Postfix+Dovecot and MySql to handle virtual domains/users. I ran into a few problems along the way including the fact that anytime I went to install any of the bigger packages, my vps would run out of memory and would need to be rebooted.
I thought about it overnight (I work nightshift), and this morning decided I would upgrade the vps from a 256mg to 512mg of memory. This moves me up into what I guess is considered a more robust setup and allocates me three dedicated ip addresses as well. I also decided that I'm going to dump MySql as the look-up table provider for postfix. I figure I can handle my email addresses via a flat-file configuration for the time being.
Having decided to dump MySql as the look-up table provider for email, I can take it a step further and remove it from any plans for my mvc framework replacing it with sqlite. I had planned on using pdo as a database abstraction layer anyway, so switching back to mysql later won't be an issue. Managing a vps is all about managing memory and the less daemons operating the better.
There were also a few other configuration decisions I had made along the way with my vps that I wasn't entirely happy with, in the end I decided I was going to reinstall and start from scratch.
So... In this (and probably the next few) blog post(s) I will be describing my process of installing and configuring the lamp stack on a vps. I will be using Debian as the OS and I also hope to be including the setup and configuration of a mail-server.
What Ive done so far:
Ive moved this blog to a local server on my network at home. This allows me to keep posting, even though its not publicly available and wont be for a few days. This step was much simplified by the fact that I'm using simplephpblog which uses flat files for data storage. I really ought give this blog a big plug here. This particular piece of software happens to be the easiest blog to setup/configure that I have used. It really is a great little system and perfect for my requirements.
Firstly to clarify a few things. My local machine is called oblivion. My vps is called chloe. My oblivion machine has an entry in the /etc/hosts file...
209.40.196.51 chloe.thorpesystems.com chloe
which resolves the host chloe, to chloe.thorpesystems.com.
Before I reinstall the base system there are a few configurations that I would like to keep. I'll grab them now.
<user>@oblivion mkdir chloe
<user>@oblivion scp -r chloe:.ssh chloe/
<user>@oblivion chloe:.bash* chloe/
Next, I actually reinstall my Debian server on the vps.
Done. I normally have my ssh clients/servers run on a non-default port. However, because chloe is now newly installed and as yet not configured to do so I need to specify the port to login with. Also, because my usual user account is not yet created, I need to login as root (I will disable the ability to do this soon).
<user>@oblivion su -
<root>@oblivion ssh -p 22 chloe
I'm now in my new install on my remote vps. The very first thing I need to do is set my timezone then upload/install my firewall.
I already have a nice default firewall configuration that I use as a base on all my machines, for more details on setting up a firewall, google iptables.
<root>@chloe tzconfig
<root>@chloe exit
<root>@oblivion scp -P 22 /src/firewall.tar.gz chloe:/firewall.tar.gz
<root>@oblivion ssh -p 22 chloe
<root>@chloe cd / && tar xvpf firewall.tar.gzs
<root>@chloe update-rc.d firewall defaults
<root>@chloe /etc/init.d/firewall start
I update the package db and while I'm at it, the currently installed software.
<root>@chloe apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
I change the default port for both the ssh client and server. I'm not going to let you know what my port actually is, so I will refer to it as <port>.
<root>@chloe sed -i 's/Port 22/Port <port>/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
<root>@chloe sed -i 's/#Port 22/Port <port>/' /etc/ssh_config
<root>@chloe /etc/init.d/ssh restart
Now, I need to create my general user account. I use the same name (which once again won't be disclosed) as my local oblivion machine. Remember I am using Debian so its much simpler to use its adduser command rather than the lower level useradd.
<root>@chloe adduser <user-name>
Next, I should be able to copy my previously saved user configurations back to my new accounts ~/ directory. Firstly however, I need to remove some lines from my local ~/.ssh/known_hosts file which are now broken.
<root>@chloe exit
<root>@oblivion exit
<user>@oblivion sed -i '/chloe/d' .ssh/known_hosts
<user>@oblivion scp -r chloe/ chloe:
From here on in I can simply move between my local machine and my remote machine without the need for passwords. This is done via the magic of ssh keys which I had previously setup and were already contained within my ~/.ssh directory I had saved. On top of that, I have an alias in my ~/.bashrc file on oblivion that looks like....
alias chloe='ssh chloe.thorpesystems.com'
So now I can simply type chloe to ssh to my vps.
My next step is to disable root access via ssh. This entails a few different steps. Before I do so however, I need to grant my general user <user> access to the sudo command. While my vps is already setup to allow me to su to root, sudo is a much more useful tool.
<root>@chloe apt-get install sudo
<root>@chloe sudoedit /etc/sudoers
This enables my <user> account to execute any command I wish as root by using the...
sudo <cmd>
syntax. From here, all I need do is disable root access via ssh and restart the sshd daemon.
<root>@chloe sed -i 's/PermitRootLogin yes/PermitRootLogin no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
<root>@chloe /etc/init.d/ssh restart
Now, there are a few other useful tools that need installing/configuring. I'll do that now.
<user>@chloe sudo apt-get install screen file ntp tee
<user>@chloe sudo sed -i 's/#startup/startup/' /etc/screenrc
The very next thing I'm going to do is get rid of this god awful greeting that appears each time I log in. I know what OS it is, and really, it just annoys the fuck out of me.
<user>@chloe cat /dev/null | sudo tee /etc/{motd*,issue*}
<user>@chloe sudo sed -i 's/PrintLastLog yes/PrintLastLog no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
Next, I install vim (my favoured editor) and set it as my systems default.
<user>@chloe apt-get install vim ctags vim-scripts
<user>@chloe update-alternatives --config editor
I then make a few simple changes to /etc/vim/vimrc. You do what you like, its well commented. I also copy my ~/.vimrc file from oblivion over to chloe.
<user>@chloe exit
<user>@oblivion scp .vimrc chloe:
The last thing I want to do today is setup my ~/ directory structure. I base my home directory structure loosely around that of the fhs, because it works well.
mkdir bin etc lib src tmp var
At this point in time the operating system is setup and pretty well ready to go. I'll be back tomorrow to setup whats left of the LAMP stack. Keeping in mind that I'm using sqlite instead of MySql and the fact that I have already installed Linux, we've really only apache and php to go.]]>