Linode Scripts

Here is a collection of scripts I've written and collected to facilitate the smooth and easy deploying of linode servers.

Objectives

On each new Linode, on your first login, you should find...

some basic security measures configured
a defined sudoer user installed
a defined github user's authorized_keys file is installed
ssh via root is disabled
ssh via password is disabled
Your arbitrary shell script, stored in a gist, has been run

The script, when it completes, will print (STDOUT) the passwords for both the root user and the primary sudoing user.

Installing

You will need both linode-cli and jq to run these scripts. If you're using a mac with homebrew:

brew update
brew install linode-cli jq

Instructions for setting up linode-cli are here.

Next, clone this repo (or fork and clone). You'll need to set parameters for the script in ./config/udf.json (which is .gitignored):

{
  "USERNAME": "<your desired username>",
  "GITHUB_USER": "<your github id>",
  "TIMEZONE": "<your preferred timezone>",
  "GIST_ID": "<gist to be run as a script>"
}

There is a ./config/udf.example.json you can copy to start.

Note that the GIST_ID is optional; if not provided, then the custom gist script step will be skipped. If provided, however, it should be just the SHA part of the Gist's URL. The gist URL will be constructed using the GIST_ID together with GITHUB_USER, so this gist should belong to the GITHUB_USER.

StackScript

Before you can deploy a new linode, you'll need to push the stackscript up to linode.

bin/stackscript-create

For any subsequent changes to the stackscript, run

bin/stackscript-update

Once the stackscript is uploaded, and your ./config/udf.json file is populated

Scope

These scripts have been tested and are known to work with the Linode hosting service, on VPS's running Linode's 'Ubuntu 16.04 LTS' image.

Acknowledgements