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vpsBible Forums » Forum: vpsBible News - Recent Topics http://vpsbible.com/forums/forum/vpsbible-news Setup Unmanaged VPS for Linux Noobs! en-US Wed, 23 May 2012 02:34:54 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://vpsbible.com/forums/search.php the_guv on "Bible & Stacks Updated for PHP-FPM .." http://vpsbible.com/forums/topic/bible-stacks-updated-for-php-fpm#post-1489 Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:07:33 +0000 the_guv 1489@http://vpsbible.com/forums/ Just to let y'all know, I've updated the modular Nginx guide and the LEMP stackscripts to use the new installation procedure for PHP-FPM. The difference is that PHP-FPM can now be installed from repositories, rather than compiled, which will make maintaining the program easier too. Otherwise, I've added logrotate to the LEMP scripts and will build this functionality into the Nginx guide and LAMP scripts shortly. Hope that helps. Let me know any bugs or queries. Thank you. the_guv on "Server Structure News EMAIL .. chat here!" http://vpsbible.com/forums/topic/server-structure-news-email-chat-here#post-1151 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:41:22 +0000 the_guv 1151@http://vpsbible.com/forums/ Here's the circular I sent out .. tips and so on appreciated. ########## * Users and Groups * Web Directory * Stackscripts * Nginx version * PHP update ##Users and Groups Up to now, vpsBible's setup of users and groups has not been as scalable as it might be and, procrastination aside, this is an issue I have been toying with. Here are the changes I have made and would recommend all of you to consider implementing or at least to be aware of, particularly if you have a few sites with various web applications. First some theory .. #Who owns the web files? You should. Not the webserver, not any other user. This is a security thing. Then again, the web server often needs access to read and write web files. So. Short of implementing relatively complicated "security in depth" strategies (such as chroot'ing, suPHP and Grsecurity kernel hardening .. all of which the bible will be addressing, by the way), here is my recommendation .. Make a third party group such as "webmasters" your web files' group owner and add trusted users such as Nginx or Apache to that group, and perhaps add members of your web development team. Now we have a structure like this:- type perms user group file 644 USER webmasters dir 755 USER webmasters NOTE: some file permissions can be reduced and, in the case of database-connecting configuration files, that's better. (vpsB's wp-config.php is "040".) Always test applications with "least privilege permissions" and elevate from there as required. 777 permissions are never acceptable. There is a useful permissions calculator at Guvnr:- Permissions calculator - <a href="http://guvnr.com/chmod.html" rel="nofollow">http://guvnr.com/chmod.html</a> #Implementing Users, Groups and Permissions To add users such as Nginx (www-data) to webmasters do this:- sudo usermod -a -G webmasters www-data Then, to ensure the correct permissions to your web directory do this:- sudo find /path/to/public_html/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \; sudo find /path/to/public_html/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \; sudo find /path/to/public_html/ -exec chown -R USER:webmasters {} \; .. changing the paths and your username. Then tweak individual special files to lower permissions. Anyway, the above is a more scalable multi-site solution. ##Web Directory I have changed this too, again to be more scalable for those who add sites and new human users with their own sites. The web directory used to be at:- /home/public_html I have changed this to:- /home/USER/public_html Both the above changes are now reflected in all vpsBible docs. If you want to keep to /home/public_html, fine, just replace any future vpsB mentions of /home/USER/public_html with /home/public_html. You can use both, by the way .. your web server will find whatever root directive is mentioned in your virtual host files. ##Nginx Version We're at 0.7.67 now so if you haven't upgraded in a few versions you may like to recompile. This guide will show you how:- Upgrade to Nginx Latest Version with ZERO Downtime - <a href="http://vpsbible.com/web-servers/upgrade-nginx/" rel="nofollow">http://vpsbible.com/web-servers/upgrade-nginx/</a> At some stage I'll be turning that tutorial into a script to automate this process. ##PHP update The PHP-FPM script can be improved. This is more important than anything else in the bible right now. I'm