Ubuntu Server Guide

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Ubuntu Server Guide

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Guia de Servidor Ubuntu 13.04

Transcript of Ubuntu Server Guide

  • Ubuntu Server Guide

  • Ubuntu Server GuideCopyright 2012 Contributors to the document

    Abstract

    Welcome to the Ubuntu Server Guide! It contains information on how to install and configure various serverapplications on your Ubuntu system to fit your needs. It is a step-by-step, task-oriented guide for configuringand customizing your system.

    Credits and LicenseThis document is maintained by the Ubuntu documentation team (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam). A list of contributors isbelow.

    This document is made available under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 3.0 License (CC-BY-SA).

    You are free to modify, extend, and improve the Ubuntu documentation source code under the terms of this license. All derivative worksmust be released under this license.

    This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warrantyof MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AS DESCRIBED IN THE DISCLAIMER.

    A copy of the license is available here: Creative Commons ShareAlike License1.

    Contributors to this document are:

    Members of the Ubuntu Documentation Project2

    Members of the Ubuntu Server Team3

    Contributors to the Ubuntu Documentation Wiki4

    Other contributors can be found in the revision history of the serverguide5 and ubuntu-docs6 bzr branches available on Launchpad.

    1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

    2 https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-doc

    3 https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-server

    4 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/

    5 https://code.launchpad.net/serverguide

    6 https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntu-docs

  • iii

    Table of Contents1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1

    1. Support .......................................................................................................................... 22. Installation ............................................................................................................................. 3

    1. Preparing to Install ......................................................................................................... 42. Installing from CD ......................................................................................................... 63. Upgrading ...................................................................................................................... 94. Advanced Installation ................................................................................................... 105. Kernel Crash Dump ...................................................................................................... 17

    3. Package Management ........................................................................................................... 201. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 212. dpkg ............................................................................................................................ 223. Apt-Get ........................................................................................................................ 234. Aptitude ....................................................................................................................... 255. Automatic Updates ....................................................................................................... 276. Configuration ............................................................................................................... 297. References ................................................................................................................... 31

    4. Networking .......................................................................................................................... 321. Network Configuration ................................................................................................. 332. TCP/IP ......................................................................................................................... 423. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) .............................................................. 464. Time Synchronisation with NTP ................................................................................... 49

    5. DM-Multipath ...................................................................................................................... 511. Device Mapper Multipathing ........................................................................................ 522. Multipath Devices ........................................................................................................ 553. Setting up DM-Multipath Overview .............................................................................. 584. The DM-Multipath Configuration File ........................................................................... 625. DM-Multipath Administration and Troubleshooting ........................................................ 74

    6. Remote Administration ......................................................................................................... 791. OpenSSH Server .......................................................................................................... 802. Puppet ......................................................................................................................... 833. Zentyal ........................................................................................................................ 86

    7. Network Authentication ........................................................................................................ 901. OpenLDAP Server ....................................................................................................... 912. Samba and LDAP ....................................................................................................... 1173. Kerberos .................................................................................................................... 1234. Kerberos and LDAP ................................................................................................... 131

    8. Domain Name Service (DNS) ............................................................................................. 1381. Installation ................................................................................................................. 1392. Configuration ............................................................................................................. 1403. Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................... 146

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    4. References ................................................................................................................. 1509. Security ............................................................................................................................. 151

    1. User Management ....................................................................................................... 1522. Console Security ........................................................................................................ 1583. Firewall ...................................................................................................................... 1594. AppArmor .................................................................................................................. 1665. Certificates ................................................................................................................. 1706. eCryptfs ..................................................................................................................... 175

    10. Monitoring ....................................................................................................................... 1771. Overview ................................................................................................................... 1782. Nagios ....................................................................................................................... 1793. Munin ........................................................................................................................ 183

    11. Web Servers ..................................................................................................................... 1851. HTTPD - Apache2 Web Server ................................................................................... 1862. PHP5 - Scripting Language ......................................................................................... 1943. Squid - Proxy Server .................................................................................................. 1964. Ruby on Rails ............................................................................................................ 1985. Apache Tomcat .......................................................................................................... 200

    12. Databases ......................................................................................................................... 2041. MySQL ...................................................................................................................... 2052. PostgreSQL ................................................................................................................ 210

    13. LAMP Applications .......................................................................................................... 2131. Overview ................................................................................................................... 2142. Moin Moin ................................................................................................................. 2153. MediaWiki ................................................................................................................. 2174. phpMyAdmin ............................................................................................................. 2195. WordPress .................................................................................................................. 221

    14. File Servers ...................................................................................................................... 2241. FTP Server ................................................................................................................. 2252. Network File System (NFS) ........................................................................................ 2293. iSCSI Initiator ............................................................................................................ 2314. CUPS - Print Server ................................................................................................... 234

    15. Email Services .................................................................................................................. 2371. Postfix ....................................................................................................................... 2382. Exim4 ........................................................................................................................ 2463. Dovecot Server ........................................................................................................... 2494. Mailman .................................................................................................................... 2515. Mail Filtering ............................................................................................................. 257

    16. Chat Applications ............................................................................................................. 2641. Overview ................................................................................................................... 2652. IRC Server ................................................................................................................. 2663. Jabber Instant Messaging Server .................................................................................. 268

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    17. Version Control System .................................................................................................... 2701. Bazaar ........................................................................................................................ 2712. Subversion ................................................................................................................. 2723. CVS Server ................................................................................................................ 2774. References ................................................................................................................. 279

    18. Samba .............................................................................................................................. 2801. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 2812. File Server ................................................................................................................. 2823. Print Server ................................................................................................................ 2854. Securing File and Print Server ..................................................................................... 2875. As a Domain Controller .............................................................................................. 2926. Active Directory Integration ........................................................................................ 296

    19. Backups ........................................................................................................................... 2981. Shell Scripts ............................................................................................................... 2992. Archive Rotation ........................................................................................................ 3033. Bacula ........................................................................................................................ 306

    20. Virtualization .................................................................................................................... 3111. libvirt ......................................................................................................................... 3122. Cloud images and vmbuilder ....................................................................................... 3173. Ubuntu Cloud ............................................................................................................. 3284. LXC .......................................................................................................................... 335

    21. Clustering ......................................................................................................................... 3581. DRBD ........................................................................................................................ 359

    22. VPN ................................................................................................................................. 3621. OpenVPN .................................................................................................................. 363

    23. Other Useful Applications ................................................................................................. 3751. pam_motd .................................................................................................................. 3762. etckeeper .................................................................................................................... 3783. Byobu ........................................................................................................................ 3804. References ................................................................................................................. 382

    A. Appendix .......................................................................................................................... 3831. Reporting Bugs in Ubuntu Server Edition .................................................................... 384

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    List of Tables2.1. Recommended Minimum Requirements ................................................................................ 45.1. Priority Checker Conversion .............................................................................................. 525.2. DM-Multipath Components ................................................................................................ 535.3. Multipath Configuration Defaults ....................................................................................... 665.4. Multipath Attributes ........................................................................................................... 705.5. Device Attributes ............................................................................................................... 725.6. Useful multipath Command Options ................................................................................... 7717.1. Access Methods ............................................................................................................. 27320.1. Container commands ...................................................................................................... 348

  • 1Chapter 1. IntroductionWelcome to the Ubuntu Server Guide!

    Here you can find information on how to install and configure various server applications. It is a step-by-step, task-oriented guide for configuring and customizing your system.

    This guide assumes you have a basic understanding of your Ubuntu system. Some installation detailsare covered in Chapter 2, Installation [p. 3], but if you need detailed instructions installingUbuntu please refer to the Ubuntu Installation Guide1.

    A HTML version of the manual is available online at the Ubuntu Documentation website2.

