Welcome to the Ubuntu Server Guide!

Changes, Errors, and Bugs

This is the current edition for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Focal Fossa. Ubuntu serverguides for previous LTS versions:
18.04 (PDF), 16.04 (PDF).
If you find any errors or have suggestions for improvements to pages, please use the link at the bottom of
each topic titled: “Help improve this document in the forum.” This link will take you to the Server Discourse
forum for the specific page you are viewing. There you can share your comments or let us know about bugs
with each page.

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Download this guide as a PDF

Support

There are a couple of different ways that Ubuntu Server Edition is supported: commercial support and
community support. The main commercial support (and development funding) is available from Canonical,
Ltd. They supply reasonably- priced support contracts on a per desktop or per server basis. For more
information see the Ubuntu Advantage page.
Community support is also provided by dedicated individuals and companies that wish to make Ubuntu the
best distribution possible. Support is provided through multiple mailing lists, IRC channels, 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 Ubuntu Support page for more information.

Installation
This chapter provides a quick overview of installing Ubuntu 20.04 Server Edition. For more detailed instruc-
tions, please refer to the Ubuntu Installation Guide.

Preparing to Install
This section explains various aspects to consider before starting the installation.

System Requirements

Ubuntu 20.04 Server Edition provides a common, minimalist base for a variety of server applications, such
as file/print services, web hosting, email hosting, etc. This edition supports five (5) major architectures:
AMD64, ARM, POWER9, LinuxONE and z Systems, and introduces initial support for RISC-V.
The “live server” installer (sometimes called “Ubiquity for Servers” or simply “Subiquity”) provides a user-
friendly and fast installation experience.
The table below lists the recommended minimum hardware specifications. Depending on your needs, you
might manage with less than this, but it is not generally recommended.

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 Install Type CPU RAM Hard Drive Space
Server (Standard) 1 gigahertz 512 megabytes 1.5 gigabyte 2.5 gigabytes
live server 1 gigahertz (amd64 only) 1 gigabyte 1.5 gigabyte n/a
Server (Minimal) 300 megahertz 384 megabytes 1.5 gigabytes 2.5 gigabytes

Server and Desktop Differences

The Ubuntu Server Edition and the Ubuntu Desktop Edition use the same apt repositories, making it just
as easy to install a server application on the Desktop Edition as on the Server Edition.
One major difference is that the graphical environment used for the Desktop Edition is not installed for
the Server. This includes the graphics server itself, the graphical utilities and applications, and the various
user-supporting services needed by desktop users.
The Server Edition’s kernel used to be tuned differently from Desktop, but currently, both rely on the same
Linux configuration.

Backing Up

• Before installing Ubuntu Server Edition you should make sure all data on the system is backed up.
If this is not the first time an operating system has been installed on your computer, it is likely you
will 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 you
make a mistake or something goes wrong during partitioning. The programs used in installation are
quite reliable, most have seen years of use, but they also perform destructive actions.

Installing using the live server installer

The basic steps to install Ubuntu Server Edition are the same as those for installing any operating system.
Unlike the Desktop Edition, the Server Edition does not include a graphical installation program. The Live
Server installer uses a text-based console interface which runs on the default virtual console. The interface
can be entirely driven by the enter, up and down arrow keys (with some occasional typing).
During the installation, you can switch to a different console (by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F<n> or Ctrl-Alt-Right)
to get access to a shell, if needed. Up to the point where the installation begins, you can use the “back”
button to go back to previous screens and choose different options.
• Download the appropriate ISO file from the Ubuntu Server Download Page.
• Boot the system from media (e.g. USB key) containing the ISO file.
• 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. You
can install a basic Ubuntu Server, check the installation media for defects, check the system’s RAM,
or boot from first hard disk. The rest of this section will cover the basic Ubuntu Server install.
• After booting into the installer, it will ask you which language to use.
• Next, the installation process begins by asking for your keyboard layout. You can ask the installer to
attempt auto-detecting it, or you can select it manually from a list. Later stages of the installation
will require you to type ASCII characters, so if the layout you select does not allow that, you will be

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 prompted for a key combination to switch between a layout that does and the one you select. The
default keystroke for this is Alt + Shift.
• Next, the installer offers the choice to install the system as a vanilla Ubuntu server, a MAAS bare-metal
cloud rack controller or a MAAS region controller. If you select one of the MAAS options you will be
asked for some details.
• The installer configures the network to run DHCP on each network interface. If this is not sufficient
to get access to the internet you should configure at least one interface manually. Select an interface
to configure it.
• If the Ubuntu archive can only be accessed via a proxy in your environment, it can be entered on the
next screen. Leave the field blank if it is not required.
• You can then choose to let the installer use an entire disk or configure the partitioning manually. The
first disk you create a partition on will be selected as the boot disk and have an extra partition created
on it to contain the bootloader; you can move the boot partition to a different drive with the “Select
as boot disk” button.
Once you move on from this screen, the installation progress will begin. It will not be possible to move
back to this or previous screens and any data on the disks you have configured the installer to use will
be lost.
• The next screen configures the initial user for the system. You can import SSH keys from Launchpad
or Github but a password is still required to be set, as this user will have root access through the sudo
utility.
• The final screen shows the progress of the installer. Once the installation has completed, you will be
prompted to reboot into your newly installed system.

Advanced Installation

Software RAID

Redundant Array of Independent Disks “RAID” is a method of using multiple disks to provide different
balances of increasing data reliability and/or increasing input/output performance, depending on the RAID
level being used. RAID is implemented in either software (where the operating system knows about both
drives and actively maintains both of them) or hardware (where a special controller makes 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 section will guide
you through installing Ubuntu Server Edition using two RAID1 partitions on two physical hard drives, one
for / and another for swap.

RAID Configuration

Follow the installation steps until you get to the Guided storage configuration step, then:
Select Custom storage layout.
Create the /boot partition in a local disk. So select one of the devices listed in available devices and Add
GPT Partition. Next, enter the partition size, then choose the desired Format (ext4) and /boot as mount
point. And finally, select Create.
Now to create the RAID device select Create software RAID (md) under AVAILABLE DEVICES.

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Add the name of the RAID disk (the default is md0).
For this example, select “1 (mirrored)” in RAID level, but if you are using a different setup choose the
appropriate type (RAID0 RAID1 RAID5 RAID6 RAID10).
Note
In order to use RAID5, RAID6 and RAID10 you need more than two drives. Using RAID0 or
RAID1 only two drives are required.
Select the devices that will be used by this RAID device. The real devices can be marked as active or spare,
by default it becomes active when is selected.
Select the Size of the RAID device.
Select Create.
The new RAID device (md0 if you did not change the default) will show up in the available devices list, with
software RAID 1 type and the chosen size.
Repeat steps above for the other RAID devices.

Partitioning

Select the RAID 1 device created (md0) then select “Add GPT Partition”.
Next, select the Size of the partition. This partition will be the swap partition, and a general rule for swap
size is twice that of RAM. Enter the partition size, then choose swap in Format. And finally, select Create.
Note
A swap partition size of twice the available RAM capacity may not always be desirable, especially
on systems with large amounts of RAM. Calculating the swap partition size for servers is highly
dependent on how the system is going to be used.
For the / partition once again select the RAID 1 device then “Add GPT Partition”.
Use the rest of the free space on the device, choose the format (default is ext4) and select / as mount point,
then Create.
Repeat steps above for the other partitions.
Once it is finished select “Done”.
The installation process will then continue normally.

Degraded RAID

At some point in the life of the computer a disk failure event may occur. When this happens, using Software
RAID, the operating system will place the array into what is known as a degraded state.
If the array has become degraded, due to the chance of data corruption, by default Ubuntu Server Edition
will boot to initramfs after thirty seconds. Once the initramfs has booted there is a fifteen second 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 is in 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 process you
will be queried about additional settings related to the array. Such as monitoring, email alerts, etc. To
reconfigure mdadm enter the following:
sudo dpkg−r e c o n f i g u r e mdadm

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 • The dpkg−reconfigure mdadm process will change the /etc/initramfs−tools/conf.d/mdadm configura-
tion file. The file has the advantage of being able to pre-configure the system’s behavior, and can also
be manually edited:
BOOT_DEGRADED=t r u e

Note
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 the next section for details, or copy important
data to another machine due to major hardware failure.

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/md0
with the appropriate RAID device.
• To view the status of a disk in an array:
sudo mdadm −E / dev / sda1

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 with the drive.
It is usually worthwhile to remove the drive from the array then re-add it. This will cause the drive to
re-sync with the array. If the drive will not sync with the array, it is a good indication of hardware failure.
The /proc/mdstat file also contains useful information about the system’s RAID devices:
c a t / p r o c / mdstat
P e r s o n a l i t i e s : [ l i n e a r ] [ multipath ] [ raid0 ] [ raid1 ] [ raid6 ] [ raid5 ] [ raid4 ] [
raid10 ]
md0 : a c t i v e r a i d 1 sda1 [ 0 ] sdb1 [ 1 ]
10016384 b l o c k s [ 2 / 2 ] [UU]

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unused d e v i c e s : <none>

The following command is great for watching the status of a syncing drive:
watch −n1 c a t / p r o c / 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 need to be
installed. To install grub on the new drive, enter the following:
sudo grub− i n s t a l l / dev /md0

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

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 RAID.
• Software RAID HOWTO
• Managing RAID on Linux

Logical Volume Manager (LVM)

Logical Volume Manger, or LVM, allows administrators to create logical volumes out of one or multiple
physical hard disks. LVM volumes can be created on both software RAID partitions and standard partitions
residing on a single disk. Volumes can also be extended, giving greater flexibility to systems as requirements
change.

Overview

A side effect of LVM’s power and flexibility is a greater degree of complication. Before diving into the 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 as
LVM PV.
• Volume Group (VG): is made from one or more physical volumes. A VG can can be extended by
adding more PVs. A VG is like a virtual disk drive, from which one or more logical volumes are carved.
• Logical Volume (LV): is similar to a partition in a non-LVM system. A LV is formatted with the desired
file system (EXT3, XFS, JFS, etc), it is then available for mounting and data storage.

Installation

As an example this section covers installing Ubuntu Server Edition with /srv mounted on a LVM volume.
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 in Guided storage configuration step:

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 • Select “Use an entire disk”, “Set up this disk as an LVM group”, and Done. This option will create a
/boot partition in the local disk and the rest of the disk space is allocated to the LVM group.
• Select “Use an entire disk”, “Set up this disk as an LVM group”, “Encrypt the LVM group with LUKS”,
insert the password (and confirm it), and Done. The output is the same as described above but the
LVM group is encrypted.
• Select “Custom storage layout”, and Done. At this time the only way to configure a system with both
LVM and standard partitions, during installation, is to use this approach. This is the option used in
this example.
Follow the installation steps until you get to the Storage configuration step, then:
Let’s first create a /boot partition in a local disk. Select the hard disk under AVAILABLE DEVICES, and
Add GPT Parition. Add the size and format (ext4), then select /boot as mount point. Finally, select Create.
The /boot partition will be listed under FILE SYSTEM SUMMARY.
Next, create standard swap, and / partitions with whichever filesystem you prefer following the steps above.
Now the LVM volume group will be created. Select “Create volume group (LVM)”. Enter a name for the
volume group (default is vg0), select the device (LVM physical volume) and the size, and choose “Create”.
There is an option to encrypt your volume, if you want it encrypted select “Create encrypted volume” and
enter a password (also confirm it). The brand new LVM group (if the default was not changed it is vg0) will
be listed as a device in AVAILABLE DEVICES.
To create a LVM logical volume select the created LVM volume group and “Create Logical Volume”. Give it
a name (default is lv-0), let’s call it lv-srv since this will be used to mount /srv. Insert the size of the volume,
your preferred filesytem format, and select /srv as mount point. Choose “Create”. The LVM logical volume
mounted at /srv will be listed in the FILESYSTEM SUMMARY.
Finally, select “Done”. Then confirm the changes and continue 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.

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 volume srv and finally
extending the filesystem. This example assumes a second hard disk has been added to the system. In this
example, this hard disk will be named /dev/sdb and we will use the entire disk as a physical volume (you
could choose to create partitions and use them as different physical volumes)
Warning
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.
First, create the physical volume, in a terminal execute:
sudo p v c r e a t e / dev / sdb

Now extend the Volume Group (VG):

sudo vgextend vg0 / dev / sdb

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Use vgdisplay to find out the free physical extents - Free PE / size (the size you can allocate). We will
assume a free size of 511 PE (equivalent to 2GB with a PE size of 4MB) and we will use the whole free space
available. Use your own PE and/or free space.
The Logical Volume (LV) can now be extended by different methods, we will only see how to use the PE to
extend the LV:
sudo l v e x t e n d / dev / vg0 / s r v − l +511

The -l option allows the LV to be extended using PE. The -L option allows the LV to be extended using
Meg, Gig, Tera, etc bytes.
Even though you are supposed to be able to expand an ext3 or ext4 filesystem without unmounting it first,
it may be a good practice to unmount it anyway and check the filesystem, so that you don’t mess up the
day you want to reduce a logical volume (in that case unmounting first is compulsory).
The following commands are for an EXT3 or EXT4 filesystem. If you are using another filesystem there
may be other utilities available.
sudo umount / s r v
sudo e 2 f s c k −f / dev / vg0 / s r v

The -f option of e2fsck forces checking even if the system seems clean.
Finally, resize the filesystem:
sudo r e s i z e 2 f s / dev / vg0 / s r v

Now mount the partition and check its size.

mount / dev / vg0 / s r v / s r v && d f −h / s r v

Resources

• See the Ubuntu Wiki LVM Articles.

• See the LVM HOWTO for more information.
• For more information on fdisk see the fdisk man page.

iSCSI

The iSCSI protocol can be used to install Ubuntu on systems with or without hard disks attached, and iBFT
can be used to automate iSCSI setup on installation and boot.

Installation on a diskless system

The first steps of a diskless iSCSI installation are identical to the Installation using debian-installer section
up to “Hard drive layout”.
The installer will display a warning with the following message:
No d i s k d r i v e was d e t e c t e d . I f you know t h e name o f t h e d r i v e r needed by your
d i s k d r i v e , you can s e l e c t i t from t h e l i s t .

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Select the item in the list titled login to iSCSI targets.
You will be prompted to enter an IP address to scan for iSCSI targets with a description of the format for
the address. Enter the IP address for the location of your iSCSI target and navigate to <continue> then hit
ENTER
If authentication is required in order to access the iSCSI device, provide the username in the next field.
Otherwise, leave it blank.
If your system is able to connect to the iSCSI provider, you should see a list of available iSCSI targets where
the operating system can be installed. The list should be similar to the following :
S e l e c t t h e iSCSI t a r g e t s you wish t o u s e .

iSCSI t a r g e t s on 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 2 9 : 3 2 6 0 :

[ ] i q n .2016 −03. TrustyS−i s c s i t a r g e t : s t o r a g e . s y s 0

<Go Back> <Continue>

Select the iSCSI target that you want to use with the space bar. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the target
that you want to select.
Navigate to <Continue> and hit ENTER.
If the connection to the iSCSI target is successful, you will be prompted with the [!!] Partition disks
installation menu. The rest of the procedure is identical to any normal installation on attached disks. Once
the installation is completed, you will be asked to reboot.

Installation on a system with disk attached

Again, the iSCSI installation on a normal server with one or many disks attached is identical to the Instal-
lation using debian-installer section until we reach the disk partitioning menu. Instead of using any of the
Guided selection, we need to perform the following steps :
Navigate to the Manual menu entry
Select the Configure iSCSI Volumes menu entry
Choose the Log into iSCSI targets
You will be prompted to Enter an IP address to scan for iSCSI targets. with a description of the format for
the address. Enter the IP address and navigate to <continue> then hit ENTER
If authentication is required in order to access the iSCSI device, provide the username in the next field or
leave it blank.
If your system is able to connect to the iSCSI provider, you should see a list of available iSCSI targets where
the operating system can be installed. The list should be similar to the following :
S e l e c t t h e iSCSI t a r g e t s you wish t o u s e .

iSCSI t a r g e t s on 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 2 9 : 3 2 6 0 :

[ ] i q n .2016 −03. TrustyS−i s c s i t a r g e t : s t o r a g e . s y s 0

<Go Back> <Continue>

Select the iSCSI target that you want to use with the space bar. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the target
that you want to select

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Navigate to <Continue> and hit ENTER.
If successful, you will come back to the menu asking you to Log into iSCSI targets. Navigate to Finish and
hit ENTER
The newly connected iSCSI disk will appear in the overview section as a device prefixed with SCSI. This
is the disk that you should select as your installation disk. Once identified, you can choose any of the
partitioning methods.
Warning
Depending on your system configuration, there may be other SCSI disks attached to the system.
Be very careful to identify the proper device before proceeding with the installation. Otherwise,
irreversible data loss may result from performing an installation on the wrong disk.

Installation with iBFT

In order to setup iSCSI based on the iBFT (iSCSI Boot Firmware Table) on the installation and boot,
append these options at the installer prompt (or to the preseed file):
d i s k −d e t e c t / i b f t / e n a b l e=t r u e partman− i s c s i / i s c s i _ a u t o=t r u e

This should probe for iBFT information and configure network interface(s) and iSCSI target(s) accordingly
during the installation, and configure system boot (initramfs) to do that too in order to find the root device.
Warning The support for iBFT is available in the debian-installer on netboot images as of
2019-06-20 and (expected) on ISO images for the 18.04.3 point release and later.

Rebooting to an iSCSI target

The procedure is specific to your hardware platform. As an example, here is how to reboot to your iSCSI
target using iPXE
iPXE> dhcp

C o n f i g u r i n g ( n e t 0 5 2 : 5 4 : 0 0 : a4 : f 2 : a9 ) . . . . . . . ok

iPXE> s a n b oo t i s c s i : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 2 9 : : : : i q n .2016 −03. TrustyS−i s c s i t a r g e t : s t o r a g e .

sys0

If the procedure is successful, you should see the Grub menu appear on the screen.

Package Management
Ubuntu features a comprehensive package management system for installing, upgrading, configuring, and
removing software. In addition to providing access to an organized base of over 60,000 software packages for
your Ubuntu computer, the package management facilities also feature dependency resolution capabilities
and software update checking.
Several tools are available for interacting with Ubuntu’s package management system, from simple command-
line utilities which may be easily automated by system administrators, to a graphical interface which is easy
to use by those new to Ubuntu.

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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 to implement a
particular functionality or software application on your Ubuntu computer.
Debian package files typically have the extension .deb, and usually exist in repositories which are collections
of packages found online or on physical media, such as CD-ROM discs. Packages are normally in a pre-
compiled binary format; thus installation is quick and requires no compiling of software.
Many packages use dependencies. Dependencies are additional packages required by the principal package
in order to function properly. For example, the speech synthesis package festival depends upon the package
alsa−utils, which is a package supplying the ALSA sound library tools needed for audio playback. In order
for festival to function, it and all of its dependencies must be installed. The software management tools in
Ubuntu will do this automatically.

Apt

The apt command is a powerful command-line tool, which works with Ubuntu’s Advanced Packaging Tool
(APT) performing such functions as installation of new software packages, upgrade of existing software
packages, updating of the package list index, and even upgrading the entire Ubuntu system.
Some examples of popular uses for the apt utility:
• Install a Package: Installation of packages using the apt tool is quite simple. For example, to install
the nmap network scanner, type the following:
sudo apt i n s t a l l nmap

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

Tip
Multiple Packages: You may specify multiple packages to be installed or removed, sepa-
rated by spaces.
Notice
Scripting: While apt is a command-line tool, it is intended to be used interactively, and not
to be called from non-interactive scripts. The apt−get command should be used in scripts
(perhaps with the −−quiet flag). For basic commands the syntax of the two tools is identical.
Also, adding the −−purge option to apt remove will remove the package configuration files as well.
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 available packages
from the repositories defined in the /etc/apt/sources. list file and in the /etc/apt/sources. list .d di-
rectory. To update the local package index with the latest changes made in the repositories, type the
following:
sudo apt update

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

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 For information on upgrading to a new Ubuntu release see Upgrading.
Actions of the apt command, such as installation and removal of packages, are logged in the /var/log/dpkg.log
log file.
For further information about the use of APT, read the comprehensive APT User’s Guide or type:
apt h e l p

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 management functions, such
as installation, removal, and upgrade, can be performed in Aptitude with single-key commands, which are
typically lowercase letters.
Aptitude is best suited for use in a non-graphical terminal environment to ensure proper functioning of
the command keys. You may start the menu-driven interface of Aptitude as a normal user by typing the
following command at a terminal prompt:
sudo a p t i t u d e

When Aptitude starts, you will see a menu bar at the top of the screen and two panes below the menu bar.
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 makes common
tasks simple to perform. The following are examples of common package management functions as performed
in Aptitude:
• Install Packages: To install a package, locate the package via the Not Installed Packages package
category, 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 for
installation. Now press g to be presented with a summary of package actions. Press g again, and
downloading and installation of the package will commence. When finished, press ENTER, to return
to the menu.
• Remove Packages: To remove a package, locate the package via the Installed Packages package
category, by using the keyboard arrow keys and the ENTER key. Highlight the desired package you
wish to remove, then press the - key. The package entry should turn pink, indicating it has been
marked for removal. Now press g to be presented with a summary of package actions. Press g again,
and removal of the package will commence. When finished, press ENTER, to return to the menu.
• Update Package Index: To update the package index, simply press the u key. Updating of the
package index will commence.
• Upgrade Packages: To upgrade packages, perform the update of the package index as detailed above,
and then press the U key to mark all packages with updates. Now press g whereby you’ll be presented
with a summary of package actions. Press g again, and the download and installation will commence.
When finished, press ENTER, to return to the menu.
The first column of the information displayed in the package list in the top pane, when actually viewing
packages lists the current state of the package, and uses the following key to describe the state of the package:
• i: Installed package
• c: Package not installed, but package configuration remains on the system
• p: Purged from system

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 • 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 a fix
To exit Aptitude, simply press the q key and confirm you wish to exit. Many other functions are available
from the Aptitude menu by pressing the F10 key.

Command Line Aptitude

You can also use Aptitude as a command-line tool, similar to apt. To install the nmap package with all
necessary dependencies, as in the apt example, you would use the following command:
sudo a p t i t u d e i n s t a l l nmap

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

sudo a p t i t u d e remove nmap

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

dpkg

dpkg is a package manager for Debian-based systems. It can install, remove, and build packages, but
unlike other package management systems, it cannot automatically download and install packages or their
dependencies. Apt and Aptitude are newer, and layer additional features on top of dpkg. This
section covers using dpkg to manage locally installed packages:
• To list all packages in the system’s package database, including all packages, installed and uninstalled,
from a terminal prompt type:
dpkg − l

• Depending on the number 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 | g r e p apache2

Replace apache2 with any package name, part of a package name, or a 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 / e t c / h o s t . c o n f
base− f i l e s : / e t c / h o s t . c o n f

The output shows that the /etc/host.conf belongs to the base-files package.
Note
Many files are automatically generated during the package install process, and even though
they are on the filesystem, dpkg −S may not know which package they belong to.

13
 • You can install a local .deb file by entering:
sudo dpkg − i zip_3 .0 −4_amd64 . deb

Change zip_3.0−4_amd64.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 z i p

Caution
Uninstalling packages using dpkg, in most cases, is NOT recommended. It is better to use
a package manager that handles dependencies to ensure that the system is in a consistent
state. For example, using dpkg −r zip will remove the zip package, but any packages that
depend on it will still be installed and may no longer function correctly.
For more dpkg options see the man page: man dpkg.

APT 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 referenced here, 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 requirement of
inserting the Ubuntu CD-ROM whenever package operations occur, simply comment out the appropriate
line for the CD-ROM, which appears at the top of the file:
# no more prompting f o r CD−ROM p l e a s e
# deb cdrom : [ DISTRO−APT−CD−NAME − R e l e a s e i 3 8 6 ( 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 3 . 1 ) ] / DISTRO−SHORT−
CODENAME main r e s t r i c t e d

Extra Repositories

In addition to the officially supported package repositories available for Ubuntu, there exist additional
community-maintained repositories which add thousands more packages for potential installation. Two of
the most popular are the universe and multiverse repositories. These repositories are not officially supported
by Ubuntu, but because they are maintained by the community they generally provide packages which are
safe for use with your Ubuntu computer.
Note
Packages in the multiverse repository often have licensing issues that prevent them from being
distributed with a free operating system, and they may be illegal in your locality.
Warning
Be advised that neither the universe or multiverse repositories contain officially supported pack-
ages. 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 case of
package sources provided by the developer of a single application. You should always be very careful and
cautious when using non-standard package sources, however. Research the source and packages carefully
before performing any installation, as some package sources and their packages could 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 them edit
/etc/apt/sources. list and comment the following lines:

14
deb h t t p : / / a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME u n i v e r s e m u l t i v e r s e
deb−s r c h t t p : / / a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME u n i v e r s e
multiverse

deb h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME u n i v e r s e

deb−s r c h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME u n i v e r s e
deb h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−u p d a t e s
universe
deb−s r c h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−u p d a t e s
universe

deb h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME m u l t i v e r s e

deb−s r c h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME m u l t i v e r s e
deb h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−u p d a t e s
multiverse
deb−s r c h t t p : / / us . a r c h i v e . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu / DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−u p d a t e s
multiverse

deb h t t p : / / s e c u r i t y . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−s e c u r i t y u n i v e r s e

deb−s r c h t t p : / / s e c u r i t y . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−s e c u r i t y
universe
deb h t t p : / / s e c u r i t y . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−s e c u r i t y
multiverse
deb−s r c h t t p : / / s e c u r i t y . ubuntu . com/ ubuntu DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME−s e c u r i t y
multiverse

Automatic Updates

The unattended-upgrades package can be used to automatically install updated packages and can be con-
figured to update all packages or just install security updates. First, install the package by entering the
following in a terminal:
sudo apt i n s t a l l unattended−upg r a de s

To configure unattended-upgrades, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended−upgrades and adjust the follow-

ing to fit your needs:
Unattended−Upgrade : : Allowed−O r i g i n s {
” ${ d i s t r o _ i d } : ${ distro_codename } ” ;
” ${ d i s t r o _ i d } : ${ distro_codename}− s e c u r i t y ” ;
// ” ${ d i s t r o _ i d } : ${ distro_codename}−u p d a t e s ” ;
// ” ${ d i s t r o _ i d } : ${ distro_codename}−p ro p o s e d ” ;
// ” ${ d i s t r o _ i d } : ${ distro_codename}−b a c k p o r t s ” ;
};

Certain packages can also be blacklisted and therefore will not be automatically updated. To blacklist a
package, add it to the list:
Unattended−Upgrade : : Package−B l a c k l i s t {
// ” vim ” ;
// ” libc6 ”;
// ” l i b c 6 −dev ” ;
// ” l i b c 6 −i 6 8 6 ” ;
};

15
 Note
The double “//” serve as comments, so whatever follows “//” will not be evaluated.
To enable automatic updates, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto−upgrades and set the appropriate apt con-
figuration options:
APT : : Periodic : : Update−Package−L i s t s ” 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 every day. The
local download archive is cleaned every week. On servers upgraded to newer versions of Ubuntu, depending
on your responses, the file listed above may not be there. In this case, creating a new file of this name should
also work.
Note
You can read more about apt Periodic configuration options in the /etc/cron.daily/apt−compat
script header.
The results of unattended-upgrades will be logged to /var/log/unattended−upgrades.

Notifications

Configuring Unattended−Upgrade::Mail in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended−upgrades will enable

unattended-upgrades to email an administrator detailing any packages that need upgrading or have
problems.
Another useful package is apticron. apticron will configure a cron job to email an administrator information
about any packages on the system that have updates available, as well as a summary of changes in each
package.
To install the apticron package, in a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l a p t i c r o n

Once the package is installed edit /etc/apticron/apticron.conf, to set the email address and other options:
EMAIL=”root@example . com”

References

Most of the material covered in this chapter is available in man pages, many of which are available online.
• The InstallingSoftware Ubuntu wiki page has more information.
• For more dpkg details see the dpkg man page.
• The APT User’s Guide and apt man page contain useful information regarding apt usage.
• See the aptitude user’s manual for more aptitude options.
• The Adding Repositories HOWTO (Ubuntu Wiki) page contains more details on adding repositories.

16
Kernel Crash Dump

Introduction

A Kernel Crash Dump refers to a portion of the contents of volatile memory (RAM) that is copied to disk
whenever the execution of the kernel is disrupted. The following events can cause a kernel disruption :
• 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 dump
mechanism through kexec. In other situations a manual intervention is required in order to capture the
memory. Whenever one of the above events occurs, it is important to find out the root cause in order to
prevent it from happening again. The cause can be determined by inspecting the copied memory contents.

Kernel Crash Dump Mechanism

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

Installation

The kernel crash dump utility is installed with the following command:
sudo apt i n s t a l l l i n u x −crashdump

Note
Starting with 16.04, the kernel crash dump mechanism is enabled by default. During the instal-
lation, you will be prompted with the following dialogs.
|−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−| C o n f i g u r i n g kexec−t o o l s |−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−|
| |
| |
| I f you c h o o s e t h i s o p t i o n , a system r e b o o t w i l l t r i g g e r a r e s t a r t i n t o a |
| k e r n e l l o a d e d by k e x e c i n s t e a d o f g o i n g through t h e f u l l system boot |
| loader process . |
| |
| Should kexec−t o o l s h a n d l e r e b o o t s ( s y s v i n i t o n l y ) ? |
| |
| <Yes> <No> |
| |
|−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−|

Select Yes to hook up kexec−tools for all reboots.

|−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−| C o n f i g u r i n g kdump−t o o l s |−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−|
| |
| |

17
 | I f you c h o o s e t h i s o p t i o n , t h e kdump−t o o l s mechanism w i l l be e n a b l e d . A |
| reboot i s s t i l l r e q u i r e d in order to enable the c r a s h k e r n e l k e r n e l |
| parameter . |
| |
| Should kdump−t o o l s be e n a b l e d be d e f a u l t ? |
| |
| <Yes> <No> |
| |
|−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−|

Yes should be selected here as well, to enable kdump−tools.

If you ever need to manually enable the functionality, you can use the dpkg−reconfigure kexec−tools and
dpkg−reconfigure kdump−tools commands and answer Yes to the questions. You can also edit /etc/default
/kexec and set parameters directly:
# Load a k e x e c k e r n e l ( t r u e / f a l s e )
LOAD_KEXEC=t r u e

As well, edit /etc/default/kdump−tools to enable kdump by including the following line:

USE_KDUMP=1

If a reboot has not been done since installation of the linux−crashdump package, a reboot will be required in
order to activate the crashkernel= boot parameter. Upon reboot, kdump−tools will be enabled and active.
If you enable kdump−tools after a reboot, you will only need to issue the kdump−config load command to
activate the kdump mechanism.
You can view the current status of kdump via the command kdump−config show. This will display something
like this:
DUMP_MODE: kdump
USE_KDUMP: 1
KDUMP_SYSCTL: k e r n e l . panic_on_oops=1
KDUMP_COREDIR: / var / c r a s h
c r a s h k e r n e l addr :
/ var / l i b /kdump/ vmlinuz
kdump i n i t r d :
/ var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img
current state : ready t o kdump
k e x e c command :
/ s b i n / k e x e c −p −−command−l i n e = ” . . . ” −−i n i t r d = . . .

This tells us that we will find core dumps in /var/crash.

Configuration

In addition to local dump, it is now possible to use the remote dump functionality to send the kernel crash
dump to a remote server, using either the SSH or NFS protocols.

Local Kernel Crash Dumps

Local dumps are configured automatically and will remain in use unless a remote protocol is chosen. Many
configuration options exist and are thoroughly documented in the /etc/default/kdump−tools file.

18
Remote Kernel Crash Dumps using the SSH protocol

To enable remote dumps using the SSH protocol, the /etc/default/kdump−tools must be modified in the
following manner :
# −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
# Remote dump f a c i l i t i e s :
# SSH − username and hostname o f t h e remote s e r v e r t h a t w i l l r e c e i v e t h e dump
# and dmesg f i l e s .
# SSH_KEY − F u l l path o f t h e s s h p r i v a t e key t o be used t o l o g i n t o t h e remote
# s e r v e r . u s e kdump−c o n f i g p r o p a g a t e t o send t h e p u b l i c key t o t h e
# remote s e r v e r
# HOSTTAG − S e l e c t i f hostname o f IP a d d r e s s w i l l be used a s a p r e f i x t o t h e
# timestamped d i r e c t o r y when s e n d i n g f i l e s t o t h e remote s e r v e r .
# ’ ip ’ i s t h e d e f a u l t .
SSH=”ubuntu@kdump−n e t c r a s h ”

The only mandatory variable to define is SSH. It must contain the username and hostname of the remote
server using the format {username}@{remote server}.
SSH_KEY may be used to provide an existing private key to be used. Otherwise, the kdump−config
propagate command will create a new keypair. The HOSTTAG variable may be used to use the hostname
of the system as a prefix to the remote directory to be created instead of the IP address.
The following example shows how kdump−config propagate is used to create and propagate a new keypair
to the remote server :
sudo kdump−c o n f i g p r o p a g a t e
Need t o g e n e r a t e a new s s h key . . .
The a u t h e n t i c i t y o f h o s t ’ kdump−n e t c r a s h ( 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 7 4 ) ’ can ’ t be e s t a b l i s h e d .
ECDSA key f i n g e r p r i n t i s SHA256 : iMp+5Y28qhbd+tevFCWrEXykDd4dI3yN4OVlu3CBBQ4 .
Are you s u r e you want t o c o n t i n u e c o n n e c t i n g ( y e s /no ) ? y e s
ubuntu@kdump−n e t c r a s h ’ s password :
p r o p a g a t e d s s h key / r o o t / . s s h /kdump_id_rsa t o s e r v e r ubuntu@kdump−n e t c r a s h

The password of the account used on the remote server will be required in order to successfully send the
public key to the server
The kdump−config show command can be used to confirm that kdump is correctly configured to use the
SSH protocol :
kdump−c o n f i g show
DUMP_MODE: kdump
USE_KDUMP: 1
KDUMP_SYSCTL: k e r n e l . panic_on_oops=1
KDUMP_COREDIR: / var / c r a s h
c r a s h k e r n e l addr : 0 x2c000000
/ var / l i b /kdump/ vmlinuz : s y m b o l i c l i n k t o / boot / vmlinuz −4.4.0−10− g e n e r i c
kdump i n i t r d :
/ var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img : s y m b o l i c l i n k t o / var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img
−4.4.0−10− g e n e r i c
SSH : ubuntu@kdump−n e t c r a s h
SSH_KEY: / r o o t / . s s h /kdump_id_rsa
HOSTTAG: ip
current state : ready t o kdump

19
Remote Kernel Crash Dumps using the NFS protocol

To enable remote dumps using the NFS protocol, the /etc/default/kdump−tools must be modified in the
following manner :
# NFS − Hostname and mount p o i n t o f t h e NFS s e r v e r c o n f i g u r e d t o r e c e i v e
# t h e c r a s h dump . The s y n t a x must be {HOSTNAME} : {MOUNTPOINT}
# ( e . g . remote : / var / c r a s h )
#
NFS=”kdump−n e t c r a s h : / var / c r a s h ”

As with the SSH protocol, the HOSTTAG variable can be used to replace the IP address by the hostname
as the prefix of the remote directory.
The kdump−config show command can be used to confirm that kdump is correctly configured to use the
NFS protocol :
kdump−c o n f i g show
DUMP_MODE: kdump
USE_KDUMP: 1
KDUMP_SYSCTL: k e r n e l . panic_on_oops=1
KDUMP_COREDIR: / var / c r a s h
c r a s h k e r n e l addr : 0 x2c000000
/ var / l i b /kdump/ vmlinuz : s y m b o l i c l i n k t o / boot / vmlinuz −4.4.0−10− g e n e r i c
kdump i n i t r d :
/ var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img : s y m b o l i c l i n k t o / var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img
−4.4.0−10− g e n e r i c
NFS : kdump−n e t c r a s h : / var / c r a s h
HOSTTAG: hostname
current state : ready t o kdump

Verification

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

BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz −3.2.0−17− s e r v e r r o o t=/dev /mapper/ P r e c i s e S −r o o t r o

c r a s h k e r n e l =384M−2G: 6 4M, 2G−:128M

The crashkernel parameter has the following syntax:

c r a s h k e r n e l=<range1 >:< s i z e 1 >[,< range2 >:< s i z e 2 > , . . . ] [ @ o f f s e t ]
r a n g e=s t a r t −[ end ] ’ s t a r t ’ i s i n c l u s i v e and ’ end ’ i s e x c l u s i v e .

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

c r a s h k e r n e l =384M−2G: 6 4M, 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

20
 • 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 | g r e p − i c r a s h

...
[ 0 . 0 0 0 0 0 0 ] R e s e r v i n g 64MB o f memory a t 800MB f o r c r a s h k e r n e l ( System RAM:
1023MB)

Finally, as seen previously, the kdump−config show command displays the current status of the kdump-tools
configuration :
kdump−c o n f i g show
DUMP_MODE: kdump
USE_KDUMP: 1
KDUMP_SYSCTL: k e r n e l . panic_on_oops=1
KDUMP_COREDIR: / var / c r a s h
c r a s h k e r n e l addr : 0 x2c000000
/ var / l i b /kdump/ vmlinuz : s y m b o l i c l i n k t o / boot / vmlinuz −4.4.0−10− g e n e r i c
kdump i n i t r d :
/ var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img : s y m b o l i c l i n k t o / var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img
−4.4.0−10− g e n e r i c
current state : ready t o kdump

k e x e c command :
/ s b i n / k e x e c −p −−command−l i n e =”BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz −4.4.0−10− g e n e r i c r o o t
=/dev /mapper/ VividS−−vg−r o o t r o debug break=i n i t c o n s o l e=ttyS0
, 1 1 5 2 0 0 i r q p o l l maxcpus=1 nousb systemd . u n i t=kdump−t o o l s . s e r v i c e ” −−
i n i t r d =/var / l i b /kdump/ i n i t r d . img / var / l i b /kdump/ vmlinuz

Testing the Crash Dump Mechanism

Warning
Testing the Crash Dump Mechanism will cause a system reboot. In certain situations, this can
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/sysrq kernel
parameter :
cat / proc / sys / k e r n e l / sysrq

If a value of 0 is returned the dump and then reboot feature is disabled. A value greater than 1 indicates that
a sub-set of sysrq features is enabled. See /etc/ sysctl .d/10−magic−sysrq.conf for a detailed description of
the options and the default value. Enable dump then reboot testing with the following command :
sudo s y s c t l −w k e r n e l . s y s r q =1

Once this is done, you must become root, as just using sudo will not be sufficient. As the root user, you will
have to issue the command echo c > /proc/sysrq−trigger. If you are using a network connection, you will
lose contact with the system. This is why it is better to do the test while being connected to the system
console. This has the advantage of making the kernel dump process visible.
A typical test output should look like the following :

21
sudo −s
[ sudo ] password f o r ubuntu :
# echo c > / p r o c / s y s r q −t r i g g e r
[ 3 1 . 6 5 9 0 0 2 ] SysRq : T r i g g e r a c r a s h
[ 3 1 . 6 5 9 7 4 9 ] BUG: u n a b l e t o h a n d l e k e r n e l NULL p o i n t e r d e r e f e r e n c e a t
( null )
[ 3 1 . 6 6 2 6 6 8 ] IP : [< f f f f f f f f 8 1 3 9 f 1 6 6 >] sysrq_ ha ndl e_c ra sh+0x16 /0 x20
[ 3 1 . 6 6 2 6 6 8 ] PGD 3 bfb9067 PUD 368 a7067 PMD 0
[ 3 1 . 6 6 2 6 6 8 ] Oops : 0002 [ # 1 ] SMP
[ 3 1 . 6 6 2 6 6 8 ] 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 k e r n e l c r a s h . . .

Once completed, the system will reboot to its normal operational mode. You will then find the Kernel Crash
Dump file, and related subdirectories, in the /var/crash directory :
l s / var / c r a s h
201809240744 kexec_cmd l i n u x −image −4.15.0 −34 − g e n e r i c −201809240744. c r a s h

If the dump does not work due to OOM (Out Of Memory) error, then try increasing the amount of reserved
memory by editing /etc/default/grub.d/kdump−tools.cfg. For example, to reserve 512 megabytes :
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT c r a s h k e r n e l =384M−:512M
”

run sudo update−grub and then reboot afterwards, and then test again.

Resources

Kernel Crash Dump is a vast topic that requires good knowledge of the linux kernel. You can find more
information on the topic here :
• Kdump kernel documentation.
• The crash tool
• Analyzing Linux Kernel Crash (Based on Fedora, it still gives a good walkthrough of kernel dump
analysis)

Appendix

Reporting Bugs in Ubuntu Server

The Ubuntu Project, and thus Ubuntu Server, uses Launchpad as its bug tracker. In order to file a bug, you
will need a Launchpad account. Create one here if necessary.

22
Reporting Bugs With apport-cli

The preferred way to report a bug is with the apport-cli command. It must be invoked on the machine
affected by the bug because it collects information from the system on which it is being run and publishes
it to the bug report on Launchpad. Getting that information to Launchpad can, therefore, be a challenge if
the system is not running a desktop environment in order to use a browser (common with servers) or if it
does not have Internet access. The steps to take in these situations are described below.
Note
The commands apport-cli and ubuntu-bug should give the same results on a CLI server. The
latter is actually a symlink to apport-bug which is intelligent enough to know whether a desktop
environment is in use and will choose apport-cli if not. Since server systems tend to be CLI-only
apport-cli was chosen from the outset in this guide.
Bug reports in Ubuntu need to be filed against a specific software package, so the name of the package
(source package or program name/path) affected by the bug needs to be supplied to apport-cli:
apport− c l i PACKAGENAME

Once apport-cli has finished gathering information you will be asked what to do with it. For instance, to
report a bug in vim:
$ apport− c l i vim

*** C o l l e c t i n g problem i n f o r m a t i o n

The c o l l e c t e d i n f o r m a t i o n can be s e n t t o t h e d e v e l o p e r s t o improve t h e

a p p l i c a t i o n . This might t a k e a few minutes .
...

*** Send problem r e p o r t t o t h e d e v e l o p e r s ?

A f t e r t h e problem r e p o r t has been s e n t , p l e a s e f i l l out t h e form i n t h e

a u t o m a t i c a l l y opened web browse r .

What would you l i k e t o do ? Your o p t i o n s a r e :

S : Send r e p o r t ( 2 . 8 KB)
V: View r e p o r t
K: Keep r e p o r t f i l e f o r s e n d i n g l a t e r o r c o p y i n g t o somewhere e l s e
I : Cancel and i g n o r e f u t u r e c r a s h e s o f t h i s program v e r s i o n
C: Cancel
P l e a s e c h o o s e ( S/V/K/ I /C) :

The first three options are described below:

• Send: submits the collected information to Launchpad as part of the process of filing a new bug report.
You will be given the opportunity to describe the bug in your own words.

*** Uploading problem i n f o r m a t i o n

The c o l l e c t e d i n f o r m a t i o n i s b e i n g s e n t t o t h e bug t r a c k i n g system .

This might t a k e a few minutes .
94%

*** To c o n t i n u e , you must v i s i t t h e f o l l o w i n g URL:

23
 h t t p s : / / bugs . launchpad . n e t / ubuntu/+s o u r c e /vim/+ f i l e b u g /09 b2495a−e2ab −11
e3 −879b−68b5996a96c8 ?

You can l a u n c h a b rowser now , o r copy t h i s URL i n t o a b r o w s e r on a n o t h e r

computer .

Choices :
1 : Launch a br owser now
C: Cancel
P l e a s e c h o o s e ( 1 /C) : 1

The browser that will be used when choosing ‘1’ will be the one known on the system as www-browser
via the Debian alternatives system. Examples of text-based browsers to install include links, elinks,
lynx, and w3m. You can also manually point an existing browser at the given URL.
• View: displays the collected information on the screen for review. This can be a lot of information.
Press ‘Enter’ to scroll by a screenful. Press ‘q’ to quit and return to the choice menu.
• Keep: writes the collected information to disk. The resulting file can be later used to file the bug
report, typically after transferring it to another Ubuntu system.
What would you l i k e t o do ? Your o p t i o n s a r e :
S : Send r e p o r t ( 2 . 8 KB)
V: View r e p o r t
K: Keep r e p o r t f i l e f o r s e n d i n g l a t e r o r c o p y i n g t o somewhere e l s e
I : Cancel and i g n o r e f u t u r e c r a s h e s o f t h i s program v e r s i o n
C: Cancel
P l e a s e c h o o s e ( S/V/K/ I /C) : k
Problem r e p o r t f i l e : /tmp/ a p p o r t . vim . 1 pg92p02 . a p p o r t

To report the bug, get the file onto an Internet-enabled Ubuntu system and apply apport-cli to it. This
will cause the menu to appear immediately (the information is already collected). You should then
press ‘s’ to send:
apport− c l i a p p o r t . vim . 1 pg92p02 . a p p o r t

To directly save a report to disk (without menus) you can do:

apport− c l i vim −−s a v e a p p o r t . vim . t e s t . a p p o r t

Report names should end in .apport.

Note
If this Internet-enabled system is non-Ubuntu/Debian, apport-cli is not available so the bug
will need to be created manually. An apport report is also not to be included as an attachment
to a bug either so it is completely useless in this scenario.

Reporting Application Crashes

The software package that provides the apport-cli utility, apport, can be configured to automatically capture
the state of a crashed application. This is enabled by default (in /etc/default/apport).
After an application crashes, if enabled, apport will store a crash report under /var/crash:
−rw−r−−−−− 1 p e t e r whoopsie 150K J u l 24 1 6 : 1 7 _usr_lib_x86_64−l i n u x −
gnu_libmenu−cache2_libexec_menu−cached . 1 0 0 0 . c r a s h

24
Use the apport-cli command without arguments to process any pending crash reports. It will offer to report
them one by one.
apport− c l i

*** Send problem r e p o r t t o t h e d e v e l o p e r s ?

A f t e r t h e problem r e p o r t has been s e n t , p l e a s e f i l l out t h e form i n t h e

a u t o m a t i c a l l y opened web browse r .

What would you l i k e t o do ? Your o p t i o n s a r e :

S : Send r e p o r t ( 1 5 3 . 0 KB)
V: View r e p o r t
K: Keep r e p o r t f i l e f o r s e n d i n g l a t e r o r c o p y i n g t o somewhere e l s e
I : Cancel and i g n o r e f u t u r e c r a s h e s o f t h i s program v e r s i o n
C: Cancel
P l e a s e c h o o s e ( S/V/K/ I /C) : s

If you send the report, as was done above, the prompt will be returned immediately and the /var/crash
directory will then contain 2 extra files:
−rw−r−−−−− 1 p e t e r whoopsie 150K J u l 24 1 6 : 1 7 _usr_lib_x86_64−l i n u x −
gnu_libmenu−cache2_libexec_menu−cached . 1 0 0 0 . c r a s h
−rw−rw−r−− 1 p e t e r whoopsie 0 J u l 24 1 6 : 3 7 _usr_lib_x86_64−l i n u x −
gnu_libmenu−cache2_libexec_menu−cached . 1 0 0 0 . upload
−rw−−−−−−− 1 whoopsie whoopsie 0 J u l 24 1 6 : 3 7 _usr_lib_x86_64−l i n u x −
gnu_libmenu−cache2_libexec_menu−cached . 1 0 0 0 . uploaded

Sending in a crash report like this will not immediately result in the creation of a new public bug. The report
will be made private on Launchpad, meaning that it will be visible to only a limited set of bug triagers. These
triagers will then scan the report for possible private data before creating a public bug.

Resources

• See the Reporting Bugs Ubuntu wiki page.

• Also, the Apport page has some useful information. Though some of it pertains to using a GUI.

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

do-release-upgrade

The recommended way to upgrade a Server Edition installation is to use the do-release-upgrade utility. Part
of the update-manager-core package, it does not have any graphical dependencies and is installed by default.
Debian based systems can also be upgraded by using apt dist−upgrade. However, using do-release-upgrade
is recommended because it has the ability to handle system configuration changes sometimes needed between
releases.
To upgrade to a newer release, from a terminal prompt enter:

25
do−r e l e a s e −upgrade

It is also possible to use do-release-upgrade to upgrade to a development version of Ubuntu. To accomplish

this use the -d switch:
do−r e l e a s e −upgrade −d

Warning
Upgrading to a development release is not recommended for production environments.
For further stability of an LTS release, there is a slight change in behaviour if you are currently running an
LTS version. LTS systems are only automatically considered for an upgrade to the next LTS via do-release-
upgrade with the first point release. So for example 18.04 will only upgrade once 20.04.1 is released. If you
want to update before, e.g. on a subset of machines to evaluate the LTS upgrade for your setup the same
argument as an upgrade to a dev release has to be used via the -d switch.

Device Mapper Multipathing - Introduction

Device Mapper Multipath will be referred here as multipath only.
Multipath allows you to configure multiple I/O paths between server nodes and storage arrays into a single
device. These I/O paths are physical SAN connections that can include separate cables, switches, and
controllers.
Multipathing aggregates the I/O paths, creating a new device that consists of the aggregated paths. This
chapter provides an introduction and a high-level overview of multipath.

Overview

Multipath can be used to provide:

• Redundancy multipath can provide failover in an active/passive configuration. In an active/passive
configuration, only half the paths are used at any time for I/O. If any element of an I/O path (the
cable, switch, or controller) fails, multipath switches to an alternate path.
• Improved Performance Multipath can be configured in active/active mode, where I/O is spread over
the paths in a round-robin fashion. In some configurations, multipath can detect loading on the I/O
paths and dynamically re-balance the load.

Storage Array Overview

It is a very good idea to consult your storage vendor installation guide for the recommended multipath
configuration variables for your storage model. The default configuration will probably work but will likely
need adjustments based on your storage setup.

Multipath Components

| Component | Description | | - | - | | dm_multipath kernel module | Reroutes

I/O and supports failover for paths and path groups. | | multipath command | Lists and configures
multipath devices. Normally started up with /etc/rc. sysinit , it can also be started up by a udev program
whenever a block device is added or it can be run by the initramfs file system. | | multipathd daemon |
Monitors paths; as paths fail and come back, it may initiate path group switches. Provides for interactive

26
changes to multipath devices. This daemon must be restarted for any changes to the /etc/multipath.conf
file to take effect. | | kpartx command | Creates device mapper devices for the partitions on a device It is
necessary to use this command for DOS-based partitions with multipath. The kpartx is provided in its own
package, but the multipath-tools package depends on it. |

Multipath Setup Overview

multipath includes compiled-in default settings that are suitable for common multipath configurations.
Setting up multipath is often a simple procedure. The basic procedure for configuring your system with
multipath is as follows:
1. Install the multipath-tools and multipath-tools-boot packages
2. Create an empty config file called /etc/multipath.conf
3. Edit the multipath.conf file to modify default values and save the updated file.
4. Start the multipath daemon
5. Update initial ramdisk
For detailed setup instructions for multipath configuration see DM-Multipath Configuration and DM-
Multipath Setup.

Multipath Devices
Without multipath, each path from a server node to a storage controller is treated by the system as a
separate device, even when the I/O path connects the same server node to the same storage controller.
Multipath provides a way of organizing the I/O paths logically, by creating a single device on top of the
underlying paths.

Multipath Device Identifiers

Each multipath device has a World Wide Identifier (WWID), which is guaranteed to be globally unique
and unchanging. By default, the name of a multipath device is set to its WWID. Alternately, you can set
the user_friendly_names option in multipath.conf, which causes multipath to use a node-unique alias
of the form mpathn as the name.
For example, a node with two HBAs attached to a storage controller with two ports via a single unzoned
FC switch sees four devices: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, and /dev/sdd. Multipath creates a single
device with a unique WWID that reroutes I/O to those four underlying devices according to the multipath
configuration.
When the user_friendly_names configuration option is set to yes, the name of the multipath device is set
to mpathn. When new devices are brought under the control of multipath, the new devices may be seen in
two different places under the /dev directory: /dev/mapper/mpathn and /dev/dm-n.
• The devices in /dev/mapper are created early in the boot process. Use these devices to access
the multipathed devices.
• Any devices of the form /dev/dm-n are for internal use only and should never be used directly.
You can also set the name of a multipath device to a name of your choosing by using the alias option in the
multipaths section of the multipath configuration file.
For information on the multipath configuration defaults, including the user_friendly_names
and alias configuration options, see DM-Multipath Configuration.

27
Consistent Multipath Device Names in a Cluster

When the user_friendly_names configuration option is set to yes, the name of the multipath device is
unique to a node, but it is not guaranteed to be the same on all nodes using the multipath device. Similarly,
if you set the alias option for a device in the multipaths section of /etc/multipath.conf, the name is not
automatically consistent across all nodes in the cluster.
This should not cause any difficulties if you use LVM to create logical devices from the multipath device,
but if you require that your multipath device names be consistent in every node it is recommended that you
leave the user_friendly_names option set to no and that you not configure aliases for the devices.
If you configure an alias for a device that you would like to be consistent across the nodes in the cluster,
you should ensure that the /etc/multipath.conf file is the same for each node in the cluster by following the
same procedure:
1. Configure the aliases for the multipath devices in the in the multipath.conf file on one machine.
2. Disable all of your multipath devices on your other machines by running the following commands:
# s y s t e m c t l s t o p multipath −t o o l s . s e r v i c e
# m u l t i p a t h −F

3. Copy the /etc/multipath.conf file from the first machine to all the other machines in the cluster.
4. Re-enable the multipathd daemon on all the other machines in the cluster by running the following
command:
# s y s t e m c t l s t a r t multipath −t o o l s . s e r v i c e

When you add a new device you will need to repeat this process.

Multipath Device attributes

In addition to the user_friendly_names and alias options, a multipath device has numerous attributes.
You can modify these attributes for a specific multipath device by creating an entry for that device in the
multipaths section of /etc/multipath.conf.
For information on the multipaths section of the multipath configuration file, see DM-Multipath Configu-
ration.

Multipath Devices in Logical Volumes

After creating multipath devices, you can use the multipath device names just as you would use a physical
device name when creating an LVM physical volume.
For example, if /dev/mapper/mpatha is the name of a multipath device, the following command will mark
/dev/mapper/mpatha as a physical volume:
# p v c r e a t e / dev /mapper/mpatha

You can use the resulting LVM physical device when you create an LVM volume group just as you would
use any other LVM physical device.
Note
If you attempt to create an LVM physical volume on a whole device on which you have configured
partitions, the pvcreate command will fail.

28
When you create an LVM logical volume that uses active/passive multipath arrays as the underlying physical
devices, you should include filters in the lvm.conf to exclude the disks that underlie the multipath devices.
This is because if the array automatically changes the active path to the passive path when it receives I/O,
multipath will failover and failback whenever LVM scans the passive path if these devices are not filtered.
For active/passive arrays that require a command to make the passive path active, LVM prints a warning
message when this occurs. To filter all SCSI devices in the LVM configuration file (lvm.conf), include the
following filter in the devices section of the file.
f i l t e r = [ ” r / b l o c k / ” , ” r / d i s k / ” , ” r / sd . * / ” , ” a / . * / ” ]

After updating /etc/lvm.conf, it’s necessary to update the initrd so that this file will be copied there, where
the filter matters the most, during boot.
Perform:
update−i n i t r a m f s −u −k a l l

Note
Every time either /etc/lvm.conf or /etc/multipath.conf is updated, the initrd should be rebuilt
to reflect these changes. This is imperative when blacklists and filters are necessary to maintain
a stable storage configuration.

Device Mapper Multipathing - Configuration

Device Mapper Multipath will be referred here as multipath only.
Before moving on with this session it is recommended that you read: 1. Device Mapper Multi-
pathing - Introduction
Multipath is usually able to work out-of-the-box with most common storages. This doesn’t mean the default
configuration variables should be used in production: they don’t treat important parameters your storage
might need.
Consult your storage manufacturer’s install guide for the Linux Multipath configuration
options. It is very common that storage vendors provide the most adequate options for Linux,
including minimal kernel and multipath-tools versions required.
Default configuration values for DM-Multipath can be overridden by editing the /etc/multipath.conf file and
restarting the multipathd service.
This chapter provides information on parsing and modifying the multipath.conf file and it is split into the
following configuration file sections:
• Configuration File Overview
• Configuration File Defaults
• Configuration File Blacklist & Exceptions
• Configuration File Multipath Section
• Configuration File Devices Section

Configuration File Overview

The configuration file contains entries of the form:

29
<s e c t i o n > {
<a t t r i b u t e > <value >
...
<s u b s e c t i o n > {
<a t t r i b u t e > <value >
...
}
}

The following keywords are recognized:

• defaults - This section defines default values for attributes which are used whenever no values are
given in the appropriate device or multipath sections.
• blacklist - This section defines which devices should be excluded from the multipath topology discov-
ery.
• blacklist_exceptions - This section defines which devices should be included in the multipath topol-
ogy discovery, despite being listed in the blacklist section.
• multipaths - This section defines the multipath topologies. They are indexed by a World Wide
Identifier(WWID).Attributes set in this section take precedence over all others.
• devices - This section defines the device-specific settings. Devices are identified by vendor, product,
and revision.
• overrides - This section defines values for attributes that should override the device-specific settings
for all devices.

Configuration File Defaults

Currently, the multipath configuration file ONLY includes a minor defaults section that sets the
user_friendly_names parameter to yes:
defaults {
user_friendly_names yes
}

This overwrites the default value of the user_friendly_names parameter.

All the multipath attributes that can set in the defaults section of the multipath.conf file can be found
HERE with an explanation of what they mean. The attributes are:
• verbosity
• polling_interval
• max_polling_interval
• reassign_maps
• multipath_dir
• path_selector
• path_grouping_policy
• uid_attrs
• uid_attribute
• getuid_callout
• prio
• prio_args
• features
• path_checker
• alias_prefix

30
• failback
• rr_min_io
• rr_min_io_rq
• max_fds
• rr_weight
• no_path_retry
• queue_without_daemon
• checker_timeout
• flush_on_last_del
• user_friendly_names
• fast_io_fail_tmo
• dev_loss_tmo
• bindings_file
• wwids_file
• prkeys_file
• log_checker_err
• reservation_key
• all_tg_pt
• retain_attached_hw_handler
• detect_prio
• detect_checker
• force_sync
• strict_timing
• deferred_remove
• partition_delimiter
• config_dir
• san_path_err_threshold
• san_path_err_forget_rate
• san_path_err_recovery_time
• marginal_path_double_failed_time
• marginal_path_err_sample_time
• marginal_path_err_rate_threshold
• marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
• delay_watch_checks
• delay_wait_checks
• marginal_pathgroups
• find_multipaths
• find_multipaths_timeout
• uxsock_timeout
• retrigger_tries
• retrigger_delay
• missing_uev_wait_timeout
• skip_kpartx
• disable_changed_wwids
• remove_retries
• max_sectors_kb
• ghost_delay
• enable_foreign
Previously the multipath-tools project used to provide a complete configuration file with all
the most used options for each of the most used storage devices. Currently you can see all those
default options by executing sudo multipath −t. This will dump used configuration file including
all the embedded default options.

31
Configuration File Blacklist & Exceptions

The blacklist section is used to exclude specific devices from the multipath topology. It is most commonly
used to exclude local disks, non-multipathed OR non-disk devices.
1. Blacklist by devnode
The default blacklist consists of the regular expressions “ˆ(ram|zram|raw|loop|fd|md|dm-|sr|scd|st|dcssblk)[0-
9]” and “ˆ(td|hd|vd)[a-z]”. This causes virtual devices, non-disk devices, and some other device types
to be excluded from multipath handling by default.
blacklist {
devnode ”^( ram | zram | raw | l o o p | f d |md| dm−| s r | s c d | s t | d c s s b l k ) [0 −9]”
devnode ”^( td | hd | vd ) [ a−z ] ”
devnode ”^ c c i s s ! c [0 −9] d [0 −9]*”
}

2. Blacklist by wwid
Regular expression for the World Wide Identifier of a device to be excluded/included
3. Blacklist by device
Subsection for the device description. This subsection recognizes the vendor and product keywords.
Both are regular expressions.
device {
vendor ”LENOVO”
p ro d u c t ” U n i v e r s a l Xport ”
}

4. Blacklist by property
Regular expression for an udev property. All devices that have matching udev properties will be
excluded/included. The handling of the property keyword is special, because devices must have at least
one whitelisted udev property; otherwise they’re treated as blacklisted, and the message “blacklisted,
udev property missing” is displayed in the logs.
5. Blacklist by protocol
The protocol strings that multipath recognizes are scsi:fcp, scsi:spi, scsi:ssa, scsi:sbp, scsi:srp, scsi:iscsi,
scsi:sas, scsi:adt, scsi:ata, scsi:unspec, ccw, cciss, nvme, and undef. The protocol that a path is using
can be viewed by running multipathd show paths format “%d %P”
6. Blacklist Exceptions
The blacklist_exceptions section is used to revert the actions of the blacklist section. This allows one
to selectively include (“whitelist”) devices which would normally be excluded via the blacklist section.
blacklist_exceptions {
p r o p e r t y ” (SCSI_IDENT_ |ID_WWN) ”
}

A common usage is to blacklist “everything” using a catch-all regular expression, and create
specific blacklist_exceptions entries for those devices that should be handled by multipath-tools.

Configuration File Multipath Section

The multipaths section allows setting attributes of multipath maps. The attributes that are set via the
multipaths section (see list below) take precedence over all other configuration settings, including those
from the overrides section.

32
The only recognized attribute for the multipaths section is the multipath subsection. If there are multiple
multipath subsections matching a given WWID, the contents of these sections are merged, and settings from
later entries take precedence.
The multipath subsection recognizes the following attributes:
• wwid = (Mandatory) World Wide Identifier. Detected multipath maps are matched agains this
attribute. Note that, unlike the wwid attribute in the blacklist section, this is not a regular expression
or a substring; WWIDs must match exactly inside the multipaths section.
• alias = Symbolic name for the multipath map. This takes precedence over a an entry for the same
WWID in the bindings_file.
The following attributes are optional; if not set the default values are taken from the overrides, devices, or
defaults section:
• path_grouping_policy
• path_selector
• prio
• prio_args
• failback
• rr_weight
• no_path_retry
• rr_min_io
• rr_min_io_rq
• flush_on_last_del
• features
• reservation_key
• user_friendly_names
• deferred_remove
• san_path_err_threshold
• san_path_err_forget_rate
• san_path_err_recovery_time
• marginal_path_err_sample_time
• marginal_path_err_rate_threshold
• marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
• marginal_path_double_failed_time
• delay_watch_checks
• delay_wait_checks
• skip_kpartx
• max_sectors_kb
• ghost_delay
Example:
multipaths {
multipath {
wwid 3600508 b4000156d700012000000b0000
alias yellow
path_grouping_policy multibus
path_selector ” round−r o b i n 0”
failback manual
rr_weight priorities
no_path_retry 5
}
multipath {
wwid 1DEC_____321816758474

33
 alias red
}
}

Configuration File Devices Section

multipath-tools have a built-in device table with reasonable defaults for more than 100 known multipath-
capable storage devices.The devices section can be used to override these settings. If there are multiple
matches for a given device, the attributes of all matching entries are applied to it. If an attribute is specified
in several matching device subsections, later entries take precedence.
The only recognized attribute for the devices section is the device subsection. Devices detected in the system
are matched against the device entries using the vendor, product, and revision fields.
The vendor, product, and revision fields that multipath or multipathd detect for devices in a system depend
on the device type. For SCSI devices, they correspond to the respective fields of the SCSI INQUIRY page. In
general, the command ‘multipathd show paths format “%d %s” ’ command can be used to see the detected
properties for all devices in the system.
The device subsection recognizes the following attributes:
1. vendor(Mandatory) Regular expression to match the vendor name.
2. product(Mandatory) Regular expression to match the product name.
3. revisionRegular expression to match the product revision.
4. product_blacklistProducts with the given vendor matching this string are blacklisted.
5. alias_prefixThe user_friendly_names prefix to use for this device type, instead of the default
“mpath”.
6. hardware_handlerThe hardware handler to use for this device type. The following hardware handler
are implemented:
• 1 emc - (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for DGC class arrays as CLARiiON CX/AX
and EMC VNX and Unity families.
• 1 rdac - (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for LSI / Engenio / NetApp RDAC class as
NetApp SANtricity E/EF Series, and OEM arrays from IBM DELL SGI STK and SUN.
• 1 hp_sw - (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for HP/COMPAQ/DEC HSG80 and
MSA/HSV arrays with Active/Standby mode exclusively.
• 1 alua - (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for SCSI-3 ALUA compatible arrays.
• 1 ana - (Hardware-dependent) Hardware handler for NVMe ANA compatible arrays.
The following attributes are optional; if not set the default values are taken from the defaults section:
• path_grouping_policy
• uid_attribute
• getuid_callout
• path_selector
• path_checker
• prio
• prio_args
• features
• failback
• rr_weight
• no_path_retry
• rr_min_io
• rr_min_io_rq
• fast_io_fail_tmo
• dev_loss_tmo
• flush_on_last_del

34
 • user_friendly_names
• retain_attached_hw_handler
• detect_prio
• detect_checker
• deferred_remove
• san_path_err_threshold
• san_path_err_forget_rate
• san_path_err_recovery_time
• marginal_path_err_sample_time
• marginal_path_err_rate_threshold
• marginal_path_err_recheck_gap_time
• marginal_path_double_failed_time
• delay_watch_checks
• delay_wait_checks
• skip_kpartx
• max_sectors_kb
• ghost_delay
• all_tg_pt
Example:
devices {
device {
vendor ”3PARdata”
pr o d u ct ”VV”
path_grouping_policy ” group_by_prio ”
hardware_handler ”1 a l u a ”
prio ” alua ”
f a i l b a c k ” immediate ”
no_path_retry 18
f a s t _ i o _ f a i l _ t m o 10
dev_loss_tmo ” i n f i n i t y ”
}
device {
vendor ”DEC”
pr o d u ct ”HSG80”
path_grouping_policy ” group_by_prio ”
path_checker ”hp_sw”
hardware_handler ”1 hp_sw”
p r i o ”hp_sw”
no_path_retry ” queue ”
}
}

Device Mapper Multipathing - Setup

Device Mapper Multipath will be referred here as multipath only.
Before moving on with this session it is recommended that you read: 1. Device Mapper Multi-
pathing - Introduction 2. Device Mapper Multipathing - Configuration
This section provides step-by-step example procedures for configuring multipath.
It includes the following procedures:

35
 • Basic setup
– Main defaults & devices attributes.
– Shows how to ignore disks with blacklists
– Shows how to rename disks using WWIDs
• Configuring active/active paths

Basic Setup

Before setting up multipath on your system, ensure that your system has been updated and includes the
multipath-tools package. If boot from SAN is desired, then the multipath-tools-boot package is also
required.
A very simple /etc/multipath.conf file exists, as explained in Device Mapper Multipathing - Configuration
session. All the non-declared in multipath.conf attributes are taken from multipath-tools internal database
and its internal blacklist.
The internal attributes database can be acquired by doing:
$ sudo multipath -t
Multipath is usually able to work out-of-the-box with most common storages. This does not mean the
default configuration variables should be used in production: they don’t treat important parameters your
storage might need.
With the internal attributes, described above, and the given example bellow, you will likely be able to
create your /etc/multipath.conf file by squashing the code blocks bellow. Make sure to read every defaults
section attribute comments and change it based on your environment needs.
• Example of a defaults section:
defaults {
#
# name : polling_interval
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : i n t e r v a l between two path c h e c k s i n s e c o n d s . For
# p r o p e r l y f u n c t i o n i n g paths , t h e i n t e r v a l between c h e c k s
# w i l l gradually i n c r e a s e to (4 * p o l l i n g _ i n t e r v a l ) .
# values : n > 0
# default : 5
#
p o l l i n g _ i n t e r v a l 10

#
# name : path_selector
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e d e f a u l t path s e l e c t o r a l g o r i t h m t o u s e
# t h e s e a l g o r i t h m s a r e o f f e r e d by t h e k e r n e l m u l t i p a t h t a r g e t
# v a l u e s : ” round−r o b i n 0” = Loop through e v e r y path i n t h e path group ,
# s e n d i n g t h e same amount o f IO t o each .
# ” queue−l e n g t h 0” = Send t h e next bunch o f IO down t h e path
# with t h e l e a s t amount o f o u t s t a n d i n g IO .
# ” s e r v i c e −time 0” = Choose t h e path f o r t h e next bunch o f IO
# based on t h e amount o f o u t s t a n d i n g IO t o
# t h e path and i t s r e l a t i v e throughput .
# d e f a u l t : ” s e r v i c e −time 0”

36
#
p a t h _ s e l e c t o r ” round−r o b i n 0”

#
# name : path_grouping_policy
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e d e f a u l t path g r o u p i n g p o l i c y t o apply t o u n s p e c i f i e d
# multipaths
# values : f a i l o v e r = 1 path p e r p r i o r i t y group
# multibus = a l l v a l i d p a t h s i n 1 p r i o r i t y group
# group_by_serial = 1 p r i o r i t y group p e r d e t e c t e d s e r i a l
# number
# group_by_prio = 1 p r i o r i t y group p e r path p r i o r i t y
# value
# group_by_node_name = 1 p r i o r i t y group p e r t a r g e t node name
# default : failover
#
path_grouping_policy m u l t i b u s

#
# name : uid_attribute
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e d e f a u l t udev a t t r i b u t e from which t h e path
# i d e n t i f i e r s h o u l d be g e n e r a t e d .
# d e f a u l t : ID_SERIAL
#
u i d _ a t t r i b u t e ”ID_SERIAL”

#
# name : getuid_callout
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e d e f a u l t program and a r g s t o c a l l o u t t o o b t a i n a unique
# path i d e n t i f i e r . This parameter i s d e p r e c a t e d .
# This parameter i s d e p r e c a t e d , s u p e r s e d e d by u i d _ a t t r i b u t e
# d e f a u l t : / l i b / udev / s c s i _ i d −−w h i t e l i s t e d −−d e v i c e =/dev/%n
#
g e t u i d _ c a l l o u t ”/ l i b / udev / s c s i _ i d −−w h i t e l i s t e d −−d e v i c e =/dev/%n”

#
# name : prio
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e d e f a u l t f u n c t i o n t o c a l l t o o b t a i n a path
# p r i o r i t y v a l u e . The ALUA b i t s i n SPC−3 p r o v i d e an
# e x p l o i t a b l e p r i o v a l u e f o r example .
# default : const
#
# prio ” alua ”

#
# name : prio_args
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The arguments s t r i n g p a s s e d t o t h e p r i o f u n c t i o n
# Most p r i o f u n c t i o n s do not need arguments . The
# d a t a c o r e p r i o r i t i z e r need one .

