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How to build your own Webserver

with Ubuntu Server 11.04 ("Natty")

by Robert Schifreen

If you have an old Windows-compatible PC lying around, it's a fun and educational exercise to set it up as a

web server. It's also not too difficult if you have a guide such as this one to hand, and it doesn't matter if the

PC is pretty old. A laptop w ill work just as well as a desktop. You could even use a virtual machine running on

your main PC, via something like VMware P layer (which is free). But for the purposes of this exercise I'll

actually be using a separate, spare desktop PC.

If you're undertaking such an exercise, a server-oriented version of Linux is a good choice for the operating

system. Why server-oriented? Because the added GUI desktop is totally unnecessary. And why not Windows?

Because, unless you have a spare copy of Windows Server around, youll be limited in the number of

simultaneous connections your server can support. And Windows doesnt run very well on old hardware

anyway.

The one thing you really need to check is that your chosen computer has a built-in Ethernet connector on the

motherboard. If its networking capability comes via a USB or PCMCIA plug-in adaptor instead, chances are that

it won't work without you getting involved in some substantial fiddling, and searching for drivers that may or

may not exist. Trust me, it's probably not worth the bother. But as long as the PC has a built-in Ethernet

port, you should be fine.
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I'm going to use Ubuntu Server 11.04 (codenamed "Natty Narwhal") for this project. Its ideally suited to the

task, and it (and all the other components well be installing) is available to tally free of charge. So if you fancy

giving it a go, read on.

Once you have followed this document, youll have a working Web server onto which users can safely and

securely upload files via ftp. Youll also have Webmin installed, for remote admin functionality, plus Weba lizer

for generating web usage stats. And youll be able to host PHP/MySQL sites too.

Once the server is up and running, we'll install the telnet system on it so that you can access it remotely over

your LAN. Therefore, there's no harm in insta lling your new server in a hard-to-reach location, because you

won't need to physically access it very often.

Ubuntu Server doesn't have a GUI and doesn't need a mouse so, if your PC has one that you can unplug, do

so be fore you start. There's no point confusing the OS by having it look for drivers for devices tha t it can't use.

Incidnetally, if you'll be using a USB keyboard, it helps to change the computer's BIOS setting and enable USB

legacy device support before you start. This helps to ensure that Ubuntu Server can boot correctly once

installed.

Note that commands you need to type are in abold, red courier typeface like this .

Before we s tart, one important word about security and firewalls. Assuming your new web server is

connected to the internet via your broadband router or somesuch, it wont be access ible to the world in

general unless you change your router's firewall settings in order to a llow incoming connections on port 80 to

be directed to the server. Unless you do that (look up NAT, or Network Address Translation, in your router's


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documentation), your web server will only be accessible within your LAN, ie from other PCs in your home or

office. While it can be tempting to open up your firewall and make your web server available to the world, you

should think very carefully before doing so. The risk of someone hacking the server is high. Running your own

web se rver is a fun, educational project, and very handy for testing new stuff within a closed environment.

But hosting externally-available web sites yourself is not a sensible idea. It's best left to professional hosting

companies, who can cope better with the security and capacity implications. So don't cancel your web hosting

subscription just yet.

First Install the OS

Assuming you've found some suitable hardware, and you don't mind w iping its hard disk, get hold of Ubuntu

Server 11.04. You can download it from www.ubuntu.com as a .ISO file which you then burn to a blank

recordable CD. Make sure that you get Ubuntu Server, and that it's v11.04. You'll need an 80-minute, 700 MB

blank CD. If you only have a 74-minute, 650 MB one, it won't work because the .ISO file is too large. A DVD

won't work either - the image file is designed for use on a CD only.

Once you've burned the CD, boot your spare PC from it. When asked, choose your language, then choose the

"Install Ubuntu Server" option. If your spare PC isn't connected to the internet at this point, then it's a good

idea to do so, as Ubuntu will want to download and install things. Use a cable connection to your router.

Even if the PC has w ireless capability, it's unlikely that Ubuntu will work with it, and certainly not until you've

located and installed the right drivers. Which is not something that this document will cover.

Follow the on-screen prompts to configure your language and keyboard.
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When asked, name your machine. I called mine webtest, but the precise name that you choose doesn't really

matter.

You'll be asked how you want to partition your hard disk. Choose "Guided - use entire disk". If you know

what you're doing and particularly want to use it, then choose the LVM option or something else. If you don't

know what LVM is, you don't need it, and the above-mentioned choice is your best option.

