Adventures of a System Admin: A Brief History on Adventures of a System Admin: A Brief History

How to Use Apache Virtual Host to Run Multiple Local Websites on Ubuntu 16.04

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:37:00 +0300

Introduction and Requirements

In this article, we will learn how to host multiple virtual websites with Apache on Ubuntu 16.04. I am assuming that you already have Apache server up and running but if you don’t, just run sudo apt-get install apache2 to install it on Ubuntu. A running Apache web server is all you need for this tutorial, but if you want actually build something in it (i.e, a nice website), then you might want to check out “LAMP stack” on Google. I also have an Ansible playbook for installing LAMP stack and can be seen in here. Now, let’s get down to business!

1) Create Vhost Configuration file for Apache

In order to host your website (in local or not), you have to create configuration files for Apache in related directories. To do that, create a file with the name you desired, example1.com.conf in this example, in /etc/apache2/sites-available and add the following lines;

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerAdmin root@localhost
    ServerName example1.localhost
	DocumentRoot "/home/$USER/Desktop/example1.com/public_html"
	<Directory "/home/$USER/Desktop/example1.com/public_html">
	        Order allow,deny
	        Require all granted
	        Allow from 127.0.0.1
		AllowOverride All
	</Directory>

	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example1.com_error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example1.com_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

In here,

ServerAdmin = contact info of the admin.
ServerName = name of your locally hosted website.
DocumentRoot = is the root directory for your webiste.
Directory = is used to enclose a group of directives that will apply.
ErrorLog = is where error logs are stored.
CustomLog = is where access logs are stored.
$USER = is your username, change it with your actual username.

You can modify this configuration file as you wish, but just make sure that the file is owned by the root user and group.

2) Make Your Site Available with `a2ensite`

We have to copy our new configuration file to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled directory to enable it but in Apache, we have tool for that called a2ensite. While you making your site available with a2ensite, you might want to disable default Apache web page and configuration with a2dissite and reload the Apache configuration. So in summary;

sudo a2ensite example1.com.conf to enable your site.
Disable default Apache web page and configuration with sudo a2dissite 000-default
sudo service apache2 reload (or sudo systemctl reload apache2.service) to reload Apache Web Server

to proceed.

3) Edit Your `/etc/hosts` File

To view your website in your favorite web browser, just edit your /etc/hosts file and add example1.localhost in it. After that, just create an helloworld file as your index (for example; index.html) in your website directory, open your browser and go to http://example1.localhost. You should see the helloworld page that you created.

Example /etc/hosts file;

127.0.0.1	localhost
127.0.0.1 	example1.localhost

Example helloworld index.html file;

<html>
<header><title>This is title</title></header>
<body>
Hello world
</body>
</html>

And you are ready to go! Just repeat these steps to host multiple local websites with Apache.

How to Setup L2TP/IPsec VPN on Ubuntu 16.04

Sun, 02 Sep 2018 22:29:00 +0300

How to Setup L2TP/IPsec VPN on Ubuntu 16.04 with NetworkManager

In this article, we will learn how to setup L2TP/IPsec VPN with NetworkManager on Ubuntu 16.04. Ubuntu has stopped its support on L2TP since almost forever but there are a few workarounds and alternatives to overcome this problem.

