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Arch Server Progress

Chitchat
  • Madchatthewundefined

    I have my arch server web host setup and running. I have Nginx, Mariadb, PHP, PHP-fpm and phpmyadmin. I have each website under it’s own user in the home directory to keep the sites separate and more secure. I have to say that it was a lot of fun to set it up and I have been learning a lot in regards to arch linux and setting things up and such.

    I am currently in the process of installing the email server using postfix, dovecot and postfixadmin. By setting this up manually, I have been learning a lot with how an email server works and such. One of the things I have learned is that most of the tutorials are for Debian or Ubuntu or one of the other more popular OSs. I have been using a tutorial not for Arch but then also referencing Arch instructions to complement the tutorial.

    It has been a lot of fun. I have been updating my dev environment every couple of day and verifying that things are working. Then once a week I have been updating my production server. I update my dev environment every couple of days so that if I need the latest update for security reasons or what have you, I can do the update on the production server sooner to cover whatever may be happening.

    I know I have a lot more to learn and look forward to that as well. So far this has been a fun journey and I look forward to learning more.

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  • phenomlabundefined

    @Madchatthew I have to admire the bravery here in the sense that not only are you using Arch without any real “hard and fast” guides, but also are doing everything individually instead of relying on something like Webmin or Virtualmin. Whilst this is daunting, it’s absolutely the best way to learn in my view, as it forces you to roll up your sleeves and get under the hood.

    Postfix and Dovecot can equally prove to be very challenging. There are a number of guides on the internet in relation to best configuration settings, although some of these are sadly either outdated, or completely wrong (or in some cases, both!).

    All in, a great update - keep us posted! 🙂

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

    👍
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  • Madchatthewundefined

    @phenomlab Yeah, they are both very challenging. I’m not completely done with setting them up yet and have a ways to go. I can see how using Webmin/Virtual min is really nice because they take care of all that stuff for you. It is nice to learn and see how everything works under the hood. I don’t know if I will remember all of it, but I have enjoyed going through this process.

    I am able to send emails from my server now, so I am doing something right, hahaha! I would say that I am about 1/2 way done with the whole email server setup. This has been spending anywhere from 2 to 4 hours on it at a time. My schedule doesn’t allow me to sit and get it done all in one day. I never realized how involved and time consuming setting up an email server can be.

    phenomlabundefined 1 Reply
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  • DownPWundefined

    good job 🙂

    PW and WS Spirit alive

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  • Madchatthewundefined

    @DownPW said in Arch Server Progress:

    good job 🙂

    Thank you very much!

    👍
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  • Madchatthewundefined

    I just installed Redis today and am using that for caching with the two Wordpress sites that I have on my server. I wanted to install Redis anyways in case if I ever start using Nodebb I can have the multiple sessions going to make it faster.

    The wordpress sites run super fast as well after adding and configuring them to work with Redis. I need to configure Redis a little more but for the most part it is working great.

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  • phenomlabundefined

    @Madchatthew yes, it takes time, but no so much once you grow accustomed to the process. After a while you get a sense of what will work and what will not, and it also pays - certainly in the sense of PostFix to keep a golden configuration file that you know works.

    It’s disturbingly easy to take PostFix offline with one single mistake.

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

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  • Madchatthewundefined

    @phenomlab yeah I have been reading about that as well in regard to Postfix. One little piece forgotten or changed in any little way can topple the whole thing down haha. It is crazy. And also, thank you for reminding me that once I get everything working and running to make a copy of those config files. That will help in the future and just may save my bacon.

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  • Madchatthewundefined

    I wanted to give an update on this. I have been working on trying to get a postfix, dovecot along with a couple of other programs working on this server. So far I have been unsuccessful. I am not giving up though and plan on starting a new thread to document each step that I take. Maybe someone will be able to see my mistake that I made or what I am missing and be able to help figure it out.

    I know it would be easier to just go through one of the mail websites that are out there, but I would really like to learn this process.

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  • phenomlabundefined

    @Madchatthew Feel free to post the issues here 🙂

    Author of OGProxy, Swatch, Threaded, Card, and most of Sudonix's bugs…

    👍
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  • Madchatthewundefined

    Well, I must say that I was finally able to get email working on my Arch server. I still need to setup postgrey and some spam assassin, get the dmarc and spf and one or two others setup and then it should be good to go for the most part. I am mainly using it to be able to send mail from websites, but having the option to have a separate email for their domains will be very nice.