Once you've accepted and confirmed your choices, the hard disk will be formatted and Ubuntu Server will be

installed. If there was anything on the drive that you wanted to keep, and didn't back up, it's now too late!

You'll next be asked to enter the name and username for a use r-level account that will be created. You'll also

need to choose a password for the account. This username and password is the one that you'll mostly use to

log into your server in order to administer it. At this stage there's no root (administrator) account, but we'll

come back to that later and se t one up.

Make sure you make a note of the username and password that you've chosen at this stage.

Next you'll be asked whether you want to configure your home directory for encryption. Unless you

particularly plan to use this server to store confidential information that needs to be hidden from the eyes of

anyone who might stea l the machine, say no. We want to keep this system as simple as poss ible.

Next, you can enter details of an http proxy. If you're not aware that you have one, or that you need to enter

its details, then you don't need to enter anything here.

Next, you'll be asked about how best to install security updates. Unless you particularly don't want to,


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choosing the option to have Ubuntu install security updates automatically is the best option.

Next, you need to specify which components to install. This is going to be a web server running Linux, Apache,

MySQL and PHP, commonly known as LAMP. So you simply need to choose the LAMP Server option.

Next, you need to choose a root password for the MySQL database system. You'll need this to log into MySQL

in order to administer your databases on the server. You'll also need it when you're writing PHP code that

requires access to a database. As with all passwords, make this one as complex as you dare. The security of

all your web-based data depends on it, although of course your server will not be access ible from outside your

LAN unless your firewall allows it.

Next you'll be asked whether to install the GRUB boot loader. Assuming that you're setting up your server on

a machine that doesn't have any other installed operating systems, say yes. Otherwise, eg if you're installing

Ubuntu as a virtual machine on a computer that's a lso running Windows, follow the on-screen suggestions.

That's the basic Linux installation over. Remove the CD when prompted and the machine will restart. If you

dont see a login: prompt after 5 minutes or so, press Return a couple of times and one should appear.

Remember that this is a server installation so there's no pretty graphical interface.

At the login: prompt, log in with the username and password you created earlier.

Once you log in, you'll see a handful of statistics and figures such as system load, memory and disk usage,

etc. You'll also see the server's IP address listed, probably under the heading of "IP Address for eth0".

Assuming that the server is plugged into your router, and that your router has the ability to issue IP

addresses to new devices (a facility known as DHCP), this address w ill have been issued by the router


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automatically.

If the stats aren't shown, type ifconfig and look at the " inet addr" setting for eth0.

From now on we'll assume that your server is using IP address 192.168.1.10. Whenever you see this address

mentioned below, substitute the correct address for your server. Later on, we'll set it to something more

permanent.

So far, we ve only got one account set up. We a lso need to set a password for the root (ie, administrator)

account for when we need to do things that require root access. So type sudo passwd root, specify

your current password when asked, then choose a password for the root username.

Linux doesnt normally allow you to log in as root directly so if/when you need to use your root privileges, log

in with your normal user account and then type su, then enter the root password when prompted. In case

you're wondering, it stands for super-user. If you ever forget who youre logged in as , the whoami command

will tell you. Or look at the command prompt, which will end with $ for a normal user and # for the root user.

Some Useful Commands

Here are some useful commands to get you started, now that youve got a usable Linux system:

shutdown h now turns off the computer (h means ha lt)

shutdown r now reboots the computer (r for restart)


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pwd(print working directory) tells you which directory youre currently in

Within an ls la directory listing, lines that start with a "d" are directories (folders), otherwise theyre files.

The other characters at the start of the line (such as rwxr--rw-) tell you who has pe rmission to read, write,

and execute the file. A google search for chmodwill tell you how to understand and change these.

Get Updated

Now we need to scan the internet for any important updates. Start by using the su command, because you

need to be root in order to do this.

Type apt-get update to update the catalog of possible updates.

Then type apt-get upgrade to download and install any that need installing. You may find that the

server asks you to restart it one or more times during the installation of the updates.

Note tha t apt-get may not work if your internet connection goes via a proxy server. Even if you entered the

name of a proxy server when you first set up the machine and configured it with an IP address, apt-get

doesnt take any notice.

To fix this, type export http_proxy="http://yourproxy.com:80", specifying the address

and port number of your companys proxy server. Then try the apt-get again.

Test Your Web Server


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You now have a basic working web server, although were not finished yet. There are plenty more things we

need to install and se t up. But you can test that everything is working by typing the servers IP address into a

web browser on another machine on your LAN. You should see a basic web page w ith the default content,

which will be something like "It works!". Depending on your web browser, you may need to add http:// at the

start of the address, eg http://192.168.1.10.