    1 https://help.ubuntu.com/13.04/installation-guide/

    2 https://help.ubuntu.com

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    1. Support

    There are a couple of different ways that Ubuntu Server Edition is supported, commercial supportand community support. The main commercial support (and development funding) is available fromCanonical Ltd. They supply reasonably priced support contracts on a per desktop or per server basis.For more information see the Canonical Services3 page.

    Community support is also provided by dedicated individuals, and companies, that wish to makeUbuntu the best distribution possible. Support is provided through multiple mailing lists, IRCchannels, forums, blogs, wikis, etc. The large amount of information available can be overwhelming,but a good search engine query can usually provide an answer to your questions. See the UbuntuSupport4 page for more information.

    3 http://www.canonical.com/services/support

    4 http://www.ubuntu.com/support

  • 3Chapter 2. InstallationThis chapter provides a quick overview of installing Ubuntu 13.04 Server Edition. For more detailedinstructions, please refer to the Ubuntu Installation Guide1.

    1 https://help.ubuntu.com/13.04/installation-guide/

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    1. Preparing to InstallThis section explains various aspects to consider before starting the installation.

    1.1. System Requirements

    Ubuntu 13.04 Server Edition supports three (3) major architectures: Intel x86, AMD64 and ARM. Thetable below lists recommended hardware specifications. Depending on your needs, you might managewith less than this. However, most users risk being frustrated if they ignore these suggestions.

    Table 2.1. Recommended Minimum Requirements

    Hard Drive SpaceInstall Type CPU RAM

    Base System All Tasks Installed

    Server (Standard) 1 gigahertz 512 megabytes 1 gigabyte 1.75 gigabytesServer (Minimal) 300 megahertz 128 megabytes 700 megabytes 1.4 gigabytes

    A virtual installation requires a minimum of 256 megabytes of RAM during the installationphase.

    The Server Edition provides a common base for all sorts of server applications. It is a minimalistdesign providing a platform for the desired services, such as file/print services, web hosting, emailhosting, etc.

    1.2. Server and Desktop Differences

    There are a few differences between the Ubuntu Server Edition and the Ubuntu Desktop Edition. Itshould be noted that both editions use the same apt repositories, making it just as easy to install aserver application on the Desktop Edition as it is on the Server Edition.

    The differences between the two editions are the lack of an X window environment in the ServerEdition and the installation process.

    1.2.1. Kernel Differences:

    Ubuntu version 10.10 and prior, actually had different kernels for the server and desktop editions.Ubuntu no longer has separate -server and -generic kernel flavors. These have been merged into asingle -generic kernel flavor to help reduce the maintenance burden over the life of the release.

    When running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu on 64-bit processors you are not limited bymemory addressing space.

    To see all kernel configuration options you can look through /boot/config-3.8.0-server. Also,Linux Kernel in a Nutshell2 is a great resource on the options available.

    2 http://www.kroah.com/lkn/

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    1.3. Backing Up Before installing Ubuntu Server Edition you should make sure all data on the system is backed up.

    See Chapter 19, Backups [p. 298] for backup options.

    If this is not the first time an operating system has been installed on your computer, it is likely youwill need to re-partition your disk to make room for Ubuntu.

    Any time you partition your disk, you should be prepared to lose everything on the disk should youmake a mistake or something goes wrong during partitioning. The programs used in installation arequite reliable, most have seen years of use, but they also perform destructive actions.

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    2. Installing from CDThe basic steps to install Ubuntu Server Edition from CD are the same as those for installing anyoperating system from CD. Unlike the Desktop Edition, the Server Edition does not include agraphical installation program. The Server Edition uses a console menu based process instead.

    First, download and burn the appropriate ISO file from the Ubuntu web site3.

    Boot the system from the CD-ROM drive.

    At the boot prompt you will be asked to select a language.

    From the main boot menu there are some additional options to install Ubuntu Server Edition. Youcan install a basic Ubuntu Server, check the CD-ROM for defects, check the system's RAM, bootfrom first hard disk, or rescue a broken system. The rest of this section will cover the basic UbuntuServer install.

    The installer asks for which language it should use. Afterwards, you are asked to select yourlocation.

    Next, the installation process begins by asking for your keyboard layout. You can ask the installerto attempt auto-detecting it, or you can select it manually from a list.

    The installer then discovers your hardware configuration, and configures the network settings usingDHCP. If you do not wish to use DHCP at the next screen choose "Go Back", and you have theoption to "Configure the network manually".

    Next, the installer asks for the system's hostname and Time Zone.

    You can then choose from several options to configure the hard drive layout. Afterwards youare asked for which disk to install to. You may get confirmation prompts before rewriting thepartition table or setting up LVM depending on disk layout. If you choose LVM, you will beasked for the size of the root logical volume. For advanced disk options see Section 4, AdvancedInstallation [p. 10].

    The Ubuntu base system is then installed.

    A new user is set up; this user will have root access through the sudo utility.

    After the user settings have been completed, you will be asked to encrypt your home directory.

    The next step in the installation process is to decide how you want to update the system. There arethree options:

    No automatic updates: this requires an administrator to log into the machine and manually installupdates.

    Install security updates automatically: this will install the unattended-upgrades package, whichwill install security updates without the intervention of an administrator. For more details seeSection 5, Automatic Updates [p. 27].

    Manage the system with Landscape: Landscape is a paid service provided by Canonical to helpmanage your Ubuntu machines. See the Landscape4 site for details.

    3 http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server/download

    4 http://www.canonical.com/projects/landscape

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    You now have the option to install, or not install, several package tasks. See Section 2.1, PackageTasks [p. 7] for details. Also, there is an option to launch aptitude to choose specificpackages to install. For more information see Section 4, Aptitude [p. 25].

    Finally, the last step before rebooting is to set the clock to UTC.

    If at any point during installation you are not satisfied by the default setting, use the "GoBack" function at any prompt to be brought to a detailed installation menu that will allowyou to modify the default settings.

    At some point during the installation process you may want to read the help screen provided by theinstallation system. To do this, press F1.

    Once again, for detailed instructions see the Ubuntu Installation Guide5.

    2.1. Package Tasks

    During the Server Edition installation you have the option of installing additional packages from theCD. The packages are grouped by the type of service they provide.

    DNS server: Selects the BIND DNS server and its documentation.

    LAMP server: Selects a ready-made Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP server. Mail server: This task selects a variety of packages useful for a general purpose mail server system.

    OpenSSH server: Selects packages needed for an OpenSSH server.

    PostgreSQL database: This task selects client and server packages for the PostgreSQL database. Print server: This task sets up your system to be a print server.

    Samba File server: This task sets up your system to be a Samba file server, which is especiallysuitable in networks with both Windows and Linux systems.

    Tomcat Java server: Installs Apache Tomcat and needed dependencies.

    Virtual Machine host: Includes packages needed to run KVM virtual machines.

    Manually select packages: Executes aptitude allowing you to individually select packages.

    Installing the package groups is accomplished using the tasksel utility. One of the importantdifferences between Ubuntu (or Debian) and other GNU/Linux distribution is that, when installed, apackage is also configured to reasonable defaults, eventually prompting you for additional requiredinformation. Likewise, when installing a task, the packages are not only installed, but also configuredto provided a fully integrated service.

    Once the installation process has finished you can view a list of available tasks by entering thefollowing from a terminal prompt:

    tasksel --list-tasks

    5 https://help.ubuntu.com/13.04/installation-guide/

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    The output will list tasks from other Ubuntu based distributions such as Kubuntu andEdubuntu. Note that you can also invoke the tasksel command by itself, which will bring upa menu of the different tasks available.