37
# default : ( null )
#
# p r i o _ a r g s ” t i m e o u t =1000 p r e f e r r e d s d s=f o o ”

#
# name : features
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The d e f a u l t e x t r a f e a t u r e s o f m u l t i p a t h d e v i c e s .
# Syntax i s ”num [ f e a t u r e _ 0 f e a t u r e _ 1 . . . ] ” , where ‘num ’ i s t h e
# number o f f e a t u r e s i n t h e f o l l o w i n g ( p o s s i b l y empty ) l i s t o f
# features .
# values : queue_if_no_path = Queue IO i f no path i s a c t i v e ; c o n s i d e r
# u s i n g t h e ‘ no_path_retry ’ keyword i n s t e a d .
# no_partitions = Disable automatic p a r t i t i o n s generation via
# kpartx .
# default : ”0”
#
features ”0”
#f e a t u r e s ”1 queue_if_no_path ”
#f e a t u r e s ”1 n o _ p a r t i t i o n s ”
#f e a t u r e s ”2 queue_if_no_path n o _ p a r t i t i o n s ”

#
# name : path_checker , c h e c k e r
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e d e f a u l t method used t o d e t e r m i n e t h e paths ’ s t a t e
# v a l u e s : r e a d s e c t o r 0 | t u r | e m c _ c l a r i i o n | hp_sw | d i r e c t i o | r d a c | c c i s s _ t u r
# default : directio
#
path_checker d i r e c t i o

#
# name : rr_min_io
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e number o f IO t o r o u t e t o a path b e f o r e s w i t c h i n g
# t o t h e next i n t h e same path group f o r t h e bio−based
# m u l t i p a t h i m p l e m e n t a t i o n . This parameter i s used f o r
# k e r n e l s v e r s i o n up t o 2 . 6 . 3 1 ; newer k e r n e l v e r s i o n
# u s e t h e parameter rr_min_io_rq
# default : 1000
#
rr_min_io 100

#
# name : rr_min_io_rq
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t h e number o f IO t o r o u t e t o a path b e f o r e s w i t c h i n g
# t o t h e next i n t h e same path group f o r t h e r e q u e s t −based
# m u l t i p a t h i m p l e m e n t a t i o n . This parameter i s used f o r
# k e r n e l s v e r s i o n s l a t e r than 2 . 6 . 3 1 .
# default : 1
#
rr_min_io_rq 1

38
#
# name : flush_on_last_del
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : I f s e t t o ” y e s ” , m u lt i p a t h d w i l l d i s a b l e q u e u e i n g when t h e
# l a s t path t o a d e v i c e has been d e l e t e d .
# v a l u e s : y e s | no
# d e f a u l t : no
#
flush_on_last_del yes

#
# name : max_fds
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : S e t s t h e maximum number o f open f i l e d e s c r i p t o r s f o r t h e
# mu l ti p a t h d p r o c e s s .
# v a l u e s : max | n > 0
# d e f a u l t : None
#
max_fds 8192

#
# name : rr_weight
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : i f s e t to p r i o r i t i e s the multipath c o n f i g u r a t o r w i l l a s s i g n
# path w e i g h t s a s ” path p r i o * rr_min_io ”
# values : p r i o r i t i e s | uniform
# default : uniform
#
rr_weight priorities

#
# name : failback
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : t e l l t h e daemon t o manage path group f a i l b a c k , o r not t o .
# 0 means immediate f a i l b a c k , v a l u e s >0 means d e f f e r e d
# f a i l b a c k expressed in seconds .
# v a l u e s : manual | immediate | n > 0
# d e f a u l t : manual
#
f a i l b a c k immediate

#
# name : no_path_retry
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : t e l l t h e number o f r e t r i e s u n t i l d i s a b l e queueing , o r
# ” f a i l ” means immediate f a i l u r e ( no q u e u e i n g ) ,
# ” queue ” means n e v e r s t o p q u e u e i n g
# v a l u e s : queue | f a i l | n ( >0)
# default : ( null )
#
no_path_retry f a i l

#
# name : queue_without_daemon

39
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : I f s e t t o ” no ” , m u lt i p a t h d w i l l d i s a b l e q u e u e i n g f o r a l l
# d e v i c e s when i t i s s h u t down .
# v a l u e s : y e s | no
# d e f a u l t : yes
queue_without_daemon no

#
# name : user_friendly_names
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : I f s e t to ” yes ” , using the bindings f i l e
# / e t c / m u l t i p a t h / b i n d i n g s t o a s s i g n a p e r s i s t e n t and
# unique a l i a s t o t h e multipath , i n t h e form o f mpath<n>.
# I f s e t t o ” no ” u s e t h e WWID a s t h e a l i a s . In e i t h e r c a s e
# t h i s be w i l l be o v e r r i d e n by any s p e c i f i c a l i a s e s i n t h i s
# file .
# v a l u e s : y e s | no
# d e f a u l t : no
user_friendly_names yes

#
# name : mode
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The mode t o u s e f o r t h e m u l t i p a t h d e v i c e nodes , i n o c t a l .
# values : 0000 − 0777
# default : d et e r m i n ed by t h e p r o c e s s
mode 0644

#
# name : uid
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The u s e r i d t o u s e f o r t h e m u l t i p a t h d e v i c e nodes . You
# may u s e e i t h e r t h e numeric o r s y m b o l i c u i d
# values : <user_id>
# default : d et e r m i n ed by t h e p r o c e s s
uid 0

#
# name : gid
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The group i d t o u s e r f o r t h e m u l t i p a t h d e v i c e nodes . You
# may u s e e i t h e r t h e numeric o r s y m b o l i c g i d
# values : <group_id>
# default : d et e r m i n ed by t h e p r o c e s s
gid disk

#
# name : ch ec ke r _t im eo u t
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The t i m e o u t t o u s e f o r path c h e c k e r s and p r i o r i t i z e r s
# t h a t i s s u e s c s i commands with an e x p l i c i t timeout , i n
# seconds .
# values : n > 0
# d e f a u l t : taken from / s y s / b l o c k / sd<x>/ d e v i c e / t i m e o u t

40
ch ec k er _t i m e ou t 60

#
# name : fast_io_fail_tmo
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The number o f s e c o n d s t h e s c s i l a y e r w i l l w a i t a f t e r a
# problem has been d e t e c t e d on a FC remote p o r t b e f o r e f a i l i n g
# IO t o d e v i c e s on t h a t remote p o r t .
# v a l u e s : o f f | n >= 0 ( s m a l l e r than dev_loss_tmo )
# d e f a u l t : d et e r m i n ed by t h e OS
fast_io_fail_tmo 5

#
# name : dev_loss_tmo
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : The number o f s e c o n d s t h e s c s i l a y e r w i l l w a i t a f t e r a
# problem has been d e t e c t e d on a FC remote p o r t b e f o r e
# removing i t from t h e system .
# values : i n f i n i t y | n > 0
# d e f a u l t : d et e r m i n ed by t h e OS
dev_loss_tmo 120

#
# name : bindings_file
# scope : multipath
# desc : The l o c a t i o n o f t h e b i n d i n g s f i l e t h a t i s used with
# the user_friendly_names option .
# v a l u e s : <full_pathname>
# d e f a u l t : ”/ var / l i b / m u l t i p a t h / b i n d i n g s ”
# b i n d i n g s _ f i l e ”/ e t c / m u l t i p a t h / b i n d i n g s ”

#
# name : wwids_file
# scope : multipath
# desc : The l o c a t i o n o f t h e wwids f i l e m u l t i p a t h u s e s t o
# keep t r a c k o f t h e c r e a t e d m u l t i p a t h d e v i c e s .
# v a l u e s : <full_pathname>
# d e f a u l t : ”/ var / l i b / m u l t i p a t h / wwids ”
# w w i d s _ f i l e ”/ e t c / m u l t i p a t h / wwids ”

#
# name : reservation_key
# scope : multipath
# desc : S e r v i c e a c t i o n r e s e r v a t i o n key used by m p a t h p e r s i s t .
# v a l u e s : <key>
# default : ( null )
# r e s e r v a t i o n _ k e y ” mpathkey ”

#
# name : force_sync
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : I f s e t t o yes , m u l t i p a t h w i l l run a l l o f t h e c h e c k e r s i n
# sync mode , even i f t h e c h e c k e r has an async mode .
# values : y e s | no

41
 # d e f a u l t : no
force_sync yes

#
# name : config_dir
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : I f not s e t t o an empty s t r i n g , m u l t i p a t h w i l l s e a r c h
# t h i s d i r e c t o r y a l p h a b e t i c a l l y f o r f i l e s ending in ” . conf ”
# and i t w i l l r e a d c o n f i g u r a t i o n i n f o r m a t i o n from t h e s e
# f i l e s , j u s t a s i f i t was i n / e t c / m u l t i p a t h . c o n f
# v a l u e s : ”” o r a f u l l y q u a l i f i e d pathname
# d e f a u l t : ”/ e t c / m u l t i p a t h / c o n f . d”

#
# name : delay_watch_checks
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : I f s e t t o a v a l u e g r e a t e r than 0 , m u l t i p a t h d w i l l watch
# pa t h s t h a t have r e c e n t l y become v a l i d f o r t h i s many
# checks . I f they f a i l a g a i n w h i l e they a r e b e i n g watched ,
# when they next become v a l i d , they w i l l not be used u n t i l
# they have s t a y e d up f o r delay_wait_checks c h e c k s .
# v a l u e s : no|<n> > 0
# d e f a u l t : no
delay_watch_checks 12

#
# name : delay_wait_checks
# scope : m u lt i p a th d
# desc : I f s e t t o a v a l u e g r e a t e r than 0 , when a d e v i c e t h a t has
# r e c e n t l y come back o n l i n e f a i l s a g a i n w i t h i n
# delay_watch_checks checks , t h e next time i t comes back
# o n l i n e , i t w i l l marked and del aye d , and not used u n t i l
# i t has p a s s e d delay_wait_checks c h e c k s .
# v a l u e s : no|<n> > 0
# d e f a u l t : no
delay_wait_checks 12
}

• Example of a multipaths section. > Note: You can obtain the WWIDs for your LUNs executing: >
> $ multipath -ll > > after the service multipath-tools.service has been restarted.
multipaths {
multipath {
wwid 360000000000000000 e00000000030001
a l i a s yellow
}
multipath {
wwid 360000000000000000 e00000000020001
a l i a s blue
}
multipath {
wwid 360000000000000000 e00000000010001
a l i a s red
}
multipath {

42
 wwid 360000000000000000 e00000000040001
a l i a s green
}
multipath {
wwid 360000000000000000 e00000000050001
a l i a s purple
}
}

• Small example of a devices section:

# devices {
# device {
# vendor ”IBM”
# p ro d u c t ”2107900”
# path_grouping_policy g r o u p _ b y _ s e r i a l
# }
# }
#

• Example of a blacklist section:

# name : blacklist
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : l i s t o f d e v i c e names t o d i s c a r d a s not m u l t i p a t h c a n d i d a t e s
#
# D e v i c e s can be i d e n t i f i e d by t h e i r d e v i c e node name ” devnode ” ,
# t h e i r WWID ”wwid ” , o r t h e i r vender and p r o d u c t s t r i n g s ” d e v i c e ”
# d e f a u l t : fd , hd , md, dm, s r , scd , s t , ram , raw , loop , d c s s b l k
#
# blacklist {
# wwid 26353900 f 0 2 7 9 6 7 6 9
# devnode ”^( ram | raw | l o o p | f d |md| dm−| s r | s c d | s t ) [0 − 9] \* ”
# devnode ”^hd [ a−z ] ”
# devnode ”^ d c s s b l k [0 −9]\*”
# device {
# vendor DEC. \ *
# p ro d u c t MSA[ 1 5 ] 0 0
# }
# }

• Example of a blacklist exception section:

# name : blacklist_exceptions
# scope : m u l t i p a t h & m u lt i p a t h d
# desc : l i s t o f d e v i c e names t o be t r e a t e d a s m u l t i p a t h c a n d i d a t e s
# even i f they a r e on t h e b l a c k l i s t .
#
# Note : b l a c k l i s t e x c e p t i o n s a r e o n l y v a l i d i n t h e same c l a s s .
# I t i s not p o s s i b l e t o b l a c k l i s t d e v i c e s u s i n g t h e devnode keyword
# and t o e x c l u d e some d e v i c e s o f them u s i n g t h e wwid keyword .
# default : −
#
# blacklist_exceptions {
# devnode ”^ dasd [ c−d ]+[0 −9]\*”
# wwid ”IBM. 7 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 2 4 6 1 . 4 d00 . 3 4 ”

43
# wwid ”IBM. 7 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 2 4 6 1 . 4 d00 . 3 5 ”
# wwid ”IBM. 7 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 2 4 6 1 . 4 d00 . 3 6 ”
# }

Device Mapper Multipathing - Usage & Debug

Device Mapper Multipath will be referred here as multipath only.
Before moving on with this session it is recommended that you read: 1. Device Mapper Mul-
tipathing - Introduction 2. Device Mapper Multipathing - Configuration 3. Device Mapper
Multipathing - Setup
This section provides step-by-step example procedures for configuring multipath.
It includes the following procedures:
• Resizing Online Multipath Devices
• Moving root File System from a Single Path Device to a Multipath Device
• The Multipath Daemon
• Issues with queue_if_no_path
• Multipath Command Output
• Multipath Queries with multipath Command
• Determining Device Mapper Entries with dmsetup Command
• Troubleshooting with the multipathd interactive console

Resizing Online Multipath Devices

First find all the paths to the LUN about to be resized:

$ sudo m u l t i p a t h − l l
mpathb ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 6 e e e 8 e c 6 e 1 1 6 4 f c b 9 5 9 0 8 6 4 8 2 ) dm−0 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 1
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d e 8 : 6 4 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d f 8 : 8 0 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
mpatha ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 e 3 c 2 8 4 1 4 3 0 e e 4 b f 3 8 7 1 b 1 9 9 8 b ) dm−1 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 2
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 s d c 8 : 3 2 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 sdd 8 : 4 8 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g

Now I’ll reconfigure mpathb (with wwid = 360014056eee8ec6e1164fcb959086482) to have 2GB instead of
just 1Gb and check if has changed:
$ echo 1 | sudo t e e / s y s / b l o c k / s d e / d e v i c e / r e s c a n
1
$ echo 1 | sudo t e e / s y s / b l o c k / s d f / d e v i c e / r e s c a n
1
$ sudo m u l t i p a t h − l l

44
mpathb ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 6 e e e 8 e c 6 e 1 1 6 4 f c b 9 5 9 0 8 6 4 8 2 ) dm−0 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 1
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d e 8 : 6 4 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d f 8 : 8 0 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
mpatha ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 e 3 c 2 8 4 1 4 3 0 e e 4 b f 3 8 7 1 b 1 9 9 8 b ) dm−1 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 2
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 s d c 8 : 3 2 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 sdd 8 : 4 8 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g

Not yet! We still need to re-scan the multipath map:

$ sudo m u l ti p a t h d r e s i z e map mpathb
ok

And then we are good:

$ sudo m u l t i p a t h − l l
mpathb ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 6 e e e 8 e c 6 e 1 1 6 4 f c b 9 5 9 0 8 6 4 8 2 ) dm−0 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 1
s i z e =2.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d e 8 : 6 4 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
.‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d f 8 : 8 0 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
mpatha ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 e 3 c 2 8 4 1 4 3 0 e e 4 b f 3 8 7 1 b 1 9 9 8 b ) dm−1 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 2
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 s d c 8 : 3 2 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =50 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 sdd 8 : 4 8 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g

Make sure to run resize2fs /dev/mapper/mpathb to resize the filesystem.

Moving root File System from a Single Path Device to a Multipath Device

This is dramatically simplified by the use of UUIDs to identify devices as an intrinsic label. Simply install
multipath-tools-boot and reboot. This will rebuild the initial ramdisk and afford multipath the opportunity
to build it’s paths before the root filesystem is mounted by UUID.
Note
Whenever multipath.conf is updated, so should the initrd by executing:
update−initramfs −u −k all
The reason behind is multipath.conf is copied to the ramdisk and is integral to determining the
available devices to map via it’s blacklist and devices sections.

The Multipath Daemon

If you find you have trouble implementing a multipath configuration, you should ensure the multipath
daemon is running as described in Device Mapper Multipathing - Setup. The multipathd daemon must be
running in order to use** multipath** devices.

45
Multipath Command Output

When you create, modify, or list a multipath device, you get a printout of the current device setup. The for-
mat is as follows. For each multipath device: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
action_if_any: alias (wwid_if_different_from_alias) dm_device_name_if_known vendor,product
size=size features=‘features’ hwhandler=‘hardware_handler’ wp=write_permission_if_known ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For each path group: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-+- policy=‘scheduling_policy’ prio=prio_if_known status=path_group_status_if_known ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For each path: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
− host:channel:id:lun devnode major:minor dm_status_if_known path_status online_status ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For example, the output of a multipath command might appear as follows: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
mpathb (360014056eee8ec6e1164fcb959086482)dm−0 LIO−ORG,lun01 size=2.0G features=’0’ hwhandler
=’1 alua’ wp=rw |−+− policy=’service−time 0’ prio=50 status=active |- 7:0:0:1 sde 8:64 active ready
running −+− policy=’service−time 0’ prio=50 status=enabled- 8:0:0:1 sdf 8:80 active ready running
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If
the path is up and ready for I/O, the status of the path is ready or ghost. If the path is down, the status
is faulty or shaky. The path status is updated periodically by the multipathd daemon based on the
polling interval defined in the /etc/multipath.conf file.
The dm_status is similar to the path status, but from the kernel’s point of view. The dm_status has two
states: failed, which is analogous to faulty, and active, which covers all other path states. Occasionally,
the path state and the dm state of a device will temporary not agree.
The possible values for online_status are running and offline. A status of offline means that the SCSI
device has been disabled.

Multipath Queries with multipath Command

You can use the -l and -ll options of the multipath command to display the current multipath configuration.
The -l option displays multipath topology gathered from information in sysfs and the device mapper. The
-ll option displays the information the -l displays in addition to all other available components of the system.
When displaying the multipath configuration, there are three verbosity levels you can specify with the -v
option of the multipath command. Specifying -v0 yields no output. Specifying-v1 outputs the created
or updated multipath names only, which you can then feed to other tools such as kpartx. Specifying
-v2 prints all detected paths, multipaths, and device maps.
Note The default verbosity level of multipath is 2 and can be globally modified by defining the
verbosity attribute in the defaults section of multipath.conf.
The following example shows the output of a multipath -l command.
$ sudo m u l t i p a t h − l
mpathb ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 6 e e e 8 e c 6 e 1 1 6 4 f c b 9 5 9 0 8 6 4 8 2 ) dm−0 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 1
s i z e =2.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =0 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d e 8 : 6 4 a c t i v e undef ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =0 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d f 8 : 8 0 a c t i v e undef ru n n in g
mpatha ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 e 3 c 2 8 4 1 4 3 0 e e 4 b f 3 8 7 1 b 1 9 9 8 b ) dm−1 LIO−ORG, l u n 0 2
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler =’1 alua ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =0 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 s d c 8 : 3 2 a c t i v e undef ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =0 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 sdd 8 : 4 8 a c t i v e undef ru n n in g

46
Determining Device Mapper Entries with dmsetup Command

You can use the dmsetup command to find out which device mapper entries match the multipathed devices.
The following command displays all the device mapper devices and their major and minor numbers. The
minor numbers determine the name of the dm device. For example, a minor number of 1 corresponds to the
multipathd device /dev/dm-1.
$ sudo dmsetup l s
mpathb ( 2 5 3 : 0 )
mpatha ( 2 5 3 : 1 )

$ l s −l a h d / dev /dm*
brw−rw−−−− 1 r o o t d i s k 2 5 3 , 0 Apr 27 1 4 : 4 9 / dev /dm−0
brw−rw−−−− 1 r o o t d i s k 2 5 3 , 1 Apr 27 1 4 : 4 7 / dev /dm−1

Troubleshooting with the multipathd interactive console

The multipathd -k command is an interactive interface to the multipathd daemon. Entering this command
brings up an interactive multipath console. After entering this command, you can enter help to get a list of
available commands, you can enter a interactive command, or you can enter CTRL-D to quit.
The multipathd interactive console can be used to troubleshoot problems you may be having with your system.
For example, the following command sequence displays the multipath configuration, including the defaults,
before exiting the console. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ sudo multipathd -k > show config > CTRL-D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following command sequence ensures that multipath has picked up any changes to the multipath.conf,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ $
sudo multipathd -k > reconfigure > CTRL-D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Use the following command sequence to ensure that the path checker is working properly. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ sudo multipathd -k > show paths > CTRL-D ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commands can also be streamed into multipathd using STDIN like so: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$ echo ‘show config’ | sudo multipathd -k ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Networking
Networks consist of two or more devices, such as computer systems, printers, and related equipment which are
connected by either physical cabling or wireless links for the purpose of sharing and distributing information
among the connected devices.
This section provides general and specific information pertaining to networking, including an overview of
network concepts and detailed discussion of popular network protocols.

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

47
TCP/IP Introduction

The two protocol components of TCP/IP deal with different aspects of computer networking. Internet
Protocol, the “IP” of TCP/IP is a connectionless protocol which deals only with network packet routing
using the IP Datagram as the basic unit of networking information. The IP Datagram consists of a header
followed by a message. The Transmission Control Protocol is the “TCP” of TCP/IP and enables network
hosts to establish connections which may be used to exchange data streams. TCP also guarantees that the
data between connections is delivered and that it arrives at one network host in the same order as sent from
another network host.

TCP/IP Configuration

The TCP/IP protocol configuration consists of several elements which must be set by editing the appropriate
configuration files, or deploying solutions such as the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server
which in turn, can be configured to provide the proper TCP/IP configuration settings to network clients
automatically. These configuration values must be set correctly in order to facilitate 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 numbers ranging
from zero (0) to two-hundred and fifty-five (255), separated by periods, with each of the four numbers
representing eight (8) bits of the address for a total length of thirty-two (32) bits for the 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 separate
the 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 first three
bytes of the IP address and allows the last byte of the IP address to remain available for specifying
hosts on the subnetwork.
• Network Address The Network Address represents the bytes comprising the network portion of an
IP address. For example, the host 12.128.1.2 in a Class A network would use 12.0.0.0 as the network
address, where twelve (12) represents the first byte of the IP address, (the network part) and zeroes
(0) in all of the remaining three bytes to represent the potential host values. A network host using the
private IP address 192.168.1.100 would in turn use a Network Address of 192.168.1.0, 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.
• Broadcast Address The Broadcast Address is an IP address which allows network data to be sent
simultaneously to all hosts on a given subnetwork rather than specifying a particular host. The
standard general broadcast address for IP networks is 255.255.255.255, but this broadcast address
cannot be used to send a broadcast message to every host on the Internet because routers block it.
A more appropriate broadcast address is set to match a specific subnetwork. For example, on the
private Class C IP network, 192.168.1.0, the broadcast address is 192.168.1.255. Broadcast messages
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 another network host,
and that host is not located on the same network, then a gateway must be used. In many cases, the
Gateway Address will be that of a router on the same network, which will in turn pass traffic on to
other networks or hosts, such as Internet hosts. The value of the Gateway Address setting must be
correct, or your system will not be able to reach any hosts beyond those on the same network.
• Nameserver Address Nameserver Addresses represent the IP addresses of Domain Name Service
(DNS) systems, which resolve network hostnames into IP addresses. There are three levels of Name-

48
 server Addresses, which may be specified in order of precedence: The Primary Nameserver, the Sec-
ondary Nameserver, and the Tertiary Nameserver. In order for your system to be able to resolve network
hostnames into their corresponding IP addresses, you must specify valid Nameserver Addresses which
you are authorized to use in your system’s TCP/IP configuration. In many cases these addresses can
and will be provided by your network service provider, but many free and publicly accessible name-
servers are available for use, such as the Level3 (Verizon) servers with IP addresses from 4.2.2.1 to
4.2.2.6.
Tip
The IP address, Netmask, Network Address, Broadcast Address, Gateway Address, and
Nameserver Addresses are typically specified via the appropriate directives in the file /etc/
network/interfaces. For more information, view the system manual page for interfaces , with
the following command typed at a terminal prompt:
Access the system manual page for interfaces with the following command:
man i n t e r f a c e s

IP Routing

IP routing is a means of specifying and discovering paths in a TCP/IP network along which network data
may be sent. Routing uses a set of routing tables to direct the forwarding of network data packets from
their source to the destination, often via many intermediary network nodes known as routers. There are two
primary forms of IP routing: Static Routing and Dynamic Routing.
Static routing involves manually adding IP routes to the system’s routing table, and this is usually done
by manipulating the routing table with the route command. Static routing enjoys many advantages over
dynamic routing, such as simplicity of implementation on smaller networks, predictability (the routing table
is always computed in advance, and thus the route is precisely the same each time it is used), and low
overhead on other routers and network links due to the lack of a dynamic routing protocol. However, static
routing does present some disadvantages as well. For example, static routing is limited to small networks
and does not scale well. Static routing also fails completely to adapt to network outages and failures along
the route due to the fixed nature of the route.
Dynamic routing depends on large networks with multiple possible IP routes from a source to a destination
and makes use of special routing protocols, such as the Router Information Protocol (RIP), which handle the
automatic adjustments in routing tables that make dynamic routing possible. Dynamic routing has several
advantages over static routing, such as superior scalability and the ability to adapt to failures and outages
along network routes. Additionally, there is less manual configuration of the routing tables, since routers
learn from one another about their existence and available routes. This trait also eliminates the possibility
of introducing mistakes in the routing tables via human error. Dynamic routing is not perfect, however,
and presents disadvantages such as heightened complexity and additional network overhead from router
communications, which does not immediately benefit the end users, but still consumes network bandwidth.

TCP and UDP

TCP is a connection-based protocol, offering error correction and guaranteed delivery of data via what is
known as flow control. Flow control determines when the flow of a data stream needs to be stopped, and
previously sent data packets should to be re-sent due to problems such as collisions, for example, thus
ensuring complete and accurate delivery of the data. TCP is typically used in the exchange of important
information such as database transactions.
The User Datagram Protocol (UDP), on the other hand, is a connectionless protocol which seldom deals
with the transmission of important data because it lacks flow control or any other method to ensure reliable

49
delivery of the data. UDP is commonly used in such applications as audio and video streaming, where it is
considerably faster than TCP due to the lack of error correction and flow control, and where the loss of a
few packets is not generally catastrophic.

ICMP

The Internet Control Messaging Protocol (ICMP) is an extension to the Internet Protocol (IP) as defined
in the Request For Comments (RFC) #792 and supports network packets containing control, error, and
informational messages. ICMP is used by such network applications as the ping utility, which can determine
the availability of a network host or device. Examples of some error messages returned by ICMP which
are useful to both network hosts and devices such as routers, include Destination Unreachable and Time
Exceeded.

Daemons

Daemons are special system applications which typically execute continuously in the background and await
requests for the functions they provide from other applications. Many daemons are network-centric; that is,
a large number of daemons executing in the background on an Ubuntu system may provide network-related
functionality. Some examples of such network daemons include the Hyper Text Transport Protocol Daemon
(httpd), which provides web server functionality; the Secure SHell Daemon (sshd), which provides secure
remote login shell and file transfer capabilities; and the Internet Message Access Protocol Daemon (imapd),
which provides E-Mail services.

Resources

• There are man pages for TCP and IP that contain more useful information.
• Also, see the TCP/IP Tutorial and Technical Overview IBM Redbook.
• Another resource is O’Reilly’s TCP/IP Network Administration.

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

Ethernet Interfaces

Ethernet interfaces are identified by the system using predictable network interface names. These names
can appear as eno1 or enp0s25. However, in some cases an interface may still use the kernel eth# style of
naming.

Identify Ethernet Interfaces

To quickly identify all available Ethernet interfaces, you can use the ip command as shown below.
ip a
1 : l o : <LOOPBACK, UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 q d i s c noqueue s t a t e UNKNOWN group
d e f a u l t q l e n 1000
l i n k / l o o p b a c k 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 brd 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0

50
 i n e t 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 / 8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 : : 1 / 1 2 8 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2 : enp0s25 : <BROADCAST,MULTICAST, UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 q d i s c noqueue s t a t e UP
group d e f a u l t q l e n 1000
l i n k / e t h e r 0 0 : 1 6 : 3 e : e2 : 5 2 : 4 2 brd f f : f f : f f : f f : f f : f f l i n k −n e t n s i d 0
i n e t 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 0 0 / 2 4 brd 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 5 5 s c o p e g l o b a l dynamic e t h 0
v a l i d _ l f t 3257 s e c p r e f e r r e d _ l f t 3257 s e c
inet6 fe80 : : 2 1 6 : 3 e f f : fee2 :5242/64 scope l i n k
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Another application that can help identify all network interfaces available to your system is the lshw command.
This command provides greater details around the hardware capabilities of specific adapters. In the example
below, lshw shows a single Ethernet interface with the logical name of eth0 along with bus information,
driver details and all supported capabilities.
sudo lshw − c l a s s network
*−network
d e s c r i p t i o n : Ethernet i n t e r f a c e
p r o d u c t : MT26448 [ ConnectX EN 10GigE , PCIe 2 . 0 5GT/ s ]
vendor : Mellanox T e c h n o l o g i e s
physical id : 0
bus i n f o : pci@0004 : 0 1 : 0 0 . 0
l o g i c a l name : e t h 4
v e r s i o n : b0
s e r i a l : e4 : 1 d : 2 d : 6 7 : 8 3 : 5 6
s l o t : U78CB . 0 0 1 . WZS09KB−P1−C6−T1
s i z e : 10 Gbit / s
c a p a c i t y : 10 Gbit / s
width : 64 b i t s
c l o c k : 33MHz
c a p a b i l i t i e s : pm vpd msix p c i e x p r e s s bus_master c a p _ l i s t e t h e r n e t
p h y s i c a l f i b r e 10000 bt−f d
c o n f i g u r a t i o n : a u t o n e g o t i a t i o n=o f f b r o a d c a s t=y e s d r i v e r=mlx4_en
d r i v e r v e r s i o n =4.0−0 duplex= f u l l f i r m w a r e = 2 . 9 . 1 3 2 6 i p = 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1
l a t e n c y =0 l i n k=y e s m u l t i c a s t=y e s p o r t=f i b r e s p e e d =10Gbit / s
r e s o u r c e s : iomemory :24000 −23 f f f i r q : 4 8 1 memory : 3 f e 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 −3
f e 2 0 0 0 f f f f f memory:240000000000 −240007 f f f f f f

Ethernet Interface Logical Names

Interface logical names can also be configured via a netplan configuration. If you would like control which
interface receives a particular logical name use the match and set-name keys. The match key is used to find
an adapter based on some criteria like MAC address, driver, etc. Then the set-name key can be used to
change the device to the desired logial name.
network :
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd
ethernets :
eth_lan0 :
dhcp4 : t r u e
match :

51
 macaddress : 0 0 : 1 1 : 2 2 : 3 3 : 4 4 : 5 5
s e t −name : eth_lan0

Ethernet Interface Settings

ethtool is a program that displays and changes Ethernet card settings such as auto-negotiation, port speed,
duplex mode, and Wake-on-LAN. The following is an example of how to view supported features and con-
figured settings of an Ethernet interface.
sudo e t h t o o l e t h 4
S e t t i n g s f o r eth4 :
Supported p o r t s : [ FIBRE ]
Supported l i n k modes : 10000 baseT / F u l l
Supported pause frame u s e : No
Su pport s auto−n e g o t i a t i o n : No
Supported FEC modes : Not r e p o r t e d
A d v e r t i s e d l i n k modes : 10000 baseT / F u l l
A d v e r t i s e d pause frame u s e : No
A d v e r t i s e d auto−n e g o t i a t i o n : No
A d v e r t i s e d FEC modes : Not r e p o r t e d
Speed : 10000Mb/ s
Duplex : F u l l
Port : FIBRE
PHYAD: 0
Transceiver : internal
Auto−n e g o t i a t i o n : o f f
Su pport s Wake−on : d
Wake−on : d
Current message l e v e l : 0 x00000014 ( 2 0 )
l i n k ifdown
Link d e t e c t e d : y e s

IP Addressing

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

Temporary IP Address Assignment

For temporary network configurations, you can use the ip command which is also found on most other
GNU/Linux operating systems. The ip command allows you to configure settings which take effect immedi-
ately, however they are not persistent and will be lost after a reboot.
To temporarily configure an IP address, you can use the ip command in the following manner. Modify the
IP address and subnet mask to match your network requirements.
sudo i p addr add 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 0 0 / 2 4 dev enp0s25

The ip can then be used to set the link up or down.

i p l i n k s e t dev enp0s25 up
i p l i n k s e t dev enp0s25 down

52
To verify the IP address configuration of enp0s25, you can use the ip command in the following manner.
i p a d d r e s s show dev enp0s25
1 0 : enp0s25 : <BROADCAST,MULTICAST, UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 q d i s c noqueue s t a t e UP
group d e f a u l t q l e n 1000
l i n k / e t h e r 0 0 : 1 6 : 3 e : e2 : 5 2 : 4 2 brd f f : f f : f f : f f : f f : f f l i n k −n e t n s i d 0
i n e t 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 0 0 / 2 4 brd 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 5 5 s c o p e g l o b a l dynamic e t h 0
v a l i d _ l f t 2857 s e c p r e f e r r e d _ l f t 2857 s e c
inet6 fe80 : : 2 1 6 : 3 e f f : fee2 :5242/64 scope l i n k
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever6

To configure a default gateway, you can use the ip command in the following manner. Modify the default
gateway address to match your network requirements.
sudo i p r o u t e add d e f a u l t v i a 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 1

To verify your default gateway configuration, you can use the ip command in the following manner.
i p r o u t e show
d e f a u l t v i a 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 1 dev e t h 0 p r o t o dhcp s r c 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 0 0 m e t r i c 100
1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 0 / 2 4 dev e t h 0 p r o t o k e r n e l s c o p e l i n k s r c 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 0 0
1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 1 dev e t h 0 p r o t o dhcp s c o p e l i n k s r c 1 0 . 1 0 2 . 6 6 . 2 0 0 m e t r i c 100

If you require DNS for your temporary network configuration, you can add DNS server IP addresses in the file
/etc/resolv .conf. In general, editing /etc/resolv .conf directly is not recommanded, but this is a temporary
and non-persistent configuration. The example below shows how to enter two DNS servers to /etc/resolv .
conf, which should be changed to servers appropriate for your network. A more lengthy description of the
proper persistent way to do DNS client configuration is in a following section.
nameserver 8 . 8 . 8 . 8
nameserver 8 . 8 . 4 . 4

If you no longer need this configuration and wish to purge all IP configuration from an interface, you can
use the ip command with the flush option as shown below.
i p addr f l u s h e t h 0

Note
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 should also cause
/etc/resolv .conf, which is a symlink to /run/systemd/resolve/stub−resolv.conf, to be re-written.

Dynamic IP Address Assignment (DHCP Client)

To configure your server to use DHCP for dynamic address assignment, create a netplan configuration in
the file /etc/netplan/99_config.yaml. The example below assumes you are configuring your first Ethernet
interface identified as enp3s0.
network :
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd
ethernets :
enp3s0 :
dhcp4 : t r u e

The configuration can then be applied using the netplan command.

sudo n e t p l a n apply

53
Static IP Address Assignment

To configure your system to use static address assignment, create a netplan configuration in the file /etc
/netplan/99_config.yaml. The example below assumes you are configuring your first Ethernet interface
identified as eth0. Change the addresses, gateway4, and nameservers values to meet the requirements of your
network.
network :
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd
ethernets :
eth0 :
addresses :
− 10.10.10.2/24
gateway4 : 1 0 . 1 0 . 1 0 . 1
nameservers :
s e a r c h : [ mydomain , otherdomain ]
addresses : [10.10.10.1 , 1 . 1 . 1 . 1 ]

The configuration can then be applied using the netplan command.

sudo n e t p l a n apply

Loopback Interface

The loopback interface is identified by the system as lo and has a default IP address of 127.0.0.1. It can be
viewed using the ip command.
i p a d d r e s s show l o
1 : l o : <LOOPBACK, UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 q d i s c noqueue s t a t e UNKNOWN group
d e f a u l t q l e n 1000
l i n k / l o o p b a c k 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 brd 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0 : 0 0
i n e t 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 / 8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 : : 1 / 1 2 8 scope host
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

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 to properly configure
your system for name resolution using DNS and static hostname records.
DNS Client Configuration
Traditionally, the file /etc/resolv .conf was a static configuration file that rarely needed to be changed or
automatically changed via DCHP client hooks. Systemd-resolved handles name server configuration, and it
should be interacted with through the systemd−resolve command. Netplan configures systemd-resolved to
generate a list of nameservers and domains to put in /etc/resolv .conf, which is a symlink:
/ e t c / r e s o l v . c o n f −> . . / run / systemd / r e s o l v e / stub−r e s o l v . c o n f

To configure the resolver, add the IP addresses of the nameservers that are appropriate for your network to
the netplan configuration file. You can also add an optional DNS suffix search-lists to match your network
domain names. The resulting file might look like the following:

54
network :
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd
ethernets :
enp0s25 :
addresses :
− 192.168.0.100/24
gateway4 : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 1
nameservers :
s e a r c h : [ mydomain , otherdomain ]
addresses : [ 1 . 1 . 1 . 1 , 8.8.8.8 , 4 . 4 . 4 . 4 ]

The search option can also be used with multiple domain names so that DNS queries will be appended 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 and dev.example.com.
If you have multiple domains you wish to search, your configuration might look like the following:
network :
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd
ethernets :
enp0s25 :
addresses :
− 192.168.0.100/24
gateway4 : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 1
nameservers :
s e a r c h : [ example . com , s a l e s . example . com , dev . example . com ]
addresses : [ 1 . 1 . 1 . 1 , 8.8.8.8 , 4 . 4 . 4 . 4 ]

If you try to ping a host with the name of server1, your system will automatically query DNS for its Fully
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.

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 system tries to resolve
a hostname and it matches an entry in /etc/hosts, it will not attempt to look up the record in DNS. In
some configurations, especially when Internet access is not required, servers that communicate with a limited
number of resources can be conveniently set to use static hostnames instead of DNS.
The following is an example of a hosts file where a number of local servers have been identified by simple
hostnames, aliases and their equivalent Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN’s).
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 ubuntu−s e r v e r
10.0.0.11 s e r v e r 1 s e r v e r 1 . example . com vpn
10.0.0.12 s e r v e r 2 s e r v e r 2 . example . com mail
10.0.0.13 s e r v e r 3 s e r v e r 3 . example . com www
10.0.0.14 s e r v e r 4 s e r v e r 4 . example . com file

55
 Note
In the above example, notice that each of the servers have been given aliases in addition to their
proper names and FQDN’s. Server1 has been mapped to the name vpn, server2 is referred to as
mail, server3 as www, and server4 as file.

Name Service Switch Configuration

The order in which your system selects a method of resolving hostnames to IP addresses is controlled by
the Name Service Switch (NSS) configuration file /etc/nsswitch.conf. As mentioned in the previous section,
typically static hostnames defined in the systems /etc/hosts file have precedence over names resolved from
DNS. The following is an example of the line responsible for this order of hostname lookups in the file
/etc/nsswitch.conf.
hosts : f i l e s mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=r e t u r n ] 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_minimal
process should be treated as authoritative and that the system should not try to continue hunting for
an 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 the hosts:
string to the value of your choosing. For example, if you prefer to use legacy Unicast DNS versus Multicast
DNS, you can change the string in /etc/nsswitch.conf as shown below.
hosts : f i l e s dns [NOTFOUND=r e t u r n ] mdns4_minimal mdns4

Bridging

Bridging multiple interfaces is a more advanced configuration, but is very useful in multiple scenarios. One
scenario is setting up a bridge with multiple network interfaces, then using a firewall to filter traffic between
two network segments. Another scenario is using bridge on a system with one interface to allow virtual
machines direct access to the outside network. The following example covers the latter scenario.
Configure the bridge by editing your netplan configuration found in /etc/netplan/:
network :
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd
ethernets :
enp3s0 :
dhcp4 : no
bridges :
br0 :
dhcp4 : y e s
interfaces :
− enp3s0

Note
Enter the appropriate values for your physical interface and network.

56
Now apply the configuration to enable the bridge:
sudo n e t p l a n apply

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

Resources

• The Ubuntu Wiki Network page has links to articles covering more advanced network configuration.
• The netplan website has additional examples and documentation.
• The netplan man page has more information on netplan.
• The systemd-resolve man page has details on systemd-resolve command.
• The systemd-resolved man page has more information on systemd-resolved service.
• For more information on bridging see the netplan.io examples page and the Linux Foundation’s
Networking-Bridge page.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network service that enables host computers to
be automatically assigned settings from a server as opposed to manually configuring each network host.
Computers configured to be DHCP clients have no control over the settings they receive from the DHCP
server, and the configuration is transparent to the computer’s user.
The most common settings provided by a DHCP server to DHCP clients include:
• IP address and netmask
• IP address of the default-gateway to use
• IP adresses of the DNS servers to use
However, a DHCP server can also supply configuration properties such as:
• Host Name
• Domain Name
• Time Server
• Print Server
The advantage of using DHCP is that changes to the network, for example a change in the address of the
DNS server, need only be changed at the DHCP server, and all network hosts will be reconfigured the next
time their DHCP clients poll the DHCP server. As an added advantage, it is also easier to integrate new
computers into the network, as there is no need to check for the availability of an IP address. Conflicts in
IP address allocation are also reduced.
A DHCP server can provide configuration settings using the following methods:
• Manual allocation (MAC address)
This method entails using DHCP to identify the unique hardware address of each network card con-
nected to the network and then continually supplying a constant configuration each time the DHCP
client makes a request to the DHCP server using that network device. This ensures that a particular
address is assigned automatically to that network card, based on it’s MAC address.

57
 • Dynamic allocation (address pool)
In this method, the DHCP server will assign an IP address from a pool of addresses (sometimes also
called a range or scope) for a period of time or lease, that is configured on the server or until the client
informs the server that it doesn’t need the address anymore. This way, the clients will be receiving
their configuration properties dynamically and on a “first come, first served” basis. When a DHCP
client is no longer on the network for a specified period, the configuration is expired and released back
to the address pool for use by other DHCP Clients. This way, an address can be leased or used for a
period of time. After this period, the client has to renegociate the lease with the server to maintain
use of the address.
• Automatic allocation
Using this method, the DHCP automatically assigns an IP address permanently to a device, selecting
it from a pool of available addresses. Usually DHCP is used to assign a temporary address to a client,
but a DHCP server can allow an infinite lease time.
The last two methods can be considered “automatic” because in each case the DHCP server assigns an
address with no extra intervention needed. The only difference between them is in how long the IP address
is leased, in other words whether a client’s address varies over time. The DHCP server Ubuntu makes
available is dhcpd (dynamic host configuration protocol daemon), which is easy to install and configure and
will be automatically started at system boot.

Installation

At a terminal prompt, enter the following command to install dhcpd:

sudo apt i n s t a l l i s c −dhcp−s e r v e r

NOTE: dhcpd’s messages are being sent to syslog. Look there for diagnostics messages.

Configuration

You will probably need to change the default configuration by editing /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf to suit your
needs and particular configuration.
Most commonly, what you want to do is assign an IP address randomly. This can be done with settings as
follows:
# minimal sample / e t c / dhcp / dhcpd . c o n f
d e f a u l t −l e a s e −time 6 0 0 ;
max−l e a s e −time 7 2 0 0 ;

s u b n et 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 0 netmask 2 5 5 . 2 5 5 . 2 5 5 . 0 {
range 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 5 0 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 2 0 0 ;
option routers 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 2 5 4 ;
o p t i o n domain−name−s e r v e r s 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 , 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 2 ;
o p t i o n domain−name ”mydomain . example ” ;
}

This will result in the DHCP server giving clients an IP address from the range 192.168.1.150-192.168.1.200.
It will lease an IP address for 600 seconds if the client doesn’t ask for a specific time frame. Otherwise the
maximum (allowed) lease will be 7200 seconds. The server will also “advise” the client to use 192.168.1.254
as the default-gateway and 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 as its DNS servers.
You also may need to edit /etc/default/isc−dhcp−server to specify the interfaces dhcpd should listen to.
INTERFACESv4=”e t h 4 ”

58
After changing the config files you have to restart the dhcpd service:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t i s c −dhcp−s e r v e r . s e r v i c e

References

• The dhcp3-server Ubuntu Wiki page has more information.

• For more /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf options see the dhcpd.conf man page.
• ISC dhcp-server

Time Synchronization
NTP is a TCP/IP protocol for synchronizing time over a network. Basically a client requests the current
time from a server, and uses it to set its own clock.
Behind this simple description, there is a lot of complexity - there are tiers of NTP servers, with the tier
one NTP servers connected to atomic clocks, and tier two and three servers spreading the load of actually
handling requests across the Internet. Also the client software is a lot more complex than you might think
- it has to factor out communication delays, and adjust the time in a way that does not upset all the other
processes that run on the server. But luckily all that complexity is hidden from you!
Ubuntu by default uses timedatectl / timesyncd to synchronize time and users can optionally use chrony to
serve the Network Time Protocol.

Synchronizing your systems time

Since Ubuntu 16.04 timedatectl / timesyncd (which are part of systemd) replace most of ntpdate / ntp.
timesyncd is available by default and replaces not only ntpdate, but also the client portion of chrony (or
formerly ntpd). So on top of the one-shot action that ntpdate provided on boot and network activation, now
timesyncd by default regularly checks and keeps your local time in sync. It also stores time updates locally,
so that after reboots monotonically advances if applicable.
If chrony is installed timedatectl steps back to let chrony do the time keeping. That shall ensure that no
two time syncing services are fighting. While no more recommended to be used, this still also applies to
ntpd being installed to retain any kind of old behavior/config that you had through an upgrade. But it also
implies that on an upgrade from a former release ntp/ntpdate might still be installed and therefore renders
the new systemd based services disabled.
ntpdate is considered deprecated in favor of timedatectl (or chrony) and thereby no more installed by default.
timesyncd will generally do the right thing keeping your time in sync, and chrony will help with more complex
cases. But if you had one of a few known special ntpdate use cases, consider the following:
• If you require a one-shot sync use: chronyd −q
• If you require a one-shot time check, without setting the time use: chronyd −Q

Configuring timedatectl and timesyncd

The current status of time and time configuration via timedatectl and timesyncd can be checked with
timedatectl status.

59
$ timedatectl status
L o c a l time : Fr 2018−02−23 0 8 : 4 7 : 1 3 UTC
U n i v e r s a l time : Fr 2018−02−23 0 8 : 4 7 : 1 3 UTC
RTC time : Fr 2018−02−23 08:47:13
Time zone : Etc /UTC (UTC, +0000)
System c l o c k s y n c h r o n i z e d : yes
systemd−timesyncd . s e r v i c e a c t i v e : yes
RTC i n l o c a l TZ : no

If chrony is running it will automatically switch to:

[...]
systemd−timesyncd . s e r v i c e a c t i v e : no

Via timedatectl an admin can control the timezone, how the system clock should relate to the hwclock and
if permanent synronization should be enabled or not. See man timedatectl for more details.
timesyncd itself is still a normal service, so you can check its status also more in detail via.
$ s y s t e m c t l s t a t u s systemd−timesyncd
systemd−timesyncd . s e r v i c e − Network Time S y n c h r o n i z a t i o n
Loaded : l o a d e d ( / l i b / systemd / system / systemd−timesyncd . s e r v i c e ; e n a b l e d ;
vendor p r e s e t : e n a b l e d )
A c t i v e : a c t i v e ( r u n ni n g ) s i n c e F r i 2018−02−23 0 8 : 5 5 : 4 6 UTC; 10 s ago
Docs : man : systemd−timesyncd . s e r v i c e ( 8 )
Main PID : 3744 ( systemd−timesyn )
S t a t u s : ” S y n c h r o n i z e d t o time s e r v e r 9 1 . 1 8 9 . 8 9 . 1 9 8 : 1 2 3 ( ntp . ubuntu . com ) . ”
Tasks : 2 ( l i m i t : 4 9 1 5 )
CGroup : / system . s l i c e / systemd−timesyncd . s e r v i c e
| −3744 / l i b / systemd / systemd−timesyncd

Feb 23 0 8 : 5 5 : 4 6 b i o n i c −t e s t systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t i n g Network Time S y n c h r o n i z a t i o n

...
Feb 23 0 8 : 5 5 : 4 6 b i o n i c −t e s t systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t e d Network Time S y n c h r o n i z a t i o n .
Feb 23 0 8 : 5 5 : 4 6 b i o n i c −t e s t systemd−timesyncd [ 3 7 4 4 ] : S y n c h r o n i z e d t o time
server 91.189.89.198:123 ( ntp . ubuntu . com ) .

The nameserver to fetch time for timedatectl and timesyncd from can be specified in /etc/systemd/timesyncd
.conf and additional config files can be stored in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf.d/. The entries for NTP=
and FallbackNTP= are space separated lists. See man timesyncd.conf for more.

Serve the Network Time Protocol

If in addition to synchronizing your system you also want to serve NTP information you need an NTP server.
There are several options with chrony, ntpd and open-ntp. The recommended solution is chrony.

chrony(d)

The NTP daemon chronyd calculates the drift and offset of your system clock and continuously adjusts it, so
there are no large corrections that could lead to inconsistent logs for instance. The cost is a little processing
power and memory, but for a modern server this is usually negligible.

60
Installation

To install chrony, from a terminal prompt enter:

sudo apt i n s t a l l chrony

This will provide two binaries:

• chronyd - the actual daemon to sync and serve via the NTP protocol
• chronyc - command-line interface for chrony daemon

Chronyd Configuration

Edit /etc/chrony/chrony.conf to add/remove server lines. By default these servers are configured:
# Use s e r v e r s from t h e NTP Pool P r o j e c t . Approved by Ubuntu T e c h n i c a l Board
# on 2011−02−08 (LP : #104525) . See h t t p : / /www. p o o l . ntp . o r g / j o i n . html f o r
# more i n f o r m a t i o n .
p o o l 0 . ubuntu . p o o l . ntp . o r g i b u r s t
p o o l 1 . ubuntu . p o o l . ntp . o r g i b u r s t
p o o l 2 . ubuntu . p o o l . ntp . o r g i b u r s t
p o o l 3 . ubuntu . p o o l . ntp . o r g i b u r s t

See man chrony.conf for more details on the configuration options. After changing the any of the config file
you have to restart chrony:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t chrony . s e r v i c e

Of the pool 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org as well as ntp.ubuntu.com also support ipv6 if needed. If one needs to
force ipv6 there also is ipv6.ntp.ubuntu.com which is not configured by default.

View status

Use chronyc to see query the status of the chrony daemon. For example to get an overview of the currently
available and selected time sources.
chronyc s o u r c e s

MS Name/ IP a d d r e s s Stratum P o l l Reach LastRx Last sample

===============================================================================

^+ gamma . r u e c k g r . a t 2 8 377 135 −1048 us [ −1048 us ] +/− 29

ms
^− 2b . ncomputers . o r g 2 8 377 204 −1141 us [ −1124 us ] +/− 50
ms
^+ www. k a s h r a . com 2 8 377 139 +3483 us [+3483 us ] +/− 18
ms
^+ stratum2 −4.NTP. TechFak . U> 2 8 377 143 −2090 us [ −2073 us ] +/− 19
ms
^− z e p t o . mcl . gg 2 7 377 9 −774 us [ −774 us ] +/− 29
ms
^− m i r r o r h o s t . pw 2 7 377 78 −660 us [ −660 us ] +/− 53
ms
^− a t t o . mcl . gg 2 7 377 8 −823 us [ −823 us ] +/− 50
ms

61
^− s t a t i c . 1 4 0 . 1 0 7 . 4 6 . 7 8 . c l i > 2 8 377 9 −1503 us [ −1503 us ] +/− 45
ms
^− 4 . 5 3 . 1 6 0 . 7 5 2 8 377 137 −11ms [ −11ms ] +/− 117
ms
^− 3 7 . 4 4 . 1 8 5 . 4 2 3 7 377 10 −3274 us [ −3274 us ] +/− 70
ms
^− b a g n i k i t a . com 2 7 377 74 +3131 us [+3131 us ] +/− 71
ms
^− europa . e l l i p s e . n e t 2 8 377 204 −790 us [ −773 us ] +/− 97
ms
^− t e t h y s . hot− c h i l l i . n e t 2 8 377 141 −797 us [ −797 us ] +/− 59
ms
^− 66−232−97−8. s t a t i c . hvvc .> 2 7 377 206 +1669 us [+1686 us ] +/− 133
ms
^+ 8 5 . 1 9 9 . 2 1 4 . 1 0 2 1 8 377 205 +175 us [ +192 us ] +/− 12
ms
^* 46−243−26−34. t a n g o s . n l 1 8 377 141 −123 us [ −106 us ] +/− 10
ms
^− pugot . c a n o n i c a l . com 2 8 377 21 −95us [ −95us ] +/− 57
ms
^− alphyn . c a n o n i c a l . com 2 6 377 23 −1569 us [ −1569 us ] +/− 79
ms
^− golem . c a n o n i c a l . com 2 7 377 92 −1018 us [ −1018 us ] +/− 31
ms
^− c h i l i p e p p e r . c a n o n i c a l . com 2 8 377 21 −1106 us [ −1106 us ] +/− 27
ms

chronyc s o u r c e s t a t s

210 Number o f s o u r c e s = 20
Name/ IP Address NP NR Span Frequency Freq Skew O f f s e t Std Dev
==============================================================================
gamma . r u e c k g r . a t 25 15 32m −0.007 0.142 −878 us 106 us
2b . ncomputers . o r g 26 16 35m −0.132 0 . 2 8 3 −1169 us 256 us
www. k a s h r a . com 25 15 32m −0.092 0 . 2 5 9 +3426 us 195 us
stratum2 −4.NTP. TechFak . U> 25 14 32m −0.018 0 . 1 3 0 −2056 us 96 us
z e p t o . mcl . gg 13 11 21m +0.148 0.196 −683 us 66 us
m i r r o r h o s t . pw 6 5 645 +0.117 0.445 −591 us 19 us
a t t o . mcl . gg 21 13 25m −0.069 0.199 −904 us 103 us
s t a t i c . 1 4 0 . 1 0 7 . 4 6 . 7 8 . c l i > 25 18 34m −0.005 0 . 0 9 4 −1526 us 78 us
4.53.160.75 25 10 32m +0.412 0.110 −11ms 84 us
37.44.185.42 24 12 30m −0.983 0 . 1 7 3 −3718 us 122 us
b a g n i k i t a . com 17 7 31m −0.132 0 . 2 1 7 +3527 us 139 us
europa . e l l i p s e . n e t 26 15 35m +0.038 0.553 −473 us 424 us
t e t h y s . hot− c h i l l i . n e t 25 11 32m −0.094 0.110 −864 us 88 us
66−232−97−8. s t a t i c . hvvc .> 20 11 35m −0.116 0 . 1 6 5 +1561 us 109 us
85.199.214.102 26 11 35m −0.054 0.390 +129 us 343 us
46−243−26−34. t a n g o s . n l 25 16 32m +0.129 0.297 −307 us 198 us
pugot . c a n o n i c a l . com 25 14 34m −0.271 0.176 −143 us 135 us
alphyn . c a n o n i c a l . com 17 11 1100 −0.087 0 . 3 6 0 −1749 us 114 us
golem . c a n o n i c a l . com 23 12 30m +0.057 0.370 −988 us 229 us
c h i l i p e p p e r . c a n o n i c a l . com 25 18 34m −0.084 0 . 2 2 4 −1116 us 169 us

Certain chronyc commands are privileged and can not be run via the network without explicitly allowing

62
them. See section Command and monitoring access in man chrony.conf for more details. A local admin can
use sudo as usually as this will grant him access to the local admin socket /var/run/chrony/chronyd.sock.

PPS Support

Chrony supports various PPS types natively. It can use kernel PPS API as well as PTP hardware clock.
Most general GPS receivers can be leveraged via GPSD. The latter (and potentially more) can be accessed
via SHM or via a socket (recommended). All of the above can be used to augment chrony with additional
high quality time sources for better accuracy, jitter, drift, longer-or-short term accuracy (Usually each kind
of clock type is good at one of those, but non-perfect at the others). For more details on configuration see
some of the external PPS/GPSD resource listed below.
Note: at the release of 20.04 there was a bug which until fixed you might want to add this content to your
/etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.gpsd.

Example configuration for GPSD to feed Chrony

For the setup you need $ sudo apt install gpsd chrony
But you will want to test/debug your setup and especially the GPS reception, therefore also install $ sudo
apt install pps−tools gpsd−clients
GPS devices usually will communicate via serial interfaces, yet the most common type these days are USB
GPS devices which have a serial converter behind USB. If you want to use this for PPS please be aware that
the majority does not signal PPS via USB. Check the GPSD hardware list for details. The examples below
were run with a Navisys GR701-W.
When plugging in such a device (or at boot time) dmesg should report serial connection of some sorts,
example:
[ 5 2 . 4 4 2 1 9 9 ] usb 1 −1.1: new f u l l −s p e e d USB d e v i c e number 3 u s i n g xhci_hcd
[ 5 2 . 5 4 6 6 3 9 ] usb 1 −1.1: New USB d e v i c e found , idVendor =067b , i d P r o d u c t =2303 ,
bcdDevice= 4 . 0 0
[ 5 2 . 5 4 6 6 5 4 ] usb 1 −1.1: New USB d e v i c e s t r i n g s : Mfr=1, Product =2,
SerialNumber=0
[ 5 2 . 5 4 6 6 6 5 ] usb 1 −1.1: Product : USB−S e r i a l C o n t r o l l e r D
[ 5 2 . 5 4 6 6 7 5 ] usb 1 −1.1: Manufacturer : P r o l i f i c Technology I n c .
[ 5 2 . 6 0 2 1 0 3 ] u s b c o r e : r e g i s t e r e d new i n t e r f a c e d r i v e r u s b s e r i a l _ g e n e r i c
[ 5 2 . 6 0 2 2 4 4 ] u s b s e r i a l : USB S e r i a l s u p p o r t r e g i s t e r e d f o r g e n e r i c
[ 5 2 . 6 0 9 4 7 1 ] u s b c o r e : r e g i s t e r e d new i n t e r f a c e d r i v e r p l 2 3 0 3
[ 5 2 . 6 0 9 5 0 3 ] u s b s e r i a l : USB S e r i a l s u p p o r t r e g i s t e r e d f o r p l 2 3 0 3
[ 52.609564] pl2303 1 −1.1:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[ 5 2 . 6 1 8 3 6 6 ] usb 1 −1.1: p l 2 3 0 3 c o n v e r t e r now a t t a c h e d t o ttyUSB0

We see above that it appeared as ttyUSB0. To later on have chrony accept being feeded time information
by that we have to set it up in /etc/chrony/chrony.conf (Please replace USB0 to whatever applies to your
setup):
r e f c l o c k SHM 0 r e f i d GPS p r e c i s i o n 1 e−1 o f f s e t 0 . 9 9 9 9 d e l a y 0 . 2
r e f c l o c k SOCK / var / run / chrony . ttyUSB0 . s o c k r e f i d PPS

Then restart chrony to make the socket available and waiting. sudo systemctl restart chrony
Next one needs to tell gpsd which device to manager, therefore in /etc/default/gpsd we set: DEVICES=”/
dev/ttyUSB0”

63
Furthermore the default use-case of gpsd is, well for gps position tracking. Therefore it will normally not
consume any cpu since it is not running the service but waiting on a socket for clients. Furthermore the client
will then tell gpsd what it requests and gpsd will only do that. For the use case of gpsd as PPS-providing-
daemon you want to set the option to:
• immediately start even without a client connected, this can be set in GPSD_OPTIONS of /etc/default
/gpsd:
– GPSD_OPTIONS=”−n”
• enable the service itself and not wait for a client to reach the socket in the future:
– sudo systemctl enable /lib/systemd/system/gpsd.service
Restarting gpsd will now initialize the PPS from GPS and in dmesg you will see
p p s _ l d i s c : PPS l i n e d i s c i p l i n e r e g i s t e r e d
pps pps0 : new PPS s o u r c e u s b s e r i a l 0
pps pps0 : s o u r c e ”/ dev /ttyUSB0 ” added

In case you have multiple PPS the tool ppsfind might be useful to identify which PPS belongs to which GPS.
You could check that with:
$ sudo p p s f i n d / dev /ttyUSB0
pps0 : name=u s b s e r i a l 0 path=/dev /ttyUSB0

To get any further you need your GPS to get a lock. Tools like cgps or gpsmon need to report a 3D Fix for
the data being any good. Then you’d want to check to really have PPS data reported on that with ppstest
$ cgps
...�
Status : 3D FIX ( 7 s e c s ) . . .

Next one might want to ensure that the pps device really submits PPS data, to do so run ppstest:
$ sudo p p s t e s t / dev / pps0
t r y i n g PPS s o u r c e ”/ dev / pps0 ”
found PPS s o u r c e ”/ dev / pps0 ”
ok , found 1 s o u r c e ( s ) , now s t a r t f e t c h i n g data . . .
source 0 − a s s e r t 1588140739.099526246 , sequence : 69 − c l e a r
1 5 8 8 1 4 0 7 3 9 . 9 9 9 6 6 3 7 2 1 , s e q u e n c e : 70
source 0 − a s s e r t 1588140740.099661485 , sequence : 70 − c l e a r
1 5 8 8 1 4 0 7 3 9 . 9 9 9 6 6 3 7 2 1 , s e q u e n c e : 70
source 0 − a s s e r t 1588140740.099661485 , sequence : 70 − c l e a r
1 5 8 8 1 4 0 7 4 0 . 9 9 9 7 8 6 6 6 4 , s e q u e n c e : 71
source 0 − a s s e r t 1588140741.099792447 , sequence : 71 − c l e a r
1 5 8 8 1 4 0 7 4 0 . 9 9 9 7 8 6 6 6 4 , s e q u e n c e : 71

Ok, gpsd is now running, the GPS reception has found a fix and this is fed into chrony. Now lets check that
from the point of view of chrony.
Initially (e.g. before gpsd has started or before it has a lock) those will be new and “untrusted” sources
marked with an “?”. If your devices stay in the “?” state and won’t leave it even after quite some time then
gpsd seems not to feed any data to chrony and you’d need to debug why.
chronyc> s o u r c e s
210 Number o f s o u r c e s = 10
MS Name/ IP a d d r e s s Stratum P o l l Reach LastRx Last sample
===============================================================================

#? GPS 0 4 0 − +0ns [ +0ns ] +/− 0

ns

64
#? PPS 0 4 0 − +0ns [ +0ns ] +/− 0
ns

Over time chrony will classify them as good or bad. In the example case the raw GPS had too much deviation
but PPS is good.
chronyc> s o u r c e s
210 Number o f s o u r c e s = 10
MS Name/ IP a d d r e s s Stratum P o l l Reach LastRx Last sample
===============================================================================

#x GPS 0 4 177 24 −876ms [ −876ms ] +/− 200ms

#− PPS 0 4 177 21 +916 us [ +916 us ] +/− 63 us
^− c h i l i p e p p e r . c a n o n i c a l . com 2 6 37 53 +33us [ +33us ] +/− 33ms

And finally after a while it used the hardware PPS input as it was better:
chronyc> s o u r c e s
210 Number o f s o u r c e s = 10
MS Name/ IP a d d r e s s Stratum P o l l Reach LastRx Last sample
===============================================================================

#x GPS 0 4 377 20 −884ms [ −884ms ] +/− 200

ms
#* PPS 0 4 377 18 +6677 ns [ +52us ] +/− 58
us
^− alphyn . c a n o n i c a l . com 2 6 377 20 −1303 us [ −1258 us ] +/− 114
ms

The PPS might also be ok but used in a combined way with e.g. the selected server. See man chronyc for
more details about how all these combinations will look like.
chronyc> s o u r c e s
210 Number o f s o u r c e s = 11
MS Name/ IP a d d r e s s Stratum P o l l Reach LastRx Last sample
===============================================================================

#? GPS 0 4 0 − +0ns [ +0ns ] +/− 0

ns
#+ PPS 0 4 377 22 +154 us [ +154 us ] +/− 8561
us
^* c h i l i p e p p e r . c a n o n i c a l . com 2 6 377 50 −353 us [ −300 us ] +/− 44
ms

And if you wonder if your shm based GPS data is any good, you can check for that as well. First of all
chrony will not only tell you if it classified it as good or bad. Via sourcestats you can also check the details
chronyc> s o u r c e s t a t s
210 Number o f s o u r c e s = 10
Name/ IP Address NP NR Span Frequency Freq Skew O f f s e t Std Dev
==============================================================================
GPS 20 9 302 +1.993 11.501 −868ms 1208 us
PPS 6 3 78 +0.324 5 . 0 0 9 +3365 ns 41 us
golem . c a n o n i c a l . com 15 10 783 +0.859 0.509 −750 us 108 us

You can also track the raw data that gpsd or other ntpd compliant refclocks are sending via shared memory
by using ntpshmmon:

65
$ sudo ntpshmmon −o
ntpshmmon : v e r s i o n 3 . 2 0
# Name Offset Clock Real L
Prc
sample NTP1 0.000223854 1588265805.000223854 1588265805.000000000 0
−10
sample NTP0 0.125691783 1588265805.125999851 1588265805.000308068 0
−20
sample NTP1 0.000349341 1588265806.000349341 1588265806.000000000 0
−10
sample NTP0 0.130326636 1588265806.130634945 1588265806.000308309 0
−20
sample NTP1 0.000485216 1588265807.000485216 1588265807.000000000 0
−10

References

• Chrony FAQ
• ntp.org: home of the Network Time Protocol project
• pool.ntp.org: project of virtual cluster of timeservers
• Freedesktop.org info on timedatectl
• Freedesktop.org info on systemd-timesyncd service
• Feeding chrony from GPSD
• See the Ubuntu Time wiki page for more information.

Data Plane Development Kit

The DPDK is a set of libraries and drivers for fast packet processing and runs mostly in Linux userland.
It is a set of libraries that provide the so called “Environment Abstraction Layer” (EAL). The EAL hides
the details of the environment and provides a standard programming interface. Common use cases are
around special solutions for instance network function virtualization and advanced high-throughput network
switching. The DPDK uses a run-to-completion model for fast data plane performance and accesses devices
via polling to eliminate the latency of interrupt processing at the tradeoff of higher cpu consumption. It was
designed to run on any processors. The first supported CPU was Intel x86 and it is now extended to IBM
PPC64 and ARM64.
Ubuntu further provides some infrastructure to ease DPDKs usability.

Prerequisites

This package is currently compiled for the lowest possible CPU requirements. Which still requires at least
SSE3 and anything activated by -march=corei7 (in gcc) to be supported by the CPU.
The list of upstream DPDK supported network cards can be found at supported NICs. But a lot of those
are disabled by default in the upstream Project as they are not yet in a stable state. The subset of network
cards that DPDK has enabled in the package as available in Ubuntu 16.04 is:

66
DPDK has “userspace” drivers for the cards called PMDs. The packages for these follow the pattern of
librte −pmd−<type>−<version>. Therefore the example for an intel e1000 in 18.11 would be librte −pmd
−e1000−18.11.
The more commonly used, tested and fully supported drivers are installed as dependencies of dpdk. But
there are way more in universe that follow the same naming pattern.

Unassigning the default Kernel drivers

Cards have to be unassigned from their kernel driver and instead be assigned to uio_pci_generic of vfio −pci.
uio_pci_generic is older and usually getting to work more easily, but also has less features and isolation.
The newer vfio-pci requires that you activate the following kernel parameters to enable iommu.
iommu=pt intel_iommu=on

Or on AMD
amd_iommu=pt

On top for vfio-pci you then have to configure and assign the iommu groups accordingly. That is mostly
done in Firmware and by HW layout, you can check the group assignment the kernel probed in /sys/kernel
/iommu_groups/.
Note: virtio is special, dpdk can directly work on those devices without vfio_pci/uio_pci_generic.
But to avoid issues by kernel and DPDK managing the device you still have to unassign the kernel
driver.
Manual configuration and status checks can be done via sysfs or with the tool dpdk_nic_bind
dpdk_nic_bind . py −−h e l p

Usage:

dpdk−devbind . py [ o p t i o n s ] DEVICE1 DEVICE2 . . . .

where DEVICE1 , DEVICE2 e t c , a r e s p e c i f i e d v i a PCI ” domain : bus : s l o t . f u n c ”

sy n ta x
o r ” bus : s l o t . f u n c ” s yn t a x . For d e v i c e s bound t o Linux k e r n e l d r i v e r s , they may
a l s o be r e f e r r e d t o by Linux i n t e r f a c e name e . g . eth0 , eth1 , em0 , em1 , e t c .

Options :
−−help , −−u s a g e :
D i s p l a y u s a g e i n f o r m a t i o n and q u i t

−s , −−s t a t u s :
P r i n t t h e c u r r e n t s t a t u s o f a l l known network , crypto , e v e n t
and mempool d e v i c e s .
For each d e v i c e , i t d i s p l a y s t h e PCI domain , bus , s l o t and f u n c t i o n ,
a l o n g with a t e x t d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e d e v i c e . Depending upon whether t h e
d e v i c e i s b e i n g used by a k e r n e l d r i v e r , t h e igb_uio d r i v e r , o r no
d r i v e r , o t h e r r e l e v a n t i n f o r m a t i o n w i l l be d i s p l a y e d :
* t h e Linux i n t e r f a c e name e . g . i f =e t h 0
* t h e d r i v e r b e i n g used e . g . drv=igb_uio
* any s u i t a b l e d r i v e r s not c u r r e n t l y u s i n g t h a t d e v i c e

67
 e . g . unused=igb_uio
NOTE: i f t h i s f l a g i s p a s s e d a l o n g with a bind / unbind o p t i o n , t h e
s t a t u s d i s p l a y w i l l always o c c u r a f t e r t h e o t h e r o p e r a t i o n s have taken
place .

−−s t a t u s −dev :
P r i n t t h e s t a t u s o f g i v e n d e v i c e group . Supported d e v i c e g r o u p s a r e :
” n e t ” , ” c r y p t o ” , ” e v e n t ” , ”mempool” and ” compress ”

−b d r i v e r , −−bind=d r i v e r :
S e l e c t t h e d r i v e r t o u s e o r ” none ” t o unbind t h e d e v i c e

−u , −−unbind :
Unbind a d e v i c e ( E q u i v a l e n t t o ”−b none ” )

−−f o r c e :
By d e f a u l t , network d e v i c e s which a r e used by Linux − a s i n d i c a t e d by
having r o u t e s i n t h e r o u t i n g t a b l e − cannot be m o d i f i e d . Using t h e
−−f o r c e f l a g o v e r r i d e s t h i s b e h a v i o r , a l l o w i n g a c t i v e l i n k s t o be
f o r c i b l y unbound .
WARNING: This can l e a d t o l o s s o f network c o n n e c t i o n and s h o u l d be used
with c a u t i o n .

