Linux Home Server HOWTO

[Butt-Ugly]

G'day all,

EDIT: This HOWTO has been UPDATED to Fedora Core 5. (20 Jun 06)

Im currently drafting an installation guide to configure Linux as a networked home server with all the email, www, smtp, ftp, dns, dhcp, squid, mySQL, samba, NFS (etc) applications documented.

I have currently reached draft status on the first 13 (of 20 odd) chapters and am ready for interested parties to read/test it (there are some little sections still lacking). Its a high level document, so if you only want the config details (without the techo stuff) then this is for you.

I am using FC3 as the distro for the configs and file paths, and it contains some FC3 specific configurations (yum, up2date, step-by-step install guide). The FC3 specific sections will eventually be moved to annexes in later revisions, allowing it to be a more generic document supporting further distros (the plan anyway).

The HOWTO is currently located at http://www.brennan.id.au while it is being drafted and will be moved on completion.

I appreciate any feedback/comments on the document, particularly if the concepts are easy to read/understand by the newer members of the community.

The layout/format (html) still needs works.

Regards,

Miles Brennan
(aka BU)

EDIT: This HOWTO has been UPDATED to Fedora Core 5. (20 Jun 06)

[h4d]

I breezed through the topics and it looks good. I usually go to nag2.pdf (you can check it out on tldp.org) for my networking and server configuration needs. It's nice to have one for FC3!
When I give it a more thorough read I'll give you more feedback. I just think it's great you are taking the time to do this.

[imdeemvp]

I want to check it out but I couldnt reach it.

[h4d]

I want to check it out but I couldnt reach it.
That's strange, I just clicked on the link again and it was fine...

[imdeemvp]

Funny I just clicked on it and it worked. :o

[Tru]

Wow! I was just scrolling thru some of your stuff and reading it and it looks great. I was trying to use FC2 as a firewall/router to my home network but it was giving me problems with my 2 nics not sure if its because of my intergrated nic or what but your tutorial has promted me to give it a shot again. Man if where you I would see about trying to get that published. There are no FC3 books out there yet and that on would be a great help to people to have a hard copy.

Also is there anychance you could make it so we could download it? I would like to put it on my laptop and be able to read it wether I am on the web or not.

[Barus]

Wow! Great howto's!
Very handy and clear information for setting up a server.

Keep up the good work! :)

[jarifed]

Excellent document.
It's a good base to start from and I am sure it will improve as time goes by.

[Butt-Ugly]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, my aim is to keep it simple (KISS), otherwise people wont use it.

Miles.

[ewdi]

good deal, make it as fool proof as possible, many people love a clear how to

[Butt-Ugly]

Ok I've finished the mail server chapter (12).

Well I still need to do spamfiltering.. Its on TODO..
Basic Configuration
Starting The Services
Hardening Sendmail
Fighting Spam (TODO)
Antivirus Scanning
http://www.brennan.id.au/12-Sendmail_Server.html

You can get the Clam AntiVirus "clamav" and "clamav-milter" RPMs over here if you need them: http://crash.fce.vutbr.cz/

Miles.

[Butt-Ugly]

OK, thats now 15 done - System Printing...
Configuring CUPS
Adding CUPS Printers
Installing The Driver File

More of a smallish chapter, but guides you through setting up a CUPS server and making the printers available for your internal workstations.

Also updating printer PPD files...

http://www.brennan.id.au/15-System_Printing.html

Miles.

[Sniffer]

Excellent indeed.

Thanks for your great work and keep it up.

It will help me a lot.

[lvansteen]

This is great stuff!!

Keep up the good work!

[tabascal]

This is great.

I was looking for some material to set up radius server(Freeradius) in FC3 for my wireless ap access.

I also wanted to some materials to connect my FC3 server to my win2k server and use ntlm_auth. I guess it needs Kerberos authentication.

[Butt-Ugly]

Ok another one down... Chapter 16 - Secure Shell SSH Daemon
Using SSH
Secure File Transfers
The chapter configures the SSH daemon and recommends some basic security settings and provides a basic intro to the SSH client for remote access.

