Linux Internet Web Server and Domain

Configuration Tutorial

This tutorial assumes that a computer has Linux installed and running. See RedHat
Installation for the basics. A connection to the internet is also assumed. A connection of
128 Mbits/sec or greater will yield the best results. ISDN, DSL, cable modem or better
are all suitable. A 56k modem will work but the results will be mediocre at best. The
tasks must also be performed with the root user login and password.

No single distribution seems to have an advantage. A Ubuntu, SuSe, Fedora, Red Hat or
CentOS distribution will include all of the software you will need to configure a web
server. If using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, both the Workstation or the Server edition will
support your needs except that the Workstation edition will not include the vsFTP
package. It will have to be compiled from source or use sftp.

Software Prerequisites: The Apache web server (httpd), FTP (requires xinetd or inetd)
and Bind (named) software packages with their dependencies are all required. One can
use the rpm command to verify installation:

 Fedora Core 1+, Red Hat Enterprise 4/5, CentOS 4/5:

 rpm -q httpd bind bind-chroot bind-utils system-config-bind
xinetd vsftpd

RPMs added FC2+: system-config-httpd

RPMs added FC3+: httpd-suexec

 Red Hat 9.0

rpm -q httpd bind xinetd vsftpd

A Red Hat 8.0 wu-ftpd RPM may be installed (Newer version 2.6.2 or later with
security fix wu-ftpd-2.6.2-11+) or install from source.

 Red Hat 8.0

rpm -q httpd bind xinetd wu-ftpd

 Red Hat 7.x:

rpm -q apache bind inetd wu-ftpd

Use wu-ftpd version 2.6.2 or later to avoid security problems.

  SuSE 9.3:

rpm -ivh apache2 apache2-prefork bind bind-chrootenv bind-utils

vsftpd

Note: The apache2-MPM is a generic term for Apache installation options for
"Multi-Processing Modules (MPM)s "prefork" or "worker". If you try and only
install apache2 you will get the following error:

apache2-MPM is needed by apache2-2.0.53-9

Also see Apache.org: MPMs

 Ubuntu (dapper 6.06/hardy 8.04) / Debian:

apt-get install apache2

apt-get install apache2-common
apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork
apt-get install apache2-utils
apt-get install bind9
apt-get install vsftpd

One should also have a working knowledge of the Linux init process so that these
services are initiated upon system boot. See the YoLinux init process tutorial for more
info.

Apache HTTP Web server configuration:

This tutorial is for the Apache HTTP web server (Version 1.3 and 2.0). See the YoLinux
list of Linux HTTP servers for a list of other web servers for the Hyper Text Transport
Protocol.

The Apache web server configuration file is: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Web pages are served from the directory as configured by the DocumentRoot directive.
The default directory location is:

Apache web server

Linux distribution
"DocumentRoot"
Red Hat 7.x-9, Fedora Core, Red Hat Enterprise 4/5, /var/www/html/
CentOS 4/5
Red Hat 6.x and older /home/httpd/html/

Suse 9.x /srv/www/htdocs/

Ubuntu (dapper 6.06/hardy 8.04) / Debian /var/www/html

The default home page for the default configuration is index.html. Note the pages
should not be owned by user apache as this is the process owner of the httpd web server
daemon. If the web server process is comprimised, it should not be allowed to alter the
files. The files should of course be readable by user apache.

Apache may be configured to run as a host for one web site in this fashion or it may be
configured to serve for multiple domains. Serving for multiple domains may be achieved
in two ways:

 Virtual hosts: One IP address but multiple domains - "Name based" virtual
hosting.
 Multiple IP based virtual hosts: One IP address for each domain - "IP based"
virtual hosting.

The default configuration will allow one to have multiple user accounts under one
domain by using a reference to the user account: http://www.domain.com/~user1/. If
no domain is registered or configured, the IP address may also be used:
http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/~user1/.

[Potential Pitfall] The default umask for directory creation is correct by default but if not
use: chmod 755 /home/user1/public_html

[Potential Pitfall] When creating new "Directory" configuration directives, I found that
placing them by the existing "Directory" directives to be a bad idea. It would not use the
.htaccess file. This was because the statement defining the use of the .htaccess file
was after the "Directory" statement. Previously in RH 6.x the files were separated and
the order was defined a little different. I now place new "Directory" statements near the
end of the file just before the "VirtualHost" statements.

For users of Red Hat 7.1, the GUI configuration tool apacheconf was introduced for the
crowd who like to use pretty point and click tools.

Files used by Apache:

 Start/stop/restart script:
o Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS: /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd
o SuSE 9.3: /etc/init.d/apache2
o Ubuntu (dapper 6.06/hardy 8.04) / Debian: /etc/init.d/apache2
 Apache main configuration file:
o Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
o SuSE: /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
(Need to add directive: ServerName host-name)
o Ubuntu (dapper 6.06/hardy 8.04) / Debian: /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
 Apache suplementary configuration files:
o Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS: /etc/httpd/conf.d/component.conf
o SuSE: /etc/apache2/conf.d/component.conf
 oUbuntu (dapper 6.06/hardy 8.04) / Debian:
 Virtual domains: /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/domain
(Create soft link from /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/domain to
/etc/apache2/sites-available/domain to turn on. Use
command a2ensite)
 Additional configuration directives: /etc/apache2/conf.d/
 Modules to load: /etc/apache2/mods-available/
(Soft link to /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ to turn on)
 Ports to listen to: /etc/apache2/ports.conf
 /var/log/httpd/access_log and error_log - Red Hat/Fedora Core Apache
log files
(Suse: /var/log/apache2/)

Start/Stop/Restart scripts: The script is to be run with the qualifiers start, stop,
restart or status.
i.e. /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart. A restart allows the web server to start again
and read the configuration files to pick up any changes. To have this script invoked upon
system boot issue the command chkconfig --add httpd. See Linux Init Process
Tutorial for a more complete discussion.

Also Apache control tool: /usr/sbin/apachectl start

Apache Control Command: apachectl:

Red Hat / Fedora Core / CentOS: apachectl directive

Ubuntu dapper 6.06 / hardy 8.04 / Debian: apache2ctl directive
Directive Description
start Start the Apache httpd daemon. Gives an error if it is already running.
stop Stops the Apache httpd daemon.
graceful Gracefully restarts the Apache httpd daemon. If the daemon is not
running, it is started. This differs from a normal restart in that currently
open connections are not aborted.
restart Restarts the Apache httpd daemon. If the daemon is not running, it is
started. This command automatically checks the configuration files as in
configtest before initiating the restart to make sure the daemon doesn't
die.
status Displays a brief status report.
fullstatus Displays a full status report from mod_status. Requires mod_status
enabled on your server and a text-based browser such as lynx available
on your system. The URL used to access the status report can be set by
editing the STATUSURL variable in the script.
configtest Run a configuration file syntax test.
-t
Apache Configuration Files:

 /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf: is used to configure Apache. In the past it was

broken down into three files. These may now be all concatenated into one file.
See Apache online documentation for the full manual.
 /etc/httpd/conf.d/application.conf: All configuration files in this directory
are included during Apache start-up. Used to store application specific
configurations.
 /etc/sysconfig/httpd: Holds environment variables used when starting
Apache.

Basic settings: Change the default value for ServerName www.<your-domain.com>

Giving Apache access to the file system: It is prudent to limit Apache's view of the file
system to only those directories necessary. This is done with the directory statement.
Start by denying access to everything, then grant access to the necessary directories.

Deny access completely to file system root ("/") as the default:

Deny first, then grant permissions:

<Directory />
Options None
AllowOverride None
</Directory>

Set default location of system web pages and allow access: (Red
Hat/Fedora/CentOS)

DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

<Directory "/var/www/html">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

Grant access to a user's web directory: public_html

 Enabling Red Hat / Fedora Linux, Apache public_html user directory
access:

This will allow users to serve content from their home directories under the
subdirectory "/home/userid/public_html/" by accessing the URL
http://hostname/~userid/

File: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so

...
...

<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
#UserDir disable - Add comment to this line
#
# To enable requests to /~user/ to serve the user's public_html
# directory, remove the "UserDir disable" line above, and uncomment
# the following line instead:
UserDir public_html # Uncomment this line
</IfModule>

...
...

<Directory /home/*/public_html>
AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
<Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Limit>
<LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</LimitExcept>
</Directory>

Change to a comment (add "#" at beginning of line) from Fedora Core default
UserDir disable and assign the directory public_html as a web server
accessible directory.
OR
Assign a single user the specific ability to share their directory:

<Directory /home/user1/public_html>
AllowOverride None
order allow,deny
allow from all
Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks
</Directory>

Allows the specific user, "user1" only, the ability to serve the directory
/home/user1/public_html/

Also use SELinux command to set the security context: setsebool

httpd_enable_homedirs true

Directory permissions: The Apache web server daemon must be able to read
your web pages in order to feed their contents to the network. Use an appropriate
umask and file protection. Allow access to web directory: chmod ugo+rx -R
 public_html.
Note that the user's directory also has to have the appropriate permissions as it is
the parent of public_html.
Default permissions on user directory: ls -l /home
drwx------ 20 user1 user1 4096 Mar 5 12:16 user1
Allow the web server access to operate the parent directory: chmod ugo+x
/home/user1
d-wx--x--x 20 user1 user1 4096 Mar 5 12:16 user1

One may also use groups to control permisions. See the YoLinux tutorial on
managing groups.

 Enabling Ubuntu's Apache public_html user directory access:

Ubuntu has broken out the Apache loadable module directives into the directory
/etc/apache2/mods-available/. To enable an Apache module, generate soft
links to the directory /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/ by using the commands
a2enmod/a2dismod to enable/disable Apache modules.