    You can view a list of which packages are installed with each task using the --task-packages option.For example, to list the packages installed with the DNS Server task enter the following:

    tasksel --task-packages dns-server

    The output of the command should list:

    bind9-doc bind9utils bind9

    If you did not install one of the tasks during the installation process, but for example you decide tomake your new LAMP server a DNS server as well, simply insert the installation CD and from aterminal:

    sudo tasksel install dns-server

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    3. Upgrading

    There are several ways to upgrade from one Ubuntu release to another. This section gives an overviewof the recommended upgrade method.

    3.1. do-release-upgrade

    The recommended way to upgrade a Server Edition installation is to use the do-release-upgradeutility. Part of the update-manager-core package, it does not have any graphical dependencies and isinstalled by default.

    Debian based systems can also be upgraded by using apt-get dist-upgrade. However, using do-release-upgrade is recommended because it has the ability to handle system configuration changessometimes needed between releases.

    To upgrade to a newer release, from a terminal prompt enter:

    do-release-upgrade

    It is also possible to use do-release-upgrade to upgrade to a development version of Ubuntu. Toaccomplish this use the -d switch:

    do-release-upgrade -d

    Upgrading to a development release is not recommended for production environments.

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    4. Advanced Installation

    4.1. Software RAID

    Redundant Array of Independent Disks "RAID" is a method of using multiple disks to providedifferent balances of increasing data reliability and/or increasing input/output performance, dependingon the RAID level being used. RAID is implemented in either software (where the operating systemknows about both drives and actively maintains both of them) or hardware (where a special controllermakes the OS think there's only one drive and maintains the drives 'invisibly').

    The RAID software included with current versions of Linux (and Ubuntu) is based on the 'mdadm'driver and works very well, better even than many so-called 'hardware' RAID controllers. This sectionwill guide you through installing Ubuntu Server Edition using two RAID1 partitions on two physicalhard drives, one for / and another for swap.

    4.1.1. Partitioning

    Follow the installation steps until you get to the Partition disks step, then:

    1. Select Manual as the partition method.

    2. Select the first hard drive, and agree to "Create a new empty partition table on this device?".

    Repeat this step for each drive you wish to be part of the RAID array.

    3. Select the "FREE SPACE" on the first drive then select "Create a new partition".

    4. Next, select the Size of the partition. This partition will be the swap partition, and a generalrule for swap size is twice that of RAM. Enter the partition size, then choose Primary, thenBeginning.

    A swap partition size of twice the available RAM capacity may not always bedesirable, especially on systems with large amounts of RAM. Calculating the swappartition size for servers is highly dependent on how the system is going to be used.

    5. Select the "Use as:" line at the top. By default this is "Ext4 journaling file system", change that to"physical volume for RAID" then "Done setting up partition".

    6. For the / partition once again select "Free Space" on the first drive then "Create a new partition".

    7. Use the rest of the free space on the drive and choose Continue, then Primary.

    8. As with the swap partition, select the "Use as:" line at the top, changing it to "physical volumefor RAID". Also select the "Bootable flag:" line to change the value to "on". Then choose "Donesetting up partition".

    9. Repeat steps three through eight for the other disk and partitions.

    4.1.2. RAID Configuration

    With the partitions setup the arrays are ready to be configured:

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    1. Back in the main "Partition Disks" page, select "Configure Software RAID" at the top.2. Select "yes" to write the changes to disk.

    3. Choose "Create MD device".

    4. For this example, select "RAID1", but if you are using a different setup choose the appropriatetype (RAID0 RAID1 RAID5).

    In order to use RAID5 you need at least three drives. Using RAID0 or RAID1 only twodrives are required.

    5. Enter the number of active devices "2", or the amount of hard drives you have, for the array.Then select "Continue".

    6. Next, enter the number of spare devices "0" by default, then choose "Continue".

    7. Choose which partitions to use. Generally they will be sda1, sdb1, sdc1, etc. The numbers willusually match and the different letters correspond to different hard drives.

    For the swap partition choose sda1 and sdb1. Select "Continue" to go to the next step.

    8. Repeat steps three through seven for the / partition choosing sda2 and sdb2.

    9. Once done select "Finish".

    4.1.3. Formatting

    There should now be a list of hard drives and RAID devices. The next step is to format and set themount point for the RAID devices. Treat the RAID device as a local hard drive, format and mountaccordingly.

    1. Select "#1" under the "RAID1 device #0" partition.

    2. Choose "Use as:". Then select "swap area", then "Done setting up partition".

    3. Next, select "#1" under the "RAID1 device #1" partition.

    4. Choose "Use as:". Then select "Ext4 journaling file system".5. Then select the "Mount point" and choose "/ - the root file system". Change any of the other

    options as appropriate, then select "Done setting up partition".

    6. Finally, select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk".

    If you choose to place the root partition on a RAID array, the installer will then ask if you would liketo boot in a degraded state. See Section 4.1.4, Degraded RAID [p. 11] for further details.

    The installation process will then continue normally.

    4.1.4. Degraded RAID

    At some point in the life of the computer a disk failure event may occur. When this happens, usingSoftware RAID, the operating system will place the array into what is known as a degraded state.

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    If the array has become degraded, due to the chance of data corruption, by default Ubuntu ServerEdition will boot to initramfs after thirty seconds. Once the initramfs has booted there is a fifteensecond prompt giving you the option to go ahead and boot the system, or attempt manual recover.Booting to the initramfs prompt may or may not be the desired behavior, especially if the machine isin a remote location. Booting to a degraded array can be configured several ways:

    The dpkg-reconfigure utility can be used to configure the default behavior, and during the processyou will be queried about additional settings related to the array. Such as monitoring, email alerts,etc. To reconfigure mdadm enter the following:

    sudo dpkg-reconfigure mdadm

    The dpkg-reconfigure mdadm process will change the /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/mdadmconfiguration file. The file has the advantage of being able to pre-configure the system's behavior,and can also be manually edited:

    BOOT_DEGRADED=true

    The configuration file can be overridden by using a Kernel argument.

    Using a Kernel argument will allow the system to boot to a degraded array as well:

    When the server is booting press Shift to open the Grub menu.

    Press e to edit your kernel command options.

    Press the down arrow to highlight the kernel line.

    Add "bootdegraded=true" (without the quotes) to the end of the line. Press Ctrl+x to boot the system.

    Once the system has booted you can either repair the array see Section 4.1.5, RAIDMaintenance [p. 12] for details, or copy important data to another machine due to majorhardware failure.

    4.1.5. RAID Maintenance

    The mdadm utility can be used to view the status of an array, add disks to an array, remove disks, etc:

    To view the status of an array, from a terminal prompt enter:

    sudo mdadm -D /dev/md0

    The -D tells mdadm to display detailed information about the /dev/md0 device. Replace /dev/md0with the appropriate RAID device.

    To view the status of a disk in an array:

    sudo mdadm -E /dev/sda1

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    The output if very similar to the mdadm -D command, adjust /dev/sda1 for each disk. If a disk fails and needs to be removed from an array enter:

    sudo mdadm --remove /dev/md0 /dev/sda1

    Change /dev/md0 and /dev/sda1 to the appropriate RAID device and disk.

    Similarly, to add a new disk:

    sudo mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sda1

    Sometimes a disk can change to a faulty state even though there is nothing physically wrong withthe drive. It is usually worthwhile to remove the drive from the array then re-add it. This will causethe drive to re-sync with the array. If the drive will not sync with the array, it is a good indication ofhardware failure.

    The /proc/mdstat file also contains useful information about the system's RAID devices:

    cat /proc/mdstatPersonalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1] 10016384 blocks [2/2] [UU]

    unused devices:

    The following command is great for watching the status of a syncing drive:

    watch -n1 cat /proc/mdstat

    Press Ctrl+c to stop the watch command.

