Necessary links (in no particular order):
RedHat
The GNU Project
The Apache Software Foundation
The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
PostGreSQL
Open Secure Shell
The National Institute of Standards and Technology
WebMin
This is the process for configuring a new RedHat 7.3 installation to become a skyBox capable of running (and developing) skyBuilders timeLines. In order to be capable of this, there are a few required services and utilities:
skyBox3, the machine used for this trial run has specs as follows:
Install RedHat 7.3
Partitioning recommendation:
name | recommended (100%) | actual (58.5GB) | format | drive |
/ | 10% (6GB) | 6GB | ext3 | hda |
/boot | 50MB | 50MB | ext3 | hda |
/swap | 2xRAM (1GB) | 1GB | N/A (linux swap) | hdc |
/tmp | 2GB | 2GB | ext3 | hda |
/home | 10% (6GB) | 11GB | ext3 | hda |
/var | 30% (18GB) | 23GB | ext3 | hdc |
/usr | 20% (12GB) | 15GB | ext3 | hdc |
IP Address: 206.253.4.20 NetMask: 255.255.255.224 Gateway: 206.253.4.1
Note: During the install process, in the network configuration section, once the IP and netmask were indicated, the interface filled in two other fields. It suggested .30 as the gateway, and .1 as the name server. Odd.
DNS Servers:
209.87.64.70
209.87.79.232
The choices made during installation are logged in /root/install.log and a kickstart file for the RedHat Anaconda installer is in /root/anaconda-ks.cfg
Add crontab for NIST clock synchronization
(add other things like updating the root hints file and the file db later)
# cd /root
# mkdir scripts
# cd scripts
Download http://jesse.skybuilders.com/scratch/other/misc_linux/miscScripts.tar
# tar -xvf miscScripts.tar
# crontab clockSync.cron
To see current settings, # crontab -l
Enable ssh for all users except root.
SSH lives in /etc/ssh
Edit sshd_config
Find the commented line that reads "# PermitRootLogin off"
Add the following line, "PermitRootLogin on"
Go to the end of the file
After the last line, add a line that reads "AllowUsers dtd jesse bobdoyle" ("AllowUsers" followed by a tab followed by a space-delimited list of usernames to allow)
Test login
There is an upgrade for openSSH (possibly available from the website), which patches a security hole to which we are not, under our current settings, vulnerable. The ideal version would be 0.9.6e
To report current version:
# rpm -q <rpmname>
To upgrade with verbose and progress bar:
# rpm -Uvh <rpmname>
Possibilities
WebMin? Probably unnecessary.
SFTP? May already be enabled under SSH. Requires research. timeLines File Server would be preferable (with directory- and file-level permissioning for all files (not just skyPages)).
Locate Apache httpd
Set httpd to start on boot
To check the current setting:
# chkconfig httpd --list
To set the service to start on boot:
# chkconfig httpd --level 3456 on
Test http service
Open any browser to skybox3.skybuilders.com
The index page should be the Apache test page
Locate Perl
Perl is not a service - it runs when called.
/usr/bin/perl is Perl itself (this is the path that needs to go in the first line of every file)
Apply settings to each directory that wants to run Perl in sections in httpd.conf (if the default example is used, Perl will try to execute for any file in the directory, not limited by file type)
Test Perl
Download test.pl and/or simpletest.pl into a Perl-enabled directory
direct a browser at the file and check the output
Test PHP
Download test.php
direct a browser at the file and check the output
Set postgresql to start on boot
To check the current setting:
# chkconfig postgresql --list
To set the service to start on boot:
# chkconfig postgresql --level 3456 on
PostGreSQL configuration is in /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
Test pgsql A next step here is to make a sample database "createdb mydb" and make db users.