Example:

o [root@node2]# a2enmod
A list of available modules is displayed. Enter "userdir" as the module to
enable.
o Restart Apache with the following command: /etc/init.d/apache2
force-reload

Note: This is the same as manually generating the following two soft links:

o ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/userdir.conf
/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf
o ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/userdir.load
/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.load

Man page: a2enmod/a2dismod

[Potential Pitfall]: If the Apache web server can not access the file you will get
the error "403 Forbidden" "You don't have permission to access file-name on this
server." Note the default permissions on a user directory when first created with
"useradd" are:

drwx------ 3 userx userx

You must allow the web server running as user "apache" to access the directory if
it is to display pages held there.
Fix with command: chmod ugo+rx /home/userx

drwxr-xr-x 3 userx userx

SELinux security contexts:
Fedora Core 3 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 introduced SELinux (Security
Enhanced Linux) security policies and context labels.
To view the security context labels applied to your web page files use the
command: ls -Z

The system enables/disables SELinux policies in the file /etc/selinux/config

SELinux can be turned off by setting the directive SELINUX. (Then reboot the
system):

SELINUX=disabled

or using the command setenforce 0 to temporarily disable SELinux until the

next reboot.

When using SELinux security features, the security context labels must be added
so that Apache can read your files. The default security context label used is
inherited from the directory for newly created files. Thus a copy (cp) must be
used and not a move (mv) when placing files in the content directory. Move does
not create a new file and thus the file does not recieve the directory security
context label. The context labels used for the default Apache directories can be
viewed with the command: ls -Z /var/www
The web directories of users (i.e. public_html) should be set with the appropriate
context label (httpd_sys_content_t).

Assign a security context for web pages: chcon -R -h -t

httpd_sys_content_t /home/user1/public_html
Options:

 -R: Recursive. Files and directories in current directory and all

subdirectories.
 -h: Affect symbolic links.
 -t: Specify type of security context.

Use the following security contexts:

Context Type Description

httpd_sys_content_t Used for static web content. i.e. HTML web pages.
httpd_sys_script_exec_t Use for executable CGI scripts or binary executables.
httpd_sys_script_rw_t CGI is allowed to alter/delete files of this context.
httpd_sys_script_ra_t CGI is allowed to read or append files of this context.
httpd_sys_script_ro_t
CGI is allowed to read files and directories of this
context.
 Set the following options: setsebool httpd-option true
(or set to false)

Policy Description
httpd_enable_cgi Allow httpd cgi support.
httpd_enable_homedirs Allow httpd to read home directories.
httpd_ssi_exec
Allow httpd to run SSI executables in the same domain
as system CGI scripts.
Then restart Apache:
 Red Hat/Fedora/Suse and all System V init script based Linux systems:
/etc/init.d/httpd restart
 Red Hat/Fedora: service httpd restart

The default SE boolean values are specified in the file:

/etc/selinux/targeted/booleans

For more on SELinux see the YoLinux Systems Administration tutorial.

Virtual Hosts:
The Apache web server allows one to configure a single computer to represent multiple
websites as if they were on separate hosts. There are two methods available and we
describe the configuration of each. Choose one method for your domain:
 Name based virtual host: (most common) A single computer with a single IP
adress supporting multiple web domains. The web browser using the http
protocol, identifies the domain being addressed.
 IP based virtual host: The virtual hosts can be configured as a single multi-homed
computer with multiple IP addresses on a single network card, with each IP
address representing a different web domain. This has the appearance of a web
domain supported by a dedicated computer because it has a dedicated IP address.

Configuring a "name based" virtual host:

A virtual host configuration allows one to host multiple web site domains on one
server. (This is not required for a dedicated linux server which hosts a single web
site.)
NameVirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX>
ServerName www.your-domain.com - CNAME (bind DNS alias www)
specified in Bind configuration file (/var/named/...)
ServerAlias your-domain.com - Allows requests by domain
name without the "www" prefix.
ServerAdmin user1@your-domain.com
DocumentRoot /home/user1/public_html
ErrorLog logs/your-domain.com-error_log
TransferLog logs/your-domain.com-access_log
</VirtualHost>
Notes:

 You can specify more than one IP address. i.e. if web server is also being
used as a firewall/gateway and you have an external internet IP address as
well as a local network IP address.

NameVirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
NameVirtualHost 192.168.XXX.XXX

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX 192.168.XXX.XXX>

...
..

See the YoLinux Tutorial on configuring a network gateway/firewall

using iptables and NAT.

 Use your IP address for XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, actual domain name and e-

mail address.
One can use DNS views to provide different local network DNS results.
 Note that I configure Apache for both requests http://www.domain-
name.com and http://domain-name.com.
 Once virtual hosts are configured, your default system domain
(/var/www/html) will stop working. Your default domain now must be
configured as a virtual domain.

<Directory "/var/www/html">

... This part remains the same

..

</Directory>

# Default for when no domain name is given (i.e. access by IP address)

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin user1@your-domain.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
ErrorLog logs/error_log
TransferLog logs/access_log
</VirtualHost>

# Add a VirtualHost definition for your domain which was once the
system default.

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX>
ServerName www.your-domain.com
ServerAlias your-domain.com
ServerAdmin user1@your-domain.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
ErrorLog logs/error_log
 TransferLog logs/access_log
</VirtualHost>

...
..

 Forwarding to a primary URL. It is best to avoid the appearance of

duplicated web content from two URLs such as http://www.your-
domain.com and http://your-domain.com. Supply a forwarding Apache
"Redirect".

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX>
ServerName www.your-domain.com - Note that no aliases are listed
...
...
</VirtualHost>

# Add a VirtualHost definition to forward to your primary URL

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX>
ServerName your-domain.com
ServerAlias other-domain.com
ServerAlias www.other-domain.com
Redirect permanent / http://www.your-domain.com.com/
</VirtualHost>

...
..

 Note:
o See the YoLinux.com Apache "Redirect" Tutorial
 More virtual host examples.

When specifying more domains, they may all use the same IP address or some/all may
use their own unique IP address. Specify a "NameVirtualHost" for each IP address.

After the Apache configuration files have been edited, restart the httpd daemon:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart (Red Hat) or /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
(Ubuntu / Debian)

Apache virtual domain configuration with Ubuntu Dapper/Hardy:

Ububntu separates out each virtual domain into a separate configuration file held in the
directory /etc/apache2/sites-available/. When the site domain is to become active,
a soft link is created to the directory /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/.
Example: /etc/apache2/sites-available/supercorp
<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX>
ServerName supercorp.com
ServerAlias www.supercorp.com
 ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

DocumentRoot /home/supercorp/public_html/home
<Directory "/">
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /home/supercorp/public_html/home>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
IndexOptions SuppressLastModified SuppressDescription
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/supercorp/cgi-bin/

<Directory "/home/supercorp/cgi-bin/">
AllowOverride None
Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/supercorp.com-error.log

# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error,

# crit, alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/supercorp.com-access.log combined
ServerSignature On
</VirtualHost>

Enable domain:
 Create soft link:
o Manually: ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-
available/supercorp /etc/apache2/sites-
enabled/supercorp
o Use Ubuntu scripts a2ensite/a2dissite. Type command and it
will prompt you as to which site you would like to enable or
disable.
 Restart Apache:
o apache2ctl graceful
or
o /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
or
o /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Also note that Apache modules can also be enabled/disabled with scripts
a2enmod/a2dismod.

Man pages:
  a2ensite/a2dissite (Ubuntu: Apache 2 enable/disable site)
 apache2ctl

Configuring an "IP based" virtual host:

One may assign multiple IP addresse to a single network interface. See the
YoLinux networking tutorial: Network Aliasing. Each IP address may then be it's
own virtual server and individual domain. The downside of the "IP based" virtual
host method is that you have to possess multiple/extra IP addresses. This usually
costs more. The standard name based virtual hosting method above is more
popular for this reason.

NameVirtualHost * - Indicates all IP addresses

<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin user0@default-domain.com
DocumentRoot /home/user0/public_html
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.101>
ServerAdmin user1@domain-1.com
DocumentRoot /home/user1/public_html
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.102>
ServerAdmin user1@domain-2.com
DocumentRoot /home/user2/public_html
</VirtualHost>

The default <VirtualHost *> block will be used as the default for all IP
addresses not specified explicitly. This default IP (*) may not work for https
URL's.

CGI: (Common Gateway Interface)

CGI is a program executable which dynamically generates a web page by writing to
stdout. CGI is permitted by either of two configuration file directives:
 ScriptAlias:
o Red Hat 7.x-9, Fedora core: ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-
bin/"
o Red Hat 6.x and older: ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/home/httpd/cgi-
bin/"
o Suse 9.x: ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/srv/www/cgi-bin/"
o Ubuntu (dapper/hardy) / Debian: ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/
"/usr/lib/cgi-bin/"

or

 Options +ExecCGI:

<Directory /var/www/cgi-bin>
 Options +ExecCGI
</Directory>

The executable program files must have execute privileges, executable by the process
owner (Red Hat 7+/Fedora Core: apache. Older use nobody) under which the httpd
daemon is being run.

Configuring CGI To Run With User Privileges:

The suEXEC feature provides Apache users the ability to run CGI and SSI programs
under user IDs different from the user ID of the calling web-server. Normally, when a
CGI or SSI program executes, it runs as the same user who is running the web server.
NameVirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

<VirtualHost XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX>
ServerName node1.your-domain.com - Allows
requests by domain name without the "www" prefix.
ServerAlias your-domain.com www.your-domain.com - CNAME
(alias www) specified in Bind configuration file (/var/named/...)
ServerAdmin user1@your-domain.com
DocumentRoot /home/user1/public_html/your-domain.com
ErrorLog logs/your-domain.com-error_log
TransferLog logs/your-domain.com-access_log

SuexecUserGroup user1 user1

<Directory /home/user1/public_html/your-domain.com/>
Options +ExecCGI +Indexes
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

ERROR Pages:

You can specify your own web pages instead of the default Apache error pages:

ErrorDocument 404 /Error404-missing.html

Create the file Error404-missing.html in your "DocumentRoot" directory.

PHP:

If the appropriate php, perl and httpd RPM's are installed, the default Red Hat Apache
configuration and modules will support PHP content. RPM Packages (RHEL4):

 php: HTML-embedded scripting language

 php-pear: PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP
components.
 php-mysql: MySQL database support.
 php-ldap: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) support
Apache configuration:

Add php default page index.php to apache config file:

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
...