    If you do need to replace a faulty drive, after the drive has been replaced and synced, grub will needto be installed. To install grub on the new drive, enter the following:

    sudo grub-install /dev/md0

    Replace /dev/md0 with the appropriate array device name.

    4.1.6. Resources

    The topic of RAID arrays is a complex one due to the plethora of ways RAID can be configured.Please see the following links for more information:

    Ubuntu Wiki Articles on RAID6.

    6 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation#raid

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    Software RAID HOWTO7

    Managing RAID on Linux8

    4.2. Logical Volume Manager (LVM)Logical Volume Manger, or LVM, allows administrators to create logical volumes out of one ormultiple physical hard disks. LVM volumes can be created on both software RAID partitions andstandard partitions residing on a single disk. Volumes can also be extended, giving greater flexibilityto systems as requirements change.

    4.2.1. Overview

    A side effect of LVM's power and flexibility is a greater degree of complication. Before diving intothe LVM installation process, it is best to get familiar with some terms.

    Physical Volume (PV): physical hard disk, disk partition or software RAID partition formatted asLVM PV.

    Volume Group (VG): is made from one or more physical volumes. A VG can can be extended byadding more PVs. A VG is like a virtual disk drive, from which one or more logical volumes arecarved.

    Logical Volume (LV): is similar to a partition in a non-LVM system. A LV is formatted with thedesired file system (EXT3, XFS, JFS, etc), it is then available for mounting and data storage.

    4.2.2. Installation

    As an example this section covers installing Ubuntu Server Edition with /srv mounted on a LVMvolume. During the initial install only one Physical Volume (PV) will be part of the Volume Group(VG). Another PV will be added after install to demonstrate how a VG can be extended.

    There are several installation options for LVM, "Guided - use the entire disk and setup LVM" whichwill also allow you to assign a portion of the available space to LVM, "Guided - use entire and setupencrypted LVM", or Manually setup the partitions and configure LVM. At this time the only way toconfigure a system with both LVM and standard partitions, during installation, is to use the Manualapproach.

    1. Follow the installation steps until you get to the Partition disks step, then:

    2. At the "Partition Disks screen choose "Manual".

    3. Select the hard disk and on the next screen choose "yes" to "Create a new empty partition tableon this device".

    4. Next, create standard /boot, swap, and / partitions with whichever filesystem you prefer.

    5. For the LVM /srv, create a new Logical partition. Then change "Use as" to "physical volume forLVM" then "Done setting up the partition".

    7 http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html

    8 http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565927308/

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    6. Now select "Configure the Logical Volume Manager" at the top, and choose "Yes" to write thechanges to disk.

    7. For the "LVM configuration action" on the next screen, choose "Create volume group". Enter aname for the VG such as vg01, or something more descriptive. After entering a name, select thepartition configured for LVM, and choose "Continue".

    8. Back at the "LVM configuration action" screen, select "Create logical volume". Select thenewly created volume group, and enter a name for the new LV, for example srv since that is theintended mount point. Then choose a size, which may be the full partition because it can alwaysbe extended later. Choose "Finish" and you should be back at the main "Partition Disks" screen.

    9. Now add a filesystem to the new LVM. Select the partition under "LVM VG vg01, LV srv", orwhatever name you have chosen, the choose Use as. Setup a file system as normal selecting /srvas the mount point. Once done, select "Done setting up the partition".

    10. Finally, select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk". Then confirm the changes andcontinue with the rest of the installation.

    There are some useful utilities to view information about LVM:

    pvdisplay: shows information about Physical Volumes.

    vgdisplay: shows information about Volume Groups.

    lvdisplay: shows information about Logical Volumes.

    4.2.3. Extending Volume Groups

    Continuing with srv as an LVM volume example, this section covers adding a second hard disk,creating a Physical Volume (PV), adding it to the volume group (VG), extending the logical volumesrv and finally extending the filesystem. This example assumes a second hard disk has been added tothe system. In this example, this hard disk will be named /dev/sdb and we will use the entire disk as aphysical volume (you could choose to create partitions and use them as different physical volumes)

    Make sure you don't already have an existing /dev/sdb before issuing the commands below.You could lose some data if you issue those commands on a non-empty disk.

    1. First, create the physical volume, in a terminal execute:

    sudo pvcreate /dev/sdb

    2. Now extend the Volume Group (VG):

    sudo vgextend vg01 /dev/sdb

    3. Use vgdisplay to find out the free physical extents - Free PE / size (the size you can allocate). Wewill assume a free size of 511 PE (equivalent to 2GB with a PE size of 4MB) and we will use thewhole free space available. Use your own PE and/or free space.

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    The Logical Volume (LV) can now be extended by different methods, we will only see how touse the PE to extend the LV:

    sudo lvextend /dev/vg01/srv -l +511

    The -l option allows the LV to be extended using PE. The -L option allows the LV to beextended using Meg, Gig, Tera, etc bytes.

    4. Even though you are supposed to be able to expand an ext3 or ext4 filesystem withoutunmounting it first, it may be a good practice to unmount it anyway and check the filesystem, sothat you don't mess up the day you want to reduce a logical volume (in that case unmounting firstis compulsory).

    The following commands are for an EXT3 or EXT4 filesystem. If you are using anotherfilesystem there may be other utilities available.

    sudo umount /srvsudo e2fsck -f /dev/vg01/srv

    The -f option of e2fsck forces checking even if the system seems clean.5. Finally, resize the filesystem:

    sudo resize2fs /dev/vg01/srv

    6. Now mount the partition and check its size.

    mount /dev/vg01/srv /srv && df -h /srv

    4.2.4. Resources

    See the Ubuntu Wiki LVM Articles9.

    See the LVM HOWTO10 for more information.

    Another good article is Managing Disk Space with LVM11 on O'Reilly's linuxdevcenter.com site.

    For more information on fdisk see the fdisk man page12.

    9 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation#lvm

    10 http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/index.html

    11 http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2006/04/27/managing-disk-space-with-lvm.html

    12 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/raring/en/man8/fdisk.8.html

  • Installation

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    5. Kernel Crash Dump

    5.1. Introduction

    A Kernel Crash Dump refers to a portion of the contents of volatile memory (RAM) that is copiedto disk whenever the execution of the kernel is disrupted. The following events can cause a kerneldisruption :

    Kernel Panic

    Non Maskable Interrupts (NMI) Machine Check Exceptions (MCE) Hardware failure

    Manual intervention

    For some of those events (panic, NMI) the kernel will react automatically and trigger the crash dumpmechanism through kexec. In other situations a manual intervention is required in order to capture thememory. Whenever one of the above events occurs, it is important to find out the root cause in orderto prevent it from happening again. The cause can be determined by inspecting the copied memorycontents.

    5.2. Kernel Crash Dump Mechanism

    When a kernel panic occurs, the kernel relies on the kexec mechanism to quickly reboot a newinstance of the kernel in a pre-reserved section of memory that had been allocated when the systembooted (see below). This permits the existing memory area to remain untouched in order to safelycopy its contents to storage.

    5.3. Installation

    The kernel crash dump utility is installed with the following command:

    sudo apt-get install linux-crashdump

    A reboot is then needed.

    5.4. Configuration

    No further configuration is required in order to have the kernel dump mechanism enabled.

    5.5. Verification

    To confirm that the kernel dump mechanism is enabled, there are a few things to verify. First, confirmthat the crashkernel boot parameter is present (note: The following line has been split into two to fitthe format of this document:

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    18

    cat /proc/cmdline

    BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.2.0-17-server root=/dev/mapper/PreciseS-root ro crashkernel=384M-2G:64M,2G-:128M

    The crashkernel parameter has the following syntax:

    crashkernel=:[,:,...][@offset] range=start-[end] 'start' is inclusive and 'end' is exclusive.