1) Install network-manager-l2tp Package


```bash
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nm-l2tp/network-manager-l2tp  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install network-manager-l2tp

You should also install network-manager-l2tp-gnome, if you are using gnome desktop environment.

sudo apt-get install network-manager-l2tp-gnome

2) Stop xl2tpd Service

sudo service xl2tpd stop
sudo update-rc.d xl2tpd disable

3) Create Your L2TP/IPsec VPN

In order to create L2TP/IPsec VPN, use the fallowing instructions;

Navigate to Settings > Network > Click the + button > Select “Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)”
Name the new VPN connection something
Put the host name or address in the Gateway field.
Put username in the Username field.
Click the icon in the Password field and select your preference for how to supply the password.
Click IPSec Settings…
Click the box for “Enable IPsec tunnel to L2TP host”
Enter the shared secret into the Pre-shared key field.
Leave the Gateway ID field empty.
Expand the Advanced options area
Enter “3des-sha1-modp1024” into the Phase 1 Algorithms box.
Enter “3des-sha1” into the Phase 2 Algorithms box.
Leave the box checked for “Enforce UDP encapsulation”.
Click OK.
Click Save.

And, thats it!

4) Use libreswan instead of strongswan (Optional)

If you still have problems to connect your L2TP/IPsec VPN, you can try to use libreswan instead of strongswan. For doing this, remove the phase 1 & 2 algorithms in the IPsec config dialog box and install libreswan by issuing:

sudo apt-get install libreswan

And that’s how you can use L2TP/IPsec VPN on your Ubunut 16.04! You can use tail -f /var/log/syslog to identify problems about your connection.

DNS Clustering with Plesk Windows & cPanel DNSONLY

Wed, 16 May 2018 09:01:00 +0300

How to use Plesk Slave DNS Manager with cPanel DNSONLY

Plesk and cPanel are the main tools for hosting platforms nowadays. While both of them are very good and solid in Linux, Plesk is the only option when it comes to Windows, so one may have to use both tools to manage his/her hosting servers. Using two different tools on two different platforms (Windows and Linux) requires different bits of knowledge and sometimes, more resources. Centralized DNS is a good idea when it comes to optimizing the resources and reduce the management overhead. With Centralized DNS, you can be able to use a single set of name servers for all of the domains you host on your servers. Lucky for you, both cPanel and Plesk supports Centralized DNS but with different approaches. I, as many of the others, use Plesk for my Windows hosting platforms while using cPanel on Linux. cPanel DNSONLY is a good tool for Centralized DNS and It is easy to use and deploy. Plesk Windows, on the other hand, comes with Windows DNS and DNS Slave Extension can be used for Centralized DNS. Combining the two, on the other hand, is possible (in theory) but requires some tweaks on both sides. But using one master node to rule them all (see what I did there?) is a huge gain, so in this post, we will learn how to BIND them.

Install Plesk DNS Slave Extension

Installing Plesk DNS Slave Extension is very straightforward and easy with using the Extensions Catalog in the Plesk UI. Just click Extensions in the side menu and search for the Slave DNS Manager and click install. After the installation has finished, click Go to Extension button to add DNS slaves.

Setting Up Slave DNS Servers

cPanel DNSONLY installation contains three simple steps wich can be summerized as;

1) Go to home directory;

cd /home

2) Download installation script;

curl -o latest-dnsonly -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest-dnsonly

3) Execute;

sh latest-dnsonly

The installation process can fail if your operating system is using NetworkManager so you might want to disable NetworkManager and use network service instead. Check out this link for more information; How to disable NetworkManager on CentOS / RHEL 7

Adding DNS Slaves

After the installation, one can easily add DNS slaves to the system with few simple steps;

1) Enter Slave DNS address

2) Change Secret key with your own secret on your cPanel DNS server

more /etc/rndc.key

3) Save your old named.conf as named.conf.old, create new config file on your cPanel DNSONLY server and add required lines;

mv /etc/named.conf /etc/named.conf.old
vi /etc/named.conf

and add required lines. Your named.conf should look like this;

include "/etc/rndc.key";

controls {
        inet * port 953 allow { YOUR PLESK SERVER IP; 127.0.0.1;} keys { "rndc-key"; };
};

acl trusted {

     YOUR PLESK SERVER IP;
     DNSONLY IP;
};

options {
        listen-on port 53 { 127.0.0.1; YOUR PLESK SERVER IP; };
        listen-on-v6 port 53 { ::1; };
        directory       "/var/named";
        dump-file       "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
        statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
        memstatistics-file "/var/named/data/named_mem_stats.txt";
        allow-new-zones yes;
        allow-transfer { YOUR PLESK SERVER IP; };