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php

...

PHP Configuration File:

 RHEL4 - PHP 4.3: /etc/php.ini
 Ubuntu Daper 6.06/6.11: /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

[PHP]
engine = On
...
...
display_errors = Off
include_path = ".:/php/includes"
...
...
memory_limit = 32M ; Default is typically 8MB which is too low.
...
...

[MySQL]
...
...
mysql.default_host = superserver ; Hostname of the computer
mysql.default_user = dbuser
...

Small portion of file shown.

Note that changes will not take effect until the apache web server daemon is
restarted.

Test you PHP capabilities with this test file: /home/user1/public_html/test.php

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

OR (older format)
<?
phpinfo();
?>

Test: http://localhost/~user1/test.php

For more info see YoLinux list of PHP information web sites.
Running Multiple instances of httpd:

The Apache web server daemon (httpd) can be started with the command line option "-
f" to specify a unique configuration file for each instance. Configure a unique IP address
for each instance of Apache. See the YoLinux Networking Tutorial to specify multiple IP
addresses for one NIC (Network Interface Card). Use the Apache configuration file
directive Listen XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX, where the IP address is unique for each instance of
Apache.

Apache Man Pages:

 httpd - Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol Server
 apachectl - Apache HTTP Server Control Interface
 ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool
 htdigest - manage user files for digest authentication
 htpasswd - Manage user files for basic authentication
 logresolve - Resolve IP-addresses to hostnames in Apache log files
 rotatelogs - Piped logging program to rotate Apache logs

Also see the local online Apache configuration manual: http://localhost/manual/.

Apache Red Hat / Fedora Core GUI configuration:

GUI configuration tool:

 Red Hat EL 4/5, Fedora 2-10: /usr/bin/system-config-httpd

 Red Hat 8/9, Fedora Core 1: /usr/bin/redhat-config-httpd
Adding web site login and password protection: See the YoLinux tutorial on web site
password protection.

Log file analysis:

Scanning the Apache web log files will not provide meaningfull statistics unless they are
graphed or presented in an easy to read fashion. The following packages to a good job of
presenting site statistics.

 Analog - Also see Report Magic for Analog

 Webalizer
 AWStats - (requires PERL)

Web site statistic services:

 eXTReMe Tracking

Load testing your server:

 PureLoad - JAVA load testing and reporting tool.

 WebPerformance Trainer - Load Testing Tools.

Apache Links:
  CgiWrap - setuid wrapper that allows users to install and execute their own cgi
scripts that get executed as their own userid
 Thumbprint - CGI for viewing a directory of images as thumbnails
 WWWThreads.org - Commercial product - Advanced Web Conferencing
Software
 Configuring https (mod_ssl):
o Mod_SSL.org: Home Page
o Mod_SSL.org: Mod_SSL HowTo
o Mod_SSL.org: Steps to create SSL server certificate
o https configuration

Log file analysis using Analog:

Installation:

 Red Hat / Fedora: yum install analog

 Ubuntu / Debian: apt-get install analog

Installation packages also available from the Analog downloads page.

Configuration file: /etc/analog.cfg
LOGFILE /var/log/httpd/your-domain.com-access_log* http://www.your-
domain.com
UNCOMPRESS *.gz,*.Z "gzip -cd"
SUBTYPE *.gz,*.Z
#
OUTFILE /home/user1/public_html/analog/Report.html
#
HOSTNAME "YourDomain.com"
HOSTURL http://www.your-domain.com

....
...
..

REQINCLUDE pages # Request page stats only

ALL ON
LANGUAGE US-ENGLISH

One can view the settings which be used with your configuration file (also good
for debugging): analog -settings

Make Analog images available to the users report: ln -s

/usr/share/analog/images/* /home/user1/public_html/analog

Log file location:

 Red Hat / Fedora: /var/log/httpd/

 Ubuntu / Debian: /var/log/apache2/
The Directive ALL ON turns on all of the following:
Analog Directive Description
MONTHLY ON one line for each month
WEEKLY ON one line for each week
DAILYREP ON one line for each day
DAILYSUM ON one line for each day of the week
HOURLYREP ON one line for each hour of the day
GENERAL ON the General Summary at the top
REQUEST ON which files were requested
FAILURE ON which files were not found
DIRECTORY ON Directory Report
HOST ON which computers requested files
ORGANISATION ON which organisations they were from
DOMAIN ON which countries they were in
REFERRER ON where people followed links from
FAILREF ON where people followed broken links from
SEARCHQUERY ON the phrases and words they used...
SEARCHWORD ON ...to find you from search engines
BROWSERSUM ON which browser types people were using
OSREP ON and which operating systems
FILETYPE ON types of file requested
SIZE ON sizes of files requested
STATUS ON number of each type of success and failure
Cron job to handle multiple domains: /etc/cron.daily/analog
#!/bin/sh
cp /opt/etc/analog-domain1.com.cfg /etc/analog.cfg
/usr/bin/analog
cp /opt/etc/analog-domain2.com.cfg /etc/analog.cfg
/usr/bin/analog

...

Links:
 Analog home page
 Analog command reference

Measuring Web Server Performance:

See the YoLinux.com web server benchmarking tutorial.

FTPd and FTP user account configuration:

Many FTP programs exist. This example covers the popular vsftpd (Red Hat default 9.0,
Fedora Core, Suse) and wu-ftpd (Washington University) program which comes standard
with RedHat (last shipped with RedHat 8.0 but can be installed on any Linux system).
(RPM: wu-ftpd) There are other FTP programs including proFtpd (supports LDAP
authentication, Apache like directives, full featured ftp server software), bftpd, pure-ftpd
(free BSD and optional on Suse), etc ...

For hostile environments set up a chrooted environment for an sftp encrypted

connection and the rssh restricted shell for OpenSSH. See the YoLinux.com internet
security tutorial for Linux sftp and rssh configuration

FTPd and SELinux: To allow FTPd daemon access to users home directories: setsebool
-P ftp_home_dir 1
Follow with the command service vsftpd restart

FTPd configuration tutorials:

 # vsFTPd: Configuration
 # WU-FTPd: Configuration
 # FTP Clients: Links

vsFTPd and FTP user account configuration:

The vsFTPd ftp server was first made available in Red Hat 9.0. It has been adopted by
Suse and OpenBSD as well. This is currently the recomended FTP daemon for use on
FTP servers.

Enable vsftpd:

 Red Hat/Fedora Core/CentOS: VsFTPd is a stand alone service and by the default
Fedora Core installation, not controlled by xinetd as is the wu-ftpd default
installation.
Thus start service: service vsftpd start (or: /etc/init.d/vsftpd start)
Configure vsftpd to start upon system boot: chkconfig --add vsftpd
 SuSE: By default, the vsftpd is an xinetd controlled service. To enable FTP server
services edit the file /etc/xinetd.d/vsftpd and change:
disable = yes
to:
disable = no
Restart the xinetd daemon: /etc/init.d/xinetd restart
Note: vsftpd can also be run as a stand-alone service to achieve a faster response
time.
  Ubuntu (dapper/hardy) / Debian:
o Install: apt-get install vsftpd
o VsFTPd is a stand alone service.
 Start: /etc/init.d/vsftpd start
 Stop: /etc/init.d/vsftpd stop
 Restart: /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart
(Use this command after making configuration file changes)

For more on starting/stopping/configuring Linux services, see the YoLinux tutorial on the
Linux init process and service activation.

Configuration files:
 vsFTPd configuration file:
o Fedora Core / Red Hat: /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
o S.u.S.e. / Ubuntu (dapper/hardy) / Debian: /etc/vsftpd.conf

Default for Fedora Core 3:

anonymous_enable=YES - Anonymous FTP allowed by default if

you comment this out. Default directory used: /var/ftp

local_enable=YES - Uncomment this to allow local users

to log in with FTP.
Must also set SELinux boolean:
setsebool -P ftp_home_dir 1

write_enable=YES - Uncomment this to enable any form of

FTP write or upload command.

local_umask=022 - Default is 077. Umask 022 is used by

most other ftpd's.

#anon_upload_enable=YES - Uncomment to allow the anonymous FTP

user to upload files.
Requires the above global write
enabled. Directory must also be writable by user.
#anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES - Uncomment this to allow the anonymous
FTP user to be able to create new directories.

dirmessage_enable=YES - Activate directory messages.

Messages given to remote users when
they enter certain directories
xferlog_enable=YES - Activate logging of
uploads/downloads.

connect_from_port_20=YES - PORT transfer connections originate

from port 20 (ftp-data)

#chown_uploads=YES - Uploaded anonymous files set to a

specified owner. (not root)
#chown_username=whoever
#xferlog_file=/var/log/vsftpd.log - Specify logfile explicitly. Default
is /var/log/vsftpd.log

xferlog_std_format=YES - Output to log file in standard ftpd

xferlog format

#idle_session_timeout=600 - Set timing out for an idle session.

#data_connection_timeout=120 - Set timing out for an idle data

connection. Port 20

#nopriv_user=ftpsecure - Run ftp server as an isolated and

unprivileged user.

# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests.
Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES

#ascii_upload_enable=YES - Improve performance by disabling

ASCII mode. Disables command "ascii" and "SIZE /big/file".
#ascii_download_enable=YES

#ftpd_banner=Welcome to YoLinux - Customize the login banner string.

#deny_email_enable=YES - Disallow specified anonymous e-mail

addresses. Used to combat certain DoS attacks.
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd.banned_emails (Ubuntu default. Red Hat:
/etc/vsftpd/banned_emails)

#chroot_list_enable=YES - List users chroot()'d to their home

directory. If "NO", list users not chroot()'d.
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list (Ubuntu default. Red Hat:
/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list)

ls_recurse_enable=YES - Allow "ls -R" recursive directory

list. Default is disabled.

pam_service_name=vsftpd

userlist_enable=YES - (Ubuntu Default) Deny users specified

in file /etc/vsftpd.user_list
If "userlist_enable=NO" then allow
specified users.
Red Hat: /etc/vsftpd/user_list
#deny_email_enable=YES - Disallow specified anonymous e-mail
addresses. Used to combat certain DoS attacks.

listen=YES - Enable for standalone mode as opposed

to an xinetd service.
Must set SELinux boolean: setsebool
-P ftpd_is_daemon 1
tcp_wrappers=YES
 Restart the FTP service if the config file is changed: service vsftpd restart
(or: /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart)

[Potential Pitfall]: vsftp does NOT support comments on the same line as a
directive. i.e.:

directive=XXX # comment

vsftp.conf man page

 Specify list of local users chrooted to their home directories:

o Red Hat: /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd/chroot_list
o Ubuntu: /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.chroot_list

(Requires: chroot_list_enable=YES)

user1
user2
...
user-n

If userlist_enable=NO, then specify users not to be chroot'd..

