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Linux Server Configuration

This is the final project for Udacity's Full Stack Web Developer Nanodegree.

This page explains how to secure and set up a Linux distribution on a virtual machine, install and configure a web and database server to host a web application.

You can visit http://54.161.86.157/ or http://ec2-54-161-86-157.compute-1.amazonaws.com/ for the website deployed.

Get a server

Step 1: Start a new Ubuntu Linux server instance on Amazon EC2

  • Login to aws.amazon.com and login to default user (ubuntu)
  • Choose EC2 and Launch Instance with appropriate settings.
  • Check for instance IPv4 public IP - 54.161.86.157
  • we can download a .pem file and connect with following command 
    ssh -i ItemCatalog_19_01_2019.pem ubuntu@54.161.86.157
  • 22 is Port by Default,Later we need to change it to 2200 as per the udacity-linux-server-configuration rubrics.

Secure the server

Step 2: Update and upgrade installed packages

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Step 3: Change the SSH port from 22 to 2200

  • Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file: sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
  • Change the port number on line 5 from 22 to 2200.
  • Save and exit using esc and confirm with :wq.
  • Restart SSH: sudo service ssh restart.
  • Change inbound rules in Amazon EC2 --> Type : Custom TCP Rule as 2200
  • To check port 2200 wether working or not by ssh -i ItemCatalog_19_01_2019.pem -p 2200 ubuntu@54.161.86.157

Step 4: Configure the Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW)

  • Configure the default firewall for Ubuntu to only allow incoming connections for SSH (port 2200), HTTP (port 80), and NTP (port 123).

    sudo ufw status                  # The UFW should be inactive.
sudo ufw default deny incoming   # Deny any incoming traffic.
sudo ufw default allow outgoing  # Enable outgoing traffic.
sudo ufw allow 2200/tcp          # Allow incoming tcp packets on port 2200.
sudo ufw allow www               # Allow HTTP traffic in.
sudo ufw allow 123/udp           # Allow incoming udp packets on port 123.
sudo ufw deny 22                 # Deny tcp and udp packets on port 53.

  • Turn UFW on: sudo ufw enable. The output should be like this:

    Command may disrupt existing ssh connections. Proceed with operation (y|n)? y
Firewall is active and enabled on system startup

  • Check the status of UFW to list current roles: sudo ufw status. The output should be like this:

    Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
2200/tcp                   ALLOW       Anywhere                  
80/tcp                     ALLOW       Anywhere                  
123/udp                    ALLOW       Anywhere                  
22                         DENY        Anywhere                  
2200/tcp (v6)              ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)             
80/tcp (v6)                ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)             
123/udp (v6)               ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)             
22 (v6)                    DENY        Anywhere (v6)

Give grader access

Step 5: Create a new user account named grader

  • While logged in as ubuntu, add user: sudo adduser grader.
  • Enter a password (twice) and fill out information for this new user.

Step 6: Give grader the permission to sudo

  • Edits the sudoers file: sudo visudo.

  • Search for the line that looks like this:

    root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

  • Below this line, add a new line to give sudo privileges to grader user.

    root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
grader  ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

  • Save and exit using CTRL+X and confirm with Y.

  • Verify that grader has sudo permissions. Run su - grader, enter the password.

Step 7: Create an SSH key pair for grader

-Configure key-based authentication for grader user

  • create .ssh folder by mkdir /home/grader/.ssh
  • Run this command cp /home/ubuntu/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/grader/.ssh/authorized_keys
  • change ownership chown grader.grader /home/grader/.ssh
  • add 'grader' to sudo group usermod -aG sudo grader
  • change permissions for .ssh folder chmod 0700 /home/grader/.ssh/, for authorized_keys chmod 644 authorized_keys
  • Check in vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config file if PermitRootLogin is set to no
  • Restart SSH: sudo service ssh restart
  • On the local machine, cheking if the grader account working or not by running this command : ssh -i ItemCatalog_19_01_2019.pem -p 2200 grader@54.161.86.157.

Prepare to deploy the project

Step 8: Configure the local timezone to UTC

  • While logged in as grader, configure the time zone: sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata. Choose time zone UTC.

Step 9: Install and configure Apache to serve a Python mod_wsgi application

  • While logged in as grader, install Apache: sudo apt-get install apache2.
  • Enter public IP of the Amazon EC2 instance into browser. Check Apache is working or not by executing public IP.
  • My project is built with Python 3. So, I need to install the Python 3 mod_wsgi package:
    sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-wsgi-py3.
  • Enable mod_wsgi using: sudo a2enmod wsgi.