Install the Telnet Server

Next we ll install a telnet server program, so that you can connect to your new server remotely over the LAN in

command-prompt mode without the need to actually be seated at the server itself. You'll need to be logged in

as root for this, so su yourself if necessary.

Type apt-get install telnetd

This w ill download and install the te lnet server.

You can now log out by typing exit (you'll need to type it twice because you used the su command, and

the first time just takes you back into non-root mode). You should find yourself back at a login prompt.

Everything you do from now on can be done remotely via telnet, which makes things easier. You wont need

physical access to the server again unless something goes wrong, or when you need to turn it back on after a

shutdown command.
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To access your server, type telnet 192.168.1.10 (or whatever the IP address of your server is) from

a command prompt on any machine on your LAN and youll get a server login prompt. You can do this from

Windows or Linux or even a Mac.

Note that recent versions of Windows (Vista onwards) don't have telnet available by default, but you can

enable it easily enough from the control panel. Look for the "turn Windows features on or off" option.

Note, too, that while te lnet is the simplest way to connect to a remote text-based Linux server, it's not the

most secure. If you're going to be allowing your server to be accessible through your firewall to the world in

general, investigate the use of the ssh (secure shell) system instead. But for now, telnet will suffice.

The ftp server and Web User accounts

Next, we need to install an ftp server so that people can upload html pages to your new web server. An ideal

tool for this particular job is proftpd (thats Unix-speak for the Pro FTP Daemon).

If you're not already there, telnet to your server and type su to get root access. Or you can work on the

server directly if its eas ier, of course.

We need to take a little care to set up the ftp server in a reasonably secure manner, even though this is only

for test or educational purposes. We need to ensure that a user who logs into the ftp server in order to

upload web pages cant browse the entire server but is locked into one directory. Also, we need to ensure

that a user who has an ftp username and password w ith which to upload web pages cant use those


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credentials to access the system via telnet, as that would grant them far too much power.

Type apt-get install proftpdto download and install the ftp server. Youll be asked whether to

choose an inetd installation or standalone. Choose inetd.

The basic ftp server is now up and running, and you should be able to log into it with your non-root account.

Just use any ftp client program, and go to the IP address of your server (eg 192.168.1.10). But we still need

to set up an account that will allow someone to upload their web pages without having access to any other

parts of the system.

First, switch to the /etc directory by typing cd /etc. We need to edit the file called shells, which contains a

list of the various command shells available (rather like cmd.exe if you're more used to Windows) and add a

new line that says /bin/false to the file. Then, when we set up a new user account for our web user, well

configure their account so that /bin/false is their command shell. Because theres no such shell, they wont be

able to log in with telnet.

Typevi shells to edit the file. Youll now find yourself fac ing vi, undoubtedly the worst text editorever invented. But without a GUI on your server you have little choice. Plus, its very handy to know the

basics of vi because it's part of every Linux and unix system. Later on, we'll install Webmin, which has a

much better editor built in. But for now we're stuck with vi.

To sum up vi in a paragraph: To move the cursor up, down, left and right, use the k, j, h and l keys (I


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told you it was bad). To delete the character under the cursor, press x. To enter text insertion mode

press i, and to return to editing mode press Escape. If you mess up, type :q! and press return to

abandon vi. If you manage to make your edits work, type :w to save the file and then :qto quit vi.

Use the cursor keys to move the cursor to the start of a new line, then press i to enter insert mode. Press

Return to insert a new line, and add /bin/false as a new line in the file. Press Esc to leave insert mode, save

the file with :w then exit vi with :qand youre done.

Type cat shells to check that the file seems OK.

Each user has a home directory which contains their various files. Its like My Documents in Windows and

normally it resides in the /home directory. For web users, rather than setting their home directory to be

somewhere within /home well put it under /var/www, which is the root of the web server. Files under

/var/www are se rved by the web server (apache) and sent to visitors' web browsers. Files that aren't within

/var/www are not accessible in this way, so there's no point in web site authors putting them anywhere else.

Such users have no need for a directory within /home, as they won't be creating work that is only for use

within the server and which won't need to be shared with anyone else.

Lets make an account for a user called webuser1 with a password of flintstone. These are the steps tha t you

need to do for each web user account you want to create:

cd /var/www

mkdir webuser1


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useradd webuser1 p xxxx d /var/www/webuser1 s /bin/false

chown webuser1 webuser1

passwd webuser1

Then, when asked, choose flintstone as the password.

Note that xxxx above is your root password, NOT the one that you want to assign for the webuser1 account.