 Specify list of users:
o Red Hat: /etc/vsftpd/user_list
o Ubuntu: /etc/vsftpd.user_list

(Deny list of users requires: userlist_enable=YES)

Also see PAM configuration below.

root
bin
daemon
adm
lp
sync
shutdown
halt
...

If userlist_enable=NO, then specify valid users.

 PAM configuration file Fedora Core 3: /etc/pam.d/vsftpd

#%PAM-1.0
auth required pam_listfile.so item=user sense=deny
file=/etc/vsftpd.ftpusers onerr=succeed
auth required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
auth required pam_shells.so
account required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
 session required pam_stack.so service=system-auth

 This causes PAM to check /etc/vsftpd.ftpusers for users who are denied.
This duplicates /etc/vsftpd.user_list. Speciy user in both files as PAM is
independent of vsftpd configuration.
 PAM authentication configuration file: ftpusers
o Red Hat: /etc/vsftpd/ftpusers
o Ubuntu: /etc/vsftpd.ftpusers

root
bin
daemon
adm
lp
sync
shutdown
halt
...
...
...
user6 - Users to deny
user8
...
...

 Logrotate configuration file: /etc/logrotate.d/vsftpd.log

/var/log/xferlog {
# ftpd doesn't handle SIGHUP properly
nocompress
missingok
}

Sample vsFTPd configurations:

 Anonymous download FTP server configuration: /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

# Access rights
anonymous_enable=YES - Turn on anonymous FTP
chown_uploads=YES - Uploaded files owned by an assigned
user
chown_username=ftp - Uploaded files owned by this assigned
user
local_enable=NO
write_enable=NO - No upload of files system changes
allowed
anon_upload_enable=NO
anon_mkdir_write_enable=NO
 anon_other_write_enable=NO
# Security
anon_world_readable_only=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
force_dot_files=NO
guest_enable=NO
hide_ids=YES
pasv_min_port=50000
pasv_max_port=60000
# Features
xferlog_enable=YES
ls_recurse_enable=NO
ascii_download_enable=NO
async_abor_enable=YES
# Performance
one_process_model=NO
idle_session_timeout=120
data_connection_timeout=300
accept_timeout=60
connect_timeout=60
max_per_ip=4
anon_max_rate=50000

pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
#enable for standalone mode
listen=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES

Anonymous logins use the login name "anonymous" and then the user supplies
their email address as a password. Any password will be accepted. Used to allow
the public to download files from an ftp server. Generally, no upload is permitted.
 Web hosting configuration: /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

# Access rights
anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES - Allow users to ftp to
their home directories
write_enable=YES - Allow users to STOR,
DELE, RNFR, RNTO, MKD, RMD, APPE and SITE
local_umask=022
# Security
connect_from_port_20=YES
force_dot_files=NO
guest_enable=NO - Don't remap user name
ftpd_banner=Welcome to Super Duper Hosting - Customize the login
banner string.
chroot_local_user=YES - Limit user to browse
their own directory only
chroot_list_enable=YES - Enable list of system /
power users
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list - Actual list of system /
power users
hide_ids=YES
 pasv_min_port=50000
pasv_max_port=60000
# Features
xferlog_enable=YES
ls_recurse_enable=NO
ascii_download_enable=NO
async_abor_enable=YES
dirmessage_enable=YES - Message greeting held
in file .message or specify with message_file=...
# Performance
one_process_model=NO
idle_session_timeout=120
data_connection_timeout=300
accept_timeout=60
connect_timeout=60
max_per_ip=4
#
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
#enable for standalone mode
listen=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES

Specify list of local users chrooted to their home directories:

/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.chroot_list
Ubuntu typically: /etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
(Requires: chroot_list_enable=YES)

user1
user2
...
user-n

If userlist_enable=NO, then specify users not to be chroot'd..

[Potential Pitfall]: Mispelling a directive will cause vsftpd to fail with little warning.

File: .message

A NOTE TO USERS UPLOADING FILES:

File names may consist of letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9),
an under score ("_"), dash ("-") or period (".") only.
The file name may not begin with a period or dash.

Test if vsftp is listening: netstat -a | grep ftp

[root]# netstat -a | grep ftp

tcp 0 0 *:ftp *:*
LISTEN
Links:

 vsFTPd Home Page

 Sample configurations
 vsftp.conf Man page

WU-FTPd and FTP user account configuration:

The wu-ftpd FTP server can be downloaded (binary or source) from it's home page at
http://wu-ftpd.org.

There are three kinds of FTP logins that wu-ftpd provides:

 anonymous FTP - one logs in with the username 'anonymous'

 real FTP - log in with a real username and password and has access to the entire
disk structure.
 guest FTP - one logs in with a real user name and password, but the user is
chroot'ed to his home directory and cannot escape from it. They are constrained to
their home directory which also means that they don't have access to /bin/ls and
other commands on the server. Thus a local minimalist environment must be set
up.

This tutorial covers "guest" FTP configuration.

The file /etc/ftpaccess controls the configuration of ftp.

# Don't allow system accounts to log in over ftp

deny-uid %-99 %65534-
deny-gid %-99 %65534-

class all real,guest *

email webmaster@your-domain.com
loginfails 5

readme README* login

readme README* cwd=*
message /welcome.msg login
message .message cwd=*

compress yes all

tar yes all
chmod no guest,anonymous
delete no anonymous # delete files
permission?
overwrite no anonymous # overwrite files
permission?
rename no anonymous # rename files
 permission?
delete yes guest # delete files
permission?
overwrite yes guest # overwrite files
permission?
rename yes guest # rename files
permission?
umask no guest # umask permission?

log transfers anonymous,real inbound,outbound

shutdown /etc/shutmsg

passwd-check rfc822 warn

# Must also create message file /etc/pathmsg of the guest directory.

# In this case it refers to /home/user1/public_html/etc/pathmsg.
path-filter guest /etc/pathmsg ^[-A-Za-z0-9_\.]*$ ^\. ^-
limit all 2
noretrieve passwd .htaccess core - Do not allow users to download
files of these names
limit-time * 20
byte-limit in 5000 - Limit file size
guestuser * - Set system user default to be categorized as a
"guest". A "real" user can roam the system. Guestuser is chrooted.
realgroup regularuserx regularusery - Assign real user privileges to
members of groups "regularuserx" and "regularusery".
Visibility of the whole file
system and subject to regular UNIX file permissions
realuser user4 - Assign real user privileges to
user id "user4".

restricted-uid user1 user2 user3 - Restricts FTP to the specified

directories
guest-root /home/user1/public_html user1
guest-root /home/user2/public_html user2
guest-root /home/user3/public_html user3

Note:

 user1, user2 and user3 refer to login accounts. Use the appropriate login name.
 The above configuration disables anonymous FTP which allows anyone to
perform an FTP login with the id anonymous and an email address as a
password. To enable anonymous FTP, change the class directive to:

class all real,guest,anonymous *

 GUI FTP configuration tools:
o /usr/bin/kwuftpd
o /sbin/linuxconf
(Note: Linuxconf is no longer included with Red Hat 7.3 and later)
  Red Hat Linux assigns users a user id and group id which is the same. This means
that it does not matter if you use a realuser or realgroup directive as they will
act the same.
 Red Hat Linux 7.1 and later uses the xinet daemon to manage ftp connections.
Thus xinetd must be running and configured to support ftp. The configuration file
is /etc/xinetd.d/wu-ftpd. The command chkconfig wu-ftpd on will make
the ftp server available. See xinet configuration for more info.
 Allow overide of deny-uid and/or deny-gid:
 allow-uid user-to-allow
 allow-gid group-to-allow

 Optional configuration:
o Create a group ftpchroot
o Add users to this group
o Use directive: guestgroup ftpchroot

[Potential Pitfall]: Flakey ftp behavior, timeouts, etc?? FTP works best with name
resolution of the computer it is communicating with. This requires proper
/etc/resolve.conf and name server (bind) configuration, /etc/hosts or NIS/NFS
configuration.

File /home/user1/public_html/etc/pathmsg:

A NOTE TO USERS UPLOADING FILES:

File names may consist of letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9),
an under score ("_"), dash ("-") or period (".") only.
The file name may not begin with a period or dash.
You have tried to upload a file with an inappropriate name.

The whole point of the chroot directory is to make the user's home directory appear to be
the root of the filesystem (/) so one could not wander around the filesystem.
Configuration of /etc/ftpaccess will limit the user to their respective directories while
still offering access to /bin/ls and other system commands used in FTP operation.