It also explains the SSH FTP subsystem and Secure Copy facility (Not to be confused with FTPS), and has some example commands.

http://www.brennan.id.au/16-Secure_Shell.html

Miles...


Hey, thanx for all the positive feedback. Remember to let me know about any errors/omissions or just poorly written explanations.

[Butt-Ugly]

Thats Chapter 17... MySQL Server

It covers the initial configuration and the steps necessary to change the default root password for the server etc...

It also provides complete instructions for installing the phpMyAdmin web administration application, so you can manage your databases through a web browser.

It does not provide SQL examples as there are many tutorials on the Internet already.

http://www.brennan.id.au/17-MySQL_Server.html

Miles

[Butt-Ugly]

Thats another chapter down, 18 - "Samba" server.

This chapter has the following main sections..
Setting Global Options
Creating User Accounts
Sharing Network Directories
Adding Network Printers
The Microsoft Client
The Samba Client


It provides all the information and configurations for establishing a standalone SMB server with network shares for your Windows computers to connect.

It also details the MS DOS commands necessary to map to the samba server, and also details and provides examples of the smbclient command for connecting Linux to MS computers.

At 15 printable pages it is currently the biggest chapter, and probably the most anticipated.

Here it is: http://www.brennan.id.au/18-Samba.html

Cheers,

Miles.

[Dog-One]

Good stuff Miles!

I'm looking forward to your LDAP chapter. I've been using IMAP for some time now and I really want to use LDAP for both a central address book and for user authentication. I've looked at several examples but just wasn't able to "connect the dots" in my spare time.

[Bocephus]

I can not tell you how much I appreciate the time you are taking to put this informative guide together. I’ve read dozens over the years but most only touch on one specific task, what I like about this project is that it focuses on the home office/ hobbyist.

Taking a box with a fresh install of Linux and setting it up for a home server, running the popular services such as www, ftp, mail and mysql is all what most users want, if nothing, just for personal/family use only.. I’ve ran RH9 for nearly two years, hosting a web server running phpNuke. I basically ran it for my friends and family to use, nothing extravagate.

However FC3 has proven to be some bit of a challenge for me, RH has changed some things once again and for a user whose Linux skills are intermediate at best can be frustrating. Top this by countless dead-links and incomplete documentation from the net which has caused me to pull some hair out (j/k).

As of now I’ve completed the mySql chapter. The text was clear and precise, not overly technical where a novice my become overwhelmed. I like the idea that you talk about what we were going to do, then you actually showed the commands and the output as they would appear on your screen, it couldn’t have been and clearer. I really like that you even taken the time to include configuration of phpMyAdmin.

Sadly after finishing the chapter it seem my apache still refuse to talk to the mysql server, even though I can connected to it from shell and see that its up and running with my tables in it. I suspect I have other issues going on that’s preventing this.

This weekend I plan to reload my box with a fresh copy of FC3 and start from scratch, working my way through of each one your chapters. Hopefully, time permitting; I’ll a complete write up on my experience by next week. Incidentally, I’d be more then willing to donate funds to a paypal account for your extraordinary effort and time that you have put in to writing this informative documentation.

-Thanks!
-Bocephus
(CCNP/MSCP)

[crackers]

If you're going to work through his document, make notes about what did and did not work and where he might need to put more information. "De-bugging" always helps!

[carbo18]

Nice work :)

May I suggest adding a section on partitioning schemes. i.e. /tmp, /var... on a separate partitions, the sizes of partitions one might use, the benefits...

[Butt-Ugly]

Sorry for the late reply all, I've been documenting the NFSv4 configs...
This weekend I plan to reload my box with a fresh copy of FC3 and start from scratch, working my way through of each one your chapters. Hopefully, time permitting; I’ll a complete write up on my experience by next week. Incidentally, I’d be more then willing to donate funds to a paypal account for your extraordinary effort and time that you have put in to writing this informative documentation.
Bocephus, Thanks for the feedback. If you do get the time to detail some further feedback that would be great, it just serves to improve the document even more.

Crackers is "spot on" there, anything that should be changed/adjusted because it is either wrong or difficult to understand. Im aiming for simplicity.