    Once my brain solidifies after all of that, I will share what what I did. One thing I found is that it is important to just take it piece by piece and get each part working before moving on to the next. Also, test test test after each change, or each section.

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  • Madchatthewundefined

    I also wanted to post this. Here are the latest stats for the server so far. This is with all of the software setup and running along with doing updates once a week after testing them on my dev test server and making sure websites function properly.

    image.png

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    Madchatthewundefined

    @phenomlab I will check those out. Thanks for sharing. I appreciate it!

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    @Hari Yes, that’s one (of many) I would recommend. It’s going to be easier to do this under Windows and the fact that you are already connected using SMB is a huge plus.

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    phenomlabundefined

    @Panda said in Wasting time on a system that hangs on boot:

    Why do you prefer to use KDE Linux distro, over say Ubuntu?

    A matter of taste really. I’ve tried pretty much every Linux distro out there over the years, and whilst I started with Ubuntu, I used Linux mint for a long time also. All of them are Debian backed anyway 😁

    I guess I feel in love with KDE (Neon) because of the amount of effort they’d gone to in relation to the UI.

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  • DownPWundefined

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    phenomlabundefined

    @DownPW 🙂 most of this really depends on your desired security model. In all cases with firewalls, less is always more, although it’s never as clear cut as that, and there are always bespoke ports you’ll need to open periodically.

    Heztner’s DDoS protection is superior, and I know they have invested a lot of time, effort, and money into making it extremely effective. However, if you consider that the largest ever DDoS attack hit Cloudflare at 71m rps (and they were able to deflect it), and each attack can last anywhere between 8-24 hours which really depends on how determined the attacker(s) is/are, you can never be fully prepared - nor can you trace it’s true origin.

    DDoS attacks by their nature (Distributed Denial of Service) are conducted by large numbers of devices whom have become part of a “bot army” - and in most cases, the owners of these devices are blissfully unaware that they have been attacked and are under command and control from a nefarious resource. Given that the attacks originate from multiple sources, this allows the real attacker to observe from a distance whilst concealing their own identity and origin in the process.

    If you consider the desired effect of DDoS, it is not an attempt to access ports that are typically closed, but to flood (and eventually overwhelm) the target (such as a website) with millions of requests per second in an attempt to force it offline. Victims of DDoS attacks are often financial services for example, with either extortion or financial gain being the primary objective - in other words, pay for the originator to stop the attack.

    It’s even possible to get DDoS as a service these days - with a credit card, a few clicks of a mouse and a target IP, you can have your own proxy campaign running in minutes which typically involves “booters” or “stressers” - see below for more

    https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/ddos-as-a-service-attacks-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-work

    @DownPW said in Setting for high load and prevent DDoS (sysctl, iptables, crowdsec or other):

    in short if you have any advice to give to secure the best.

    It’s not just about DDos or firewalls. There are a number of vulnerabilities on all systems that if not patched, will expose that same system to exploit. One of my favourite online testers which does a lot more than most basic ones is below

    https://www.immuniweb.com/websec/

    I’d start with the findings reported here and use that to branch outwards.

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    Hariundefined

    @phenomlab thank you

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    @elhana-fine Yes that will happen of of course if you still choose to restart the NGINX service after making a change and the test fails. The test on it’s own will state the error and the line number allowing you to fix that first 🙂

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    @Ash3T I’m going to mark this post as solved as I’ve not heard from you in a while. Let me know if this isn’t the case and you need more help.

  • JACundefined

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    JACundefined

    @phenomlab said in Advantages and disadvantages of changing to Ubuntu?:

    @jac Yeah, I wouldn’t just leap into it unless you have a valid reason (such as the laptop no longer working and needing to be reinstalled). Probably better the devil you know currently.

    Absolutely mate, and generally as discussed that is the only time I have changed over to Ubuntu once the laptop has got slower.

    For now I will carry on with Windows, purchase the VPN & BitDefender in later October / early November and then see how all that runs for a few more months 👍🏻.