As root:

cd /home/user1
mkdir public_html
chown $1.$1 public_html
touch .rhosts - Security protection
chmod ugo-xrw .rhosts
Man Pages:
Server:
 ftpd - Internet File Transfer Protocol server

File Formats:
 /etc/ftpaccess - Configuration file for ftpd
 /etc/ftpservers - ftpd virtual hosting configuration file. (optional)
 /etc/ftphosts - allow or deny access to certain accounts from various hosts.
(optional)
 /etc/ftpconversions - ftpd conversions database (for tar and compression)
 /var/log/xferlog - FTP server logfile
 ftp - File Transfer Client program

Configuration files: (RH 8.0+)

 PAM configuration file: /etc/pam.d/ftp

#%PAM-1.0
auth required pam_listfile.so item=user sense=deny
file=/etc/ftpusers onerr=succeed
auth required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
auth required pam_shells.so
account required pam_stack.so service=system-auth
session required pam_stack.so service=system-auth

 Xinetd configuration file: /etc/xinetd.d/wu-ftpd

service ftp
{
disable = no
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.ftpd
server_args = -l -a
log_on_success += DURATION USERID
log_on_failure += USERID
nice = 10
}

 Note: wu-FTPd is controlled by xinetd and not a stand alone service like vsFTPd.
 Logrotate configuration file: /etc/logrotate.d/ftpd

/var/log/xferlog {
nocompress
}

More information:
 WU-FTPD Development Group Home Page
 More resources
 Academ Consulting
  FTP FAQ - Koos van den Hout's
 dkftpbench - FTP benchmark program to give you an idea as to how many
simultaneous dialup clients a server can support.
 FTP and text file type conversions: End Of Line Characters - by Peter Benjamin
 Chrooted sftp (ssl) project

Man pages on related FTP commands and files:

 chroot - Run with a special root directory
 ftpcount - Show number of concurrent users.
 ftpshut - close down the ftp servers at a given time
 ftprestart - Restart previously shutdown ftp servers
 ftpwho - show current process information for each ftp user
 privatepw - Change WU-FTPD Group Access File Information (admin command)

Other FTP daemons:

 FTP4All
 CrushFTP - Java/cross platform
 WS_FTP

FTP Pitfalls:

If you get the following error:

ftp> ls
227 Entering Passive Mode (208,188,34,109,208,89)
ftp: connect: No route to host
This means you have firewall issues most probably on the FTP server itself. Start by
removing the firewall "iptables" rules: iptables -F Add rules until you discover what is
causing the problem.

Passive mode:
Passive mode can also help one past the rules:
ftp> passive
Passive mode on.
This toggles passive mode on and off. When on, FTP will be limited to ports
specified in the vsftpd configuration file: vsftpd.conf with the parameters
pasv_min_port and pasv_max_port

Firewall connection tracking module:

# cat /etc/sysconfig/iptables-config | grep ip_nat_ftp
IPTABLES_MODULES="ip_conntrack_ftp"

NAT firewall modules:

You can also try adding ip_nat_ftp to the list of autoloaded modules: (This will also
load the dependancy: ip_conntrack_ftp.)
 # cat /etc/sysconfig/iptables-config | grep ip_nat_ftp
IPTABLES_MODULES="ip_nat_ftp"
Then restart the firewall: /etc/init.d/iptables condrestart

FTP will change ports during use. The ip_conntrack_ftp module will consider each
connection "RELATED". If iptables allows RELATED and ESTABLISHED connections
then FTP will work. i.e. rule: /etc/sysconfig/iptables

-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

FTP fails because it can not change to the users home directory:
Error:
[user1@nodex ~]$ ftp node.domain.com
Connected to XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
530 Please login with USER and PASS.
KERBEROS_V4 rejected as an authentication type
Name (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:user1):
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
500 OOPS: cannot change directory:/home/user1
Login failed.
ftp> bye

This is often a result of SELinux preventing the vsftpd process from accesing the
user's home directory. As root, grant access with the following command:
setsebool -P ftp_home_dir 1
Followed by: service vsftpd restart

Test your vsftpd SELinux settings: getsebool -a | grep ftp

allow_ftpd_anon_write --> off

allow_ftpd_full_access --> off
allow_ftpd_use_cifs --> off
allow_ftpd_use_nfs --> off
allow_tftp_anon_write --> off
ftp_home_dir --> on
ftpd_disable_trans --> off
ftpd_is_daemon --> on
httpd_enable_ftp_server --> off
tftpd_disable_trans --> off

FTPd SELinux man page

FTP Linux clients:

 kbear: GUI KDE based client. Connect to multiple servers, transfer files, directory
browsing, file content browsing. Comes with S.U.S.e. Linux.
  gftp: GUI GTK+ Multithreaded client. File transfer directory browsing and
compare. Multiple protocols: FTP, FTPS (control connection only), HTTP,
HTTPS, SSH and FSP protocols. Proxy support. Comes with Red Hat / Fedora
Core.
 ftp: (/usr/kerberos/bin/ftp) kerberos enabled console ftp client. (RPM
package FC3: krb5-workstation)

Basic user security:

When hosting web sites, there is no need to grant a shell account which only allows the
server to have more potential security holes. Current systems can specify the user to have
only FTP access with no shell by granting them the "shell" /sbin/nologin provided
with the system or the "ftponly" shell described below. The shell can be specified in the
file /etc/passwd of when creting a user with the command adduser -s
/sbin/nologin user-id

[Potential Pitfall]: Red Hat 7.3 server with wu-ftp server 2.6.2-5 does not support this
configuration to prevent shell access. It requires users to have a real user shell. i.e.
/bin/bash It works great in older and current Red Hat versions. If it works for you, use
it, as it is more secure to deny the user shell access. You can always deny telnet access.
You should NOT be using this problem ridden version of ftpd. Use the latest wu-ftpd-
2.6.2-11 which supports users with shell /opt/bin/ftponly

[Potential Pitfall]: Ubuntu Dapper/Hardy - Setting the shell to the preconfigured shell
/bin/false will NOT allow vsftp access. One must create the shell "ftponly" as defined
below to allow vsftp access with no shell.

1. Disable remote telnet login access allowing FTP access only:

Change the shell for the user in /etc/passwd from /bin/bash to be

/opt/bin/ftponly.

...
user1:x:502:503::/home/user1:/opt/bin/ftponly
...

Create file: /opt/bin/ftponly.

Protection set to -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root
with the command: chmod ugo+x /opt/bin/ftponly
Contents of file:

#!/bin/sh
#
 # ftponly shell
#
trap "/bin/echo Sorry; exit 0" 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 15
#
Admin=root@your-domain.com
#System=`/bin/hostname`@`/bin/domainname`
#
/bin/echo
/bin/echo
"********************************************************************"
/bin/echo " You are NOT allowed interactive access."
/bin/echo
/bin/echo " User accounts are restricted to ftp and web access."
/bin/echo
/bin/echo " Direct questions concerning this policy to $Admin."
/bin/echo
"********************************************************************"
/bin/echo
#
# C'ya
#
exit 0

The last step is to add this to the list of valid shells on the system.
Add the line /opt/bin/ftponly to /etc/shells.

Sample file contents: /etc/shells

/bin/bash
/bin/bash1
/bin/tcsh
/bin/csh
/opt/bin/ftponly

See man page on /etc/shells.

An alternative would be to assign the shell /bin/false or /sbin/nologin which

became available in later releases of Red Hat, Debian and Ubuntu. In this case the
shell /bin/false or /sbin/nologin would have to be added to /etc/shells to
allow them to be used as a valid shell for FTP while disabling ssh or telnet access.

2. Set file quotas to limit user account.

For more on Linux security see the: YoLinux.com Internet web site Linux server
security tutorial
Domain Name Server (DNS) configuration using Bind version 8 or 9:

Two of the most popular ways to configure the program Bind (Berkeley Internet Domain
software) to perform DNS services is in the role of (1) ISP or (2) Web Host.

1. In an ISP configuration for clients (web surfers) conected to the internet, the DNS
server must resolve IP addresses for any URL the user wishes to visit. (See DNS
caching server)
2. In a purely web hosting configuration, Bind will only resolve for the IP addresses
of the domains which are being hosted. This is the configuration which will be
discussed and is often called an "Authoritative-only Nameserver".

When resolving IP addresses for a domain, Internic is expecting a "Primary" and a

"Secondary" DNS name server. (Sometimes called Master and Slave) Each DNS name
server requires the file /etc/named.conf and the files it points to. This is typically two
separate computer systems hosted on two different IP addresses. It is not necesary that
the Linux servers be dedicated to DNS as they may run a web server, mail server, etc.

Note on Bind versions: Red Hat versions 6.x used Bind version 8. Release 7.1 of Red
Hat began using Bind version 9 and the GUI configuration tool bindconf was introduced
for those of you that like a pretty point and click interface for configuration.

Installation Packages:

 Red Hat / Fedora Core / CentOS: bind, bind-chroot, bind-libs, bind-

utils, system-config-bind
o bind-chroot: Security jail for operation of bind.
o bind-utils: Utility commands like nslookup, host, dig
o system-config-bind: GUI config tool system-config-bind and related
configuration files (/etc/security/console.apps/bindconf).
o caching-nameserver: We will not be covering this as it is not required for
web hosting. This is used by internet providers so their clients can cache
the DNS entries of the sites they are visiting.
 Ubuntu (dapper/hardy) / Debian: bind9

Configuration files:
Red Hat / Fedora / CentOS:
File Description Directory Chrooted Directory
named.conf Primary/Secondary DNS server /etc/ /var/named/chroot/etc/
configuration.
(See default file
/usr/share/doc/bind-
9.X.X/sample/etc/named.conf)
named.root.hi Configuration for recursive /etc/ /var/named/chroot/etc/
nts service. Required for all zones.
 (See default file
/usr/share/doc/bind-
9.X.X/sample/etc/named.root.
hints)
named Red Hat system variables. / no change
etc/sysconfi
g/
rndc.key Primary/Secondary DNS server /etc/ /var/named/chroot/etc/
configuration.
Zone files Configuration files for each /var/named/ /
domain. Create this file to resolve var/named/chroot/var/na
host name internet queries i.e. med/
define IP address of web (www)
and mail servers in the domain.
Debian / Ubuntu:
File Description Directory Chrooted Directory
named.conf Primary/Secondary /etc/bind/ /var/bind/chroot/etc/bind/
named.conf.options DNS server
named.conf.local configuration.
rndc.key Primary/Secondary /etc/ /var/bind/chroot/etc/
DNS server
configuration.
Zone files Configuration files /var/bind/data/ /var/bind/chroot/var/bind/data/
for each domain.