        masterfile-format text;
        
        recursion no;

        dnssec-enable yes;
        dnssec-validation yes;

        /* Path to ISC DLV key */
        bindkeys-file "/etc/named.iscdlv.key";

        managed-keys-directory "/var/named/dynamic";

        pid-file "/run/named/named.pid";
        session-keyfile "/run/named/session.key";
};

logging {
        channel default_debug {
                file "data/named.run";
                severity dynamic;
        };
};

zone "." IN {
        type hint;
        file "named.ca";
};

include "/etc/named.rfc1912.zones";
include "/etc/named.root.key";

and restart your BIND using;

service named restart

4) Click OK to continue.

Change Windows DNS to BIND on Plesk

Default Plesk installation comes with Windows DNS but we have to switch it to BIND in order to integrate it with cPanel DNSONLY. To do this;

Go to Tools & Settings > Updates and Upgrades and install the BIND DNS server using the Plesk Installer.
Go to Tools & Settings > Server Components and click DNS Server.
Select BIND DNS Server and click OK.

Exterminate the Bug on Plesk Windows

Plesk Windows comes with a bug which causes DNS zones served by Bind DNS server on Windows are not synced with the slave DNS. As a workaround;

Connect to the server via RDP
Create Plesk database backup (optional)
Add fallowing line into Plesk Database Manually

plesk db "REPLACE INTO misc VALUES ('DNS_Allow_Transfer0', 'YOUR SLAVE IP');"

You can find more information about this bug in here; Zones are not transferred from Bind on Windows .

Enjoy Your New Centralized DNS Setup

Your Centralized DNS setup is ready to go, but you might want to correct one more thing if you want to use your new setup with cPanel DNS Clusters. cPanel stores DNS records in domain.ltd.db format instead of domain.ltd and this causes malfunctions (read as DNS clusters are not syncing) on DNS Cluster setup. In order to overcome this, rename your DNS records as domain.ltd.db and manually push your records on your master cPanel DNS ONLY server with;

/scripts/dnscluster syncall --full

you can also automate this process with simple script added on cron jobs. And that’s it! Enjoy your new centralized DNS setup with Plesk DNS Slave Manager and cPanel DNSONLY!

Hello World!

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 14:46:00 +0300

And God said, “Let there be light,”

I am not a firm believer of god but I always want to use this quote, especially when I work on something related to Linux or computers in general. Using Linux is in fact like being a god, a god who mounts disks, a god who send its petty users to /dev/null and a god who sees and who deletes. I will always remember the first time when I install Gentoo/Linux. I spent sleepless nights and countless hours to compile my kernel (in the right way), build my OS from almost scratch, get my head around countless config files and options. But you know what, that’s when I fell in love with Linux. That’s when I decide to become a Linux System Administrator. That’s when I feel like GOD, the god who commands his computer with his full might. The GOD who is starter and stopper of all services. THE GOD, who is the master of all daemons. THE GOD who says “Let there be the light” and there was Xorg.

Jokes aside, using Gentoo/Linux is in fact the sole reason why I become Linux System Administrator. I fell in love with it when I first saw the beauty in it, and I still do love it. But the thing is, not so many people sees what I see in Linux and this makes me sad. Thats why I started this blog!

In here, you can came across stuffs about;

Linux
Ansible
Programming
Tutorials, HOWTOs
Installation Guides
Reviews
Games
Geek stuff

and maybe more! My articles can be in English (mostly) or Türkçe (bazen) and will based upon my adventures.

External Project

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0300

External Project

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0300

External Project

Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0300

Adventures of a System Admin: A Brief History on Adventures of a System Admin: A Brief History

How to Use Apache Virtual Host to Run Multiple Local Websites on Ubuntu 16.04

Introduction and Requirements

1) Create Vhost Configuration file for Apache

2) Make Your Site Available with a2ensite

3) Edit Your /etc/hosts File

How to Setup L2TP/IPsec VPN on Ubuntu 16.04

How to Setup L2TP/IPsec VPN on Ubuntu 16.04 with NetworkManager

1) Install network-manager-l2tp Package

2) Stop xl2tpd Service

3) Create Your L2TP/IPsec VPN

4) Use libreswan instead of strongswan (Optional)

DNS Clustering with Plesk Windows & cPanel DNSONLY

How to use Plesk Slave DNS Manager with cPanel DNSONLY

Install Plesk DNS Slave Extension

Setting Up Slave DNS Servers

Adding DNS Slaves

Change Windows DNS to BIND on Plesk

Exterminate the Bug on Plesk Windows

Enjoy Your New Centralized DNS Setup

Hello World!

And God said, “Let there be light,”

External Project

External Project

External Project

2) Make Your Site Available with `a2ensite`

3) Edit Your `/etc/hosts` File