    So for the crashkernel parameter found in /proc/cmdline we would have :

    crashkernel=384M-2G:64M,2G-:128M

    The above value means:

    if the RAM is smaller than 384M, then don't reserve anything (this is the "rescue" case) if the RAM size is between 386M and 2G (exclusive), then reserve 64M if the RAM size is larger than 2G, then reserve 128M

    Second, verify that the kernel has reserved the requested memory area for the kdump kernel by doing:

    dmesg | grep -i crash

    ...

    [ 0.000000] Reserving 64MB of memory at 800MB for crashkernel (System RAM: 1023MB)

    5.6. Testing the Crash Dump Mechanism

    Testing the Crash Dump Mechanism will cause a system reboot. In certain situations, thiscan cause data loss if the system is under heavy load. If you want to test the mechanism,make sure that the system is idle or under very light load.

    Verify that the SysRQ mechanism is enabled by looking at the value of the /proc/sys/kernel/sysrqkernel parameter :

    cat /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq

    If a value of 0 is returned the feature is disabled. Enable it with the following command :

    sudo sysctl -w kernel.sysrq=1

    Once this is done, you must become root, as just using sudo will not be sufficient. As the rootuser, you will have to issue the command echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger. If you are using a network

  • Installation

    19

    connection, you will lose contact with the system. This is why it is better to do the test while beingconnected to the system console. This has the advantage of making the kernel dump process visible.

    A typical test output should look like the following :

    sudo -s[sudo] password for ubuntu: # echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger[ 31.659002] SysRq : Trigger a crash[ 31.659749] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null)[ 31.662668] IP: [] sysrq_handle_crash+0x16/0x20[ 31.662668] PGD 3bfb9067 PUD 368a7067 PMD 0 [ 31.662668] Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP [ 31.662668] CPU 1 ....

    The rest of the output is truncated, but you should see the system rebooting and somewhere in the log,you will see the following line :

    Begin: Saving vmcore from kernel crash ...

    Once completed, the system will reboot to its normal operational mode. You will then find KernelCrash Dump file in the /var/crash directory :

    ls /var/crashlinux-image-3.0.0-12-server.0.crash

    5.7. Resources

    Kernel Crash Dump is a vast topic that requires good knowledge of the linux kernel. You can findmore information on the topic here :

    Kdump kernel documentation13.

    The crash tool14

    Analyzing Linux Kernel Crash15 (Based on Fedora, it still gives a good walkthrough of kernel dumpanalysis)

    13 http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kdump/kdump.txt

    14 http://people.redhat.com/~anderson/

    15 http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/crash-analyze.html

  • 20

    Chapter 3. Package ManagementUbuntu features a comprehensive package management system for installing, upgrading, configuring,and removing software. In addition to providing access to an organized base of over 35,000 softwarepackages for your Ubuntu computer, the package management facilities also feature dependencyresolution capabilities and software update checking.

    Several tools are available for interacting with Ubuntu's package management system, from simplecommand-line utilities which may be easily automated by system administrators, to a simple graphicalinterface which is easy to use by those new to Ubuntu.

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    1. Introduction

    Ubuntu's package management system is derived from the same system used by the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. The package files contain all of the necessary files, meta-data, and instructions toimplement a particular functionality or software application on your Ubuntu computer.

    Debian package files typically have the extension '.deb', and usually exist in repositories which arecollections of packages found on various media, such as CD-ROM discs, or online. Packages arenormally in a pre-compiled binary format; thus installation is quick, and requires no compiling ofsoftware.

    Many complex packages use the concept of dependencies. Dependencies are additional packagesrequired by the principal package in order to function properly. For example, the speech synthesispackage festival depends upon the package libasound2, which is a package supplying the ALSAsound library needed for audio playback. In order for festival to function, it and all of its dependenciesmust be installed. The software management tools in Ubuntu will do this automatically.

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    2. dpkg

    dpkg is a package manager for Debian-based systems. It can install, remove, and build packages, butunlike other package management systems, it cannot automatically download and install packages ortheir dependencies. This section covers using dpkg to manage locally installed packages:

    To list all packages installed on the system, from a terminal prompt type:

    dpkg -l

    Depending on the amount of packages on your system, this can generate a large amount of output.Pipe the output through grep to see if a specific package is installed:

    dpkg -l | grep apache2

    Replace apache2 with any package name, part of a package name, or other regular expression.

    To list the files installed by a package, in this case the ufw package, enter:

    dpkg -L ufw

    If you are not sure which package installed a file, dpkg -S may be able to tell you. For example:

    dpkg -S /etc/host.conf base-files: /etc/host.conf

    The output shows that the /etc/host.conf belongs to the base-files package.

    Many files are automatically generated during the package install process, and eventhough they are on the filesystem, dpkg -S may not know which package they belong to.

    You can install a local .deb file by entering:

    sudo dpkg -i zip_3.0-4_i386.deb

    Change zip_3.0-4_i386.deb to the actual file name of the local .deb file you wish to install.

    Uninstalling a package can be accomplished by:

    sudo dpkg -r zip

    Uninstalling packages using dpkg, in most cases, is NOT recommended. It is better to usea package manager that handles dependencies to ensure that the system is in a consistentstate. For example using dpkg -r zip will remove the zip package, but any packages thatdepend on it will still be installed and may no longer function correctly.

    For more dpkg options see the man page: man dpkg.

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    3. Apt-Get

    The apt-get command is a powerful command-line tool, which works with Ubuntu's AdvancedPackaging Tool (APT) performing such functions as installation of new software packages, upgradeof existing software packages, updating of the package list index, and even upgrading the entireUbuntu system.

    Being a simple command-line tool, apt-get has numerous advantages over other package managementtools available in Ubuntu for server administrators. Some of these advantages include ease of use oversimple terminal connections (SSH), and the ability to be used in system administration scripts, whichcan in turn be automated by the cron scheduling utility.

    Some examples of popular uses for the apt-get utility:

    Install a Package: Installation of packages using the apt-get tool is quite simple. For example, toinstall the network scanner nmap, type the following:

    sudo apt-get install nmap

    Remove a Package: Removal of a package (or packages) is also straightforward. To remove thepackage installed in the previous example, type the following:

    sudo apt-get remove nmap

    Multiple Packages: You may specify multiple packages to be installed or removed,separated by spaces.

    Also, adding the --purge option to apt-get remove will remove the package configuration files aswell. This may or may not be the desired effect, so use with caution.

    Update the Package Index: The APT package index is essentially a database of availablepackages from the repositories defined in the /etc/apt/sources.list file and in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory. To update the local package index with the latest changes made in therepositories, type the following:

    sudo apt-get update

    Upgrade Packages: Over time, updated versions of packages currently installed on your computermay become available from the package repositories (for example security updates). To upgradeyour system, first update your package index as outlined above, and then type:

    sudo apt-get upgrade

    For information on upgrading to a new Ubuntu release see Section 3, Upgrading [p. 9].

    Actions of the apt-get command, such as installation and removal of packages, are logged in the /var/log/dpkg.log log file.

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    For further information about the use of APT, read the comprehensive Debian APT User Manual1 ortype:

    apt-get help

    1 http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals#apt-howto

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    4. Aptitude

    Launching Aptitude with no command-line options, will give you a menu-driven, text-based front-end to the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) system. Many of the common package managementfunctions, such as installation, removal, and upgrade, can be performed in Aptitude with single-keycommands, which are typically lowercase letters.