playing with new code now and will introduce this in early August, reflecting all relevant docs and along with a script to automatically recompile. ##Stackscripts While writing, you may like to know that the existing stackscripts (LEMP Ubuntu and LEMP Debian) have had their corresponding notes totally rewritten and are hopefully much clearer. They have a new modular format too so are more easily maintained which helps us all, particularly with a growing library. #Authentication key problems Also I have added "Lite" equivalents to these stacks, so that now you can run the scripts without the authentication key option to make the install easier and without the possibility of getting locked out .. in that case I strongly recommend (for most) adding the authentication key afterwards and disabling password terminal login (see any script's notes). #New Scripts There are also new scripts for LAMP now, using Apache. No cringing! I intend to run benchmarking between Apache and Nginx in due course although this is not a priority. The "Stackscripts Index Page" - <a href="http://vpsbible.com/vps-setup-guides/stackscripts/stackscripts-index/" rel="nofollow">http://vpsbible.com/vps-setup-guides/stackscripts/stackscripts-index/</a> - contains 7 scripts so far and explains the differences. That index is now linked directly from the Stacks' box on the homepage. The index page itself needs a little work but the stacks are pretty hot and massive time-savers. the_guv on "Introducing StackScripts" http://vpsbible.com/forums/topic/introducing-stackscripts#post-670 Fri, 07 May 2010 16:45:33 +0000 the_guv 670@http://vpsbible.com/forums/ Hey folks, You may like to take a look at:- <a href="http://vpsbible.com/vpsbible-news/revolution/">vpsBible Launches StackScripts 4 Super-Fast VPS Setup</a> I've set up a new forum to support the various scripts I'll be publishing. So why? I've been using some scripts myself to automate various tasks, but had never bothered to compile these into something universally handy. Finally I got round to it last week, having created a crude script to help automate the PHP benchmarking server setup, which involved, can't remember, for sure more than a dozen server setups in itself to test the various FastCGI installations. .. Damn that saved some time. And you guys have also forced my hand, there've been a few requests and comments, not least of all about <a href="http://www.linode.com/?r=6358eeb99cbd464699a68ea1ee9b631906e69852">Linode's</a> new stackscript service .. .. I looked at a few of these and, superb as they are, they work only for the one server provider (and IMHO they don't automate enough for noobs - or for webmasters in a hurry - at least the few I've seen. But stackscripts aren't just a buzzword, they are the future for server setups and vpsBible will be reflecting this, perfecting multi-setup scripts for whatever specification. So there you go. Er, I also wanted to say sorry for having been a bit AWOL over the last week or so. God's honest is I've had really rotten toothache, must be getting old, it's been impossible to concentrate. .. I've not forgotten my promises for a permissions and DNS guide. Bear with me .. I'll try to catch up (and stackscripts will help me to do that). the_guv on "php-fpm tutorial done: heavily-tested & seamless" http://vpsbible.com/forums/topic/php-fpm-tutorial-done-heavily-tested-seamless#post-367 Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:57:22 +0000 the_guv 367@http://vpsbible.com/forums/ hey all, Happy April Fool's, but nonetheless this post content is for real! so Drupal is checked off the list adn this week I'd planned to start the permissions series. I got waylaid .. one or two folks were having "502 Bad Gateway" issues with the fastCGI tut (fixed an issue there thanks to Haynes .. tx m8, appreciated.) I've updated the original PHP/MySQL for Nginx tut:- <a href="http://vpsbible.com/php/speed-up-vps-config-php-xcache/">Install PHP5, MySQL & Xcache</a> .. to allow for this possible error. But. This problem forced my hand as well, to do something I've been wanting to for a while now .. .. there have been a lot of requests, not just here but previously at Guvnr, for an alternative to the standard php-fastCGI guide above, using php-fpm. When I originally wrote the Bible I discounted php-fpm because, at that time, it hadn't been maintained in something like a year. .. but a few months back it sprang back into life and, not only that, PHP is taking the code into its core. Coupled with the fact that it has benchmarked impressively against the fastCGI method I've been playing around with various methods