Also note the chown command which changes the ownership of the webuser1 directory from root (which

created it) to webuser1. If you dont do this, webuser1 wont be able to upload files.

Verify that you cant telnet to the server using the webuser1/flintsone account. The connection will start, but

will immediately exit aga in.

Now create a s imple index.html file and use ftp to upload it, using the webuser1/flintstone account. Then surf

to http://192.168.1.10/webuser1 from any machine on your LAN and you should see the uploaded page.

We now have a working web server with an ftp server, and the above-listed set of commands a llow you to

create new user accounts for your web se rver.

Before we leave proftpd, there are a couple of changes that we need to make to its configuration file in order

to improve security and make things neater.

Type cd /etc/proftpdand thenvi proftpd.conf to edit the config file. Move the cursor up and


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down with j and k until you reach the DefaultRoot line, and remove the # symbol from the start of the line by

pressing the x key. This will lock all ftp users into their home directory (eg /var/www/webuser1) and wont let

them view files that are further up the tree. Without this step, our webuser account holders could use the ir ftp

software to browse the entire se rver's directory structure.

You may also wish to change the ServerName entry from Debian to the name of your server, to make the

welcome message more relevant. With vi, remember that typing i puts you into insert mode, for typing text,

and Esc then puts you back into command mode from where you can type :w to save the file and :qto quit

vi.

Webmin

Now that ftp is working, lets install Webmin so that we can remotely administer the se rver from anywhere on

our LAN via a web browser. Its more fun and friendly than using telnet, and a great way to explore the

machine.

First, make sure youre logged in as root (via your normal user account and su) then type the following 3

commands. Make sure that each one has finished, and you're back at the command prompt, before typing the

next:

wget http://www.webmin.com/download/deb/webmin-current.deb

sudo dpkg -i webmin-current.deb

d f i ll


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sudo apt-get -f install

You'll get some error messages after step 2. That's normal. Step 3 fixes the problems.

Webmin should now be installed and running. From another machine on your LAN, surf to

https://192.168.1.10:10000 and log in as root, using your servers root password. Note the https bit it wont

work with plain http. Also note the :10000, which is essential. Ignore any warning from your web browser

about a missing SSL security certificate you can trust this server unconditionally because its yours.

Webmin is a hugely powerful, free tool that a llows you to manage, administer and examine every aspect of

your server via a web interface, so feel free to explore it.

Possibly the most useful part of Webmin is the file manager, which also lets you edit files. Youll find it in the

others category of the left-hand menu, though be aware that you need Java installed on the computer from

which you're accessing the server (not on the server itself) in order to make the file manager work.

Webalizer

Now well install Webalizer, which is a great tool that produces graphical stats to show your web s ite usage.

Even if youre only using your server for test/educational purposes, its useful to be able to see the sort of

stats that are available with such programs.

To install weba lizer type apt-get install webalizer

You need to tweak the Webalizer config file before the program will work.


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Type cd /etc/webalizer thenvi webalizer.conf and delete the .1 from the end of the

LogFile entry. It's around the 25th line of the file, from the top.

Webalizer produces its reports by analyzing the Apache web server log file on a regular basis. To make it do

this, you need to set up whats called a cron job (the Linux version of a Windows scheduled task) in order to

run /usr/bin/webalizer regularly. Every 15 minutes should do nicely, and the easiest way to do this is via

Webmin.

Go into Webmin via https://192.168.1.10:10000 from another PC and, under the System category, click on

"Scheduled Cron Jobs". Then click "Create A New Scheduled Cron Job".

Choose to execute the job as root. The command to execute is /usr/bin/webalizer. Click on "Times And Dates

Selected Below". Under the minutes, tick "Selected" and choose 0, 15, 30 and 45. For hours, days, months and

weekdays, select "All".

Now click the Create button and close your web browser. After 15 minutes or so, surf to

http://192.168.1.10/webalizer and you should see the reports and sta ts. Wait another 15 minutes and you

should see an updated version.

PHP and MySQL

Now we need to make PHP and MySQL work, to ensure that we can host not just static html sites but a lso

dynamic database driven ones PHP should already be working just fine so we need to test that Create a file


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dynamic database-driven ones . PHP should already be working just fine, so we need to test that. Create a file

called test.php which contains:

Upload it using the webuser1 account. Surf to http://192.168.1.10/webuser1/test.php and check that you see

a web page containing just the message this is a test file. If it works, PHP is working on your web server.