Primary server (master):

File: named.conf
Red Hat / Fedora Core / CentOS: /etc/named.conf (chroot dir:
/var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf) and /etc/sysconfig/named for system
variables.
Ubuntu / Debian: /etc/bind/named.conf Place local definitions in
/etc/bind/named.conf.options and /etc/bind/named.conf.local
Simple example: (no views)
options { - Ubuntu stores options
in /etc/bind/named.conf.options
version "Bind"; - Don't disclose real
version to hackers
directory "/var/named"; - Specified so relative
path names can be used. Full path names still allowed.
allow-transfer { XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX; }; - IP address of
secondary DNS
recursion no;
auth-nxdomain no; - conform to RFC1035.
(default)
fetch-glue no; - Bind 8 only! Not used by
version 9
};

zone "localhost" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.local";
};
zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.127";
};

zone "your-domain.com"{ - Ubuntu separates the zone

definitions into /etc/bind/named.conf.local
type master; - Specify master, slave,
forward or hint
file "data/named.your-domain.com";
notify yes; - slave servers are notified
when the zone is updated.
allow-update { none; }; - deny updates from other
hosts (default: none)
allow-query { any; }; - allow clients to query this
server (default: any)
};
zone "your-domain-2.com"{
type master;
file "data/named.your-domain-2.com";
notify yes;
};

Note:
 The omission of zone ".". Required if providing a recursive service.
 Ubuntu includes the separated file of zone directives using the directive:
include "/etc/bind/named.conf.local";

BIND Views: The BIND naming service can support "views" which allow
various sub-networks (i.e. private internal or public external networks) to have a
different domain name resolution result.
 If no views are specified then use the configuration shown above.
 The match-up between the "view" and the view client which receives the
DNS information is specified by the match-clients statement.
 If even one view is specified, then ALL zones MUST be associated with a
"view".
 Bind 9 allows for views which allow different zones to be served to
different types of clients, localhost, private networks and public networks.
This maps to the three view names "localhost_resolver", "internal"
and "external":
o localhost_resolver: Supports name resolution for the system
(localhost) using BIND. Support for use of bind also has to be
configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf
o internal: User specified Local Area Network (LAN). If not used to
support a local private LAN, remove (or comment out) this view.
 o external: The general public internet defined as client "any".
 If you are only setting up a caching name server, then only specify the
view "localhost_resolver" (delete all other views).
 In order to support a DNS for internet domains using views, one will have
to configure an "external" view

Typical Red Hat Enterprise 5 example: (Bind 9.3.4 with three "views")
options
{
directory "/var/named"; // the default
dump-file "data/cache_dump.db";
statistics-file "data/named_stats.txt";
memstatistics-file "data/named_mem_stats.txt";

};
logging
{
// By default, SELinux policy does not allow named to modify
the /var/named
// directory, so put the default debug log file in data/ :

channel default_debug {
file "data/named.run";
severity dynamic;
};
};
view "localhost_resolver"
{
// This view sets up named to be a localhost resolver ( caching
only nameserver ).
// If all you want is a caching-only nameserver, then you need
only define this view:
match-clients { localhost; };
...
};
view "internal"
{
// This view will contain zones you want to serve only to
"internal" clients
// that connect via your directly attached LAN interfaces -
"localnets" .
// For local private LAN. Not covered in this tutorial.
// Delete this view if web hosting with no local LAN.
match-clients { localnets; };
...
};
key ddns_key
{
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "use /usr/sbin/dns-keygen to generate TSIG keys";
};
view "external"
{
// This view will contain zones you want to serve only to
"external"
// public internet clients. This is covered below.
match-clients { any; };
...
..
};

Default configuration files: Red Hat may supply the default configuration in:
/usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/etc/named.conf
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/etc/named.conf
/var/named/chroot/etc
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/etc/named.root.hints
/var/named/chroot/etc
 chcon -u system_u -r object_r -t named_conf_t
/var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf
/var/named/chroot/etc/named.root.hints

view "localhost_resolver": If supporting a caching DNS server (not required to

support a web domain) you will also need the files:
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-
9.X.X/sample/etc/named.rfc1912.zones /var/named/chroot/etc
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-
9.X.X/sample/var/named/localdomain.zones
/var/named/chroot/var/named
also from /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/:
localhost.zones, named.local, named.zero, named.broadcast,
named.ip6.local, named.root

view "external": (master) - details -

view "external"
{
/* This view will contain zones you want to serve only to "external"
clients
* that have addresses that are not on your directly attached LAN
interface subnets:
*/
match-clients { any; };
match-destinations { any; };
allow-transfer { XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX; }; - IP address of
secondary DNS

recursion no;
// you'd probably want to deny recursion to external clients,
so you don't
// end up providing free DNS service to all takers

// all views must contain the root hints zone:

include "/etc/named.root.hints";

// These are your "authoritative" external zones, and would

probably
// contain entries for just your web and mail servers:
 zone "your-domain.com" {
type master;
file "/var/named/data/external/named.your-domain.com";
notify yes;
allow-update { none; };
};

// You can also add the zones as a separate file like they do
in Ubuntu by adding the following statement
include "/etc/named.conf.local";
};

DNS key:

Use the following command /usr/sbin/dns-keygen to create a key. Add this

key to the "secret" statement as follows:
key ddns_key
{
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret
"XlYKYLF5Y7YOYFFFY6YiYYXyFFFFBYYYYFfYYYJiYFYFYYLVrnrWrrrqrrrq";
};

Man Pages:
 named.conf

Forward Zone File: /var/named/named.your-domain.com

Red Hat 9 / CentOS 3: /var/named/named.your-domain.com

Red Hat EL4/5, Fedora 3+, CentOS 4/5: [Chrooted]
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/named.your-domain.com
Red Hat EL4/5, Fedora 3+, CentOS 4/5: /var/named/data/named.your-
domain.com
Ubuntu / Debian: /etc/bind/data/named.your-domain.com
$TTL 604800 - Bind 9 (and some of the later versions of Bind
8) requires $TTL statement. Measured in seconds. This value is 7 days.
your-domain.com. IN SOA ns1.your-domain.com.
hostmaster.your-domain.com. (
2000021600 ; serial - Many people use year+month+day+integer as
a system. Never greater than 2147483647 for a 32 bit processor.
86400 ; refresh - How often secondary servers (in seconds)
should check in for changes in serial number. (86400 sec = 24 hrs)
7200 ; retry - How long secondary server should wait for
a retry if contact failed.
1209600 ; expire - Secondary server to purge info after this
length of time.
86400 ) ; default_ttl - How long data is held in cache by remote
servers.
IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX - Note that this is the default IP
address of the domain.
 I put the web server IP address
here so that domain.com points to the same servers as www.domain.com
;
; Name servers for the domain
;
IN NS ns1.your-domain.com.
IN NS ns2.your-domain.com.
;
; Mail server for domain
;
IN MX 5 mail - Identify "mail" as the node
handling mail for the domain. Do NOT specify an IP address!
;
; Nodes in domain
;
node1 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX - Note that this is the IP
address of node1
ns1 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX - Optional: For hosting your
own primary name server. Note that this is the IP address of ns1
ns2 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX - Optional: For hosting your
own secondary name server. Note that this is the IP address of ns2
mail IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX - Identify the IP address for
node mail.
IN MX 5 XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX - Identify the IP address for
mail server named "mail".
;
; Aliases to existing nodes in domain
;
www IN CNAME node1 - Define the webserver "www"
to be node1.
ftp IN CNAME node1 - Define the ftp server to be
node1.

MX records for 3rd party off-site mail servers:

your-domain.com. IN MX 10 mail1.offsitemail.com.
your-domain.com. IN MX 20 mail2.offsitemail.com.

Append to the above file.

Initial configuration: Note that Red Hat may supply the default zone configuration in:
/usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/localhost.zone
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/localdomain.zone
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/named.broadcast
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/named.ip6.local
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/named.zero
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
  cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/named.local
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
 cp /usr/share/doc/bind-9.X.X/sample/var/named/named.root
/var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
 cd /var/named/chroot/var/named/data/
 chcon -u system_u -r object_r -t named_cache_t localhost.zone
localdomain.zone named.broadcast named.ip6.local named.zero
named.root named.local

A file suffix of "zone" is also common i.e. your-domain.com.zone

Secondary server (slave):

File: named.conf
Red Hat / Fedora Core / CentOS: /etc/named.conf
Ubuntu / Debian: /etc/bind/named.conf
Simple example with no views:
options { - Ubuntu stores options in
/etc/bind/named.conf.options
version "Bind"; - Don't disclose real version
to hackers
directory "/var/named";
allow-transfer { none; }; - Slave is not transfering
updates to anyone else
recursion no;
auth-nxdomain no; - conform to RFC1035.
(default)
fetch-glue no; - Bind 8 only! Not used by
version 9
};
zone "localhost" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.local"; - Ubutu: /etc/bind/db.local,
Red Hat: /var/named/named.local
};
zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.127";
};

zone "your-domain.com"{
type slave;
file "named.your-domain.com"; - Specify slaves/named.your-
domain.com for RHEL4/5 chrooted bind
masters { XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX; }; - IP address of primary DNS
};
zone "your-domain-2.com"{
type slave;
file "named.your-domain-2.com";
masters { XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX; };
};

view "external": (slave)

 view "external"
{
match-clients { any; };
match-destinations { any; };
allow-transfer { none; }; - Slave does not transfer to
anyone, slave receives
recursion no;
include "/etc/named.root.hints";

zone "your-domain.com" {
type slave;
file "/var/named/slaves/external/named.your-
domain.com";
notify no; - Slave does not notify,
slave is notified by master
masters { XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX; }; - State IP of master
server
};
};

Note: RHEL4/5, CentOS 4/5, Fedora 3+ use chrooted directory structure

permissions which require the use of the slaves subdirectory /var/named/slaves
Slave Zone Files: These are transfered from master to slave and chached by slave. There
is no need to generate a zone file on the slave.
Additional Information:
 Man page on named.conf
 Man page on named DNS server
 Full DNS manual

[Potential Pitfall]: Ubuntu dapper/hardy - Path names used can not violate Apparmor
security rules as defined in /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.named. Note that the slave files
are typically named "/var/lib/bind/named.your-domain.com" as permitted by the
security configuration.