Im humbled by your donation offer, and Im sure my wife could do with some flowers (I owe her ;) ). However if it suits you, please forward any offer towards a tsunami appeal; I think that would please us both (I don't normally endorse this type of activity in public forums, so I hope people don't mind here).

Thanks for the great post.

Miles.

[Butt-Ugly]

Nice work :)

May I suggest adding a section on partitioning schemes. i.e. /tmp, /var... on a separate partitions, the sizes of partitions one might use, the benefits...
carbo18,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I hadn't originally planned on partitioning, Im not sure if there are real benefits for newer users on a dedicated server. If they don't understand it and allocate the wrong sizes they may be rebuilding their systems sooner than expected; cursing me and my guide :P

Regards,
Miles.

[Butt-Ugly]

OK, another one bites the dust - Chapter 19, Network File System..

This chapter covers the following sections...
Setting the Exports
Starting and Testing
Selecting the Server Version
Imports and Mounting
NFS Version 4

It details everything you need to configure your exports, also the details needed for the file system table (fstab) to mount the remote exports. The last section covers the configuration (export/mount) of the NFSv4 protocol implementation.

If you really want to "geek it up" (Linux to Linux connections), this chapter is for you..

Miles.. :D

EDIT: Better add the link.. http://www.brennan.id.au/19-Network_File_System.html

[wiseNoob]

I haven't tried anything in the how to as of yet since I just discovered it, but will let you know if anything strikes me.

a suggestion though: maybe offer the entirety of the files in zip or gzip form, so as to download the whole thing... I am not sure if this is common practice, but I keep a collection of tutorials and how to's as I go from install to install. it makes it easier in the future to go right back to it instead of searching for them on the net, in case they have been moved or something. keep the versioning system intact for the downloads too, so we can tell which one is the latest one.

if bandwidth is an issue, then we understand, but maybe after it is all finished (or at a milestone number), someone will be nice enough to provide some mirror space...

thanks for spending the time on this, it is definetly appreciated.

[harlequin]

Not having read the whole guide, I notice that in the SSH chapter, it's not mentioned that you need to add SSH to 'trused services' in the security level.

[Butt-Ugly]

a suggestion though: maybe offer the entirety of the files in zip or gzip form, so as to download the whole thing... I am not sure if this is common practice, but I keep a collection of tutorials and how to's as I go from install to install.Correct, this is common practice.

The documentation will be submitted to TLDP (http://www.tldp.org) when its completed, then made available in many different formats (maybe even translated) for all to use.

Miles.

[Butt-Ugly]

Not having read the whole guide, I notice that in the SSH chapter, it's not mentioned that you need to add SSH to 'trused services' in the security level.
This also is correct.

The "system-config-securitylevel" is a Fedora/RH specific GUI application, the documentation is configuration file based to support more Linux distributions at the command prompt, so GUI applications will not be configured. There is a whole chapter on firewall/iptables instead.

Miles.

[Butt-Ugly]

Woohoo !!!

Im proud to announce the last chapter has now been completed - Shared Address Book using LDAP server.

The chapter covers the following topics:
Initial Concepts
Basic Configuration
Address Book Entries
Adding Some Security
phpLDAPadmin Web Administrator
Email Client Settings


It explains how the LDAP server is configured, some basic details on X.500 naming structures, how to enter address book entries on the command line. It also details how to set up a PHP web based administration application to access it remotely.

There is only a small listing of how clients are configured to connect, but I will get more details soon - its pretty easy though.

It currently stands at 20 chapters, and is 177 printable pages - enjoy :D

Linux Home Server HOWTO: www.brennan.id.au

Cheers,
Miles.

PS, Im still open to feedback, it hasn't been submitted yet...

[dmode]

Hi,

As a newbie this is just what I needed.

Thanks!!!!!!!

[dmode]

Installation info on PostgreSQL required though.

[Wishartz]

I second that, as a new user to Fedora as well, this 'server how to' is absolutley brilliant. I was just wondering are you going to be adding any more sections to it. I know you've added sendmail in there would there be any plans for a postfix section?

Thanks again, I keep on refering to this guide and it really has helped me.

[exphiles]

This is simply amazing! I've been wondering how Linux would benefit me as a home server and this How-To just answered that for me!

