Sigh... I'm sorry, Slicehost, but I'm leaving you. I've been a long (and very happy) Slicehost customer for the past few years. The service offered was perfect for anyone knowing their way around SSH, Linux administration and setting up a server -- and all that for just 30 bucks a month. Nothing bad can be said about the Slicehost developers either: their support has been excellent, the uptime of their servers near-perfect, and their tutorials and guides well-written. I've ran MySQL and web servers, wiki's, proxy's, game hosts and much more on my little slice. I even used it as a honeypot.
But then, a sudden announcement changed everything. In 2008 (such a long time, already!) Slicehost told the world that they had been acquired by Rackspace. Since then, I've become more and more frustrated with Rackspace's need to shove buzzwords, confusing plans and general overdone "enterprisiness" up my throat. Try to find out how much a new slice will cost you... exactly. Compare this new look with the old Slicehost landing page. The old page was simple, easy, beautiful. The new pricing gives the impression that you're bringing 20 consultants on board.
I don't have anything against acquirements in general, but the Rackspace takeover has been particularly confusing for end-users, with DNS service moving to Rackspace (free?), lower bandwidth allowances (huh?), servers moving datacenters (why?), changes in Slice sizes, and a requirement to migrate to Rackspace in 2012 (what does this mean? Just leave me be!)
Since I'm not charmed by Rackspace's way of handling things (I'm sure they're nice people though), I'm moving to Linode. With easy to understand pricing, a clean dashboard (with all the same features as Slicehost) and not too much fluff to get in your way, it's a perfect solution for the hobbyist hacker. Even better: Linode also outperforms the competition performance-wise, although the linked benchmark is a bit old, and I've never had complaints with Slicehost in this regard.
The reason why I've been putting off the move is because it involves setting up a new server (easy), configuring it exactly as you want (difficult), and making sure everything is migrated correctly (ugh). There's always one little configuration directive, file, or database table which is forgotten during the process.
The steps below serve as a reminder, mainly aimed at my (future) self, for setting up an Ubuntu (Oneiric) server. I'm looking forward to seeing how Linode performs...
1. Install Ubuntu
2. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and update
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
3. Enable the root account
sudo passwd root
And give root a password. Afterwards we become root by running:
su
4. Synchronize the system clock
Synchronize the system clock with an NTP server over the internet. (You can also install this via the Time and Date Preferences GUI.
apt-get install ntp ntpdate
5. Install the SSH server
Install OpenSSH by default.
apt-get install ssh openssh-server
6. Configure the network
A server should have a static IP address; edit /etc/network/interfaces:
#This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1
Then restart your network:
/etc/init.d/networking restart
Then edit /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.0.100 server1.example.com server1
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts
Now run:
echo server1.example.com > /etc/hostname
Reboot the system:
reboot
Afterwards, run:
hostname
hostname -f
Both should show your chosen hostname.
7. Add users
Add some users. Adding a "webmaster" is recommended:
sudo useradd -d /home/webmaster -m webmaster
sudo passwd webmaster
# Set /bin/bash as shell
# Edit /etc/sudoers
8. MySQL
Install MySQL. You will be asked for a root password.
apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client
We keep bind-address = 127.0.0.1 in /etc/mysql/my.cnf.
9. Postfix for SMTP support
apt-get install postfix procmail
You will be asked two questions. Answer as follows:
General type of configuration? <-- Internet Site
Mail name? <-- server1.example.com
Run:
dpkg-reconfigure postfix
Again, you'll be asked some questions:
General type of configuration? <-- Internet Site
Where should mail for root go <-- [blank]
Mail name? <-- server1.example.com
Other destinations to accept mail for? (blank for none) <-- server1.example.com, localhost.example.com, localhost.localdomain, localhost
Force synchronous updates on mail queue? <-- No
Local networks? <-- 127.0.0.0/8
Use procmail for local delivery? <-- Yes
Mailbox size limit <-- 0
Local address extension character? <-- +
Internet protocols to use? <-- ipv4
Next:
postconf -e 'inet_interfaces = loopback-only'
We do not create certificates any more. Only using postfix as a local-only SMTP handler. IMAP and others not handled with Google Apps.
Restart Postfix:
/etc/init.d/postfix restart
10. Apache/PHP5
11.1. Installation
apt-get install apache2 apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils ssl-cert
Install PHP5:
apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php5-common php5-curl php5-dev php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-json php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-mhash php5-ming php5-mysql php5-ps php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-tidy php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl
Edit /etc/apache2/mods-available/dir.conf:
<IfModule mod_dir.c>
#DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml index.cgi index.php index.xhtml
</IfModule>
Now we have to enable some Apache modules:
a2enmod ssl
a2enmod rewrite
a2enmod suexec
a2enmod status
a2enmod include
Reload the Apache configuration:
/etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload
Don't forget to edit php.ini.
11.2. Adding subdomains
You can add sites to /etc/apache2/sites-enabled, use the following example configuration file:
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin info@sitename.com
ServerName sitename.com
ServerAlias *.sitename.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/sitename.com/
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/sitename.com/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php index.php3
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
AllowOverride None
Options ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
ServerSignature On
#Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
</VirtualHost>
Don't forget to edit the default virtualhost with a NameVirtualHost * and AllowOverride All.
12. Proftpd
Install Proftpd:
apt-get install proftpd ucf
You will be asked a question:
Run proftpd from inetd or standalone? <-- standalone
Now edit /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf:
[...]
DefaultRoot /
UseIPv6 off
[...]
Then restart Proftpd:
/etc/init.d/proftpd restart
13. PHPMyAdmin
Install PHPMyAdmin:
apt-get install phpmyadmin
Pick apache2 to configure.
14. Secure SSH a bit
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config:
Port 4444 #Other than 22
PermitRootLogin no #Make sure other user can login/sudo
15. Set /var/www permissions
chown -R webmaster:www-data /var/www
chmod 775 -R /var/www
16. Install slowloris protection
apt-get install gcc apache2-threaded-dev
wget https://gist.github.com/raw/773464/4e7250692c34f55725384525b513e71be7541f5a/mod_muantiloris.c
apxs2 -a -i -c mod_muantiloris.c
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Edit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf:
ExtendedStatus On
IPReadLimit 5
IPPostLimit 10
17. Install fail2ban
apt-get install fail2ban
Don't forget to configure a jail.local and add custom filters if needed.
18. Final migration
Move user files, virtualhost configurations, /var/www. Backup mysql data bases.
Install openjdk-6-jre, davmail if needed.
Backup script:
tar cvpzf backup.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys --exclude=/dev --exclude=/usr --exclude=/bin --exclude=/sbin --exclude=/backup.tgz /