[Potential Pitfall]: Ubuntu dapper/hardy - Create log file and set ownership and
permission for file not created by installation:

 touch /var/log/bindlog
 chown root.bind /var/log/bindlog
 chmod 664 /var/log/bindlog

[Potential Pitfall]: Error in /var/log/messages:

transfer of 'yolinux.com/IN' from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX#53: failed while

receiving responses: permission denied

Named needs write permission on the directory containing the file. This condition
often occurs for a new "slave" or "secondary" name server where the zone files do
not yet exist.
The default (RHEL4/5, CentOS 4/5, Fedora Core 3+, ...):
  drwxr-x--- 4 root named 4096 Aug 25 2004 named
 drwxrwx--- 2 named named 4096 Sep 17 20:37 slaves

Fix: In named.conf specify that the slaves to go to slaves directory

/var/named/chroot/var/named/slaves with the directive:
file "slaves/named.your-domain.com";

Bind Defaults:

 Uses port 53 if none is specified with the listen-on port statement.

 Bind will use random ports above port 1024 for queries. For use with firewalls
expecting all DNS traffic on port 53, specify the following option statement in
/etc/named.conf

query-source address * port 53;

query-source-v6 port 53;

 Logging is to /var/log/messages

After the configuration files have been edited, restart the name daemon.

/etc/init.d/named restart
(Note: Ubuntu / Debian restart: /etc/init.d/bind9 restart)

Bind zone transfers work best if the clocks of the two systems are synchronised. See the
YoLinux SysAdmin Tutorial: Time and ntpd

File: /var/named/named.your-domain.com This is created for you by Bind on the slave

(secondary) server when it replicates from Primary server.

DNS GUI configuration:

 Red Hat EL 4/5, Fedora 2-10: /usr/bin/system-config-bind

 Red Hat 8/9, Fedora Core 1: /usr/bin/redhat-config-bind
Test DNS:

Must install packages:

 Red Hat / Fedora Core / SuSE: bind-utils

 Ubuntu (dapper/hardy) / Debian: bind9-host

Test the name server with the host command in interactive mode:
host node.domain-to-test.com your-nameserver-to-
test.domain.com

Note: The name server may also be specified by IP address.

or

Test the name server with the nslookup command in interactive mode:

nslookup
> server your-nameserver-to-test.domain.com
> node.domain-to-test.com
> exit

Test the MX record if appropriate:

nslookup -querytype=mx domain-to-test.com

OR

host -t mx domain-to-test.com

Test using the dig command:

dig @name-server domain-to-query

OR

dig @IP-address-of-name-server domain-to-query

Test your DNS with the following DNS diagnostics web site: DnsStuff.com

Extra logging to monitor Bind:

Add the following to your /etc/named.conf file.
 logging {
channel bindlog {
file "/var/log/bindlog" versions 5 size 1m;
- Keep five old versions of the log-file (rotates logs)
print-time yes;
print-category yes;
print-severity yes;
};
/* If you want to enable debugging, eg. using the 'rndc trace'
command,
* named will try to write the 'named.run' file in the $directory
(/var/named).
* By default, SELinux policy does not allow named to modify
the /var/named directory,
* so put the default debug log file in data/ :
*/
channel default_debug {
file "data/named.run";
severity dynamic;
};
category xfer-out { bindlog; }; - Zone transfers
category xfer-in { bindlog; }; - Zone transfers
category security { bindlog; }; - Approved/unapproved
requests

// The following logging statements, panic, insist and response-

checks are valid for Bind 8 only. Do not user for version 9.
category panic { bindlog; }; - System shutdowns
category insist { bindlog; }; - Internal consistency
check failures
category response-checks { bindlog; }; - Messages
};

Chroot Bind for extra security:

Note: Most modern Linux distributions default to a "chrooted" installation. This
technique runs the Bind name service with a view of the filesystem which
changes the definition of the root directory "/" to a directory in which Bind will
operate. i.e. /var/named/chroot.

The following example uses the Red Hat RPM bind-8.2.3-0.6.x.i386.rpm.

Applies to Bind version 9 as well.

The latest RedHat bind updates run the named as user "named" to avoid a lot of
earlier hacker exploits. To chroot the process is to create an even more secure
environment by limiting the view of the system that the process can access. The
process is limited to the chrooted directory assigned.

The chroot of the named process to a directory under a given user will prevent the
possibility of an exploit which at one time would result in root access. The
original default RedHat configuration (6.2) ran the named process as root, thus if
an exploit was found, the named process will allow the hacker to use the
privileges of the root user. (no longer true)

Named Command Sytax:

named -u user -g group -t directory-to-chroot-to

Example:
named -u named -g named -t /opt/named

When chrooted, the process does not have access to system libraries thus a local
lib directory is required with the appropriate library files - theoretically. This does
not seem to be the case here and as noted above in chrooted FTP. It's a mystery to
me but it works???? Another method to handle libraries is to re-compile the
named binary with everything statically linked. Add -static to the compile
options. The chrooted process should also require a local /etc/named.conf etc...
but doesn't seem to???

Script to create a chrooted bind environment:

#!/bin/sh
cd /opt
mkdir named
cd named
mkdir etc
mkdir bin
mkdir var
cd var
mkdir named
mkdir run
cd ..
chown -R named.named bin etc var

You can probably stop here. If your system acts like a chrooted system should,
then continue with the following:

cp -p /etc/named.conf etc
cp -p /etc/localtime etc
cp -p /bin/false bin
echo "named:x:25:25:Named:/var/named:/bin/false" > etc/passwd
echo "named:x:25:" > etc/group
touch var/run/named.pid

if [ -f /etc/namedb ]
then
cp -p /etc/namedb etc/namedb
fi
mkdir dev
cd dev

# Create a character unbuffered file.

mknod -m ugo+rw null c 1 3

cd ..
chown -R named.named bin etc var

Add changes to the init script: /etc/rc.d/init.d/named

#!/bin/bash
#
# named This shell script takes care of starting and stopping
# named (BIND DNS server).
#
# chkconfig: - 55 45
# description: named (BIND) is a Domain Name Server (DNS) \
# that is used to resolve host names to IP addresses.
# probe: true

# Source function library.

. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

# Source networking configuration.

. /etc/sysconfig/network

# Check that networking is up.

[ ${NETWORKING} = "no" ] && exit 0

[ -f /etc/sysconfig/named ] && . /etc/sysconfig/named - Added in Red

Hat version 7.1

[ -f /usr/sbin/named ] || exit 0

[ -f /etc/named.conf ] || exit 0

RETVAL=0

start() {
# Start daemons.
echo -n "Starting named: "
daemon named -u named -g named -t /opt/named - Change
made here
RETVAL=$?
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/named
echo
return $RETVAL
}
stop() {
 # Stop daemons.
echo -n "Shutting down named: "
killproc named
RETVAL=$?
[ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/named
echo
return $RETVAL
}
rhstatus() {
/usr/sbin/ndc status
return $?
}
restart() {
stop
start
}
reload() {
/usr/sbin/ndc reload
return $?
}
probe() {
# named knows how to reload intelligently; we don't want
linuxconf
# to offer to restart every time
/usr/sbin/ndc reload >/dev/null 2>&1 || echo start
return $?
}

# See how we were called.

case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
status)
rhstatus
;;
restart)
restart
;;
condrestart)
[ -f /var/lock/subsys/named ] && restart || :
;;
reload)
reload
;;
probe)
probe
;;
*)
echo "Usage: named {start|stop|status|restart|
condrestart|reload|probe}"
exit 1
esac
 exit $?

Note: The current version of bind from the RedHat errata updates and security
fixes (http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/) runs the named process as user
"named" in the home (not chrooted) directory /var/named with no shell
available. (named -u named) This should be secure enough. Proceed with a
chrooted installation if your are paranoid.

See:

 Securing DNS: How to use chroot bind features

Chrooted DNS configuration:

Modern releases of Linux (i.e. Fedore Core 3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4) come
preconfigured to use "chrooted" bind. This security feature forces even an exploited
version of bind to only operate within the "chrooted" jail /var/named/chroot which
contains the familiar directories:

 /var/named/chroot/etc: Configuration files

 /var/named/chroot/dev: devices used by bind:
o /dev/null
o /dev/random
o /dev/zero

(Real devices created with the mknod command.)

 /var/named/chroot/var: Zone files and configuration information.

These directories are generated and configured by the Red Hat/Fedora RPM package
"bind-chroot".

If building from source you will have to generate this configuration manually:

 mkdir -p /var/named/chroot
 mkdir /var/named/chroot/dev
 mknod /var/named/chroot/dev/null c 1 3
 mknod /var/named/chroot/dev/zero c 1 5
 mknod /var/named/chroot/dev/random c 1 8
 chmod 666 -R /var/named/chroot/dev
 mkdir -p /var/named/chroot/etc
  ln -s /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf /etc/named.conf
 mkdir -p /var/named/chroot/var/named
 ln -s /var/named/chroot/var/named/named.XXXX /var/named/named.XXXX
 ln -s /var/named/chroot/var/named/named.YYYY /var/named/named.YYYY
 ...
 mkdir -p /var/named/chroot/var/named/slaves
 mkdir -p /var/named/chroot/var/named/data
 mkdir -p /var/named/chroot/var/run
 mkdir -p /var/named/chroot/var/tmp
 chown -R named:named /var/named/chroot
 chown -R root:named /var/named/chroot/var/named

Load Balancing of servers using Bind: DNS Round-Robin

This will populate name servers around the world with different IP addresses for your
web server www.your-domain.com
www0 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.1
www1 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.2
www2 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.3
www3 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.4
www4 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.5
www5 IN A XXX.XXX.XXX.6

www IN CNAME www0.your-domain.com.

IN CNAME www1.your-domain.com.
IN CNAME www2.your-domain.com.
IN CNAME www3.your-domain.com.
IN CNAME www4.your-domain.com.
IN CNAME www5.your-domain.com.
IN CNAME www6.your-domain.com.

