lucianobarauna/udacityproj_linuxserver

Repo for the seventh project of the Nanodegree of Web Development Full Stack, of Udacity.

Linux Server Configuration

A Udacity Fullstack Web Developer nanodegree project.

A baseline installation of a Linux server and prepare it to host my web applications.

Amazon Lightsail

The Linux server instance choosed was Amazon Lightsail, with the following specifications:

• Name: udaprojLinux
• Linux: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
• IP: 34.231.195.103
• SSH Port: 2200
• Reviewer user: grader
• Url: http://34.231.195.103/

Summary

• Create a server

  • Create an aws lightsail instance
  • Configuring ports
  • Creating static ip
  • Generating SSH for server connection (in local machine)
  • Create a new user (in aws console)

• Configure Security Server

  • Remove root user access
  • Setting up ssh port 2200
  • Restart SSH service to active security changes above
  • Now you can enter using ssh as grader
  • Configure FIREWALL
  • Configure UTC TIME_ZONE

• Deploy catalog application on server

  • Setup Apache to serve a Python mod_wsgi application
  • Setup PostgreSQL
  • Install git to clone Catalog app project
  • Configure the Catalog app
  • Logging

• References and inspiration

  • GitHub Repositories
  • Materials

Create a server

Create an aws lightsail instance

• Enter https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/webapp/home/instances
• Choose: [Create Instance] -> [Linux] -> [Ubuntu 16.04] -> [Create Instance]
• Wait "Pending" status change

Configuring ports

In the networks tab you need to configure the following ports:

• Custom - TCP - 2200

Creating static ip

To create a static ip we need to use a DNS and the service XPI.io offers it to use for example in the application OAuth. This is a public service offered free of charge by Basecamp. An example would be: 54.84.49.254.xip.io

Generating SSH for server connection (in local machine)

Set-up SSH keys for user grader

$ ssh-keygen grader-key
# Enter file name to save the key: grader
# Let's keep passphrase empty

$ cp grader-key ~/.ssh
#to save the private key in ~/.ssh on local machine

Create a new user (in aws console)

1. Create a new user named grader

$ sudo adduser grader
#to create the user

$ sudo chage -d 0 grader
#to make grader change its pw at first login

$ sudo usermod -aG sudo grader
#to grant sudo to grader, add it to Sudoers

2. Adding ssh key to the created user

$ su - grader
#login with grader

$ mkdir .ssh

$ sudo touch .ssh/authorized_keys

$ sudo nano .ssh/authorized_keys

Copy the public key generated on your local machine to this file.

CTRL+O (save), ENTER (confirm), CTRL+X (exit nano)

3. Permissioning ssh files. Again, in aws console:

$ sudo chown -R grader.grader /home/grader/.ssh

$ sudo chmod 700 /home/grader/.ssh

$ sudo chmod 600 /home/grader/.ssh/authorized_keys

$ ls -als .ssh/

Configure Security Server

Remove root user access

Logged as grader:

$ sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Change the following lines:

1. FROM: PermitRootLogin without-password TO: PermitRootLogin no
2. FROM: PasswordAuthentication yes TO: PasswordAuthentication no
3. ADD: DenyUsers root

CTRL+O (save), ENTER (confirm), CTRL+X (exit nano)

Setting up ssh port 2200

Now, let's restart ssh and change its port to 2200:

$ sudo service ssh restart

$ sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Change Port to 2200

CTRL+O (save), ENTER (confirm), CTRL+X (exit nano)

Restart SSH service to active security changes above

$ sudo service ssh restart

Now you can enter using ssh as grader:

The ssh key was placed in the "Notes to Reviewer" field body

ssh -i grader-key grader@34.192.184.204 -p 2200

Configure FIREWALL

Logged as grader:

$ sudo ufw default deny incoming
#to block all incoming connections on all ports by default

$ sudo ufw allow 2200/tcp
#to allow incoming connection for SSH on port 2200

$ sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
#to allow incoming connection for port 80

$ sudo ufw allow 123/udp
#to allow incoming connection for port 80

$ sudo ufw enable
#to enable the firewall, use

$ sudo ufw status
#to make sure everything is fine

Configure UTC TIME_ZONE

Logged as grader:

$ sudo timedatectl set-timezone UTC

Deploy catalog application on server

Logged as grader:

Setup Apache to serve a Python mod_wsgi application

$ sudo apt-get install apache2
#to install appache

$ sudo apt-get install python-setuptools libapache2-mod-wsgi
#to install Install mod_wsgi

$ sudo service apache2 restart
#to restart apache

Setup PostgreSQL

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql
#to install postgresql

$ sudo nano /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf
#to check if no remote connections are allowed

$ sudo su - postgres
#to login as postgres

• as postgree get into postgreSQL shell with psql in there do:

1. Create a new database named (in my case restaurantmenulist) and a user named catalog

postgres=# CREATE DATABASE restaurantmenulist;

2. Create a new user named catalog

postgres=# CREATE USER catalog;

3. Set a password for user catalog

postgres=# ALTER ROLE catalog WITH PASSWORD 'myNewPassword';

I've also paste the myNewPassword on the "Notes to Reviewer" field.

4. Give user "catalog" permission to "catalog" application database

postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE restaurantmenulist TO catalog;

5. Quit postgreSQL

postgres=# \q

Exit from user "postgres"

exit

Install git to clone Catalog app project.

$ sudo apt-get install git

$ cd /var/www

$ sudo mkdir ItemCatalog

$ cd ItemCatalog/

$ sudo git init
# Initiate an empty git repository in the current folder

$ sudo git remote add origin https://github.com/lucianobarauna/udacityproj_item_catalogy
# Add my Item Catalog App Repo as a remote repository

$ sudo git remote -v
# Check if the remote repository was added successfully

$ sudo git pull origin master
# Pull the remote repository

$ ls
# Check if the files were downloaded successfully

$ cd catalog/

Configure the Catalog app

1. Rename project.py to__init__.py

$ sudo mv project.py __init__.py

2. Edit database_setup.py, lotsofmenus.py, and the now renamed init.py, and change all occurrences of 'sqlite:///restaurantmenulist.db' to 'postgresql://catalog:password@localhost/restaurantmenulist', editing the files with: sudo nano 'FILE-NAME'

# engine = create_engine('sqlite:///restaurantmenulist.db')
#to
create_engine('postgresql://catalog:grader@localhost/restaurantmenulist')

at

$ sudo nano __init__.py
$ sudo nano db_config.py

3. Install pip

$ sudo apt-get install python-pip
$ sudo pip install -r requirements.txt

• Then, use it to install all dependencies listed on requirements.txt

$ sudo pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Create database schema

$ sudo python database_setup.py

6. To fill the database

$ sudo python lotsofmenus.py

6. Configure Apache and Enable a New Virtual Host Create FlaskApp.conf to edit:

$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/ItemCatalog.conf

Add the following lines of code to the file to configure the virtual host.

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName 34.231.195.103
        ServerAdmin baraunaluciano@gmail.com
        ServerAlias 34.192.184.204.xip.io
	WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/ItemCatalog/itemcatalog.wsgi
	<Directory /var/www/ItemCatalog>
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
	Alias /static /var/www/ItemCatalog/static
	<Directory /var/www/ItemCatalog/static/>
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>
	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	LogLevel warn
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the virtual host with the following command:

$ sudo a2ensite ItemCatalog

Activate the new configuration

$ sudo service apache2 reload

7. Create and config the *.wsgi file

To create AND edit the desired file:

$ sudo nano /var/www/ItemCatalog/itemcatalog.wsgi

add the following code to flaskapp.wsgi

#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
import logging

logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stderr)
sys.path.insert(0,"/var/www/ItemCatalog")

from __init__ import app as application
application.secret_key = 'super_secret_key'

Logging

If something breaks or go wrong, you can access a log for this application with the following command:

sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log

References and inspiration

GitHub Repositories

@mguidoti

@andrevst

@leandrocl2005

@jungleBadger

@bcko

@rccmodena

Materials

• https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/managing-dependencies.html
• https://pip.readthedocs.io/en/1.1/requirements.html