I used to think that I can only use linux as a web, FTP and mail server and now I realized I can do a whole lot more. The part on LDAP is something I never thought of. It's a great primer for people new to Linux and wondering what they can do with it. It also shows them the power of Linux compared to Windows as a home server considering all these setup are free in Linux while you have to buy some of them from MS like the mail server, Proxy and SQL.

[ieuuk]

very nice :-) i will be using it for my home server... thanks :-)

[jmolina03]

Butt-Ugly,

Bookmarked you man!

Thanks for taking the time.

[Butt-Ugly]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, Im glad its appreciated and making live easier for some.

Cheers,
Miles.

[panama]

This is good great job :)

[ltam]

Simply, brilliant. It's something I wanted to do as a learning exercise. Now, I just need to refer and learn.

Thanks...

[Butt-Ugly]

I'll look at updating this over the next few weeks for FC4.

Miles.

[hawk7]

Hello

I am printing this out as I type. I hope this will help me confiure and setup my new Dell server. I couldnt get fedora core 2 to install on it do to the SATA hard drive but did get core 3 to go. This is where i am at now: My broadband come into the server on eth1 (internet connection) and then out to my hub on eth2. then out of the hub to my 3 other windows computers. Set a static IP on server eth2 and static ip's on 3 windows machines. Set gateway on 3 window machines to match server ip. I scrapped the windows 2003 server when I couldnt get the server to ping anything but could get the computers to ping the server. I have core 3 installed with all updates installed. I installed everthing since I am a beginer at this. Now on to reading your book. I thank IPforwarding is next? Since I am new to all of this I will let you know how it goes. I am a little concerned about using terminal. Reminds me of my dos days. I was hoping to set everthing up using gooys. Mabey you could print a DUMMIES book?? Step by step always works for me. Well I am going to start this journey and will let you know how it goes. THANK YOU for this masterpiece

[gavinw6662]

that's a pretty iformative guide. Nice work!!!

:D

[BoneDaddy13]

Great Job! This is an excellent HOW-TO!! :D

[GuyMS]

nice work indeed

[Trendkill]

i liked the way it was set out and fairly easy to use.. although im still having trouble with the samba thing, even though your guide was fairly well laid out! :)

i think the part that is missing with that is guiding a user through how to add the printer with winxp.. because im getting a few errors here and there from following the guide :| im just getting access denied statements from winxp :/

but keep up the work, its shaping upto be a really nice website.

[OberonKenObi]

Thanks Butt

Will be making use of this fine how to in the coming weeks, when i get cash for a box rebuild :+(

On a seperate note, what is the software called that DL's web sites to peruse offline? Get something?

Regards
Allan

[Butt-Ugly]

The site is still only available in html, but you can download all the pages etc... with:

wget -r www.brennan.id.au

This will create a "www.brennan.id.au" directory containing all the files and associated icons, then you can view the site offline.

Miles.

[F-GT]

Site offline ?

[ieuuk]

Site offline ?

would appear so... its dead for me too

[agenol]

Mike,

Its good stuff! Two thumbs up.

It was the only place that explained that SELinux affects httpd from FC3 and on. I'm using it to get mu home server running.

Thanks a 1,000,000!!

Agenol

[Butt-Ugly]

Site offline ?
Sorry, was upgrading my system to FC4 :D

Should be back up now.

Miles.

[jgionet]

Sorry, was upgrading my system to FC4 :D

Should be back up now.

Miles.

haha.. now that's a VERY good excuse! I took my site down too yesterday to upgrade.. well worth it :p

[GaLaKtIkUs]

Thanks !
It works great ... but for FC4
I have an FC3 server. the mount goes as expected but when I do an ls it gives me empty content.

the exports file on the server (os=FC3, nfs-utils-1.0.6-52):
/NFS4exports 192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0(rw,insecure,sync,wdelay,no_subtree_c heck,no_root_squash,fsid=0)
/NFS4exports/Multimedia 192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0(rw,insecure,no_subtree_check,sync,no _root_squash)

the mount command used on a client (os=FC4):
mount -t nfs4 192.168.2.1:/ /misc/test/ -o async,auto,exec,_netdev,nodev,rw,retry=5,rsize=327 68,wsize=32768,proto=tcp,hard,intr

Again thanks for this great job!
Cheers
Mehdi

[macgregor]

Awesome doc!!! I was gonna give this thread five stars but someone beat me to it :)
Thank you so very much for posting that how-to. I like how-to's and this one is great!