Examples :
−−−−−−−−−

To d i s p l a y c u r r e n t d e v i c e s t a t u s :
dpdk−devbind . py −−s t a t u s

To d i s p l a y c u r r e n t network d e v i c e s t a t u s :
dpdk−devbind . py −−s t a t u s −dev n e t

To bind e t h 1 from t h e c u r r e n t d r i v e r and move t o u s e igb_uio

dpdk−devbind . py −−bind=igb_uio e t h 1

To unbind 0 0 0 0 : 0 1 : 0 0 . 0 from u s i n g any d r i v e r

dpdk−devbind . py −u 0 0 0 0 : 0 1 : 0 0 . 0

To bind 0 0 0 0 : 0 2 : 0 0 . 0 and 0 0 0 0 : 0 2 : 0 0 . 1 t o t h e i x g b e k e r n e l d r i v e r
dpdk−devbind . py −b i x g b e 0 2 : 0 0 . 0 0 2 : 0 0 . 1

DPDK Device configuration

The package dpdk provides init scripts that ease configuration of device assignment and huge pages. It also
makes them persistent across reboots.
The following is an example of the file /etc/dpdk/interfaces configuring two ports of a network card. One
with uio_pci_generic and the other one with vfio −pci.
# <bus> Currently only ” pci ” i s supported
# <id> Devi ce ID on t h e s p e c i f i e d bus
# <d r i v e r > D r i v e r t o bind a g a i n s t ( v f i o −p c i o r u i o _ p c i _ g e n e r i c )
#
# Be aware t h a t t h e two DPDK c o m p a t i b l e d r i v e r s u i o _ p c i _ g e n e r i c and v f i o −p c i
are

68
# p a r t o f l i n u x −image−e x t r a −<VERSION> package .
# This package i s not always i n s t a l l e d by d e f a u l t − f o r example i n cloud −
images .
# So p l e a s e i n s t a l l i t i n c a s e you run i n t o m i s s i n g module i s s u e s .
#
# <bus> <id> <d r i v e r >
pci 0000:04:00.0 uio_pci_generic
p c i 0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 1 v f i o −p c i

Cards are identified by their PCI-ID. If you are unsure you might use the tool dpdk_nic_bind.py to show
the current available devices and the drivers they are assigned to.
dpdk_nic_bind . py −−s t a t u s

Network d e v i c e s u s i n g DPDK−c o m p a t i b l e d r i v e r
============================================
0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 0 ’ E t h e r n e t C o n t r o l l e r 10− G i g a b i t X540−AT2’ drv=u i o _ p c i _ g e n e r i c
unused=i x g b e

Network d e v i c e s u s i n g k e r n e l d r i v e r
===================================
0 0 0 0 : 0 2 : 0 0 . 0 ’ NetXtreme BCM5719 G i g a b i t E t h e r n e t PCIe ’ i f =e t h 0 drv=t g 3 unused=
uio_pci_generic * Active *
0 0 0 0 : 0 2 : 0 0 . 1 ’ NetXtreme BCM5719 G i g a b i t E t h e r n e t PCIe ’ i f =e t h 1 drv=t g 3 unused=
uio_pci_generic
0 0 0 0 : 0 2 : 0 0 . 2 ’ NetXtreme BCM5719 G i g a b i t E t h e r n e t PCIe ’ i f =e t h 2 drv=t g 3 unused=
uio_pci_generic
0 0 0 0 : 0 2 : 0 0 . 3 ’ NetXtreme BCM5719 G i g a b i t E t h e r n e t PCIe ’ i f =e t h 3 drv=t g 3 unused=
uio_pci_generic
0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 1 ’ E t h e r n e t C o n t r o l l e r 10− G i g a b i t X540−AT2’ i f =e t h 5 drv=i x g b e
unused=u i o _ p c i _ g e n e r i c

Other network d e v i c e s
=====================
<none>

DPDK HugePage configuration

DPDK makes heavy use of huge pages to eliminate pressure on the TLB. Therefore hugepages have to be
configured in your system.
The dpdk package has a config file and scripts that try to ease hugepage configuration for DPDK in the form
of /etc/dpdk/dpdk.conf. If you have more consumers of hugepages than just DPDK in your system or very
special requirements how your hugepages are going to be set up you likely want to allocate/control them by
yourself. If not this can be a great simplification to get DPDK configured for your needs.
Here an example configuring 1024 Hugepages of 2M each and 4 1G pages.
NR_2M_PAGES=1024
NR_1G_PAGES=4

As shown this supports configuring 2M and the larger 1G hugepages (or a mix of both). It will make sure
there are proper hugetlbfs mountpoints for DPDK to find both sizes no matter what your default huge page
size is. The config file itself holds more details on certain corner cases and a few hints if you want to allocate
hugepages manually via a kernel parameter.

69
It depends on your needs which size you want - 1G pages are certainly more effective regarding TLB pressure.
But there were reports of them fragmenting inside the DPDK memory allocations. Also it can be harder to
grab enough free space to set up a certain amount of 1G pages later in the life-cycle of a system.

Compile DPDK Applications

Currently there are not a lot consumers of the DPDK library that are stable and released. OpenVswitch-
DPDK being an exception to that (see below) and more are appearing. But in general it might still happen
that you might want to compile an app against the library.
You will often find guides that tell you to fetch the DPDK sources, build them to your needs and eventually
build your application based on DPDK by setting values RTE_* for the build system. Since Ubuntu provides
an already compiled DPDK for you can can skip all that.
DPDK provides a valid pkg-config file to simplify setting the proper variables and options.
sudo apt−g e t i n s t a l l dpdk−dev libdpdk −dev
g c c t e s t d p d k p r o g . c $ ( pkg−c o n f i g −− l i b s −−c f l a g s l i b d p d k ) −o t e s t d p d k p r o g

An example of a complex (autoconfigure) user of pkg-config of DPDK including fallbacks to older non
pkg-config style can be seen in the OpenVswitch build system.
Depending on what you build it might be a good addition to install all of DPDK build dependencies before
the make, which on Ubuntu can be done automatically with.
sudo apt−g e t i n s t a l l b u i l d −dep dpdk

DPDK in KVM Guests

If you have no access to DPDK supported network cards you can still work with DPDK by using its support
for virtio. To do so you have to create guests backed by hugepages (see above).
On top of that there it is required to have at least SSE3. The default CPU model qemu/libvirt uses is only
up to SSE2. So you will have to define a model that passed the proper feature flags (or use host-passthrough).
An example can be found in following snippet to your virsh xml (or the equivalent virsh interface you use).
<cpu mode=’ host−p a s s t hr ou gh ’>

Also virtio nowadays supports multiqueue which DPDK in turn can exploit for better speed. To modify a
normal virtio definition to have multiple queues add the following to your interface definition. This is about
enhancing a normal virtio nic to have multiple queues, to later on be consumed e.g. by DPDK in the guest.
<d r i v e r name=”v h o s t ” queues =”4”/>

Use DPDK

Since DPDK on its own is only (massive) library you most likely might continue to OpenVswitch-DPDK as
an example to put it to use.

Resources

• DPDK Documentation
• Release Notes matching the version packages in Ubuntu 16.04

70
 • Linux DPDK User Getting Started
• EAL Command-line Options
• DPDK Api Documentation
• OpenVswitch DPDK installation
• Wikipedias definition of DPDK

OpenVswitch-DPDK

With DPDK being just a library it doesn’t do a lot on its own, so it depends on emerging projects making
use of it. One consumer of the library that already is part of Ubuntu is OpenVswitch with DPDK support
in the package openvswitch-switch-dpdk.
Here an example how to install and configure a basic OpenVswitch using DPDK for later use via libvirt/qemu-
kvm.
sudo apt−g e t i n s t a l l openvswitch −s w i t c h −dpdk
sudo update−a l t e r n a t i v e s −−s e t ovs−v s w i t c h d / u s r / l i b / openvswitch −s w i t c h −dpdk/
ovs−vswitchd−dpdk
ovs−v s c t l s e t Open_vSwitch . ” o t h e r _ c o n f i g : dpdk−i n i t=t r u e ”
# run on c o r e 0 o n l y
ovs−v s c t l s e t Open_vSwitch . ” o t h e r _ c o n f i g : dpdk−l c o r e −mask=0x1 ”
# A l l o c a t e 2G huge p a g e s ( not Numa node aware )
ovs−v s c t l s e t Open_vSwitch . ” o t h e r _ c o n f i g : dpdk−a l l o c −mem=2048”
# l i m i t t o one w h i t e l i s t e d d e v i c e
ovs−v s c t l s e t Open_vSwitch . ” o t h e r _ c o n f i g : dpdk−e x t r a=−−p c i −w h i t e l i s t
=0000:04:00.0”
sudo s e r v i c e openvswitch −s w i t c h r e s t a r t

Please remember that you have to assign devices to DPDK compatible drivers see above at Network - DPDK
before restarting.
Please note that the section dpdk-alloc-mem=2048 above is the most basic numa setup for a single socket
system. If you have multiple sockets you might want to define how to split your memory among them. More
details about these options are outlined in OpenVswitch setup.

Attaching DPDK ports to OpenVswitch

The OpenVswitch you now started supports all port types OpenVswitch usually does, plus DPDK port types.
Here an example how to create a bridge and - instead of a normal external port - add an external DPDK
port to it. When doing so you can specify the device that will be associated.
ovs−v s c t l add−br ovsdpdkbr0 −− s e t b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 datapath_type=netdev
ovs−v s c t l add−p o r t ovsdpdkbr0 dpdk0 −− s e t I n t e r f a c e dpdk0 type=dpdk ” o p t i o n s
: dpdk−d e v a r g s=${OVSDEV_PCIID}”

Further tuning can be applied by setting options:

ovs−v s c t l s e t I n t e r f a c e dpdk0 ” o p t i o n s : n_rxq=2”

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OpenVswitch DPDK to KVM Guests

If you are not building some sort of SDN switch or NFV on top of DPDK it is very likely that you want
to forward traffic to KVM guests. The good news is, that with the new qemu/libvirt/dpdk/openvswitch
versions in Ubuntu this is no more about manually appending commandline string. This chapter covers a
basic configuration how to connect a KVM guest to a OpenVswitch-DPDK instance.
The recommended way to get to a KVM guest is using vhost_user_client. This will cause OVS-DPDK to
create connect to a socket that qemu created. That way old issues like guest failures on OVS restart are
avoided. Here an example how to add such a port to the bridge you created above.
ovs−v s c t l add−p o r t ovsdpdkbr0 vhost−u s e r −1 −− s e t I n t e r f a c e vhost−u s e r −1 type=
d p d k v h o s t u s e r c l i e n t ” o p t i o n s : vhost−s e r v e r −path=/var / run / v h o s t u s e r c l i e n t /
vhost−u s e r −c l i e n t −1”

This will connect to the specified path that has to be created by a guest listening on it.
To let libvirt/kvm consume this socket and create a guest virtio network device for it add a snippet like this
to your guest definition as the network definition.
< i n t e r f a c e type =’ v h o s t u s e r ’>
<s o u r c e type =’ unix ’
path =’/ var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h / vhost−u s e r −c l i e n t −1’
mode=’ s e r v e r ’/>
<model type =’ v i r t i o ’/>
</ i n t e r f a c e >

Tuning Openvswitch-DPDK

DPDK has plenty of options - in combination with Openvswitch-DPDK the two most commonly used are:
ovs−v s c t l s e t Open_vSwitch . o t h e r _ c o n f i g : n−dpdk−r x q s=2
ovs−v s c t l s e t Open_vSwitch . o t h e r _ c o n f i g : pmd−cpu−mask=0x6

The first select how many rx queues are to be used for each DPDK interface, while the second controls
how many and where to run PMD threads. The example above will utilize two rx queues and run PMD
threads on CPU 1 and 2. See the referred links to “EAL Command-line Options” and “OpenVswitch DPDK
installation” at the end of this document for more.
As usual with tunings you have to know your system and workload really well - so please verify any tunings
with workloads matching your real use case.

Support and Troubleshooting

DPDK is a fast evolving project. In any case of a search for support and further guides it is highly recom-
mended to first check if they apply to the current version.
Check if it is a known issue on:
• DPDK Mailing Lists
• For OpenVswitch-DPDK OpenStack Mailing Lists
• Known issues in DPDK Launchpad Area
• Join the IRC channels #DPDK or #openvswitch on freenode.

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Issues are often due to missing small details in the general setup. Later on, these missing details cause
problems which can be hard to track down to their root cause. A common case seems to be the “could
not open network device dpdk0 (No such device)” issue. This occurs rather late when setting up a port in
Open vSwitch with DPDK. But the root cause most of the time is very early in the setup and initialization.
Here an example how a proper initialization of a device looks - this can be found in the syslog/journal when
starting Open vSwitch with DPDK enabled.
ovs−c t l [3560]: EAL: PCI d e v i c e 0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 1 on NUMA s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [3560]: EAL: probe d r i v e r : 8 0 8 6 : 1 5 2 8 rte_ixgbe_pmd
ovs−c t l [3560]: EAL: PCI memory mapped a t 0 x 7 f 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ovs−c t l [3560]: EAL: PCI memory mapped a t 0 x 7 f 2 1 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0

If this is missing, either by ignored cards, failed initialization or other reasons, later on there will be no
DPDK device to refer to. Unfortunately the logging is spread across syslog/journal and the openvswitch
log. To allow some cross checking here an example what can be found in these logs, relative to the entered
command.
#Note : This l o g was taken with dpdk 2 . 2 and o p e n v s w i t c h 2 . 5 but s t i l l l o o k s
q u i t e s i m i l a r ( a b i t extended ) t h e s e days
C a pt io n s :
CMD: t h a t you e n t e r
SYSLOG: ( I n l c u d i n g EAL and OVS Messages )
OVS−LOG: ( Openvswitch messages )

#PREPARATION
Bind an i n t e r f a c e t o DPDK UIO d r i v e r s , make Hugepages a v a i l a b l e , e n a b l e DPDK
on OVS

CMD: sudo s e r v i c e openvswitch −s w i t c h r e s t a r t

SYSLOG:
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 1 . 3 7 2 Z | 0 0 0 0 3 | daemon_unix ( monitor ) | INFO | p i d 3329 died , k i l l e d
( Terminated ) , e x i t i n g
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 3 . 3 7 7 Z | 0 0 0 0 2 | v l o g | INFO | opened l o g f i l e / var / l o g / o p e n v s w i t c h /
ovs−v s w i t c h d . l o g
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 3 . 3 8 1 Z | 0 0 0 0 3 | ovs_numa | INFO | D i s c o v e r e d 12 CPU c o r e s on NUMA
node 0
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 3 . 3 8 1 Z | 0 0 0 0 4 | ovs_numa | INFO | D i s c o v e r e d 1 NUMA nodes and 12
CPU c o r e s
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 3 . 3 8 1 Z | 0 0 0 0 5 | r e c o n n e c t | INFO | unix : / var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h /db .
sock : connecting . . .
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 3 . 3 8 3 Z | 0 0 0 0 6 | r e c o n n e c t | INFO | unix : / var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h /db .
sock : connected
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 3 . 3 8 6 Z | 0 0 0 0 7 | b r i d g e | INFO | ovs−v s w i t c h d ( Open vSwitch ) 2 . 5 . 0

OVS−LOG:
systemd [ 1 ] : S t o p p i n g Open vSwitch . . .
systemd [ 1 ] : Stopped Open vSwitch .
systemd [ 1 ] : S t o p p i n g Open vSwitch I n t e r n a l Unit . . .
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 4 1 ] : * K i l l i n g ovs−v s w i t c h d ( 3 3 2 9 )
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 4 1 ] : * K i l l i n g ovsdb−s e r v e r ( 3 3 1 8 )
systemd [ 1 ] : Stopped Open vSwitch I n t e r n a l Unit .
systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t i n g Open vSwitch I n t e r n a l Unit . . .
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : * S t a r t i n g ovsdb−s e r v e r
ovs−v s c t l : ovs | 0 0 0 0 1 | v s c t l | INFO | C a l l e d a s ovs−v s c t l −−no−w a i t −− i n i t −− s e t

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 Open_vSwitch . db−v e r s i o n = 7 . 1 2 . 1
ovs−v s c t l : ovs | 0 0 0 0 1 | v s c t l | INFO | C a l l e d a s ovs−v s c t l −−no−w a i t s e t Open_vSwitch
. ovs−v e r s i o n = 2 . 5 . 0 ” e x t e r n a l −i d s : system−i d =\”e7c5ba80−bb14 −45c1−b8eb −628
f 3 a d 0 3 9 0 3 \”” ” system−type =\”Ubuntu \”” ” system−v e r s i o n =\”16.04 − x e n i a l \””
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : * C o n f i g u r i n g Open vSwitch system IDs
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : 2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 3 1 Z | 0 0 0 0 1 | dpdk | INFO | No −vhost_sock_dir
p r o v i d e d − d e f a u l t i n g t o / var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h
ovs−v s w i t c h d : ovs | 0 0 0 0 1 | dpdk | INFO | No −vhost_sock_dir p r o v i d e d − d e f a u l t i n g t o
/ var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 0 a s c o r e 0 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 1 a s c o r e 1 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 2 a s c o r e 2 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 3 a s c o r e 3 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 4 a s c o r e 4 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 5 a s c o r e 5 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 6 a s c o r e 0 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 7 a s c o r e 1 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 8 a s c o r e 2 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 9 a s c o r e 3 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 10 a s c o r e 4 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d l c o r e 11 a s c o r e 5 on s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: Support maximum 128 l o g i c a l c o r e ( s ) by c o n f i g u r a t i o n .
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: D e t e c t e d 12 l c o r e ( s )
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: VFIO modules not a l l loaded , s k i p VFIO s u p p o r t . . .
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: S e t t i n g up p h y s i c a l l y c o n t i g u o u s memory . . .
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: Ask a v i r t u a l a r e a o f 0 x100000000 b y t e s
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: V i r t u a l a r e a found a t 0 x 7 f 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ( s i z e = 0 x100000000 )
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: R e q u e s t i n g 4 p a g e s o f s i z e 1024MB from s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: TSC f r e q u e n c y i s ~2397202 KHz
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: TSC f r e q u e n c y i s ~2397202 KHz
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: Master l c o r e 0 i s ready ( t i d=f c 6 c b b 0 0 ; c p u s e t = [ 0 ] )
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: PCI d e v i c e 0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 0 on NUMA s o c k e t 0
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: probe d r i v e r : 8 0 8 6 : 1 5 2 8 rte_ixgbe_pmd
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: Not managed by a s u p p o r t e d k e r n e l d r i v e r , s k i p p e d
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: PCI d e v i c e 0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 1 on NUMA s o c k e t 0
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: probe d r i v e r : 8 0 8 6 : 1 5 2 8 rte_ixgbe_pmd
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: PCI memory mapped a t 0 x 7 f 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : EAL: PCI memory mapped a t 0 x 7 f 2 1 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: Master l c o r e 0 i s ready ( t i d=f c 6 c b b 0 0 ; c p u s e t = [ 0 ] )
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: PCI d e v i c e 0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 0 on NUMA s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: probe d r i v e r : 8 0 8 6 : 1 5 2 8 rte_ixgbe_pmd
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: Not managed by a s u p p o r t e d k e r n e l d r i v e r , s k i p p e d
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: PCI d e v i c e 0 0 0 0 : 0 4 : 0 0 . 1 on NUMA s o c k e t 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: probe d r i v e r : 8 0 8 6 : 1 5 2 8 rte_ixgbe_pmd
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: PCI memory mapped a t 0 x 7 f 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : EAL: PCI memory mapped a t 0 x 7 f 2 1 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : PMD: eth_ixgbe_dev_init ( ) : MAC: 4 , PHY: 3
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 2 ] : PMD: eth_ixgbe_dev_init ( ) : p o r t 0 vendorID=0x8086 d e v i c e I D
=0x1528
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : PMD: eth_ixgbe_dev_init ( ) : MAC: 4 , PHY: 3
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : PMD: eth_ixgbe_dev_init ( ) : p o r t 0 vendorID=0x8086 d e v i c e I D=0
x1528
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : Zone 0 : name:<RG_MP_log_history>, phys : 0 x 8 3 f f f d e c 0 , l e n : 0 x2080 ,
v i r t :0 x7f213fffdec0 , socket_id : 0 , f l a g s :0

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ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : Zone 1 : name:<MP_log_history >, phys : 0 x83fd73d40 , l e n : 0 x28a0c0 ,
v i r t : 0 x7f213fd73d40 , socket_id : 0 , f l a g s : 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : Zone 2 : name:< rte_eth_dev_data >, phys : 0 x83fd43380 , l e n : 0 x2f700 ,
v i r t : 0 x7f213fd43380 , socket_id : 0 , f l a g s : 0
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : * S t a r t i n g ovs−v s w i t c h d
ovs−c t l [ 3 5 6 0 ] : * Enabling remote OVSDB managers
systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t e d Open vSwitch I n t e r n a l Unit .
systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t i n g Open vSwitch . . .
systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t e d Open vSwitch .

CMD: sudo ovs−v s c t l add−br ovsdpdkbr0 −− s e t b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 datapath_type=

netdev

SYSLOG:
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 4 Z | 0 0 0 0 8 | memory | INFO| 3 7 2 5 6 kB peak r e s i d e n t s e t s i z e
a f t e r 24.5 seconds
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 6 Z | 0 0 0 0 9 | o f p r o t o _ d p i f | INFO | netdev@ovs−netdev : Datapath
supports r e c i r c u l a t i o n
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 6 Z | 0 0 0 1 0 | o f p r o t o _ d p i f | INFO | netdev@ovs−netdev : MPLS l a b e l
s t a c k l e n g t h probed a s 3
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 6 Z | 0 0 0 1 1 | o f p r o t o _ d p i f | INFO | netdev@ovs−netdev : Datapath
s u p p o r t s unique f l o w i d s
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 6 Z | 0 0 0 1 2 | o f p r o t o _ d p i f | INFO | netdev@ovs−netdev : Datapath
d o e s not s u p p o r t c t _ s t a t e
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 6 Z | 0 0 0 1 3 | o f p r o t o _ d p i f | INFO | netdev@ovs−netdev : Datapath
d o e s not s u p p o r t ct_zone
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 6 Z | 0 0 0 1 4 | o f p r o t o _ d p i f | INFO | netdev@ovs−netdev : Datapath
d o e s not s u p p o r t ct_mark
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 4 6 Z | 0 0 0 1 5 | o f p r o t o _ d p i f | INFO | netdev@ovs−netdev : Datapath
d o e s not s u p p o r t c t _ l a b e l
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 6 0 Z | 0 0 0 1 6 | b r i d g e | INFO | b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 : added i n t e r f a c e
ovsdpdkbr0 on p o r t 65534
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 6 1 Z | 0 0 0 1 7 | b r i d g e | INFO | b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 : u s i n g datapath
ID 00005 a4a1ed0a14d
2016−01−22T08 : 5 8 : 5 6 . 3 6 1 Z | 0 0 0 1 8 | connmgr | INFO | ovsdpdkbr0 : added s e r v i c e
c o n t r o l l e r ” punix : / var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h / ovsdpdkbr0 . mgmt”

OVS−LOG:
ovs−v s c t l : ovs | 0 0 0 0 1 | v s c t l | INFO | C a l l e d a s ovs−v s c t l add−br ovsdpdkbr0 −− s e t
b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 datapath_type=netdev
systemd−udevd [ 3 6 0 7 ] : Could not g e n e r a t e p e r s i s t e n t MAC a d d r e s s f o r ovs−netdev :
No such f i l e o r d i r e c t o r y
k e r n e l : [ 5 0 1 6 5 . 8 8 6 5 5 4 ] d e v i c e ovs−netdev e n t e r e d p r om i s cu o u s mode
k e r n e l : [ 5 0 1 6 5 . 9 0 1 2 6 1 ] d e v i c e ovsdpdkbr0 e n t e r e d p r om i s cu o u s mode

CMD: sudo ovs−v s c t l add−p o r t ovsdpdkbr0 dpdk0 −− s e t I n t e r f a c e dpdk0 type=dpdk

SYSLOG:
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 0 6 . 3 6 9 Z | 0 0 0 1 9 | memory | INFO | peak r e s i d e n t s e t s i z e grew 155% i n
l a s t 1 0 . 0 s e c o n d s , from 37256 kB t o 95008 kB
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 0 6 . 3 6 9 Z | 0 0 0 2 0 | memory | INFO | h a n d l e r s : 4 p o r t s : 1 r e v a l i d a t o r s : 2
rules :5

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2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 3 0 . 9 8 9 Z | 0 0 0 2 1 | dpdk | INFO | Port 0 : 8 c : dc : d4 : b3 : 6 d : e9
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 3 1 . 5 2 0 Z | 0 0 0 2 2 | dpdk | INFO | Port 0 : 8 c : dc : d4 : b3 : 6 d : e9
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 3 1 . 5 2 1 Z | 0 0 0 2 3 | d p i f _ n e t d e v | INFO | Created 1 pmd t h r e a d s on numa
node 0
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 3 1 . 5 2 2 Z | 0 0 0 0 1 | d p i f _ n e t d e v ( pmd16 ) | INFO | Core 0 p r o c e s s i n g p o r t
’ dpdk0 ’
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 3 1 . 5 2 2 Z | 0 0 0 2 4 | b r i d g e | INFO | b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 : added i n t e r f a c e
dpdk0 on p o r t 1
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 3 1 . 5 2 2 Z | 0 0 0 2 5 | b r i d g e | INFO | b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 : u s i n g datapath
ID 00008 cdcd4b36de9
2016−01−22T08 : 5 9 : 3 1 . 5 2 3 Z | 0 0 0 0 2 | d p i f _ n e t d e v ( pmd16 ) | INFO | Core 0 p r o c e s s i n g p o r t
’ dpdk0 ’

OVS−LOG:
ovs−v s c t l : ovs | 0 0 0 0 1 | v s c t l | INFO | C a l l e d a s ovs−v s c t l add−p o r t ovsdpdkbr0 dpdk0
−− s e t I n t e r f a c e dpdk0 type=dpdk
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : PMD: ixgbe_dev_tx_queue_setup ( ) : sw_ring=0x 7 f 2 1 1 a 7 9 e b c 0
hw_ring=0x 7 f 2 1 1 a 7 a 6 c 0 0 dma_addr=0x81a7a6c00
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : PMD: i x g b e _ s e t _ t x _ f u n c t i o n ( ) : Using s i m p l e tx code path
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : PMD: i x g b e _ s e t _ t x _ f u n c t i o n ( ) : Vector tx e n a b l e d .
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : PMD: ixgbe_dev_rx_queue_setup ( ) : sw_ring=0x 7 f 2 1 1 a 7 8 a 6 c 0
sw_sc_ring=0x 7 f 2 1 1 a 7 8 6 5 8 0 hw_ring=0x 7 f 2 1 1 a 7 8 e 8 0 0 dma_addr=0x81a78e800
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : PMD: i x g b e _ s e t _ r x _ f u n c t i o n ( ) : Vector rx enabled , p l e a s e
make s u r e RX b u r s t s i z e no l e s s than 4 ( p o r t =0) .
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : PMD: ixgbe_dev_tx_queue_setup ( ) : sw_ring=0x 7 f 2 1 1 a 7 9 e b c 0
hw_ring=0x 7 f 2 1 1 a 7 a 6 c 0 0 dma_addr=0x81a7a6c00
...

CMD: sudo ovs−v s c t l add−p o r t ovsdpdkbr0 vhost−u s e r −1 −− s e t I n t e r f a c e vhost−

u s e r −1 type=d p d k v h o s t u s e r

OVS−LOG:
2016−01−22T09 : 0 0 : 3 5 . 1 4 5 Z | 0 0 0 2 6 | dpdk | INFO | S o c k e t / var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h / vhost−
u s e r −1 c r e a t e d f o r vhost−u s e r p o r t vhost−u s e r −1
2016−01−22T09 : 0 0 : 3 5 . 1 4 5 Z | 0 0 0 0 3 | d p i f _ n e t d e v ( pmd16 ) | INFO | Core 0 p r o c e s s i n g p o r t
’ dpdk0 ’
2016−01−22T09 : 0 0 : 3 5 . 1 4 5 Z | 0 0 0 0 4 | d p i f _ n e t d e v ( pmd16 ) | INFO | Core 0 p r o c e s s i n g p o r t
’ vhost−u s e r −1’
2016−01−22T09 : 0 0 : 3 5 . 1 4 5 Z | 0 0 0 2 7 | b r i d g e | INFO | b r i d g e ovsdpdkbr0 : added i n t e r f a c e
vhost−u s e r −1 on p o r t 2

SYSLOG:
ovs−v s c t l : ovs | 0 0 0 0 1 | v s c t l | INFO | C a l l e d a s ovs−v s c t l add−p o r t ovsdpdkbr0 vhost−
u s e r −1 −− s e t I n t e r f a c e vhost−u s e r −1 type=d p d k v h o s t u s e r
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : VHOST_CONFIG: s o c k e t c r e a t e d , f d : 4 6
ovs−v s w i t c h d [ 3 5 9 5 ] : VHOST_CONFIG: bind t o / var / run / o p e n v s w i t c h / vhost−u s e r −1

E v e n t u a l l y we can s e e t h e p o l l t h r e a d i n top
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
3595 r o o t 10 −10 4975344 103936 9916 S 1 0 0 . 0 0 . 3 3 3 : 1 3 . 5 6 ovs−
vswitchd

76
Resources

• DPDK Documentation
• Release Notes matching the version packages in Ubuntu 16.04
• Linux DPDK User Getting Started
• EAL Command-line Options
• DPDK Api Documentation
• OpenVswitch DPDK installation
• Wikipedias definition of DPDK

Security
Security should always be considered when installing, deploying, and using any type of computer system.
Although a fresh installation of Ubuntu is relatively safe for immediate use on the Internet, it is important
to have a balanced understanding of your system’s security posture based on how it will be used after
deployment.
This chapter provides an overview of security-related topics as they pertain to Ubuntu DISTRO-REV Server
Edition, and outlines simple measures you may use to protect your server and network from any number of
potential security threats.

User Management
User management is a critical part of maintaining a secure system. Ineffective user and privilege management
often lead many systems into being compromised. Therefore, it is important that you understand how you
can protect your server through simple and effective user account management techniques.

Where is root?

Ubuntu developers made a conscientious decision to disable the administrative root account by default in
all Ubuntu installations. This does not mean that the root account has been deleted or that it may not be
accessed. It merely has been given a password hash which matches no possible value, therefore may not log
in directly by itself.
Instead, users are encouraged to make use of a tool by the name of ‘sudo’ to carry out system administrative
duties. Sudo allows an authorized user to temporarily elevate their privileges using their own password
instead of having to know the password belonging to the root account. This simple yet effective methodology
provides accountability for all user actions, and gives the administrator granular control over which actions
a user can perform with said privileges.
• If for some reason you wish to enable the root account, simply give it a password:
sudo passwd

Sudo will prompt you for your password, and then ask you to supply a new password for root as shown
below:

77
 [ sudo ] password f o r username : ( e n t e r your own password )
Enter new UNIX password : ( e n t e r a new password f o r r o o t )
Retype new UNIX password : ( r e p e a t new password f o r r o o t )
passwd : password updated s u c c e s s f u l l y

• To disable the root account password, use the following passwd syntax:
sudo passwd − l r o o t

• You should read more on Sudo by reading the man page:

man sudo

By default, the initial user created by the Ubuntu installer is a member of the group sudo which is added
to the file /etc/sudoers as an authorized sudo user. If you wish to give any other account full root access
through sudo, simply add them to the sudo group.

Adding and Deleting Users

The process for managing local users and groups is straightforward and differs very little from most other
GNU/Linux operating systems. Ubuntu and other Debian based distributions encourage the use of the
‘adduser’ package for account management.
• To add a user account, use the following syntax, and follow the prompts to give the account a password
and identifiable characteristics, such as a full name, phone number, etc.
sudo ad d u s e r username

• To delete a user account and its primary group, use the following syntax:
sudo d e l u s e r username

Deleting an account does not remove their respective home folder. It is up to you whether or not you
wish to delete the folder manually or keep it according to your desired retention policies.
Remember, any user added later on with the same UID/GID as the previous owner will now have
access to this folder if you have not taken the necessary precautions.
You may want to change these UID/GID values to something more appropriate, such as the root
account, and perhaps even relocate the folder to avoid future conflicts:
sudo chown −R r o o t : r o o t /home/ username /
sudo mkdir /home/ a r c h i v e d _ u s e r s /
sudo mv /home/ username /home/ a r c h i v e d _ u s e r s /

• To temporarily lock or unlock a user password, use the following syntax, respectively:
sudo passwd − l username
sudo passwd −u username

• To add or delete a personalized group, use the following syntax, respectively:

sudo addgroup groupname
sudo d e l g r o u p groupname

• To add a user to a group, use the following syntax:

sudo ad d u s e r username groupname

78
User Profile Security

When a new user is created, the adduser utility creates a brand new home directory named /home/username.
The default profile is modeled after the contents found in the directory of /etc/skel, which includes all profile
basics.
If your server will be home to multiple users, you should pay close attention to the user home directory
permissions to ensure confidentiality. By default, user home directories in Ubuntu are created with world
read/execute permissions. This means that all users can browse and access the contents of other users home
directories. This may not be suitable for your environment.
• To verify your current user home directory permissions, use the following syntax:
l s −l d /home/ username

The following output shows that the directory /home/username has world-readable permissions:
drwxr−xr−x 2 username username 4096 2007−10−02 2 0 : 0 3 username

• You can remove the world readable-permissions using the following syntax:
sudo chmod 0750 /home/ username

Note
Some people tend to use the recursive option (-R) indiscriminately which modifies all child
folders and files, but this is not necessary, and may yield other undesirable results. The
parent directory alone is sufficient for preventing unauthorized access to anything below the
parent.
A much more efficient approach to the matter would be to modify the adduser global default permissions
when creating user home folders. Simply edit the file /etc/adduser.conf and modify the DIR_MODE
variable to something appropriate, so that all new home directories will receive the correct permissions.
DIR_MODE=0750

• After correcting the directory permissions using any of the previously mentioned techniques, verify the
results using the following syntax:
l s −l d /home/ username

The results below show that world-readable permissions have been removed:
drwxr−x−−− 2 username username 4096 2007−10−02 2 0 : 0 3 username

Password Policy

A strong password policy is one of the most important aspects of your security posture. Many successful
security breaches involve simple brute force and dictionary attacks against weak passwords. If you intend
to offer any form of remote access involving your local password system, make sure you adequately address
minimum password complexity requirements, maximum password lifetimes, and frequent audits of your
authentication systems.

79
Minimum Password Length

By default, Ubuntu requires a minimum password length of 6 characters, as well as some basic entropy
checks. These values are controlled in the file /etc/pam.d/common−password, which is outlined below.
password [ s u c c e s s =1 d e f a u l t=i g n o r e ] pam_unix . s o o b s c u r e sha512

If you would like to adjust the minimum length to 8 characters, change the appropriate variable to min=8.
The modification is outlined below.
password [ s u c c e s s =1 d e f a u l t=i g n o r e ] pam_unix . s o o b s c u r e sha512
minlen=8

Note
Basic password entropy checks and minimum length rules do not apply to the administrator using
sudo level commands to setup a new user.

Password Expiration

When creating user accounts, you should make it a policy to have a minimum and maximum password age
forcing users to change their passwords when they expire.
• To easily view the current status of a user account, use the following syntax:
sudo chage − l username

The output below shows interesting facts about the user account, namely that there are no policies
applied:
Last password change : Jan 2 0 , 2015
Password e x p i r e s : never
Password i n a c t i v e : never
Account e x p i r e s : never
Minimum number o f days between password change : 0
Maximum number o f days between password change : 99999
Number o f days o f warning b e f o r e password e x p i r e s : 7

• To set any of these values, simply use the following syntax, and follow the interactive prompts:
sudo chage username

The following is also an example of how you can manually change the explicit expiration date (-E) to
01/31/2015, minimum password age (-m) of 5 days, maximum password age (-M) of 90 days, inactivity
period (-I) of 30 days after password expiration, and a warning time period (-W) of 14 days before
password expiration:
sudo chage −E 01/31/2015 −m 5 −M 90 −I 30 −W 14 username

• To verify changes, use the same syntax as mentioned previously:

sudo chage − l username

The output below shows the new policies that have been established for the account:
Last password change : Jan 20 , 2015
Password e x p i r e s : Apr 19 , 2015
Password i n a c t i v e : May 19 , 2015
Account e x p i r e s : Jan 31 , 2015

80
 Minimum number o f days between password change : 5
Maximum number o f days between password change : 90
Number o f days o f warning b e f o r e password e x p i r e s : 14

Other Security Considerations

Many applications use alternate authentication mechanisms that can be easily overlooked by even experienced
system administrators. Therefore, it is important to understand and control how users authenticate and gain
access to services and applications on your server.

SSH Access by Disabled Users

Simply disabling/locking a user password will not prevent a user from logging into your server remotely if
they have previously set up SSH public key authentication. They will still be able to gain shell access to the
server, without the need for any password. Remember to check the users home directory for files that will
allow for this type of authenticated SSH access, e.g. /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys.
Remove or rename the directory .ssh/ in the user’s home folder to prevent further SSH authentication
capabilities.
Be sure to check for any established SSH connections by the disabled user, as it is possible they may have
existing inbound or outbound connections. Kill any that are found.
who | g r e p username ( t o g e t t h e p t s/# t e r m i n a l )
sudo p k i l l −f p t s/#

Restrict SSH access to only user accounts that should have it. For example, you may create a group called
“sshlogin” and add the group name as the value associated with the AllowGroups variable located in the file
/etc/ssh/sshd_config.
AllowGroups s s h l o g i n

Then add your permitted SSH users to the group “sshlogin”, and restart the SSH service.
sudo a ddu se r username s s h l o g i n
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t sshd . s e r v i c e

External User Database Authentication

Most enterprise networks require centralized authentication and access controls for all system resources. If
you have configured your server to authenticate users against external databases, be sure to disable the user
accounts both externally and locally. This way you ensure that local fallback authentication is not possible.

AppArmor
AppArmor is a Linux Security Module implementation of name-based mandatory access controls. AppArmor
confines individual programs to a set of listed files and posix 1003.1e draft capabilities.
AppArmor is installed and loaded by default. It uses profiles of an application to determine what files and
permissions the application requires. Some packages will install their own profiles, and additional profiles
can be found in the apparmor-profiles package.
To install the apparmor-profiles package from a terminal prompt:

81
sudo apt i n s t a l l apparmor−p r o f i l e s

AppArmor profiles have two modes of execution:

• Complaining/Learning: profile violations are permitted and logged. Useful for testing and developing
new profiles.
• Enforced/Confined: enforces profile policy as well as logging the violation.

Using AppArmor

The optional apparmor-utils package contains command line utilities that you can use to change the AppAr-
mor execution mode, find the status of a profile, create new profiles, etc.
• apparmor_status is used to view the current status of AppArmor profiles.
sudo apparmor_status

• aa-complain places a profile into complain mode.

sudo aa−complain / path / t o / b i n

• aa-enforce places a profile into enforce mode.

sudo aa−e n f o r c e / path / t o / b i n

• The /etc/apparmor.d directory is where the AppArmor profiles are located. It can be used to manip-
ulate the mode of all profiles.
Enter the following to place all profiles into complain mode:
sudo aa−complain / e t c / apparmor . d/*

To place all profiles in enforce mode:

sudo aa−e n f o r c e / e t c / apparmor . d/*

• apparmor_parser is used to load a profile into the kernel. It can also be used to reload a currently
loaded profile using the -r option after modifying it to have the changes take effect. To reload a profile:
sudo apparmor_parser −r / e t c / apparmor . d/ p r o f i l e . name

• systemctl can be used to reload all profiles:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d apparmor . s e r v i c e

• The /etc/apparmor.d/disable directory can be used along with the apparmor_parser -R option to
disable a profile.
sudo l n −s / e t c / apparmor . d/ p r o f i l e . name / e t c / apparmor . d/ d i s a b l e /
sudo apparmor_parser −R / e t c / apparmor . d/ p r o f i l e . name

To re-enable a disabled profile remove the symbolic link to the profile in /etc/apparmor.d/disable/.
Then load the profile using the -a option.
sudo rm / e t c / apparmor . d/ d i s a b l e / p r o f i l e . name
c a t / e t c / apparmor . d/ p r o f i l e . name | sudo apparmor_parser −a

• AppArmor can be disabled, and the kernel module unloaded by entering the following:

82
 sudo s y s t e m c t l s t o p apparmor . s e r v i c e
sudo s y s t e m c t l d i s a b l e apparmor . s e r v i c e

• To re-enable AppArmor enter:

sudo s y s t e m c t l e n a b l e apparmor . s e r v i c e
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t apparmor . s e r v i c e

Note
Replace profile.name with the name of the profile you want to manipulate. Also, replace /path/
to/bin/ with the actual executable file path. For example for the ping command use /bin/ping

Profiles

AppArmor profiles are simple text files located in /etc/apparmor.d/. The files are named after the full
path to the executable they profile replacing the “/” with “.”. For example /etc/apparmor.d/bin.ping is the
AppArmor profile for the /bin/ping command.
There are two main type of rules used in profiles:
• Path entries: detail which files an application can access in the file system.
• Capability entries: determine what privileges a confined process is allowed to use.
As an example, take a look at /etc/apparmor.d/bin.ping:
#i n c l u d e <t u n a b l e s / g l o b a l >
/ b i n / p i n g f l a g s =( complain ) {
#i n c l u d e <a b s t r a c t i o n s / base>
#i n c l u d e <a b s t r a c t i o n s / c o n s o l e s >
#i n c l u d e <a b s t r a c t i o n s / n a m e s e r v i c e >

c a p a b i l i t y net_raw ,
capability setuid ,
network i n e t raw ,

/ b i n / p i n g mixr ,
/ e t c / modules . c o n f r ,
}

• #include <tunables/global>: include statements from other files. This allows statements pertaining to
multiple applications to be placed in a common file.
• /bin/ping flags=(complain): path to the profiled program, also setting the mode to complain.
• capability net_raw,: allows the application access to the CAP_NET_RAW Posix.1e capability.
• /bin/ping mixr,: allows the application read and execute access to the file.
Note
After editing a profile file the profile must be reloaded. See above at Using AppArmor for details.

Creating a Profile

• Design a test plan: Try to think about how the application should be exercised. The test plan should
be divided into small test cases. Each test case should have a small description and list the steps to
follow.

83
 Some standard test cases are:
– Starting the program.
– Stopping the program.
– Reloading the program.
– Testing all the commands supported by the init script.
• Generate the new profile: Use aa-genprof to generate a new profile. From a terminal:
sudo aa−g e n p r o f e x e c u t a b l e

For example:
sudo aa−g e n p r o f s l a p d

• To get your new profile included in the apparmor-profiles package, file a bug in Launchpad against the
AppArmor package:
– Include your test plan and test cases.
– Attach your new profile to the bug.

Updating Profiles

When the program is misbehaving, audit messages are sent to the log files. The program aa-logprof can be
used to scan log files for AppArmor audit messages, review them and update the profiles. From a terminal:
sudo aa−l o g p r o f

Further pre-existing Profiles

The packages apport−profiles and apparmor−profiles−extra ship some experimental profiles for AppArmor
security policies. Do not expect these profiles to work out-of-the-box, but they can give you a head start
when trynig to create a new profile by starting off a base that exists.
These profiles are not considered mature enough to be shipped in enforce mode by default. Therefore they
are shipped in complain mode so that users can test them, choose which are desired, and help improve them
upstream if needed.
Some even more experimental profiles carried by the package are placed in/usr/share/doc/apparmor−profiles
/extras/

Checking and debugging denies

You will see in ‘dmesg’ and any log that collects kernel messages if you have hit a deny. Right away it is worth
to know that this will cover any access that was denied because it was not allowed, but explicit denies will
put no message in your logs at all.
Examples might look like:
[ 1 5 2 1 0 5 6 . 5 5 2 0 3 7 ] a u d i t : type =1400 a u d i t ( 1 5 7 1 8 6 8 4 0 2 . 3 7 8 : 2 4 4 2 5 ) : apparmor=”
DENIED” o p e r a t i o n =”open ” p r o f i l e =”/ u s r / s b i n / cups−browsed ” name=”/ var / l i b /
l i b v i r t / dnsmasq /” p i d =1128 comm=”cups−browsed ” requested_mask=”r ”
denied_mask=”r ” f s u i d =0 o u i d=0

84
[ 1 4 8 2 1 0 6 . 6 5 1 5 2 7 ] a u d i t : type =1400 a u d i t ( 1 5 7 1 8 2 9 4 5 2 . 3 3 0 : 2 4 3 2 3 ) : apparmor=”
DENIED” o p e r a t i o n =”sendmsg ” p r o f i l e =”snap . l x d . l x c ” p i d =24115 comm=” l x c ”
l a d d r = 1 0 . 7 . 0 . 6 9 l p o r t =48796 f a d d r = 1 0 . 7 . 0 . 2 3 1 f p o r t =445 f a m i l y =” i n e t ”
sock_type=”stream ” p r o t o c o l =6 requested_mask=”send ” denied_mask=”send ”

That follows a generic structure starting with a timestamp, an audit tag and the category apparmor=”
DENIED”. From the following fields you can derive what was going on and why it was failing.
In the examples above that would be
First example: * operation: open (program tried to open a file) * profile: /usr/sbin/cups−browsed (you’ll find
/etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.cups−browsed) * name: /var/lib/ libvirt /dnsmasq (what it wanted to access) *
pid/comm: the program that did trigger the access * requested_mask/denied_mask/fsuid/ouid: parameters
of that open call
Second example: * operation: sendmsg (program tried send via network) * profile: snap.lxd. lxc (snaps
are special, you’ll find /var/lib/snapd/apparmor/profiles/snap.lxd.lxc) * pid/comm: the program that did
trigger the access * laddr/lport/faddr/fport/family/sock_type/protocol: parameters of that sendmsg call
That way you know in which profile and at what action you have to start if you consider either debugging
or adapting the profiles.

Profile customization

Profiles are meant to provide security and thereby can’t be all too open. But quite often a very special setup
would work with a profile if it wold just allow this one extra access. To handle that there are three ways.
• modify the profile itself
– always works, but has the drawback that profiles are in /etc and considered conffiles. So after
modification on a related package update you might get a conffile prompt. Worst case depending
on configuration automatic updates might even override it and your custom rule is gone.
• use tunables
– those provide variables that can be used in templates, for example if you want a custom dir
considered as it would be a home directory you could modify /etc/apparmor.d/tunables/home
which defines the base path rules use for home directories
– by design those variables will only influence profiles that use them
• modify a local override
– to mitigate the drawbacks of above approaches local includes got introduced adding the ability to
write arbitrary rules that will be used, and not get issues on upgrades that modify the packaged
rule.
– The files can be found in /etc/apparmor.d/local/ and exist for the packages that are known to
sometimes need slight tweaks for special setups

References

• See the AppArmor Administration Guide for advanced configuration options.

• For details using AppArmor with other Ubuntu releases see the AppArmor Community Wiki page.
• The OpenSUSE AppArmor page is another introduction to AppArmor.
• (https://wiki.debian.org/AppArmor) is another introduction and basic howto for AppArmor.
• A great place to ask for AppArmor assistance, and get involved with the Ubuntu Server community,
is the #ubuntu-hardened IRC channel on freenode.

85
Firewall

Introduction

The Linux kernel includes the Netfilter subsystem, which is used to manipulate or decide the fate of network
traffic headed into or through your server. All modern Linux firewall solutions use this system for packet
filtering.
The kernel’s packet filtering system would be of little use to administrators without a userspace interface
to manage it. This is the purpose of iptables: When a packet reaches your server, it will be handed off
to the Netfilter subsystem for acceptance, manipulation, or rejection based on the rules supplied to it from
userspace via iptables. Thus, iptables is all you need to manage your firewall, if you’re familiar with it, but
many frontends are available to simplify the task.

ufw - Uncomplicated Firewall

The default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu is ufw. Developed to ease iptables firewall configuration,
ufw provides a user-friendly way to create an IPv4 or IPv6 host-based firewall.
ufw by default is initially disabled. From the ufw man page:
“ufw is not intended to provide complete firewall functionality via its command interface, but instead provides
an easy way to add or remove simple rules. It is currently mainly used for host-based firewalls.”
The following are some examples of how to use ufw:
• First, ufw needs to be enabled. From a terminal prompt enter:
sudo ufw e n a b l e

• To open a port (SSH in this example):

sudo ufw a l l o w 22

• Rules can also be added using a numbered format:

sudo ufw i n s e r t 1 a l l o w 80

• Similarly, to close an opened port:

sudo ufw deny 22

• To remove a rule, use delete followed by the rule:

sudo ufw d e l e t e deny 22

• It is also possible to allow access from specific hosts or networks to a port. The following example
allows SSH access from host 192.168.0.2 to any IP address on this host:
sudo ufw a l l o w p r o t o t c p from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 2 t o any p o r t 22

Replace 192.168.0.2 with 192.168.0.0/24 to allow SSH access from the entire subnet.
• Adding the –dry-run option to a ufw command will output the resulting rules, but not apply them.
For example, the following is what would be applied if opening the HTTP port:
sudo ufw −−dry−run a l l o w h t t p

86
 *filter
: ufw−u s e r −i n p u t − [ 0 : 0 ]
: ufw−u s e r −output − [ 0 : 0 ]
: ufw−u s e r −f o r w a r d − [ 0 : 0 ]
: ufw−u s e r −l i m i t − [ 0 : 0 ]
: ufw−u s e r −l i m i t −a c c e p t − [ 0 : 0 ]
### RULES ###

### t u p l e ### a l l o w t c p 80 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 / 0 any 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 / 0

−A ufw−u s e r −i n p u t −p t c p −−d p o r t 80 −j ACCEPT

### END RULES ###

−A ufw−u s e r −i n p u t −j RETURN
−A ufw−u s e r −output −j RETURN
−A ufw−u s e r −f o r w a r d −j RETURN
−A ufw−u s e r −l i m i t −m l i m i t −−l i m i t 3/ minute −j LOG −−l o g −p r e f i x ” [UFW
LIMIT ] : ”
−A ufw−u s e r −l i m i t −j REJECT
−A ufw−u s e r −l i m i t −a c c e p t −j ACCEPT
COMMIT
Rules updated

• ufw can be disabled by:

sudo ufw d i s a b l e

• To see the firewall status, enter:

sudo ufw s t a t u s

• And for more verbose status information use:

sudo ufw s t a t u s v e r b o s e

• To view the numbered format:

sudo ufw s t a t u s numbered

Note
If the port you want to open or close is defined in /etc/ services , you can use the port name
instead of the number. In the above examples, replace 22 with ssh.
This is a quick introduction to using ufw. Please refer to the ufw man page for more information.

ufw Application Integration

Applications that open ports can include an ufw profile, which details the ports needed for the application
to function properly. The profiles are kept in /etc/ufw/applications.d, and can be edited if the default ports
have been changed.
• To view which applications have installed a profile, enter the following in a terminal:
sudo ufw app l i s t

• Similar to allowing traffic to a port, using an application profile is accomplished by entering:

sudo ufw a l l o w Samba

87
 • An extended syntax is available as well:
ufw a l l o w from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 0 / 2 4 t o any app Samba

Replace Samba and 192.168.0.0/24 with the application profile you are using and the IP range for your
network.
Note
There is no need to specify the protocol for the application, because that information is
detailed in the profile. Also, note that the app name replaces the port number.
• To view details about which ports, protocols, etc., are defined for an application, enter:
sudo ufw app i n f o Samba

Not all applications that require opening a network port come with ufw profiles, but if you have profiled
an application and want the file to be included with the package, please file a bug against the package in
Launchpad.
ubuntu−bug nameofpackage

IP Masquerading

The purpose of IP Masquerading is to allow machines with private, non-routable IP addresses on your
network to access the Internet through the machine doing the masquerading. Traffic from your private
network destined for the Internet must be manipulated for replies to be routable back to the machine that
made the request. To do this, the kernel must modify the source IP address of each packet so that replies
will be routed back to it, rather than to the private IP address that made the request, which is impossible
over the Internet. Linux uses Connection Tracking (conntrack) to keep track of which connections belong
to which machines and reroute each return packet accordingly. Traffic leaving your private network is thus
“masqueraded” as having originated from your Ubuntu gateway machine. This process is referred to in
Microsoft documentation as Internet Connection Sharing.

ufw Masquerading

IP Masquerading can be achieved using custom ufw rules. This is possible because the current back-end for
ufw is iptables-restore with the rules files located in /etc/ufw/*.rules. These files are a great place to add
legacy iptables rules used without ufw, and rules that are more network gateway or bridge related.
The rules are split into two different files, rules that should be executed before ufw command line rules, and
rules that are executed after ufw command line rules.
• First, packet forwarding needs to be enabled in ufw. Two configuration files will need to be adjusted,
in /etc/default/ufw change the DEFAULT_FORWARD_POLICY to “ACCEPT”:
DEFAULT_FORWARD_POLICY=”ACCEPT”

Then edit /etc/ufw/sysctl.conf and uncomment:

n e t / i p v 4 / ip_forward=1

Similarly, for IPv6 forwarding uncomment:

n e t / i p v 6 / c o n f / d e f a u l t / f o r w a r d i n g=1

88
 • Now add rules to the /etc/ufw/before.rules file. The default rules only configure the filter table, and
to enable masquerading the nat table will need to be configured. Add the following to the top of the
file just after the header comments:
# nat Table r u l e s
* nat
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [ 0 : 0 ]

# Forward t r a f f i c from e t h 1 through e t h 0 .

−A POSTROUTING −s 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 0 / 2 4 −o e t h 0 −j MASQUERADE

# don ’ t d e l e t e t h e ’COMMIT’ l i n e o r t h e s e nat t a b l e r u l e s won ’ t be

processed
COMMIT

The comments are not strictly necessary, but it is considered good practice to document your configu-
ration. Also, when modifying any of the rules files in /etc/ufw, make sure these lines are the last line
for each table modified:
# don ’ t d e l e t e t h e ’COMMIT’ l i n e o r t h e s e r u l e s won ’ t be p r o c e s s e d
COMMIT

For each Table a corresponding COMMIT statement is required. In these examples only the nat and
filter tables are shown, but you can also add rules for the raw and mangle tables.
Note
In the above example replace eth0, eth1, and 192.168.0.0/24 with the appropriate interfaces
and IP range for your network.
• Finally, disable and re-enable ufw to apply the changes:
sudo ufw d i s a b l e && sudo ufw e n a b l e

IP Masquerading should now be enabled. You can also add any additional FORWARD rules to the /etc/
ufw/before.rules. It is recommended that these additional rules be added to the ufw-before-forward chain.

iptables Masquerading

iptables can also be used to enable Masquerading.

• Similar to ufw, the first step is to enable IPv4 packet forwarding by editing /etc/ sysctl .conf and
uncomment the following line:
n e t . i p v 4 . ip_forward=1

If you wish to enable IPv6 forwarding also uncomment:

n e t . i p v 6 . c o n f . d e f a u l t . f o r w a r d i n g=1

• Next, execute the sysctl command to enable the new settings in the configuration file:
sudo s y s c t l −p

• IP Masquerading can now be accomplished with a single iptables rule, which may differ slightly based
on your network configuration:
sudo i p t a b l e s −t nat −A POSTROUTING −s 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 0 / 1 6 −o ppp0 −j
MASQUERADE

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 The above command assumes that your private address space is 192.168.0.0/16 and that your Internet-
facing device is ppp0. The syntax is broken down as follows:
– -t nat – the rule is to go into the nat table
– -A POSTROUTING – the rule is to be appended (-A) to the POSTROUTING chain
– -s 192.168.0.0/16 – the rule applies to traffic originating from the specified address space
– -o ppp0 – the rule applies to traffic scheduled to be routed through the specified network device
– -j MASQUERADE – traffic matching this rule is to “jump” (-j) to the MASQUERADE target to
be manipulated as described above
• Also, each chain in the filter table (the default table, and where most or all packet filtering occurs) has
a default policy of ACCEPT, but if you are creating a firewall in addition to a gateway device, you
may have set the policies to DROP or REJECT, in which case your masqueraded traffic needs to be
allowed through the FORWARD chain for the above rule to work:
sudo i p t a b l e s −A FORWARD −s 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 0 / 1 6 −o ppp0 −j ACCEPT
sudo i p t a b l e s −A FORWARD −d 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 0 / 1 6 −m s t a t e \
−−s t a t e ESTABLISHED,RELATED − i ppp0 −j ACCEPT

The above commands will allow all connections from your local network to the Internet and all traffic
related to those connections to return to the machine that initiated them.
• If you want masquerading to be enabled on reboot, which you probably do, edit /etc/rc. local and add
any commands used above. For example add the first command with no filtering:
i p t a b l e s −t nat −A POSTROUTING −s 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 0 / 1 6 −o ppp0 −j MASQUERADE

Logs

Firewall logs are essential for recognizing attacks, troubleshooting your firewall rules, and noticing unusual
activity on your network. You must include logging rules in your firewall for them to be generated, though,
and logging rules must come before any applicable terminating rule (a rule with a target that decides the
fate of the packet, such as ACCEPT, DROP, or REJECT).
If you are using ufw, you can turn on logging by entering the following in a terminal:
sudo ufw l o g g i n g on

To turn logging off in ufw, simply replace on with off in the above command.
If using iptables instead of ufw, enter:
sudo i p t a b l e s −A INPUT −m s t a t e −−s t a t e NEW −p t c p −−d p o r t 80 \
−j LOG −−l o g −p r e f i x ”NEW_HTTP_CONN: ”

A request on port 80 from the local machine, then, would generate a log in dmesg that looks like this (single
line split into 3 to fit this document):
[ 4 3 0 4 8 8 5 . 8 7 0 0 0 0 ] NEW_HTTP_CONN: IN=l o OUT= MAC
=00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:08:00
SRC= 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 DST= 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 LEN=60 TOS=0x00 PREC=0x00 TTL=64 ID=58288 DF PROTO
=TCP
SPT=53981 DPT=80 WINDOW=32767 RES=0x00 SYN URGP=0

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The above log will also appear in /var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog, and /var/log/kern.log. This behavior
can be modified by editing /etc/syslog .conf appropriately or by installing and configuring ulogd and using
the ULOG target instead of LOG. The ulogd daemon is a userspace server that listens for logging instructions
from the kernel specifically for firewalls, and can log to any file you like, or even to a PostgreSQL or MySQL
database. Making sense of your firewall logs can be simplified by using a log analyzing tool such as logwatch,
fwanalog, fwlogwatch, or lire.

Other Tools

There are many tools available to help you construct a complete firewall without intimate knowledge of
iptables. A command-line tool with plain-text configuration files:
• Shorewall is a very powerful solution to help you configure an advanced firewall for any network.

References

• The Ubuntu Firewall wiki page contains information on the development of ufw.
• Also, the ufw manual page contains some very useful information: man ufw.
• See the packet-filtering-HOWTO for more information on using iptables.
• The nat-HOWTO contains further details on masquerading.
• The IPTables HowTo in the Ubuntu wiki is a great resource.

Certificates
One of the most common forms of cryptography today is public-key cryptography. Public-key cryptography
utilizes a public key and a private key. The system works by encrypting information using the public key.
The information can then only be decrypted using the private key.
A common use for public-key cryptography is encrypting application traffic using a Secure Socket Layer
(SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) connection. One example: configuring Apache to provide HTTPS,
the HTTP protocol over SSL/TLS. This allows a way to encrypt traffic using a protocol that does not itself
provide encryption.
A certificate is a method used to distribute a public key and other information about a server and the
organization who is responsible for it. Certificates can be digitally signed by a Certification Authority, or
CA. A CA is a trusted third party that has confirmed that the information contained in the certificate is
accurate.

Types of Certificates

To set up a secure server using public-key cryptography, in most cases, you send your certificate request
(including your public key), proof of your company’s identity, and payment to a CA. The CA verifies the
certificate request and your identity, and then sends back a certificate for your secure server. Alternatively,
you can create your own self-signed certificate.
Note
Note that self-signed certificates should not be used in most production environments.
Continuing the HTTPS example, a CA-signed certificate provides two important capabilities that a self-
signed certificate does not:

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 • Browsers (usually) automatically recognize the CA signature and allow a secure connection to be made
without prompting the user.
• When a CA issues a signed certificate, it is guaranteeing the identity of the organization that is
providing the web pages to the browser.
Most of the software supporting SSL/TLS have a list of CAs whose certificates they automatically accept.
If a browser encounters a certificate whose authorizing CA is not in the list, the browser asks the user to
either accept or decline the connection. Also, other applications may generate an error message when using
a self-signed certificate.
The process of getting a certificate from a CA is fairly easy. A quick overview is as follows:
1. Create a private and public encryption key pair.
2. Create a certificate signing request based on the public key. The certificate request contains information
about your server and the company hosting it.
3. Send the certificate request, along with documents proving your identity, to a CA. We cannot tell you
which certificate authority to choose. Your decision may be based on your past experiences, or on the
experiences of your friends or colleagues, or purely on monetary factors.
Once you have decided upon a CA, you need to follow the instructions they provide on how to obtain
a certificate from them.
4. When the CA is satisfied that you are indeed who you claim to be, they send you a digital certificate.
5. Install this certificate on your secure server, and configure the appropriate applications to use the
certificate.

Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

Whether you are getting a certificate from a CA or generating your own self-signed certificate, the first step
is to generate a key.
If the certificate will be used by service daemons, such as Apache, Postfix, Dovecot, etc., a key without
a passphrase is often appropriate. Not having a passphrase allows the services to start without manual
intervention, usually the preferred way to start a daemon.
This section will cover generating a key with a passphrase, and one without. The non-passphrase key will
then be used to generate a certificate that can be used with various service daemons.
Warning
Running your secure service without a passphrase is convenient because you will not need to enter
the passphrase every time you start your secure service. But it is insecure and a compromise of
the key means a compromise of the server as well.
To generate the keys for the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) run the following command from a terminal
prompt:
o p e n s s l g e n r s a −d e s 3 −out s e r v e r . key 2048

G e n e r a t i n g RSA p r i v a t e key , 2048 b i t l o n g modulus

..........................++++++
.......++++++
e i s 65537 ( 0 x10001 )
Enter p a s s p h r a s e f o r s e r v e r . key :

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You can now enter your passphrase. For best security, it should at least contain eight characters. The
minimum length when specifying −des3 is four characters. As a best practice it should include numbers
and/or punctuation and not be a word in a dictionary. Also remember that your passphrase is case-sensitive.
Re-type the passphrase to verify. Once you have re-typed it correctly, the server key is generated and stored
in the server .key file.
Now create the insecure key, the one without a passphrase, and shuffle the key names:
o p e n s s l r s a −i n s e r v e r . key −out s e r v e r . key . i n s e c u r e
mv s e r v e r . key s e r v e r . key . s e c u r e
mv s e r v e r . key . i n s e c u r e s e r v e r . key

The insecure key is now named server .key, and you can use this file to generate the CSR without passphrase.
To create the CSR, run the following command at a terminal prompt:
o p e n s s l r e q −new −key s e r v e r . key −out s e r v e r . c s r

It will prompt you enter the passphrase. If you enter the correct passphrase, it will prompt you to enter
Company Name, Site Name, Email Id, etc. Once you enter all these details, your CSR will be created and
it will be stored in the server . csr file.
You can now submit this CSR file to a CA for processing. The CA will use this CSR file and issue the
certificate. On the other hand, you can create self-signed certificate using this CSR.

Creating a Self-Signed Certificate

To create the self-signed certificate, run the following command at a terminal prompt:
o p e n s s l x509 −r e q −days 365 −i n s e r v e r . c s r −s i g n k e y s e r v e r . key −out s e r v e r . c r t

The above command will prompt you to enter the passphrase. Once you enter the correct passphrase, your
certificate will be created and it will be stored in the server . crt file.
Warning
If your secure server is to be used in a production environment, you probably need a CA-signed
certificate. It is not recommended to use self-signed certificate.

Installing the Certificate

You can install the key file server .key and certificate file server . crt, or the certificate file issued by your CA,
by running following commands at a terminal prompt:
sudo cp s e r v e r . c r t / e t c / s s l / c e r t s
sudo cp s e r v e r . key / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e

Now simply configure any applications, with the ability to use public-key cryptography, to use the certificate
and key files. For example, Apache can provide HTTPS, Dovecot can provide IMAPS and POP3S, etc.

Certification Authority

If the services on your network require more than a few self-signed certificates it may be worth the additional
effort to setup your own internal Certification Authority (CA). Using certificates signed by your own CA,
allows the various services using the certificates to easily trust other services using certificates issued from
the same CA.

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First, create the directories to hold the CA certificate and related files:
sudo mkdir / e t c / s s l /CA
sudo mkdir / e t c / s s l / n e w c e r t s

The CA needs a few additional files to operate, one to keep track of the last serial number used by the CA,
each certificate must have a unique serial number, and another file to record which certificates have been
issued:
sudo sh −c ” echo ’ 0 1 ’ > / e t c / s s l /CA/ s e r i a l ”
sudo touch / e t c / s s l /CA/ i n d e x . t x t

The third file is a CA configuration file. Though not strictly necessary, it is very convenient when issuing
multiple certificates. Edit /etc/ ssl /openssl.cnf, and in the [ CA_default ] change:
dir = / etc / s s l # Where e v e r y t h i n g i s kept
database = $ d i r /CA/ i n d e x . t x t # database index f i l e .
certificate = $ d i r / c e r t s / c a c e r t . pem # The CA c e r t i f i c a t e
serial = $ d i r /CA/ s e r i a l # The c u r r e n t s e r i a l number
private_key = $ d i r / p r i v a t e / cakey . pem# The p r i v a t e key

Next, create the self-signed root certificate:

o p e n s s l r e q −new −x509 −e x t e n s i o n s v3_ca −keyout cakey . pem −out c a c e r t . pem −
days 3650

You will then be asked to enter the details about the certificate.
Now install the root certificate and key:
sudo mv cakey . pem / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e /
sudo mv c a c e r t . pem / e t c / s s l / c e r t s /

You are now ready to start signing certificates. The first item needed is a Certificate Signing Request (CSR),
see Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for details. Once you have a CSR, enter the following
to generate a certificate signed by the CA:
sudo o p e n s s l ca −i n s e r v e r . c s r −c o n f i g / e t c / s s l / o p e n s s l . c n f

After entering the password for the CA key, you will be prompted to sign the certificate, and again to commit
the new certificate. You should then see a somewhat large amount of output related to the certificate creation.
There should now be a new file, /etc/ ssl /newcerts/01.pem, containing the same output. Copy and paste
everything beginning with the line: —–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—– and continuing through the line: —-
END CERTIFICATE—– lines to a file named after the hostname of the server where the certificate will be
installed. For example mail.example.com.crt, is a nice descriptive name.
Subsequent certificates will be named 02.pem, 03.pem, etc.
Note
Replace mail.example.com.crt with your own descriptive name.
Finally, copy the new certificate to the host that needs it, and configure the appropriate applications to use
it. The default location to install certificates is /etc/ ssl /certs. This enables multiple services to use the
same certificate without overly complicated file permissions.
For applications that can be configured to use a CA certificate, you should also copy the /etc/ ssl /certs/
cacert .pem file to the /etc/ ssl /certs/ directory on each server.

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References

• The Wikipedia HTTPS page has more information regarding HTTPS.

• For more information on OpenSSL see the OpenSSL Home Page.
• Also, O’Reilly’s Network Security with OpenSSL is a good in-depth reference.

Console Security
As with any other security barrier you put in place to protect your server, it is pretty tough to defend
against untold damage caused by someone with physical access to your environment, for example, theft of
hard drives, power or service disruption, and so on. Therefore, console security should be addressed merely
as one component of your overall physical security strategy. A locked “screen door” may deter a casual
criminal, or at the very least slow down a determined one, so it is still advisable to perform basic precautions
with regard to console security.
The following instructions will help defend your server against issues that could otherwise yield very serious
consequences.

Disable Ctrl+Alt+Delete

Anyone that has physical access to the keyboard can simply use the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination to
reboot the server without having to log on. While someone could simply unplug the power source, you
should still prevent the use of this key combination on a production server. This forces an attacker to take
more drastic measures to reboot the server, and will prevent accidental reboots at the same time.
To disable the reboot action taken by pressing the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination, run the following two
commands:
sudo s y s t e m c t l mask c t r l −a l t −d e l . t a r g e t
sudo s y s t e m c t l daemon−r e l o a d

eCryptfs is deprecated
eCryptfs is deprecated and should not be used, instead the LUKS setup as defined by the Ubuntu installer
is recommended. That in turn - for a typical remote server setup will need a remote key store as usually no
one is there to enter a key on boot.
Virtualization is being adopted in many different environments and situations. If you are a developer,
virtualization can provide you with a contained environment where you can safely do almost any sort of
development safe from messing up your main working environment. If you are a systems administrator, you
can use virtualization to more easily separate your services and move them around based on demand.
The default virtualization technology supported in Ubuntu is KVM. For Intel and AMD hardware KVM
requires virtualization extensions. But KVM is also available for IBM Z and LinuxONE, IBM POWER as
well as for ARM64. Qemu is part of the KVM experience being the userspace backend for it, but it also can
be used for hardware without virtualization extensions by using its TCG mode.
While virtualization is in many ways similar to containers those are different and implemented via other
solutions like LXD, systemd-nspawn, containerd and others.
Multipass is the recommended method to create Ubuntu VMs on Ubuntu. It’s designed for developers who
want a fresh Ubuntu environment with a single command and works on Linux, Windows and macOS.

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On Linux it’s available as a snap:
sudo snap i n s t a l l m u l t i p a s s −−b e t a −− c l a s s i c

Usage

Find available images

$ multipass find
Image Aliases Version Description
core core16 20190424 Ubuntu Core 16
core18 20190213 Ubuntu Core 18
16.04 xenial 20190628 Ubuntu 1 6 . 0 4 LTS
18.04 bionic , l t s 20190627.1 Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 LTS
18.10 co s m i c 20190628 Ubuntu 1 8 . 1 0
19.04 disco 20190628 Ubuntu 1 9 . 0 4
daily :19.10 d e v e l , eoan 20190623 Ubuntu 1 9 . 1 0

Launch a fresh instance of the current Ubuntu LTS

$ m u l t i p a s s l a u n c h ubuntu
Launching dancing−chipmunk . . .
Downloading Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 LTS . . . . . . . . . .
Launched : d a n c i n g chipmunk

Check out the running instances

$ multipass l i s t
Name State IPv4 Release
dancing−chipmunk RUNNING 10.125.174.247 Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 LTS
l i v e −n a i a d RUNNING 10.125.174.243 Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 LTS
s n a p c r a f t −a s c i i n e m a STOPPED −− Ubuntu S n a p c r a f t
b u i l d e r f o r Core 18

Learn more about the VM instance you just launched

$ m u l t i p a s s i n f o dancing−chipmunk
Name : dancing−chipmunk
State : RUNNING
IPv4 : 10.125.174.247
Release : Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 . 1 LTS
Image hash : 19 e9853d8267 ( Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 LTS)
Load : 0.97 0.30 0.10
Disk u s a g e : 1 . 1G out o f 4 . 7G
Memory u s a g e : 8 5 . 1M out o f 9 8 5 . 4M

Connect to a running instance

$ m u l t i p a s s s h e l l dancing−chipmunk
Welcome t o Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 . 1 LTS (GNU/ Linux 4.15.0 −42 − g e n e r i c x86_64 )

...

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Don’t forget to logout (or Ctrl-D) or you may find yourself heading all the way down the Inception levels…
;)
Run commands inside an instance from outside

$ m u l t i p a s s e x e c dancing−chipmunk −− l s b _ r e l e a s e −a
No LSB modules a r e a v a i l a b l e .
D i s t r i b u t o r ID : Ubuntu
Description : Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 . 1 LTS
Release : 18.04
Codename : bionic

Stop an instance to save resources

$ m u l t i p a s s s t o p dancing−chipmunk

Delete the instance

$ m u l t i p a s s d e l e t e dancing−chipmunk

It will now show up as deleted: $ multipass list Name State IPv4 Release snapcraft−asciinema STOPPED
−− Ubuntu Snapcraft builder for Core 18 dancing−chipmunk DELETED −− Not Available
And when you want to completely get rid of it:
$ m u l t i p a s s purge

Integrate into the rest of your virtualization

You might have other virtualization already based on libvirt either through using the similar older uvtool
already or through the common virt-manager.
You might for example want those guests to be on the same bridge to communicate to each other or you
need access to the graphical output for some reason.
Fortunately it is possible to integrate this by using the libvirt backend of multipass
$ sudo m u l t i p a s s s e t l o c a l . d r i v e r=l i b v i r t

After that when you start a guest you can also access it via tools like virt-manager or virsh
$ m u l t i p a s s l a u n c h ubuntu
Launched : engaged−amberjack

$ virsh l i s t
Id Name State
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
15 engaged−amberjack running

Get help

multipass help
m u l t i p a s s h e l p <command>

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See the multipass documentation for more details.

Qemu
Qemu is a machine emulator that can run operating systems and programs for one machine on a different
machine. Mostly it is not used as emulator but as virtualizer in collaboration with KVM kernel components.
In that case it utilizes the virtualization technology of the hardware to virtualize guests.
While qemu has a command line interface and a monitor to interact with running guests those is rarely used
that way for other means than development purposes. Libvirt provides an abstraction from specific versions
and hypervisors and encapsulates some workarounds and best practices.

Running Qemu/KVM

While there are much more user friendly and comfortable ways, using the command below is probably the
quickest way to see some called Ubuntu moving on screen is directly running it from the netboot iso.
Warning: this is just for illustration - not generally recommended without verifying the check-
sums; Multipass and UVTool are much better ways to get actual guests easily.
Run:
sudo qemu−system−x86_64 −enable−kvm −cdrom http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/
bionic−updates/main/installer−amd64/current/images/netboot/mini.iso
You could download the ISO for faster access at runtime and e.g. add a disk to the same by:
• creating the disk > qemu−img create −f qcow2 disk.qcow 5G
• Using the disk by adding −drive file =disk.qcow,format=qcow2
Those tools can do much more, as you’ll find in their respective (long) man pages. There also is a vast
assortment of auxiliary tools to make them more consumable for specific use-cases and needs - for example
virt-manager for UI driven use through libvirt. But in general - even the tools eventually use that - it comes
down to:
qemu-system-x86_64 options image[s]
So take a look at the man page of qemu, qemu-img and the documentation of qemu and see which options
are the right one for your needs.