    Aptitude is best suited for use in a non-graphical terminal environment to ensure proper functioningof the command keys. You may start the menu-driven interface of Aptitude as a normal user by typingthe following command at a terminal prompt:

    sudo aptitude

    When Aptitude starts, you will see a menu bar at the top of the screen and two panes below the menubar. The top pane contains package categories, such as New Packages and Not Installed Packages.The bottom pane contains information related to the packages and package categories.

    Using Aptitude for package management is relatively straightforward, and the user interface makescommon tasks simple to perform. The following are examples of common package managementfunctions as performed in Aptitude:

    Install Packages: To install a package, locate the package via the Not Installed Packages packagecategory, by using the keyboard arrow keys and the ENTER key. Highlight the desired package,then press the + key. The package entry should turn green, indicating that it has been marked forinstallation. Now press g to be presented with a summary of package actions. Press g again, anddownloading and installation of the package will commence. When finished, press ENTER, toreturn to the menu.

    Remove Packages: To remove a package, locate the package via the Installed Packages packagecategory, by using the keyboard arrow keys and the ENTER key. Highlight the desired packageyou wish to remove, then press the - key. The package entry should turn pink, indicating it hasbeen marked for removal. Now press g to be presented with a summary of package actions. Press gagain, and removal of the package will commence. When finished, press ENTER, to return to themenu.

    Update Package Index: To update the package index, simply press the u key. Updating of thepackage index will commence.

    Upgrade Packages: To upgrade packages, perform the update of the package index as detailedabove, and then press the U key to mark all packages with updates. Now press g whereby you'll bepresented with a summary of package actions. Press g again, and the download and installation willcommence. When finished, press ENTER, to return to the menu.

    The first column of information displayed in the package list in the top pane, when actually viewingpackages lists the current state of the package, and uses the following key to describe the state of thepackage:

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    i: Installed package

    c: Package not installed, but package configuration remains on system

    p: Purged from system

    v: Virtual package

    B: Broken package

    u: Unpacked files, but package not yet configured

    C: Half-configured - Configuration failed and requires fix

    H: Half-installed - Removal failed and requires fix

    To exit Aptitude, simply press the q key and confirm you wish to exit. Many other functions areavailable from the Aptitude menu by pressing the F10 key.

    4.1. Command Line Aptitude

    You can also use Aptitude as a command-line tool, similar to apt-get. To install the nmap packagewith all necessary dependencies, as in the apt-get example, you would use the following command:

    sudo aptitude install nmap

    To remove the same package, you would use the command:

    sudo aptitude remove nmap

    Consult the man pages for more details of command line options for Aptitude.

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    5. Automatic Updates

    The unattended-upgrades package can be used to automatically install updated packages, and can beconfigured to update all packages or just install security updates. First, install the package by enteringthe following in a terminal:

    sudo apt-get install unattended-upgrades

    To configure unattended-upgrades, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades and adjustthe following to fit your needs:

    Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins { "Ubuntu raring-security";// "Ubuntu raring-updates";};

    Certain packages can also be blacklisted and therefore will not be automatically updated. To blacklista package, add it to the list:

    Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist {// "vim";// "libc6";// "libc6-dev";// "libc6-i686";};

    The double // serve as comments, so whatever follows "//" will not be evaluated.

    To enable automatic updates, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic and set the appropriate aptconfiguration options:

    APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "1";APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "7";APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";

    The above configuration updates the package list, downloads, and installs available upgrades everyday. The local download archive is cleaned every week.

    You can read more about apt Periodic configuration options in the /etc/cron.daily/aptscript header.

    The results of unattended-upgrades will be logged to /var/log/unattended-upgrades.

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    5.1. Notifications

    Configuring Unattended-Upgrade::Mail in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades willenable unattended-upgrades to email an administrator detailing any packages that need upgrading orhave problems.

    Another useful package is apticron. apticron will configure a cron job to email an administratorinformation about any packages on the system that have updates available, as well as a summary ofchanges in each package.

    To install the apticron package, in a terminal enter:

    sudo apt-get install apticron

    Once the package is installed edit /etc/apticron/apticron.conf, to set the email address and otheroptions:

    EMAIL="[email protected]"

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    6. Configuration

    Configuration of the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) system repositories is stored in the /etc/apt/sources.list file and the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory. An example of this file is referencedhere, along with information on adding or removing repository references from the file.

    You may edit the file to enable repositories or disable them. For example, to disable the requirementof inserting the Ubuntu CD-ROM whenever package operations occur, simply comment out theappropriate line for the CD-ROM, which appears at the top of the file:

    # no more prompting for CD-ROM please# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 13.04 _Raring Ringtail_ - Release i386 (20111013.1)]/ raring main restricted

    6.1. Extra Repositories

    In addition to the officially supported package repositories available for Ubuntu, there exist additionalcommunity-maintained repositories which add thousands more packages for potential installation.Two of the most popular are the Universe and Multiverse repositories. These repositories are notofficially supported by Ubuntu, but because they are maintained by the community they generallyprovide packages which are safe for use with your Ubuntu computer.

    Packages in the Multiverse repository often have licensing issues that prevent them frombeing distributed with a free operating system, and they may be illegal in your locality.

    Be advised that neither the Universe or Multiverse repositories contain officially supportedpackages. In particular, there may not be security updates for these packages.

    Many other package sources are available, sometimes even offering only one package, as in the caseof package sources provided by the developer of a single application. You should always be verycareful and cautious when using non-standard package sources, however. Research the source andpackages carefully before performing any installation, as some package sources and their packagescould render your system unstable or non-functional in some respects.

    By default, the Universe and Multiverse repositories are enabled but if you would like to disable themedit /etc/apt/sources.list and comment the following lines:

    deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu raring universe multiversedeb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu raring universe multiverse

    deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring universedeb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring universedeb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates universedeb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates universe

    deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring multiversedeb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring multiverse

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    deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates multiversedeb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates multiverse

    deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu raring-security universedeb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu raring-security universedeb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu raring-security multiversedeb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu raring-security multiverse

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    7. References

    Most of the material covered in this chapter is available in man pages, many of which are availableonline.

    The InstallingSoftware2 Ubuntu wiki page has more information. For more dpkg details see the dpkg man page3.

    The APT HOWTO4 and apt-get man page5 contain useful information regarding apt-get usage.

    See the aptitude man page6 for more aptitude options.

    The Adding Repositories HOWTO (Ubuntu Wiki)7 page contains more details on addingrepositories.

    2 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware

    3 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/raring/en/man1/dpkg.1.html

    4 http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/

    5 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/raring/en/man8/apt-get.8.html

    6 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/raring/man8/aptitude.8.html

    7 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu

  • 32

    Chapter 4. NetworkingNetworks consist of two or more devices, such as computer systems, printers, and related equipmentwhich are connected by either physical cabling or wireless links for the purpose of sharing anddistributing information among the connected devices.

    This section provides general and specific information pertaining to networking, including anoverview of network concepts and detailed discussion of popular network protocols.

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    1. Network Configuration

    Ubuntu ships with a number of graphical utilities to configure your network devices. This document isgeared toward server administrators and will focus on managing your network on the command line.

    1.1. Ethernet Interfaces

    Ethernet interfaces are identified by the system using the naming convention of ethX, where Xrepresents a numeric value. The first Ethernet interface is typically identified as eth0, the second aseth1, and all others should move up in numerical order.

    1.1.1. Identify Ethernet Interfaces

    To quickly identify all available Ethernet interfaces, you can use the ifconfig command as shownbelow.

    ifconfig -a | grep etheth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:c5:4a:16:5a

    Another application that can help identify all network interfaces available to your system is the lshwcommand. In the example below, lshw shows a single Ethernet interface with the logical name of eth0along with bus information, driver details and all supported capabilities.

    sudo lshw -class network *-network description: Ethernet interface product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 02 serial: 00:15:c5:4a:16:5a size: 10MB/s capacity: 100MB/s width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: (snipped for brevity) configuration: (snipped for brevity) resources: irq:17 memory:ef9fe000-ef9fffff

    1.1.2. Ethernet Interface Logical Names

    Interface logical names are configured in the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules. Ifyou would like control which interface receives a particular logical name, find the line matching theinterfaces physical MAC address and modify the value of NAME=ethX to the desired logical name.Reboot the system to commit your changes.