To allow users to create database-driven sites we ll install phpMyAdmin, which is a graphical web-based tool

for managing MySQL databases. Its best if we dont allow web users to create their own databases, but we

do want them to be able to manage the databases that we set up for them. PhpMyAdmin will work for both of

these tasks. IE, for us to create databases and for our web users to maintain the tables within their allocated

database.

As root, type apt-get install phpmyadmin

When asked which web server youre using, choose apache2.

You'll be asked whether you want the system to set up a config database with dbconfig-common. Say yes.

Next, you'll be asked for the MySQL root password, which phpMyAdmin needs in order to connect to the

database server You specified this earlier so go back to your notes and find it


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database server. You specified this earlier, so go back to your notes and find it.

Next, you'll be asked for a password for phpMyAdmin to register with the database server. Just leave this

blank and se lect OK.

Once everything stops, and you're back at the command prompt, switch back to a different machine on your

LAN (you can safely log out of the server if you wish - everything keeps running, and your server is remotely

accessible even if you're not logged into it) and surf to 192.168.1.10/phpmyadmin. Log in with a

username of root and the MySQL root password (not the server root password).

For each user who has an ftp account on this server in order to upload web pages (eg, webuser1), we now

need to grant them access to a database and to phpMyAdmin.

On the front page of phpMyAdmin, click the Privileges tab. Then click "Add A New User". In the User Name

field, change the drop-down box to Use Text Field and enter their username (webuser1 in this case). In the

next box, change the Host drop-down to Local, so that localhost appears in the box to the right of it. For

"Password", choose "use text field" and assign them a password. This will be used for webuser1 to log into

phpmyadmin, and theyll also use it in their PHP code in order to connect to their database (using a host name

of localhost). Its up to you whether you make it the same as their ftp password (flintstone). In this example,

lets set the password as barney.

Click "Create database with same name and grant a ll privileges", then click the Go button and all the hard

work will be done for you. A database called webuser1 will be created, with permission for the webuser1

account to do everything except creating new databases.


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Log out of phpmyadmin (just close your browser), and then log in aga in. This time, use a username of

webuser1 and a password of barney. You should see only the webuser1 database and no others, and you

should find that you can create tables on the database but you cant create new databases.

You may also find that you can see a database called information_schema as we ll as your webuser1

database. However, this is harmless and can be ignored its not a security risk.

Changing to a Static IP Address

We're almost done, but there's one more task. Your server probably has an IP address which was issued to it

by your network's DHCP server (probably your router). This is not idea l, because there's no guarantee that

the server will always have this IP address. If you reboot or replace the router, it might well issue a different

IP address. And for a server, whose address you need to know in order to connect to it, that's not ideal.

By editing a simple config file you can tell your server to use a sta tic IP address, ie one that never changes.

However, you need to make sure that the address you choose is outside the range of addresses that your

DHCP server is configured to issue. Otherwise there's a chance that 2 devices on your network might end up

with the same address, and that w ill cause all sorts of problems. So log into your router, go into the DHCP

server settings, and look up the range that it issues. One common scenario, for example, is that your local

network uses 192.168.1.x, the router is on .1, and the DHCP server is configured to issue addresses from .30

to .50. In which case, you could use .60 for the server. So that's what we 'll do.

Log into the server, then type su to give yourself root privileges.


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Log into the server, then type su to give yourself root privileges.

Now typevi /etc/network/interfaces to edit the network config file.

There's probably only one wired ethernet network connection, and it's probably labelled eth0. So you should

see something like this in the file:

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

This confirms that the network interface is currently set to use DHCP.

Change dhcp to static, so that the line reads iface eth0 inet static. Then add the following 3 lines

underneath:

address 192.168.1.60

netmask 255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.1.1

If the netmask on your LAN is different, then enter the correct one. Equally, if your gateway (the address of

your router) is different, amend the line accordingly. Assuming there's a Windows PC on your LAN, you can

normally find out both of these settings by typing ipconfig /all from a Windows command prompt.

Save the file (type :w then :q) and then reboot the server by typing shutdown -r now. You should

then find that you can now telnet to the machine at its new , permanent IP address.

And that's it. You now have a fully working web server that you can use for test, development and training


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y g y , p g

purposes. Have fun.

Now that you have a web server at your dispoal which is capable of hosting PHP/MySQL sites, all you need is a

way to find out how to create such things. In which case, check out www.the-web-book.com, which is a 350-

page ebook, written by me, that tells you all you need to know. You can purchase the downloadable PDF

version via PayPal, or browse it on-screen for free.

Copyright Robert Schifreen. Last updated March 2011

The official home of this document is www.the-web-book.com. If you want to tell people about this

document, or link to it, please use that URL rather than any other.
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