[dwflo]

Thanks Butt,

I will take all the reading material I can get.
Appreciate what you have done, nothing like it for n00bs.

Dave

[bias]

awesome howto, thank you

[jim]

Awesome tutorial...

question. in Chapter 12 you use the word Authorisation
which means
The process whereby a person approves a specific event or action. In companies with access rights hierarchies it is important that audit trails identify both the creator and the authoriser of new or amended data. It is an unacceptably high risk situation for an individual to have the power to create new entries and then to authorise those same entries themselves.

Do you mean to use the word authorization
which means
The granting of authority, which includes granting access based on access rights.

from this point in chapter 12

Authenticating Users
Main Server Authentication
Restricting access to resources on the web server can be achieved a few different ways. The preferred method for controlling access throughout the main server filesystem, is to place individual directives into the httpd.conf configuration file for each area that needs any restrictions.

The following example provides security to the /var/www/html/private directory (http://localhost/private), and will only allow valid users from the authusers file if they are listed in the private group contained in the authgroups file.

Caution !! It is important to note that the authorisation files are not located inside the "DocumentRoot" structure, otherwise they could be downloaded if not properly secured.

Other than that, thsi is great!

[bubudiu]

1. Consider "officialising it" by joining the docs team. Refer to the docs-list for details.

2. The section on Clamav does not reflect the current package in Extras. Without mentioning the method used to install it you leave the user in suspense.

[bubudiu]

Awesome tutorial...

question. in Chapter 12 you use the word Authorisation
which means
The process whereby a person approves a specific event or action. In companies with access rights hierarchies it is important that audit trails identify both the creator and the authoriser of new or amended data. It is an unacceptably high risk situation for an individual to have the power to create new entries and then to authorise those same entries themselves.

Do you mean to use the word authorization
which means The granting of authority, which includes granting access based on access rights. from this point in chapter 12 Other than that, this is great!
Hahaha symantics? Not everyone drives on the wrong side of the road or uses "s" instead of "z". This one ought to make Slashdot. Hahaha

[killaweegee]

Is the site offline?

[Zigzagcom]

Just want to bump this site back into the collective consciousness:

www.brennan.id.au

[Airmister]

Thanks a bunch for helping a newbie like me out.

I'm soon off to risk my marriage testing all of these things out... :)

Thanks again!

[bubazoo]

has this HOWTO been updated for FC5 yet?

I'm having trouble setting up a mail server with FC5 and I could really use this

[Zigzagcom]

No, I don't think so, and I am realizing that posting links to outdated HowTo's isn't good. Much of it might still apply as far as sendmail and dovecot are concerned, but many folks focus on Postfix as a MTA these days.

[siddhx]

I have found this Linux HOme Server website very useful .

For all my basic requirements , I have refered it .

How about updating it for FC5. Good Idea.

[ltam]

I would suggest that this take a branch to support FC5. It wouldn't be fair to those who are running FC3 and letting their systems harden without upgrading to FC5.

[Zigzagcom]

I f Brennan would have the time, I think he would, but as is often the case, a body of work as such is written because a person needs to clarify concepts his/her way, as a personal learning and reference tool. People move on...to a more experienced level, and start dealing with other issues.

But overall, there are plenty of other sites that have good tutorials, line Stanton Finley's.

[ltam]

I f Brennan would have the time, I think he would, but as is often the case, a body of work as such is written because a person needs to clarify concepts his/her way, as a personal learning and reference tool. People move on...to a more experienced level, and start dealing with other issues.

But overall, there are plenty of other sites that have good tutorials, line Stanton Finley's.

Good point. :) I guess he has grown such a large following that we now depend on him.

[lxgamer]

can these settings work on fc5?

[Butt-Ugly]

G'day all...

Sorry for the late late late reply here, I'll just blame it on work commitments for now.