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    1.1.3. Ethernet Interface Settings

    ethtool is a program that displays and changes Ethernet card settings such as auto-negotiation, portspeed, duplex mode, and Wake-on-LAN. It is not installed by default, but is available for installationin the repositories.

    sudo apt-get install ethtool

    The following is an example of how to view supported features and configured settings of an Ethernetinterface.

    sudo ethtool eth0Settings for eth0: Supported ports: [ TP ] Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Supports auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Speed: 1000Mb/s Duplex: Full Port: Twisted Pair PHYAD: 1 Transceiver: internal Auto-negotiation: on Supports Wake-on: g Wake-on: d Current message level: 0x000000ff (255) Link detected: yes

    Changes made with the ethtool command are temporary and will be lost after a reboot. If you wouldlike to retain settings, simply add the desired ethtool command to a pre-up statement in the interfaceconfiguration file /etc/network/interfaces.

    The following is an example of how the interface identified as eth0 could be permanently configuredwith a port speed of 1000Mb/s running in full duplex mode.

    auto eth0iface eth0 inet staticpre-up /sbin/ethtool -s eth0 speed 1000 duplex full

    Although the example above shows the interface configured to use the static method,it actually works with other methods as well, such as DHCP. The example is meant todemonstrate only proper placement of the pre-up statement in relation to the rest of theinterface configuration.

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    1.2. IP Addressing

    The following section describes the process of configuring your systems IP address and defaultgateway needed for communicating on a local area network and the Internet.

    1.2.1. Temporary IP Address Assignment

    For temporary network configurations, you can use standard commands such as ip, ifconfig and route,which are also found on most other GNU/Linux operating systems. These commands allow you toconfigure settings which take effect immediately, however they are not persistent and will be lost aftera reboot.

    To temporarily configure an IP address, you can use the ifconfig command in the following manner.Just modify the IP address and subnet mask to match your network requirements.

    sudo ifconfig eth0 10.0.0.100 netmask 255.255.255.0

    To verify the IP address configuration of eth0, you can use the ifconfig command in the followingmanner.

    ifconfig eth0eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:15:c5:4a:16:5a inet addr:10.0.0.100 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::215:c5ff:fe4a:165a/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:466475604 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:403172654 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:2574778386 (2.5 GB) TX bytes:1618367329 (1.6 GB) Interrupt:16

    To configure a default gateway, you can use the route command in the following manner. Modify thedefault gateway address to match your network requirements.

    sudo route add default gw 10.0.0.1 eth0

    To verify your default gateway configuration, you can use the route command in the followingmanner.

    route -n

    Kernel IP routing tableDestination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface10.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 1 0 0 eth00.0.0.0 10.0.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

    If you require DNS for your temporary network configuration, you can add DNS server IP addressesin the file /etc/resolv.conf. In general, editing /etc/resolv.conf directly is not recommanded, but

  • Networking

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    this is a temporary and non-peristent configuration. The example below shows how to enter two DNSservers to /etc/resolv.conf, which should be changed to servers appropriate for your network. Amore lengthy description of the proper persistent way to do DNS client configuration is in a followingsection.

    nameserver 8.8.8.8nameserver 8.8.4.4

    If you no longer need this configuration and wish to purge all IP configuration from an interface, youcan use the ip command with the flush option as shown below.

    ip addr flush eth0

    Flushing the IP configuration using the ip command does not clear the contents of /etc/resolv.conf. You must remove or modify those entries manually, or re-boot which shouldalso cause /etc/resolv.conf, which is actually now a symlink to /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf, to be re-written.

    1.2.2. Dynamic IP Address Assignment (DHCP Client)

    To configure your server to use DHCP for dynamic address assignment, add the dhcp method to theinet address family statement for the appropriate interface in the file /etc/network/interfaces. Theexample below assumes you are configuring your first Ethernet interface identified as eth0.

    auto eth0iface eth0 inet dhcp

    By adding an interface configuration as shown above, you can manually enable the interface throughthe ifup command which initiates the DHCP process via dhclient.

    sudo ifup eth0

    To manually disable the interface, you can use the ifdown command, which in turn will initiate theDHCP release process and shut down the interface.

    sudo ifdown eth0

    1.2.3. Static IP Address Assignment

    To configure your system to use a static IP address assignment, add the static method to the inetaddress family statement for the appropriate interface in the file /etc/network/interfaces. Theexample below assumes you are configuring your first Ethernet interface identified as eth0. Changethe address, netmask, and gateway values to meet the requirements of your network.

  • Networking

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    auto eth0iface eth0 inet staticaddress 10.0.0.100netmask 255.255.255.0gateway 10.0.0.1

    By adding an interface configuration as shown above, you can manually enable the interface throughthe ifup command.

    sudo ifup eth0

    To manually disable the interface, you can use the ifdown command.

    sudo ifdown eth0

    1.2.4. Loopback Interface

    The loopback interface is identified by the system as lo and has a default IP address of 127.0.0.1. Itcan be viewed using the ifconfig command.

    ifconfig lolo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:2718 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:2718 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:183308 (183.3 KB) TX bytes:183308 (183.3 KB)

    By default, there should be two lines in /etc/network/interfaces responsible for automaticallyconfiguring your loopback interface. It is recommended that you keep the default settings unless youhave a specific purpose for changing them. An example of the two default lines are shown below.

    auto loiface lo inet loopback

    1.3. Name Resolution

    Name resolution as it relates to IP networking is the process of mapping IP addresses to hostnames,making it easier to identify resources on a network. The following section will explain how toproperly configure your system for name resolution using DNS and static hostname records.

    1.3.1. DNS Client Configuration

    Traditionally, the file /etc/resolv.conf was a static configuration file that rarely needed to bechanged or automatically changed via DCHP client hooks. Nowadays, a computer can switch from

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    one network to another quite often and the resolvconf framework is now being used to track thesechanges and update the resolver's configuration automatically. It acts as an intermediary betweenprograms that supply nameserver information and applications that need nameserver information.Resolvconf gets populated with information by a set of hook scripts related to network interfaceconfiguration. The most notable difference for the user is that any change manually done to /etc/resolv.conf will be lost as it gets overwritten each time something triggers resolvconf. Instead,resolvconf uses DHCP client hooks, and /etc/network/interfaces to generate a list of nameserversand domains to put in /etc/resolv.conf, which is now a symlink:

    /etc/resolv.conf -> ../run/resolvconf/resolv.conf

    To configure the resolver, add the IP addresses of the nameservers that are appropriate for yournetwork in the file /etc/network/interfaces. You can also add an optional DNS suffix search-liststo match your network domain names. For each other valid resolv.conf configuration option, you caninclude, in the stanza, one line beginning with that option name with a dns- prefix. The resulting filemight look like the following:

    iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.3.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.3.1 dns-search example.com dns-nameservers 192.168.3.45 192.168.8.10

    The search option can also be used with multiple domain names so that DNS queries will beappended in the order in which they are entered. For example, your network may have multiple sub-domains to search; a parent domain of example.com, and two sub-domains, sales.example.com anddev.example.com.