Graphics

Graphics for qemu/kvm always comes in two pieces.

• A front end - controlled via the −vga argument - which is provided to the guest. Usually one of cirrus ,
std, qxl, virtio . The default these days is qxl which strikes a good balance between guest compatibility
and performance. The guest needs a driver for what is selected, which is the most common reason to
switch from the default to either cirrus (e.g. very old Windows versions)
• A back end - controlled via the −display argument - which is what the host uses to actually display
the graphical content. That can be an application window via gtk or a vnc.
• In addition one can enable the −spice back-end (can be done in addition to vnc) which can be faster
and provides more authentication methods than vnc.
• if you want no graphical output at all you can save some memory and cpu cycles by setting −nographic
If you run with spice or vnc you can use native vnc tools or virtualization focused tools like virt −viewer.
More about these in the libvirt section.

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All those options above are considered basic usage of graphics. There are advanced options for further needs.
Those cases usually differ in their ease-of-use and capability are:
• Need some 3D acceleration: −vga virtio with a local display having a GL context −display gtk,gl=on;
That will use virgil3d on the host and needs guest drivers for [virt3d] which are common in Linux since
Kernels >=4.4 but hard to get by for other cases. While not as fast as the next two options, the big
benefit is that it can be used without additional hardware and without a proper IOMMU setup for
device passthrough.
• Need native performance: use PCI passthrough of additional GPUs in the system. You’ll need
an IOMMU setup and unbind the cards from the host before you can pass it through like
−device vfio−pci,host=05:00.0,bus=1,addr=00.0,multifunction=on,x−vga=on −device vfio−pci,host
=05:00.1,bus=1,addr=00.1
• Need native performance, but multiple guests per card: Like PCI Passthrough, but using mediated
devices to shard a card on the Host into multiple devices and pass those like −display gtk,gl
=on −device vfio−pci,sysfsdev=/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:02.0/4dd511f6−ec08−11e8−b839−2
f163ddee3b3,display=on,rombar=0. More at kraxel on vgpu and Ubuntu GPU mdev evaluation. The
sharding of the cards is driver specific and therefore will differ per manufacturer like Intel or Nvidia.
Especially the advanced cases can get pretty complex, therefore it is recommended to use qemu through
libvirt for those cases. Libvirt will take care of all but the host kernel/bios tasks of such configurations.

Upgrading the machine type

If you are unsure what this is, you might consider this as buying (virtual) Hardware of the same spec but
a newer release date. You are encouraged in general and might want to update your machine type of an
existing defined guests in particular to:
• to pick up latest security fixes and features
• continue using a guest created on a now unsupported release
In general it is recommended to update machine types when upgrading qemu/kvm to a new major version.
But this can likely never be an automated task as this change is guest visible. The guest devices might
change in appearance, new features will be announced to the guest and so on. Linux is usually very good
at tolerating such changes, but it depends so much on the setup and workload of the guest that this has to
be evaluated by the owner/admin of the system. Other operating systems where known to often have severe
impacts by changing the hardware. Consider a machine type change similar to replacing all devices and
firmware of a physical machine to the latest revision - all considerations that apply there apply to evaluating
a machine type upgrade as well.
As usual with major configuration changes it is wise to back up your guest definition and disk state to be
able to do a rollback just in case. There is no integrated single command to update the machine type via
virsh or similar tools. It is a normal part of your machine definition. And therefore updated the same way
as most others.
First shutdown your machine and wait until it has reached that state.
v i r s h shutdown <yourmachine>
# wait
v i r s h l i s t −−i n a c t i v e
# s h o u l d now l i s t your machine a s ” s h u t o f f ”

Then edit the machine definition and find the type in the type tag at the machine attribute.
v i r s h e d i t <yourmachine>
<type a r c h =’x86_64 ’ machine =’pc−i 4 4 0 f x −b i o n i c ’>hvm</type>

99
Change this to the value you want. If you need to check what types are available via “-M ?” Note that while
providing upstream types as convenience only Ubuntu types are supported. There you can also see what the
current default would be. In general it is strongly recommended that you change to newer types if possible
to exploit newer features, but also to benefit of bugfixes that only apply to the newer device virtualization.
kvm −M ?
# l i s t s machine types , e . g .
pc−i 4 4 0 f x −x e n i a l Ubuntu 1 6 . 0 4 PC ( i440FX + PIIX , 1 9 9 6 ) ( d e f a u l t )
...
pc−i 4 4 0 f x −b i o n i c Ubuntu 1 8 . 0 4 PC ( i440FX + PIIX , 1 9 9 6 ) ( d e f a u l t )
...

After this you can start your guest again. You can check the current machine type from guest and host
depending on your needs.
v i r s h s t a r t <yourmachine>
# check from host , v i a dumping t h e a c t i v e xml d e f i n i t i o n
v i r s h dumpxml <yourmachine> | x m l l i n t −−xpath ” s t r i n g ( / / domain / o s / type /
@machine ) ” −
# o r from t h e g u e s t v i a dmidecode ( i f s u p p o r t e d )
sudo dmidecode | g r e p Product −A 1
Product Name : Standard PC ( i440FX + PIIX , 1 9 9 6 )
V e r s i o n : pc−i 4 4 0 f x −b i o n i c

If you keep non-live definitions around - like xml files - remember to update those as well.
Note
This also is documented along some more constraints and considerations at the Ubuntu Wiki

QEMU usage for microvms

QEMU became another use case being used in a container-like style providing an enhanced isolation compared
to containers but being focused on initialization speed.
To achieve that several components have been added: - the microvm machine type - alternative simple
FW that can boot linux called qboot - qemu build with reduced features matching these use cases called
qemu−system−x86−microvm
For example if you happen to already have a stripped down workload that has all it would execute in an
initrd you would run it maybe like the following:
$ sudo qemu−system−x86_64 −M ubuntu−q35 −cpu host −m 1024 −enable−kvm −serial mon:stdio −
nographic −display curses −append ’console=ttyS0,115200,8n1’ −kernel vmlinuz−5.4.0−21 −initrd /boot/
initrd.img−5.4.0−21−workload
To run the same with microvm, qboot and the minimized qemu you would do the following
1. run it with with type microvm, so change -M to −M microvm
2. use the qboot bios, add −bios /usr/share/qemu/bios−microvm.bin
3. install the feature-minimized qemu-system package, do $ sudo apt install qemu−system−x86−
microvm
An invocation will now look like:
$ sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -M microvm -bios /usr/share/qemu/bios-microvm.bin -cpu host -m 1024 -enable-
kvm -serial mon:stdio -nographic -display curses -append ‘console=ttyS0,115200,8n1’ -kernel vmlinuz-5.4.0-21
-initrd /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-21-workload

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That will have cut down the qemu, bios and virtual-hw initialization time down a lot. You will now - more
than you already have before - spend the majority inside the guest which implies that further tuning probably
has to go into that kernel and userspace initialization time.
** Note ** For now microvm, the qboot bios and other components of this are rather new
upstream and not as verified as many other parts of the virtualization stack. Therefore none
of the above is the default. Further being the default would also mean many upgraders would
regress finding a qemu that doesn’t have most features they are used to use. Due to that the
qemu-system-x86-microvm package is intentionally a strong opt-in conflicting with the normal
qemu-system-x86 package.

libvirt
The libvirt library is used to interface with different virtualization technologies. Before getting started with
libvirt it is best to make sure your hardware supports the necessary virtualization extensions for KVM. Enter
the following from a terminal prompt:
kvm−ok

A message will be printed informing you if your CPU does or does not support hardware virtualization.
Note
On many computers with processors supporting hardware assisted virtualization, it is necessary
to activate an option in the BIOS to enable it.

Virtual Networking

There are a few different ways to allow a virtual machine access to the external network. The default virtual
network configuration includes bridging and iptables rules implementing usermode networking, which uses
the SLIRP protocol. Traffic is NATed through the host interface to the outside network.
To enable external hosts to directly access services on virtual machines a different type of bridge than the
default needs to be configured. This allows the virtual interfaces to connect to the outside network through
the physical interface, making them appear as normal hosts to the rest of the network.
There is a great example how to configure an own bridge and combining it with libvirt so that guests will
use it at the netplan.io.

Installation

To install the necessary packages, from a terminal prompt enter:

sudo apt i n s t a l l qemu−kvm l i b v i r t −daemon−system

After installing libvirt-daemon-system, the user used to manage virtual machines will need to be added to
the libvirt group. This is done automatically for members of the sudo group, but needs to be done in additon
for anyone else that should access system wide libvirt resources. Doing so will grant the user access to the
advanced networking options.
In a terminal enter:
sudo a ddu se r $USER l i b v i r t

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 Note
If the user chosen is the current user, you will need to log out and back in for the new group
membership to take effect.
You are now ready to install a Guest operating system. Installing a virtual machine follows the same process
as installing the operating system directly on the hardware.
You either need: - a way to automate the installation - a keyboard and monitor will need to be attached to
the physical machine. - use cloud images which are meant to self-initialize (see Multipass and UVTool)
In the case of virtual machines a Graphical User Interface (GUI) is analogous to using a physical keyboard
and mouse on a real computer. Instead of installing a GUI the virt-viewer or virt-manager application can
be used to connect to a virtual machine’s console using VNC. See Virtual Machine Manager / Viewer for
more information.

Virtual Machine Management

The following section covers the command-line tools around virsh that are part of libvirt itself. But there
are various options at different levels of complexities and feature-sets, like:
• multipass
• uvt
• virt-* tools
• openstack

virsh

There are several utilities available to manage virtual machines and libvirt. The virsh utility can be used
from the command line. Some examples:
• To list running virtual machines:
virsh l i s t

• To start a virtual machine:

v i r s h s t a r t <guestname>

• Similarly, to start a virtual machine at boot:

v i r s h a u t o s t a r t <guestname>

• Reboot a virtual machine with:

v i r s h r e b o o t <guestname>

• The state of virtual machines can be saved to a file in order to be restored later. The following will
save the virtual machine state into a file named according to the date:
v i r s h s a v e <guestname> save−my . s t a t e

Once saved the virtual machine will no longer be running.

• A saved virtual machine can be restored using:
v i r s h r e s t o r e save−my . s t a t e

• To shutdown a virtual machine do:

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 v i r s h shutdown <guestname>

• A CDROM device can be mounted in a virtual machine by entering:

v i r s h a t t a c h −d i s k <guestname> / dev /cdrom / media /cdrom

• To change the definition of a guest virsh exposes the domain via

v i r s h e d i t <guestname>

That will allow one to edit the XML representation that defines the guest and when saving it will apply
format and integrity checks on these definitions.
Editing the XML directly certainly is the most powerful way, but also the most complex one. Tools like
Virtual Machine Manager / Viewer can help unexperienced users to do most of the common tasks.
If virsh (or other vir* tools) shall connect to something else than the default qemu-kvm/system
hipervisor one can find alternatives for the connect option in man virsh or libvirt doc

system and session scope

Virsh - as well as most other tools to manage virtualization - can be passed connection strings.
$ virsh –connect qemu:///system
There are two options for the connection.
• qemu:///system - connect locally as root to the daemon supervising QEMU and KVM domains
• qemu:///session - connect locally as a normal user to his own set of QEMU and KVM domains
The default always was (and still is) qemu:///system as that is the behavior users are used to. But there
are a few benefits (and drawbacks) to qemu:///session to consider it.
qemu:///session is per user and can on a multi-user system be used to separate the people. But most
importantly things run under the permissions of the user which means no permission struggle on the just
donwloaded image in your $HOME or the just attached USB-stick. On the other hand it can’t access system
resources that well, which includes network setup that is known to be hard with qemu:///session. It falls
back to slirp networking which is functional but slow and makes it impossible to be reached from other
systems.
qemu:///system is different in that it is run by the global system wide libvirt that can arbitrate resources as
needed. But you might need to mv and/or chown files to the right places permssions to have them usable.
Applications usually will decide on their primary use-case. Desktop-centric applications often choose qemu
:///session while most solutions that involve an administrator anyway continue to default to qemu:///system.
Read more about that in the libvirt FAQ and this blog about the topic.

Migration

There are different types of migration available depending on the versions of libvirt and the hipervisor being
used. In general those types are:
• offline migration
• live migration
• postcopy migration
There are various options to those methods, but the entry point for all of them is virsh migrate. Read the
integrated help for more detail.

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 v i r s h m i g r a t e −−h e l p

Some useful documentation on constraints and considerations about live migration can be found at the
Ubuntu Wiki

Device Passthrough / Hotplug

If instead of the here described hotplugging you want to always pass through a device add the xml content
of the device to your static guest xml representation via e.g. virsh edit <guestname>. In that case you
don’t need to use attach/detach. There are different kinds of passthrough. Types available to you depend
on your Hardware and software setup.
• USB hotplug/passthrough
• VF hotplug/Passthrough
But both kinds are handled in a very similar way and while there are various way to do it (e.g. also via qemu
monitor) driving such a change via libvirt is recommended. That way libvirt can try to manage all sorts of
special cases for you and also somewhat masks version differences.
In general when driving hotplug via libvirt you create a xml snippet that describes the device just as you
would do in a static guest description. A usb device is usually identified by Vendor/Product id’s:
<h o s t d e v mode=’ subsystem ’ type =’usb ’ managed=’ yes ’>
<s o u r c e >
<vendor i d =’0 x0b6d ’/>
<p r o d u c t i d =’0 x3880 ’/>
</s o u r c e >
</hostdev>

Virtual functions are usually assigned via their PCI-ID (domain, bus, slot, function).
<h o s t d e v mode=’ subsystem ’ type =’ p c i ’ managed=’ yes ’>
<s o u r c e >
<a d d r e s s domain =’0 x0000 ’ bus =’0 x04 ’ s l o t =’0 x10 ’ f u n c t i o n =’0x0 ’/>
</s o u r c e >
</hostdev>

Note
To get the Virtual function in the first place is very device dependent and can therefore not be
fully covered here. But in general it involves setting up an iommu, registering via VFIO and
sometimes requesting a number of VFs. Here an example on ppc64el to get 4 VFs on a device:
$ sudo modprobe v f i o −p c i
# identify device
$ l s p c i −n −s 0 0 0 5 : 0 1 : 0 1 . 3
0 0 0 5 : 0 1 : 0 1 . 3 0 2 0 0 : 10 d f : e228 ( r e v 1 0 )
# r e g i s t e r and r e q u e s t VFs
$ echo 10 d f e228 | sudo t e e / s y s / bus / p c i / d r i v e r s / v f i o −p c i /new_id
$ echo 4 | sudo t e e / s y s / bus / p c i / d e v i c e s / 0 0 0 5 \ : 0 1 \ : 0 0 . 0 / sriov_numvfs

You then attach or detach the device via libvirt by relating the guest with the xml snippet.
v i r s h a t t a c h −d e v i c e <guestname> <d e v i c e −xml>
# Use t h e Devi ce i n t t h e Guest
v i r s h detach−d e v i c e <guestname> <d e v i c e −xml>

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Access Qemu Monitor via libvirt

The Qemu Monitor is the way to interact with qemu/KVM while a guest is running. This interface has
many and very powerful features for experienced users. When running under libvirt that monitor interface
is bound by libvirt itself for management purposes, but a user can run qemu monitor commands via libvirt
still. The general syntax is virsh qemu−monitor−command [options] [guest] ’command’
Libvirt covers most use cases needed, but if you every want/need to work around libvirt or want to tweak
very special options you can e.g. add a device that way:
v i r s h qemu−monitor−command −−hmp f o c a l −t e s t −l o g ’ drive_add 0 i f =none , f i l e =/var
/ l i b / l i b v i r t / images / t e s t . img , format=raw , i d=d i s k 1 ’

But since the monitor is so powerful, you can do a lot especially for debugging purposes like showing the
guest registers:
v i r s h qemu−monitor−command −−hmp y−i p n s ’ i n f o r e g i s t e r s ’
RAX=00 f f f f c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 RBX=f f f f 8 f 0 f 5 d 5 c 7 e 4 8 RCX=0000000000000000 RDX=
ffffea00007571c0
RSI =0000000000000000 RDI=f f f f 8 f 0 f d d 5 c 7 e 4 8 RBP=f f f f 8 f 0 f 5 d 5 c 7 e 1 8 RSP=
ffff8f0f5d5c7df8
[...]

Huge Pages

Using huge pages can help to reduce TLB pressure, page table overhead and speed up some further memory
relate actions. Furthermore by default Transparent huge pages are useful, but can be quite some overhead -
so if it is clear that using huge pages is preferred making them explicit usually has some gains.
While huge page are admittedly harder to manage, especially later in the lifetime of a system if memory is
fragmented they provide a useful boost especially for rather large guests.
Bonus: When using device pass through on very large guests there is an extra benefit of using huge pages
as it is faster to do the initial memory clear on vfio dma pin.

Huge page allocation

Huge pages come in different sizes. A normal page usually is 4k and huge pages are eithe 2M or 1G, but
depending on the architecture other options are possible.
The most simple, yet least reliable way to allocate some huge pages is to just echo a value to sysfs Be sure
to re-check if it worked.
$ echo 256 | sudo t e e / s y s / k e r n e l /mm/ hugepages / hugepages −2048kB/ nr_hugepages
$ c a t / s y s / k e r n e l /mm/ hugepages / hugepages −2048kB/ nr_hugepages
256

There one of these sizes is “default huge page size” which will be used in the auto-mounted /dev/hugepages.
Changing the default size requires a reboot and is set via default_hugepagesz
You can check the current default size:
$ g r e p H u g e p a g e s i z e / p r o c / meminfo
Hugepagesize : 2048 kB

But there can be more than one at the same time one better check:

105
$ t a i l / s y s / k e r n e l /mm/ hugepages / hugepages −*/nr_hugepages ‘
==> / s y s / k e r n e l /mm/ hugepages / hugepages −1048576kB/ nr_hugepages <==
0
==> / s y s / k e r n e l /mm/ hugepages / hugepages −2048kB/ nr_hugepages <==
2

And even that could on bigger systems be further split per Numa node.
One can allocate huge pages at boot or runtime, but due to fragmentation there are no guarantees it works
later. The kernel documentation lists details on both ways.
Huge pages need to be allocated by the kernel as mentioned above but to be consumable they also have to
be mounted. By default systemd will make /dev/hugepages available for the default huge page size. Feel
free to add more mount points if you need different sized. An overview can be queried with
$ hugeadm −− l i s t −a l l −mounts
Mount Po int Options
/ dev / hugepages rw , r e l a t i m e , p a g e s i z e =2M

A one-stop info for the overall huge page status of the system can be reported with
$ hugeadm −−e x p l a i n

Huge page usage in libvirt

With the above in place libvirt can map guest memory to huge pages. In a guest definition add the most
simple form of
<memoryBacking>
<hugepages/>
</memoryBacking>

That will allocate the huge pages using the default huge page size from a autodetected mountpoint. For
more control e.g. how memory is spread over Numa nodes or which page size to use check out the details at
the libvirt doc.

Apparmor isolation

By default libvirt will spawn qemu guests using apparmor isolation for enhanced security. The apparmor
rules for a guest will consist of multiple elements:
• a static part that all guests share => /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/libvirt−qemu
• a dynamic part created at guest start time and modified on hotplug/unplug => /etc/apparmor.d/
libvirt/ libvirt −f9533e35−6b63−45f5−96be−7cccc9696d5e.files
Of the above the former is provided and updated by the libvirt −daemon package and the latter is generated
on guest start. None of the two should be manually edited. They will by default cover the vast majority of
use cases and work fine. But there are certain cases where users either want to:
• further lock down the guest (e.g. by explicitly denying access that usually would be allowed)
• open up the guest isolation (most of the time this is needed if the setup on the local machine does not
follow the commonly used paths)
To do so there are two files to do so. Both are local overrides which allow you to modify them without
getting them clobbered or command file prompts on package upgrades.

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 • /etc/apparmor.d/local/abstractions/libvirt−qemu this will be applied to every guest. Therefore it is
rather powerful, but also a rather blunt tool. It is a quite useful place thou to add additional deny
rules.
• /etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.lib. libvirt . virt −aa−helper the above mentioned dynamic part that is in-
dividual per guest is generated by a tool called libvirt . virt −aa−helper. That is under apparmor
isolation as well. This is most commonly used if you want to use uncommon paths as it allows to
ahve those uncommon paths in the guest XML (see virsh edit) and have those paths rendered to the
per-guest dynamic rules.

Resources

• See the KVM home page for more details.

• For more information on libvirt see the libvirt home page
– xml configuration of domains and storage being the most often used libvirt reference
• Another good resource is the Ubuntu Wiki KVM page.
• For basics how to assign VT-d devices to qemu/KVM, please see the linux-kvm page.

Cloud images and uvtool

Introduction

With Ubuntu being one of the most used operating systems on many cloud platforms, the availability of
stable and secure cloud images has become very important. As of 12.04 the utilization of cloud images
outside of a cloud infrastructure has been improved. It is now possible to use those images to create a
virtual machine without the need of a complete installation.

Creating virtual machines using uvtool

Starting with 14.04 LTS, a tool called uvtool greatly facilitates the task of generating virtual machines (VM)
using the cloud images. uvtool provides a simple mechanism to synchronize cloud-images locally and use
them to create new VMs in minutes.

Uvtool packages

The following packages and their dependencies will be required in order to use uvtool:
• uvtool
• uvtool-libvirt
To install uvtool, run:
$ sudo apt −y i n s t a l l u v t o o l

This will install uvtool’s main commands:

• uvt-simplestreams-libvirt
• uvt-kvm

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Get the Ubuntu Cloud Image with uvt-simplestreams-libvirt

This is one of the major simplifications that uvtool brings. It is aware of where to find the cloud images so
only one command is required to get a new cloud image. For instance, if you want to synchronize all cloud
images for the amd64 architecture, the uvtool command would be:
$ uvt−s i m p l e s t r e a m s −l i b v i r t −−v e r b o s e sync a r c h=amd64

After an amount of time required to download all the images from the Internet, you will have a complete set
of cloud images stored locally. To see what has been downloaded use the following command:
$ uvt−s i m p l e s t r e a m s −l i b v i r t query
r e l e a s e=b i o n i c a r c h=amd64 l a b e l=d a i l y ( 2 0 1 9 1 1 0 7 )
r e l e a s e=f o c a l a r c h=amd64 l a b e l=d a i l y ( 2 0 1 9 1 0 2 9 )
...

In the case where you want to synchronize only one specific cloud-image, you need to use the release= and
arch= filters to identify which image needs to be synchronized.
$ uvt−s i m p l e s t r e a m s −l i b v i r t sync r e l e a s e=DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME a r c h=amd64

Furthermore you can provide an alternative URL to fetch images from. A common case are the daily images
which helps to get the very latest images or if you need access to the not yet released development release
of Ubuntu.
$ uvt−s i m p l e s t r e a m s −l i b v i r t sync −−s o u r c e h t t p : / / cloud −images . ubuntu . com/ d a i l y
[ . . . further options ]

Create the VM using uvt-kvm

In order to connect to the virtual machine once it has been created, you must have a valid SSH key available
for the Ubuntu user. If your environment does not have an SSH key, you can easily create one using the
following command:
$ ssh−keygen
G e n e r a t i n g p u b l i c / p r i v a t e r s a key p a i r .
Enter f i l e i n which t o s a v e t h e key ( / home/ ubuntu / . s s h / i d _ r s a ) :
Enter p a s s p h r a s e ( empty f o r no p a s s p h r a s e ) :
Enter same p a s s p h r a s e a g a i n :
Your i d e n t i f i c a t i o n has been saved i n /home/ ubuntu / . s s h / i d _ r s a .
Your p u b l i c key has been saved i n /home/ ubuntu / . s s h / i d _ r s a . pub .
The key f i n g e r p r i n t i s :
4d : ba : 5 d : 5 7 : c9 : 4 9 : e f : b5 : ab : 7 1 : 1 4 : 5 6 : 6 e : 2 b : ad : 9 b ubuntu@DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAMES
The key ’ s randomart image i s :
+−−[ RSA 2048]−−−−+
| ..|
| o .=|
| . **|
| + o+=|
| S . ...=.|
| o . .+ . |
| . . o o |
| * |
| E |
+−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−+

108
To create of a new virtual machine using uvtool, run the following in a terminal:
$ uvt−kvm c r e a t e f i r s t t e s t

This will create a VM named firsttest using the current LTS cloud image available locally. If you want to
specify a release to be used to create the VM, you need to use the release= filter:
$ uvt−kvm c r e a t e s e c o n d t e s t r e l e a s e=DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME

uvt-kvm wait can be used to wait until the creation of the VM has completed:
$ uvt−kvm w a i t s e c o n d t t e s t

Connect to the running VM

Once the virtual machine creation is completed, you can connect to it using SSH:
$ uvt−kvm s s h s e c o n d t e s t

You can also connect to your VM using a regular SSH session using the IP address of the VM. The address
can be queried using the following command:
$ uvt−kvm i p s e c o n d t e s t
192.168.122.199
$ s s h − i ~ / . s s h / i d _ r s a ubuntu@192 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 9 9
[...]
To run a command a s a d m i n i s t r a t o r ( u s e r ” r o o t ” ) , u s e ” sudo <command>”.
See ”man sudo_root ” f o r d e t a i l s .

ubuntu@secondtest : ~ $

Get the list of running VMs

You can get the list of VMs running on your system with this command:
$ uvt−kvm l i s t
secondtest

Destroy your VM

Once you are done with your VM, you can destroy it with:
$ uvt−kvm d e s t r o y s e c o n d t e s t

Note: other than libvirts destroy action this will by default also remove the associated virtual storage files.

More uvt-kvm options

The following options can be used to change some of the characteristics of the VM that you are creating:
• --memory : Amount of RAM in megabytes. Default: 512.
• --disk : Size of the OS disk in gigabytes. Default: 8.
• --cpu : Number of CPU cores. Default: 1.

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Some other parameters will have an impact on the cloud-init configuration:
• --password password : Allow login to the VM using the Ubuntu account and this provided password.
• --run-script-once script_file : Run script_file as root on the VM the first time it is booted, but never
again.
• --packages package_list : Install the comma-separated packages specified in package_list on first boot.
A complete description of all available modifiers is available in the manpage of uvt-kvm.

Resources

If you are interested in learning more, have questions or suggestions, please contact the Ubuntu Server Team
at:
• IRC: #ubuntu-server on freenode
• Mailing list: ubuntu-server at lists.ubuntu.com

Introduction

The virt-manager source contains not only virt-manager itself but also a collection of further helpful tools
like virt-install, virt-clone and virt-viewer.

Virtual Machine Manager

The virt-manager package contains a graphical utility to manage local and remote virtual machines. To
install virt-manager enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l v i r t −manager

Since virt-manager requires a Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment it is recommended to be installed
on a workstation or test machine instead of a production server. To connect to the local libvirt service enter:
v i r t −manager

You can connect to the libvirt service running on another host by entering the following in a terminal prompt:
v i r t −manager −c qemu+s s h : / / v i r t n o d e 1 . mydomain . com/ system

Note
The above example assumes that SSH connectivity between the management system and the
target system has already been configured, and uses SSH keys for authentication. SSH keys are
needed because libvirt sends the password prompt to another process.

virt-manager guest lifecycle

When using virt −manager it is always important to know the context you look at. The main window initially
lists only the currently defined guests, you’ll see their name, state and a small chart on cpu usage.
virt-manager-gui-start|499x597
On that context there isn’t much one can do except start/stop a guest. But by double-clicking on a guest
or by clicking the open button at the top one can see the guest itself. For a running guest that includes the
guests main-console/virtual-screen output.

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virt-manager-gui-showoutput|690x386
If you are deeper in the guest config a click in the top left onto “show the graphical console” will get you
back to this output.

virt-manager guest modification

virt −manager provides a gui assisted way to edit guest definitions which can be handy. To do so the per-
guest context view will at the top have “show virtual hardware details”. Here a user can edit the virtual
hardware of the guest which will under the cover alter the guest representation.
virt-manager-gui-edit|690x346
The UI edit is limited to the features known and supported to that GUI feature. Not only does libvirt grow
features faster than virt-manager can keep up - adding every feature would also overload the UI to the extend
to be unusable. To strike a balance between the two there also is the XML view which can be reached via
the “edit libvirt XML” button.
virt-manager-gui-XML|690x346
By default this will be read-only and you can see what the UI driven actions have changed, but one can allow
RW access in this view in the preferences. This is the same content that the virsh edit of the libvirt-client
exposes.

Virtual Machine Viewer

The virt-viewer application allows you to connect to a virtual machine’s console like virt-manager reduced
to the GUI functionality. virt-viewer does require a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to interface with the
virtual machine.
To install virt-viewer from a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l v i r t −v i e w e r

Once a virtual machine is installed and running you can connect to the virtual machine’s console by using:
v i r t −v i e w e r <guestname>

The UI will be a window representing the virtual screen of the guest, just like virt-manager above but without
the extra buttons and features around it.
virt-viewer-gui-showoutput|690x598
Similar to virt-manager, virt-viewer can connect to a remote host using SSH with key authentication, as
well:
v i r t −v i e w e r −c qemu+s s h : / / v i r t n o d e 1 . mydomain . com/ system <guestname>

Be sure to replace web_devel with the appropriate virtual machine name.

If configured to use a bridged network interface you can also setup SSH access to the virtual machine.

virt-install

virt-install is part of the virtinst package. It can help installing classic ISO based systems and provides a
CLI options for the most common options needed to do so. To install it, from a terminal prompt enter:
sudo apt install virtinst

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There are several options available when using virt-install. For example:
v i r t − i n s t a l l −n web_devel −r 8192 \
−−d i s k path=/home/ doug /vm/ web_devel . img , bus=v i r t i o , s i z e =50 \
−c f o c a l −desktop−amd64 . i s o \
−−network network=d e f a u l t , model=v i r t i o \
−−v i d e o=vmvga −−g r a p h i c s vnc , l i s t e n = 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 −−n o a u t o c o n s o l e −v −−vcpus=4

There are much more arguments that can be found in the man page, explaining those of the example
above one by one: * -n web_devel the name of the new virtual machine will be web_devel in this ex-
ample. * -r 8192 specifies the amount of memory the virtual machine will use in megabytes. * –disk
path=/home/doug/vm/web_devel.img,bus=virtio,size=50 indicates the path to the virtual disk which can
be a file, partition, or logical volume. In this example a file named web_devel.img in the current users
directory, with a size of 50 gigabytes, and using virtio for the disk bus. Depending on the disk path, virt-
install my need to be run with elevated privileges. * -c focal-desktop-amd64.iso file to be used as a virtual
CDROM. The file can be either an ISO file or the path to the host’s CDROM device. * –network provides
details related to the VM’s network interface. Here the default network is used, and the interface model is
configured for virtio. * –video=vmvga the video driver to use. * –graphics vnc,listen=0.0.0.0 exports the
guest’s virtual console using VNC and on all host interfaces. Typically servers have no GUI, so another
GUI based computer on the Local Area Network (LAN) can connect via VNC to complete the installa-
tion. * –noautoconsole will not automatically connect to the virtual machine’s console. * -v: creates a fully
virtualized guest. * –vcpus=4 allocate 4 virtual CPUs.
After launching virt-install you can connect to the virtual machine’s console either locally using a GUI (if
your server has a GUI), or via a remote VNC client from a GUI-based computer.

virt-clone

The virt-clone application can be used to copy one virtual machine to another. For example:
virt −clone −−auto−clone −−original focal
Options used: * –auto-clone: to have virt-clone come up with guest names and disk paths on its own *
–original: name of the virtual machine to copy
Also, use -d or –debug option to help troubleshoot problems with virt-clone.
Replace focal and with appropriate virtual machine names of your case.
Warning: please be aware that this is a full clone, therefore any sorts of secrets, keys and for
example /etc/machine-id will be shared causing e.g. issues to security and anything that needs to
identify the machine like DHCP. You most likely want to edit those afterwards and de-duplicate
them as needed.

Resources

• See the KVM home page for more details.

• For more information on libvirt see the libvirt home page
• The Virtual Machine Manager site has more information on virt-manager development.

LXD
LXD (pronounced lex-dee) is the lightervisor, or lightweight container hypervisor. LXC (lex-see) is a program
which creates and administers “containers” on a local system. It also provides an API to allow higher level

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managers, such as LXD, to administer containers. In a sense, one could compare LXC to QEMU, while
comparing LXD to libvirt.
The LXC API deals with a ‘container’. The LXD API deals with ‘remotes’, which serve images and containers.
This extends the LXC functionality over the network, and allows concise management of tasks like container
migration and container image publishing.
LXD uses LXC under the covers for some container management tasks. However, it keeps its own container
configuration information and has its own conventions, so that it is best not to use classic LXC commands by
hand with LXD containers. This document will focus on how to configure and administer LXD on Ubuntu
systems.

Online Resources

There is excellent documentation for getting started with LXD and an online server allowing you to try
out LXD remotely. Stephane Graber also has an excellent blog series on LXD 2.0. Finally, there is great
documentation on how to drive lxd using juju.
This document will offer an Ubuntu Server-specific view of LXD, focusing on administration.

Installation

LXD is pre-installed on Ubuntu Server cloud images. On other systems, the lxd package can be installed
using:
sudo snap i n s t a l l l x d

This will install the self-contained LXD snap package.

Kernel preparation

In general, Ubuntu should have all the desired features enabled by default. One exception to this is that
in order to enable swap accounting the boot argument swapaccount=1 must be set. This can be done by
appending it to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=variable in /etc/default/grub, then running
‘update-grub’ as root and rebooting.

Configuration

In order to use LXD, some basic settings need to be configured first. This is done by running lxd init , which
will allow you to choose:
• Directory or ZFS container backend. If you choose ZFS, you can choose which block devices to use, or
the size of a file to use as backing store.
• Availability over the network.
• A ‘trust password’ used by remote clients to vouch for their client certificate.
You must run ‘lxd init’ as root. ‘lxc’ commands can be run as any user who is a member of group lxd. If
user joe is not a member of group ‘lxd’, you may run:
a d du s er j o e l x d

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as root to change it. The new membership will take effect on the next login, or after running newgrp lxd
from an existing login.
For more information on server, container, profile, and device configuration, please refer to the definitive
configuration provided with the source code, which can be found online.

Creating your first container

This section will describe the simplest container tasks.

Creating a container

Every new container is created based on either an image, an existing container, or a container snapshot. At
install time, LXD is configured with the following image servers:
• ubuntu: this serves official Ubuntu server cloud image releases.
• ubuntu−daily: this serves official Ubuntu server cloud images of the daily development releases.
• images: this is a default-installed alias for images.linuxcontainers.org. This is serves classical lxc
images built using the same images which the LXC ‘download’ template uses. This includes various
distributions and minimal custom-made Ubuntu images. This is not the recommended server for
Ubuntu images.
The command to create and start a container is
l x c l a u n c h remote : image co nt a in e r n a m e

Images are identified by their hash, but are also aliased. The ubuntu remote knows many aliases such as
18.04 and bionic. A list of all images available from the Ubuntu Server can be seen using:
l x c image l i s t ubuntu :

To see more information about a particular image, including all the aliases it is known by, you can use:
l x c image i n f o ubuntu : b i o n i c

You can generally refer to an Ubuntu image using the release name (bionic) or the release number (18.04).
In addition, lts is an alias for the latest supported LTS release. To choose a different architecture, you can
specify the desired architecture:
l x c image i n f o ubuntu : l t s /arm64

Now, let’s start our first container:

l x c l a u n c h ubuntu : b i o n i c b1

This will download the official current Bionic cloud image for your current architecture, then create a
container named b1 using that image, and finally start it. Once the command returns, you can see it using:
lxc l i s t
l x c i n f o b1

and open a shell in it using:

l x c e x e c b1 −− bash

The try-it page mentioned above gives a full synopsis of the commands you can use to administer containers.
Now that the xenial image has been downloaded, it will be kept in sync until no new containers have been
created based on it for (by default) 10 days. After that, it will be deleted.

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LXD Server Configuration

By default, LXD is socket activated and configured to listen only on a local UNIX socket. While LXD may
not be running when you first look at the process listing, any LXC command will start it up. For instance:
lxc l i s t

This will create your client certificate and contact the LXD server for a list of containers. To make the server
accessible over the network you can set the http port using:
lxc c o n f i g s e t core . https_address :8443

This will tell LXD to listen to port 8843 on all addresses.

Authentication

By default, LXD will allow all members of group lxd to talk to it over the UNIX socket. Communication
over the network is authorized using server and client certificates.
Before client c1 wishes to use remote r1, r1 must be registered using:
l x c remote add r 1 r 1 . example . com : 8 4 4 3

The fingerprint of r1’s certificate will be shown, to allow the user at c1 to reject a false certificate. The server
in turn will verify that c1 may be trusted in one of two ways. The first is to register it in advance from any
already-registered client, using:
l x c c o n f i g t r u s t add r 1 c e r t f i l e . c r t

Now when the client adds r1 as a known remote, it will not need to provide a password as it is already
trusted by the server.
The other step is to configure a ‘trust password’ with r1, either at initial configuration using lxd init , or
after the fact using:
l x c c o n f i g s e t c o r e . t r u s t _ p a s s w o r d PASSWORD

The password can then be provided when the client registers r1 as a known remote.

Backing store

LXD supports several backing stores. The recommended and the default backing store is zfs . If you already
have a ZFS pool configured, you can tell LXD to use it during the lxd init procedure, otherwise a file-backed
zpool will be created automatically. With ZFS, launching a new container is fast because the filesystem starts
as a copy on write clone of the images’ filesystem. Note that unless the container is privileged (see below)
LXD will need to change ownership of all files before the container can start, however this is fast and change
very little of the actual filesystem data.
The other supported backing stores are described in detail in the Storage configuration section of the LXD
documentation.

Container configuration

Containers are configured according to a set of profiles, described in the next section, and a set of container-
specific configuration. Profiles are applied first, so that container specific configuration can override profile
configuration.

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Container configuration includes properties like the architecture, limits on resources such as CPU and RAM,
security details including apparmor restriction overrides, and devices to apply to the container.
Devices can be of several types, including UNIX character, UNIX block, network interface, or disk. In order
to insert a host mount into a container, a ‘disk’ device type would be used. For instance, to mount /opt in
container c1 at /opt, you could use:
l x c c o n f i g d e v i c e add c1 opt d i s k s o u r c e=/opt path=opt

See:
lxc help config

for more information about editing container configurations. You may also use:
l x c c o n f i g e d i t c1

to edit the whole of c1’s configuration. Comments at the top of the configuration will show examples of
correct syntax to help administrators hit the ground running. If the edited configuration is not valid when
the editor is exited, then the editor will be restarted.

Profiles

Profiles are named collections of configurations which may be applied to more than one container. For
instance, all containers created with lxc launch, by default, include the default profile, which provides a
network interface eth0.
To mask a device which would be inherited from a profile but which should not be in the final container,
define a device by the same name but of type ‘none’:
l x c c o n f i g d e v i c e add c1 e t h 1 none

Nesting

Containers all share the same host kernel. This means that there is always an inherent trade-off between
features exposed to the container and host security from malicious containers. Containers by default are
therefore restricted from features needed to nest child containers. In order to run lxc or lxd containers under
a lxd container, the security . nesting feature must be set to true:
lxc config set container1 security . nesting true

Once this is done, container1 will be able to start sub-containers.

In order to run unprivileged (the default in LXD) containers nested under an unprivileged container, you
will need to ensure a wide enough UID mapping. Please see the ‘UID mapping’ section below.

Limits

LXD supports flexible constraints on the resources which containers can consume. The limits come in the
following categories:
• CPU: limit cpu available to the container in several ways.
• Disk: configure the priority of I/O requests under load
• RAM: configure memory and swap availability

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 • Network: configure the network priority under load
• Processes: limit the number of concurrent processes in the container.
For a full list of limits known to LXD, see the configuration documentation.

UID mappings and Privileged containers

By default, LXD creates unprivileged containers. This means that root in the container is a non-root UID
on the host. It is privileged against the resources owned by the container, but unprivileged with respect
to the host, making root in a container roughly equivalent to an unprivileged user on the host. (The main
exception is the increased attack surface exposed through the system call interface)
Briefly, in an unprivileged container, 65536 UIDs are ‘shifted’ into the container. For instance, UID 0 in the
container may be 100000 on the host, UID 1 in the container is 100001, etc, up to 165535. The starting
value for UIDs and GIDs, respectively, is determined by the ‘root’ entry the /etc/subuid and /etc/subgid
files. (See the subuid(5) man page.)
It is possible to request a container to run without a UID mapping by setting the security . privileged flag
to true:
l x c c o n f i g s e t c1 s e c u r i t y . p r i v i l e g e d t r u e

Note however that in this case the root user in the container is the root user on the host.

Apparmor

LXD confines containers by default with an apparmor profile which protects containers from each other
and the host from containers. For instance this will prevent root in one container from signaling root in
another container, even though they have the same uid mapping. It also prevents writing to dangerous,
un-namespaced files such as many sysctls and /proc/sysrq−trigger.
If the apparmor policy for a container needs to be modified for a container c1, specific apparmor policy lines
can be added in the raw.apparmor configuration key.

Seccomp

All containers are confined by a default seccomp policy. This policy prevents some dangerous actions such
as forced umounts, kernel module loading and unloading, kexec, and the open_by_handle_at system call.
The seccomp configuration cannot be modified, however a completely different seccomp policy – or none –
can be requested using raw.lxc (see below).

Raw LXC configuration

LXD configures containers for the best balance of host safety and container usability. Whenever possible it
is highly recommended to use the defaults, and use the LXD configuration keys to request LXD to modify
as needed. Sometimes, however, it may be necessary to talk to the underlying lxc driver itself. This can be
done by specifying LXC configuration items in the ‘raw.lxc’ LXD configuration key. These must be valid
items as documented in the lxc.container.conf(5) manual page.

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Snapshots

Containers can be renamed and live-migrated using the lxc move command:
l x c move c1 f i n a l −b e t a

They can also be snapshotted:

l x c s n a p s h o t c1 YYYY−MM−DD

Later changes to c1 can then be reverted by restoring the snapshot:

l x c r e s t o r e u1 YYYY−MM−DD

New containers can also be created by copying a container or snapshot:

l x c copy u1/YYYY−MM−DD t e s t c o n t a i n e r

Publishing images

When a container or container snapshot is ready for consumption by others, it can be published as a new
image using;
l x c p u b l i s h u1/YYYY−MM−DD −− a l i a s foo −2.0

The published image will be private by default, meaning that LXD will not allow clients without a trusted
certificate to see them. If the image is safe for public viewing (i.e. contains no private information), then the
‘public’ flag can be set, either at publish time using
l x c p u b l i s h u1/YYYY−MM−DD −− a l i a s foo −2.0 p u b l i c=t r u e

or after the fact using

l x c image e d i t foo −2.0

and changing the value of the public field.

Image export and import

Image can be exported as, and imported from, tarballs:

l x c image e x p o r t foo −2.0 foo − 2 . 0 . t a r . gz
l x c image import foo − 2 . 0 . t a r . gz −− a l i a s foo −2.0 −−p u b l i c

Troubleshooting

To view debug information about LXD itself, on a systemd based host use
j o u r n a l c t l −u l x d

Container logfiles for container c1 may be seen using:

l x c i n f o c1 −−show−l o g

The configuration file which was used may be found under /var/log/lxd/c1/lxc.conf while apparmor profiles
can be found in /var/lib/lxd/security/apparmor/profiles/c1 and seccomp profiles in /var/lib/lxd/security/
seccomp/c1.

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LXC
Containers are a lightweight virtualization technology. They are more akin to an enhanced chroot than
to full virtualization like Qemu or VMware, both because they do not emulate hardware and because con-
tainers share the same operating system as the host. Containers are similar to Solaris zones or BSD jails.
Linux-vserver and OpenVZ are two pre-existing, independently developed implementations of containers-like
functionality for Linux. In fact, containers came about as a result of the work to upstream the vserver and
OpenVZ functionality.
There are two user-space implementations of containers, each exploiting the same kernel features. Libvirt
allows the use of containers through the LXC driver by connecting to lxc:///. This can be very convenient
as it supports the same usage as its other drivers. The other implementation, called simply ‘LXC’, is not
compatible with libvirt, but is more flexible with more userspace tools. It is possible to switch between the
two, though there are peculiarities which can cause confusion.
In this document we will mainly describe the lxc package. Use of libvirt-lxc is not generally recommended
due to a lack of Apparmor protection for libvirt-lxc containers.
In this document, a container name will be shown as CN, C1, or C2.

Installation

The lxc package can be installed using

sudo apt i n s t a l l l x c

This will pull in the required and recommended dependencies, as well as set up a network bridge for con-
tainers to use. If you wish to use unprivileged containers, you will need to ensure that users have sufficient
allocated subuids and subgids, and will likely want to allow users to connect containers to a bridge (see Basic
unprivileged usage below).

Basic usage

LXC can be used in two distinct ways - privileged, by running the lxc commands as the root user; or
unprivileged, by running the lxc commands as a non-root user. (The starting of unprivileged containers by
the root user is possible, but not described here.) Unprivileged containers are more limited, for instance
being unable to create device nodes or mount block-backed filesystems. However they are less dangerous to
the host, as the root UID in the container is mapped to a non-root UID on the host.

Basic privileged usage

To create a privileged container, you can simply do:

sudo l x c −c r e a t e −−t e m p l a t e download −−name u1

or, abbreviated
sudo l x c −c r e a t e −t download −n u1

This will interactively ask for a container root filesystem type to download – in particular the distribution,
release, and architecture. To create the container non-interactively, you can specify these values on the
command line:
sudo l x c −c r e a t e −t download −n u1 −− −−d i s t ubuntu −−r e l e a s e DISTRO−SHORT−
CODENAME −−a r c h amd64

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or
sudo l x c −c r e a t e −t download −n u1 −− −d ubuntu −r DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME −a
amd64

You can now use lxc−ls to list containers, lxc−info to obtain detailed container information, lxc−start to
start and lxc−stop to stop the container. lxc−attach and lxc−console allow you to enter a container, if ssh
is not an option. lxc−destroy removes the container, including its rootfs. See the manual pages for more
information on each command. An example session might look like:
sudo l x c −l s −−f a n c y
sudo l x c −s t a r t −−name u1 −−daemon
sudo l x c −i n f o −−name u1
sudo l x c −s t o p −−name u1
sudo l x c −d e s t r o y −−name u1

User namespaces

Unprivileged containers allow users to create and administer containers without having any root privilege.
The feature underpinning this is called user namespaces. User namespaces are hierarchical, with privileged
tasks in a parent namespace being able to map its ids into child namespaces. By default every task on the
host runs in the initial user namespace, where the full range of ids is mapped onto the full range. This can
be seen by looking at /proc/self/uid_map and /proc/self/gid_map, which both will show 0 0 4294967295
when read from the initial user namespace. As of Ubuntu 14.04, when new users are created they are by
default offered a range of UIDs. The list of assigned ids can be seen in the files /etc/subuid and /etc/subgid
See their respective manpages for more information. Subuids and subgids are by convention started at id
100000 to avoid conflicting with system users.
If a user was created on an earlier release, it can be granted a range of ids using usermod, as follows:
sudo usermod −v 100000 −200000 −w 100000 −200000 u s e r 1

The programs newuidmap and newgidmap are setuid-root programs in the uidmap package, which are used
internally by lxc to map subuids and subgids from the host into the unprivileged container. They ensure
that the user only maps ids which are authorized by the host configuration.

Basic unprivileged usage

To create unprivileged containers, a few first steps are needed. You will need to create a default container
configuration file, specifying your desired id mappings and network setup, as well as configure the host to
allow the unprivileged user to hook into the host network. The example below assumes that your mapped
user and group id ranges are 100000–165536. Check your actual user and group id ranges and modify the
example accordingly:
g r e p $USER / e t c / s u b ui d
g r e p $USER / e t c / s u b g i d

mkdir −p ~ / . c o n f i g / l x c
echo ” l x c . id_map = u 0 100000 65536” > ~ / . c o n f i g / l x c / d e f a u l t . c o n f
echo ” l x c . id_map = g 0 100000 65536” >> ~ / . c o n f i g / l x c / d e f a u l t . c o n f
echo ” l x c . network . type = veth ” >> ~ / . c o n f i g / l x c / d e f a u l t . c o n f
echo ” l x c . network . l i n k = l x c b r 0 ” >> ~ / . c o n f i g / l x c / d e f a u l t . c o n f
echo ”$USER veth l x c b r 0 2” | sudo t e e −a / e t c / l x c / l x c −u s e r n e t

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After this, you can create unprivileged containers the same way as privileged ones, simply without using
sudo.
l x c −c r e a t e −t download −n u1 −− −d ubuntu −r DISTRO−SHORT−CODENAME −a amd64
l x c −s t a r t −n u1 −d
l x c −a t t a c h −n u1
l x c −s t o p −n u1
l x c −d e s t r o y −n u1

Nesting

In order to run containers inside containers - referred to as nested containers - two lines must be present in
the parent container configuration file:
l x c . mount . auto = cgroup
l x c . a a _ p r o f i l e = l x c −c o n t a i n e r −d e f a u l t −with−n e s t i n g

The first will cause the cgroup manager socket to be bound into the container, so that lxc inside the container
is able to administer cgroups for its nested containers. The second causes the container to run in a looser
Apparmor policy which allows the container to do the mounting required for starting containers. Note that
this policy, when used with a privileged container, is much less safe than the regular policy or an unprivileged
container. See the Apparmor section for more information.

Global configuration

The following configuration files are consulted by LXC. For privileged use, they are found under /etc/lxc,
while for unprivileged use they are under ~/.config/lxc.
• lxc .conf may optionally specify alternate values for several lxc settings, including the lxcpath, the
default configuration, cgroups to use, a cgroup creation pattern, and storage backend settings for lvm
and zfs.
• default .conf specifies configuration which every newly created container should contain. This usually
contains at least a network section, and, for unprivileged users, an id mapping section
• lxc−usernet.conf specifies how unprivileged users may connect their containers to the host-owned
network.
lxc .conf and default .conf are both under /etc/lxc and $HOME/.config/lxc, while lxc−usernet.conf is only
host-wide.
By default, containers are located under /var/lib/lxc for the root user.

Networking

By default LXC creates a private network namespace for each container, which includes a layer 2 networking
stack. Containers usually connect to the outside world by either having a physical NIC or a veth tunnel
endpoint passed into the container. LXC creates a NATed bridge, lxcbr0, at host startup. Containers created
using the default configuration will have one veth NIC with the remote end plugged into the lxcbr0 bridge.
A NIC can only exist in one namespace at a time, so a physical NIC passed into the container is not usable
on the host.
It is possible to create a container without a private network namespace. In this case, the container will
have access to the host networking like any other application. Note that this is particularly dangerous if
the container is running a distribution with upstart, like Ubuntu, since programs which talk to init, like
shutdown, will talk over the abstract Unix domain socket to the host’s upstart, and shut down the host.

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To give containers on lxcbr0 a persistent ip address based on domain name, you can write entries to /etc/
lxc/dnsmasq.conf like:
dhcp−h o s t=l x c m a i l , 1 0 . 0 . 3 . 1 0 0
dhcp−h o s t=t t r s s , 1 0 . 0 . 3 . 1 0 1

If it is desirable for the container to be publicly accessible, there are a few ways to go about it. One is to
use iptables to forward host ports to the container, for instance
i p t a b l e s −t nat −A PREROUTING −p t c p − i e t h 0 −−d p o r t 587 −j DNAT \
−−to−d e s t i n a t i o n 1 0 . 0 . 3 . 1 0 0 : 5 8 7

Then, specify the host’s bridge in the container configuration file in place of lxcbr0, for instance
l x c . network . type = veth
l x c . network . l i n k = br0

Finally, you can ask LXC to use macvlan for the container’s NIC. Note that this has limitations and depending
on configuration may not allow the container to talk to the host itself. Therefore the other two options are
preferred and more commonly used.
There are several ways to determine the ip address for a container. First, you can use lxc−ls −−fancy which
will print the ip addresses for all running containers, or lxc−info −i −H −n C1 which will print C1’s ip
address. If dnsmasq is installed on the host, you can also add an entry to /etc/dnsmasq.conf as follows
s e r v e r =/ l x c / 1 0 . 0 . 3 . 1

after which dnsmasq will resolve C1.lxc locally, so that you can do:
p i n g C1
s s h C1

For more information, see the lxc .conf(5) manpage as well as the example network configurations under
/usr/share/doc/lxc/examples/.

LXC startup

LXC does not have a long-running daemon. However it does have three upstart jobs.
• /etc/ init /lxc−net.conf: is an optional job which only runs if /etc/default/lxc−net specifies
USE_LXC_BRIDGE (true by default). It sets up a NATed bridge for containers to use.
• /etc/ init /lxc .conf loads the lxc apparmor profiles and optionally starts any autostart containers. The
autostart containers will be ignored if LXC_AUTO (true by default) is set to true in /etc/default/lxc.
See the lxc-autostart manual page for more information on autostarted containers.
• /etc/ init /lxc−instance.conf is used by /etc/ init /lxc .conf to autostart a container.

Backing Stores

LXC supports several backing stores for container root filesystems. The default is a simple directory backing
store, because it requires no prior host customization, so long as the underlying filesystem is large enough.
It also requires no root privilege to create the backing store, so that it is seamless for unprivileged use.
The rootfs for a privileged directory backed container is located (by default) under /var/lib/lxc/C1/rootfs,
while the rootfs for an unprivileged container is under ~/. local /share/lxc/C1/rootfs. If a custom lxcpath is
specified in lxc.system.com, then the container rootfs will be under $lxcpath/C1/rootfs.

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A snapshot clone C2 of a directory backed container C1 becomes an overlayfs backed container, with a
rootfs called overlayfs :/var/lib/lxc/C1/rootfs:/var/lib/lxc/C2/delta0. Other backing store types include
loop, btrfs, LVM and zfs.
A btrfs backed container mostly looks like a directory backed container, with its root filesystem in the same
location. However, the root filesystem comprises a subvolume, so that a snapshot clone is created using a
subvolume snapshot.
The root filesystem for an LVM backed container can be any separate LV. The default VG name can be
specified in lxc.conf. The filesystem type and size are configurable per-container using lxc-create.
The rootfs for a zfs backed container is a separate zfs filesystem, mounted under the traditional /var/
lib/lxc/C1/rootfs location. The zfsroot can be specified at lxc-create, and a default can be specified in
lxc.system.conf.
More information on creating containers with the various backing stores can be found in the lxc-create
manual page.

Templates

Creating a container generally involves creating a root filesystem for the container. lxc−create delegates this
work to templates, which are generally per-distribution. The lxc templates shipped with lxc can be found
under /usr/share/lxc/templates, and include templates to create Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Oracle, centos,
and gentoo containers among others.
Creating distribution images in most cases requires the ability to create device nodes, often requires tools
which are not available in other distributions, and usually is quite time-consuming. Therefore lxc comes
with a special download template, which downloads pre-built container images from a central lxc server. The
most important use case is to allow simple creation of unprivileged containers by non-root users, who could
not for instance easily run the debootstrap command.
When running lxc−create, all options which come after – are passed to the template. In the following
command, –name, –template and –bdev are passed to lxc−create, while –release is passed to the template:
l x c −c r e a t e −−t e m p l a t e ubuntu −−name c1 −−bdev l o o p −− −−r e l e a s e DISTRO−SHORT−
CODENAME

You can obtain help for the options supported by any particular container by passing –help and the template
name to lxc−create. For instance, for help with the download template,
l x c −c r e a t e −−t e m p l a t e download −−h e l p

Autostart

LXC supports marking containers to be started at system boot. Prior to Ubuntu 14.04, this was done
using symbolic links under the directory /etc/lxc/auto. Starting with Ubuntu 14.04, it is done through the
container configuration files. An entry
l x c . s t a r t . auto = 1
lxc . s t a r t . delay = 5

would mean that the container should be started at boot, and the system should wait 5 seconds before starting
the next container. LXC also supports ordering and grouping of containers, as well as reboot and shutdown
by autostart groups. See the manual pages for lxc-autostart and lxc.container.conf for more information.

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Apparmor

LXC ships with a default Apparmor profile intended to protect the host from accidental misuses of privilege
inside the container. For instance, the container will not be able to write to /proc/sysrq−trigger or to most
/sys files.
The usr.bin. lxc−start profile is entered by running lxc−start. This profile mainly prevents lxc−start from
mounting new filesystems outside of the container’s root filesystem. Before executing the container’s init ,
LXC requests a switch to the container’s profile. By default, this profile is the lxc−container−default policy
which is defined in /etc/apparmor.d/lxc/lxc−default. This profile prevents the container from accessing
many dangerous paths, and from mounting most filesystems.
Programs in a container cannot be further confined - for instance, MySQL runs under the container profile
(protecting the host) but will not be able to enter the MySQL profile (to protect the container).
lxc−execute does not enter an Apparmor profile, but the container it spawns will be confined.

Customizing container policies

If you find that lxc−start is failing due to a legitimate access which is being denied by its Apparmor policy,
you can disable the lxc-start profile by doing:
sudo apparmor_parser −R / e t c / apparmor . d/ u s r . b i n . l x c −s t a r t
sudo l n −s / e t c / apparmor . d/ u s r . b i n . l x c −s t a r t / e t c / apparmor . d/ d i s a b l e d /

This will make lxc−start run unconfined, but continue to confine the container itself. If you also wish to
disable confinement of the container, then in addition to disabling the usr.bin. lxc−start profile, you must
add:
lxc . aa_profile = unconfined

to the container’s configuration file.

LXC ships with a few alternate policies for containers. If you wish to run containers inside containers
(nesting), then you can use the lxc-container-default-with-nesting profile by adding the following line to the
container configuration file
l x c . a a _ p r o f i l e = l x c −c o n t a i n e r −d e f a u l t −with−n e s t i n g

If you wish to use libvirt inside containers, then you will need to edit that policy (which is defined in
/etc/apparmor.d/lxc/lxc−default−with−nesting) by uncommenting the following line:
mount f s t y p e=cgroup −> / s y s / f s / cgroup / * * ,

and re-load the policy.

Note that the nesting policy with privileged containers is far less safe than the default policy, as it allows
containers to re-mount /sys and /proc in nonstandard locations, bypassing apparmor protections. Unpriv-
ileged containers do not have this drawback since the container root cannot write to root-owned proc and
sys files.
Another profile shipped with lxc allows containers to mount block filesystem types like ext4. This can be
useful in some cases like maas provisioning, but is deemed generally unsafe since the superblock handlers in
the kernel have not been audited for safe handling of untrusted input.
If you need to run a container in a custom profile, you can create a new profile under /etc/apparmor.d/lxc/.
Its name must start with lxc− in order for lxc−start to be allowed to transition to that profile. The lxc
−default profile includes the re-usable abstractions file /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/lxc/container−base.

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An easy way to start a new profile therefore is to do the same, then add extra permissions at the bottom of
your policy.
After creating the policy, load it using:
sudo apparmor_parser −r / e t c / apparmor . d/ l x c −c o n t a i n e r s

The profile will automatically be loaded after a reboot, because it is sourced by the file /etc/apparmor.d/
lxc−containers. Finally, to make container CN use this new lxc−CN−profile, add the following line to its
configuration file:
l x c . a a _ p r o f i l e = l x c −CN−p r o f i l e

Control Groups

Control groups (cgroups) are a kernel feature providing hierarchical task grouping and per-cgroup resource
accounting and limits. They are used in containers to limit block and character device access and to freeze
(suspend) containers. They can be further used to limit memory use and block i/o, guarantee minimum cpu
shares, and to lock containers to specific cpus.
By default, a privileged container CN will be assigned to a cgroup called /lxc/CN. In the case of name
conflicts (which can occur when using custom lxcpaths) a suffix “-n”, where n is an integer starting at 0, will
be appended to the cgroup name.
By default, a privileged container CN will be assigned to a cgroup called CN under the cgroup of the task
which started the container, for instance /usr/1000.user/1.session/CN. The container root will be given
group ownership of the directory (but not all files) so that it is allowed to create new child cgroups.
As of Ubuntu 14.04, LXC uses the cgroup manager (cgmanager) to administer cgroups. The cgroup manager
receives D-Bus requests over the Unix socket /sys/fs/cgroup/cgmanager/sock. To facilitate safe nested
containers, the line
l x c . mount . auto = cgroup

can be added to the container configuration causing the /sys/fs/cgroup/cgmanager directory to be bind-
mounted into the container. The container in turn should start the cgroup management proxy (done by
default if the cgmanager package is installed in the container) which will move the /sys/fs/cgroup/cgmanager
directory to /sys/fs/cgroup/cgmanager.lower, then start listening for requests to proxy on its own socket
/sys/fs/cgroup/cgmanager/sock. The host cgmanager will ensure that nested containers cannot escape their
assigned cgroups or make requests for which they are not authorized.

Cloning

For rapid provisioning, you may wish to customize a canonical container according to your needs and then
make multiple copies of it. This can be done with the lxc−clone program.
Clones are either snapshots or copies of another container. A copy is a new container copied from the
original, and takes as much space on the host as the original. A snapshot exploits the underlying backing
store’s snapshotting ability to make a copy-on-write container referencing the first. Snapshots can be created
from btrfs, LVM, zfs, and directory backed containers. Each backing store has its own peculiarities - for
instance, LVM containers which are not thinpool-provisioned cannot support snapshots of snapshots; zfs
containers with snapshots cannot be removed until all snapshots are released; LVM containers must be more
carefully planned as the underlying filesystem may not support growing; btrfs does not suffer any of these
shortcomings, but suffers from reduced fsync performance causing dpkg and apt to be slower.
Snapshots of directory-packed containers are created using the overlay filesystem. For instance, a privileged
directory-backed container C1 will have its root filesystem under /var/lib/lxc/C1/rootfs. A snapshot clone of

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C1 called C2 will be started with C1’s rootfs mounted readonly under /var/lib/lxc/C2/delta0. Importantly,
in this case C1 should not be allowed to run or be removed while C2 is running. It is advised instead to
consider C1 a canonical base container, and to only use its snapshots.
Given an existing container called C1, a copy can be created using:
sudo l x c −c l o n e −o C1 −n C2

A snapshot can be created using:

sudo l x c −c l o n e −s −o C1 −n C2

See the lxc-clone manpage for more information.

Snapshots

To more easily support the use of snapshot clones for iterative container development, LXC supports snap-
shots. When working on a container C1, before making a potentially dangerous or hard-to-revert change,
you can create a snapshot
sudo l x c −s n a p s h o t −n C1

which is a snapshot-clone called ‘snap0’ under /var/lib/lxcsnaps or $HOME/.local/share/lxcsnaps. The next

snapshot will be called ‘snap1’, etc. Existing snapshots can be listed using lxc−snapshot −L −n C1, and a
snapshot can be restored - erasing the current C1 container - using lxc−snapshot −r snap1 −n C1. After
the restore command, the snap1 snapshot continues to exist, and the previous C1 is erased and replaced
with the snap1 snapshot.
Snapshots are supported for btrfs, lvm, zfs, and overlayfs containers. If lxc-snapshot is called on a directory-
backed container, an error will be logged and the snapshot will be created as a copy-clone. The reason for this
is that if the user creates an overlayfs snapshot of a directory-backed container and then makes changes to
the directory-backed container, then the original container changes will be partially reflected in the snapshot.
If snapshots of a directory backed container C1 are desired, then an overlayfs clone of C1 should be created,
C1 should not be touched again, and the overlayfs clone can be edited and snapshotted at will, as such
l x c −c l o n e −s −o C1 −n C2
l x c −s t a r t −n C2 −d # make some c h a n g e s
l x c −s t o p −n C2
l x c −s n a p s h o t −n C2
l x c −s t a r t −n C2 # etc

Ephemeral Containers

While snapshots are useful for longer-term incremental development of images, ephemeral containers utilize
snapshots for quick, single-use throwaway containers. Given a base container C1, you can start an ephemeral
container using
l x c −s t a r t −ephemeral −o C1

The container begins as a snapshot of C1. Instructions for logging into the container will be printed to the
console. After shutdown, the ephemeral container will be destroyed. See the lxc-start-ephemeral manual
page for more options.

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Lifecycle management hooks

Beginning with Ubuntu 12.10, it is possible to define hooks to be executed at specific points in a container’s
lifetime:
• Pre-start hooks are run in the host’s namespace before the container ttys, consoles, or mounts are up.
If any mounts are done in this hook, they should be cleaned up in the post-stop hook.
• Pre-mount hooks are run in the container’s namespaces, but before the root filesystem has been
mounted. Mounts done in this hook will be automatically cleaned up when the container shuts down.
• Mount hooks are run after the container filesystems have been mounted, but before the container has
called pivot_root to change its root filesystem.
• Start hooks are run immediately before executing the container’s init. Since these are executed after
pivoting into the container’s filesystem, the command to be executed must be copied into the container’s
filesystem.
• Post-stop hooks are executed after the container has been shut down.
If any hook returns an error, the container’s run will be aborted. Any post-stop hook will still be executed.
Any output generated by the script will be logged at the debug priority.
Please see the lxc .container.conf(5) manual page for the configuration file format with which to specify
hooks. Some sample hooks are shipped with the lxc package to serve as an example of how to write and use
such hooks.

Consoles

Containers have a configurable number of consoles. One always exists on the container’s /dev/console. This
is shown on the terminal from which you ran lxc−start, unless the -d option is specified. The output on
/dev/console can be redirected to a file using the -c console-file option to lxc−start. The number of extra
consoles is specified by the lxc . tty variable, and is usually set to 4. Those consoles are shown on /dev/ttyN
(for 1 <= N <= 4). To log into console 3 from the host, use:
sudo l x c −c o n s o l e −n c o n t a i n e r −t 3

or if the −t N option is not specified, an unused console will be automatically chosen. To exit the console,
use the escape sequence Ctrl−a q. Note that the escape sequence does not work in the console resulting
from lxc−start without the −d option.
Each container console is actually a Unix98 pty in the host’s (not the guest’s) pty mount, bind-mounted
over the guest’s /dev/ttyN and /dev/console. Therefore, if the guest unmounts those or otherwise tries to
access the actual character device 4:N, it will not be serving getty to the LXC consoles. (With the default
settings, the container will not be able to access that character device and getty will therefore fail.) This
can easily happen when a boot script blindly mounts a new /dev.

Troubleshooting

Logging

If something goes wrong when starting a container, the first step should be to get full logging from LXC:
sudo l x c −s t a r t −n C1 − l t r a c e −o debug . out

This will cause lxc to log at the most verbose level, trace, and to output log information to a file called
‘debug.out’. If the file debug.out already exists, the new log information will be appended.

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Monitoring container status

Two commands are available to monitor container state changes. lxc−monitor monitors one or more con-
tainers for any state changes. It takes a container name as usual with the -n option, but in this case the
container name can be a posix regular expression to allow monitoring desirable sets of containers. lxc−
monitor continues running as it prints container changes. lxc−wait waits for a specific state change and
then exits. For instance,
sudo l x c −monitor −n c o n t [0 −5]*

would print all state changes to any containers matching the listed regular expression, whereas
sudo l x c −w a i t −n c o n t 1 −s ’STOPPED|FROZEN’

will wait until container cont1 enters state STOPPED or state FROZEN and then exit.

Attach

As of Ubuntu 14.04, it is possible to attach to a container’s namespaces. The simplest case is to simply do
sudo l x c −a t t a c h −n C1

which will start a shell attached to C1’s namespaces, or, effectively inside the container. The attach func-
tionality is very flexible, allowing attaching to a subset of the container’s namespaces and security context.
See the manual page for more information.

Container init verbosity

If LXC completes the container startup, but the container init fails to complete (for instance, no login prompt
is shown), it can be useful to request additional verbosity from the init process. For an upstart container,
this might be:
sudo l x c −s t a r t −n C1 / s b i n / i n i t l o g l e v e l=debug

You can also start an entirely different program in place of init, for instance
sudo l x c −s t a r t −n C1 / b i n / bash
sudo l x c −s t a r t −n C1 / b i n / s l e e p 100
sudo l x c −s t a r t −n C1 / b i n / c a t / p r o c /1/ s t a t u s

LXC API

Most of the LXC functionality can now be accessed through an API exported by liblxc for which bindings
are available in several languages, including Python, lua, ruby, and go.
Below is an example using the python bindings (which are available in the python3-lxc package) which
creates and starts a container, then waits until it has been shut down:
# sudo python3
Python 3 . 2 . 3 ( d e f a u l t , Aug 28 2 0 1 2 , 0 8 : 2 6 : 0 3 )
[GCC 4 . 7 . 1 20120814 ( p r e r e l e a s e ) ] on l i n u x 2
Type ” h e l p ” , ” c o p y r i g h t ” , ” c r e d i t s ” o r ” l i c e n s e ” f o r more i n f o r m a t i o n .
>>> import l x c
__main__ : 1 : Warning : The python−l x c API i s n ’ t y e t s t a b l e and may change a t any
point in the f u t u r e .

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>>> c=l x c . C o n t a i n e r ( ” C1 ” )
>>> c . c r e a t e ( ” ubuntu ” )
True
>>> c . s t a r t ( )
True
>>> c . w a i t ( ”STOPPED” )
True

Security

A namespace maps ids to resources. By not providing a container any id with which to reference a resource,
the resource can be protected. This is the basis of some of the security afforded to container users. For
instance, IPC namespaces are completely isolated. Other namespaces, however, have various leaks which
allow privilege to be inappropriately exerted from a container into another container or to the host.
By default, LXC containers are started under a Apparmor policy to restrict some actions. The details of
AppArmor integration with lxc are in section Apparmor. Unprivileged containers go further by mapping
root in the container to an unprivileged host UID. This prevents access to /proc and /sys files representing
host resources, as well as any other files owned by root on the host.

Exploitable system calls

It is a core container feature that containers share a kernel with the host. Therefore if the kernel contains
any exploitable system calls the container can exploit these as well. Once the container controls the kernel
it can fully control any resource known to the host.
In general to run a full distribution container a large number of system calls will be needed. However for
application containers it may be possible to reduce the number of available system calls to only a few. Even
for system containers running a full distribution security gains may be had, for instance by removing the
32-bit compatibility system calls in a 64-bit container. See the lxc.container.conf manual page for details of
how to configure a container to use seccomp. By default, no seccomp policy is loaded.

Resources

• The DeveloperWorks article LXC: Linux container tools was an early introduction to the use of con-
tainers.
• The Secure Containers Cookbook demonstrated the use of security modules to make containers more
secure.
• The upstream LXC project is hosted at linuxcontainers.org.

Databases
Ubuntu provides two popular database servers. They are:
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
Both are popular choices among developers, with similar feature sets and performance capabilities. Histor-
ically, Postgres tended to be a preferred choice for its attention to standards conformance, features, and
extensibility, whereas Mysql may be more preferred for higher performance requirements, however over time
each has made good strides catching up with the other. Specialized needs may make one a better option for
a certain application, but in general both are good, strong options.

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They are available in the main repository and equally supported by Ubuntu. This section explains how to
install and configure these database servers.

MySQL
MySQL is a fast, multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL database server. It is intended for mission-
critical, heavy-load production systems and mass-deployed software.

Installation

To install MySQL, run the following command from a terminal prompt:

sudo apt i n s t a l l mysql−s e r v e r

Once the installation is complete, the MySQL server should be started automatically. You can quickly check
its current status via systemd:
sudo s e r v i c e mysql s t a t u s �

mysql . s e r v i c e − MySQL Community S e r v e r

Loaded : l o a d e d ( / l i b / systemd / system / mysql . s e r v i c e ; e n a b l e d ; vendor p r e s e t :
enabled )
A c t i v e : a c t i v e ( r u n ni n g ) s i n c e Tue 2019−10−08 1 4 : 3 7 : 3 8 PDT; 2 weeks 5 days
ago
Main PID : 2028 ( mysqld )
Tasks : 28 ( l i m i t : 4 9 1 5 )
CGroup : / system . s l i c e / mysql . s e r v i c e ��
2028 / u s r / s b i n / mysqld −−daemonize −−pid− f i l e =/run / mysqld / mysqld . p i d

Oct 08 1 4 : 3 7 : 3 6 db . example . o r g systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t i n g MySQL Community S e r v e r . . .

