssl
#a2enmod rewrite
#a2enmod suexec
#a2enmod include

and reload the apache configuration:
#/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

now we’re going to prepare the system for the VHCS installation:

#apt-get install postfix postfix-tls

Please at request fill in the hostname you’ve entered at the debian installation, e.g. server1.example.com

#apt-get install proftpd proftpd-mysql

Please choose for “Stand alone” at request

#apt-get install courier-authdaemon courier-base courier-imap courier-maildrop courier-pop libberkeleydb-perl libcrypt-blowfish-perl libcrypt-cbc-perl \
libcrypt-passwdmd5-perl libdate-calc-perl libdate-manip-perl libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libio-stringy-perl libmail-sendmail-perl \
libmailtools-perl libmd5-perl libmime-base64-perl libmime-perl libnet-dns-perl libnet-netmask-perl libnet-perl libnet-smtp-server-perl \
libperl5.8 libsnmp-session-perl libterm-readkey-perl libtimedate-perl perl perl-base perl-modules bind9 diff gzip iptables libmcrypt4 patch procmail tar original-awk libterm-readpassword-perl \
libsasl2-modules libsasl2 sasl2-bin bzip2 gcc make libc6-dev

then open /etc/proftpd/proftp.conf to stop some errors from ProFTPD:

#vi /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf

UseIPv6 off

Then, add some security fixes to it:

DefaultRoot ~
IdentLookups off
ServerIdent on “FTP Server Ready”

save the file and exit.

next we’re going to download the vhcs package:
#cd /usr/src
#wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/vhcs/vhcs2-2.4.7.1.tar.bz2

then unpack the archive:
#tar -xjf vhcs2-2.4.7.1.tar.bz2

enter the newly created directory:
#cd vhcs2-2.4.7.1

now, we’re creating the installer:
#make install

after this, go to:
#cd /tmp/vhcs2-2.4.7.1

and copy all of it’s content to the right destination:
#cp -R * /

after this, go to:
#cd /var/www/vhcs2/engine/

now, edit the file vhcs2_common_code.pl
#vi vhcs2_common_code.pl

now, turn on displaying line numbers within Vi:
:set nu

scroll down to line 1408, look for:
`key`=>$main::db_pass_key,

next, add the following line BEFORE the above quoted line:
`keysize`=>32,

scroll down to line 1446 where you will need to repeat the above steps

now save the file and exit.

Start-up the VHCS2 installer:

#cd /var/www/vhcs2/engine/setup
#./vhcs2-setup

At setup, fill in all fields requested.

Now you’ve succesfully installed your debian etch machine containing VHCS2 for virtual hosting!