    If you have multiple domains you wish to search, your configuration might look like the following:

    iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.3.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.3.1 dns-search example.com sales.example.com dev.example.com dns-nameservers 192.168.3.45 192.168.8.10

    If you try to ping a host with the name of server1, your system will automatically query DNS for itsFully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) in the following order:1. server1.example.com

    2. server1.sales.example.com

    3. server1.dev.example.com

    If no matches are found, the DNS server will provide a result of notfound and the DNS query will fail.

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    1.3.2. Static Hostnames

    Static hostnames are locally defined hostname-to-IP mappings located in the file /etc/hosts.Entries in the hosts file will have precedence over DNS by default. This means that if your systemtries to resolve a hostname and it matches an entry in /etc/hosts, it will not attempt to look up therecord in DNS. In some configurations, especially when Internet access is not required, servers thatcommunicate with a limited number of resources can be conveniently set to use static hostnamesinstead of DNS.

    The following is an example of a hosts file where a number of local servers have been identified bysimple hostnames, aliases and their equivalent Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN's).

    127.0.0.1 localhost127.0.1.1 ubuntu-server10.0.0.11 server1 vpn server1.example.com10.0.0.12 server2 mail server2.example.com10.0.0.13 server3 www server3.example.com10.0.0.14 server4 file server4.example.com

    In the above example, notice that each of the servers have been given aliases in additionto their proper names and FQDN's. Server1 has been mapped to the name vpn, server2 isreferred to as mail, server3 as www, and server4 as file.

    1.3.3. Name Service Switch Configuration

    The order in which your system selects a method of resolving hostnames to IP addresses is controlledby the Name Service Switch (NSS) configuration file /etc/nsswitch.conf. As mentioned in theprevious section, typically static hostnames defined in the systems /etc/hosts file have precedenceover names resolved from DNS. The following is an example of the line responsible for this order ofhostname lookups in the file /etc/nsswitch.conf.

    hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

    files first tries to resolve static hostnames located in /etc/hosts.

    mdns4_minimal attempts to resolve the name using Multicast DNS.

    [NOTFOUND=return] means that any response of notfound by the preceding mdns4_minimalprocess should be treated as authoritative and that the system should not try to continue hunting foran answer.

    dns represents a legacy unicast DNS query.

    mdns4 represents a Multicast DNS query.

    To modify the order of the above mentioned name resolution methods, you can simply change thehosts: string to the value of your choosing. For example, if you prefer to use legacy Unicast DNSversus Multicast DNS, you can change the string in /etc/nsswitch.conf as shown below.

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    hosts: files dns [NOTFOUND=return] mdns4_minimal mdns4

    1.4. Bridging

    Bridging multiple interfaces is a more advanced configuration, but is very useful in multiplescenarios. One scenario is setting up a bridge with multiple network interfaces, then using a firewallto filter traffic between two network segments. Another scenario is using bridge on a system withone interface to allow virtual machines direct access to the outside network. The following examplecovers the latter scenario.

    Before configuring a bridge you will need to install the bridge-utils package. To install the package, ina terminal enter:

    sudo apt-get install bridge-utils

    Next, configure the bridge by editing /etc/network/interfaces:

    auto loiface lo inet loopback

    auto br0iface br0 inet static address 192.168.0.10 network 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255 gateway 192.168.0.1 bridge_ports eth0 bridge_fd 9 bridge_hello 2 bridge_maxage 12 bridge_stp off

    Enter the appropriate values for your physical interface and network.

    Now restart networking to enable the bridge interface:

    sudo service networking restart

    The new bridge interface should now be up and running. The brctl provides useful information aboutthe state of the bridge, controls which interfaces are part of the bridge, etc. See man brctl for moreinformation.

    1.5. Resources

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    The Ubuntu Wiki Network page1 has links to articles covering more advanced networkconfiguration.

    The resolvconf man page2 has more information on resolvconf. The interfaces man page3 has details on more options for /etc/network/interfaces. The dhclient man page4 has details on more options for configuring DHCP client settings.

    For more information on DNS client configuration see the resolver man page5. Also, Chapter 6of O'Reilly's Linux Network Administrator's Guide6 is a good source of resolver and name serviceconfiguration information.

    For more information on bridging see the brctl man page7 and the Linux Foundation's Networking-Bridge8 page.

    1 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Network

    2 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/man8/resolvconf.8.html

    3 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/man5/interfaces.5.html

    4 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/man8/dhclient.8.html

    5 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/man5/resolver.5.html

    6 http://oreilly.com/catalog/linag2/book/ch06.html

    7 http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/man8/brctl.8.html

    8 http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/bridge

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    2. TCP/IP

    The Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is a standard set of protocolsdeveloped in the late 1970s by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as ameans of communication between different types of computers and computer networks. TCP/IP is thedriving force of the Internet, and thus it is the most popular set of network protocols on Earth.

    2.1. TCP/IP Introduction

    The two protocol components of TCP/IP deal with different aspects of computer networking. InternetProtocol, the "IP" of TCP/IP is a connectionless protocol which deals only with network packetrouting using the IP Datagram as the basic unit of networking information. The IP Datagram consistsof a header followed by a message. The Transmission Control Protocol is the "TCP" of TCP/IP andenables network hosts to establish connections which may be used to exchange data streams. TCPalso guarantees that the data between connections is delivered and that it arrives at one network hostin the same order as sent from another network host.

    2.2. TCP/IP Configuration

    The TCP/IP protocol configuration consists of several elements which must be set by editing theappropriate configuration files, or deploying solutions such as the Dynamic Host ConfigurationProtocol (DHCP) server which in turn, can be configured to provide the proper TCP/IP configurationsettings to network clients automatically. These configuration values must be set correctly in order tofacilitate the proper network operation of your Ubuntu system.

    The common configuration elements of TCP/IP and their purposes are as follows:

    IP address The IP address is a unique identifying string expressed as four decimal numbersranging from zero (0) to two-hundred and fifty-five (255), separated by periods, with each of thefour numbers representing eight (8) bits of the address for a total length of thirty-two (32) bits forthe whole address. This format is called dotted quad notation.

    Netmask The Subnet Mask (or simply, netmask) is a local bit mask, or set of flags which separatethe portions of an IP address significant to the network from the bits significant to the subnetwork.For example, in a Class C network, the standard netmask is 255.255.255.0 which masks the firstthree bytes of the IP address and allows the last byte of the IP address to remain available forspecifying hosts on the subnetwork.

    Network Address The Network Address represents the bytes comprising the network portionof an IP address. For example, the host 12.128.1.2 in a Class A network would use 12.0.0.0 asthe network address, where twelve (12) represents the first byte of the IP address, (the networkpart) and zeroes (0) in all of the remaining three bytes to represent the potential host values. Anetwork host using the private IP address 192.168.1.100 would in turn use a Network Address of192.168.1.0, which specifies the first three bytes of the Class C 192.168.1 network and a zero (0)for all the possible hosts on the network.

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    Broadcast Address The Broadcast Address is an IP address which allows network data to be sentsimultaneously to all hosts on a given subnetwork rather than specifying a particular host. Thestandard general broadcast address for IP networks is 255.255.255.255, but this broadcast addresscannot be used to send a broadcast message to every host on the Internet because routers blockit. A more appropriate broadcast address is set to match a specific subnetwork. For example, onthe private Class C IP network, 192.168.1.0, the broadcast address is 192.168.1.255. Broadcastmessages are typically produced by network protocols such as the Address Resolution Protocol(ARP) and the Routing Information Protocol (RIP).

    Gateway Address A Gateway Address is the IP address through which a particular network,or host on a network, may be reached. If one network host wishes to communicate with anothernetwork host, and that host is not located on the same network, then a gateway must be used. Inmany cases, the Gateway Address will be that of a router on the same network, which will in turnpass traffic on to other networks or hosts, such as Internet hosts. The value of the Gateway Addresssetting must be correct, or your system