Oct 08 1 4 : 3 7 : 3 8 db . example . o r g systemd [ 1 ] : S t a r t e d MySQL Community S e r v e r .

The network status of the MySQL service can also be checked by running the ss command at the terminal
prompt:
sudo s s −tap | g r e p mysql

When you run this command, you should see something similar to the following:
LISTEN 0 151 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 : mysql 0.0.0.0:*
u s e r s : ( ( ” mysqld ” , p i d =149190 , f d =29) )
LISTEN 0 70 *:33060 *:*
u s e r s : ( ( ” mysqld ” , p i d =149190 , f d =32) )

If the server is not running correctly, you can type the following command to start it:
sudo s e r v i c e mysql r e s t a r t

A good starting point for troubleshooting problems is the systemd journal, which can be accessed at the
terminal prompt with this command:
sudo j o u r n a l c t l −u mysql

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Configuration

You can edit the files in /etc/mysql/ to configure the basic settings – log file, port number, etc. For example,
to configure MySQL to listen for connections from network hosts, in the file /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld
.cnf, change the bind-address directive to the server’s IP address:
bind−a d d r e s s = 192.168.0.5

Note
Replace 192.168.0.5 with the appropriate address, which can be determined via ip address show.
After making a configuration change, the MySQL daemon will need to be restarted:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t mysql . s e r v i c e

Database Engines

Whilst the default configuration of MySQL provided by the Ubuntu packages is perfectly functional and
performs well there are things you may wish to consider before you proceed.
MySQL is designed to allow data to be stored in different ways. These methods are referred to as either
database or storage engines. There are two main engines that you’ll be interested in: InnoDB and MyISAM.
Storage engines are transparent to the end user. MySQL will handle things differently under the surface,
but regardless of which storage engine is in use, you will interact with the database in the same way.
Each engine has its own advantages and disadvantages.
While it is possible, and may be advantageous to mix and match database engines on a table level, doing so
reduces the effectiveness of the performance tuning you can do as you’ll be splitting the resources between
two engines instead of dedicating them to one.
• MyISAM is the older of the two. It can be faster than InnoDB under certain circumstances and favours
a read only workload. Some web applications have been tuned around MyISAM (though that’s not to
imply that they will slow under InnoDB). MyISAM also supports the FULLTEXT data type, which
allows very fast searches of large quantities of text data. However MyISAM is only capable of locking an
entire table for writing. This means only one process can update a table at a time. As any application
that uses the table scales this may prove to be a hindrance. It also lacks journaling, which makes it
harder for data to be recovered after a crash. The following link provides some points for consideration
about using MyISAM on a production database.
• InnoDB is a more modern database engine, designed to be ACID compliant which guarantees database
transactions are processed reliably. Write locking can occur on a row level basis within a table. That
means multiple updates can occur on a single table simultaneously. Data caching is also handled in
memory within the database engine, allowing caching on a more efficient row level basis rather than
file block. To meet ACID compliance all transactions are journaled independently of the main tables.
This allows for much more reliable data recovery as data consistency can be checked.
As of MySQL 5.5 InnoDB is the default engine, and is highly recommended over MyISAM unless you have
specific need for features unique to the engine.

Advanced configuration

Creating a tuned configuration

There are a number of parameters that can be adjusted within MySQL’s configuration files that will allow
you to improve the performance of the server over time.

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Many of the parameters can be adjusted with the existing database, however some may affect the data layout
and thus need more care to apply.
First, if you have existing data, you will need to carry out a mysqldump and reload:
mysqldump −−a l l −d a t a b a s e s −−r o u t i n e s −u r o o t −p > ~/ fulldump . s q l

This will then prompt you for the root password before creating a copy of the data. It is advisable to make
sure there are no other users or processes using the database whilst this takes place. Depending on how
much data you’ve got in your database, this may take a while. You won’t see anything on the screen during
this process.
Once the dump has been completed, shut down MySQL:
sudo s e r v i c e mysql s t o p

It’s also a good idea to backup the original configuration:

sudo r s y n c −avz / e t c / mysql / r o o t / mysql−backup

Next, make any desired configuration changes.

Then delete and re-initialise the database space and make sure ownership is correct before restarting MySQL:
sudo rm − r f / var / l i b / mysql /*
sudo mysqld −− i n i t i a l i z e
sudo chown −R mysql : / var / l i b / mysql
sudo s e r v i c e mysql s t a r t

The final step is re-importation of your data by piping your SQL commands to the database.
c a t ~/ fulldump . s q l | mysql

For large data imports, the ‘Pipe Viewer’ utility can be useful to track import progress. Ignore any ETA
times produced by pv, they’re based on the average time taken to handle each row of the file, but the speed
of inserting can vary wildly from row to row with mysqldumps:
sudo apt i n s t a l l pv
pv ~/ fulldump . s q l | mysql

Once that is complete all is good to go!

Note
This is not necessary for all my.cnf changes. Most of the variables you may wish to change to
improve performance are adjustable even whilst the server is running. As with anything, make
sure to have a good backup copy of config files and data before making changes.

MySQL Tuner

MySQL Tuner connects to a running MySQL instance and offer configuration suggestions to optimize the
database for your workload. The longer the server has been running, the better the advice mysqltuner can
provide. In a production environment, consider waiting for at least 24 hours before running the tool. You
can install mysqltuner from the Ubuntu repositories:
sudo apt i n s t a l l mys qlt uner

Then once its been installed, run:

m y s q ltu n er

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and wait for its final report. The top section provides general information about the database server, and
the bottom section provides tuning suggestions to alter in your my.cnf. Most of these can be altered live on
the server without restarting; look through the official MySQL documentation (link in Resources section) for
the relevant variables to change in production. The following example is part of a report from a production
database showing potential benefits from increasing the query cache:
−−−−−−−− Recommendations −−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Ge n e r a l recommendations :
Run OPTIMIZE TABLE t o defragment t a b l e s f o r b e t t e r p e r f o r m a n c e
I n c r e a s e table_cache gradually to avoid f i l e d e s c r i p t o r l i m i t s
Variables to adjust :
k e y _ b u f f e r _ s i z e (> 1 . 4G)
q u ery _cac h e_s ize (> 32M)
t a b l e _ c a c h e (> 6 4 )
i n n o d b _ b u f f e r _ p o o l _ s i z e (>= 22G)

It goes without saying that performance optimization strategies vary from application to application. So for
example, what works best for Wordpress might not be the best for Drupal or Joomla. Performance can be
dependent on the types of queries, use of indexes, how efficient the database design is and so on. You may
find it useful to spend some time searching for database tuning tips based on what applications you’re using.
Once you’ve reached the point of diminishing returns from database configuration adjustments, look to the
application itself for improvements, or invest in more powerful hardware and/or scaling up the database
environment.

Resources

• See the MySQL Home Page for more information.

• Full documentation is available in both online and offline formats from the MySQL Developers portal
• For general SQL information see the O’Reilly books Getting Started with SQL: A Hands-On Approach
for Beginners by Thomas Nield as an entry point and SQL in a Nutshell as a quick reference.
• The Apache MySQL PHP Ubuntu Wiki page also has useful information.

PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is an object-relational database system that has the features of traditional commercial database
systems with enhancements to be found in next-generation DBMS systems.

Installation

To install PostgreSQL, run the following command in the command prompt:

sudo apt i n s t a l l p o s t g r e s q l

The database service is automatically configured with viable defaults, but can be customized based on your
specialized needs.

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Configuration

PostgreSQL supports multiple client authentication methods. By default, the IDENT authentication method
is used for postgres and local users. Please refer to the PostgreSQL Administrator’s Guide if you would like
to configure alternatives like Kerberos.
The following discussion assumes that you wish to enable TCP/IP connections and use the MD5 method
for client authentication. PostgreSQL configuration files are stored in the /etc/postgresql/<version>/main
directory. For example, if you install PostgreSQL 12, the configuration files are stored in the /etc/postgresql
/12/main directory.
Tip
To configure IDENT authentication, add entries to the /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_ident.conf
file. There are detailed comments in the file to guide you.
To enable other computers to connect to your PostgreSQL server, edit the file /etc/postgresql/12/main/
postgresql.conf
Locate the line #listen_addresses = ‘localhost’ and change it to:
listen_addresses = ’* ’

Note
To allow both IPv4 and IPv6 connections replace ‘localhost’ with ‘::’
For details on other parameters, refer to the configuration file or to the PostgreSQL documentation for
information on how they can be edited.
Now that we can connect to our PostgreSQL server, the next step is to set a password for the postgres user.
Run the following command at a terminal prompt to connect to the default PostgreSQL template database:
sudo −u p o s t g r e s p s q l t e m p l a t e 1

The above command connects to PostgreSQL database template1 as user postgres. Once you connect to the
PostgreSQL server, you will be at a SQL prompt. You can run the following SQL command at the psql
prompt to configure the password for the user postgres.
ALTER USER p o s t g r e s with e n c r y p t e d password ’ your_password ’ ;

After configuring the password, edit the file /etc/postgresql/12/main/pg_hba.conf to use MD5 authentica-
tion with the postgres user:
local all postgres md5

Finally, you should restart the PostgreSQL service to initialize the new configuration. From a terminal
prompt enter the following to restart PostgreSQL:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t p o s t g r e s q l . s e r v i c e

Warning
The above configuration is not complete by any means. Please refer to the PostgreSQL Admin-
istrator’s Guide to configure more parameters.
You can test server connections from other machines by using the PostgreSQL client.
sudo apt i n s t a l l p o s t g r e s q l −c l i e n t
p s q l −h p o s t g r e s . example . com −U p o s t g r e s −W

Note
Replace the domain name with your actual server domain name.

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Backups

PostgreSQL databases should be backed up regularly. Refer to the PostgreSQL Administrator’s Guide for
different approaches.

Resources

• As mentioned above the PostgreSQL Administrator’s Guide is an excellent resource. The guide is also
available in the postgresql-doc-12 package. Execute the following in a terminal to install the package:
sudo apt i n s t a l l p o s t g r e s q l −doc −12

To view the guide enter file :///usr/share/doc/postgresql−doc−12/html/index.html into the address

bar of your browser.
• For general SQL information see the O’Reilly books Getting Started with SQL: A Hands-On Approach
for Beginners by Thomas Nield as an entry point and SQL in a Nutshell as a quick reference.
• Also, see the PostgreSQL Ubuntu Wiki page for more information.

Active Directory Integration

Accessing a Samba Share

Another, use for Samba is to integrate into an existing Windows network. Once part of an Active Directory
domain, Samba can provide file and print services to AD users. For details on how to join a domain, see the
SSSD and Active Directory chapter of this guide.
Once part of the Active Directory domain, enter the following command in the terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l samba c i f s −u t i l s s m b c l i e n t

Next, edit /etc/samba/smb.conf changing:

workgroup = EXAMPLE
...
s e c u r i t y = ads
realm = EXAMPLE.COM
...
idmap backend = lwopen
idmap u i d = 50 −9999999999
idmap g i d = 50 −9999999999

Restart samba for the new settings to take effect:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

You should now be able to access any Samba shares from a Windows client. However, be sure to give the
appropriate AD users or groups access to the share directory. See Securing File and Print Server for more
details.

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Accessing a Windows Share

Now that the Samba server is part of the Active Directory domain you can access any Windows server shares:
• To mount a Windows file share enter the following in a terminal prompt:
mount . c i f s // f s 0 1 . example . com/ s h a r e mount_point

It is also possible to access shares on computers not part of an AD domain, but a username and
password will need to be provided.
• To mount the share during boot place an entry in /etc/fstab, for example:
/ / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 5 / s h a r e /mnt/ windows c i f s auto , username=s t e v e , password=s e c r e t ,
rw 0 0

• Another way to copy files from a Windows server is to use the smbclient utility. To list the files in a
Windows share:
s m b c l i e n t // f s 0 1 . example . com/ s h a r e −k −c ” l s ”

• To copy a file from the share, enter:

s m b c l i e n t // f s 0 1 . example . com/ s h a r e −k −c ” g e t f i l e . t x t ”

This will copy the file . txt into the current directory.
• And to copy a file to the share:
s m b c l i e n t // f s 0 1 . example . com/ s h a r e −k −c ” put / e t c / h o s t s h o s t s ”

This will copy the /etc/hosts to //fs01.example.com/share/hosts.

• The -c option used above allows you to execute the smbclient command all at once. This is useful for
scripting and minor file operations. To enter the smb: \> prompt, a FTP like prompt where you can
execute normal file and directory commands, simply execute:
s m b c l i e n t // f s 0 1 . example . com/ s h a r e −k

Note
Replace all instances of fs01 .example.com/share, //192.168.0.5/share, username=steve,password=secret,
and file.txt with your server’s IP, hostname, share name, file name, and an actual username and
password with rights to the share.

Resources

For more smbclient options see the man page: man smbclient, also available online.
The mount.cifs man page is also useful for more detailed information.
The Ubuntu Wiki Samba page.

As a Domain Controller
A Samba server can be configured to appear as a Windows NT4-style domain controller. A major advantage
of this configuration is the ability to centralize user and machine credentials. Samba can also use multiple
backends to store the user information.

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Primary Domain Controller

This section covers configuring Samba as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) using the default smbpasswd
backend.
First, install Samba, and libpam-winbind to sync the user accounts, by entering the following in a terminal
prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l samba libpam−winbind

Next, configure Samba by editing /etc/samba/smb.conf. The security mode should be set to user, and the
workgroup should relate to your organization:
workgroup = EXAMPLE
...
security = user

In the commented “Domains” section add or uncomment the following (the last line has been split to fit the
format of this document):
domain l o g o n s = y e s
l o g o n path = \\%N\%U\ p r o f i l e
l o g o n d r i v e = H:
l o g o n home = \\%N\%U
l o g o n s c r i p t = l o g o n . cmd
add machine s c r i p t = sudo / u s r / s b i n / us e ra d d −N −g machines −c Machine −d
/ var / l i b /samba −s / b i n / f a l s e %u

Note
If you wish to not use Roaming Profiles leave the logon home and logon path options commented.
• domain logons: provides the netlogon service causing Samba to act as a domain controller.
• logon path: places the user’s Windows profile into their home directory. It is also possible to configure
a [profiles] share placing all profiles under a single directory.
• logon drive: specifies the home directory local path.
• logon home: specifies the home directory location.
• logon script: determines the script to be run locally once a user has logged in. The script needs to be
placed in the [netlogon] share.
• add machine script: a script that will automatically create the Machine Trust Account needed for a
workstation to join the domain.
In this example the machines group will need to be created using the addgroup utility see ??? for
details.
Uncomment the [homes] share to allow the logon home to be mapped:
[ homes ]
comment = Home D i r e c t o r i e s
b r o w s e a b l e = no
r e a d o n l y = no
c r e a t e mask = 0700
d i r e c t o r y mask = 0700
v a l i d u s e r s = %S

When configured as a domain controller a [netlogon] share needs to be configured. To enable the share,
uncomment:

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[ netlogon ]
comment = Network Logon S e r v i c e
path = / s r v /samba/ n e t l o g o n
g u e s t ok = y e s
read only = yes
s h a r e modes = no

Note
The original netlogon share path is /home/samba/netlogon, but according to the Filesystem
Hierarchy Standard (FHS), /srv is the correct location for site-specific data provided by the
system.
Now create the netlogon directory, and an empty (for now) logon.cmd script file:
sudo mkdir −p / s r v /samba/ n e t l o g o n
sudo touch / s r v /samba/ n e t l o g o n / l o g o n . cmd

You can enter any normal Windows logon script commands in logon.cmd to customize the client’s environ-
ment.
Restart Samba to enable the new domain controller:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

Lastly, there are a few additional commands needed to setup the appropriate rights.
With root being disabled by default, in order to join a workstation to the domain, a system group needs to
be mapped to the Windows Domain Admins group. Using the net utility, from a terminal enter:
sudo n e t groupmap add ntgroup=”Domain Admins” unixgroup=sysadmin r i d =512 type=
d

Note
Change sysadmin to whichever group you prefer. Also, the user used to join the domain needs
to be a member of the sysadmin group, as well as a member of the system admin group. The
admin group allows sudo use.
If the user does not have Samba credentials yet, you can add them with the smbpasswd utility,
change the sysadmin username appropriately:
sudo smbpasswd −a sysadmin

Also, rights need to be explicitly provided to the Domain Admins group to allow the add machine script
(and other admin functions) to work. This is achieved by executing:
n e t r p c r i g h t s g r a n t −U sysadmin ”EXAMPLE\Domain Admins”
SeMachineAccountPrivilege \
SePrintOperatorPrivilege SeAddUsersPrivilege SeDiskOperatorPrivilege \
SeRemoteShutdownPrivilege

You should now be able to join Windows clients to the Domain in the same manner as joining them to an
NT4 domain running on a Windows server.

Backup Domain Controller

With a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) on the network it is best to have a Backup Domain Controller
(BDC) as well. This will allow clients to authenticate in case the PDC becomes unavailable.

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When configuring Samba as a BDC you need a way to sync account information with the PDC. There are
multiple ways of accomplishing this scp, rsync, or by using LDAP as the passdb backend.
Using LDAP is the most robust way to sync account information, because both domain controllers can use
the same information in real time. However, setting up a LDAP server may be overly complicated for a
small number of user and computer accounts. See ??? for details.
First, install samba and libpam-winbind. From a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l samba libpam−winbind

Now, edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and uncomment the following in the [global]:

workgroup = EXAMPLE
...
security = user

In the commented Domains uncomment or add:

domain l o g o n s = y e s
domain master = no

Make sure a user has rights to read the files in /var/lib/samba. For example, to allow users in the admin
group to scp the files, enter:
sudo chgrp −R admin / var / l i b /samba

Next, sync the user accounts, using scp to copy the /var/lib/samba directory from the PDC:
sudo s c p −r username@pdc : / var / l i b /samba / var / l i b

Note
Replace username with a valid username and pdc with the hostname or IP Address of your actual
PDC.
Finally, restart samba:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

You can test that your Backup Domain controller is working by stopping the Samba daemon on the PDC,
then trying to login to a Windows client joined to the domain.
Another thing to keep in mind is if you have configured the logon home option as a directory on the PDC,
and the PDC becomes unavailable, access to the user’s Home drive will also be unavailable. For this reason
it is best to configure the logon home to reside on a separate file server from the PDC and BDC.

Resources

• For in depth Samba configurations see the Samba HOWTO Collection

• The guide is also available in printed format.
• O’Reilly’s Using Samba is also a good reference.
• Chapter 4 of the Samba HOWTO Collection explains setting up a Primary Domain Controller.
• Chapter 5 of the Samba HOWTO Collection explains setting up a Backup Domain Controller.
• The Ubuntu Wiki Samba page.

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File Server
One of the most common ways to network Ubuntu and Windows computers is to configure Samba as a File
Server. This section covers setting up a Samba server to share files with Windows clients.
The server will be configured to share files with any client on the network without prompting for a password.
If your environment requires stricter Access Controls see Securing File and Print Server.

Installation

The first step is to install the samba package. From a terminal prompt enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l samba

That’s all there is to it; you are now ready to configure Samba to share files.

Configuration

The main Samba configuration file is located in /etc/samba/smb.conf. The default configuration file has a
significant number of comments in order to document various configuration directives.
Note
Not all the available options are included in the default configuration file. See the smb.conf man
page or the Samba HOWTO Collection for more details.
First, edit the following key/value pairs in the [global] section of /etc/samba/smb.conf:
workgroup = EXAMPLE
...
security = user

The security parameter is farther down in the [global] section, and is commented by default. Also, change
EXAMPLE to better match your environment.
Create a new section at the bottom of the file, or uncomment one of the examples, for the directory to be
shared:
[ share ]
comment = Ubuntu F i l e S e r v e r Share
path = / s r v /samba/ s h a r e
browsable = yes
g u e s t ok = y e s
r e a d o n l y = no
c r e a t e mask = 0755

• comment: a short description of the share. Adjust to fit your needs.

• path: the path to the directory to share.
This example uses /srv/samba/sharename because, according to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
(FHS), /srv is where site-specific data should be served. Technically Samba shares can be placed
anywhere on the filesystem as long as the permissions are correct, but adhering to standards is recom-
mended.
• browsable: enables Windows clients to browse the shared directory using Windows Explorer.
• guest ok: allows clients to connect to the share without supplying a password.

140
 • read only: determines if the share is read only or if write privileges are granted. Write privileges are
allowed only when the value is no, as is seen in this example. If the value is yes, then access to the
share is read only.
• create mask: determines the permissions new files will have when created.
Now that Samba is configured, the directory needs to be created and the permissions changed. From a
terminal enter:
sudo mkdir −p / s r v /samba/ s h a r e
sudo chown nobody : nogroup / s r v /samba/ s h a r e /

Note
The -p switch tells mkdir to create the entire directory tree if it doesn’t exist.
Finally, restart the samba services to enable the new configuration:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

Warning
Once again, the above configuration gives all access to any client on the local network. For a
more secure configuration see Securing File and Print Server.
From a Windows client you should now be able to browse to the Ubuntu file server and see the shared
directory. If your client doesn’t show your share automatically, try to access your server by its IP address,
e.g. \\192.168.1.1, in a Windows Explorer window. To check that everything is working try creating a
directory from Windows.
To create additional shares simply create new [dir] sections in /etc/samba/smb.conf, and restart Samba.
Just make sure that the directory you want to share actually exists and the permissions are correct.
Note
The file share named “[share]” and the path /srv/samba/share are just examples. Adjust the
share and path names to fit your environment. It is a good idea to name a share after a directory
on the file system. Another example would be a share name of [qa] with a path of /srv/samba/qa.

Resources

• For in depth Samba configurations see the Samba HOWTO Collection

• The guide is also available in printed format.
• O’Reilly’s Using Samba is another good reference.
• The Ubuntu Wiki Samba page.

Samba
Computer networks are often comprised of diverse systems, and while operating a network made up entirely
of Ubuntu desktop and server computers would certainly be fun, some network environments must consist of
both Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows systems working together in harmony. This section of the UBUNTU
SG-TITLE introduces principles and tools used in configuring your Ubuntu Server for sharing network
resources with Windows computers.

141
Introduction
Successfully networking your Ubuntu system with Windows clients involves providing and integrating with
services common to Windows environments. Such services assist the sharing of data and information about
the computers and users involved in the network, and may be classified under three major categories of
functionality:
• File and Printer Sharing Services. Using the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol to facilitate
the sharing of files, folders, volumes, and the sharing of printers throughout the network.
• Directory Services. Sharing vital information about the computers and users of the network with
such technologies as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Microsoft Active Directory.
• Authentication and Access. Establishing the identity of a computer or user of the network and
determining the information the computer or user is authorized to access using such principles and
technologies as file permissions, group policies, and the Kerberos authentication service.
Fortunately, your Ubuntu system may provide all such facilities to Windows clients and share network
resources among them. One of the principal pieces of software your Ubuntu system includes for Windows
networking is the Samba suite of SMB server applications and tools.
This section of the UBUNTU SG-TITLE will introduce some of the common Samba use cases, and how to
install and configure the necessary packages. Additional detailed documentation and information on Samba
can be found on the Samba website.

Print Server
Another common use of Samba is to configure it to share printers installed, either locally or over the network,
on an Ubuntu server. Similar to File Server this section will configure Samba to allow any client on the local
network to use the installed printers without prompting for a username and password.
For a more secure configuration see Securing File and Print Server.

Installation

Before installing and configuring Samba it is best to already have a working CUPS installation. See ??? for
details.
To install the samba package, from a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l samba

Configuration

After installing samba edit /etc/samba/smb.conf. Change the workgroup attribute to what is appropriate
for your network, and change security to user:
workgroup = EXAMPLE
...
security = user

In the [printers] section change the guest ok option to yes:

browsable = yes
g u e s t ok = y e s

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After editing smb.conf restart Samba:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

The default Samba configuration will automatically share any printers installed. Simply install the printer
locally on your Windows clients.

Resources

• For in depth Samba configurations see the Samba HOWTO Collection

• The guide is also available in printed format.
• O’Reilly’s Using Samba is another good reference.
• Also, see the CUPS Website for more information on configuring CUPS.
• The Ubuntu Wiki Samba page.

Securing File and Print Server

Samba Security Modes

There are two security levels available to the Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) network protocol user-
level and share-level. Samba’s security mode implementation allows more flexibility, providing four ways of
implementing user-level security and one way to implement share-level:
• security = user: requires clients to supply a username and password to connect to shares. Samba user
accounts are separate from system accounts, but the libpam-winbind package will sync system users
and passwords with the Samba user database.
• security = domain: this mode allows the Samba server to appear to Windows clients as a Primary
Domain Controller (PDC), Backup Domain Controller (BDC), or a Domain Member Server (DMS).
See As a Domain Controller for further information.
• security = ADS: allows the Samba server to join an Active Directory domain as a native member. See
Active Directory Integration for details.
• security = server: this mode is left over from before Samba could become a member server, and due to
some security issues should not be used. See the Server Security section of the Samba guide for more
details.
• security = share: allows clients to connect to shares without supplying a username and password.
The security mode you choose will depend on your environment and what you need the Samba server to
accomplish.

Security = User

This section will reconfigure the Samba file and print server, from File Server and Print Server, to require
authentication.
First, install the libpam-winbind package which will sync the system users to the Samba user database:
sudo apt i n s t a l l libpam−winbind

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 Note
If you chose the Samba Server task during installation libpam-winbind is already installed.
Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf, and in the [share] section change:
g u e s t ok = no

Finally, restart Samba for the new settings to take effect:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

Now when connecting to the shared directories or printers you should be prompted for a username and
password.
Note
If you choose to map a network drive to the share you can check the “Reconnect at Logon” check
box, which will require you to only enter the username and password once, at least until the
password changes.

Share Security

There are several options available to increase the security for each individual shared directory. Using the
[share] example, this section will cover some common options.

Groups

Groups define a collection of computers or users which have a common level of access to particular network
resources and offer a level of granularity in controlling access to such resources. For example, if a group qa
is defined and contains the users freda, danika, and rob and a second group support is defined and consists of
users danika, jeremy, and vincent then certain network resources configured to allow access by the qa group
will subsequently enable access by freda, danika, and rob, but not jeremy or vincent. Since the user danika
belongs to both the qa and support groups, she will be able to access resources configured for access by both
groups, whereas all other users will have only access to resources explicitly allowing the group they are part
of.
By default Samba looks for the local system groups defined in /etc/group to determine which users belong
to which groups. For more information on adding and removing users from groups see ???.
When defining groups in the Samba configuration file, /etc/samba/smb.conf, the recognized syntax is to
preface the group name with an “@” symbol. For example, if you wished to define a group named sysadmin
in a certain section of the /etc/samba/smb.conf, you would do so by entering the group name as @sysadmin.

File Permissions

File Permissions define the explicit rights a computer or user has to a particular directory, file, or set of
files. Such permissions may be defined by editing the /etc/samba/smb.conf file and specifying the explicit
permissions of a defined file share.
For example, if you have defined a Samba share called share and wish to give read-only permissions to the
group of users known as qa, but wanted to allow writing to the share by the group called sysadmin and the
user named vincent, then you could edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file, and add the following entries under
the [share] entry:
r e a d l i s t = @qa
w r i t e l i s t = @sysadmin , v i n c e n t

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Another possible Samba permission is to declare administrative permissions to a particular shared resource.
Users having administrative permissions may read, write, or modify any information contained in the resource
the user has been given explicit administrative permissions to.
For example, if you wanted to give the user melissa administrative permissions to the share example, you
would edit the /etc/samba/smb.conf file, and add the following line under the [share] entry:
admin u s e r s = m e l i s s a

After editing /etc/samba/smb.conf, restart Samba for the changes to take effect:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

Note
For the read list and write list to work the Samba security mode must not be set to security =
share
Now that Samba has been configured to limit which groups have access to the shared directory, the filesystem
permissions need to be updated.
Traditional Linux file permissions do not map well to Windows NT Access Control Lists (ACLs). Fortunately
POSIX ACLs are available on Ubuntu servers providing more fine grained control. For example, to enable
ACLs on /srv an EXT3 filesystem, edit /etc/fstab adding the acl option:
UUID=66bcdd2e −8861−4 fb0−b7e4−e 6 1 c 5 6 9 f e 1 7 d / s r v ext3 noatime , r e l a t i m e , a c l 0
1

Then remount the partition:

sudo mount −v −o remount / s r v

Note
The above example assumes /srv on a separate partition. If /srv, or wherever you have configured
your share path, is part of the / partition a reboot may be required.
To match the Samba configuration above the sysadmin group will be given read, write, and execute permis-
sions to /srv/samba/share, the qa group will be given read and execute permissions, and the files will be
owned by the username melissa. Enter the following in a terminal:
sudo chown −R m e l i s s a / s r v /samba/ s h a r e /
sudo chgrp −R sysadmin / s r v /samba/ s h a r e /
sudo s e t f a c l −R −m g : qa : rx / s r v /samba/ s h a r e /

Note
The setfacl command above gives execute permissions to all files in the /srv/samba/share direc-
tory, which you may or may not want.
Now from a Windows client you should notice the new file permissions are implemented. See the acl and
setfacl man pages for more information on POSIX ACLs.

Samba AppArmor Profile

Ubuntu comes with the AppArmor security module, which provides mandatory access controls. The default
AppArmor profile for Samba will need to be adapted to your configuration. For more details on using
AppArmor see ???.
There are default AppArmor profiles for /usr/sbin/smbd and /usr/sbin/nmbd, the Samba daemon binaries,
as part of the apparmor-profiles packages. To install the package, from a terminal prompt enter:

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sudo apt i n s t a l l apparmor−p r o f i l e s apparmor−u t i l s

Note
This package contains profiles for several other binaries.
By default the profiles for smbd and nmbd are in complain mode allowing Samba to work without modifying
the profile, and only logging errors. To place the smbd profile into enforce mode, and have Samba work as
expected, the profile will need to be modified to reflect any directories that are shared.
Edit /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.smbd adding information for [share] from the file server example:
/ s r v /samba/ s h a r e / r ,
/ s r v /samba/ s h a r e /** rwkix ,

Now place the profile into enforce and reload it:

sudo aa−e n f o r c e / u s r / s b i n /smbd
c a t / e t c / apparmor . d/ u s r . s b i n . smbd | sudo apparmor_parser −r

You should now be able to read, write, and execute files in the shared directory as normal, and the smbd
binary will have access to only the configured files and directories. Be sure to add entries for each directory
you configure Samba to share. Also, any errors will be logged to /var/log/syslog.

Resources

• For in depth Samba configurations see the Samba HOWTO Collection

• The guide is also available in printed format.
• O’Reilly’s Using Samba is also a good reference.
• Chapter 18 of the Samba HOWTO Collection is devoted to security.
• For more information on Samba and ACLs see the Samba ACLs page.
• The Ubuntu Wiki Samba page.

Samba - OpenLDAP Backend

NOTE
This section is flagged as legacy because nowadays Samba 4 is best integrated with its own
LDAP server in AD mode. Integrating Samba with LDAP as described here covers the NT4
mode, deprecated for many years.
This section covers the integration of Samba with LDAP. The Samba server’s role will be that of a “standalone”
server and the LDAP directory will provide the authentication layer in addition to containing the user, group,
and machine account information that Samba requires in order to function (in any of its 3 possible roles).
The pre-requisite is an OpenLDAP server configured with a directory that can accept authentication requests.
See Service - LDAP and Service - LDAP with TLS for details on fulfilling this requirement. Once those steps
are completed, you will need to decide what specifically you want Samba to do for you and then configure
it accordingly.
This guide will assume that the LDAP and Samba services are running on the same server and therefore
use SASL EXTERNAL authentication whenever changing something under cn=config. If that is not your
scenario, you will have to run those ldap commands on the LDAP server.

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Software Installation

There are two packages needed when integrating Samba with LDAP: samba and smbldap-tools.
Strictly speaking, the smbldap-tools package isn’t needed, but unless you have some other way to manage
the various Samba entities (users, groups, computers) in an LDAP context then you should install it.
Install these packages now:
sudo apt i n s t a l l samba smbldap−t o o l s

LDAP Configuration

We will now configure the LDAP server so that it can accomodate Samba data. We will perform three tasks
in this section:
• Import a schema
• Index some entries
• Add objects

Samba schema

In order for OpenLDAP to be used as a backend for Samba, the DIT will need to use attributes that can
properly describe Samba data. Such attributes can be obtained by introducing a Samba LDAP schema.
Let’s do this now.
The schema is found in the now-installed samba package and is already in the ldif format. We can import
it with one simple command:
sudo ldapadd −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f / u s r / s h a r e / doc /samba/ examples /LDAP
/samba . l d i f

To query and view this new schema:

sudo l d a p s e a r c h −Q −LLL −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −b cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g ’ cn=*
samba * ’

Samba indices

Now that slapd knows about the Samba attributes, we can set up some indices based on them. Indexing
entries is a way to improve performance when a client performs a filtered search on the DIT.
Create the file samba_indices.ldif with the following contents:
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
r e p l a c e : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : o b j e c t C l a s s eq
olcDbIndex : uidNumber , gidNumber eq
olcDbIndex : l o g i n S h e l l eq
olcDbIndex : uid , cn eq , sub
olcDbIndex : memberUid eq , sub
olcDbIndex : member , uniqueMember eq
olcDbIndex : sambaSID eq

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olcDbIndex : sambaPrimaryGroupSID eq
olcDbIndex : sambaGroupType eq
olcDbIndex : sambaSIDList eq
olcDbIndex : sambaDomainName eq
olcDbIndex : d e f a u l t sub , eq

Using the ldapmodify utility load the new indices:

sudo l d a pm o d i f y −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f samba_indices . l d i f

If all went well you should see the new indices using ldapsearch:
sudo l d a p s e a r c h −Q −LLL −Y EXTERNAL −H \
l d a p i : / / / −b cn=c o n f i g o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb olcDbIndex

Adding Samba LDAP objects

Next, configure the smbldap-tools package to match your environment. The package comes with a configu-
ration helper script called smbldap-config. Before running it, though, you should decide on two important
configuration settings in /etc/samba/smb.conf:
• netbios name: how this server will be known. The default value is derived from the server’s hostname,
but truncated at 15 characters.
• workgroup: the workgroup name for this server, or, if you later decide to make it a domain controller,
this will be the domain.
It’s important to make these choices now because smbldap-config will use them to generate the config that
will be later stored in the LDAP directory. If you run smbldap-config now and later change these values in
/etc/samba/smb.conf there will be an inconsistency.
Once you are happy with netbios name and workgroup, proceed to generate the smbldap-tools configuration
by running the configuration script which will ask you some questions:
sudo smbldap−c o n f i g

Some of the more important ones:

• workgroup name: has to match what you will configure in /etc/samba/smb.conf later on.
• ldap suffix: has to match the ldap suffix you chose when you configured the LDAP server.
• other ldap suffixes: they are all relative to ldap suffix above. For example, for ldap user suffix you
should use ou=People, and for computer/machines, use ou=Computers.
• ldap master bind dn and bind password: use the rootDN credentials.
The smbldap-populate script will then add the LDAP objects required for Samba. It will ask you for a
password for the “domain root” user, which is also the “root” user stored in LDAP:
sudo smbldap−p o p u l a t e −g 10000 −u 10000 −r 10000

The -g, -u and -r parameters tell smbldap-tools where to start the numeric uid and gid allocation for the
LDAP users. You should pick a range start that does not overlap with your local /etc/passwd users.
You can create a LDIF file containing the new Samba objects by executing sudo smbldap−populate −e
samba.ldif. This allows you to look over the changes making sure everything is correct. If it is, rerun the
script without the ‘-e’ switch. Alternatively, you can take the LDIF file and import its data per usual.
Your LDAP directory now has the necessary information to authenticate Samba users.

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Samba Configuration

To configure Samba to use LDAP, edit its configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf commenting out the default
passdb backend parameter and adding some ldap-related ones. Make sure to use the same values you used
when running smbldap-populate:
# passdb backend = tdbsam
workgroup = EXAMPLE

# LDAP S e t t i n g s
passdb backend = ldapsam : l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com
l d a p s u f f i x = dc=example , dc=com
l d a p u s e r s u f f i x = ou=People
l d a p group s u f f i x = ou=Groups
l d a p machine s u f f i x = ou=Computers
l d a p idmap s u f f i x = ou=Idmap
l d a p admin dn = cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com
ldap s s l = s t a r t t l s
l d a p passwd sync = y e s

Change the values to match your environment.

Note
The smb.conf as shipped by the package is quite long and has many configuration examples. An
easy way to visualize it without any comments is to run testparm -s.
Now inform Samba about the rootDN user’s password (the one set during the installation of the slapd
package):
sudo smbpasswd −W

As a final step to have your LDAP users be able to connect to samba and authenticate, we need these users
to also show up in the system as “unix” users. Use SSSD for that as detailed in Service - SSSD.
Install sssd-ldap
sudo apt i n s t a l l s s s d −l d a p

Configure /etc/sssd/sssd.conf :
[ sssd ]
config_file_version = 2
domains = example . com

[ domain / example . com ]

id_provider = ldap
a u th _p ro vi d er = l d a p
l d a p _ u r i = l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com
c a c h e _ c r e d e n t i a l s = True
ldap_search_base = dc=example , dc=com

Adjust permissions and start the service:

sudo chmod 0600 / e t c / s s s d / s s s d . c o n f
sudo chown r o o t : r o o t / e t c / s s s d / s s s d . c o n f
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t s s s d

Restart the Samba services:

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sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t smbd . s e r v i c e nmbd . s e r v i c e

To quickly test the setup, see if getent can list the Samba groups:
$ g e t e n t group R e p l i c a t o r s
Replicators :*:552:

Note
The names are case sensitive!
If you have existing LDAP users that you want to include in your new LDAP-backed Samba they will, of
course, also need to be given some of the extra Samba specific attributes. The smbpasswd utility can do this
for you:
sudo smbpasswd −a username

You will prompted to enter a password. It will be considered as the new password for that user. Making it
the same as before is reasonable. Note that this command cannot be used to create a new user from scratch
in LDAP (unless you are using ldapsam:trusted and ldapsam:editposix, not covered in this guide).
To manage user, group, and machine accounts use the utilities provided by the smbldap-tools package. Here
are some examples:
• To add a new user with a home directory:
sudo smbldap−u se rad d −a −P −m username

The -a option adds the Samba attributes, and the -P option calls the smbldap-passwd utility after the
user is created allowing you to enter a password for the user. Finally, -m creates a local home directory.
Test with the getent command:
g e t e n t passwd username

• To remove a user:
sudo smbldap−u s e r d e l username

In the above command, use the -r option to remove the user’s home directory.
• To add a group:
sudo smbldap−groupadd −a groupname

As for smbldap-useradd, the -a adds the Samba attributes.

• To make an existing user a member of a group:
sudo smbldap−groupmod −m username groupname

The -m option can add more than one user at a time by listing them in comma-separated format.
• To remove a user from a group:
sudo smbldap−groupmod −x username groupname

• To add a Samba machine account:

sudo smbldap−u se rad d −t 0 −w username

Replace username with the name of the workstation. The -t 0 option creates the machine account
without a delay, while the -w option specifies the user as a machine account.

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Resources

• Upstream documentation collection: https://www.samba.org/samba/docs/

• Upstream samba wiki: https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Main_Page

CUPS - Print Server

The primary mechanism for Ubuntu printing and print services is the Common UNIX Printing System
(CUPS). This printing system is a freely available, portable printing layer which has become the new standard
for printing in most Linux distributions.
CUPS manages print jobs and queues and provides network printing using the standard Internet Printing
Protocol (IPP), while offering support for a very large range of printers, from dot-matrix to laser and many in
between. CUPS also supports PostScript Printer Description (PPD) and auto-detection of network printers,
and features a simple web-based configuration and administration tool.

Installation

To install CUPS on your Ubuntu computer, simply use sudo with the apt command and give the packages
to install as the first parameter. A complete CUPS install has many package dependencies, but they may
all be specified on the same command line. Enter the following at a terminal prompt to install CUPS:
sudo apt i n s t a l l cups

Upon authenticating with your user password, the packages should be downloaded and installed without
error. Upon the conclusion of installation, the CUPS server will be started automatically.
For troubleshooting purposes, you can access CUPS server errors via the error log file at: /var/log/cups/
error_log. If the error log does not show enough information to troubleshoot any problems you encounter,
the verbosity of the CUPS log can be increased by changing the LogLevel directive in the configuration
file (discussed below) to “debug” or even “debug2”, which logs everything, from the default of “info”. If you
make this change, remember to change it back once you’ve solved your problem, to prevent the log file from
becoming overly large.

Configuration

The Common UNIX Printing System server’s behavior is configured through the directives contained in the
file /etc/cups/cupsd.conf. The CUPS configuration file follows the same syntax as the primary configuration
file for the Apache HTTP server, so users familiar with editing Apache’s configuration file should feel at ease
when editing the CUPS configuration file. Some examples of settings you may wish to change initially will
be presented here.
Tip
Prior to editing the configuration file, you should make a copy of the original file and protect it
from writing, so you will have the original settings as a reference, and to reuse as necessary.
Copy the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf file and protect it from writing with the following commands,
issued at a terminal prompt:
sudo cp / e t c / cups / cupsd . c o n f / e t c / cups / cupsd . c o n f . o r i g i n a l
sudo chmod a−w / e t c / cups / cupsd . c o n f . o r i g i n a l

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 • ServerAdmin: To configure the email address of the designated administrator of the CUPS server,
simply edit the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file with your preferred text editor, and add or
modify the ServerAdmin line accordingly. For example, if you are the Administrator for the CUPS
server, and your e-mail address is ‘[email protected]’, then you would modify the ServerAdmin line
to appear as such:
ServerAdmin bjoy@somebigco . com

• Listen: By default on Ubuntu, the CUPS server installation listens only on the loopback interface at
IP address 127.0.0.1. In order to instruct the CUPS server to listen on an actual network adapter’s IP
address, you must specify either a hostname, the IP address, or optionally, an IP address/port pairing
via the addition of a Listen directive. For example, if your CUPS server resides on a local network
at the IP address 192.168.10.250 and you’d like to make it accessible to the other systems on this
subnetwork, you would edit the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf and add a Listen directive, as such:
Listen 127.0.0.1:631 # e x i s t i n g loopback Listen
L i s t e n / var / run / cups / cups . s o c k # e x i s t i n g s o c k e t L i s t e n
Listen 192.168.10.250:631 # L i s t e n on t h e LAN i n t e r f a c e , Port 631 (
IPP )

In the example above, you may comment out or remove the reference to the Loopback address
(127.0.0.1) if you do not wish cupsd to listen on that interface, but would rather have it only lis-
ten on the Ethernet interfaces of the Local Area Network (LAN). To enable listening for all network
interfaces for which a certain hostname is bound, including the Loopback, you could create a Listen
entry for the hostname socrates as such:
Listen socrates :631 # L i s t e n on a l l i n t e r f a c e s f o r t h e hostname ’ s o c r a t e s
’

or by omitting the Listen directive and using Port instead, as in:

Port 631 # L i s t e n on p o r t 631 on a l l i n t e r f a c e s

For more examples of configuration directives in the CUPS server configuration file, view the associated
system manual page by entering the following command at a terminal prompt:
man cupsd . c o n f

Note
Whenever you make changes to the /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file, you’ll need to restart
the CUPS server by typing the following command at a terminal prompt:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t cups . s e r v i c e

Web Interface

Tip
CUPS can be configured and monitored using a web interface, which by default is available at
http://localhost:631/admin. The web interface can be used to perform all printer management
tasks.
In order to perform administrative tasks via the web interface, you must either have the root account enabled
on your server, or authenticate as a user in the lpadmin group. For security reasons, CUPS won’t authenticate
a user that doesn’t have a password.
To add a user to the lpadmin group, run at the terminal prompt:

152
sudo usermod −aG lpadmin username

Further documentation is available in the Documentation/Help tab of the web interface.

References

CUPS Website
Debian Open-iSCSI page

Domain Name Service (DNS)

Domain Name Service (DNS) is an Internet service that maps IP addresses and fully qualified domain names
(FQDN) to one another. In this way, DNS alleviates the need to remember IP addresses. Computers that
run DNS are called name servers. Ubuntu ships with BIND (Berkley Internet Naming Daemon), the most
common program used for maintaining a name server on Linux.

Installation
At a terminal prompt, enter the following command to install dns:
sudo apt i n s t a l l bind9

A very useful package for testing and troubleshooting DNS issues is the dnsutils package. Very often these
tools will be installed already, but to check and/or install dnsutils enter the following:
sudo apt i n s t a l l d n s u t i l s

Configuration
There are many ways to configure BIND9. Some of the most common configurations are a caching nameserver,
primary server, and secondary server.
• When configured as a caching nameserver BIND9 will find the answer to name queries and remember
the answer when the domain is queried again.
• As a primary server, BIND9 reads the data for a zone from a file on its host and is authoritative for
that zone.
• As a secondary server, BIND9 gets the zone data from another nameserver that is authoritative for
the zone.

Overview

The DNS configuration files are stored in the /etc/bind directory. The primary configuration file is /etc/
bind/named.conf, which in the layout provided by the package just includes these files.
• /etc/bind/named.conf.options: global DNS options
• /etc/bind/named.conf.local: for your zones
• /etc/bind/named.conf.default−zones: default zones such as localhost, its reverse, and the root hints

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The root nameservers used to be described in the file /etc/bind/db.root. This is now provided instead
by the /usr/share/dns/root.hints file shipped with the dns−root−data package, and is referenced in the
named.conf.default−zones configuration file above.
It is possible to configure the same server to be a caching name server, primary, and secondary: it all
depends on the zones it is serving. A server can be the Start of Authority (SOA) for one zone, while
providing secondary service for another zone. All the while providing caching services for hosts on the local
LAN.

Caching Nameserver

The default configuration acts as a caching server. Simply uncomment and edit /etc/bind/named.conf.
options to set the IP addresses of your ISP’s DNS servers:
forwarders {
1.2.3.4;
5.6.7.8;
};

Note
Replace 1.2.3.4 and 5.6.7.8 with the IP Addresses of actual nameservers.
To enable the new configuration, restart the DNS server. From a terminal prompt:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t bind9 . s e r v i c e

See dig for information on testing a caching DNS server.

Primary Server
In this section BIND9 will be configured as the Primary server for the domain example.com. Simply replace
example.com with your FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name).

Forward Zone File

To add a DNS zone to BIND9, turning BIND9 into a Primary server, first edit /etc/bind/named.conf.local:
zone ” example . com” {
type master ;
f i l e ”/ e t c / bind /db . example . com ” ;
};

Note
If bind will be receiving automatic updates to the file as with DDNS, then use /var/lib/bind
/db.example.com rather than /etc/bind/db.example.com both here and in the copy command
below.
Now use an existing zone file as a template to create the /etc/bind/db.example.com file:
sudo cp / e t c / bind /db . l o c a l / e t c / bind /db . example . com

Edit the new zone file /etc/bind/db.example.com and change localhost . to the FQDN of your server, leaving
the additional . at the end. Change 127.0.0.1 to the nameserver’s IP Address and root. localhost to a valid
email address, but with a . instead of the usual @ symbol, again leaving the . at the end. Change the
comment to indicate the domain that this file is for.

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Create an A record for the base domain, example.com. Also, create an A record for ns.example.com, the
name server in this example:
;
; BIND data f i l e f o r example . com
;
$TTL 604800
@ IN SOA example . com . r o o t . example . com . (
2 ; Serial
604800 ; Refresh
86400 ; Retry
2419200 ; Expire
604800 ) ; N e g a t i v e Cache TTL

@ IN NS ns . example . com .
@ IN A 192.168.1.10
@ IN AAAA ::1
ns IN A 192.168.1.10

You must increment the Serial Number every time you make changes to the zone file. If you make multiple
changes before restarting BIND9, simply increment the Serial once.
Now, you can add DNS records to the bottom of the zone file. See Common Record Types for details.
Note
Many admins like to use the last date edited as the serial of a zone, such as 2020012100 which
is yyyymmddss (where ss is the Serial Number)
Once you have made changes to the zone file BIND9 needs to be restarted for the changes to take effect:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t bind9 . s e r v i c e

Reverse Zone File

Now that the zone is setup and resolving names to IP Addresses, a Reverse zone needs to be added to allows
DNS to resolve an address to a name.
Edit /etc/bind/named.conf.local and add the following:
zone ” 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa ” {
type master ;
f i l e ”/ e t c / bind /db . 1 9 2 ” ;
};

Note
Replace 1.168.192 with the first three octets of whatever network you are using. Also, name the
zone file /etc/bind/db.192 appropriately. It should match the first octet of your network.
Now create the /etc/bind/db.192 file:
sudo cp / e t c / bind /db . 1 2 7 / e t c / bind /db . 1 9 2

Next edit /etc/bind/db.192 changing the same options as /etc/bind/db.example.com:

;
; BIND r e v e r s e data f i l e f o r l o c a l 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 .XXX n e t
;

155
$TTL 604800
@ IN SOA ns . example . com . r o o t . example . com . (
2 ; Serial
604800 ; Refresh
86400 ; Retry
2419200 ; Expire
604800 ) ; N e g a t i v e Cache TTL
;
@ IN NS ns .
10 IN PTR ns . example . com .

The Serial Number in the Reverse zone needs to be incremented on each change as well. For each A record
you configure in /etc/bind/db.example.com, that is for a different address, you need to create a PTR record
in /etc/bind/db.192.
After creating the reverse zone file restart BIND9:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t bind9 . s e r v i c e

Secondary Server

Once a Primary Server has been configured a Secondary Server is highly recommended in order to maintain
the availability of the domain should the Primary become unavailable.
First, on the Primary server, the zone transfer needs to be allowed. Add the allow−transfer option to the
example Forward and Reverse zone definitions in /etc/bind/named.conf.local:
zone ” example . com” {
type master ;
f i l e ”/ e t c / bind /db . example . com ” ;
a l l o w −t r a n s f e r { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 1 ; } ;
};

zone ” 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa ” {

type master ;
f i l e ”/ e t c / bind /db . 1 9 2 ” ;
a l l o w −t r a n s f e r { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 1 ; } ;
};

Note
Replace 192.168.1.11 with the IP Address of your Secondary nameserver.
Restart BIND9 on the Primary server:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t bind9 . s e r v i c e

Next, on the Secondary server, install the bind9 package the same way as on the Primary. Then edit the
/etc/bind/named.conf.local and add the following declarations for the Forward and Reverse zones:
zone ” example . com” {
type s l a v e ;
f i l e ”db . example . com ” ;
masters { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 ; } ;
};

zone ” 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa ” {

156
 type s l a v e ;
f i l e ”db . 1 9 2 ” ;
masters { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 ; } ;
};

Note
Replace 192.168.1.10 with the IP Address of your Primary nameserver.
Restart BIND9 on the Secondary server:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t bind9 . s e r v i c e

In /var/log/syslog you should see something similar to the following (some lines have been split to fit the
format of this document):
c l i e n t 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 3 9 4 4 8 : r e c e i v e d n o t i f y f o r zone ’ 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa ’
zone 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa /IN : T r a n s f e r s t a r t e d .
t r a n s f e r o f ’ 1 0 0 . 1 8 . 1 7 2 . in−addr . arpa /IN ’ from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 5 3 :
connected using 192.168.1.11#37531
zone 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa /IN : t r a n s f e r r e d s e r i a l 5
t r a n s f e r o f ’ 1 0 0 . 1 8 . 1 7 2 . in−addr . arpa /IN ’ from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 5 3 :
T r a n s f e r completed : 1 messages ,
6 r e c o r d s , 212 bytes , 0 . 0 0 2 s e c s ( 1 0 6 0 0 0 b y t e s / s e c )
zone 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa /IN : s e n d i n g n o t i f i e s ( s e r i a l 5 )

c l i e n t 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 2 0 3 2 9 : r e c e i v e d n o t i f y f o r zone ’ example . com ’

zone example . com/IN : T r a n s f e r s t a r t e d .
t r a n s f e r o f ’ example . com/IN ’ from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 5 3 : c o n n e c t e d u s i n g
192.168.1.11#38577
zone example . com/IN : t r a n s f e r r e d s e r i a l 5
t r a n s f e r o f ’ example . com/IN ’ from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 5 3 : T r a n s f e r completed : 1
messages ,
8 r e c o r d s , 225 bytes , 0 . 0 0 2 s e c s ( 1 1 2 5 0 0 b y t e s / s e c )

Note
Note: A zone is only transferred if the Serial Number on the Primary is larger than the one on
the Secondary. If you want to have your Primary DNS notifying other Secondary DNS Servers of
zone changes, you can add also−notify { ipaddress; }; to /etc/bind/named.conf.local as shown
in the example below:
zone ” example . com” {
type master ;
f i l e ”/ e t c / bind /db . example . com ” ;
a l l o w −t r a n s f e r { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 1 ; } ;
a l s o −n o t i f y { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 1 ; } ;
};

zone ” 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa ” {

type master ;
f i l e ”/ e t c / bind /db . 1 9 2 ” ;
a l l o w −t r a n s f e r { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 1 ; } ;
a l s o −n o t i f y { 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 1 ; } ;
};

157
 Note
The default directory for non-authoritative zone files is /var/cache/bind/. This directory is also
configured in AppArmor to allow the named daemon to write to it. For more information on
AppArmor see Security - AppArmor.

Troubleshooting
This section covers diagnosing problems with DNS and BIND9 configurations.

Testing

resolv.conf

The first step in testing BIND9 is to add the nameserver’s IP Address to a hosts resolver. The Primary
nameserver should be configured as well as another host to double check things. Refer to DNS client
configuration for details on adding nameserver addresses to your network clients. In the end your nameserver
line in /etc/resolv .conf should be pointing at 127.0.0.53 and you should have a search parameter for your
domain. Something like this:
nameserver 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 5 3
s e a r c h example . com

To check which DNS server your local resolver is using, run:

systemd−r e s o l v e −−s t a t u s

Note
You should also add the IP Address of the Secondary nameserver to your client configuration in
case the Primary becomes unavailable.
dig
If you installed the dnsutils package you can test your setup using the DNS lookup utility dig:
• After installing BIND9 use dig against the loopback interface to make sure it is listening on port 53.
From a terminal prompt:
d i g −x 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1

You should see lines similar to the following in the command output:
; ; Query time : 1 msec
; ; SERVER: 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 5 3 ( 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 )

• If you have configured BIND9 as a Caching nameserver “dig” an outside domain to check the query
time:
d i g ubuntu . com

Note the query time toward the end of the command output:
; ; Query time : 49 msec

After a second dig there should be improvement:

; ; Query time : 1 msec

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ping

Now to demonstrate how applications make use of DNS to resolve a host name use the ping utility to send
an ICMP echo request:
p i n g example . com

This tests if the nameserver can resolve the name ns.example.com to an IP Address. The command output
should resemble:
PING ns . example . com ( 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 ) 5 6 ( 8 4 ) b y t e s o f data .
64 b y t e s from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 : icmp_seq=1 t t l =64 time =0.800 ms
64 b y t e s from 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 : icmp_seq=2 t t l =64 time =0.813 ms

named-checkzone

A great way to test your zone files is by using the named−checkzone utility installed with the bind9 package.
This utility allows you to make sure the configuration is correct before restarting BIND9 and making the
changes live.
• To test our example Forward zone file enter the following from a command prompt:
named−c h e c k z o n e example . com / e t c / bind /db . example . com

If everything is configured correctly you should see output similar to:

zone example . com/IN : l o a d e d s e r i a l 6
OK

• Similarly, to test the Reverse zone file enter the following:

named−c h e c k z o n e 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa / e t c / bind /db . 1 9 2

The output should be similar to:

zone 1 . 1 6 8 . 1 9 2 . in−addr . arpa /IN : l o a d e d s e r i a l 3
OK

Note
The Serial Number of your zone file will probably be different.

Quick temporary query logging

With the rndc tool, you can quickly turn query logging on and off, without restarting the service or changing
the configuration file.
To turn query logging on, run:
sudo rndc q u e r y l o g on

Likewise, to turn it off, run:

sudo rndc q u e r y l o g o f f

The logs will be sent to syslog and will show up in /var/log/syslog by default:

159
Jan 20 1 9 : 4 0 : 5 0 new−n1 named [ 8 1 6 ] : r e c e i v e d c o n t r o l c h a n n e l command ’ q u e r y l o g
on ’
Jan 20 1 9 : 4 0 : 5 0 new−n1 named [ 8 1 6 ] : query l o g g i n g i s now on
Jan 20 1 9 : 4 0 : 5 7 new−n1 named [ 8 1 6 ] : c l i e n t @0x7f48ec101480 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 # 3 6 1 3 9 (
ubuntu . com ) : query : ubuntu . com IN A +E( 0 )K ( 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 0 )

Note
The amount of logs generated by enabling querylog could be huge!

Logging

BIND9 has a wide variety of logging configuration options available, but the two main ones are channel and
category, which configure where logs go, and what information gets logged, respectively.
If no logging options are configured the default configuration is:
logging {
c a t e g o r y d e f a u l t { d e f a u l t _ s y s l o g ; de f a u l t _ d e b u g ; } ;
c a t e g o r y unmatched { n u l l ; } ;
};

Let’s instead configure BIND9 to send debug messages related to DNS queries to a separate file.
We need to configure a channel to specify which file to send the messages to, and a category. In this example,
the category will log all queries. Edit /etc/bind/named.conf.local and add the following:
logging {
c h a n n e l query . l o g {
f i l e ”/ var / l o g /named/ query . l o g ” ;
s e v e r i t y debug 3 ;
};
c a t e g o r y q u e r i e s { query . l o g ; } ;
};

Note
The debug option can be set from 1 to 3. If a level isn’t specified, level 1 is the default.
• Since the named daemon runs as the bind user the /var/log/named directory must be created and the
ownership changed:
sudo mkdir / var / l o g /named
sudo chown bind : bind / var / l o g /named

• Now restart BIND9 for the changes to take effect:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t bind9 . s e r v i c e

You should see the file /var/log/named/query.log fill with query information. This is a simple example of
the BIND9 logging options. For coverage of advanced options see More Information.

References
Common Record Types
This section covers some of the most common DNS record types.

160
 • A record: This record maps an IP Address to a hostname.
www IN A 192.168.1.12

• CNAME record: Used to create an alias to an existing A record. You cannot create a CNAME record
pointing to another CNAME record.
web IN CNAME www

• MX record: Used to define where email should be sent to. Must point to an A record, not a CNAME.
@ IN MX 1 m a i l . example . com .
mail IN A 192.168.1.13

• NS record: Used to define which servers serve copies of a zone. It must point to an A record, not a
CNAME. This is where Primary and Secondary servers are defined.
@ IN NS ns . example . com .
@ IN NS ns2 . example . com .
ns IN A 192.168.1.10
ns2 IN A 192.168.1.11

More Information
• Upstream BIND9 Documentation
• Bind9.net has links to a large collection of DNS and BIND9 resources.
• DNS and BIND is a popular book now in it’s fifth edition. There is now also a DNS and BIND on
IPv6 book.
• A great place to ask for BIND9 assistance, and get involved with the Ubuntu Server community, is the
#ubuntu-server IRC channel on freenode.

FTP Server
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a TCP protocol for downloading files between computers. In the past, it
has also been used for uploading but, as that method does not use encryption, user credentials as well as
data transferred in the clear and are easily intercepted. So if you are here looking for a way to upload and
download files securely, see the OpenSSH documentation instead.
FTP works on a client/server model. The server component is called an FTP daemon. It continuously
listens for FTP requests from remote clients. When a request is received, it manages the login and sets up
the connection. For the duration of the session it executes any of commands sent by the FTP client.
Access to an FTP server can be managed in two ways:
• Anonymous
• Authenticated
In the Anonymous mode, remote clients can access the FTP server by using the default user account called
“anonymous” or “ftp” and sending an email address as the password. In the Authenticated mode a user must
have an account and a password. This latter choice is very insecure and should not be used except in special
circumstances. If you are looking to transfer files securely see SFTP in the section on OpenSSH-Server. User
access to the FTP server directories and files is dependent on the permissions defined for the account used
at login. As a general rule, the FTP daemon will hide the root directory of the FTP server and change it to
the FTP Home directory. This hides the rest of the file system from remote sessions.

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vsftpd - FTP Server Installation

vsftpd is an FTP daemon available in Ubuntu. It is easy to install, set up, and maintain. To install vsftpd
you can run the following command:
sudo apt i n s t a l l v s f t p d

Anonymous FTP Configuration

By default vsftpd is not configured to allow anonymous download. If you wish to enable anonymous download
edit /etc/vsftpd.conf by changing:
anonymous_enable=YES

During installation a ftp user is created with a home directory of /srv/ftp. This is the default FTP directory.
If you wish to change this location, to /srv/ files /ftp for example, simply create a directory in another
location and change the ftp user’s home directory:
sudo mkdir −p / s r v / f i l e s / f t p
sudo usermod −d / s r v / f i l e s / f t p f t p

After making the change restart vsftpd:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t v s f t p d . s e r v i c e

Finally, copy any files and directories you would like to make available through anonymous FTP to /srv/
files /ftp, or /srv/ftp if you wish to use the default.

User Authenticated FTP Configuration

By default vsftpd is configured to authenticate system users and allow them to download files. If you want
users to be able to upload files, edit /etc/vsftpd.conf:
w r i t e _ e n a b l e=YES

Now restart vsftpd:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t v s f t p d . s e r v i c e

Now when system users login to FTP they will start in their home directories where they can download,
upload, create directories, etc.
Similarly, by default, anonymous users are not allowed to upload files to FTP server. To change this setting,
you should uncomment the following line, and restart vsftpd:
anon_upload_enable=YES

Warning
Enabling anonymous FTP upload can be an extreme security risk. It is best to not enable
anonymous upload on servers accessed directly from the Internet.
The configuration file consists of many configuration parameters. The information about each parameter is
available in the configuration file. Alternatively, you can refer to the man page, man 5 vsftpd.conf for details
of each parameter.

162
Securing FTP

There are options in /etc/vsftpd.conf to help make vsftpd more secure. For example users can be limited to
their home directories by uncommenting:
c h r o o t _ l o c a l _ u s e r=YES

You can also limit a specific list of users to just their home directories:
c h r o o t _ l i s t _ e n a b l e=YES
c h r o o t _ l i s t _ f i l e =/ e t c / v s f t p d . c h r o o t _ l i s t

After uncommenting the above options, create a /etc/vsftpd.chroot_list containing a list of users one per
line. Then restart vsftpd:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t v s f t p d . s e r v i c e

Also, the /etc/ftpusers file is a list of users that are disallowed FTP access. The default list includes root,
daemon, nobody, etc. To disable FTP access for additional users simply add them to the list.
FTP can also be encrypted using FTPS. Different from SFTP, FTPS is FTP over Secure Socket Layer
(SSL). SFTP is a FTP like session over an encrypted SSH connection. A major difference is that users of
SFTP need to have a shell account on the system, instead of a nologin shell. Providing all users with a shell
may not be ideal for some environments, such as a shared web host. However, it is possible to restrict such
accounts to only SFTP and disable shell interaction.
To configure FTPS, edit /etc/vsftpd.conf and at the bottom add:
s s l _ e n a b l e=YES

Also, notice the certificate and key related options:

r s a _ c e r t _ f i l e =/ e t c / s s l / c e r t s / s s l −c e r t −s n a k e o i l . pem
r s a _ p r i v a t e _ k e y _ f i l e=/ e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e / s s l −c e r t −s n a k e o i l . key

By default these options are set to the certificate and key provided by the ssl-cert package. In a production
environment these should be replaced with a certificate and key generated for the specific host. For more
information on certificates see Security - Certificates.
Now restart vsftpd, and non-anonymous users will be forced to use FTPS:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t v s f t p d . s e r v i c e

To allow users with a shell of /usr/sbin/nologin access to FTP, but have no shell access, edit /etc/ shells
adding the nologin shell:
# / etc / s h e l l s : valid login s h e l l s
/ bin / csh
/ b i n / sh
/ usr / bin / es
/ u s r / b i n / ksh
/ b i n / ksh
/ usr / bin / rc
/ usr / bin / tcsh
/ bin / tcsh
/ usr / bin / esh
/ b i n / dash
/ b i n / bash
/ b i n / r ba s h
/ usr / bin / scr een
/ usr / sbin / nologin

163
This is necessary because, by default vsftpd uses PAM for authentication, and the /etc/pam.d/vsftpd con-
figuration file contains:
auth required pam_shells . s o

The shells PAM module restricts access to shells listed in the /etc/ shells file.
Most popular FTP clients can be configured to connect using FTPS. The lftp command line FTP client has
the ability to use FTPS as well.

References

• See the vsftpd website for more information.

File Servers
If you have more than one computer on a single network. At some point you will probably need to share
files between them. In this section we cover installing and configuring FTP, NFS, and CUPS.

Domain Name Service (DNS)

TBD

iSCSI Initiator (or Client)

Wikipedia iSCSI Definition:
iSCSI an acronym for Internet Small Computer Systems Interface , an Internet Protocol
(IP)-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. It provides block-level
access to storage devices by carrying SCSI commands over a TCP/IP network.
iSCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long distances.
It can be used to transmit data over local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs),
or the Internet and can enable location-independent data storage and retrieval.
The protocol allows clients (called initiators) to send SCSI commands (CDBs) to storage devices
(targets) on remote servers. It is a storage area network (SAN) protocol, allowing organizations to
consolidate storage into storage arrays while providing clients (such as database and web servers)
with the illusion of locally attached SCSI disks.
It mainly competes with Fibre Channel, but unlike traditional Fibre Channel, which usually
requires dedicated cabling, iSCSI can be run over long distances using existing network infras-
tructure.
Ubuntu Server can be configured as both: iSCSI initiator and iSCSI target. This guide provides com-
mands and configuration options to setup an iSCSI initiator (or Client).
Note: It is assumed that you already have an iSCSI target on your local network and have the
appropriate rights to connect to it. The instructions for setting up a target vary greatly between hardware
providers, so consult your vendor documentation to configure your specific iSCSI target.

164
Network Interfaces Configuration

Before start configuring iSCSI, make sure to have the network interfaces correctly set and configured in order
to have open-iscsi package to behave appropriately, specially during boot time. In Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, the
default network configuration tool is netplan.io.
For all the iSCSI examples bellow please consider the following netplan configuration for my iSCSI initiator:
/etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg
{ config : disabled }

/etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml
network :
ethernets :
enp5s0 :
match :
macaddress : 0 0 : 1 6 : 3 e : a f : c4 : d6
s e t −name : e t h 0
dhcp4 : t r u e
dhcp− i d e n t i f i e r : mac
enp6s0 :
match :
macaddress : 0 0 : 1 6 : 3 e : 5 0 : 1 1 : 9 c
s e t −name : i s c s i 0 1
dhcp4 : t r u e
dhcp− i d e n t i f i e r : mac
dhcp4−o v e r r i d e s :
r o u t e −m e t r i c : 300
enp7s0 :
match :
macaddress : 0 0 : 1 6 : 3 e : b3 : c c : 5 0
s e t −name : i s c s i 0 2
dhcp4 : t r u e
dhcp− i d e n t i f i e r : mac
dhcp4−o v e r r i d e s :
r o u t e −m e t r i c : 300
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd

With this configuration, the interfaces names change by matching their mac addresses. This makes it easier
to manage them in a server containing multiple interfaces.
From this point and beyond, 2 interfaces are going to be mentioned: iscsi01 and iscsi02. This helps to
demonstrate how to configure iSCSI in a multipath environment as well (check the Device Mapper Multipath
session in this same Server Guide).
If you have only a single interface for the iSCSI network, make sure to follow the same instructions,
but only consider the iscsi01 interface command line examples.

iSCSI Initiator Install

To configure Ubuntu Server as an iSCSI initiator install the open-iscsi package. In a terminal enter:
$ sudo apt i n s t a l l open− i s c s i

165
Once the package is installed you will find the following files:
• /etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf
• /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi

iSCSI Initiator Configuration

Configure the main configuration file like the example bellow:

/etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf
### s t a r t u p s e t t i n g s

## w i l l be c o n t r o l l e d by systemd , l e a v e a s i s
i s c s i d . s t a r t u p = / u s r / s b i n / i s c s i d n o d e . s t a r t u p = manual

### chap s e t t i n g s

# node . s e s s i o n . auth . authmethod = CHAP

## a u t h e n t i c a t i o n o f i n i t i a t o r by t a r g e t ( s e s s i o n )
# node . s e s s i o n . auth . username = username
# node . s e s s i o n . auth . password = password

# d i s c o v e r y . s e n d t a r g e t s . auth . authmethod = CHAP

## a u t h e n t i c a t i o n o f i n i t i a t o r by t a r g e t ( d i s c o v e r y )
# d i s c o v e r y . s e n d t a r g e t s . auth . username = username
# d i s c o v e r y . s e n d t a r g e t s . auth . password = password

### t i m e o u t s

## c o n t r o l how much time i s c s i t a k e s t o p r o p a g a t e an e r r o r t o t h e

## upper l a y e r . i f u s i n g multipath , having 0 h e r e i s d e s i r a b l e
## s o m u l t i p a t h can h a n d l e path e r r o r s a s q u i c k l y a s p o s s i b l e
## ( and d e c i d e t o queue o r not i f m i s s i n g a l l p a t h s )
node . s e s s i o n . timeo . replacement_timeout = 0

node . conn [ 0 ] . timeo . l o g i n _ t i m e o u t = 15

node . conn [ 0 ] . timeo . l o g o u t _ t i m e o u t = 15

## i n t e r v a l f o r a NOP−Out r e q u e s t ( a p i n g t o t h e t a r g e t )
node . conn [ 0 ] . timeo . noop_out_interval = 5

## and how much time t o w a i t b e f o r e d e c l a r i n g a t i m e o u t

node . conn [ 0 ] . timeo . noop_out_timeout = 5

## d e f a u l t t i m e o u t s f o r e r r o r r e c o v e r y l o g i c s ( l u & t g t r e s e t s )
node . s e s s i o n . err_timeo . abort_timeout = 15
node . s e s s i o n . err_timeo . l u _ r e s e t _ t i m e o u t = 30
node . s e s s i o n . err_timeo . t g t _ r e s e t _ t i m e o u t = 30

### r e t r y

node . s e s s i o n . i n i t i a l _ l o g i n _ r e t r y _ m a x = 8

166
 ### s e s s i o n and d e v i c e queue depth

node . s e s s i o n . cmds_max = 128

node . s e s s i o n . queue_depth = 32

### p e r f o r m a n c e

node . s e s s i o n . x m i t _ t h r e a d _ p r i o r i t y = −20

and re-start the iSCSI daemon:

$ systemctl restart i s c s i d . service

This will set basic things up for the rest of configuration.