However on a good note, I have commenced updating the documentation to suit FC5 - Yippee I hear you say !

I have now updated a vast majority of the chapters, with only a few remaining (I have added a warning at the top of each page that I am still finishing off).

I have added more detailed configurations - ie, squirrelmail, clamav, spamassassin, Dynamic DNS with DHCPd - and am adding an extra 3 chapters - VPN, MRTG and System Backups (editing these at the moment).

I have also added full TLS/SSL configurations for LDAP, Sendmail and Dovecot so you can have secure remote connections from external of your firewall/home/organisation and stay protected from network nasties.

I'll try and finish the remaining parts shortly, however most of the example configurations are current now and ready for use.

http://www.brennan.id.au/

Cheers,
Miles Brennan

[h4d]

I'll try and finish the remaining parts shortly, however most of the example configurations are current now and ready for use.

http://www.brennan.id.au/

You are the man! This is sure to be a great resource, thanks!

The host is down, though... :confused:
EDIT: back online!

[Zigzagcom]

Awesome, thanks Miles. I would like to say thank you again, 'cause your tutorials helped me get through the roughest spots when I first started out. Now, to have a more up-to-date version will be a great resource once again. Claps his hands....

[Butt-Ugly]

Quick update,

The first 18 chapters are now fully FC5 compliant, which means the configurations/documentation will work simply by cutting and pasting the commands from the website into your systems as required.

I think most people will like the extra addition of full SSL/TLS for their Sendmail / Dovecot configurations, I also added a small script that can be used to automatically create an Apache "FAVICON" from any image file for your websites (creates a 3 layered icon file).

I'll finish the next chapters shortly.

Cheers,
Miles Brennan

[babyem]

Thanks very much Butt-Ugly, I waiting for next chapter from you

[lindamus]

Is this site up and running? seems to be dead.

[jwalters]

Down for me as well :-/

[TomG23]

I'm using this tutorial since the release of Fedora Core 3. Great work! Didn't find even a comparable how-to. :)

Sections I already used for my own configuration:

DHCP server
DNS server
Samba fileserver
Apache webserver
IPtables firewall
Squid proxy server


But it seems to be down now since yesterday, and I need the BIND DNS server section. :( To be exactly, the configuration file "named.conf".

Does someone have this configuration file, based on this how-to?

Many thanks in advance!

[jim]

site down again....

[icy-flame]

:) Excellent!! thanks for the great work.

[icy-flame]

:) Excellent!! thanks for the great work.

[shakya_surendra]

I have installed fedora core 6 with kernel "2.6.18-1.2798.fc6", I want to do NAT in my proxy server using 2 lan cards having following ip nat commands:

iptables --flush
iptables --table nat --flush
iptables --delete-chain
iptables --table nat --delete-chain

#Setup IP forwarding and masquerading
iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface eth0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface eth1 -j ACCEPT
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

I have put above commnds in a file called 'ipnatting' and I made it executable by doing chmod 755. After that I have called the 'ipnatting' file from /etc/rc.d/rc by placing ./ipnatting but my problem is that I can not ping out of my server e.g. I can not do ping fedora.com or ping yahoo.com hence I am unable to browse at all.

Kindly help me how can I solve NAT problem in my server.

Thank you and looking forward to have your help.

Sincerely Yours
Surendra

[icy-flame]

If you just want to do NET for the home network and firewall, check out IPCop, work startght out of the box, wotks with my USB WinModem even, can run with fairely low spec machines too.

[bigmacbb63]

Jim it is not possible to setup a wiki on my system see below?

What's wrong?

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /var/www/moin/mywiki
mkdir: cannot create directory `/var/www/moin/mywiki': No such file or directory
[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /var/www/moin/mywiki
mkdir: cannot create directory `/var/www/moin/mywiki': No such file or directory
[root@localhost ~]#

[Zigzagcom]

In /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf you should have a default path to the web root, which is

/var/www/html

Try placing your directory in

/var/www/html/moin/yourwiki
or
/var/www/html/yourwiki

unless you specifically set the webroot to /var/www/moin.
Actually, you probably didn't create the moin directory. That is what your error message is alluding to.
mkdir /var/www/moin/mywiki