Also see lbnamed: lbnamed load balancing named

Bind/DNS Links:
 Internet Software Consortium (ISC) Home Page - ISC Bind Home
 Bind FAQ, pitfalls and answers
 Zytrax Bind 9 manual - Bind for rocket scientists
 comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains FAQ - HTML version
 More on load balancing and round robin schemes
 LDP DNS-HOWTO
 ACME: DNS resources
 DNS Security presentation - Cricket Liu (coauthor of DNS and Bind)
 DNS Security Paper - Craig Rowland
 GraniteCanyon.com: Free DNS hosting - If you don't want to set it up, have
someone do it for you.
  EveryDNS.net - Free DNS
 DNS2GO - Domain hosting for DHCP clients.
 Secondary.com - Free secondary names server hosting (five or fewer domains)
 TZO.com - Dynamic, secondary DNS services.
 UltraDNS.com - Outsourced DNS management and service
 OpenDNS.com - Can allow forwarding to OpenDNS servers.
Add to "options" section: forwarders { 208.67.222.222;
208.67.222.220; };
 DynDNS.org
Command: ipcheck.py -i eth0 DynDNS-user-id password
node.dnsalias.net
Then add script update.dyndns.ip to directory /etc/cron.daily/ to update IP.

This host must also be allowed access through any firewall rules.
 DynDNS/TODD - Dynamic DNS for those with dynamic IP addresses. (i.e. dial-
up game servers etc.)

Domain name registration:

 Domain Name Registrars:
o NetworkSolutions.com
o Register.com
o Registrar.GoDaddy.com - Domain name registration for only $8.95/year!!!
o Dotster.com - Domain name registration for only $14.95/year
o DomainsNext.com - $11.95/year
o EasyDNS.com - $25.00/year
o Aplus.net - Domain Registration $7.95/year - Not good
o Gandi.net - European
 AfterNic.com - Domain name exchange and auction.
 BuyDomains.com - Buy a domain name that a squatter is holding.

Note that the Name registrations policies for the registrars are stated at ICANN.org.

 You must renew with the same registrar within five days BEFORE the expiration
date. There is no rule for afterwards.
 Most free a domain name 30 days after it expires.

Web Server Load Balancing:

Load balancing becomes important if your traffic volume becomes too great for either
your server or network connection or both. Multiple options are available for load
balancing.
 DNS round-robin: Discussed above, this uses DNS to point users to random
server in a list of appropriate servers. This spreads the load among the servers in
the list.
 Use a Linux Virtual Server to Create a Load Balance Cluster. See next section
below.
  Run a reverse proxy. See nginx ("engine X"). From a single external internet
network connection, route http, smtp, imap or pop3 traffic to various servers on an
internal network. Results are pushed back to the nginx proxy for routing to the
internet (no caching).
 Run the Apache httpd web server module "mod_proxy" to offload processing of
dynamic content to another web server. This acts as a reverse proxy, routing
external traffic to various servers on an internal network.

Using a Linux Virtual Server to Create a Load Balance Cluster:

You can use a single Linux server to forward requests to a cluster of servers using
iptables for IP masquerading and IPVsadm to scale your load. The load balancing server
receiving and routing the requests is called the "Linux Virtual Server" (LVS). The LVS
receives the requests which are passed to the real servers which process and reply to the
request. This reply is forwarded to the client by the LVS.

This feature is available with the Linux 2.4/2.6 kernel. (If compiling kernel: Networking
Options + IP: Virtual Server Configuration)

Configuration: This example will load balance http traffic to three web servers and ftp
traffic to a fourth server.

 Enable Forwarding: (Also see YoLinux Networking Tutorial: Enable Forwarding)

 echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

 Enable IP Masquerading:

iptables -t nat -P POSTROUTING DROP

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

For more on IP Masquerading, iptables and subnet addresses, see the YoLinux
network gateway tutorial.
 Enable virtual server:
o Create virtual service and choose scheduler for http (80) and ftp (21):

ipvsadm -A -t 66.218.88.103:80 -s wlc

ipvsadm -A -t 66.218.88.103:21 -s wrr

Command directives:
 A: Add a virtual service defined by IP address, port number, and
protocol.
 -t: Use TCP service host:port
 -s: scheduler:
 rr: Robin Robin: distributes jobs equally amongst the avail-
able real servers.
 wrr: Weighted Round Robin.
  lc: Least-Connection: assigns more jobs to real servers with
fewer active jobs.
 wlc: (Default) Weighted Least-Connection: assigns more
jobs to servers with fewer jobs and relative to the real server's
weight.
 lblc, lblcr, dh, sh, sed, nq. See man page.
o Configure load balancing cluser.

ipvsadm -a -t 66.218.88.103:80 -r 176.168.1.1:80 -m

ipvsadm -a -t 66.218.88.103:80 -r 176.168.1.2:80 -m -w 2
ipvsadm -a -t 66.218.88.103:80 -r 176.168.1.3:80 -m
ipvsadm -a -t 66.218.88.103:21 -r 176.168.1.4:21 -m

Command directives:
 -r: Real server.
 -m: Use masquerading also known as network address translation
(NAT)
 -w: Weight is an integer specifying the capacity of a server rela-
tive to the others in the pool. The valid values of weight are 0 through to
65535. The default is 1.

Links:

 LinuxVirtualServer.org
 iptables - Administration tool for IPv4 packet filtering and NAT
 ipvsadm - Administer the routing table on a Linux Virtual Server.

Managing Web Server Daemons:

To view if these services are running, type ps -aux and look for the httpd, inetd and
named services (daemons). These are background processes necessary to perform the
server tasks.

root 681 0.0 0.5 2304 744 ? S Sep09 0:01 named

nobody 28123 0.0 1.1 3036 1420 ? S Oct06 0:00 httpd
nobody 28186 0.0 0.7 3044 896 ? S Oct06 0:00 httpd
root 385 0.0 0.1 1136 232 ? S Sep09 0:00 inetd

A new installation will most likely NOT start the named background process which may
be started manually after configuration.
See the YoLinux Init Process Tutorial for more information.
The inetd (or xinetd) background process is the Internet daemon which starts FTP when
an ftp request is made.

Sys Admin Script:

Script to prepare an account: (Red Hat/Fedora)

#!/bin/sh
# Author Greg Ippolito
# Requires: /opt/etc/AccountDefaults/pathmsg favicon.ico mwh-
mini_tr.gif etc.
# /opt/bin/ftponly
# You must be root to run this script.
#
if [ $# -eq 0 ]
then
echo "Enter user id as a command argument"
else if [ -r /home/$1 ]
then
echo "User's home directory already exists"
else
echo "1) Create user."
adduser -m $1

echo "2) Set user Password."

passwd $1

echo "3) Add read access to user directory so apache can read it."
cd /home
chmod ugo+rx $1
cd $1

echo "4) Create web directories."

mkdir public_html
chown $1.$1 public_html
chcon -R -h -u system_u -r object_r -t httpd_sys_content_t
public_html
cd public_html
mkdir images
chown $1.$1 images
chcon -R -h -u system_u -r object_r -t httpd_sys_content_t images

# Block potential for unauthenticated logins

cd ../
touch .rhosts
chmod ugo-xrw .rhosts

echo "5) Create default web page"

sed "/HEADING/s!HEADING!$1!" /opt/etc/AccountDefaults/default-
index.html > index.html
cp -p /opt/etc/AccountDefaults/favicon.ico .
cp -p /opt/etc/AccountDefaults/default-logo.gif ./images
cp -p /opt/etc/AccountDefaults/robots.txt .
chown $1.$1 index.html favicon.ico robots.txt
chcon -R -h -t httpd_sys_content_t index.html favicon.ico robots.txt
chcon -R -h -t httpd_sys_content_t images/default-logo.gif

echo "6) Edit /etc/passwd file - change user shell to

/opt/bin/ftponly"
cp -p /etc/passwd /etc/passwd-`date +%m%d%y`
 sed "/^$1/s!/bin/bash!/opt/bin/ftponly!" /etc/passwd-`date +%m%d%y`
> /etc/passwd

#wu-ftp# Requires: /etc/ftpaccess guestuser restrict-uid

#wu-ftp# echo "7) Add user to /etc/ftpaccess file"
#wu-ftp# cp -p /etc/ftpaccess /etc/ftpaccess-`date +%m%d%y`
#wu-ftp# sed "/^guestuser/s!guestuser !guestuser $1 !"
/etc/ftpaccess-`date +%m%d%y` > /etc/ftpaccess
#wu-ftp# sed "/^restricted-uid/s!restricted-uid !restricted-uid $1 !"
/etc/ftpaccess-`date +%m%d%y` > /etc/ftpaccess
#wu-ftp# echo "guest-root /home/$1/public_html $1" >> /etc/ftpaccess

echo "7) Add user to vsftpd chroot list

cat `echo $1` >> /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.chroot_list

echo "8) Setting Disk Quotas to default 50Mb limit:"

# Use user johndoe as a prototype.
edquota -p johndoe $1

echo "9) Admin Follow-up:"

echo " Modify quota.user if different than default"
echo " Make changes to Bind names services on dns1 and dns2 if
necessary"
echo " Change /etc/http/conf/httpd.conf or
echo " add config to /etc/http/conf.d/ if using a new domain
name"
echo " Add e-mail aliases to mail server if necessary"
fi
fi

FYI: Sample robots.txt files:

 yolinux.com/robots.txt
 yo-linux.com/robots.txt
 USC.edu/robots.txt

How to change hostname in Linux

echo 'some.host.com' > /proc/sys/kernel/hostname

First you need to find out your hostname, you can do this with

$ hostname
localhost.localdomain
$

Edit /etc/hosts

You need to edit /etc/hosts and add a line for your host name

$ cat /etc/hosts
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
$

My new server IP is 72.232.196.90, i need to assign it hostname server12.hosthat.com, to

do this, i have edited /etc/hosts as follows.

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs

# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
72.232.196.90 server12.hosthat.com server12

Edit /etc/sysconfig/network

First lets see what is in the file

$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain
$

To change servers hostname to server12.hosthat.com, change the file as follows.

$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=server12.hosthat.com
$

Now you need to reboot the server to change the hostname.