The other file mentioned:
/etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi
I n i t i a t o r N a m e=i q n .1993 −08. o r g . d e b i a n : 0 1 : 6 0 f 3 5 1 7 8 8 4 c 3

contains this node’s initiator name and is generated during open-iscsi package installation. If you
modify this setting, make sure that you don’t have duplicates in the same iSCSI SAN (Storage
Area Network).

iSCSI Network Configuration

Before configuring the Logical Units that are going to be accessed by the initiator, it is important to inform
the iSCSI service what are the interfaces acting as paths.
A straightforward way to do that is by:
• configuring the following environment variables
$ i s c s i 0 1 _ i p=$ ( i p −4 −o addr show i s c s i 0 1 | s e d −r ’ s : . * ( ( [ 0 − 9 ] { 1 , 3 } \ . )
{3}[0 −9]{1 ,3}) / . * : \ 1 : ’ )
$ i s c s i 0 2 _ i p=$ ( i p −4 −o addr show i s c s i 0 2 | s e d −r ’ s : . * ( ( [ 0 − 9 ] { 1 , 3 } \ . )
{3}[0 −9]{1 ,3}) / . * : \ 1 : ’ )

$ i s c s i 0 1 _ m a c=$ ( i p −o l i n k show i s c s i 0 1 | s e d −r ’ s : . * \ s+l i n k / e t h e r (([0 − f

] { 2 } ( \ : | ) ) {6}) . * : \ 1 : g ’ )
$ i s c s i 0 2 _ m a c=$ ( i p −o l i n k show i s c s i 0 2 | s e d −r ’ s : . * \ s+l i n k / e t h e r (([0 − f
] { 2 } ( \ : | ) ) {6}) . * : \ 1 : g ’ )

• configuring iscsi01 interface

$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m i f a c e −I i s c s i 0 1 −−op=new
New i n t e r f a c e i s c s i 0 1 added
$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m i f a c e −I i s c s i 0 1 −−op=update −n i f a c e . hwaddress −v
$iscsi01_mac
i s c s i 0 1 updated .
$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m i f a c e −I i s c s i 0 1 −−op=update −n i f a c e . i p a d d r e s s −v
$iscsi01_ip
i s c s i 0 1 updated .

• configuring iscsi02 interface

167
$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m i f a c e −I i s c s i 0 2 −−op=new
New i n t e r f a c e i s c s i 0 2 added
$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m i f a c e −I i s c s i 0 2 −−op=update −n i f a c e . hwaddress −v
$iscsi02_mac
i s c s i 0 2 updated .
$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m i f a c e −I i s c s i 0 2 −−op=update −n i f a c e . i p a d d r e s s −v
$iscsi02_ip
i s c s i 0 2 updated .

• discovering the targets

$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m d i s c o v e r y −I i s c s i 0 1 −−op=new −−op=d e l −−type s e n d t a r g e t s
−−p o r t a l s t o r a g e . i s c s i 0 1
1 0 . 2 5 0 . 9 4 . 9 9 : 3 2 6 0 , 1 i q n .2003 −01. o r g . l i n u x − i s c s i . s t o r a g e . x8664 : sn . 2 c 0 8 4 c 8 3 2 0 c a

$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m d i s c o v e r y −I i s c s i 0 2 −−op=new −−op=d e l −−type s e n d t a r g e t s

−−p o r t a l s t o r a g e . i s c s i 0 2
1 0 . 2 5 0 . 9 3 . 9 9 : 3 2 6 0 , 1 i q n .2003 −01. o r g . l i n u x − i s c s i . s t o r a g e . x8664 : sn . 2 c 0 8 4 c 8 3 2 0 c a

• configuring automatic login

$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m node −−op=update −n node . conn [ 0 ] . s t a r t u p −v a u t o m a t i c
$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m node −−op=update −n node . s t a r t u p −v a u t o m a t i c

• make sure needed services are enabled during OS initialization:

$ s y s t e m c t l e n a b l e open− i s c s i
S y n c h r o n i z i n g s t a t e o f open− i s c s i . s e r v i c e with SysV s e r v i c e s c r i p t with / l i b /
systemd / systemd−sysv− i n s t a l l .
E x e c u t i n g : / l i b / systemd / systemd−sysv− i n s t a l l e n a b l e open− i s c s i
Created sy m l i n k / e t c / systemd / system / i s c s i . s e r v i c e → / l i b / systemd / system / open−
iscsi . service .
Created sy m l i n k / e t c / systemd / system / s y s i n i t . t a r g e t . wants / open− i s c s i . s e r v i c e
→ / l i b / systemd / system / open− i s c s i . s e r v i c e .

$ systemctl enable i s c s i d
S y n c h r o n i z i n g s t a t e o f i s c s i d . s e r v i c e with SysV s e r v i c e s c r i p t with / l i b /
systemd / systemd−sysv− i n s t a l l .
E x e c u t i n g : / l i b / systemd / systemd−sysv− i n s t a l l e n a b l e i s c s i d
Created sy m l i n k / e t c / systemd / system / s y s i n i t . t a r g e t . wants / i s c s i d . s e r v i c e → /
l i b / systemd / system / i s c s i d . s e r v i c e .

• restarting iscsid service

$ systemctl restart i s c s i d . service

• and, finally, login in discovered logical units

$ sudo i s c s i a d m −m node −− l o g i n a l l=a u t o m a t i c
Logging i n t o [ i f a c e : i s c s i 0 2 , t a r g e t : i q n .2003 −01. o r g . l i n u x − i s c s i . s t o r a g e .
x8664 : sn . 2 c084c8320ca , p o r t a l : 1 0 . 2 5 0 . 9 3 . 9 9 , 3 2 6 0 ] ( m u l t i p l e )
Logging i n t o [ i f a c e : i s c s i 0 1 , t a r g e t : i q n .2003 −01. o r g . l i n u x − i s c s i . s t o r a g e .
x8664 : sn . 2 c084c8320ca , p o r t a l : 1 0 . 2 5 0 . 9 4 . 9 9 , 3 2 6 0 ] ( m u l t i p l e )
Login t o [ i f a c e : i s c s i 0 2 , t a r g e t : i q n .2003 −01. o r g . l i n u x − i s c s i . s t o r a g e . x8664 : sn
. 2 c084c8320ca , p o r t a l : 1 0 . 2 5 0 . 9 3 . 9 9 , 3 2 6 0 ] s u c c e s s f u l .
Login t o [ i f a c e : i s c s i 0 1 , t a r g e t : i q n .2003 −01. o r g . l i n u x − i s c s i . s t o r a g e . x8664 : sn
. 2 c084c8320ca , p o r t a l : 1 0 . 2 5 0 . 9 4 . 9 9 , 3 2 6 0 ] s u c c e s s f u l .

168
Accessing the Logical Units (or LUNs)

Check dmesg to make sure that the new disks have been detected:
dmesg
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 0 6 9 4 ] s c s i 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 0 8 9 2 ] s c s i 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 1 7 4 1 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 2 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 1 8 0 8 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 3 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 2 2 7 8 ] s c s i 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 2 5 7 1 ] s c s i 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 3 4 8 2 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 4 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 3 6 8 1 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 5 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 3 7 0 6 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ sdd ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >
( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 3 8 8 4 ] s c s i 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 3 9 7 1 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ sdd ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 3 9 7 2 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ sdd ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 4 1 2 7 ] s c s i 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 4 2 3 2 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ s d c ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >
( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 4 4 2 1 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ sdd ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 4 5 6 6 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ s d c ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 4 5 6 8 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ s d c ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 4 8 4 6 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 6 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 1 4 7 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ s d c ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 1 8 8 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ sdd ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 5 2 7 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 7 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 6 7 8 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d e ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >
( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 7 8 5 ] s c s i 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 7 9 9 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ s d c ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 9 3 1 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d e ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 5 9 3 3 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d e ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 6 4 2 4 ] s c s i 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : D i r e c t −A c c e s s LIO−ORG TCMU d e v i c e >
0002 PQ: 0 ANSI : 5
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 6 5 5 2 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d e ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 6 7 0 8 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d f ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >
( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 7 0 2 4 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 8 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 7 0 2 9 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d f ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 7 0 3 1 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d f ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 7 0 4 3 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d e ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 7 1 3 3 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdg ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >

169
 ( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 9 2 1 2 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdg ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 9 2 1 4 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdg ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 9 7 1 1 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d f ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 9 7 1 8 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : Attached s c s i g e n e r i c s g 9 type 0
[ 1 6 6 . 8 4 9 7 2 1 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdh ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >
( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 3 2 9 6 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdg ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 3 7 2 1 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdg ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 3 8 1 0 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdh ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 3 8 1 2 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdh ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 4 0 2 6 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d f ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 4 4 3 1 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdh ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 4 6 2 5 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d i ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >
( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 4 8 9 8 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d i ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 4 9 0 0 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d i ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 5 0 2 2 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdh ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 5 4 6 5 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d i ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 5 5 7 8 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d j ] 2097152 512− byte l o g i c a l b l o c k s : >
( 1 . 0 7 GB/ 1 . 0 0 GiB )
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 5 8 4 5 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d j ] Write P r o t e c t i s o f f
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 5 8 4 7 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d j ] Mode S e n s e : 2 f 00 00 00
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 5 9 7 8 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d i ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 6 3 0 5 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d j ] Write c a c h e : enabled , r e a d c a c h e : >
enabled , doesn ’ t s u p p o r t DPO o r FUA
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 6 7 0 1 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d j ] Optimal t r a n s f e r s i z e 65536 b y t e s
[ 1 6 6 . 8 5 9 6 2 4 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ sdd ] Attached SCSI d i s k
[ 1 6 6 . 8 6 1 3 0 4 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 : [ s d c ] Attached SCSI d i s k
[ 1 6 6 . 8 6 4 4 0 9 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d e ] Attached SCSI d i s k
[ 1 6 6 . 8 6 4 8 3 3 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 : [ s d f ] Attached SCSI d i s k
[ 1 6 6 . 8 6 7 9 0 6 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdg ] Attached SCSI d i s k
[ 1 6 6 . 8 6 8 4 4 6 ] sd 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d i ] Attached SCSI d i s k
[ 1 6 6 . 8 7 1 5 8 8 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 : [ s d j ] Attached SCSI d i s k
[ 1 6 6 . 8 7 1 7 7 3 ] sd 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 : [ sdh ] Attached SCSI d i s k

In the output above you will find 8 x SCSI disks recognized. The storage server is mapping 4 x LUNs to
this node, AND the node has 2 x PATHs to each LUN. The OS recognizes each path to each device as 1
SCSI device.
You will find different output depending on the storage server your node is mapping the LUNs
from, and the amount of LUNs being mapped as well.
Although not the objective of this session, let’s find the 4 mapped LUNs using multipath-tools.
You will find further details about multipath in “Device Mapper Multipathing” session of this
same guide.
$ apt−g e t i n s t a l l multipath −t o o l s

$ sudo m u l t i p a t h −r

170
$ sudo m u l t i p a t h − l l
mpathd ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 1 a 0 4 2 f b 7 c 4 1 c 4 2 4 9 a f 9 f 2 c f b c ) dm−3 LIO−ORG,TCMU device
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler = ’0 ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 4 s d e 8 : 6 4 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 4 s d c 8 : 3 2 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
mpathc ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 0 d6871110232471d8bcd155a3 ) dm−2 LIO−ORG,TCMU device
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler = ’0 ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 3 s d f 8 : 8 0 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 3 sdd 8 : 4 8 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
mpathb ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 1 f 6 5 c 6 c b 1 1 b 7 4 5 4 1 b 7 0 3 c e 1 d 4 ) dm−1 LIO−ORG,TCMU device
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler = ’0 ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 2 sdh 8 : 1 1 2 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 2 sdg 8 : 9 6 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
mpatha ( 3 6 0 0 1 4 0 5 b 8 1 6 e 2 4 f c a b 6 4 f b 8 8 3 3 2 a 3 f c 9 ) dm−0 LIO−ORG,TCMU device
s i z e =1.0G f e a t u r e s = ’0 ’ hwhandler = ’0 ’ wp=rw
|−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=a c t i v e
| ‘− 7 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d j 8 : 1 4 4 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g
‘−+− p o l i c y =’ s e r v i c e −time 0 ’ p r i o =1 s t a t u s=e n a b l e d
‘− 8 : 0 : 0 : 1 s d i 8 : 1 2 8 a c t i v e ready ru n n in g

Now it is much easier to understand each recognized SCSI device and common paths to same LUNs in the
storage server. With the output above one can easily see that:
• mpatha device (/dev/mapper/mpatha) is a multipath device for:
– /dev/sdj
– /dev/dsi
• mpathb device (/dev/mapper/mpathb) is a multipath device for:
– /dev/sdh
– /dev/dsg
• mpathc device (/dev/mapper/mpathc) is a multipath device for:
– /dev/sdf
– /dev/sdd
• mpathd device (/dev/mapper/mpathd) is a multipath device for:
– /dev/sde
– /dev/sdc
Do not use this in production without checking appropriate multipath configuration options
in the Device Mapper Multipathing session. The default multipath configuration is less than
optimal for regular usage.
Finally, to access the LUN (or remote iSCSI disk) you will:
• If accessing through a single network interface:
– access it through /dev/sdX where X is a letter given by the OS
• If accessing through multiple network interfaces:
– configure multipath and access the device through /dev/mapper/X
For everything else, the created devices are block devices and all commands used with local disks should
work the same way:
• Creating a partition:

171
$ sudo f d i s k / dev /mapper/mpatha

Welcome t o f d i s k ( u t i l −l i n u x 2 . 3 4 ) .
Changes w i l l remain i n memory only , u n t i l you d e c i d e t o w r i t e them .
Be c a r e f u l b e f o r e u s i n g t h e w r i t e command .

D ev ice d o e s not c o n t a i n a r e c o g n i z e d p a r t i t i o n t a b l e .
Created a new DOS d i s k l a b e l with d i s k i d e n t i f i e r 0 x92c0322a .

Command (m f o r h e l p ) : p
Disk / dev /mapper/mpatha : 1 GiB , 1073741824 bytes , 2097152 s e c t o r s
U n i t s : s e c t o r s o f 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector s i z e ( l o g i c a l / physical ) : 512 b y t e s / 512 b y t e s
I /O s i z e ( minimum/ o p t i m a l ) : 512 b y t e s / 65536 b y t e s
D i s k l a b e l type : dos
Disk i d e n t i f i e r : 0 x92c0322a

Command (m f o r h e l p ) : n
P a r t i t i o n type
p primary ( 0 primary , 0 extended , 4 f r e e )
e extended ( c o n t a i n e r f o r l o g i c a l p a r t i t i o n s )
Select ( default p) : p
P a r t i t i o n number (1 −4 , d e f a u l t 1 ) :
F i r s t s e c t o r (2048 −2097151 , d e f a u l t 2 0 4 8 ) :
Last s e c t o r , +/− s e c t o r s o r +/− s i z e {K,M,G, T, P} (2048 −2097151 , d e f a u l t 2 0 9 7 1 5 1 ) :

Created a new p a r t i t i o n 1 o f type ’ Linux ’ and o f s i z e 1023 MiB .

Command (m f o r h e l p ) : w
The p a r t i t i o n t a b l e has been a l t e r e d .

• Creating a filesystem:
$ sudo mkfs . e x t 4 / dev /mapper/mpatha−p a r t 1
mke2fs 1 . 4 5 . 5 (07−Jan −2020)
C r e a t i n g f i l e s y s t e m with 261888 4k b l o c k s and 65536 i n o d e s
F i l e s y s t e m UUID : cdb70b1e−c47c −47fd −9c4a −03 db6f038988
S u p e r b l o c k backups s t o r e d on b l o c k s :
3 2 7 6 8 , 9 8 3 0 4 , 1 6 3 8 4 0 , 229376

A l l o c a t i n g group t a b l e s : done
Writing i n o d e t a b l e s : done
C r e a t i n g j o u r n a l ( 4 0 9 6 b l o c k s ) : done
Writing s u p e r b l o c k s and f i l e s y s t e m a c c o u n t i n g i n f o r m a t i o n : done

• Mounting the block device:

$ sudo mount / dev /mapper/mpatha−p a r t 1 /mnt

• Accessing the data:

$ l s /mnt
l o s t+found

Make sure to read other important sessions in Ubuntu Server Guide to follow up with concepts explored in
this one.

172
References

1. iscsid
2. iscsi.conf
3. iscsid.conf
4. iscsi.service
5. iscsid.service
6. Open-iSCSI
7. Debian Open-iSCSI

Kerberos
Kerberos is a network authentication system based on the principal of a trusted third party. The other two
parties being the user and the service the user wishes to authenticate to. Not all services and applications
can use Kerberos, but for those that can, it brings the network environment one step closer to being Single
Sign On (SSO).
This section covers installation and configuration of a Kerberos server, and some example client configura-
tions.

Overview

If you are new to Kerberos there are a few terms that are good to understand before setting up a Kerberos
server. Most of the terms will relate to things you may be familiar with in other environments:
• Principal: any users, computers, and services provided by servers need to be defined as Kerberos
Principals.
• Instances: are used for service principals and special administrative principals.
• Realms: the unique realm of control provided by the Kerberos installation. Think of it as the domain
or group your hosts and users belong to. Convention dictates the realm should be in uppercase. By
default, ubuntu will use the DNS domain converted to uppercase (EXAMPLE.COM) as the realm.
• Key Distribution Center: (KDC) consist of three parts: a database of all principals, the authentication
server, and the ticket granting server. For each realm there must be at least one KDC.
• Ticket Granting Ticket: issued by the Authentication Server (AS), the Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT)
is encrypted in the user’s password which is known only to the user and the KDC.
• Ticket Granting Server: (TGS) issues service tickets to clients upon request.
• Tickets: confirm the identity of the two principals. One principal being a user and the other a service
requested by the user. Tickets establish an encryption key used for secure communication during the
authenticated session.
• Keytab Files: are files extracted from the KDC principal database and contain the encryption key for
a service or host.
To put the pieces together, a Realm has at least one KDC, preferably more for redundancy, which contains
a database of Principals. When a user principal logs into a workstation that is configured for Kerberos
authentication, the KDC issues a Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT). If the user supplied credentials match, the
user is authenticated and can then request tickets for Kerberized services from the Ticket Granting Server
(TGS). The service tickets allow the user to authenticate to the service without entering another username
and password.

173
Kerberos Server

Installation

For this discussion, we will create a MIT Kerberos domain with the following features (edit them to fit your
needs):
• Realm: EXAMPLE.COM
• Primary KDC: kdc01.example.com (192.168.0.1)
• Secondary KDC: kdc02.example.com (192.168.0.2)
• User principal: ubuntu
• Admin principal: ubuntu/admin
Note
It is strongly recommended that your network-authenticated users have their uid in a different
range (say, starting at 5000) than that of your local users.
Before installing the Kerberos server a properly configured DNS server is needed for your domain. Since the
Kerberos Realm by convention matches the domain name, this section uses the EXAMPLE.COM domain
configured in the section Primary Server of the DNS documentation.
Also, Kerberos is a time sensitive protocol. So if the local system time between a client machine and the
server differs by more than five minutes (by default), the workstation will not be able to authenticate. To
correct the problem all hosts should have their time synchronized using the same Network Time Protocol
(NTP) server. Check out the NTP chapter for more details.
The first step in creating a Kerberos Realm is to install the krb5-kdc and krb5-admin-server packages. From
a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l krb5−kdc krb5−admin−s e r v e r

You will be asked at the end of the install to supply the hostname for the Kerberos and Admin servers, which
may or may not be the same server, for the realm. Since we are going to create the realm, and thus these
servers, type in the full hostname of this server.
Note
By default the realm is created from the KDC’s domain name.
Next, create the new realm with the kdb5_newrealm utility:
sudo krb5_newrealm

It will ask you for a database master password, which is used to encrypt the local database. Chose a secure
password: its strength is not verified for you.

Configuration

The questions asked during installation are used to configure the /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/krb5kdc/kdc.conf
files. The former is used by the kerberos 5 libraries, and the latter configures the KDC. If you need to adjust
the Key Distribution Center (KDC) settings simply edit the file and restart the krb5-kdc daemon. If you
need to reconfigure Kerberos from scratch, perhaps to change the realm name, you can do so by typing
sudo dpkg−r e c o n f i g u r e krb5−kdc

174
 Note
The manpage for krb5.conf is in the krb5−doc package.
Once the KDC is properly running, an admin user – the admin principal – is needed. It is recommended to
use a different username from your everyday username. Using the kadmin.local utility in a terminal prompt
enter:
$ sudo kadmin . l o c a l
A u t h e n t i c a t i n g a s p r i n c i p a l r o o t /admin@EXAMPLE .COM with password .
kadmin . l o c a l : a d d p r i n c ubuntu /admin
WARNING: no p o l i c y s p e c i f i e d f o r ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM; d e f a u l t i n g t o no
policy
Enter password f o r p r i n c i p a l ” ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM” :
Re−e n t e r password f o r p r i n c i p a l ” ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM” :
P r i n c i p a l ” ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM” c r e a t e d .
kadmin . l o c a l : q u i t

In the above example ubuntu is the Principal, /admin is an Instance of tha principal, and @EXAMPLE.COM
signifies the realm. The “every day” Principal, a.k.a. the user principal, would be [email protected],
and should have only normal user rights.
Note
Replace EXAMPLE.COM and ubuntu with your Realm and admin username.
Next, the new admin user needs to have the appropriate Access Control List (ACL) permissions. The
permissions are configured in the /etc/krb5kdc/kadm5.acl file:
ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM *

This entry grants ubuntu/admin the ability to perform any operation on all principals in the realm. You can
configure principals with more restrictive privileges, which is convenient if you need an admin principal that
junior staff can use in Kerberos clients. Please see the kadm5.acl man page for details.
Note
The extract privilege is not included in the wildcard privilege; it must be explicitly assigned. his
privilege allows the user to extract keys from the database, and must be handled with great care
to avoid disclosure of important keys like those of the kadmin/* or krbtgt/* principals. See the
kadm5.acl man page for details.
Now restart the krb5-admin-server for the new ACL to take affect:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t krb5−admin−s e r v e r . s e r v i c e

The new user principal can be tested using the kinit utility:
$ k i n i t ubuntu /admin
Password f o r ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM:

After entering the password, use the klist utility to view information about the Ticket Granting Ticket
(TGT):
$ klist
T i c k e t c a c h e : FILE : / tmp/ krb5cc_1000
D e f a u l t p r i n c i p a l : ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM

Valid s t a r t i n g Expires Service principal

04/03/20 1 9 : 1 6 : 5 7 04/04/20 0 5 : 1 6 : 5 7 k r b t g t /[email protected]
renew u n t i l 04/04/20 1 9 : 1 6 : 5 5

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Where the cache filename krb5cc_1000 is composed of the prefix krb5cc_ and the user id (uid), which in
this case is 1000.
kinit will inspect /etc/krb5.conf to find out which KDC to contact, and its address. The KDC can also be
found via DNS lookups for special TXT and SRV records. You can add these records to your example.com
DNS zone:
_k er b e r o s . _udp .EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 1 0 88 kdc01 . example . com .
_k er b e r o s . _tcp .EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 1 0 88 kdc01 . example . com .
_k er b e r o s . _udp .EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 10 0 88 kdc02 . example . com .
_k er b e r o s . _tcp .EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 10 0 88 kdc02 . example . com .
_kerberos−adm . _tcp .EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 1 0 749 kdc01 . example . com .
_kpasswd . _udp .EXAMPLE.COM. IN SRV 1 0 464 kdc01 . example . com .

Note
Replace EXAMPLE.COM, kdc01, and kdc02 with your domain name, primary KDC, and sec-
ondary KDC.
See the DNS chapter for detailed instructions on setting up DNS.
A very quick and useful way to troubleshoot what kinit is doing is to set the environment variable
KRB5_TRACE to a file, or stderr, and it will show extra information. The output is quite verbose, and
won’t be shown fully here:
$ KRB5_TRACE=/dev / s t d e r r k i n i t ubuntu /admin
[ 2 8 9 8 ] 1 5 8 5 9 4 1 8 4 5 . 2 7 8 5 7 8 : G e t t i n g i n i t i a l c r e d e n t i a l s f o r ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE
.COM
[ 2 8 9 8 ] 1 5 8 5 9 4 1 8 4 5 . 2 7 8 5 8 0 : Sending u n a u t h e n t i c a t e d r e q u e s t
[ 2 8 9 8 ] 1 5 8 5 9 4 1 8 4 5 . 2 7 8 5 8 1 : Sending r e q u e s t ( 1 8 9 b y t e s ) t o EXAMPLE.COM
[ 2 8 9 8 ] 1 5 8 5 9 4 1 8 4 5 . 2 7 8 5 8 2 : R e s o l v i n g hostname kdc01 . example . com
(...)

Your new Kerberos Realm is now ready to authenticate clients.

Secondary KDC

Once you have one Key Distribution Center (KDC) on your network, it is good practice to have a Secondary
KDC in case the primary becomes unavailable. Also, if you have Kerberos clients that are in different
networks (possibly separated by routers using NAT), it is wise to place a secondary KDC in each of those
networks.
Note
The native replication mechanism explained here relies on a cronjob, and essentially dumps the
DB on the primary and loads it back up on the secondary. You may want to take a look at using
the kldap backend which can use the OpenLDAP replication mechanism. It is explained further
below.
First, install the packages, and when asked for the Kerberos and Admin server names enter the name of the
Primary KDC:
sudo apt i n s t a l l krb5−kdc krb5−admin−s e r v e r

Once you have the packages installed, create the host principals for both KDCs. From a terminal prompt,
enter:
kadmin −q ” a d d p r i n c −randkey h o s t / kdc01 . example . com”
kadmin −q ” a d d p r i n c −randkey h o s t / kdc02 . example . com”

176
 Note
The kadmin command defaults to using a principal like username/[email protected],
where username is your current shell user. If you need to override that, use −p <principal−you
−want>
Make sure the principal you are using has the extra extract−keys privilege in kdc01’s /etc/krb5kdc/kadm5.
acl file. Something like this:
ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM * e

Where “*” means all privileges (except extract−keys), and e means exactly extract−keys.
Extract the keytab file:
kadmin −q ” ktadd −norandkey −k keytab . kdc02 h o s t / kdc02 . example . com”

There should now be a keytab.kdc02 in the current directory, move the file to /etc/krb5.keytab:
sudo mv keytab . kdc02 / e t c / krb5 . keytab
sudo chown r o o t : r o o t / e t c / krb5 . keytab

Note
If the path to the keytab.kdc02 file is different adjust accordingly.
Also, you can list the principals in a Keytab file, which can be useful when troubleshooting, using the klist
utility:
sudo k l i s t −k / e t c / krb5 . keytab

The -k option indicates the file is a keytab file.

Next, there needs to be a kpropd.acl file on each KDC that lists all KDCs for the Realm. For example, on
both primary and secondary KDC, create /etc/krb5kdc/kpropd.acl:
h o s t / kdc01 . example [email protected]
h o s t / kdc02 . example [email protected]

Create an empty database on the Secondary KDC:

sudo k d b 5 _ u ti l −s c r e a t e

Now install kpropd daemon, which listens for connections from the kprop utility from the primary kdc:
sudo apt i n s t a l l krb5−kpropd

The service will be running right after installation.

From a terminal on the Primary KDC, create a dump file of the principal database:
sudo k d b 5 _ u ti l dump / var / l i b / krb5kdc /dump

Still on the Primary KDC, extract its keytab file and copy it to /etc/krb5.keytab:
kadmin −q ” ktadd −k keytab . kdc01 h o s t / kdc01 . example . com”
sudo mv keytab . kdc01 / e t c / krb5 . keytab
sudo chown r o o t : r o o t / e t c / krb5 . keytab

Note
You can now remove the extract−keys privilege from this principal in kdc01’s /etc/krb5kdc/
kadm5.acl file

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On the Primary KDC, run the kprop utility to push the database dump made before to the Secondary KDC:
$ sudo kprop −r EXAMPLE.COM −f / var / l i b / krb5kdc /dump kdc02 . example . com
Database p r o p a g a t i o n t o kdc02 . example . com : SUCCEEDED

Note the SUCCEEDED message, which signals that the propagation worked. If there is an error message
check /var/log/syslog on the secondary KDC for more information.
You may also want to create a cron job to periodically update the database on the Secondary KDC. For
example, the following will push the database every hour:
# m h dom mon dow command
0 * * * * r o o t / u s r / s b i n / k d b 5 _ u t i l dump / var / l i b / krb5kdc /dump && / u s r / s b i n /
kprop −r EXAMPLE.COM −f / var / l i b / krb5kdc /dump kdc02 . example . com

Back on the Secondary KDC, create a stash file to hold the Kerberos master key:
sudo k d b 5 _ u ti l s t a s h

Finally, start the krb5−kdc daemon on the Secondary KDC:

sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t krb5−kdc . s e r v i c e

Note
The Secondary KDC does not run an admin server, since it’s a read-only copy
From now on, you can specify both KDC servers in /etc/krb5.conf for the EXAMPLE.COM realm, in any
host participating in this realm (including kdc01 and kdc02), but remember that there can only be one
admin server and that’s the one running on kdc01:
[ realms ]
EXAMPLE.COM = {
kdc = kdc01 . example . com
kdc = kdc02 . example . com
admin_server = kdc01 . example . com
}

The Secondary KDC should now be able to issue tickets for the Realm. You can test this by stopping the
krb5−kdc daemon on the Primary KDC, then by using kinit to request a ticket. If all goes well you should
receive a ticket from the Secondary KDC. Otherwise, check /var/log/syslog and /var/log/auth.log in the
Secondary KDC.

Kerberos Linux Client

This section covers configuring a Linux system as a Kerberos client. This will allow access to any kerberized
services once a user has successfully logged into the system.
Note that Kerberos alone is not enough for a user to exist in a Linux system. Meaning, we cannot just
point the system at a kerberos server and expect all the kerberos principals to be able to login on the linux
system, simply because these users do not exist locally. Kerberos only provides authentication: it doesn’t
know about user groups, Linux uids and gids, home directories, etc. Normally another network source is
used for this information, such as an LDAP or Windows server, and, in the old days, NIS was used for that
as well.

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Installation

If you have local users matching the principals in a Kerberos realm, and just want to switch the authentication
from local to remote using Kerberos, you can follow this section. This is not a very usual scenario, but serves
to highlight the separation between user authentication and user information (full name, uid, gid, home
directory, groups, etc). If you just want to be able to grab tickets and use them, it’s enough to install
krb5−user and run kinit .
We are going to use sssd with a trick so that it will fetch the user information from the local system files,
instead of a remote source which is the common case.
To install the packages enter the following in a terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l krb5−u s e r s s s d −krb5

You will be prompted for the addresses of your KDCs and admin servers. If you have been following this
chapter so far, the KDCs will be: kdc01.example.com kdc02.example.com (space separated)
And the admin server will be: kdc01.example.com. Remember that kdc02 is a read-only copy of the primary
KDC, so it doesn’t run an admin server.
Note
If you have added the appropriate SRV records to DNS, none of those prompts will need answer-
ing.

Configuration

If you missed the questions earlier, you can reconfigure the package to fill them in again: sudo dpkg−
reconfigure krb5−config.
You can test the kerberos configuration by requesting a ticket using the kinit utility. For example:
$ k i n i t ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM
Password f o r ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM:

Note
kinit doesn’t need for the principal to exist as a local user in the system. In fact, you can kinit
any principal you want. If you don’t specify one, then the tool will use the username of whoever
is running kinit .
Since we are at it, let’s also create a non-admin principal for ubuntu:
$ kadmin −q ” a d d p r i n c ubuntu ”
A u t h e n t i c a t i n g a s p r i n c i p a l ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM with password .
Password f o r ubuntu /admin@EXAMPLE .COM:
WARNING: no p o l i c y s p e c i f i e d f o r ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM; d e f a u l t i n g t o no p o l i c y
Enter password f o r p r i n c i p a l ”ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM” :
Re−e n t e r password f o r p r i n c i p a l ”ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM” :
P r i n c i p a l ”ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM” c r e a t e d .

The only remaining configuration now is for sssd. Create the file /etc/sssd/sssd.conf with the following
content:
[ sssd ]
config_file_version = 2
s e r v i c e s = pam
domains = example . com

179
[ pam ]

[ domain / example . com ]

i d _ p r o v i d e r = proxy
proxy_lib_name = f i l e s
a u th _p ro vi d er = krb5
k r b 5 _ s e r v e r = kdc01 . example . com , kdc01 . example . com
krb5_kpasswd = kdc01 . example . com
krb5_realm = EXAMPLE.COM

The above configuration will use kerberos for authentication (auth_provider), but will use the local system
users for user and group information (id_provider).
Adjust the permissions of the config file and start sssd:
$ sudo chown r o o t : r o o t / e t c / s s s d / s s s d . c o n f
$ sudo chmod 0600 / e t c / s s s d / s s s d . c o n f
$ sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t s s s d

Just by having installed sssd and its dependencies, PAM will already have been configured to use sssd, with
a fallback to local user authentication. To try it out, if this is a workstation, simply switch users (in the
GUI), or open a login terminal (CTRL-ALT-<number>), or spawn a login shell with sudo login, and try
logging in using the name of a kerberos principal. Remember that this user must already exist on the local
system:
$ sudo l o g i n
f o c a l −krb5−c l i e n t l o g i n : ubuntu
Password :
Welcome t o Ubuntu F o c a l Fossa ( development branch ) (GNU/ Linux 5.4.0 −21 − g e n e r i c
x86_64 )

(...)

Last l o g i n : Thu Apr 9 2 1 : 2 3 : 5 0 UTC 2020 from 1 0 . 2 0 . 2 0 . 1 on p t s /0

$ klist
T i c k e t c a c h e : FILE : / tmp/ krb5cc_1000_NlfnSX
D e f a u l t p r i n c i p a l : ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM

Valid s t a r t i n g Expires Service principal

04/09/20 2 1 : 3 6 : 1 2 04/10/20 0 7 : 3 6 : 1 2 k r b t g t /[email protected]
renew u n t i l 04/10/20 2 1 : 3 6 : 1 2

And you will have a Kerberos ticket already right after login.

Resources

• For more information on MIT’s version of Kerberos, see the MIT Kerberos site.
• The Ubuntu Wiki Kerberos page has more details.
• O’Reilly’s Kerberos: The Definitive Guide is a great reference when setting up Kerberos.
• Also, feel free to stop by the #ubuntu-server and #kerberos IRC channels on Freenode if you have
Kerberos questions.

180
Kerberos and LDAP
Kerberos supports a few database backends. The default one is what we have been using so far, called db2.
The DB Types documentation shows all the options, one of which is LDAP.
There are several reasons why one would want to have the Kerberos principals stored in LDAP as opposed to
a local on-disk database. There are also cases when it is not a good idea. Each site has to evaluate the pros
and cons. Here are a few: - the OpenLDAP replication is faster and more robust then the native Kerberos
one, based on a cron job - setting things up with the LDAP backend isn’t exactly trivial and shouldn’t be
attempted by administrators without prior knowledge of OpenLDAP - as highlighted in LDAP section of
DB Types, since krb5kdc is single threaded there may be higher latency in servicing requests when using the
OpenLDAP backend - if you already have OpenLDAP setup for other things, like storing users and groups,
adding the Kerberos attributes to the same mix might be beneficial and can provide a nice integrated story
This section covers configuring a primary and secondary kerberos server to use OpenLDAP for the principal
database. Note that as of version 1.18, the KDC from MIT Kerberos does not support a primary KDC using
a read-only consumer (secondary) LDAP server. What we have to consider here is that a Primary KDC
is read-write, and it needs a read-write backend. The Secondaries can use both a read-write and read-only
backend, because they are expected to be read-only. Therefore there are only some possible layouts we can
use:
1. Simple case: Primary KDC connected to primary OpenLDAP, Secondary KDC connected to both
Primary and Secondary OpenLDAP
2. Extended simple case: Multiple Primary KDCs connected to one Primary OpenLDAP, and multiple
Secondary KDCs connected to Primary and Secondary OpenLDAP
3. OpenLDAP with multi-master replication: multiple primary KDCs connected to all primary OpenL-
DAP servers
We haven’t covered OpenLDAP multi-master replication in this guide, so we will show the first case only.
The second scenario is an extension: just add another primary KDC to the mix, talking to the same primary
OpenLDAP server.

Configuring OpenLDAP

We are going to install the OpenLDAP server on the same host as the KDC, to simplify the communication
between them. In such a setup, we can use the ldapi:/// transport, which is via an unix socket, and don’t
need to setup SSL certificates to secure the communication between the Kerberos services and OpenLDAP.
Note, however, that SSL is still needed for the OpenLDAP replication. See LDAP with TLS for details.
If you want to use an existing OpenLDAP server that you have somewhere else, that’s of course also possible,
but keep in mind that you should then use SSL for the communication between the KDC and this OpenLDAP
server.
First, the necessary schema needs to be loaded on an OpenLDAP server that has network connectivity to
the Primary and Secondary KDCs. The rest of this section assumes that you also have LDAP replication
configured between at least two servers. For information on setting up OpenLDAP see OpenLDAP Server.
Note
cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com is a default admin user that is created during the installation of
the slapd package (the OpenLDAP server). The domain component will change for your server,
so adjust accordingly.
• Install the necessary packages (it’s assumed that OpenLDAP is already installed):
sudo apt i n s t a l l krb5−kdc−l d a p krb5−admin−s e r v e r

• Next, extract the kerberos.schema.gz file:

181
 sudo cp / u s r / s h a r e / doc / krb5−kdc−l d a p / k e r b e r o s . schema . gz / e t c / l d a p / schema /
sudo g u n z i p / e t c / l d a p / schema / k e r b e r o s . schema . gz

• The kerberos schema needs to be added to the cn=config tree. This schema file needs to be converted
to LDIF format before it can be added. For that we will use a helper tool, called schema2ldif, provided
by the package of the same name which is available in the Universe archive:
sudo apt i n s t a l l s c h e m a 2 l d i f

• To import the kerberos schema, run:

$ sudo ldap−schema−manager − i k e r b e r o s . schema
SASL/EXTERNAL a u t h e n t i c a t i o n s t a r t e d
SASL username : gidNumber=0+uidNumber=0, cn=p e e r c r e d , cn=e x t e r n a l , cn=auth
SASL SSF : 0
e x e c u t i n g ’ ldapadd −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f / e t c / l d a p / schema / k e r b e r o s .
ldif ’
SASL/EXTERNAL a u t h e n t i c a t i o n s t a r t e d
SASL username : gidNumber=0+uidNumber=0, cn=p e e r c r e d , cn=e x t e r n a l , cn=auth
SASL SSF : 0
adding new e n t r y ” cn=k e r b e r o s , cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g ”

• With the new schema loaded, let’s index an attribute often used in searches:
$ sudo l d a p m o d if y −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / <<EOF
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : krbPrincipalName eq , p r e s , sub
EOF

m o d i f y i n g e n t r y ” o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g ”

• Let’s create LDAP entries for the Kerberos administrative entities that will contact the OpenLDAP
server to perform operations. There are two:
– ldap_kdc_dn: needs to have read rights on the realm container, principal container and
realm sub-trees. If disable_last_success and disable_lockout are not set, however, then
ldap_kdc_dn needs write access to the kerberos container just like the admin dn below.
– ldap_kadmind_dn: needs to have read and write rights on the realm container, principal
container and realm sub-trees
Here is the command to create these entities:
$ ldapadd −x −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com −W <<EOF
dn : u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com
u i d : kdc−s e r v i c e
o b j e c t C l a s s : account
objectClass : simpleSecurityObject
userPassword : {CRYPT}x
d e s c r i p t i o n : Account used f o r t h e K e rb e r o s KDC

dn : u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com

u i d : kadmin−s e r v i c e
o b j e c t C l a s s : account
objectClass : simpleSecurityObject
userPassword : {CRYPT}x
d e s c r i p t i o n : Account used f o r t h e K e rb e r o s Admin s e r v e r

182
 EOF
Enter LDAP Password :
adding new e n t r y ” u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com”

adding new e n t r y ” u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com”

Now let’s set a password for them. Note that first the tool asks for the password you want for
the specified user dn, and then for the password of the cn=admin dn: $ ldappasswd -x -D
cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com -W -S uid=kdc-service,dc=example,dc=com New password: <–
password you want for uid-kdc-service Re-enter new password: Enter LDAP Password: <– password
for the dn specified with the -D option
Repeat for the uid=kadmin−service dn. These passwords will be needed later.
You can test these with ldapwhoami:
$ ldapwhoami −x −D u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com −W
Enter LDAP Password :
dn : u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com

• Finally, update the Access Control Lists (ACL). These can be tricky, as it highly depends on what you
have defined already. By default, the slapd package configures your database with the following ACLs:
o l c A c c e s s : {0} t o a t t r s=userPassword by s e l f w r i t e by anonymous auth by *
none
o l c A c c e s s : {1} t o a t t r s=shadowLastChange by s e l f w r i t e by * r e a d
o l c A c c e s s : {2} t o * by * r e a d

We need to insert new rules before the final to * by * read one, to control access to the Kerberos
related entries and attributes:
$ sudo l d a p m o d if y −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / <<EOF
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
add : o l c A c c e s s
o l c A c c e s s : {2} t o a t t r s=k r b P r i n c i p a l K e y
by anonymous auth
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” r e a d
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” w r i t e
by s e l f w r i t e
by * none
−
add : o l c A c c e s s
o l c A c c e s s : {3} t o dn . s u b t r e e =”cn=krbCont ainer , dc=example , dc=com”
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” r e a d
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” w r i t e
by * none
EOF

m o d i f y i n g e n t r y ” o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g ”

This will make the existing {2} rule become {4}. Check with sudo slapcat −b cn=config (the output
below was reformatted a bit for clarity):
o l c A c c e s s : {0} t o a t t r s=userPassword
by s e l f w r i t e
by anonymous auth
by * none

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 o l c A c c e s s : {1} t o a t t r s=shadowLastChange
by s e l f w r i t e
by * r e a d
o l c A c c e s s : {2} t o a t t r s=k r b P r i n c i p a l K e y by anonymous auth
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” r e a d
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” w r i t e
by s e l f w r i t e
by * none
o l c A c c e s s : {3} t o dn . s u b t r e e =”cn=krbCont ainer , dc=example , dc=com”
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” r e a d
by dn . e x a c t=”u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com” w r i t e
by * none
o l c A c c e s s : {4} t o * by * r e a d

That’s it, your LDAP directory is now ready to serve as a Kerberos principal database.

Primary KDC Configuration (LDAP)

With OpenLDAP configured it is time to configure the KDC. In this example we are doing it in the same
OpenLDAP server to take advantage of local unix socket communication.
• Reconfigure the krb5−config package if neededd to get a good starting point with /etc/krb5.conf:
sudo dpkg−r e c o n f i g u r e krb5−c o n f i g

• Now edit /etc/krb5.conf adding the database_module option to the EXAMPLE.COM realm section:
[ realms ]
EXAMPLE.COM = {
kdc = kdc01 . example . com
kdc = kdc02 . example . com
admin_server = kdc01 . example . com
default_domain = example . com
database_module = o p e n l d a p _ l d a p c o n f
}

Then also add these new sections:

[ dbdefaults ]
ldap_kerberos_container_dn = cn=krbC ontainer , dc=example , dc=com

[ dbmodules ]
op e n l d a p _l da pc on f = {
d b _ l i b r a r y = kldap

# i f e i t h e r o f t h e s e i s f a l s e , then t h e ldap_kdc_dn n e e d s
to
# have w r i t e a c c e s s
disable_last_success = true
disable_lockout = true

# t h i s o b j e c t n e e d s t o have r e a d r i g h t s on
# t h e realm c o n t a i n e r , p r i n c i p a l c o n t a i n e r and realm sub−
trees
ldap_kdc_dn = ” u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com”

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 # t h i s o b j e c t n e e d s t o have r e a d and w r i t e r i g h t s on
# t h e realm c o n t a i n e r , p r i n c i p a l c o n t a i n e r and realm sub−
trees
ldap_kadmind_dn = ” u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com”

l d a p _ s e r v i c e _ p a s s w o r d _ f i l e = / e t c / krb5kdc / s e r v i c e . k e y f i l e
ldap_servers = ldapi :///
ldap_conns_per_server = 5
}

• Next, use the kdb5_ldap_util utility to create the realm:

$ sudo kdb5_ldap_util −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com c r e a t e −s u b t r e e s dc=
example , dc=com −r EXAMPLE.COM −s −H l d a p i : / / /
Password f o r ” cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com ” :
I n i t i a l i z i n g d a t a b a s e f o r realm ’EXAMPLE.COM’
You w i l l be prompted f o r t h e d a t a b a s e Master Password .
I t i s i m p o r t an t t h a t you NOT FORGET t h i s password .
Enter KDC d a t a b a s e master key :
Re−e n t e r KDC d a t a b a s e master key t o v e r i f y :

• Create a stash of the password used to bind to the LDAP server. Run it once for each ldap_kdc_dn
and ldap_kadmin_dn::
sudo kdb5_ldap_util −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com s t a s h s r v p w −f / e t c /
krb5kdc / s e r v i c e . k e y f i l e u i d=kdc−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com
sudo kdb5_ldap_util −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com s t a s h s r v p w −f / e t c /
krb5kdc / s e r v i c e . k e y f i l e u i d=kadmin−s e r v i c e , dc=example , dc=com

Note
The /etc/krb5kdc/service. keyfile file now contains clear text versions of the passwords used
by the KDC to contact the LDAP server!
• Create a /etc/krb5kdc/kadm5.acl file for the admin server, if you haven’t already:
*/admin@EXAMPLE .COM *

• Start the Kerberos KDC and admin server:

sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t krb5−kdc . s e r v i c e krb5−admin−s e r v e r . s e r v i c e

You can now add Kerberos principals to the LDAP database, and they will be copied to any other LDAP
servers configured for replication. To add a principal using the kadmin.local utility enter:
$ sudo kadmin . l o c a l
A u t h e n t i c a t i n g a s p r i n c i p a l r o o t /admin@EXAMPLE .COM with password .
kadmin . l o c a l : a d d p r i n c ubuntu
WARNING: no p o l i c y s p e c i f i e d f o r ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM; d e f a u l t i n g t o no p o l i c y
Enter password f o r p r i n c i p a l ”ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM” :
Re−e n t e r password f o r p r i n c i p a l ”ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM” :
P r i n c i p a l ”ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM” c r e a t e d .
kadmin . l o c a l :

The above will create an ubuntu principal with a dn of [email protected],cn

=EXAMPLE.COM,cn=krbContainer,dc=example,dc=com. Let’s say, however, that you already have an
user in your directory, and it’s in uid=testuser1,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com, how to add the kerberos
attributes to it? You use the −x parameter:

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$ sudo kadmin . l o c a l
A u t h e n t i c a t i n g a s p r i n c i p a l r o o t /admin@EXAMPLE .COM with password .
kadmin . l o c a l : a d d p r i n c −x dn=u i d=t e s t u s e r 1 , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
testuser1
WARNING: no p o l i c y s p e c i f i e d f o r testuser1@EXAMPLE .COM; d e f a u l t i n g t o no
policy
Enter password f o r p r i n c i p a l ”testuser1@EXAMPLE .COM” :
Re−e n t e r password f o r p r i n c i p a l ”testuser1@EXAMPLE .COM” :
P r i n c i p a l ”testuser1@EXAMPLE .COM” c r e a t e d .

Since the specified dn already exists, kadmin.local will just add the required kerberos attributes to this
existing entry. If it didn’t exist, it would be created from scratch, with just the kerberos attributes, like
what happened with the ubuntu example above, but in the specified location.
Both places are visible for kinit , since, when the realm was created with kdb5_ldap_util, the default value
for the search scope and base were taken: subtree, and dc=example,dc=com.

Secondary KDC Configuration (LDAP)

The setup of the secondary KDC (and its OpenLDAP replica) is very similar. Once you have the OpenLDAP
replication setup, repeat these steps on the secondary: - install krb5-kdc-ldap, ldap-utils. Do not install krb5-
admin-server. - load the kerberos schema using schema2ldif - add the index for krbPrincipalName - add the
ACLs - configure krb5.conf in the same way, initially. If you want and if you configured SSL properly, you
can add ldaps://kdc01.example.com to the ldap_servers list after ldapi:///, so that the Secondary KDC can
have two LDAP backends at its disposal - DO NOT run kdb5_ldap_util. There is no need to create the
database since it’s being replicated from the Primary - copy over the following files from the Primary KDC
and place them in the same location on the Secondary: - /etc/krb5kdc/stash - /etc/krb5kdc/service. keyfile
- start the KDC: sudo systemctl start krb5−kdc.service

Resources

• Configuring Kerberos with OpenLDAP back-end

• MIT Kerberos backend types

OpenLDAP Server
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP, is a protocol for querying and modifying a X.500-based
directory service running over TCP/IP. The current LDAP version is LDAPv3, as defined in RFC4510, and
the implementation used in Ubuntu is OpenLDAP.”
The LDAP protocol accesses directories. A common mistake is to call a directory an LDAP directory, or
LDAP database, but it’s really so common, and we all know what we are talking about, that it’s ok. Here
are some key concepts and terms:
• A directory is a tree of data entries that is hierarchical in nature and is called the Directory Information
Tree (DIT).
• An entry consists of a set of attributes.
• An attribute has a key (a name/description) and one or more values.
• Every attribute must be defined in at least one objectClass.

186
 • Attributes and objectclasses are defined in schemas (an objectclass is actually considered as a special
kind of attribute).
• Each entry has a unique identifier: its Distinguished Name (DN or dn). This, in turn, consists of a
Relative Distinguished Name (RDN) followed by the parent entry’s DN.
• The entry’s DN is not an attribute. It is not considered part of the entry itself.
Note
The terms object, container, and node have certain connotations but they all essentially mean
the same thing as entry, the technically correct term.
For example, below we have a single entry consisting of 11 attributes where the following is true:
• DN is “cn=John Doe,dc=example,dc=com”
• RDN is “cn=John Doe”
• parent DN is “dc=example,dc=com”
dn : cn=John Doe , dc=example , dc=com
cn : John Doe
givenName : John
sn : Doe
telephoneNumber : +1 888 555 6789
telephoneNumber : +1 888 555 1232
m a i l : john@example . com
manager : cn=Larry Smith , dc=example , dc=com
o b j e c t C l a s s : inetOrgPerson
objectClass : organizationalPerson
objectClass : person
o b j e c t C l a s s : top

The above entry is in LDIF format (LDAP Data Interchange Format). Any information that you feed into
your DIT must also be in such a format. It is defined in RFC2849.
Such a directory accessed via LDAP is good for anything that involves a large number of access requests
to a mostly-read, attribute-based (name:value) backend, and that can benefit from a hierarchical struc-
ture. Examples include an address book, company directory, a list of email addresses, and a mail server’s
configuration.
Installation
The installation of slapd will create a minimal working configuration with a top level entry, and an adminis-
trator’s DN. In particular, it will create a database instance that you can use to store your data. However,
the suffix (or base DN) of this instance will be determined from the domain name of the host. If you want
something different, you can change it right after the installation when you still don’t have any useful data.
Note
This guide will use a database suffix of dc=example,dc=com.
Proceed with the install of the server and the main command line utilities:
sudo apt i n s t a l l s l a p d ldap−u t i l s

If you want to change your DIT suffix, now would be a good time, because changing it discards your existing
one. To change the suffix, run the following command:
sudo dpkg−r e c o n f i g u r e s l a p d

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To switch your DIT suffix to dc=example,dc=com, for example, so you can follow this guide more closely,
answer example.com when asked about the DNS domain name.
Throughout this guide we will issue many commands with the LDAP utilities. To save some typing, we can
configure the OpenLDAP libraries with certain defaults in /etc/ldap/ldap.conf:
BASE dc=example , dc=com
URI l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com
TLS_CACERT / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / ca− c e r t i f i c a t e s . c r t

Note
Adjust for your server name and directory suffix

Post-install Inspection

The packaging of slapd is designed to be configured within the service itself by dedicating a separate DIT
for that purpose. This allows one to dynamically configure slapd without the need to restart the service or
edit config files. This configuration database consists of a collection of text-based LDIF files located under
/etc/ldap/slapd.d, but these should never be edited directly. This way of working is known by several names:
the slapd-config method, the RTC method (Real Time Configuration), or the cn=config method. You can
still use the traditional flat-file method (slapd.conf ) but it’s not going to be covered in this guide.
Right after installation, you will get two databases, or suffixes: one for your data, based on your host’s
domain (dc=example,dc=com), and one for your configuration, with its root at cn=config. To change the
data on each we need different credentials and access methods:
• dc=example,dc=com: the administrative user for this suffix is cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com and its
password is the one selected during the installation of the slapd package
• cn=config: the configuration slapd itself is stored under this suffix. Changes to it can be made by the
special DN gidNumber=0+uidNumber=0,cn=peercred,cn=external,cn=auth. This is how the local sys-
tem’s root user (uid=0/gid=0) is seen by the directory when using SASL EXTERNAL authentication
through the ldapi:/// transport via the /run/slapd/ldapi unix socket. Essentially what this means is
that only the local root user can update the cn=config database. More details later.
• This is what the slapd-config DIT looks like via the LDAP protocol (listing only the dns):
$ sudo l d a p s e a r c h −Q −LLL −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −b cn=c o n f i g dn
dn : cn=c o n f i g

dn : cn=module { 0 } , cn=c o n f i g

dn : cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g

dn : cn={0} c o r e , cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g

dn : cn={1} c o s i n e , cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g

dn : cn={2} n i s , cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g

dn : cn={3} i n e t o r g p e r s o n , cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g

dn : olcBackend ={0}mdb , cn=c o n f i g

dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={−1} f r o n t e n d , cn=c o n f i g

188
 dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={0} c o n f i g , cn=c o n f i g

dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g

Explanation of entries:
– cn=config: global settings
– cn=module{0},cn=config: a dynamically loaded module
– cn=schema,cn=config: contains hard-coded system-level schema
– cn={0}core,cn=schema,cn=config: the hard-coded core schema
– cn={1}cosine,cn=schema,cn=config: the cosine schema
– cn={2}nis,cn=schema,cn=config: the nis schema
– cn={3}inetorgperson,cn=schema,cn=config: the inetorgperson schema
– olcBackend={0}mdb,cn=config: the ‘mdb’ backend storage type
– olcDatabase={-1}frontend,cn=config: frontend database, default settings for other databases
– olcDatabase={0}config,cn=config: slapd configuration database (cn=config)
– olcDatabase={1}mdb,cn=config: your database instance (dc=example,dc=com)
• This is what the dc=example,dc=com DIT looks like:
$ l d a p s e a r c h −x −LLL −H l d a p : / / / −b dc=example , dc=com dn

dn : dc=example , dc=com

dn : cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com

Explanation of entries:
– dc=example,dc=com: base of the DIT
– cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com: administrator (rootDN) for this DIT (set up during package
install)
Notice how we used two different authentication mechanisms:
• -x: this is called a simple bind, and is essentially a plain text authentication. Since no binddn was
provided (via -D), this became an anonymous bind. Without -x, the default is to use a SASL bind.
• -Y EXTERNAL: this is using a SASL bind (no -x was provided), and further specifying the EXTER-
NAL type. Together with -H ldapi:///, this uses a local unix socket connection
In both cases we only got the results that the server ACLs allowed us to see, based on who we are. A very
handy tool to verify the authentication is ldapwhoami:
$ ldapwhoami −x
anonymous

$ ldapwhoami −x −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com −W

Enter LDAP Password :
dn : cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com

When you use simple bind (-x) and specify a binddn with -D as your authentication dn, the server will look
for a userPassword attribute in that entry, and use that to verify the credentials. In this particular case
above, we used the database rootDN entry, i.e., the actual administrator, and that is a special case whose
password is set in the configuration when the package is installed.

189
 Note
A simple bind without some sort of transport security mechanism is clear text, meaning the
credentials are transmitted in the clear. You should add TLS support to your OpenLDAP server
as soon as possible.
Here are the SASL EXTERNAL examples:
$ ldapwhoami −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −Q
dn : gidNumber=1000+uidNumber =1000 , cn=p e e r c r e d , cn=e x t e r n a l , cn=auth

$ sudo ldapwhoami −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −Q

dn : gidNumber=0+uidNumber=0, cn=p e e r c r e d , cn=e x t e r n a l , cn=auth

When using SASL EXTERNAL via the ldapi:/// transport, the binddn becomes a combination of the uid
and gid of the connecting user, followed by the suffix cn=peercred,cn=external,cn=auth. The server ACLs
know about this, and grant the local root user complete write access to cn=config via the SASL mechanism.

Modifying/Populating your Database

Let’s introduce some content to our database. We will add the following:
• a node called People (to store users)
• a node called Groups (to store groups)
• a group called miners
• a user called john
Create the following LDIF file and call it add_content.ldif:
dn : ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
objectClass : organizationalUnit
ou : P eo ple

dn : ou=Groups , dc=example , dc=com

objectClass : organizationalUnit
ou : Groups

dn : cn=miners , ou=Groups , dc=example , dc=com

o b j e c t C l a s s : posixGroup
cn : m i ne r s
gidNumber : 5000

dn : u i d=john , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com

o b j e c t C l a s s : inetOrgPerson
o b j e c t C l a s s : p os i xA cc oun t
o b j e c t C l a s s : shadowAccount
u i d : john
sn : Doe
givenName : John
cn : John Doe
displayName : John Doe
uidNumber : 10000
gidNumber : 5000
userPassword : {CRYPT}x
g e c o s : John Doe

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l o g i n S h e l l : / b i n / bash
homeDirectory : /home/ john

Note
It’s important that uid and gid values in your directory do not collide with local values. You can
use high number ranges, such as starting at 5000 or even higher.
Add the content:
$ ldapadd −x −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com −W −f add_content . l d i f
Enter LDAP Password : ********
adding new e n t r y ” ou=People , dc=example , dc=com”

adding new e n t r y ” ou=Groups , dc=example , dc=com”

adding new e n t r y ” cn=miners , ou=Groups , dc=example , dc=com”

adding new e n t r y ” u i d=john , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com”

We can check that the information has been correctly added with the ldapsearch utility. For example, let’s
search for the john entry, and request the cn and gidnumber attributes:
$ l d a p s e a r c h −x −LLL −b dc=example , dc=com ’ ( u i d=john ) ’ cn gidNumber
dn : u i d=john , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
cn : John Doe
gidNumber : 5000

Here we used an LDAP “filter”: (uid=john). LDAP filters are very flexible and can become complex. For
example, to list the group names of which john is a member, we could use the filter:
(&( o b j e c t C l a s s=posixGroup ) ( memberUid=john ) )

That is a logical AND between two attributes. Filters are very important in LDAP and mastering their
syntax will help a long way. They are used for simple queries like this, but can also select what content is to
be replicated to a secondary server, or even in complex ACLs. The full specification is defined in RFC 4515.
Notice we set the userPassword field for the john entry to the cryptic value {CRYPT}x. This essentially
is an invalid password, because no hashing will produce just x. It’s a common pattern when adding a user
entry without a default password. To change the password to something valid, you can now use ldappasswd:
$ ldappasswd −x −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com −W −S u i d=john , ou=p e o p l e , dc=
example , dc=com
New password :
Re−e n t e r new password :
Enter LDAP Password :

Note
Remember that simple binds are insecure and you should add TLS support to your server!
Modifying the slapd Configuration Database
The slapd-config DIT can also be queried and modified. Here are some common operations.

Adding an index

Use ldapmodify to add an “Index” to your {1}mdb,cn=config database definition (for dc=example,dc=com).
Create a file, call it uid_index.ldif, with the following contents:

191
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : m a i l eq , sub

Then issue the command:

$ sudo l d a pm o d i f y −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f uid_index . l d i f

m o d i f y i n g e n t r y ” o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g ”

You can confirm the change in this way:

$ sudo l d a p s e a r c h −Q −LLL −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −b \
cn=c o n f i g ’ ( o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb) ’ olcDbIndex

dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
olcDbIndex : o b j e c t C l a s s eq
olcDbIndex : cn , u i d eq
olcDbIndex : uidNumber , gidNumber eq
olcDbIndex : member , memberUid eq
olcDbIndex : m a i l eq , sub

Change the rootDN password:

First, run slappasswd to get the hash for the new password you want:
$ slappasswd
New password :
Re−e n t e r new password :
{SSHA}VKrYMxlSKhONGRpC6rnASKNmXG2xHXFo

Now prepare a changerootpw.ldif file with this content:

dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
r e p l a c e : olcRootPW
olcRootPW : {SSHA}VKrYMxlSKhONGRpC6rnASKNmXG2xHXFo

Finally, run the ldapmodify command:

$ sudo l d a pm o d i f y −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f changerootpw . l d i f
m o d i f y i n g e n t r y ” o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g ”

We still have the actual cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com dn in the dc=example,dc=com database, so let’s

change it too. Since this is a regular entry in this database suffix, we can use ldappasswd:
$ ldappasswd −x −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com −W −S
New password :
Re−e n t e r new password :
Enter LDAP Password : <−− c u r r e n t password , about t o be changed

Adding a schema

Schemas can only be added to cn=config if they are in LDIF format. If not, they will first have to be converted.
You can find unconverted schemas in addition to converted ones in the /etc/ldap/schema directory.

192
 Note
It is not trivial to remove a schema from the slapd-config database. Practice adding schemas on
a test system.
In the following example we’ll add the password policy (ppolicy) schema. This schema exists in both converted
(.ldif ) and native (.schema) formats, so we don’t have to convert it and can use ldapadd directly:
$ sudo ldapadd −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f / e t c / l d a p / schema / p p o l i c y . l d i f
adding new e n t r y ” cn=p p o l i c y , cn=schema , cn=c o n f i g ”

If the schema you want to add does not exist in LDIF format, a nice conversion tool that can be used is
provided in the schema2ldif package.

Logging

Activity logging for slapd is very useful when implementing an OpenLDAP-based solution yet it must be
manually enabled after software installation. Otherwise, only rudimentary messages will appear in the logs.
Logging, like any other such configuration, is enabled via the slapd-config database.
OpenLDAP comes with multiple logging levels with each one containing the lower one (additive). A good
level to try is stats. The slapd-config man page has more to say on the different subsystems.
Create the file logging . ldif with the following contents:
dn : cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
replace : olcLogLevel
olcLogLevel : s t a t s

Implement the change:

sudo l d a pm o d i f y −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f l o g g i n g . l d i f

This will produce a significant amount of logging and you will want to throttle back to a less verbose level
once your system is in production. While in this verbose mode your host’s syslog engine (rsyslog) may have
a hard time keeping up and may drop messages:
r s y s l o g d −2177: imuxsock l o s t 228 m essag e s from p i d 2547 due t o r a t e −l i m i t i n g

You may consider a change to rsyslog’s configuration. In /etc/rsyslog .conf, put:

# Disable rate limiting
# ( d e f a u l t i s 200 mes sages i n 5 s e c o n d s ; below we make t h e 5 become 0 )
$SystemLogRateLimitInterval 0

And then restart the rsyslog daemon:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t s y s l o g . s e r v i c e

Backup and Restore

Now we have ldap running just the way we want, it is time to ensure we can save all of our work and restore
it as needed.
What we need is a way to backup the directory database(s), specifically the configuration backend (cn=config)
and the DIT (dc=example,dc=com). If we are going to backup those databases into, say, /export/backup,
we could use slapcat as shown in the following script, called /usr/local/bin/ldapbackup:

193
#!/ b i n / bash

s e t −e

BACKUP_PATH=/e x p o r t / backup
SLAPCAT=/u s r / s b i n / s l a p c a t

n i c e $ {SLAPCAT} −b cn=c o n f i g > $ {BACKUP_PATH}/ c o n f i g . l d i f

n i c e $ {SLAPCAT} −b dc=example , dc=com > $ {BACKUP_PATH}/ example . com . l d i f
chown r o o t : r o o t ${BACKUP_PATH}/*
chmod 600 ${BACKUP_PATH} / * . l d i f

Note
These files are uncompressed text files containing everything in your directory including the tree
layout, usernames, and every password. So, you might want to consider making /export/backup
an encrypted partition and even having the script encrypt those files as it creates them. Ideally
you should do both, but that depends on your security requirements.
Then, it is just a matter of having a cron script to run this program as often as you feel comfortable with.
For many, once a day suffices. For others, more often is required. Here is an example of a cron script called
/etc/cron.d/ldapbackup that is run every night at 22:45h:
MAILTO=backup−emails@domain . com
45 22 * * * r o o t / u s r / l o c a l / b i n / ldapbackup

Now the files are created, they should be copied to a backup server.
Assuming we did a fresh reinstall of ldap, the restore process could be something like this:
#!/ b i n / bash

s e t −e

BACKUP_PATH=/e x p o r t / backup
SLAPADD=/u s r / s b i n / s l a p a d d

i f [ −n ” $ ( l s − l / var / l i b / l d a p /* 2>/dev / n u l l ) ” −o −n ” $ ( l s − l / e t c / l d a p / s l a p d .
d/* 2>/dev / n u l l ) ” ] ; then
echo Run t h e f o l l o w i n g t o remove t h e e x i s t i n g db :
echo sudo s y s t e m c t l s t o p s l a p d . s e r v i c e
echo sudo rm − r f / e t c / l d a p / s l a p d . d/* / var / l i b / l d a p /*
exit 1
fi
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t o p s l a p d . s e r v i c e | | :
sudo s l a p a d d −F / e t c / l d a p / s l a p d . d −b cn=c o n f i g − l / e x p o r t / backup / c o n f i g . l d i f
sudo s l a p a d d −F / e t c / l d a p / s l a p d . d −b dc=example , dc=com − l / e x p o r t / backup /
example . com . l d i f
sudo chown −R openldap : openldap / e t c / l d a p / s l a p d . d/
sudo chown −R openldap : openldap / var / l i b / l d a p /
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t s l a p d . s e r v i c e

This is a simplistic backup strategy, of course. It’s being shown here as a reference for the basic tooling you
can use for backups and restores.

194
References

• The OpenLDAP administrators guide

• LDAP string representation of search filters

OpenLDAP Replication
The LDAP service becomes increasingly important as more networked systems begin to depend on it. In
such an environment, it is standard practice to build redundancy (high availability) into LDAP to prevent
havoc should the LDAP server become unresponsive. This is done through LDAP replication.
Replication is achieved via the Syncrepl engine. This allows changes to be synchronized using a Consumer -
Provider model. A detailed description this replication mechanism can be found in the OpenLDAP Admin-
istrator’s Guide and in its defining RFC 4533.
There are two ways to use this replication:
• standard replication: changed entries are sent to the consumer in their entirety. For example, if the
userPassword attribute of the uid=john,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com entry changed, then the whole
entry is sent to the consumer
• delta replication: only the actual change is sent, instead of the whole entry
The delta replication sends less data over the network, but is more complex to setup. We will show both in
this guide.
Important
You must have TLS enabled already. Please consult the LDAP with TLS guide

Provider Configuration - replication user

Both replication strategies will need a replication user and updates to the ACLs and limits regarding this
user.
To create the replication user, save the following contents to a file called replicator . ldif :
dn : cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com
objectClass : simpleSecurityObject
objectClass : organizationalRole
cn : r e p l i c a t o r
description : Replication user
userPassword : {CRYPT}x

Then add it with ldapadd:

$ ldapadd −x −ZZ −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com −W −f r e p l i c a t o r . l d i f
Enter LDAP Password :
adding new e n t r y ” cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com”

Now set a password for it with ldappasswd:

$ ldappasswd −x −ZZ −D cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com −W −S cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=
example , dc=com
New password :
Re−e n t e r new password :
Enter LDAP Password :

195
The next step is to give this replication user the correct privileges:
• read access to the content that we want replicated
• no search limits on this content
For that we need to update the ACLs on the provider. Since ordering matters, first check what the existing
ACLs look like on the dc=example,dc=com tree:
$ sudo l d a p s e a r c h −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −LLL −b cn=c o n f i g ’ ( o l c S u f f i x=dc
=example , dc=com ) ’ o l c A c c e s s
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
o l c A c c e s s : {0} t o a t t r s=userPassword by s e l f w r i t e by anonymous auth by * none
o l c A c c e s s : {1} t o a t t r s=shadowLastChange by s e l f w r i t e by * r e a d
o l c A c c e s s : {2} t o * by * r e a d

What we need is to insert a new rule before the first one, and also adjust the limits for the replicator user.
Prepare the replicator −acl−limits. ldif file with this content:
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : o l c A c c e s s
o l c A c c e s s : {0} t o *
by dn . e x a c t=”cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com” r e a d
by * break
−
add : o l c L i m i t s
o l c L i m i t s : dn . e x a c t=”cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com”
time . s o f t=u n l i m i t e d time . hard=u n l i m i t e d
s i z e . s o f t=u n l i m i t e d s i z e . hard=u n l i m i t e d

And add it to the server:

$ sudo l d a pm o d i f y −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f r e p l i c a t o r −a c l −l i m i t s . l d i f
m o d i f y i n g e n t r y ” o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g ”

Provider Configuration - standard replication

The remaining configuration for the provider using standard replication is to add the syncprov overlay on
top of the dc=example,dc=com database.o
Create a file called provider_simple_sync.ldif with this content:
# Add i n d e x e s t o t h e f r o n t e n d db .
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : entryCSN eq
−
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : entryUUID eq

#Load t h e sy n cp r ov module .
dn : cn=module { 0 } , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcModuleLoad
olcModuleLoad : sync p r ov

196
# s y n c r e p l P r o v i d e r f o r primary db
dn : o l c O v e r l a y=syncprov , o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : add
objectClass : olcOverlayConfig
obj ec tCl as s : olcSyncProvConfig
o l c O v e r l a y : s yn cp rov
o l c S p C h e c k p o i n t : 100 10
o l c S p S e s s i o n L o g : 100

Customization warning
The LDIF above has some parameters that you should review before deploying in production on
your directory. In particular:
• olcSpCheckpoint, olcSpSessionLog: please see the slapo-syncprov(5) manpage. In general,
olcSpSessionLog should be equal to, or preferably larger, than the number of entries in your
directory. Also see ITS #8125 for details on an existing bug.
Add the new content:
sudo ldapadd −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f p r o v i d e r _ s i m p l e _ s y n c . l d i f

The Provider is now configured.

Consumer Configuration - standard replication

Install the software by going through Installation. Make sure schemas and the database suffix are the same,
and enable TLS.
Create an LDIF file with the following contents and name it consumer_simple_sync.ldif:
dn : cn=module { 0 } , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcModuleLoad
olcModuleLoad : sync p r ov

dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : entryUUID eq
−
add : o l c S y n c r e p l
o l c S y n c r e p l : r i d =0
p r o v i d e r=l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com
bindmethod=s i m p l e
binddn=”cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com” c r e d e n t i a l s=<s e c r e t >
s e a r c h b a s e =”dc=example , dc=com”
schemachecking=on
type=r e f r e s h A n d P e r s i s t r e t r y =”60 +”
s t a r t t l s= c r i t i c a l t l s _ r e q c e r t=demand
−
add : ol cUp d ateR ef
o lcU p dat e Ref : l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com

Ensure the following attributes have the correct values:

197
 • provider (Provider server’s hostname – ldap01.example.com in this example – or IP address). It must
match what is presented in the provider’s SSL certificate.
• binddn (the bind DN for the replicator user)
• credentials (the password you selected for the replicator user)
• searchbase (the database suffix you’re using, i.e., content that is to be replicated)
• olcUpdateRef (Provider server’s hostname or IP address, given to clients if they try to write to this
consumer)
• rid (Replica ID, an unique 3-digit that identifies the replica. Each consumer should have at least one
rid)
Note
Note that a successful encrypted connection via START_TLS is being enforced in this configu-
ration, to avoid sending the credentials in the clear across the network. See LDAP with TLS for
details on how to setup OpenLDAP with trusted SSL certificates.
Add the new configuration:
sudo ldapadd −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f consumer_simple_sync . l d i f

You’re done. The dc=example,dc=com tree should now be synchronizing.

