Assignment 1: The Set up

Updating and initial configuration for server-04

You will have to adapt your initial VM to turn it into a secure web server. So, carry out the required tasks as follows:

1. First, update the system from debian repositories.

2. Install additional software:

   • Text editor: vim

   • Text paginator: less

   • Sync tool: rsync

   • Web download tool: wget

   • Monitor and config tool: htop, net-tools, resolvconf

   • Software build package: build-essential

   • Additional (extra) system manuals: manpages-es-extra

3. Configure the next features:

   • Fix the local timezone:

     • Europe/Madrid

   • Set the root password (1)

4. Allow ssh login for the root user (password)

5. Then, you will have to adapt your new instance to turn it into a secure web server. So, carry out the tasks required as follows:

   • Hostname: server-04

   • Local name resolution:

     • Hostname: server-04.localdomain

     • Alias: server-04

     More detailed in references [9][10]

In GCP, every time we start a virtual instance, the /etc/hosts file is updated by services that google has created in it. To include the name resolution information for our environment, either we create a custom service that runs after the startup and loads that information from a particular file (for example), or we patch (carefully) the google service to do that.

Also, you have to configure server-04 as client of primary service supplied by server-01 (lab 1), except NFS:

• NTP Client: Time (date) of our file server should be automatically synchronized by NTP service using these references:

  • server-01.localdomain

• DNS client: Add server-01 as secondary DNS for your server and localdomain as search domain.

• LDAP (NSS) client: Our new server will be able to use the LDAP directory in a safe way (SSL) to identify (2) users who are managed by LDAP on server-01/server-02.

Since our file management policy is centralization and distribution through NFS, we will follow the same idea for web content management. So build a secondary storage system for server-03 using the following schema:

• Add an additional LVM volume on server-03 (NFS server) to store the web content for the new web services:

  • server-04-web -> 1 GB

  • Make an ext4 file system.

• Mount it permanently:

  • server-03-web -> /export/web

  • mounting options:

    1. noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro

    2. neither dumps nor file system checks on boot time.

• Configure NFS service to export that volume (/export/web) to server-04 exclusively (3)

  • Enable the root user in server-04 to namage that volume locally.

1. Configure server-04 as NFS client of server-03:

   • Static mounting:

     • server-04 should mount /export/web from server-03 on the local directory /var/www

   • Dynamic mounting:

     • Also, server-04 should mount on demand, using autofs, the user’s home directories, located in /export/home (server-03) on the local directory /remote/home/.

(1) Use a strong password

(2) It is not necessary for users to be able to connect, in this case, to server-03 by SSH (PAM)

(3) Restrict access to server-04 only, that it is under control.