of installing php-fpm, publishing yesterday what I consider to be the best of those. Tested on fresh servers for Debian and Ubuntu builds:- <a href="http://vpsbible.com/php/compile-install-php-fpm-mysql-nginx/">Compile PHP-FPM (PHP5) & MySQL for Nginx</a> This changes the order of documentation for the Nginx-VPS setup guide so I'm now reworking docs and the index order accordingly and will be adding a special PHP index page listing the 2 current php installation options, as well as the forking tutorials written/underway/planned to explain and help you choose your preferred install procedure. It will be pretty self-explanatory. I'll add a link to that php index page in this forum. When this PHP detour is done I'll get back to that permissions series .. sorry for any inconvenience but, for anyone wanting php-fpm, I know for a fact (as does my Google search history!) that you won't find a better guide anywhere - and none that 'just work'. the_guv on "WP-MU Checked Off, Drupal This Week!" http://vpsbible.com/forums/topic/wp-mu-checked-off-drupal-this-week#post-214 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:04:14 +0000 the_guv 214@http://vpsbible.com/forums/ Hey y'all! OK, at last I'm cracking out some decent tuts and hope they're proving handy .. .. obviously it'll take a bit of time to fulfill the wishlist but please <a href="http://vpsbible.com/forums/forum/suggestions-requests/">keep the requests coming</a>. If someone has already requested a topic, request it anyway because I'll attend to those topics most-required. WordPress is pretty much wrapped up now with the two new posts last week which covered WordPress MU, BuddyPress and bbPress (for MU) with super-caching and pretty link Nginx configuration. This week - and I'm wrapping the code right now, it's all tested and near-as-damn-it ready to go - is "Drupal Week" .. and I know a lot of you have been sat patiently waiting for this. .. On Tuesday I'll set out the basic Nginx/Drupal7 procedure and then, on Thursday, expand on that showing how to set up multiple Drupal domains powered from a single Drupal platform. Next week, unless this gets shouted down, I'll be starting the Ubuntu permissions series, starting with the basics and moving on to something I know will be popular: how to add users (and their sites) so they sit pretty and your server sits protected from them. (Then they can screw up their own database, not yours, for example.) OK, back to it, gotta go, ciao for now .. the_guv on "Nginx Linux-to-Linux Series Modified" http://vpsbible.com/forums/topic/nginx-linux-to-linux-series-modified#post-117 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:56:17 +0000 the_guv 117@http://vpsbible.com/forums/ You may have noticed I slipped in a new tutorial on the quiet yesterday, one that I hadn't pre-announced:- <a href="http://vpsbible.com/remote-access/basic-ssh-local-remote-connection/">Gain Access to a Remote Server from Your PC</a> .. is a verrrry basic tut but closes a gap in the docs, where the L2L series had been going round the houses a bit and was a little confusing. Anyway, hopefully now the journey from blank box to cute-as server is as straightforward for Linus advocates as it is for those with Winders at home. the_guv on "Site Rollout Update" http://vpsbible.com/forums/topic/hi-everyone#post-115 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:48:48 +0000 the_guv 115@http://vpsbible.com/forums/ Hey folks, Just wanted to say Hi really! It's been about a few short weeks now since vpsBible launched and, let's face it, it's been a pretty buggy site rollout .. so hands up to that and I'm sorry to any of you who've had problems. This is my first forum - or rather, it's my second [hangs head] - cos I launched vpsB with a SimplePress forum but just didn't like it (way to complicato and very hard to style and I do like my blue colors, heh). So I binned that and ripped apart bbPress which is what we have. It's not perfect, we need stuff like a user profiles page and so on and I'll sort all that. .. but that forum change put me back rather and, hence, new tutorial docs rollout has been set back. Anyway, I guess teh site, while still a little in beta, is getting there now and, at last, I've begun to find the time to work on what you want, the knowledge base. I did want to say though, <thank you>a big thank you to all you lot for supporting this project, whether you're full-blown members or hanging about to see what happens</thank you>. I really appreciate it. Seems to me this forum is beginning to gain a real nice bunch of folks. Damn, lovely darling. OK .. best do something useful ..