Provider Configuration - delta replication

The remaining provider configuration for delta replication is:

• create a new database called accesslog
• add the syncprov overlay on top of the accesslog and dc=example,dc=com databases
• add the accesslog overlay on top of the dc=example,dc=com database

Add syncprov and accesslog overlays and DBs

Create an LDIF file with the following contents and name it provider_sync.ldif:
# Add i n d e x e s t o t h e f r o n t e n d db .
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : entryCSN eq
−
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : entryUUID eq

#Load t h e sy n cp r ov and a c c e s s l o g modules .

dn : cn=module { 0 } , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcModuleLoad
olcModuleLoad : sync p r ov
−
add : olcModuleLoad
olcModuleLoad : a c c e s s l o g

# Accesslog database d e f i n i t i o n s

198
dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={2}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
objectClass : olcDatabaseConfig
o b j e c t C l a s s : olcMdbConfig
o l c D a t a b a s e : {2}mdb
o l c D b D i r e c t o r y : / var / l i b / l d a p / a c c e s s l o g
o l c S u f f i x : cn=a c c e s s l o g
olcRootDN : cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com
olcDbIndex : d e f a u l t eq
olcDbIndex : entryCSN , o b j e c t C l a s s , reqEnd , r e q R e s u l t , r e q S t a r t
o l c A c c e s s : {0} t o * by dn . e x a c t=”cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com” r e a d by *
break
o l c L i m i t s : dn . e x a c t=”cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com”
time . s o f t=u n l i m i t e d time . hard=u n l i m i t e d
s i z e . s o f t=u n l i m i t e d s i z e . hard=u n l i m i t e d

# A c c e s s l o g db sy n cp r ov .
dn : o l c O v e r l a y=syncprov , o l c D a t a b a s e ={2}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : add
objectClass : olcOverlayConfig
obj ec tCl as s : olcSyncProvConfig
o l c O v e r l a y : s yn cp rov
ol c S p N o P r e s e n t : TRUE
o l c S p R e l o a d H i n t : TRUE

# s y n c r e p l P r o v i d e r f o r primary db
dn : o l c O v e r l a y=syncprov , o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : add
objectClass : olcOverlayConfig
obj ec tCl as s : olcSyncProvConfig
o l c O v e r l a y : s yn cp rov
o l c S p C h e c k p o i n t : 100 10
o l c S p S e s s i o n L o g : 100

# a c c e s s l o g o v e r l a y d e f i n i t i o n s f o r primary db
dn : o l c O v e r l a y=a c c e s s l o g , o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
objectClass : olcOverlayConfig
objectClass : olcAccessLogConfig
olcOverlay : accesslog
olcAccessLogDB : cn=a c c e s s l o g
olcAccessLogOps : w r i t e s
o l c A c c e s s L o g S u c c e s s : TRUE
# s c a n t h e a c c e s s l o g DB e v e r y day , and purge e n t r i e s o l d e r than 7 days
o l c A c c e s s L o g P u r g e : 07+00:00 01+00:00

Customization warning
The LDIF above has some parameters that you should review before deploying in production on
your directory. In particular:
• olcSpCheckpoint, olcSpSessionLog: please see the slapo-syncprov(5) manpage. In general,
olcSpSessionLog should be equal to, or preferably larger, than the number of entries in your
directory. Also see ITS #8125 for details on an existing bug.
• olcAccessLogPurge: check the slapo-accesslog(5) manpage
Create a directory:

199
sudo −u openldap mkdir / var / l i b / l d a p / a c c e s s l o g

Add the new content:

sudo ldapadd −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f p r o v i d e r _ s y n c . l d i f

The Provider is now configured.

Consumer Configuration

Install the software by going through Installation. Make sure schemas and the database suffix are the same,
and enable TLS.
Create an LDIF file with the following contents and name it consumer_sync.ldif:
dn : cn=module { 0 } , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcModuleLoad
olcModuleLoad : sync p r ov

dn : o l c D a t a b a s e ={1}mdb , cn=c o n f i g
changetype : modify
add : olcDbIndex
olcDbIndex : entryUUID eq
−
add : o l c S y n c r e p l
o l c S y n c r e p l : r i d =0
p r o v i d e r=l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com
bindmethod=s i m p l e
binddn=”cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com” c r e d e n t i a l s=<s e c r e t >
s e a r c h b a s e =”dc=example , dc=com”
l o g b a s e =”cn=a c c e s s l o g ”
l o g f i l t e r =”(&( o b j e c t C l a s s=a u d i t W r i t e O b j e c t ) ( r e q R e s u l t =0) ) ”
schemachecking=on
type=r e f r e s h A n d P e r s i s t r e t r y =”60 +”
s y n c d a t a=a c c e s s l o g
s t a r t t l s= c r i t i c a l t l s _ r e q c e r t=demand
−
add : ol cUp d ateR ef
o lcU p dat e Ref : l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com

Ensure the following attributes have the correct values:

• provider (Provider server’s hostname – ldap01.example.com in this example – or IP address). It must
match what is presented in the provider’s SSL certificate.
• binddn (the bind DN for the replicator user)
• credentials (the password you selected for the replicator user)
• searchbase (the database suffix you’re using, i.e., content that is to be replicated)
• olcUpdateRef (Provider server’s hostname or IP address, given to clients if they try to write to this
consumer)
• rid (Replica ID, an unique 3-digit that identifies the replica. Each consumer should have at least one
rid)

200
 Note
Note that a successful encrypted connection via START_TLS is being enforced in this configu-
ration, to avoid sending the credentials in the clear across the network. See LDAP with TLS for
details on how to setup OpenLDAP with trusted SSL certificates.
Add the new configuration:
sudo ldapadd −Q −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f consumer_sync . l d i f

You’re done. The dc=example,dc=com tree should now be synchronizing.

Testing

Once replication starts, you can monitor it by running

$ l d a p s e a r c h −z1 −LLL −x −s b a s e −b dc=example , dc=com contextCSN
dn : dc=example , dc=com
contextCSN : 2 0 2 0 0 4 2 3 2 2 2 3 1 7 . 7 2 2 6 6 7 Z#000000#000#000000

on both the provider and the consumer. Once the contextCSN value for both match, both trees are in sync.
Every time a change is done in the provider, this value will change and so should the one in the consumer(s).
If your connection is slow and/or your ldap database large, it might take a while for the consumer’s con-
textCSN match the provider’s. But, you will know it is progressing since the consumer’s contextCSN will be
steadly increasing.
If the consumer’s contextCSN is missing or does not match the provider, you should stop and figure out
the issue before continuing. Try checking the slapd entries in /var/log/syslog in the provider to see if the
consumer’s authentication requests were successful or its requests to retrieve data return no errors. In
particular, verify that you can connect to the provider from the consumer as the replicator binddn using
START_TLS:
ldapwhoami −x −ZZ −D cn=r e p l i c a t o r , dc=example , dc=com −W −h l d a p 0 1 . example . com

For our example, you should now see the john user in the replicated tree:
$ l d a p s e a r c h −x −LLL −b dc=example , dc=com −h l d a p 0 2 . example . com ’ ( u i d=john ) ’
uid
dn : u i d=john , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
u i d : john

References

• Replication types, OpenLDAP Administrator’s Guide

• LDAP Sync Replication - OpenLDAP Administrator’s Guide
• RFC 4533.

LDAP Workstation Authentication

Once you have a working LDAP server, you will need to install libraries on the client that will know how
and when to contact it. On Ubuntu, this has been traditionally accomplished by installing the libnss-ldap
package, but nowadays you should use SSSD. Please refer to Service - SSSD.

201
User and Group Management - ldapscripts

Another very common usage case for having an LDAP server is to store unix user and group information in
the directory. There are many tools out there, but usually big deployments will have developed their own.
Here we will briefly show how to use the ldapscripts package for an easy and quick way to start storing user
and group information in OpenLDAP.
Install the package:
sudo apt i n s t a l l l d a p s c r i p t s

Then edit the file /etc/ldapscripts/ldapscripts .conf to arrive at something similar to the following:
SERVER=l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com
LDAPBINOPTS=”−ZZ”
BINDDN=’ cn=admin , dc=example , dc=com ’
BINDPWDFILE=”/ e t c / l d a p s c r i p t s / l d a p s c r i p t s . passwd ”
SUFFIX=’ dc=example , dc=com ’
GSUFFIX=’ou=Groups ’
USUFFIX=’ou=People ’
MSUFFIX=’ou=Computers ’

Note
• Adjust SERVER and related SUFFIX options to suit your directory structure.
• Note we are forcing START_TLS usage here (-ZZ parameter), please refer to LDAP with
TLS for details on how to set the server up with TLS support
Store the cn=admin password in the /etc/ldapscripts/ldapscripts .passwd file and make sure it’s only read-
able by the root local user:
$ sudo chmod 400 / e t c / l d a p s c r i p t s / l d a p s c r i p t s . passwd

The scripts are now ready to help manage your directory. Here are some examples of how to use them:
• Create a new user:
sudo ldapaddgroup g e o r g e
sudo l d a p a d d u s e r g e o r g e g e o r g e

This will create a group and user with name george and set the user’s primary group (gid) to george
• Change a user’s password:
$ sudo l d a p s e t p a s s w d g e o r g e
Changing password f o r u s e r u i d=g e o r g e , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
New Password :
Retype New Password :
S u c c e s s f u l l y s e t password f o r u s e r u i d=g e o r g e , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com

• Delete a user:
sudo l d a p d e l e t e u s e r g e o r g e

> ** Note **
>
> This won ’ t d e l e t e t h e u s e r ’ s primary group , but w i l l remove t h e u s e r
from supplementary o n e s .

• Add a group:

202
 sudo ldapaddgroup qa

• Delete a group:
sudo l d a p d e l e t e g r o u p qa

• Add a user to a group:

sudo l d a p a d d u s e r t o g r o u p g e o r g e qa

You should now see a memberUid attribute for the qa group with a value of george.
• Remove a user from a group:
sudo l d a p d e l e t e u s e r f r o m g r o u p g e o r g e qa

The memberUid attribute should now be removed from the qa group.

• The ldapmodifyuser script allows you to add, remove, or replace a user’s attributes. The script uses
the same syntax as the ldapmodify utility. For example:
sudo l d a p m o d i f y u s e r g e o r g e
# About t o modify t h e f o l l o w i n g e n t r y :
dn : u i d=g e o r g e , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
o b j e c t C l a s s : account
o b j e c t C l a s s : p os i xAc co unt
cn : g e o r g e
uid : george
uidNumber : 10001
gidNumber : 10001
homeDirectory : /home/ g e o r g e
l o g i n S h e l l : / b i n / bash
gecos : george
d e s c r i p t i o n : User a c c o u n t
userPassword : : e1NTSEF9eXFsTFcyWlhwWkF1eGUybVdFWHZKRzJVMjFTSG9vcHk=

# Enter your m o d i f i c a t i o n s here , end with CTRL−D.

dn : u i d=g e o r g e , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
replace : gecos
g e c o s : George C a r l i n

The user’s gecos should now be “George Carlin”.

• A nice feature of ldapscripts is the template system. Templates allow you to customize the attributes
of user, group, and machine objects. For example, to enable the user template edit /etc/ldapscripts/
ldapscripts .conf changing:
UTEMPLATE=”/ e t c / l d a p s c r i p t s / l d a p a d d u s e r . t e m p l a t e ”

There are sample templates in the /usr/share/doc/ldapscripts/examples directory. Copy or rename

the ldapadduser.template.sample file to /etc/ldapscripts/ldapadduser.template:
sudo cp / u s r / s h a r e / doc / l d a p s c r i p t s / examples / l d a p a d d u s e r . t e m p l a t e . sample \
/ etc / l d a p s c r i p t s / ldapadduser . template

Edit the new template to add the desired attributes. The following will create new users with an
objectClass of inetOrgPerson:

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 dn : u i d=<u s e r >,< u s u f f i x >,< s u f f i x >
o b j e c t C l a s s : inetOrgPerson
o b j e c t C l a s s : p os i xAc co unt
cn : <u s e r >
sn : <ask>
u i d : <u s e r >
uidNumber : <uid>
gidNumber : <gid>
homeDirectory : <home>
l o g i n S h e l l : <s h e l l >
g e c o s : <u s e r >
d e s c r i p t i o n : User a c c o u n t
t i t l e : Employee

Notice the <ask> option used for the sn attribute. This will make ldapadduser prompt you for its
value.
There are utilities in the package that were not covered here. This command will output a list:
dpkg −L l d a p s c r i p t s | g r e p / u s r / s b i n

Resources

• The primary resource is the upstream documentation: www.openldap.org

• Zytrax’s LDAP for Rocket Scientists; a less pedantic but comprehensive treatment of LDAP
• A Ubuntu community OpenLDAP wiki page has a collection of notes
• O’Reilly’s LDAP System Administration (textbook; 2003)
• Packt’s Mastering OpenLDAP (textbook; 2007)

LDAP & TLS

When authenticating to an OpenLDAP server it is best to do so using an encrypted session. This can be
accomplished using Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Here, we will be our own Certificate Authority and then create and sign our LDAP server certificate as that
CA. This guide will use the certtool utility to complete these tasks. For simplicity, this is being done on the
OpenLDAP server itself, but your real internal CA should be elsewhere.
Install the gnutls-bin and ssl-cert packages:
sudo apt i n s t a l l g n u t l s −b i n s s l −c e r t

Create a private key for the Certificate Authority:

sudo c e r t t o o l −−g e n e r a t e −p r i v k e y −−b i t s 4096 −− o u t f i l e / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e /
mycakey . pem

Create the template/file /etc/ ssl /ca. info to define the CA:
cn = Example Company
ca
cert_signing_key
e x p i r a t i o n _ d a y s = 3650

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Create the self-signed CA certificate:
sudo c e r t t o o l −−g e n e r a t e −s e l f −s i g n e d \
−−load −p r i v k e y / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e /mycakey . pem \
−−t e m p l a t e / e t c / s s l / ca . i n f o \
−− o u t f i l e / u s r / l o c a l / s h a r e / ca− c e r t i f i c a t e s / mycacert . c r t

Note
Yes, the –outfile path is correct, we are writing the CA certificate to /usr/local/share/ca-
certificates. This is where update-ca-certificates will pick up trusted local CAs from. To pick up
CAs from /usr/share/ca-certificates, a call to dpkg−reconfigure ca−certificates is necessary.
Run update−ca−certificates to add the new CA certificate to the list of trusted CAs. Note the one added
CA:
$ sudo update−ca− c e r t i f i c a t e s
Updating c e r t i f i c a t e s i n / e t c / s s l / c e r t s . . .
1 added , 0 removed ; done .
Running hooks i n / e t c / ca− c e r t i f i c a t e s / update . d . . .
done .

This also creates a /etc/ ssl /certs/mycacert.pem symlink pointing to the real file in /usr/local/share/ca−
certificates .
Make a private key for the server:
sudo c e r t t o o l −−g e n e r a t e −p r i v k e y \
−−b i t s 2048 \
−− o u t f i l e / e t c / l d a p / ldap01_slapd_key . pem

Note
Replace ldap01 in the filename with your server’s hostname. Naming the certificate and key for
the host and service that will be using them will help keep things clear.
Create the /etc/ ssl /ldap01.info info file containing:
o r g a n i z a t i o n = Example Company
cn = l d a p 0 1 . example . com
tls_www_server
en cr y pt io n_ ke y
signing_key
e x p i r a t i o n _ d a y s = 365

The above certificate is good for 1 year, and it’s valid only for the ldap01.example.com hostname. Adjust
accordingly.
Create the server’s certificate:
sudo c e r t t o o l −−g e n e r a t e − c e r t i f i c a t e \
−−load −p r i v k e y / e t c / l d a p / ldap01_slapd_key . pem \
−−load −ca− c e r t i f i c a t e / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / mycacert . pem \
−−load −ca−p r i v k e y / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e /mycakey . pem \
−−t e m p l a t e / e t c / s s l / l d a p 0 1 . i n f o \
−− o u t f i l e / e t c / l d a p / l d a p 0 1 _ s l a p d _ c e r t . pem

Adjust permissions and ownership:

sudo chgrp openldap / e t c / l d a p / ldap01_slapd_key . pem
sudo chmod 0640 / e t c / l d a p / ldap01_slapd_key . pem

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Your server is now ready to accept the new TLS configuration.
Create the file certinfo . ldif with the following contents (adjust paths and filenames accordingly):
dn : cn=c o n f i g
add : o l c T L S C A C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e
o l c T L S C A C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e : / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / mycacert . pem
−
add : o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e
o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e : / e t c / l d a p / l d a p 0 1 _ s l a p d _ c e r t . pem
−
add : o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e K e y F i l e
o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e K e y F i l e : / e t c / l d a p / ldap01_slapd_key . pem

Use the ldapmodify command to tell slapd about our TLS work via the slapd-config database:
sudo l d a pm o d i f y −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f c e r t i n f o . l d i f

Contratry to popular belief, you do not need ldaps:// in /etc/default/slapd in order to use encryption. You
should have just:
SLAPD_SERVICES=”l d a p : / / / l d a p i : / / / ”

Note
LDAP over TLS/SSL (ldaps://) is deprecated in favour of StartTLS. The latter refers to an
existing LDAP session (listening on TCP port 389) becoming protected by TLS/SSL whereas
LDAPS, like HTTPS, is a distinct encrypted-from-the-start protocol that operates over TCP
port 636.
Certificate for an OpenLDAP replica
To generate a certificate pair for an OpenLDAP replica (consumer), create a holding directory (which will
be used for the eventual transfer) and:
mkdir ldap02−s s l
cd ldap02−s s l
c e r t t o o l −−g e n e r a t e −p r i v k e y \
−−b i t s 2048 \
−− o u t f i l e ldap02_slapd_key . pem

Create an info file, ldap02.info, for the Consumer server, adjusting its values accordingly:
o r g a n i z a t i o n = Example Company
cn = l d a p 0 2 . example . com
tls_www_server
en cr y pt io n_ ke y
signing_key
e x p i r a t i o n _ d a y s = 365

Create the Consumer’s certificate:

sudo c e r t t o o l −−g e n e r a t e − c e r t i f i c a t e \
−−load −p r i v k e y ldap02_slapd_key . pem \
−−load −ca− c e r t i f i c a t e / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / mycacert . pem \
−−load −ca−p r i v k e y / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e /mycakey . pem \
−−t e m p l a t e l d a p 0 2 . i n f o \
−− o u t f i l e l d a p 0 2 _ s l a p d _ c e r t . pem

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 Note
We had to use sudo to get access to the CA’s private key. This means the generated certificate
file is owned by root. You should change that ownership back to your regular user before copying
these files over to the Consumer.
Get a copy of the CA certificate:
cp / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / mycacert . pem .

We’re done. Now transfer the ldap02−ssl directory to the Consumer. Here we use scp (adjust accordingly):
cd . .
s c p −r ldap02−s s l user@consumer :

On the Consumer side, install the certificate files you just transferred:
sudo cp l d a p 0 2 _ s l a p d _ c e r t . pem ldap02_slapd_key . pem / e t c / l d a p
sudo chgrp openldap / e t c / l d a p / ldap02_slapd_key . pem
sudo chmod 0640 / e t c / l d a p / ldap02_slapd_key . pem
sudo cp mycacert . pem / u s r / l o c a l / s h a r e / ca− c e r t i f i c a t e s / mycacert . c r t
sudo update−ca− c e r t i f i c a t e s

Create the file certinfo . ldif with the following contents (adjust accordingly regarding paths and filenames,
if needed):
dn : cn=c o n f i g
add : o l c T L S C A C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e
o l c T L S C A C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e : / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / mycacert . pem
−
add : o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e
o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e F i l e : / e t c / l d a p / l d a p 0 2 _ s l a p d _ c e r t . pem
−
add : o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e K e y F i l e
o l c T L S C e r t i f i c a t e K e y F i l e : / e t c / l d a p / ldap02_slapd_key . pem

Configure the slapd-config database:

sudo l d a pm o d i f y −Y EXTERNAL −H l d a p i : / / / −f c e r t i n f o . l d i f

Test:
$ ldapwhoami −x −ZZ −h l d a p 0 2 . example . com
anonymous

Network File System (NFS)

NFS allows a system to share directories and files with others over a network. By using NFS, users and
programs can access files on remote systems almost as if they were local files.
Some of the most notable benefits that NFS can provide are:
• Local workstations use less disk space because commonly used data can be stored on a single machine
and still remain accessible to others over the network.
• There is no need for users to have separate home directories on every network machine. Home directories
could be set up on the NFS server and made available throughout the network.

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 • Storage devices such as floppy disks, CDROM drives, and USB Thumb drives can be used by other
machines on the network. This may reduce the number of removable media drives throughout the
network.

Installation

At a terminal prompt enter the following command to install the NFS Server:
sudo apt i n s t a l l n f s −k e r n e l −s e r v e r

To start the NFS server, you can run the following command at a terminal prompt:
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t n f s −k e r n e l −s e r v e r . s e r v i c e

Configuration

You can configure the directories to be exported by adding them to the /etc/exports file. For example:
/ srv * ( ro , sync , s u b t r e e _ c h e c k )
/home * . hostname . com ( rw , sync , no_subtree_check )
/ s c r a t c h * ( rw , async , no_subtree_check , no_root_squash , noexec )

Make sure any custom mount points you’re adding have been created (/srv and /home will already exist):
sudo mkdir / s c r a t c h

Apply the new config via:

sudo e x p o r t f s −a

You can replace * with one of the hostname formats. Make the hostname declaration as specific as possible
so unwanted systems cannot access the NFS mount. Be aware that *.hostname.com will matchfoo.hostname
.com but not foo.bar.my−domain.com.
The sync/async options control whether changes are gauranteed to be committed to stable storage before
replying to requests. async thus gives a performance benefit but risks data loss or corruption. Even though
sync is the default, it’s worth setting since exportfs will issue a warning if it’s left unspecified.
subtree_check and no_subtree_check enables or disables a security verification that subdirectories a client
attempts to mount for an exported filesystem are ones they’re permitted to do so. This verification step
has some performance implications for some use cases, such as home directories with frequent file renames.
Read-only filesystems are more suitable to enable subtree_check on. Like with sync, exportfs will warn if
it’s left unspecified.
There are a number of optional settings for NFS mounts for tuning performance, tightening security, or
providing conveniences. These settings each have their own trade-offs so it is important to use them with
care, only as needed for the particular use case. no_root_squash, for example, adds a convenience to
allow root-owned files to be modified by any client system’s root user; in a multi-user environment where
executables are allowed on a shared mount point, this could lead to security problems. noexec prevents
executables from running from the mount point.

NFS Client Configuration

To enable NFS support on a client system, enter the following command at the terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l n f s −common

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Use the mount command to mount a shared NFS directory from another machine, by typing a command
line similar to the following at a terminal prompt:
sudo mkdir / opt / example
sudo mount example . hostname . com : / s r v / opt / example

Warning
The mount point directory /opt/example must exist. There should be no files or subdirecto-
ries in the /opt/example directory, else they will become inaccessible until the nfs filesystem is
unmounted.
An alternate way to mount an NFS share from another machine is to add a line to the /etc/fstab file. The
line must state the hostname of the NFS server, the directory on the server being exported, and the directory
on the local machine where the NFS share is to be mounted.
The general syntax for the line in /etc/fstab file is as follows:
example . hostname . com : / s r v / opt / example n f s r s i z e =8192 , w s i z e =8192 , timeo =14 , i n t r

References

Linux NFS wiki Linux NFS faq

Ubuntu Wiki NFS Howto Ubuntu Wiki NFSv4 Howto

OpenSSH Server

Introduction

Openssh is a powerful collection of tools for the remote control of, and transfer of data between, networked
computers. You will also learn about some of the configuration settings possible with the OpenSSH server
application and how to change them on your Ubuntu system.
OpenSSH is a freely available version of the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol family of tools for remotely con-
trolling, or transferring files between, computers. Traditional tools used to accomplish these functions, such
as telnet or rcp, are insecure and transmit the user’s password in cleartext when used. OpenSSH provides
a server daemon and client tools to facilitate secure, encrypted remote control and file transfer operations,
effectively replacing the legacy tools.
The OpenSSH server component, sshd, listens continuously for client connections from any of the client tools.
When a connection request occurs, sshd sets up the correct connection depending on the type of client tool
connecting. For example, if the remote computer is connecting with the ssh client application, the OpenSSH
server sets up a remote control session after authentication. If a remote user connects to an OpenSSH server
with scp, the OpenSSH server daemon initiates a secure copy of files between the server and client after
authentication. OpenSSH can use many authentication methods, including plain password, public key, and
Kerberos tickets.

Installation

Installation of the OpenSSH client and server applications is simple. To install the OpenSSH client applica-
tions on your Ubuntu system, use this command at a terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l openssh−c l i e n t

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To install the OpenSSH server application, and related support files, use this command at a terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l openssh−s e r v e r

Configuration

You may configure the default behavior of the OpenSSH server application, sshd, by editing the file /etc
/ssh/sshd_config. For information about the configuration directives used in this file, you may view the
appropriate manual page with the following command, issued at a terminal prompt:
man s s h d _ c o n f i g

There are many directives in the sshd configuration file controlling such things as communication settings,
and authentication modes. The following are examples of configuration directives that can be changed by
editing the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file.
Tip
Prior to editing the configuration file, you should make a copy of the original file and protect it
from writing so you will have the original settings as a reference and to reuse as necessary.
Copy the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and protect it from writing with the following commands,
issued at a terminal prompt:
sudo cp / e t c / s s h / s s h d _ c o n f i g / e t c / s s h / s s h d _ c o n f i g . o r i g i n a l
sudo chmod a−w / e t c / s s h / s s h d _ c o n f i g . o r i g i n a l

Furthermore since losing an ssh server might mean losing your way to reach a server, check the configuration
after changing it and before restarting the server:
sudo ssh d −t −f / e t c / s s h / s s h d _ c o n f i g

The following are examples of configuration directives you may change:

• To set your OpenSSH to listen on TCP port 2222 instead of the default TCP port 22, change the Port
directive as such:
Port 2222
• To make your OpenSSH server display the contents of the /etc/issue .net file as a pre-login banner,
simply add or modify this line in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file:
Banner /etc/issue.net
After making changes to the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, save the file, and restart the sshd server application
to effect the changes using the following command at a terminal prompt:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t sshd . s e r v i c e

Warning
Many other configuration directives for sshd are available to change the server application’s
behavior to fit your needs. Be advised, however, if your only method of access to a server is
ssh, and you make a mistake in configuring sshd via the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file, you may find
you are locked out of the server upon restarting it. Additionally, if an incorrect configuration
directive is supplied, the sshd server may refuse to start, so be extra careful when editing this
file on a remote server.

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SSH Keys

SSH allow authentication between two hosts without the need of a password. SSH key authentication uses
a private key and a public key.
To generate the keys, from a terminal prompt enter:
ssh−keygen −t r s a

This will generate the keys using the RSA Algorithm. During the process you will be prompted for a password.
Simply hit Enter when prompted to create the key.
By default the public key is saved in the file ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, while ~/.ssh/id_rsa is the private key. Now
copy the id_rsa.pub file to the remote host and append it to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys by entering:
ssh−copy−i d username@remotehost

Finally, double check the permissions on the authorized_keys file, only the authenticated user should have
read and write permissions. If the permissions are not correct change them by:
chmod 600 . s s h / a u t h o r i z e d _ k e y s

You should now be able to SSH to the host without being prompted for a password.

Import keys from public keyservers

These days many users have already ssh keys registered with services like launchpad or github. Those can
be easily imported with:
ssh−import−i d <username−on−remote−s e r v i c e >

The prefix lp : is implied and means fetching from launchpad, the alternative gh: will make the tool fetch
from github instead.

Two factor authentication with U2F/FIDO

OpenSSH 8.2 added support for U2F/FIDO hardware authentication devices. These devices are used to
provide an extra layer of security on top of the existing key-based authentication, as the hardware token
needs to be present to finish the authentication.
It’s very simple to use and setup. The only extra step is generate a new keypair that can be used with the
hardware device. For that, there are two key types that can be used: ecdsa−sk and ed25519−sk. The former
has broader hardware support, while the latter might need a more recent device.
Once the keypair is generated, it can be used as you would normally use any other type of key in openssh.
The only requirement is that in order to use the private key, the U2F device has to be present on the host.
For example, plug the U2F device in and generate a keypair to use with it:
$ ssh−keygen −t ecdsa−sk
G e n e r a t i n g p u b l i c / p r i v a t e ecdsa −sk key p a i r .
You may need t o touch your a u t h e n t i c a t o r t o a u t h o r i z e key g e n e r a t i o n . <−−
touch d e v i c e
Enter f i l e i n which t o s a v e t h e key ( / home/ ubuntu / . s s h / id_ecdsa_sk ) :
Enter p a s s p h r a s e ( empty f o r no p a s s p h r a s e ) :
Enter same p a s s p h r a s e a g a i n :
Your i d e n t i f i c a t i o n has been saved i n /home/ ubuntu / . s s h / id_ecdsa_sk

211
Your p u b l i c key has been saved i n /home/ ubuntu / . s s h / id_ecdsa_sk . pub
The key f i n g e r p r i n t i s :
SHA256 : V9PQ1MqaU8FODXdHqDiH9Mxb8XK3o5aVYDQLVl9IFRo ubuntu@focal

Now just transfer the public part to the server to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and you are ready to go:
$ s s h − i . s s h / id_ecdsa_sk ubuntu@focal . s e r v e r
Confirm u s e r p r e s e n c e f o r key ECDSA−SK SHA256 :
V9PQ1MqaU8FODXdHqDiH9Mxb8XK3o5aVYDQLVl9IFRo <−− touch d e v i c e
Welcome t o Ubuntu F o c a l Fossa (GNU/ Linux 5.4.0 −21 − g e n e r i c x86_64 )
(...)
ubuntu@focal . s e r v e r : ~ $

References

• Ubuntu Wiki SSH page.

• OpenSSH Website
• OpenSSH 8.2 release notes
• Advanced OpenSSH Wiki Page

VPN
OpenVPN is a Virtual Private Networking (VPN) solution provided in the Ubuntu Repositories. It is flexible,
reliable and secure. It belongs to the family of SSL/TLS VPN stacks (different from IPSec VPNs). This
chapter will cover installing and configuring OpenVPN to create a VPN.

OpenVPN
If you want more than just pre-shared keys OpenVPN makes it easy to setup and use a Public Key Infras-
tructure (PKI) to use SSL/TLS certificates for authentication and key exchange between the VPN server
and clients. OpenVPN can be used in a routed or bridged VPN mode and can be configured to use either
UDP or TCP. The port number can be configured as well, but port 1194 is the official one. And it is only
using that single port for all communication. VPN client implementations are available for almost anything
including all Linux distributions, OS X, Windows and OpenWRT based WLAN routers.

Server Installation

To install openvpn in a terminal enter:

sudo apt i n s t a l l openvpn easy−r s a

Public Key Infrastructure Setup

The first step in building an OpenVPN configuration is to establish a PKI (public key infrastructure). The
PKI consists of:
• a separate certificate (also known as a public key) and private key for the server and each client, and

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 • a master Certificate Authority (CA) certificate and key which is used to sign each of the server and
client certificates.
OpenVPN supports bidirectional authentication based on certificates, meaning that the client must authen-
ticate the server certificate and the server must authenticate the client certificate before mutual trust is
established.
Both server and client will authenticate the other by first verifying that the presented certificate was signed
by the master certificate authority (CA), and then by testing information in the now-authenticated certificate
header, such as the certificate common name or certificate type (client or server).

Certificate Authority Setup

To setup your own Certificate Authority (CA) and generating certificates and keys for an OpenVPN server
and multiple clients first copy the easy−rsa directory to /etc/openvpn. This will ensure that any changes to
the scripts will not be lost when the package is updated. From a terminal change to user root and:
sudo make−c a d i r / e t c / openvpn / easy−r s a

Note: If you want you can - instead of doing so interactively - edit /etc/openvpn/easy−rsa/vars adjusting
it to your needs.
Change to the newly created directory /etc/openvpn/easy−rsa and run:
. / e a s y r s a i n i t −p k i
. / e a s y r s a b u i l d −ca

Server Keys and Certificates

Next, we will generate a key pair for the server:

. / e a s y r s a gen−r e q myservername n o pa s s

Diffie Hellman parameters must be generated for the OpenVPN server. The following will place them in
pki/dh.pem.
. / e a s y r s a gen−dh

And finally a certificate for the server:

. / e a s y r s a gen−r e q myservername n o pa s s
. / e a s y r s a s i g n −r e q s e r v e r myservername

All certificates and keys have been generated in subdirectories. Common practice is to copy them to
/etc/openvpn/:
cp p k i /dh . pem p k i / ca . c r t p k i / i s s u e d / myservername . c r t p k i / p r i v a t e / myservername .
key / e t c / openvpn /

Client Certificates

The VPN client will also need a certificate to authenticate itself to the server. Usually you create a different
certificate for each client.
This can either be done on the server (as the keys and certificates above) and then securely distributed to
the client. Or vice versa the client can generate and submit a request that is sent and signed by the server.
To create the certificate, enter the following in a terminal while being user root:

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. / e a s y r s a gen−r e q m y c l i e n t 1 nop a ss
. / e a s y r s a s i g n −r e q c l i e n t m y c l i e n t 1

If the first command above was done on a remote system get the .req file to the CA server. There you can
then import it via easyrsa import−req /incoming/myclient1.req myclient1. Then you can go on with the
second sign−eq command.
In both cases, afterwards copy the following files to the client using a secure method:
• pki/ca.crt
• pki/issued/myclient1.crt
As the client certificates and keys are only required on the client machine, you can remove them from the
server.

Simple Server Configuration

Along with your OpenVPN installation you got these sample config files (and many more if you check):
r o o t @ s e r v e r :/# l s − l / u s r / s h a r e / doc / openvpn / examples / sample−c o n f i g − f i l e s /
t o t a l 68
−rw−r−−r−− 1 r o o t r o o t 3427 2011−07−04 1 5 : 0 9 c l i e n t . c o n f
−rw−r−−r−− 1 r o o t r o o t 4141 2011−07−04 1 5 : 0 9 s e r v e r . c o n f . gz

Start with copying and unpacking server.conf.gz to /etc/openvpn/server.conf.

sudo cp / u s r / s h a r e / doc / openvpn / examples / sample−c o n f i g − f i l e s / s e r v e r . c o n f . gz /
e t c / openvpn / myserver . c o n f . gz
sudo g z i p −d / e t c / openvpn / myserver . c o n f . gz

Edit /etc/openvpn/myserver.conf to make sure the following lines are pointing to the certificates and keys
you created in the section above.
ca ca . c r t
c e r t myservername . c r t
key myservername . key
dh dh2048 . pem

Complete this set with a ta key in etc/openvpn for tls-auth like:

sudo openvpn −−genkey −−s e c r e t t a . key

Edit /etc/ sysctl .conf and uncomment the following line to enable IP forwarding.
#n e t . i p v 4 . ip_forward=1

Then reload sysctl.

sudo s y s c t l −p / e t c / s y s c t l . c o n f

That is the minimum you have to configure to get a working OpenVPN server. You can use all the default
settings in the sample server.conf file. Now start the server.
Be aware that the “systemctl start openvpn” is not starting your openvpn you just defined. Openvpn
uses templatized systemd jobs, openvpn@CONFIGFILENAME. So if for example your configuration file
is myserver.conf your service is called openvpn@myserver. You can run all kind of service and systemctl
commands like start/stop/enable/disable/preset against a templatized service like openvpn@server.
$ sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t openvpn@myserver

214
You will find logging and error messages in your via journal. If you started a templatized service open-
vpn@server you can filter for this particular message source with:
sudo j o u r n a l c t l −u openvpn@myserver −xe

The same templatized approach works for all of systemctl:

$ sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a t u s openvpn@myserver
openvpn@myserver . s e r v i c e − OpenVPN c o n n e c t i o n t o myserver
Loaded : l o a d e d ( / l i b / systemd / system /openvpn@ . s e r v i c e ; d i s a b l e d ; vendor
pres et : enabled )
A c t i v e : a c t i v e ( r u n ni n g ) s i n c e Thu 2019−10−24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 5 UTC; 10 s ago
Docs : man : openvpn ( 8 )
h t t p s : / / community . openvpn . n e t / openvpn / w i k i /Openvpn24ManPage
h t t p s : / / community . openvpn . n e t / openvpn / w i k i /HOWTO
Main PID : 4138 ( openvpn )
S t a t u s : ” I n i t i a l i z a t i o n Sequence Completed ”
Tasks : 1 ( l i m i t : 5 3 3 )
Memory : 1 . 0M
CGroup : / system . s l i c e / system−openvpn . s l i c e / openvpn@myserver . s e r v i c e ��
4138 / u s r / s b i n / openvpn −−daemon ovpn−myserver −−s t a t u s / run / openvpn
/ myserver . s t a t u s 10 −−cd / e t c / openvpn −−s c r i p t −s e c u r i t y 2 −−
c o n f i g / e t c / openvpn / myserver . c o n f −−w r i t e p i d / run /

Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : / s b i n / i p addr add dev

tun0 l o c a l 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1 p e e r 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 2
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : / s b i n / i p r o u t e add
10.8.0.0/24 via 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 2
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : Could not d e t e r m i n e IPv4 /
IPv6 p r o t o c o l . Using AF_INET
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : Socket B u f fe r s : R
=[212992 − >212992] S=[212992 − >212992]
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : UDPv4 l i n k l o c a l ( bound ) :
[ AF_INET ] [ undef ] : 1 1 9 4
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : UDPv4 l i n k remote : [
AF_UNSPEC]
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : MULTI: m u l t i _ i n i t c a l l e d ,
r =256 v=256
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : IFCONFIG POOL: b a s e
= 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 4 s i z e =62 , i p v 6=0
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : IFCONFIG POOL LIST
Oct 24 1 0 : 5 9 : 2 6 eoan−vpn−s e r v e r ovpn−myserver [ 4 1 3 8 ] : I n i t i a l i z a t i o n Sequence
Completed

You can enable/disable various openvpn services on one system, but you could also let Ubuntu it for you.
There is config for AUTOSTARTin /etc/default/openvpn. Allowed values are “all”, “none” or space sepa-
rated list of names of the VPNs. If empty, “all” is assumed. The VPN name refers to the VPN configutation
file name. i.e. home would be /etc/openvpn/home.conf If you’re running systemd, changing this variable will
require running systemctl daemon−reload followed by a restart of the openvpn service (if you removed entries
you may have to stop those manually). After “systemctl daemon-reload” a restart of the “generic” openvpn
will restart all dependent services that the generator in /lib/systemd/system-generators/openvpn-generator
created for your conf files when you called daemon-reload.
Now check if OpenVPN created a tun0 interface:
r o o t @ s e r v e r : / e t c / openvpn# i p addr show dev tun0

215
5 : tun0 : <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP, UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 q d i s c f q _ c o d e l
s t a t e UNKNOWN group d e f a u l t q l e n 100
l i n k / none
i n e t 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1 p e e r 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 2 / 3 2 s c o p e g l o b a l tun0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
i n e t 6 f e 8 0 : : b5ac : 7 8 2 9 : f 3 1 e : 3 2 c5 /64 s c o p e l i n k s t a b l e −p r i v a c y
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Simple Client Configuration

There are various different OpenVPN client implementations with and without GUIs. You can read more
about clients in a later section on VPN Clients. For now we use commandling/service based OpenVPN client
for Ubuntu which is part of the very same package as the server. So you have to install the openvpn package
again on the client machine:
sudo apt i n s t a l l openvpn

This time copy the client.conf sample config file to /etc/openvpn/.

sudo cp / u s r / s h a r e / doc / openvpn / examples / sample−c o n f i g − f i l e s / c l i e n t . c o n f / e t c /
openvpn /

Copy the following client keys and certificate files you created in the section above to e.g. /etc/openvpn/
and edit /etc/openvpn/client.conf to make sure the following lines are pointing to those files. If you have
the files in /etc/openvpn/ you can omit the path.
ca ca . c r t
cert myclient1 . crt
key m y c l i e n t 1 . key
t l s −auth t a . key 1

And you have to specify the OpenVPN server name or address. Make sure the keyword client is in the config.
That’s what enables client mode.
client
remote v p n s e r v e r . example . com 1194

Now start the OpenVPN client with the same templatized mechanism:
$ sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t o p e n v p n @ c l i e n t

You can check status as you did on the server:

$ sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a t u s o p e n v p n @ c l i e n t
o p e n v p n @ c l i e n t . s e r v i c e − OpenVPN c o n n e c t i o n t o c l i e n t
Loaded : l o a d e d ( / l i b / systemd / system /openvpn@ . s e r v i c e ; d i s a b l e d ; vendor
pres et : enabled )
A c t i v e : a c t i v e ( r u n ni n g ) s i n c e Thu 2019−10−24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 5 UTC; 6 s ago
Docs : man : openvpn ( 8 )
h t t p s : / / community . openvpn . n e t / openvpn / w i k i /Openvpn24ManPage
h t t p s : / / community . openvpn . n e t / openvpn / w i k i /HOWTO
Main PID : 3616 ( openvpn )
S t a t u s : ” I n i t i a l i z a t i o n Sequence Completed ”
Tasks : 1 ( l i m i t : 5 3 3 )
Memory : 1 . 3M
CGroup : / system . s l i c e / system−openvpn . s l i c e / o p e n v p n @ c l i e n t . s e r v i c e ��

216
 3616 / u s r / s b i n / openvpn −−daemon ovpn−c l i e n t −−s t a t u s / run / openvpn /
c l i e n t . s t a t u s 10 −−cd / e t c / openvpn −−s c r i p t −s e c u r i t y 2 −−c o n f i g
/ e t c / openvpn / c l i e n t . c o n f −−w r i t e p i d / run / openvp

Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : Outgoing Data Channel :

Cipher ’AES−256−GCM’ i n i t i a l i z e d with 256 b i t key
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : Incoming Data Channel :
Cipher ’AES−256−GCM’ i n i t i a l i z e d with 256 b i t key
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : ROUTE_GATEWAY
1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 / 2 5 5 . 2 5 5 . 2 5 5 . 0 IFACE=e n s 3 HWADDR= 5 2 : 5 4 : 0 0 : 3 c : 5 a : 8 8
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : TUN/TAP d e v i c e tun0 opened
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : TUN/TAP TX queue l e n g t h s e t
t o 100
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : / s b i n / i p l i n k s e t dev tun0
up mtu 1500
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : / s b i n / i p addr add dev tun0
l o c a l 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 6 peer 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 5
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : / s b i n / i p r o u t e add
10.8.0.1/32 via 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 5
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : WARNING: t h i s c o n f i g u r a t i o n
may c a c h e passwords i n memory −− u s e t h e auth−nocache o p t i o n t o p r e v e n t
this
Oct 24 1 1 : 4 2 : 3 6 eoan−vpn−c l i e n t ovpn−c l i e n t [ 3 6 1 6 ] : I n i t i a l i z a t i o n Sequence
Completed

On the server log an incoming connection looks like the following. You can see client name and source
address as well as success/failure messages.
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 TLS : I n i t i a l p a c k e t from [ AF_INET
] 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 , s i d =5e943ab8 40 a b 9 f e d
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 VERIFY OK: depth =1, CN=Easy−RSA CA
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 VERIFY OK: depth =0, CN=m y c l i e n t 1
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_VER= 2 . 4 . 7
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_PLAT=l i n u x
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_PROTO=2
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_NCP=2
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_LZ4=1
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_LZ4v2=1
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_LZO=1
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_COMP_STUB=1
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_COMP_STUBv2=1
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 p e e r i n f o : IV_TCPNL=1
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 C o n t r o l Channel : TLSv1 . 3 , c i p h e r
TLSv1 . 3 TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, 2048 b i t RSA
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 [ m y c l i e n t 1 ] Peer Connection
I n i t i a t e d with [ AF_INET] 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 MULTI_sva : p o o l r e t u r n e d
IPv4 = 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 6 , IPv6=(Not e n a b l e d )
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 MULTI: Learn : 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 6 −>
myclient1 /192.168.122.114:55738
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 MULTI: primary v i r t u a l IP
f o r myclient1 /192.168.122.114:55738: 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 6
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 PUSH: R e c e i v e d c o n t r o l
message : ’PUSH_REQUEST’
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 SENT CONTROL [ m y c l i e n t 1 ] :

217
 ’PUSH_REPLY, r o u t e 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1 , t o p o l o g y net30 , p i n g 1 0 , ping−r e s t a r t 1 2 0 ,
i f c o n f i g 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 6 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 5 , peer−i d 0 , c i p h e r AES−256−GCM’ ( s t a t u s =1)
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 Data Channel : u s i n g
n e g o t i a t e d c i p h e r ’AES−256−GCM’
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 Outgoing Data Channel :
Cipher ’AES−256−GCM’ i n i t i a l i z e d with 256 b i t key
ovpn−myserver [ 4 8 1 8 ] : m y c l i e n t 1 / 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 : 5 5 7 3 8 Incoming Data Channel :
Cipher ’AES−256−GCM’ i n i t i a l i z e d with 256 b i t key

And you can check on the client if it created a tun0 interface:

$ i p addr show dev tun0
4 : tun0 : <POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST,NOARP, UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 q d i s c f q _ c o d e l
s t a t e UNKNOWN group d e f a u l t q l e n 100
l i n k / none
i n e t 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 6 p e e r 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 5 / 3 2 s c o p e g l o b a l tun0
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
i n e t 6 f e 8 0 : : 5 a94 : ae12 : 8 9 0 1 : 5 a75 /64 s c o p e l i n k s t a b l e −p r i v a c y
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Check if you can ping the OpenVPN server:

r o o t @ c l i e n t : / e t c / openvpn# p i n g 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1
PING 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1 ( 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1 ) 5 6 ( 8 4 ) b y t e s o f data .
64 b y t e s from 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1 : icmp_req=1 t t l =64 time =0.920 ms

Note
The OpenVPN server always uses the first usable IP address in the client network and only that
IP is pingable. E.g. if you configured a /24 for the client network mask, the .1 address will
be used. The P-t-P address you see in the ifconfig output above is usually not answering ping
requests.
Check out your routes:
$ ip route
d e f a u l t v i a 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 dev e n s 3 p r o t o dhcp s r c 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 m e t r i c 100
1 0 . 8 . 0 . 1 v i a 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 5 dev tun0
1 0 . 8 . 0 . 5 dev tun0 p r o t o k e r n e l s c o p e l i n k s r c 1 0 . 8 . 0 . 6
1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 0 / 2 4 dev e n s 3 p r o t o k e r n e l s c o p e l i n k s r c 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4
1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 dev e n s 3 p r o t o dhcp s c o p e l i n k s r c 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 2 2 . 1 1 4 m e t r i c 100

First trouble shooting

If the above didn’t work for you, check this:

• Check your journal −xe
• Check that you have specified the keyfile names correctly in client and server conf files
• Can the client connect to the server machine? Maybe a firewall is blocking access? Check journal on
server.
• Client and server must use same protocol and port, e.g. UDP port 1194, see port and proto config
option
• Client and server must use same config regarding compression, see comp-lzo config option
• Client and server must use same config regarding bridged vs routed mode, see server vs server-bridge
config option

218
Advanced configuration

Advanced routed VPN configuration on server

The above is a very simple working VPN. The client can access services on the VPN server machine through
an encrypted tunnel. If you want to reach more servers or anything in other networks, push some routes to
the clients. E.g. if your company’s network can be summarized to the network 192.168.0.0/16, you could
push this route to the clients. But you will also have to change the routing for the way back - your servers
need to know a route to the VPN client-network.
The example config files that we have been using in this guide are full of all these advanced options in the
form of a comment and a disabled configuration line as an example.
Note
Please read the OpenVPN hardening security guide for further security advice.

Advanced bridged VPN configuration on server

OpenVPN can be setup for either a routed or a bridged VPN mode. Sometimes this is also referred to as
OSI layer-2 versus layer-3 VPN. In a bridged VPN all layer-2 frames - e.g. all ethernet frames - are sent to
the VPN partners and in a routed VPN only layer-3 packets are sent to VPN partners. In bridged mode
all traffic including traffic which was traditionally LAN-local like local network broadcasts, DHCP requests,
ARP requests etc. are sent to VPN partners whereas in routed mode this would be filtered.

Prepare interface config for bridging on server First, use netplan to configure a bridge device using
the desired ethernet device.
$ c a t / e t c / n e t p l a n /01− n e t c f g . yaml
network :
version : 2
r e n d e r e r : networkd
ethernets :
enp0s31f6 :
dhcp4 : no
bridges :
br0 :
i n t e r f a c e s : [ enp0s31f6 ]
dhcp4 : no
addresses : [10.0.1.100/24]
gateway4 : 1 0 . 0 . 1 . 1
nameservers :
addresses : [ 1 0 . 0 . 1 . 1 ]

Static IP addressing is highly suggested. DHCP addressing can also work, but you will still have to encode
a static address in the OpenVPN configuration file.
The next step on the server is to configure the ethernet device for promiscuous mode on boot. To do this,
ensure the networkd-dispatcher package is installed and create the following configuration script.
sudo apt update
sudo apt i n s t a l l networkd−d i s p a t c h e r
sudo touch / u s r / l i b / networkd−d i s p a t c h e r / dormant . d/ p r o m i s c _ b r i d g e
sudo chmod +x / u s r / l i b / networkd−d i s p a t c h e r / dormant . d/ p r o m i s c _ b r i d g e

Then add the following contents.

219
#!/ b i n / sh
s e t −e
i f [ ”$IFACE” = br0 ] ; then
# no networkd−d i s p a t c h e r e v e n t f o r ’ c a r r i e r ’ on t h e p h y s i c a l i n t e r f a c e
i p l i n k s e t e n p 0 s 3 1 f 6 up pr o m i sc on
fi

Prepare server config for bridging Edit /etc/openvpn/server.conf to use tap rather than tun and set
the server to use the server-bridge directive:
; dev tun
dev tap
; server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
s e r v e r −b r i d g e 1 0 . 0 . 0 . 4 2 5 5 . 2 5 5 . 2 5 5 . 0 1 0 . 0 . 0 . 1 2 8 1 0 . 0 . 0 . 2 5 4

After configuring the server, restart openvpn by entering:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t openvpn@myserver

Prepare client config for bridging The only difference on the client side for bridged mode to what was
outlined above is that you need to edit /etc/openvpn/client.conf and set tap mode:
dev tap
; dev tun

Finally, restart openvpn:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t o p e n v p n @ c l i e n t

You should now be able to connect to the full remote LAN through the VPN.

References

• EasyRSA
• OpenVPN quick start guide
• Snap’ed version of openvpn easy-openvpn
• Debians OpenVPN Guide

Installing a gitolite server

Gitolite provides a traditional source control management server for git, with multiple users and access rights
management. gitolite can be installed with the following command:
sudo apt i n s t a l l g i t o l i t e 3

Gitolite configuration

Configuration of the gitolite server is a little different that most other servers on Unix-like systems, in that
gitolite stores its configuration in a git repository rather than in files in /etc/. The first step to configuring
a new installation is therefore to allow access to the configuration repository.
First of all, let’s create a user for gitolite to use for the service:

220
sudo a ddu se r −−system −− s h e l l / b i n / bash −−group −−d i s a b l e d −password −−home /
home/ g i t g i t

Now we want to let gitolite know about the repository administrator’s public SSH key. This assumes that the
current user is the repository administrator. If you have not yet configured an SSH key, refer to openssh-keys
in this manual.
cp ~ / . s s h / i d _ r s a . pub /tmp/$ ( whoami ) . pub

Let’s switch to the git user and import the administrator’s key into gitolite.
sudo su − g i t
g l −s e t u p /tmp / * . pub

Gitolite will allow you to make initial changes to its configuration file during the setup process. You can now
clone and modify the gitolite configuration repository from your administrator user (the user whose public
SSH key you imported). Switch back to that user, then clone the configuration repository:
exit
g i t c l o n e git@$IP_ADDRESS : g i t o l i t e −admin . g i t
cd g i t o l i t e −admin

The gitolite-admin contains two subdirectories, “conf” and “keydir”. The configuration files are in the conf
dir, and the keydir directory contains the list of user’s public SSH keys.

Managing gitolite users and repositories

Adding a new user to gitolite is simple: just obtain their public SSH key and add it to the keydir directory
as $DESIRED_USER_NAME.pub. Note that the gitolite usernames don’t have to match the system
usernames - they are only used in the gitolite configuration file to manage access control. Similarly, users
are deleted by deleting their public key files. After each change, do not forget to commit the changes to git,
and push the changes back to the server with
g i t commit −a
g i t push o r i g i n master

Repositories are managed by editing the conf/ gitolite .conf file. The syntax is space separated, and simply
specifies the list of repositories followed by some access rules. The following is a default example
repo g i t o l i t e −admin
RW+ = admin
R = alice

repo project1
RW+ = alice
RW = bob
R = denise

Using your server

Once a user’s public key has been imported by the gitolite admin and authorization granted to the user to
one or more repositories, the user can access repositories with the following command:
g i t c l o n e git@$SERVER_IP :$PROJECT_NAME. g i t

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To add the server as a new remote for an existing git repository:
g i t remote add g i t o l i t e git@$SERVER_IP :$PROJECT_NAME. g i t

References
• Gitolite’s code repository provides access to source code.
• Gitolite’s documentation includes a “fool proof setup” guide and a cookbook with recipes for common
tasks.
• Gitolite’s maintainer has written a book, Gitolite Essentials, for more in-depth information about the
software.
• General information about git itself can be found at the Git homepage.

Client software implementations

Linux Network-Manager GUI for OpenVPN

Many Linux distributions including Ubuntu desktop variants come with Network Manager, a nice GUI to
configure your network settings. It also can manage your VPN connections. It is the default, but if in doubt
make sure you have package network−manager−openvpn installed.
Open the Network Manager GUI, select the VPN tab and then the ‘Add’ button. Select OpenVPN as the
VPN type in the opening requester and press ‘Create’. In the next window add the OpenVPN’s server name
as the ‘Gateway’, set ‘Type’ to ‘Certificates (TLS)’, point ‘User Certificate’ to your user certificate, ‘CA
Certificate’ to your CA certificate and ‘Private Key’ to your private key file. Use the advanced button to
enable compression (e.g. comp-lzo), dev tap, or other special settings you set on the server. Now try to
establish your VPN.

OpenVPN with GUI for Mac OS X

• Tunnelblick is an excellent free, open source implementation of a GUI for OpenVPN for OS X. Download
the latest OS X installer from there and install it. It also is recommended by upstream which would
have a alternative on their own
Then put your client.ovpn config file together with the certificates and keys in /Users/username/Library/Ap-
plication Support/Tunnelblick/Configurations/ and lauch Tunnelblick from your Application folder.
Instead of downloading manually, if you have brew set up on MacOS this is as easy as:
brew cask install tunnelblick

OpenVPN with GUI for Win

First download and install the latest OpenVPN Windows Installer. As of this writing, the management GUI
is included with the Windows binary installer.
You need to start the OpenVPN service. Goto Start > Computer > Manage > Services and Applications >
Services. Find the OpenVPN service and start it. Set it’s startup type to automatic.
When you start the OpenVPN MI GUI the first time you need to run it as an administrator. You have to
right click on it and you will see that option.
There is an updated guide by the upstream project for the client on Windows.

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References

• See the OpenVPN website for additional information.

• OpenVPN hardening security guide
• Also, Pakt’s OpenVPN: Building and Integrating Virtual Private Networks is a good resource.

SSSD
SSSD stands for System Security Services Daemon and it’s actually a collection of daemons that handle
authentication, authorization, and user and group information from a variety of network sources. At its core
it has support for: - Active Directory - LDAP - Kerberos
SSSD provides PAM and NSS modules to integrate these remote sources into your system and allow remote
users to login and be recognized as valid users, including group membership. To allow for disconnected
operation, SSSD also can also cache this information, so that users can continue to login in the event of a
network failure, or other problem of the same sort.
This guide will focus on the most common scenarios where SSSD is deployed.

SSSD and Active Directory

This section describes the use of sssd to authenticate user logins against an Active Directory via using sssd’s
“ad” provider. At the end, Active Directory users will be able to login on the host using their AD credentials.
Group membership will also be maintained.

Prerequisites, Assumptions, and Requirements

• This guide does not explain Active Directory, how it works, how to set one up, or how to maintain it.
• This guide assumes that a working Active Directory domain is already configured and you have access
to the credentials to join a machine to that domain.
• The domain controller is acting as an authoritative DNS server for the domain.
• The domain controller is the primary DNS resolver (check with systemd−resolve −−status)
• System time is correct and in sync, maintained via a service like chrony or ntp
• The domain used in this example is ad1.example.com .

Software Installation

Install the following packages:

sudo apt i n s t a l l s s s d −ad s s s d −t o o l s realmd a d c l i

Join the domain

We will use the realm command, from the realmd package, to join the domain and create the sssd configu-
ration.
Let’s verify the domain is discoverable via DNS:

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$ sudo realm −v d i s c o v e r ad1 . example . com
* R e s o l v i n g : _ldap . _tcp . ad1 . example . com
* P e r f o r m i n g LDAP DSE lookup on : 1 0 . 5 1 . 0 . 5
* S u c c e s s f u l l y d i s c o v e r e d : ad1 . example . com
ad1 . example . com
type : k e r b e r o s
realm−name : AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM
domain−name : ad1 . example . com
c o n f i g u r e d : no
s e r v e r −s o f t w a r e : a c t i v e −d i r e c t o r y
c l i e n t −s o f t w a r e : s s s d
r e q u i r e d −package : s s s d −t o o l s
r e q u i r e d −package : s s s d
r e q u i r e d −package : l i b n s s −s s s
r e q u i r e d −package : libpam−s s s
r e q u i r e d −package : a d c l i
r e q u i r e d −package : samba−common−b i n

This performs several checks and determines the best software stack to use with sssd. sssd can install the
missing packages via packagekit, but we installed them already previously.
Now let’s join the domain:
$ sudo realm j o i n ad1 . example . com
Password f o r A d m i n i s t r a t o r :

That was quite uneventful. If you want to see what it was doing, pass the −v option:
$ sudo realm j o i n −v ad1 . example . com
* R e s o l v i n g : _ldap . _tcp . ad1 . example . com
* P e r f o r m i n g LDAP DSE lookup on : 1 0 . 5 1 . 0 . 5
* S u c c e s s f u l l y d i s c o v e r e d : ad1 . example . com
Password f o r A d m i n i s t r a t o r :
* Unconditionally checking packages
* Resolving r e q u i r e d packages
* LANG=C / u s r / s b i n / a d c l i j o i n −−v e r b o s e −−domain ad1 . example . com −−domain−
realm AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM −−domain−c o n t r o l l e r 1 0 . 5 1 . 0 . 5 −−l o g i n −type u s e r −−
l o g i n −u s e r A d m i n i s t r a t o r −−s t d i n −password
* Using domain name : ad1 . example . com
* C a l c u l a t e d computer a c c o u n t name from fqdn : AD−CLIENT
* Using domain realm : ad1 . example . com
* Sending NetLogon p i n g t o domain c o n t r o l l e r : 1 0 . 5 1 . 0 . 5
* R e c e i v e d NetLogon i n f o from : SERVER1 . ad1 . example . com
* Wrote out krb5 . c o n f s n i p p e t t o / var / c a c h e / realmd / a d c l i −krb5−hUfTUg/ krb5 . d/
a d c l i −krb5−conf −h v 2 k z i
* A u t h e n t i c a t e d a s u s e r : Administrator@AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM
* Looked up s h o r t domain name : AD1
* Looked up domain SID : S−1−5−21−2660147319−831819607−3409034899
* Using f u l l y q u a l i f i e d name : ad−c l i e n t . ad1 . example . com
* Using domain name : ad1 . example . com
* Using computer a c c o u n t name : AD−CLIENT
* Using domain realm : ad1 . example . com
* C a l c u l a t e d computer a c c o u n t name from fqdn : AD−CLIENT
* Generated 120 c h a r a c t e r computer password
* Using keytab : FILE : / e t c / krb5 . keytab

224
 * Found computer a c c o u n t f o r AD−CLIENT$ a t : CN=AD−CLIENT,CN=Computers ,DC=ad1 ,
DC=example ,DC=com
* Sending NetLogon p i n g t o domain c o n t r o l l e r : 1 0 . 5 1 . 0 . 5
* R e c e i v e d NetLogon i n f o from : SERVER1 . ad1 . example . com
* S e t computer password
* R e t r i e v e d kvno ’ 3 ’ f o r computer a c c o u n t i n d i r e c t o r y : CN=AD−CLIENT,CN=
Computers ,DC=ad1 ,DC=example ,DC=com
* Checking R e s t r i c t e d K r b H o s t /ad−c l i e n t . ad1 . example . com
* Added R e s t r i c t e d K r b H o s t /ad−c l i e n t . ad1 . example . com
* Checking R e s t r i c t e d K r b H o s t /AD−CLIENT
* Added R e s t r i c t e d K r b H o s t /AD−CLIENT
* Checking h o s t /ad−c l i e n t . ad1 . example . com
* Added h o s t /ad−c l i e n t . ad1 . example . com
* Checking h o s t /AD−CLIENT
* Added h o s t /AD−CLIENT
* D i s c o v e r e d which keytab s a l t t o u s e
* Added t h e e n t r i e s t o t h e keytab : AD−CLIENT$@AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM: FILE : / e t c / krb5
. keytab
* Added t h e e n t r i e s t o t h e keytab : h o s t /AD−CLIENT@AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM: FILE : / e t c /
krb5 . keytab
* Added t h e e n t r i e s t o t h e keytab : h o s t /ad−c l i e n t . ad1 . example . com@AD1 .EXAMPLE
.COM: FILE : / e t c / krb5 . keytab
* Added t h e e n t r i e s t o t h e keytab : R e s t r i c t e d K r b H o s t /AD−CLIENT@AD1 .EXAMPLE.
COM: FILE : / e t c / krb5 . keytab
* Added t h e e n t r i e s t o t h e keytab : R e s t r i c t e d K r b H o s t /ad−c l i e n t . ad1 . example .
com@AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM: FILE : / e t c / krb5 . keytab
* / u s r / s b i n / update−r c . d s s s d e n a b l e
* / usr / sbin / s e r v i c e sssd r e s t a r t
* S u c c e s s f u l l y e n r o l l e d machine i n realm

By default, realm will use the Administrator account of the domain to request the join. If you need to use
another account, pass it to the tool with the −U option.
Another popular way of joining a domain is using an OTP, or One Time Password, token. For that, use the
−−one−time−password option.

SSSD Configuration

The realm tool already took care of creating an sssd configuration, adding the pam and nss modules, and
starting the necessary services.
Let’s take a look at /etc/sssd/sssd.conf:
[ sssd ]
domains = ad1 . example . com
config_file_version = 2
s e r v i c e s = nss , pam

[ domain / ad1 . example . com ]

d e f a u l t _ s h e l l = / b i n / bash
k r b 5 _ s t o r e _ p a s s w o r d _ i f _ o f f l i n e = True
c a c h e _ c r e d e n t i a l s = True
krb5_realm = AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM
realmd_tags = manages−system j o i n e d −with−a d c l i
i d _ p r o v i d e r = ad

225
f a l l b a c k _ h o m e d i r = /home/%u@%d
ad_domain = ad1 . example . com
u s e _ f u l l y _ q u a l i f i e d _ n a m e s = True
ldap_id_mapping = True
a c c e s s _ p r o v i d e r = ad

Note
Something very important to remember is that this file must have permissions 0600 and ownership
root:root, or else sssd won’t start!
Let’s highlight a few things from this config:
• cache_credentials: this allows logins when the AD server is unreachable
• home directory: it’s by default /home/<user>@<domain>. For example, the AD user john will have
a home directory of /home/[email protected]
• use_fully_qualified_names: users will be of the form user@domain, not just user. This should only be
changed if you are certain no other domains will ever join the AD forest, via one of the several possible
trust relationships

Automatic home directory creation

What the realm tool didn’t do for us is setup pam_mkhomedir, so that network users can get a home
directory when they login. This remaining step can be done by running the following command:
sudo pam−auth−update −−e n a b l e mkhomedir

Checks

You should now be able to fetch information about AD users. In this example, John Smith is an AD user:
$ g e t e n t passwd john@ad1 . example . com
john@ad1 . example . com : * : 1 7 2 5 8 0 1 1 0 6 : 1 7 2 5 8 0 0 5 1 3 : John Smith : / home/ john@ad1 . example
. com : / b i n / bash

Let’s see his groups:

$ g r o u ps john@ad1 . example . com
john@ad1 . example . com : domain users@ad1 . example . com e n g i n e e r i n g @ a d 1 . example .
com

Note
If you just changed the group membership of a user, it may be a while before sssd notices due to
caching.
Finally, how about we try a login:
$ sudo l o g i n
ad−c l i e n t l o g i n : john@ad1 . example . com
Password :
Welcome t o Ubuntu 2 0 . 0 4 LTS (GNU/ Linux 5.4.0 −24 − g e n e r i c x86_64 )
...
C r e a t i n g d i r e c t o r y ’ / home/ john@ad1 . example . com ’ .
john@ad1 . example . com@ad−c l i e n t : ~ $

226
Notice how the home directory was automatically created.
You can also use ssh, but note that the command will look a bit funny because of the multiple *@* signs:
$ s s h john@ad1 . example . com@10 . 5 1 . 0 . 1 1
Welcome t o Ubuntu 2 0 . 0 4 LTS (GNU/ Linux 5.4.0 −24 − g e n e r i c x86_64 )
(...)
Last l o g i n : Thu Apr 16 2 1 : 2 2 : 5 5 2020
john@ad1 . example . com@ad−c l i e n t : ~ $

Note
In the ssh example, public key authentication was used, so no password was required. Remember
that ssh password authentication is by default disabled in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

Kerberos Tickets

If you install krb5−user, your AD users will also get a kerberos ticket upon logging in:
john@ad1 . example . com@ad−c l i e n t : ~ $ k l i s t
T i c k e t c a c h e : FILE : / tmp/ krb5cc_1725801106_9UxVIz
D e f a u l t p r i n c i p a l : john@AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM

Valid s t a r t i n g Expires Service principal

04/16/20 2 1 : 3 2 : 1 2 04/17/20 0 7 : 3 2 : 1 2 k r b t g t /AD1 [email protected]
renew u n t i l 04/17/20 2 1 : 3 2 : 1 2

Note
realm also configured /etc/krb5.conf for you, so there should be no further configuration prompts
when installing krb5−user
Let’s test with smbclient using kerberos authentication to list he shares of the domain controller:
john@ad1 . example . com@ad−c l i e n t : ~ $ s m b c l i e n t −k −L s e r v e r 1 . ad1 . example . com

Sharename Type Comment

−−−−−−−−− −−−− −−−−−−−
ADMIN$ Disk Remote Admin
C$ Disk Default share
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
NETLOGON Disk Logon s e r v e r s h a r e
SYSVOL Disk Logon s e r v e r s h a r e
SMB1 d i s a b l e d −− no workgroup available

Notice how we now have a ticket for the cifs service, which was used for the share list above:
john@ad1 . example . com@ad−c l i e n t : ~ $ k l i s t
T i c k e t c a c h e : FILE : / tmp/ krb5cc_1725801106_9UxVIz
D e f a u l t p r i n c i p a l : john@AD1 .EXAMPLE.COM

Valid s t a r t i n g Expires Service principal

04/16/20 2 1 : 3 2 : 1 2 04/17/20 0 7 : 3 2 : 1 2 k r b t g t /AD1 [email protected]
renew u n t i l 04/17/20 2 1 : 3 2 : 1 2
04/16/20 2 1 : 3 2 : 2 1 04/17/20 0 7 : 3 2 : 1 2 c i f s / s e r v e r 1 . ad1 . example . com@AD1 .EXAMPLE
.COM

227
Desktop Ubuntu Authentication

The desktop login only shows local users in the list to pick from, and that’s on purpose.
To login with an Active Directory user for the first time, follow these steps:
• click on the “Not listed?” option:
click-not-listed|690x517,50%
• type in the login name followed by the password:
type-in-username|690x517,50%
• the next time you login, the AD user will be listed as if it was a local user:
next-time|690x517,50%

Resources

• GitHub SSSD Project

• Active Directory DNS Zone Entries

SSSD and LDAP

SSSD can also use LDAP for authentication, authorization, and user/group information. In this section we
will configure a host to authenticate users from an OpenLDAP directory.

Prerequisites, Assumptions, and Requirements

For this setup, we need:

• an existing OpenLDAP server with SSL enabled and using the RFC2307 schema for users and groups
• a client host where we will install the necessary tools and login as an user from the LDAP server

Software Installation

Install the following packages:

sudo apt i n s t a l l s s s d −l d a p ldap−u t i l s

SSSD Configuration

Create the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file, with permissions 0600 and ownership root:root, and this
content:
[ sssd ]
config_file_version = 2
domains = example . com

[ domain / example . com ]

id_provider = ldap
a u th _p ro vi d er = l d a p
l d a p _ u r i = l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com

228
c a c h e _ c r e d e n t i a l s = True
ldap_search_base = dc=example , dc=com

Make sure to start the sssd service:

sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t s s s d . s e r v i c e

Note
sssd will use START_TLS by default for authentication requests against the LDAP server (the
auth_provider), but not for the id_provider. If you want to also enable START_TLS for the
id_provider, specify ldap_id_use_start_tls = true.

Automatic home directory creation

To enable automatic home directory creation, run the following command:

sudo pam−auth−update −−e n a b l e mkhomedir

Check SSL setup on the client

The client must be able to use START_TLS when connecting to the LDAP server, with full certificate
checking. This means:
• the client host knows and trusts the CA that signed the LDAP server certificate
• the server certificate was issued for the correct host (ldap01.example.com in this guide)
• the time is correct on all hosts performing the TLS connection
• and, of course, that neither certificate (CA or server’s) expired
If using a custom CA, an easy way to have a host trust it is to place it in /usr/local/share/ca− certificates /
with a . crt extension and run sudo update−ca−certificates.
Alternatively, you can edit /etc/ldap/ldap.conf and point TLS_CACERT to the CA public key file.
Note
You may have to restart sssd after these changes: sudo systemctl restart sssd
Once that is all done, check that you can connect to the LDAP server using verified SSL connections:
$ ldapwhoami −x −ZZ −h l d a p 0 1 . example . com
anonymous

The −ZZ parameter tells the tool to use START_TLS, and that it must not fail. If you have LDAP logging
enabled on the server, it will show something like this:
slapd [779]: conn =1032 op=0 STARTTLS
slapd [779]: conn =1032 op=0 RESULT o i d= e r r =0 t e x t=
slapd [779]: conn =1032 f d =15 TLS e s t a b l i s h e d t l s _ s s f =256 s s f =256
slapd [779]: conn =1032 op=1 BIND dn=”” method=128
slapd [779]: conn =1032 op=1 RESULT t a g =97 e r r =0 t e x t=
slapd [779]: conn =1032 op=2 EXT o i d = 1 . 3 . 6 . 1 . 4 . 1 . 4 2 0 3 . 1 . 1 1 . 3
slapd [779]: conn =1032 op=2 WHOAMI
slapd [779]: conn =1032 op=2 RESULT o i d= e r r =0 t e x t=

START_TLS with err=0 and TLS established is what we want to see there, and, of course, the WHOAMI
extended operation.

229
Final verification

In this example, the LDAP server has the following user and group entry we are going to use for testing:
dn : u i d=john , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
u i d : john
o b j e c t C l a s s : inetOrgPerson
o b j e c t C l a s s : p os i xA cc oun t
cn : John Smith
sn : Smith
givenName : John
m a i l : john@example . com
userPassword : j o h n s e c r e t
uidNumber : 10001
gidNumber : 10001
l o g i n S h e l l : / b i n / bash
homeDirectory : /home/ john

dn : cn=john , ou=Group , dc=example , dc=com

cn : john
o b j e c t C l a s s : posixGroup
gidNumber : 10001
memberUid : john

dn : cn=E n g i n e e r i n g , ou=Group , dc=example , dc=com

cn : E n g i n e e r i n g
o b j e c t C l a s s : posixGroup
gidNumber : 10100
memberUid : john

The user john should be known to the system:

ubuntu@ldap−c l i e n t : ~ $ g e t e n t passwd john
john : * : 1 0 0 0 1 : 1 0 0 0 1 : John Smith : / home/ john : / b i n / bash

ubuntu@ldap−c l i e n t : ~ $ i d john
u i d =10001( john ) g i d =10001( john ) g ro up s =10001( john ) , 1 0 1 0 0 ( E n g i n e e r i n g )

And we should be able to authenticate as john:

ubuntu@ldap−c l i e n t : ~ $ sudo l o g i n
ldap−c l i e n t l o g i n : john
Password :
Welcome t o Ubuntu F o c a l Fossa ( development branch ) (GNU/ Linux 5.4.0 −24 − g e n e r i c
x86_64 )
(...)
C r e a t i n g d i r e c t o r y ’ / home/ john ’ .
john@ldap−c l i e n t : ~ $

SSSD, LDAP and Kerberos

Finally, we can mix it all together in a setup that is very similar to Active Directory in terms of the
technologies used: use LDAP for users and groups, and Kerberos for authentication.