Step 10: Install and configure PostgreSQL

  • sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python-dev
  • sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib
  • sudo su - postgres
  • psql
  • CREATE USER catalog WITH PASSWORD 'catalog';
  • ALTER USER catalog CREATEDB;
  • CREATE DATABASE catalog WITH OWNER catalog;
  • \c catalog
  • REVOKE ALL ON SCHEMA public FROM public;
  • GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO catalog;
  • \q
  • exit
  • Switch back to the grader user: exit.

Step 11: Install git

  • While logged in as grader, install git: sudo apt-get install git.

Deploy the Item Catalog project

Step 12.1: Clone and setup the Item Catalog project from the GitHub repository

  • While logged in as grader,
  • From the /var/www directory, Clone the catalog project:
    sudo git clone https://github.com/SkBadulla/catalog.git.
  • Change the ownership of the catalog directory to grader using: sudo chown -R grader:grader catalog/.
  • Change to the /var/www/catalog/catalog directory.
  • Rename the mainpage.py file to __init__.py using: mv mainpage.py __init__.py.
  • We need to change sqlite to postgresql create_engine in __init__.py,db_setup.py and db_init.py, 
    # engine = create_engine("sqlite:///catalog.db")
engine = create_engine('postgresql://catalog:catalog@localhost/catalog')

Step 12.2: Authenticate login through Google

Step 13.1: Install the virtual environment and dependencies

  • While logged in as grader, install pip: sudo apt-get install python3-pip.
  • Install the virtual environment: sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv
  • Change to the /var/www/catalog/catalog/ directory.
  • Create the virtual environment: sudo virtualenv -p python3 venv3.
  • Change the ownership to grader with: sudo chown -R grader:grader venv3/.
  • Activate the new environment: . venv3/bin/activate.
  • Install the following dependencies: 
    pip install httplib2
pip install requests
pip install --upgrade oauth2client
pip install sqlalchemy
pip install flask
sudo apt-get install libpq-dev
pip install psycopg2-binary

Step 13.2: Set up and enable a virtual host

Configure and enable a new virtual host

  • Run this: sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/catalog.conf
  • Paste this code:
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName 54.161.86.157.xip.io
    ServerAlias ec2-54-161-86-157.compute-1.amazonaws.com
    ServerAdmin ubuntu@54.161.86.157
    WSGIDaemonProcess catalog python-path=/var/www/catalog:/var/www/catalog/catalog/venv3/lib/python3.6/site-packages
    WSGIProcessGroup catalog
    WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/catalog/catalog.wsgi
    <Directory /var/www/catalog/catalog/>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    Alias /static /var/www/catalog/catalog/static
    <Directory /var/www/catalog/catalog/static/>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    LogLevel warn
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
  • Enable the virtual host sudo a2ensite catalog

Enabling site catalog. To activate the new configuration, you need to run: service apache2 reload

  • Reload Apache: sudo service apache2 reload.

Step 13.3: Set up the Flask application

  • Create /var/www/catalog/catalog.wsgi file add the following lines:

      import sys
  import logging
  logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stderr)
  sys.path.insert(0, "/var/www/catalog/")
  from catalog import app as application
  application.secret_key = 'supersecretkey'

  • Restart Apache: sudo service apache2 restart.

  • From the /var/www/catalog/catalog/ directory, activate the virtual environment: . venv3/bin/activate.

  • Run: python db_setup.py.

  • Deactivate the virtual environment: deactivate.

Step 13.4: Disable the default Apache site

  • Disable the default Apache site: sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf. The following prompt will be returned:

    Site 000-default disabled.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
  service apache2 reload

  • Reload Apache: sudo service apache2 reload.

Step 13.5: Launch the Web Application

Step 14: Automatically install updates(optional)

The unattended-upgrades package can be used to automatically install important system updates.

  • Enable automatic (security) updates: sudo apt-get install unattended-upgrades.
  • Edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades, uncomment the line ${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates and save it.
  • Modify /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades file so that the upgrades are downloaded and installed every day: 
    APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "1";
APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "7";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";
  • Enable it: sudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades.
  • Restart Apache: sudo service apache2 restart.

Useful commands

  • To get log messages from Apache server: sudo tail /var/log/apache2/error.log.
  • To restart Apache: sudo service apache2 restart.

Other Helpful Resources

Special Thanks to Alain Boisvert for a very helpful README in Linux Server Configuration Project-Udacity*

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