230
Prerequisites, Assumptions, and Requirements

For this setup, we will need:

• an existing OpenLDAP server using the RFC2307 schema for users and groups. SSL support is rec-
ommended, but not strictly necessary because authentication in this setup is being done via Kerberos,
and not LDAP.
• a Kerberos server. It doesn’t have to be using the OpenLDAP backend
• a client host where we will install and configure SSSD

Software Installation

On the client host, install the following packages:

sudo apt i n s t a l l s s s d −l d a p s s s d −krb5 ldap−u t i l s krb5−u s e r

You may be asked about the default Kerberos realm. For this guide, we are using EXAMPLE.COM.
At this point, you should alreaedy be able to obtain tickets from your Kerberos server, assuming DNS records
point at it like explained elsewhere in this guide:
$ k i n i t ubuntu
Password f o r ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM:

ubuntu@ldap−krb−c l i e n t : ~ $ k l i s t
T i c k e t c a c h e : FILE : / tmp/ krb5cc_1000
D e f a u l t p r i n c i p a l : ubuntu@EXAMPLE .COM

Valid s t a r t i n g Expires Service principal

04/17/20 1 9 : 5 1 : 0 6 04/18/20 0 5 : 5 1 : 0 6 k r b t g t /[email protected]
renew u n t i l 04/18/20 1 9 : 5 1 : 0 5

But we want to be able to login as an LDAP user, authenticated via Kerberos. Let’s continue with the
configuration.

SSSD Configuration

Create the /etc/sssd/sssd.conf configuration file, with permissions 0600 and ownership root:root, and this
content:
[ sssd ]
config_file_version = 2
domains = example . com

[ domain / example . com ]

id_provider = ldap
l d a p _ u r i = l d a p : / / l d a p 0 1 . example . com
ldap_search_base = dc=example , dc=com
a u th _p ro vi d er = krb5
k r b 5 _ s e r v e r = kdc01 . example . com , kdc02 . example . com
krb5_kpasswd = kdc01 . example . com
krb5_realm = EXAMPLE.COM
c a c h e _ c r e d e n t i a l s = True

231
This example uses two KDCs, which made it necessary to also specify the krb5_kpasswd server because the
second KDC is a replica and is not running the admin server.
Start the sssd service:
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t s s s d . s e r v i c e

Automatic home directory creation

To enable automatic home directory creation, run the following command:

sudo pam−auth−update −−e n a b l e mkhomedir

Final verification

In this example, the LDAP server has the following user and group entry we are going to use for testing:
dn : u i d=john , ou=People , dc=example , dc=com
u i d : john
o b j e c t C l a s s : inetOrgPerson
o b j e c t C l a s s : p os i xA cc oun t
cn : John Smith
sn : Smith
givenName : John
m a i l : john@example . com
uidNumber : 10001
gidNumber : 10001
l o g i n S h e l l : / b i n / bash
homeDirectory : /home/ john

dn : cn=john , ou=Group , dc=example , dc=com

cn : john
o b j e c t C l a s s : posixGroup
gidNumber : 10001
memberUid : john

dn : cn=E n g i n e e r i n g , ou=Group , dc=example , dc=com

cn : E n g i n e e r i n g
o b j e c t C l a s s : posixGroup
gidNumber : 10100
memberUid : john

Note how the john user has no userPassword attribute.

The user john should be known to the system:
ubuntu@ldap−c l i e n t : ~ $ g e t e n t passwd john
john : * : 1 0 0 0 1 : 1 0 0 0 1 : John Smith : / home/ john : / b i n / bash

ubuntu@ldap−c l i e n t : ~ $ i d john
u i d =10001( john ) g i d =10001( john ) g ro up s =10001( john ) , 1 0 1 0 0 ( E n g i n e e r i n g )

Let’s try a login as this user:

232
ubuntu@ldap−krb−c l i e n t : ~ $ sudo l o g i n
ldap−krb−c l i e n t l o g i n : john
Password :
Welcome t o Ubuntu 2 0 . 0 4 LTS (GNU/ Linux 5.4.0 −24 − g e n e r i c x86_64 )
(...)
C r e a t i n g d i r e c t o r y ’ / home/ john ’ .

john@ldap−krb−c l i e n t : ~ $ k l i s t
T i c k e t c a c h e : FILE : / tmp/krb5cc_10001_BOrxWr
D e f a u l t p r i n c i p a l : john@EXAMPLE .COM

Valid s t a r t i n g Expires Service principal

04/17/20 2 0 : 2 9 : 5 0 04/18/20 0 6 : 2 9 : 5 0 k r b t g t /[email protected]
renew u n t i l 04/18/20 2 0 : 2 9 : 5 0
john@ldap−krb−c l i e n t : ~ $

We logged in using the kerberos password, and user/group information from the LDAP server.

SSSD and KDC spoofing

When using SSSD to manage kerberos logins on a Linux host, there is an attack scenario you should be
aware of: KDC spoofing.
The objective of the attacker is to login on a workstation that is using Kerberos authentication. Let’s say
he knows john is a valid user on that machine.
The attacker first deploys a rogue KDC server in the network, and creates the john principal there with a
password of his choosing. What he has to do now is to have his rogue KDC respond to the login request
from the workstation, before (or instead of) the real KDC. If the workstation isn’t authenticating the KDC,
it will accept the reply from the rogue server and let john in.
There is a configuration parameter that can be set to protect the workstation from this attack. It will
have SSSD authenticate the KDC, and block the login if the KDC cannot be verified. This option is called
krb5_validate, and it’s false by default.
To enable it, edit /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and add this line to the domain section:
[ sssd ]
config_file_version = 2
domains = example . com

[ domain / example . com ]

id_provider = ldap
...
k r b 5 _ v a l i d a t e = True

The second step is to create a host principal on the KDC for this workstation. This is how the KDC’s
authenticity is verified. It’s like a “machine account”, with a shared secret that the attacker cannot control
and replicate in his rogue KDC..The host principal has the format host/<fqdn>@REALM.
After the host principal is created, its keytab needs to be stored on the workstation. This two step process
can be easily done on the workstation itself via kadmin (not kadmin.local) to contact the KDC remotely:
$ sudo kadmin −p ubuntu /admin
kadmin : a d d p r i n c −randkey h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example [email protected]
WARNING: no p o l i c y s p e c i f i e d f o r h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example [email protected];
d e f a u l t i n g t o no p o l i c y

233
P r i n c i p a l ” h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example [email protected]” c r e a t e d .

kadmin : ktadd −k / e t c / krb5 . keytab h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example . com

Entry f o r p r i n c i p a l h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example . com with kvno 6 , e n c r y p t i o n
type aes256 −c t s −hmac−sha1 −96 added t o keytab WRFILE: / e t c / krb5 . keytab .
Entry f o r p r i n c i p a l h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example . com with kvno 6 , e n c r y p t i o n
type aes128 −c t s −hmac−sha1 −96 added t o keytab WRFILE: / e t c / krb5 . keytab .

Then exit the tool and make sure the permissions on the keytab file are tight:
sudo chmod 0600 / e t c / krb5 . keytab
sudo chown r o o t : r o o t / e t c / krb5 . keytab

You can also do it on the KDC itself using kadmin.local, but you will have to store the keytab temporarily
in another file and securely copy it over to the workstation.
Once these steps are complete, you can restart sssd on the workstation and perform the login. If the rogue
KDC picks the attempt up and replies, it will fail the host verification. With debugging we can see that
happening on the workstation:
==> / var / l o g / s s s d / k r b 5 _ c h i l d . l o g <==
(Mon Apr 20 1 9 : 4 3 : 5 8 2 0 2 0 ) [ [ s s s d [ k r b 5 _ c h i l d [ 2 1 0 2 ] ] ] ] [ v a l i d a t e _ t g t ] ( 0 x0020 ) :
TGT f a i l e d v e r i f i c a t i o n u s i n g key f o r [ h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example .
[email protected]] .
(Mon Apr 20 1 9 : 4 3 : 5 8 2 0 2 0 ) [ [ s s s d [ k r b 5 _ c h i l d [ 2 1 0 2 ] ] ] ] [ get_and_save_tgt ] ( 0
x0020 ) : 1 7 4 1 : [ − 1 7 6 5 3 2 8 3 7 7 ] [ S e r v e r h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example .
[email protected] not found i n K e rb ero s d a t a b a s e ]

And the login is denied. If the real KDC picks it up, however, the host verification succeeds:
==> / var / l o g / s s s d / k r b 5 _ c h i l d . l o g <==
(Mon Apr 20 1 9 : 4 6 : 2 2 2 0 2 0 ) [ [ s s s d [ k r b 5 _ c h i l d [ 2 2 6 8 ] ] ] ] [ v a l i d a t e _ t g t ] ( 0 x0400 ) :
TGT v e r i f i e d u s i n g key f o r [ h o s t / ldap−krb−c l i e n t . example [email protected]
].

And the login is accepted.

Debugging and troubleshooting

Here are some tips to help troubleshoot sssd.

debug_level

The debug level of sssd can be changed on-the-fly via sssctl , from the sssd−tools package:
sudo apt i n s t a l l s s s d −t o o l s
s s s c t l debug−l e v e l <new−l e v e l >

Or change add it to the config file and restart sssd:

[ sssd ]
config_file_version = 2
domains = example . com

[ domain / example . com ]

debug_level = 6
...

234
Either will yield more logs in /var/log/sssd/*.log and can help identify what is going on. The sssctl approach
has the clear advantage of not having to restart the service.

Caching

Caching is useful to speed things up, but it can get in the way big time when troubleshooting. It’s useful to
be able to remove the cache while chasing down a problem. This can also be done with the sssctl tool from
the sssd−tools package.
You can either remove the whole cache:
# s s s c t l cache−remove
C r e a t i n g backup o f l o c a l data . . .
SSSD backup o f l o c a l data a l r e a d y e x i s t s , o v e r r i d e ? ( y e s /no ) [ no ] y e s
Removing c a c h e f i l e s . . .
SSSD= n e e d s t o be r u n ni n g . S t a r t SSSD now? ( y e s /no ) [ y e s ] y e s

Or just one element:

s s s c t l cache−e x p i r e −u john

Or expire everything:
s s s c t l cache−e x p i r e −E

429 from API, waiting 42 seconds … (‘You’ve performed this action too many times. Please wait
41 seconds before trying again.’) # IRC Server
The Ubuntu repository has many Internet Relay Chat servers. This section explains how to install and
configure the original IRC server ircd-irc2.

Installation

To install ircd-irc2, run the following command in the command prompt:

sudo apt i n s t a l l i r c d −i r c 2

The configuration files are stored in /etc/ircd directory. The documents are available in /usr/share/doc/
ircd−irc2 directory.

Configuration

The IRC settings can be done in the configuration file /etc/ircd/ircd .conf. You can set the IRC host name
in this file by editing the following line:
M: i r c . l o c a l h o s t : : Debian i r c d d e f a u l t c o n f i g u r a t i o n : : 0 0 0A

Please make sure you add DNS aliases for the IRC host name. For instance, if you set irc . livecipher .com
as IRC host name, please make sure irc . livecipher .com is resolvable in your Domain Name Server. The
IRC host name should not be same as the host name.
The IRC admin details can be configured by editing the following line:
A: O r g a n i z a t i o n , IRC dept . : Daemon <ircd@example . i r c . org >: C l i e n t S e r v e r : : IRCnet :

235
You should add specific lines to configure the list of IRC ports to listen on, to configure Operator credentials,
to configure client authentication, etc. For details, please refer to the example configuration file /usr/share/
doc/ircd−irc2/ircd.conf.example.gz.
The IRC banner to be displayed in the IRC client, when the user connects to the server can be set in
/etc/ircd/ircd .motd file.
After making necessary changes to the configuration file, you can restart the IRC server using following
command:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t i r c d −i r c 2 . s e r v i c e

References

You may also be interested to take a look at other IRC servers available in Ubuntu Repository. It includes,
ircd-ircu and ircd-hybrid.
• Refer to IRCD FAQ for more details about the IRC Server.

Dovecot Server
Dovecot is a Mail Delivery Agent, written with security primarily in mind. It supports the major mailbox
formats: mbox or Maildir. This section explains how to set it up as an IMAP or POP3 server.

Installation

To install a basic Dovecot server with common POP3 and IMAP functions, run the following command:
sudo apt i n s t a l l dovecot−imapd dovecot−pop3d

There are various other Dovecot modules including dovecot-sieve (mail filtering), dovecot-solr (full text
search), dovecot-antispam (spam filter training), dovecot-ldap (user directory).

Configuration

To configure Dovecot, edit the file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf and its included config files in /etc/dovecot/conf
.d/. By default all installed protocols will be enabled via an include directive in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf.
! include_try / usr / share / dovecot / p r o t o c o l s . d /*. p r o t o c o l

IMAPS and POP3S are more secure because they use SSL encryption to connect. A basic self-signed ssl
certificate is automatically set up by package ssl-cert and used by Dovecot in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10−ssl.
conf.
By default mbox format is configured, if required you can also use Maildir. More about that can be found in
the comments in /etc/dovecot/conf.d//10−mail.conf. Also see the Dovecot web site to learn about further
benefits and details.
Make sure to also configure your Mail Transport Agent (MTA) to transfer the incoming mail to the selected
type of mailbox.
Once you have configured Dovecot, restart its daemon in order to test your setup:
sudo s e r v i c e d o v e c o t r e s t a r t

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Try to log in with the commands telnet localhost pop3 (for POP3) or telnet localhost imap2 (for IMAP).
You should see something like the following:
bhuvan@rainbow : ~ $ t e l n e t l o c a l h o s t pop3
Trying 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 . . .
Connected t o l o c a l h o s t . l o c a l d o m a i n .
Escape c h a r a c t e r i s ’ ^ ] ’ .
+OK Dovecot ready .

Dovecot SSL Configuration

Dovecot is configured to use SSL automatically by default, using the package ssl-cert which provides a self
signed certificate.
You can instead generate your own custom certificate for Dovecot using openssh, for example:
sudo o p e n s s l r e q −new −x509 −days 1000 −nodes −out ”/ e t c / d o v e c o t / d o v e c o t . pem”
\
−keyout ”/ e t c / d o v e c o t / p r i v a t e / d o v e c o t . pem”

See certificates-and-security for more details on creating custom certificates.

Then edit /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10−ssl.conf and amend following lines to specify Dovecat use these custom
certificates :
s s l _ c e r t = </ e t c / d o v e c o t / p r i v a t e / d o v e c o t . pem
s s l _ k e y = </ e t c / d o v e c o t / p r i v a t e / d o v e c o t . key

You can get the SSL certificate from a Certificate Issuing Authority or you can create self-signed one (see
certificates-and-security for details). Once you create the certificate, you will have a key file and a certificate
file that you want to make known in the config shown above.

Firewall Configuration for an Email Server

To access your mail server from another computer, you must configure your firewall to allow connections to
the server on the necessary ports.
• IMAP - 143
• IMAPS - 993
• POP3 - 110
• POP3S - 995

References

• See the Dovecot website for more information.

• Also, the Dovecot Ubuntu Wiki page has more details.
429 from API, waiting 5 seconds … (‘You’ve performed this action too many times. Please wait
a few seconds before trying again.’) # Exim4
Exim4 is a Message Transfer Agent (MTA) developed at the University of Cambridge for use on Unix systems
connected to the Internet. Exim can be installed in place of sendmail, although its configuration is quite
different.

237
Installation

To install exim4, run the following command:

sudo apt i n s t a l l exim4

Configuration

To configure Exim4, run the following command:

sudo dpkg−r e c o n f i g u r e exim4−c o n f i g

This displays a user interface “wizard” for configuring the software. For example, in Exim4 the configuration
files are split among multiple files; if you wish to have them in one file you can configure accordingly via this
user interface.
All the configurable parameters from the user interface are stored in /etc/exim4/update−exim4.conf.conf
file, so to re-configure you can either re-run the wizard or manually edit this file using your favorite editor.
Once you are finished, you can run the following command to generate the master configuration file:
sudo update−exim4 . c o n f

The master configuration file is stored in /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.

Warning
At any time, you should not manually edit the master configuration file, /var/lib/exim4/config
.autogenerated, because it is updated automatically every time you run update−exim4.conf, so
your changes will risk being accidentally lost during a future update.
The following command will start the Exim4 daemon:
sudo s e r v i c e exim4 s t a r t

SMTP Authentication

Exim4 can be configured to use SMTP-AUTH with TLS and SASL.

First, enter the following into a terminal prompt to create a certificate for use with TLS:
sudo / u s r / s h a r e / doc / exim4−ba s e / examples / exim−g e n c e r t

Configure Exim4 for TLS by editing /etc/exim4/conf.d/main/03_exim4−config_tlsoptions and adding the

following:
MAIN_TLS_ENABLE = y e s

Second, configure Exim4 to use the saslauthd for authentication by editing /etc/exim4/conf.d/auth/30
_exim4−config_examples and uncomment the plain_saslauthd_server and login_saslauthd_server sections:
plain_saslauthd_server :
driver = plaintext
public_name = PLAIN
s e r v e r _ c o n d i t i o n = ${ i f s a s l a u t h d {{ $auth2 }{ $auth3 }}{1}{0}}
s e r v e r _ s e t _ i d = $auth2
server_prompts = :
. i f n d e f AUTH_SERVER_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS

238
 s e r v e r _ a d v e r t i s e _ c o n d i t i o n = $ { i f eq { $ t l s _ c i p h e r }{}{}{*}}
. endif
#
login_saslauthd_server :
driver = plaintext
public_name = LOGIN
server_prompts = ” Username : : : Password : : ”
# don ’ t send system passwords o v e r unencrypted c o n n e c t i o n s
s e r v e r _ c o n d i t i o n = ${ i f s a s l a u t h d {{ $auth1 }{ $auth2 }}{1}{0}}
s e r v e r _ s e t _ i d = $auth1
. i f n d e f AUTH_SERVER_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS
s e r v e r _ a d v e r t i s e _ c o n d i t i o n = $ { i f eq { $ t l s _ c i p h e r }{}{}{*}}
. endif

Additionally, to enable outside mail clients to connect to the new server, a new user needs to be added into
exim by using the following commands.
sudo / u s r / s h a r e / doc / exim4−ba s e / examples / exim−a d d u s e r

Protect the new password files with the following commands:

sudo chown r o o t : Debian−exim / e t c / exim4 / passwd
sudo chmod 640 / e t c / exim4 / passwd

Finally, update the Exim4 configuration and restart the service:

sudo update−exim4 . c o n f
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t exim4 . s e r v i c e

Configuring SASL

To configure the saslauthd to provide authentication for Exim4, first install the sasl2-bin package by running
this command at a terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l s a s l 2 −b i n

To configure saslauthd, edit the /etc/default/saslauthd configuration file and set:

START=y e s

Next, to make Exim4 use the saslauthd service, the Debian-exim user needs to be part of the sasl group:
sudo a ddu se r Debian−exim s a s l

Finally, start the saslauthd service:

sudo s e r v i c e s a s l a u t h d s t a r t

Exim4 is now configured with SMTP-AUTH using TLS and SASL authentication.

References

• See exim.org for more information.

• There is also an Exim4 Book available.
• Another resource is the Exim4 Ubuntu Wiki page.
• Further resources to set up mailman3 with exim4

239
Email Services
The process of getting an email from one person to another over a network or the Internet involves many
systems working together. Each of these systems must be correctly configured for the process to work. The
sender uses a Mail User Agent (MUA), or email client, to send the message through one or more Mail
Transfer Agents (MTA), the last of which will hand it off to a Mail Delivery Agent (MDA) for delivery to
the recipient’s mailbox, from which it will be retrieved by the recipient’s email client, usually via a POP3 or
IMAP server.

Mailman
Mailman is an open source program for managing electronic mail discussions and e-newsletter lists. Many
open source mailing lists (including all the Ubuntu mailing lists) use Mailman as their mailing list software.
It is powerful and easy to install and maintain.

Installation

Mailman provides a web interface for the administrators and users, using an external mail server to send
and receive emails. It works perfectly with the following mail servers:
• Postfix
• Exim
• Sendmail
• Qmail
We will see how to install and configure Mailman with, the Apache web server, and either the Postfix or
Exim mail server. If you wish to install Mailman with a different mail server, please refer to the references
section.
Note
You only need to install one mail server and Postfix is the default Ubuntu Mail Transfer Agent.

Apache2

To install apache2 you refer to ??? for details.

Postfix

For instructions on installing and configuring Postfix refer to Postfix

Exim4

To install Exim4 refer to Exim4.

Once exim4 is installed, the configuration files are stored in the /etc/exim4 directory. In Ubuntu, by default,
the exim4 configuration files are split across different files. You can change this behavior by changing the
following variable in the /etc/exim4/update−exim4.conf file:
d c _ u s e _ s p l i t _ c o n f i g =’ t r u e ’

240
Mailman

To install Mailman, run following command at a terminal prompt:

sudo apt i n s t a l l mailman

It copies the installation files in /var/lib/mailman directory. It installs the CGI scripts in /usr/lib/cgi-
bin/mailman directory. It creates list linux user. It creates the list linux group. The mailman process will
be owned by this user.

Configuration

This section assumes you have successfully installed mailman, apache2, and postfix or exim4. Now you just
need to configure them.

Apache2

An example Apache configuration file comes with Mailman and is placed in /etc/mailman/apache.conf. In
order for Apache to use the config file it needs to be copied to /etc/apache2/sites−available:
sudo cp / e t c / mailman / apache . c o n f / e t c / apache2 / s i t e s −a v a i l a b l e / mailman . c o n f

This will setup a new Apache VirtualHost for the Mailman administration site. Now enable the new config-
uration and restart Apache:
sudo a 2 e n s i t e mailman . c o n f
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

Mailman uses apache2 to render its CGI scripts. The mailman CGI scripts are installed in the /usr/lib/cgi-
bin/mailman directory. So, the mailman url will be http://hostname/cgi-bin/mailman/. You can make
changes to the /etc/apache2/sites−available/mailman.conf file if you wish to change this behavior.

Postfix

For Postfix integration, we will associate the domain lists .example.com with the mailing lists. Please replace
lists .example.com with the domain of your choosing.
You can use the postconf command to add the necessary configuration to /etc/postfix/main.cf:
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ relay_domains = l i s t s . example . com ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ transport_maps = hash : / e t c / p o s t f i x / t r a n s p o r t ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ m a i l m a n _ d e s t i n a t i o n _ r e c i p i e n t _ l i m i t = 1 ’

In /etc/postfix/master.cf double check that you have the following transport:

mailman unix − n n − − pipe
f l a g s=FR u s e r= l i s t argv=/u s r / l i b / mailman / b i n / p o s t f i x −to−mailman . py
$ { nexthop } ${ u s e r }

It calls the postfix-to-mailman.py script when a mail is delivered to a list.

Associate the domain lists .example.com to the Mailman transport with the transport map. Edit the file
/etc/postfix/transport:
l i s t s . example . com mailman :

241
Now have Postfix build the transport map by entering the following from a terminal prompt:
sudo postmap −v / e t c / p o s t f i x / t r a n s p o r t

Then restart Postfix to enable the new configurations:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t p o s t f i x . s e r v i c e

Exim4

Once Exim4 is installed, you can start the Exim server using the following command from a terminal prompt:
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t exim4 . s e r v i c e

In order to make mailman work with Exim4, you need to configure Exim4. As mentioned earlier, by default,
Exim4 uses multiple configuration files of different types. For details, please refer to the Exim web site. To
run mailman, we should add new a configuration file to the following configuration types:
• Main
• Transport
• Router
Exim creates a master configuration file by sorting all these mini configuration files. So, the order of these
configuration files is very important.

Main

All the configuration files belonging to the main type are stored in the /etc/exim4/conf.d/main/ directory.
You can add the following content to a new file, named 04_exim4−config_mailman:
# start
# Home d i r f o r your Mailman i n s t a l l a t i o n −− aka Mailman ’ s p r e f i x
# directory .
# On Ubuntu t h i s s h o u l d be ”/ var / l i b / mailman ”
# This i s n o r m a l l y t h e same a s ~mailman
MM_HOME=/var / l i b / mailman
#
# User and group f o r Mailman , s h o u l d match your −−with−mail−g i d
# s w i t c h t o Mailman ’ s c o n f i g u r e s c r i p t . Value i s n o r m a l l y ” mailman ”
MM_UID= l i s t
MM_GID= l i s t
#
# Domains t h a t your l i s t s a r e i n − c o l o n s e p a r a t e d l i s t
# you may wish t o add t h e s e i n t o l o c a l _ d o m a i n s a s w e l l
d o m a i n l i s t mm_domains=hostname . com
#
# −=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=−=
#
# These v a l u e s a r e d e r i v e d from t h e o n e s above and s h o u l d not need
# e d i t i n g u n l e s s you have munged your mailman i n s t a l l a t i o n
#
# The path o f t h e Mailman m a i l wrapper s c r i p t
MM_WRAP=MM_HOME/ m a i l / mailman
#

242
# The path o f t h e l i s t c o n f i g f i l e ( used a s a r e q u i r e d f i l e when
# verifying l i s t addresses )
MM_LISTCHK=MM_HOME/ l i s t s /${ l c : : $ l o c a l _ p a r t }/ c o n f i g . pck
# end

Transport

All the configuration files belonging to transport type are stored in the /etc/exim4/conf.d/transport/ direc-
tory. You can add the following content to a new file named 40_exim4−config_mailman:
mailman_transport :
driver = pipe
command = MM_WRAP \
’ ${ i f d e f : l o c a l _ p a r t _ s u f f i x \
{${ s g { $ l o c a l _ p a r t _ s u f f i x }{ −(\\w+) ( \ \ + . * ) ?}{\ $1 }}} \
{ post }} ’ \
$local_part
c u r r e n t _ d i r e c t o r y = MM_HOME
home_directory = MM_HOME
u s e r = MM_UID
group = MM_GID

Router

All the configuration files belonging to router type are stored in the /etc/exim4/conf.d/router/ directory.
You can add the following content in to a new file named 101_exim4−config_mailman:
mailman_router :
driver = accept
r e q u i r e _ f i l e s = MM_HOME/ l i s t s / $ l o c a l _ p a r t / c o n f i g . pck
local_part_suffix_optional
l o c a l _ p a r t _ s u f f i x = −bounces : −bounces+* : \
−c o n f i r m+* : −j o i n : −l e a v e : \
−owner : −r e q u e s t : −admin
t r a n s p o r t = mailman_transport

Warning
The order of main and transport configuration files can be in any order. But, the order of router
configuration files must be the same. This particular file must appear before the 200_exim4-
config_primary file. These two configuration files contain same type of information. The first
file takes the precedence. For more details, please refer to the references section.

Mailman

Once mailman is installed, you can run it using the following command:
sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t mailman . s e r v i c e

Once mailman is installed, you should create the default mailing list. Run the following command to create
the mailing list:
sudo / u s r / s b i n / n e w l i s t mailman

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 Enter t h e e m a i l a d d r e s s o f t h e p e r s o n ru n n i n g t h e l i s t : bhuvan a t ubuntu . com
I n i t i a l mailman password :
To f i n i s h c r e a t i n g your m a i l i n g l i s t , you must e d i t your / e t c / a l i a s e s ( o r
e q u i v a l e n t ) f i l e by adding t h e f o l l o w i n g l i n e s , and p o s s i b l y r u n n i n g t h e
‘ n e w a l i a s e s ’ program :

## mailman m a i l i n g l i s t
mailman : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman p o s t mailman ”
mailman−admin : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman admin mailman ”
mailman−bounces : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman bounces mailman ”
mailman−c o n f i r m : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman c o n f i r m mailman ”
mailman−j o i n : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman j o i n mailman ”
mailman−l e a v e : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman l e a v e mailman ”
mailman−owner : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman owner mailman ”
mailman−r e q u e s t : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman r e q u e s t mailman ”
mailman−s u b s c r i b e : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman s u b s c r i b e mailman ”
mailman−u n s u b s c r i b e : ” | / var / l i b / mailman / m a i l / mailman u n s u b s c r i b e mailman ”

Hit e n t e r t o n o t i f y mailman owner . . .

We have configured either Postfix or Exim4 to recognize all emails from mailman. So, it is not mandatory to
make any new entries in /etc/ aliases . If you have made any changes to the configuration files, please ensure
that you restart those services before continuing to next section.
Note
The Exim4 does not use the above aliases to forward mails to Mailman, as it uses a discover
approach. To suppress the aliases while creating the list, you can add MTA=None line in Mailman
configuration file, /etc/mailman/mm_cfg.py.

Administration

We assume you have a default installation. The mailman cgi scripts are still in the /usr/lib/cgi-bin/mailman/
directory. Mailman provides a web based administration facility. To access this page, point your browser to
the following url:
http://hostname/cgi-bin/mailman/admin
The default mailing list, mailman, will appear in this screen. If you click the mailing list name, it will ask for
your authentication password. If you enter the correct password, you will be able to change administrative
settings of this mailing list. You can create a new mailing list using the command line utility (/usr/sbin/
newlist). Alternatively, you can create a new mailing list using the web interface.

Users

Mailman provides a web based interface for users. To access this page, point your browser to the following
url:
http://hostname/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo
The default mailing list, mailman, will appear in this screen. If you click the mailing list name, it will display
the subscription form. You can enter your email address, name (optional), and password to subscribe. An
email invitation will be sent to you. You can follow the instructions in the email to subscribe.

244
References

GNU Mailman - Installation Manual

HOWTO - Using Exim 4 and Mailman 2.1 together
Also, see the Mailman Ubuntu Wiki page.

Mail Filtering
One of the largest issues with email today is the problem of Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE). Also known as
SPAM, such messages may also carry viruses and other forms of malware. According to some reports these
messages make up the bulk of all email traffic on the Internet.
This section will cover integrating Amavisd-new, Spamassassin, and ClamAV with the Postfix Mail Transport
Agent (MTA). Postfix can also check email validity by passing it through external content filters. These filters
can sometimes determine if a message is spam without needing to process it with more resource intensive
applications. Two common filters are opendkim and python-policyd-spf.
• Amavisd-new is a wrapper program that can call any number of content filtering programs for spam
detection, antivirus, etc.
• Spamassassin uses a variety of mechanisms to filter email based on the message content.
• ClamAV is an open source antivirus application.
• opendkim implements a Sendmail Mail Filter (Milter) for the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)
standard.
• python-policyd-spf enables Sender Policy Framework (SPF) checking with Postfix.
This is how the pieces fit together:
• An email message is accepted by Postfix.
• The message is passed through any external filters opendkim and python-policyd-spf in this case.
• Amavisd-new then processes the message.
• ClamAV is used to scan the message. If the message contains a virus Postfix will reject the message.
• Clean messages will then be analyzed by Spamassassin to find out if the message is spam. Spamassassin
will then add X-Header lines allowing Amavisd-new to further manipulate the message.
For example, if a message has a Spam score of over fifty the message could be automatically dropped from
the queue without the recipient ever having to be bothered. Another, way to handle flagged messages is to
deliver them to the Mail User Agent (MUA) allowing the user to deal with the message as they see fit.

Installation

See Postfix for instructions on installing and configuring Postfix.

To install the rest of the applications enter the following from a terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l amavisd−new s p a m a s s a s s i n clamav−daemon
sudo apt i n s t a l l opendkim p o s t f i x −p o l i c y d −s p f −python

There are some optional packages that integrate with Spamassassin for better spam detection:
sudo apt i n s t a l l pyzor r a z o r

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Along with the main filtering applications compression utilities are needed to process some email attachments:
sudo apt i n s t a l l a r j c a b e x t r a c t c p i o l h a nomarch pax r a r u n r a r u n z i p z i p

Note
If some packages are not found, check that the multiverse repository is enabled in /etc/apt/
sources. list
If you make changes to the file, be sure to run sudo apt update before trying to install again.

Configuration

Now configure everything to work together and filter email.

ClamAV

The default behaviour of ClamAV will fit our needs. For more ClamAV configuration options, check the
configuration files in /etc/clamav.
Add the clamav user to the amavis group in order for Amavisd-new to have the appropriate access to scan
files:
sudo a ddu se r clamav amavis
sudo a ddu se r amavis clamav

Spamassassin

Spamassassin automatically detects optional components and will use them if they are present. This means
that there is no need to configure pyzor and razor.
Edit /etc/default/spamassassin to activate the Spamassassin daemon. Change ENABLED=0 to:
ENABLED=1

Now start the daemon:

sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t s p a m a s s a s s i n . s e r v i c e

Amavisd-new

First activate spam and antivirus detection in Amavisd-new by editing /etc/amavis/conf.d/15−

content_filter_mode:
use s t r i c t ;

# You can modify t h i s f i l e t o re−e n a b l e SPAM c h e c k i n g through s p a m a s s a s s i n

# and t o re−e n a b l e a n t i v i r u s c h e c k i n g .

#
# D e f a u l t a n t i v i r u s c h e c k i n g mode
# Uncomment t h e two l i n e s below t o e n a b l e i t
#

@bypass_virus_checks_maps = (

246
 \%bypass_virus_checks , \ @bypass_virus_checks_acl , \ $bypass_virus_checks_re )
;

#
# D e f a u l t SPAM c h e c k i n g mode
# Uncomment t h e two l i n e s below t o e n a b l e i t
#

@bypass_spam_checks_maps = (
\%bypass_spam_checks , \ @bypass_spam_checks_acl , \ $bypass_spam_checks_re ) ;

1; # insure a defined return

Bouncing spam can be a bad idea as the return address is often faked. The default behaviour is to instead
discard. This is configured in /etc/amavis/conf.d/20−debian_defaults where $final_spam_destiny is set to
D_DISCARD rather than D_BOUNCE.
Additionally, you may want to adjust the following options to flag more messages as spam:
$ s a _ t a g _ l e v e l _ d e f l t = −999; # add spam i n f o h e a d e r s i f at , o r above t h a t l e v e l
$ s a _ t a g 2 _ l e v e l _ d e f l t = 6 . 0 ; # add ’ spam d e t e c t e d ’ h e a d e r s a t t h a t l e v e l
$ s a _ k i l l _ l e v e l _ d e f l t = 2 1 . 0 ; # t r i g g e r s spam e v a s i v e a c t i o n s
$ s a _ d s n _ c u t o f f _ l e v e l = 4 ; # spam l e v e l beyond which a DSN i s not s e n t

If the server’s hostname is different from the domain’s MX record you may need to manually set the $my-
hostname option. Also, if the server receives mail for multiple domains the @local_domains_acl option will
need to be customized. Edit the /etc/amavis/conf.d/50−user file:
$myhostname = ’ m a i l . example . com ’ ;
@local_domains_acl = ( ” example . com ” , ” example . o r g ” ) ;

If you want to cover multiple domains you can use the following in the/etc/amavis/conf.d/50−user
@local_domains_acl = qw ( . ) ;

After configuration Amavisd-new needs to be restarted:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t amavis . s e r v i c e

DKIM Whitelist Amavisd-new can be configured to automatically Whitelist addresses from domains with
valid Domain Keys. There are some pre-configured domains in the /etc/amavis/conf.d/40−policy_banks.
There are multiple ways to configure the Whitelist for a domain:
• ‘example.com’ => ‘WHITELIST’,: will whitelist any address from the “example.com” domain.
• ‘.example.com’ => ‘WHITELIST’,: will whitelist any address from any subdomains of “example.com”
that have a valid signature.
• ‘.example.com/@example.com’ => ‘WHITELIST’,: will whitelist subdomains of “example.com” that
use the signature of example.com the parent domain.
• ‘./@example.com’ => ‘WHITELIST’,: adds addresses that have a valid signature from “example.com”.
This is usually used for discussion groups that sign their messages.
A domain can also have multiple Whitelist configurations. After editing the file, restart amavisd-new:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t amavis . s e r v i c e

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 Note
In this context, once a domain has been added to the Whitelist the message will not receive
any anti-virus or spam filtering. This may or may not be the intended behavior you wish for a
domain.

Postfix

For Postfix integration, enter the following from a terminal prompt:

sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ c o n t e n t _ f i l t e r = smtp−amavis : [ 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 ] : 1 0 0 2 4 ’

Next edit /etc/postfix/master.cf and add the following to the end of the file:
smtp−amavis unix − − − − 2 smtp
−o smtp_data_done_timeout=1200
−o smtp_send_xforward_command=y e s
−o d i s a b l e _ d n s _ l o o k u p s=y e s
−o max_use=20

127.0.0.1:10025 inet n − − − − smtpd

−o c o n t e n t _ f i l t e r=
−o l o c a l _ r e c i p i e n t _ m a p s=
−o r e l a y _ r e c i p i e n t _ m a p s=
−o s m t p d _ r e s t r i c t i o n _ c l a s s e s=
−o smtpd_delay_reject=no
−o s m t p d _ c l i e n t _ r e s t r i c t i o n s=permit_mynetworks , r e j e c t
−o s m t p d _ h e l o _ r e s t r i c t i o n s=
−o s m t p d _ s e n d e r _ r e s t r i c t i o n s=
−o s m t p d _ r e c i p i e n t _ r e s t r i c t i o n s=permit_mynetworks , r e j e c t
−o s m t p d _ d a t a _ r e s t r i c t i o n s=r e j e c t _ u n a u t h _ p i p e l i n i n g
−o s m t p d_ en d _ of _d at a_ re st r ic t i o n s=
−o mynetworks = 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 0 / 8
−o smtpd_error_sleep_time=0
−o s m t p d _ s o f t _ e r r o r _ l i m i t =1001
−o smtpd_hard_error_limit =1000
−o s m t p d _ c l i e n t _ c o n n e c t i o n _ c o u n t _ l i m i t=0
−o s m t p d _ c l i e n t _ c o n n e c t i o n _ r a t e _ l i m i t=0
−o r e c e i v e _ o v e r r i d e _ o p t i o n s=no_header_body_checks ,
no_unknown_recipient_checks , n o _ m i l t e r s

Also add the following two lines immediately below the “pickup” transport service:
−o c o n t e n t _ f i l t e r=
−o r e c e i v e _ o v e r r i d e _ o p t i o n s=no_header_body_checks

This will prevent messages that are generated to report on spam from being classified as spam.
Now restart Postfix:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t p o s t f i x . s e r v i c e

Content filtering with spam and virus detection is now enabled.

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Amavisd-new and Spamassassin

When integrating Amavisd-new with Spamassassin, if you choose to disable the bayes filtering by editing
/etc/spamassassin/local.cf and use cron to update the nightly rules, the result can cause a situation where
a large amount of error messages are sent to the amavis user via the amavisd-new cron job.
There are several ways to handle this situation:
• Configure your MDA to filter messages you do not wish to see.
• Change /usr/sbin/amavisd−new−cronjob to check for use_bayes 0. For example, edit /usr/sbin/
amavisd−new−cronjob and add the following to the top before the test statements:
e g r e p −q ” ^ [ \ t ] * use_bayes [ \ t ] * 0 ” / e t c / s p a m a s s a s s i n / l o c a l . c f && e x i t 0

Testing

First, test that the Amavisd-new SMTP is listening:

t e l n e t l o c a l h o s t 10024
Trying 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 . . .
Connected t o l o c a l h o s t .
Escape c h a r a c t e r i s ’ ^ ] ’ .
220 [ 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 ] ESMTP amavisd−new s e r v i c e ready
^]

In the Header of messages that go through the content filter you should see:
X−Spam−L e v e l :
X−Virus−Scanned : Debian amavisd−new a t example . com
X−Spam−S t a t u s : No , h i t s =−2.3 tagged_above =−1000.0 r e q u i r e d =5.0 t e s t s=AWL,
BAYES_00
X−Spam−L e v e l :

Note
Your output will vary, but the important thing is that there are X-Virus-Scanned and X-Spam-
Status entries.

Troubleshooting

The best way to figure out why something is going wrong is to check the log files.
• For instructions on Postfix logging see the Troubleshooting section.
• Amavisd-new uses Syslog to send messages to /var/log/mail.log. The amount of detail can be increased
by adding the $log_level option to /etc/amavis/conf.d/50−user, and setting the value from 1 to 5.
$log_level = 2;

Note
When the Amavisd-new log output is increased Spamassassin log output is also increased.
• The ClamAV log level can be increased by editing /etc/clamav/clamd.conf and setting the following
option:
LogVerbose t r u e

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 By default ClamAV will send log messages to /var/log/clamav/clamav.log.
Note
After changing an applications log settings remember to restart the service for the new settings
to take affect. Also, once the issue you are troubleshooting is resolved it is a good idea to change
the log settings back to normal.

References

For more information on filtering mail see the following links:

• Amavisd-new Documentation
• ClamAV Documentation and ClamAV Wiki
• Spamassassin Wiki
• Pyzor Homepage
• Razor Homepage
• DKIM.org
• Postfix Amavis New
Also, feel free to ask questions in the #ubuntu-server IRC channel on freenode.

Postfix
Postfix is the default Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) in Ubuntu. It attempts to be fast and secure, with
flexibility in administration. It is compatible with the MTA sendmail. This section will explain installation,
including how to configure SMTP for secure communications.
Note
This guide does not cover setting up Postfix Virtual Domains, for information on Virtual Domains
and other advanced configurations see References.

Installation

To install Postfix run the following command:

sudo apt i n s t a l l p o s t f i x

For now, it is ok to simply accept defaults by pressing return for each question. Some of the configuration
options will be investigated in greater detail in the next stage.
Deprecation warning: please note that the mail−stack−delivery metapackage has been dep-
recated in Focal. The package still exists for compatibility reasons, but won’t setup a working
email system.

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Basic Configuration

There are four things you should decide before starting configuration: - The <Domain> for which you’ll
accept email (we’ll use mail.example.com in our example) - The network and class range of your mail server
(we’ll use 192.168.0.0/24) - The username (we’re using steve) - Type of mailbox format (mbox is default,
we’ll use the alternative, Maildir)
To configure postfix, run the following command:
sudo dpkg−r e c o n f i g u r e p o s t f i x

The user interface will be displayed. On each screen, select the following values:
• Internet Site
• mail.example.com
• steve
• mail.example.com, localhost.localdomain, localhost
• No
• 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128 192.168.0.0/24
• 0
• +
• all
To set the mailbox format, you can either edit the configuration file directly, or use the postconf command.
In either case, the configuration parameters will be stored in /etc/postfix/main.cf file. Later if you wish to
re-configure a particular parameter, you can either run the command or change it manually in the file.
To configure the mailbox format for Maildir:
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ home_mailbox = M a i l d i r / ’

Note
This will place new mail in /home/username/Maildir so you will need to configure your Mail
Delivery Agent (MDA) to use the same path.

SMTP Authentication

SMTP-AUTH allows a client to identify itself through the SASL authentication mechanism, using Transport
Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt the authentication process. Once authenticated the SMTP server will allow
the client to relay mail.
To configure Postfix for SMTP-AUTH using SASL (Dovecot SASL), run these commands at a terminal
prompt:
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ smtpd_sasl_path = p r i v a t e / auth ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ smtpd_sasl_local_domain =’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ s m t p d _ s a s l _ s e c u r i t y _ o p t i o n s = noanonymous , n o p l a i n t e x t ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ s m t p d _ s a s l _ t l s _ s e c u r i t y _ o p t i o n s = noanonymous ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ b r o k e n _ s a s l _ a u t h _ c l i e n t s = yes ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes ’
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ s m t p d _ r e c i p i e n t _ r e s t r i c t i o n s = \
p e r m i t _ s a s l _ a u t h e n t i c a t e d , permit_mynetworks , r e j e c t _ u n a u t h _ d e s t i n a t i o n ’

Note
The smtpd_sasl_path config parameter is a path relative to the Postfix queue directory.

251
There are several SASL mechanism properties worth evaluating to improve the security of your deployment.
The options “noanonymous,noplaintext” prevent use of mechanisms that permit anonymous authentication
or that transmit credentials unencrypted.
Next, generate or obtain a digital certificate for TLS. See security - certificates in this guide for details about
generating digital certificates and setting up your own Certificate Authority (CA).
Note
MUAs connecting to your mail server via TLS will need to recognize the certificate used for TLS.
This can either be done using a certificate from a commercial CA or with a self-signed certificate
that users manually install/accept. For MTA to MTA TLS certficates are never validated without
advance agreement from the affected organizations. For MTA to MTA TLS, unless local policy
requires it, there is no reason not to use a self-signed certificate. Refer to security - certificates
in this guide for more details.
Once you have a certificate, configure Postfix to provide TLS encryption for both incoming and outgoing
mail:
sudo postconf −e ’ s m t p _ t l s _ s e c u r i t y _ l e v e l = may ’
sudo postconf −e ’ s m t p d _ t l s _ s e c u r i t y _ l e v e l = may ’
sudo postconf −e ’ s m t p _ t l s _ n o t e _ s t a r t t l s _ o f f e r = yes ’
sudo postconf −e ’ s m t p d _ t l s _ k e y _ f i l e = / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e / s e r v e r . key ’
sudo postconf −e ’ smtpd_tls_cert_file = / etc / s s l / c e r t s / server . crt ’
sudo postconf −e ’ smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1 ’
sudo postconf −e ’ smtpd_tls_received_header = yes ’
sudo postconf −e ’ myhostname = m a i l . example . com ’

If you are using your own Certificate Authority to sign the certificate enter:
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ smtpd_tls_CAfile = / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / c a c e r t . pem ’

Again, for more details about certificates see security - certificates in this guide.
Note
After running all the commands, Postfix is configured for SMTP-AUTH and a self-signed certifi-
cate has been created for TLS encryption.
Now, the file /etc/postfix/main.cf should look like this:
# See / u s r / s h a r e / p o s t f i x /main . c f . d i s t f o r a commented , more c o m p l e t e
# version

smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name ( Ubuntu )

b i f f = no

# appending . domain i s t h e MUA’ s j o b .

append_dot_mydomain = no

# Uncomment t h e next l i n e t o g e n e r a t e ” d e l a y e d m a i l ” w a r n i n g s
#delay_warning_time = 4h

myhostname = s e r v e r 1 . example . com

alias_maps = hash : / e t c / a l i a s e s
a l i a s _ d a t a b a s e = hash : / e t c / a l i a s e s
m y o r i g i n = / e t c / mailname
m y d e s t i n a t i o n = s e r v e r 1 . example . com , l o c a l h o s t . example . com , l o c a l h o s t
relayhost =

252
mynetworks = 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 0 / 8
mailbox_command = p r o c m a i l −a ”$EXTENSION”
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
smtpd_sasl_local_domain =
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = y e s
s m t p d _ s a s l _ s e c u r i t y _ o p t i o n s = noanonymous
broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
p e r m i t _ s a s l _ a u t h e n t i c a t e d , permit_mynetworks , r e j e c t _unauth_destination
smtpd_tls_auth_only = no
s m t p _ t l s _ s e c u r i t y _ l e v e l = may
s m t p d _ t l s _ s e c u r i t y _ l e v e l = may
smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes
s m t p d _ t l s _ k e y _ f i l e = / e t c / s s l / p r i v a t e /smtpd . key
s m t p d _ t l s _ c e r t _ f i l e = / e t c / s s l / c e r t s /smtpd . c r t
smtpd_tls_CAfile = / e t c / s s l / c e r t s / c a c e r t . pem
smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1
smtpd_tls_received_header = y e s
smtpd_tls_session_cache_timeout = 3600 s
tls_random_source = dev : / dev /urandom

The postfix initial configuration is complete. Run the following command to restart the postfix daemon:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t p o s t f i x . s e r v i c e

Postfix supports SMTP-AUTH as defined in RFC2554. It is based on SASL. However it is still necessary to
set up SASL authentication before you can use SMTP-AUTH.
When using ipv6, the mynetworks parameter may need to be modified to allow ipv6 addresses, for example:
mynetworks = 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 0 / 8 , [ : : 1 ] / 1 2 8

Configuring SASL

Postfix supports two SASL implementations: Cyrus SASL and Dovecot SASL. To enable Dovecot SASL the
dovecot-core package will need to be installed:
sudo apt i n s t a l l dovecot−c o r e

Next, edit /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10−master.conf and change the following:

s e r v i c e auth {
# auth_socket_path p o i n t s t o t h i s us e rd b s o c k e t by d e f a u l t . I t ’ s t y p i c a l l y
# used by dovecot−lda , doveadm , p o s s i b l y imap p r o c e s s , e t c . I t s d e f a u l t
# p e r m i s s i o n s make i t r e a d a b l e o n l y by r o o t , but you may need t o r e l a x t h e s e
# p e r m i s s i o n s . U s e r s t h a t have a c c e s s t o t h i s s o c k e t a r e a b l e t o g e t a l i s t
# o f a l l usernames and g e t r e s u l t s o f everyone ’ s u s e r d b l o o k u p s .
u n i x _ l i s t e n e r auth−u ser db {
#mode = 0600
#u s e r =
#group =
}

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 # P o s t f i x smtp−auth
u n i x _ l i s t e n e r / var / s p o o l / p o s t f i x / p r i v a t e / auth {
mode = 0660
user = postfix
group = p o s t f i x
}

To permit use of SMTP-AUTH by Outlook clients, change the following line in the authentication mechanisms
section of /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10−auth.conf from:
auth_mechanisms = p l a i n

to this:
auth_mechanisms = p l a i n l o g i n

Once you have Dovecot configured, restart it with:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t d o v e c o t . s e r v i c e

Testing

SMTP-AUTH configuration is complete. Now it is time to test the setup.

To see if SMTP-AUTH and TLS work properly, run the following command:
t e l n e t m a i l . example . com 25

After you have established the connection to the Postfix mail server, type:
e h l o m a i l . example . com

If you see the following in the output, then everything is working perfectly. Type quit to exit.
250−STARTTLS
250−AUTH LOGIN PLAIN
250−AUTH=LOGIN PLAIN
250 8BITMIME

Troubleshooting

When problems arise, there are a few common ways to diagnose the cause.

Escaping chroot

The Ubuntu Postfix package will by default install into a chroot environment for security reasons. This can
add greater complexity when troubleshooting problems.
To turn off the chroot usage, locate the following line in the /etc/postfix/master.cf configuration file:
smtp inet n − − − − smtpd

and modify it as follows:

smtp inet n − n − − smtpd

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You will then need to restart Postfix to use the new configuration. From a terminal prompt enter:
sudo s e r v i c e p o s t f i x r e s t a r t

SMTPS

If you need secure SMTP, edit /etc/postfix/master.cf and uncomment the following line:
smtps inet n − − − − smtpd
−o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=y e s
−o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=y e s
−o s m t p d _ c l i e n t _ r e s t r i c t i o n s=p e r m i t _ s a s l _ a u t h e n t i c a t e d , r e j e c t
−o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING

Log Viewing

Postfix sends all log messages to /var/log/mail.log. However, error and warning messages can sometimes
get lost in the normal log output so they are also logged to /var/log/mail.err and /var/log/mail.warn
respectively.
To see messages entered into the logs in real time you can use the tail -f command:
t a i l −f / var / l o g / m a i l . e r r

Increasing Logging Detail

The amount of detail that is recorded in the logs can be increased via the configuration options. For example,
to increase TLS activity logging set the smtpd_tls_loglevel option to a value from 1 to 4.
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ s m t p d _ t l s _ l o g l e v e l = 4 ’

Reload the service after any configuration change, to make the new config active:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d p o s t f i x . s e r v i c e

Logging mail delivery

If you are having trouble sending or receiving mail from a specific domain you can add the domain to the
debug_peer_list parameter.
sudo p o s t c o n f −e ’ d e b u g _ p e e r _ l i s t = problem . domain ’
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d p o s t f i x . s e r v i c e

Increasing daemon verbosity

You can increase the verbosity of any Postfix daemon process by editing the /etc/postfix/master.cf and
adding a -v after the entry. For example, edit the smtp entry:
smtp unix − − − − − smtp −v

Then, reload the service as usual:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d p o s t f i x . s e r v i c e

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Logging SASL debug info

To increase the amount of information logged when troubleshooting SASL issues you can set the following
options in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10−logging.conf
auth_debug=y e s
auth_debug_passwords=y e s

Just like Postfix if you change a Dovecot configuration the process will need to be reloaded:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d d o v e c o t . s e r v i c e

Note
Some of the options above can drastically increase the amount of information sent to the log files.
Remember to return the log level back to normal after you have corrected the problem. Then
reload the appropriate daemon for the new configuration to take affect.
References
Administering a Postfix server can be a very complicated task. At some point you may need to turn to the
Ubuntu community for more experienced help.
• The Postfix website documents all available configuration options.
• O’Reilly’s Postfix: The Definitive Guide is rather dated but provides deep background information
about configuration options.
• The Ubuntu Wiki Postfix page has more information from a Ubuntu context. There is also a Debian
Wiki Postfix page that’s a bit more up to date; they also have a set of Postfix Tutorials for different
Debian versions.
• Info on how to set up mailman3 with postfix

Squid
Squid is a full-featured web proxy cache server application which provides proxy and cache services for Hyper
Text Transport Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and other popular network protocols. Squid
can implement caching and proxying of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) requests and caching of Domain Name
Server (DNS) lookups, and perform transparent caching. Squid also supports a wide variety of caching
protocols, such as Internet Cache Protocol (ICP), the Hyper Text Caching Protocol (HTCP), the Cache
Array Routing Protocol (CARP), and the Web Cache Coordination Protocol (WCCP).
The Squid proxy cache server is an excellent solution to a variety of proxy and caching server needs, and
scales from the branch office to enterprise level networks while providing extensive, granular access control
mechanisms, and monitoring of critical parameters via the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
When selecting a computer system for use as a dedicated Squid caching proxy server for many users ensure it
is configured with a large amount of physical memory as Squid maintains an in-memory cache for increased
performance.

Installation

At a terminal prompt, enter the following command to install the Squid server:
sudo apt i n s t a l l s q u i d

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Configuration

Squid is configured by editing the directives contained within the /etc/squid/squid.conf configuration file.
The following examples illustrate some of the directives which may be modified to affect the behavior of the
Squid server. For more in-depth configuration of Squid, see the References section.
Tip
Prior to editing the configuration file, you should make a copy of the original file and protect
it from writing so you will have the original settings as a reference, and to re-use as necessary.
Make this copy and protect it from writing using the following commands:
sudo cp / e t c / s q u i d / s q u i d . c o n f / e t c / s q u i d / s q u i d . c o n f . o r i g i n a l
sudo chmod a−w / e t c / s q u i d / s q u i d . c o n f . o r i g i n a l

• To set your Squid server to listen on TCP port 8888 instead of the default TCP port 3128, change the
http_port directive as such:
http_port 8888

• Change the visible_hostname directive in order to give the Squid server a specific hostname. This
hostname does not necessarily need to be the computer’s hostname. In this example it is set to weezie
visible_hostname weezie

• The cache_dir option allows one to configure an on-disk cache, the default option is on-memory cache.
The cache_dir directive takes the following arguments:
c a c h e _ d i r <Type> <D i r e c t o r y −Name> <Fs−s p e c i f i c −data> [ o p t i o n s ]

In the config file you can find the default cache_dir directive commented out:
# Uncomment and a d j u s t t h e f o l l o w i n g t o add a d i s k c a c h e d i r e c t o r y .
#c a c h e _ d i r u f s / var / s p o o l / s q u i d 100 16 256

You can just use the default option but you can also customize your cache directory, basically changing
the <Type> of this directory, it can be:
– ufs: the old well-known Squid storage format that has always been there.
– aufs: uses the same storage format as ufs, utilizing POSIX-threads to avoid blocking the main
Squid process on disk-I/O. This was formerly known in Squid as async−io.
– diskd: uses the same storage format as ufs, utilizing a separate process to avoid blocking the main
Squid process on disk-I/O.
– rock: is a database-style storage. All cached entries are stored in a “database” file, using fixed-size
slots. A single entry occupies one or more slots.
If you want to use a different directory type please take a look at their different options.
• Using Squid’s access control, you may configure use of Internet services proxied by Squid to be available
only users with certain Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. For example, we will illustrate access by users
of the 192.168.42.0/24 subnetwork only:
Add the following to the bottom of the ACL section of your /etc/squid/squid.conf file:
a c l fortytwo_network s r c 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 4 2 . 0 / 2 4

Then, add the following to the top of the http_access section of your /etc/squid/squid.conf file:
h t t p _ a c c e s s a l l o w fortytwo_network

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 • Using the excellent access control features of Squid, you may configure use of Internet services proxied
by Squid to be available only during normal business hours. For example, we’ll illustrate access by
employees of a business which is operating between 9:00AM and 5:00PM, Monday through Friday, and
which uses the 10.1.42.0/24 subnetwork:
Add the following to the bottom of the ACL section of your /etc/squid/squid.conf file:
a c l biz_network s r c 1 0 . 1 . 4 2 . 0 / 2 4
a c l biz_hours time M T W T F 9:00 −17:00

Then, add the following to the top of the http_access section of your /etc/squid/squid.conf file:
h t t p _ a c c e s s a l l o w biz_network biz_hours

Note
After making changes to the /etc/squid/squid.conf file, save the file and restart the squid server
application to effect the changes using the following command entered at a terminal prompt:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t s q u i d . s e r v i c e

Note
If formerly a customized squid3 was used that set up the spool at /var/log/squid3 to be a
mountpoint, but otherwise kept the default configuration the upgrade will fail. The upgrade
tries to rename/move files as needed, but it can’t do so for an active mountpoint. In that case
please either adapt the mountpoint or the config in /etc/squid/squid.conf so that they match.
The same applies if the include config statement was used to pull in more files from the old path
at /etc/squid3/. In those cases you should move and adapt your configuration accordingly.

References

Squid Website
Ubuntu Wiki Squid page.

HTTPD - Apache2 Web Server

Apache is the most commonly used Web server on Linux systems. Web servers are used to serve Web pages
requested by client computers. Clients typically request and view Web pages using Web browser applications
such as Firefox, Opera, Chromium, or Internet Explorer.
Users enter a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to point to a Web server by means of its Fully Qualified
Domain Name (FQDN) and a path to the required resource. For example, to view the home page of the
Ubuntu Web site a user will enter only the FQDN:
www. ubuntu . com

To view the community sub-page, a user will enter the FQDN followed by a path:
www. ubuntu . com/community

The most common protocol used to transfer Web pages is the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Proto-
cols such as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol over Secure Sockets Layer (HTTPS), and File Transfer Protocol
(FTP), a protocol for uploading and downloading files, are also supported.

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Apache Web Servers are often used in combination with the MySQL database engine, the HyperText Pre-
processor (PHP) scripting language, and other popular scripting languages such as Python and Perl. This
configuration is termed LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/Python/PHP) and forms a powerful and
robust platform for the development and deployment of Web-based applications.

Installation

The Apache2 web server is available in Ubuntu Linux. To install Apache2:

At a terminal prompt enter the following command:
sudo apt i n s t a l l apache2

Configuration

Apache2 is configured by placing directives in plain text configuration files. These directives are separated
between the following files and directories:
• apache2.conf: the main Apache2 configuration file. Contains settings that are global to Apache2.
• httpd.conf: historically the main Apache2 configuration file, named after the httpd daemon. In other
distributions (or older versions of Ubuntu), the file might be present. In Ubuntu, all configuration
options have been moved to apache2.conf and the below referenced directories, and this file no longer
exists.
• conf-available: this directory contains available configuration files. All files that were previously in
/etc/apache2/conf.d should be moved to /etc/apache2/conf−available.
• conf-enabled: holds symlinks to the files in /etc/apache2/conf−available. When a configuration file is
symlinked, it will be enabled the next time apache2 is restarted.
• envvars: file where Apache2 environment variables are set.
• mods-available: this directory contains configuration files to both load modules and configure them.
Not all modules will have specific configuration files, however.
• mods-enabled: holds symlinks to the files in /etc/apache2/mods−available. When a module configura-
tion file is symlinked it will be enabled the next time apache2 is restarted.
• ports.conf: houses the directives that determine which TCP ports Apache2 is listening on.
• sites-available: this directory has configuration files for Apache2 Virtual Hosts. Virtual Hosts allow
Apache2 to be configured for multiple sites that have separate configurations.
• sites-enabled: like mods-enabled, sites −enabled contains symlinks to the /etc/apache2/sites−available
directory. Similarly when a configuration file in sites-available is symlinked, the site configured by it
will be active once Apache2 is restarted.
• magic: instructions for determining MIME type based on the first few bytes of a file.
In addition, other configuration files may be added using the Include directive, and wildcards can be used to
include many configuration files. Any directive may be placed in any of these configuration files. Changes
to the main configuration files are only recognized by Apache2 when it is started or restarted.
The server also reads a file containing mime document types; the filename is set by the TypesConfig directive,
typically via /etc/apache2/mods−available/mime.conf, which might also include additions and overrides, and
is /etc/mime.types by default.

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Basic Settings

This section explains Apache2 server essential configuration parameters. Refer to the Apache2 Documenta-
tion for more details.
• Apache2 ships with a virtual-host-friendly default configuration. That is, it is configured with a single
default virtual host (using the VirtualHost directive) which can be modified or used as-is if you have
a single site, or used as a template for additional virtual hosts if you have multiple sites. If left alone,
the default virtual host will serve as your default site, or the site users will see if the URL they enter
does not match the ServerName directive of any of your custom sites. To modify the default virtual
host, edit the file /etc/apache2/sites−available/000−default.conf.
Note
The directives set for a virtual host only apply to that particular virtual host. If a directive
is set server-wide and not defined within the virtual host settings, the default setting is used.
For example, you can define a Webmaster email address and not define individual email
addresses for each virtual host.
If you wish to configure a new virtual host or site, copy that file into the same directory with a name
you choose. For example:
sudo cp / e t c / apache2 / s i t e s −a v a i l a b l e /000− d e f a u l t . c o n f / e t c / apache2 / s i t e s −
a v a i l a b l e / mynewsite . c o n f

Edit the new file to configure the new site using some of the directives described below.
• The ServerAdmin directive specifies the email address to be advertised for the server’s administrator.
The default value is webmaster@localhost. This should be changed to an email address that is delivered
to you (if you are the server’s administrator). If your website has a problem, Apache2 will display an
error message containing this email address to report the problem to. Find this directive in your site’s
configuration file in /etc/apache2/sites-available.
• The Listen directive specifies the port, and optionally the IP address, Apache2 should listen on. If the
IP address is not specified, Apache2 will listen on all IP addresses assigned to the machine it runs on.
The default value for the Listen directive is 80. Change this to 127.0.0.1:80 to cause Apache2 to listen
only on your loopback interface so that it will not be available to the Internet, to (for example) 81 to
change the port that it listens on, or leave it as is for normal operation. This directive can be found
and changed in its own file, /etc/apache2/ports.conf
• The ServerName directive is optional and specifies what FQDN your site should answer to. The default
virtual host has no ServerName directive specified, so it will respond to all requests that do not match
a ServerName directive in another virtual host. If you have just acquired the domain name mynewsite
.com and wish to host it on your Ubuntu server, the value of the ServerName directive in your virtual
host configuration file should be mynewsite.com. Add this directive to the new virtual host file you
created earlier (/etc/apache2/sites−available/mynewsite.conf).
You may also want your site to respond to www.mynewsite.com, since many users will assume the
www prefix is appropriate. Use the ServerAlias directive for this. You may also use wildcards in the
ServerAlias directive.
For example, the following configuration will cause your site to respond to any domain request ending
in .mynewsite.com.
S e r v e r A l i a s * . mynewsite . com

• The DocumentRoot directive specifies where Apache2 should look for the files that make up the site.
The default value is /var/www/html, as specified in /etc/apache2/sites−available/000−default.conf.
If desired, change this value in your site’s virtual host file, and remember to create that directory if
necessary!

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Enable the new VirtualHost using the a2ensite utility and restart Apache2:
sudo a 2 e n s i t e mynewsite
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

Note
Be sure to replace mynewsite with a more descriptive name for the VirtualHost. One method is
to name the file after the ServerName directive of the VirtualHost.
Similarly, use the a2dissite utility to disable sites. This is can be useful when troubleshooting configuration
problems with multiple VirtualHosts:
sudo a 2 d i s s i t e mynewsite
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

Default Settings

This section explains configuration of the Apache2 server default settings. For example, if you add a virtual
host, the settings you configure for the virtual host take precedence for that virtual host. For a directive not
defined within the virtual host settings, the default value is used.
• The DirectoryIndex is the default page served by the server when a user requests an index of a directory
by specifying a forward slash (/) at the end of the directory name.
For example, when a user requests the page http://www.example.com/this_directory/, he or she will
get either the DirectoryIndex page if it exists, a server-generated directory list if it does not and the
Indexes option is specified, or a Permission Denied page if neither is true. The server will try to find one
of the files listed in the DirectoryIndex directive and will return the first one it finds. If it does not find
any of these files and if Options Indexes is set for that directory, the server will generate and return a
list, in HTML format, of the subdirectories and files in the directory. The default value, found in /etc/
apache2/mods−available/dir.conf is “index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml index.htm”.
Thus, if Apache2 finds a file in a requested directory matching any of these names, the first will be
displayed.
• The ErrorDocument directive allows you to specify a file for Apache2 to use for specific error events.
For example, if a user requests a resource that does not exist, a 404 error will occur. By default,
Apache2 will simply return a HTTP 404 Return code. Read /etc/apache2/conf−available/localized
−error−pages.conf for detailed instructions for using ErrorDocument, including locations of example
files.
• By default, the server writes the transfer log to the file /var/log/apache2/access.log. You can change
this on a per-site basis in your virtual host configuration files with the CustomLog directive, or omit it
to accept the default, specified in /etc/apache2/conf−available/other−vhosts−access−log.conf. You
may also specify the file to which errors are logged, via the ErrorLog directive, whose default is /var/log
/apache2/error.log. These are kept separate from the transfer logs to aid in troubleshooting problems
with your Apache2 server. You may also specify the LogLevel (the default value is “warn”) and the
LogFormat (see /etc/apache2/apache2.conf for the default value).
• Some options are specified on a per-directory basis rather than per-server. Options is one of these
directives. A Directory stanza is enclosed in XML-like tags, like so:
<D i r e c t o r y / var /www/ html / mynewsite>
...
</D i r e c t o r y >

The Options directive within a Directory stanza accepts one or more of the following values (among
others), separated by spaces:

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 – ExecCGI - Allow execution of CGI scripts. CGI scripts are not executed if this option is not
chosen.
Caution
Most files should not be executed as CGI scripts. This would be very dangerous. CGI
scripts should kept in a directory separate from and outside your DocumentRoot, and
only this directory should have the ExecCGI option set. This is the default, and the
default location for CGI scripts is /usr/lib/cgi−bin.
– Includes - Allow server-side includes. Server-side includes allow an HTML file to include other
files. See Apache SSI documentation (Ubuntu community) for more information.
– IncludesNOEXEC - Allow server-side includes, but disable the #exec and #include commands
in CGI scripts.
– Indexes - Display a formatted list of the directory’s contents, if no DirectoryIndex (such as
index.html) exists in the requested directory.
Caution
For security reasons, this should usually not be set, and certainly should not be set on
your DocumentRoot directory. Enable this option carefully on a per-directory basis only
if you are certain you want users to see the entire contents of the directory.
– Multiview - Support content-negotiated multiviews; this option is disabled by default for security
reasons. See the Apache2 documentation on this option.
– SymLinksIfOwnerMatch - Only follow symbolic links if the target file or directory has the
same owner as the link.

apache2 Settings

This section explains some basic apache2 daemon configuration settings.

LockFile - The LockFile directive sets the path to the lockfile used when the server is compiled with either
USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT or USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT. It must be stored on
the local disk. It should be left to the default value unless the logs directory is located on an NFS share. If
this is the case, the default value should be changed to a location on the local disk and to a directory that
is readable only by root.
PidFile - The PidFile directive sets the file in which the server records its process ID (pid). This file should
only be readable by root. In most cases, it should be left to the default value.
User - The User directive sets the userid used by the server to answer requests. This setting determines
the server’s access. Any files inaccessible to this user will also be inaccessible to your website’s visitors. The
default value for User is “www-data”.
Warning
Unless you know exactly what you are doing, do not set the User directive to root. Using root
as the User will create large security holes for your Web server.
Group - The Group directive is similar to the User directive. Group sets the group under which the server
will answer requests. The default group is also “www-data”.

Apache2 Modules

Apache2 is a modular server. This implies that only the most basic functionality is included in the core
server. Extended features are available through modules which can be loaded into Apache2. By default, a

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base set of modules is included in the server at compile-time. If the server is compiled to use dynamically
loaded modules, then modules can be compiled separately, and added at any time using the LoadModule
directive. Otherwise, Apache2 must be recompiled to add or remove modules.
Ubuntu compiles Apache2 to allow the dynamic loading of modules. Configuration directives may be condi-
tionally included on the presence of a particular module by enclosing them in an <IfModule> block.
You can install additional Apache2 modules and use them with your Web server. For example, run the
following command at a terminal prompt to install the Python 3 WSGI module:
sudo apt i n s t a l l l i b a p a c h e 2 −mod−wsgi−py3

The installation will enable the module automatically, but we can disable it with a2dismod:
sudo a2dismod w s g i
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

And then use the a2enmod utility to re-enable it:

sudo a2enmod w s g i
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

See the /etc/apache2/mods−available directory for additional modules already available on your system.

HTTPS Configuration

The mod_ssl module adds an important feature to the Apache2 server - the ability to encrypt communica-
tions. Thus, when your browser is communicating using SSL, the https:// prefix is used at the beginning of
the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the browser navigation bar.
The mod_ssl module is available in apache2-common package. Execute the following command at a terminal
prompt to enable the mod_ssl module:
sudo a2enmod s s l

There is a default HTTPS configuration file in /etc/apache2/sites−available/default−ssl.conf. In order for

Apache2 to provide HTTPS, a certificate and key file are also needed. The default HTTPS configuration
will use a certificate and key generated by the ssl −cert package. They are good for testing, but the auto-
generated certificate and key should be replaced by a certificate specific to the site or server. For information
on generating a key and obtaining a certificate see Certificates.
To configure Apache2 for HTTPS, enter the following:
sudo a 2 e n s i t e d e f a u l t −s s l

Note
The directories /etc/ ssl /certs and /etc/ ssl /private are the default locations. If you install the
certificate and key in another directory make sure to change SSLCertificateFile and SSLCertifi-
cateKeyFile appropriately.
With Apache2 now configured for HTTPS, restart the service to enable the new settings:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

Note
Depending on how you obtained your certificate you may need to enter a passphrase when
Apache2 starts.
You can access the secure server pages by typing https://your_hostname/url/ in your browser address bar.

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Sharing Write Permission

For more than one user to be able to write to the same directory it will be necessary to grant write permission
to a group they share in common. The following example grants shared write permission to /var/www/html
to the group “webmasters”.
sudo chgrp −R webmasters / var /www/ html
sudo chmod −R g=rwX / var /www/ html /

These commands recursively set the group permission on all files and directories in /var/www/html to allow
reading, writing and searching of directories. Many admins find this useful for allowing multiple users to
edit files in a directory tree.
Warning
The apache2 daemon will run as the www−data user, which has a corresponding www−data
group. These should not be granted write access to the document root, as this would mean that
vulnerabilities in Apache or the applications it is serving would allow attackers to overwrite the
served content.

References

• Apache2 Documentation contains in depth information on Apache2 configuration directives. Also, see
the apache2-doc package for the official Apache2 docs.
• O’Reilly’s Apache Cookbook is a good resource for accomplishing specific Apache2 configurations.
• For Ubuntu specific Apache2 questions, ask in the #ubuntu-server IRC channel on freenode.net.

Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat is a web container that allows you to serve Java Servlets and JSP (Java Server Pages) web
applications.
Ubuntu has supported packages for both Tomcat 6 and 7. Tomcat 6 is the legacy version, and Tomcat 7 is
the current version where new features are implemented. Both are considered stable. This guide will focus
on Tomcat 7, but most configuration details are valid for both versions.
The Tomcat packages in Ubuntu support two different ways of running Tomcat. You can install them as a
classic unique system-wide instance, that will be started at boot time will run as the tomcat7 (or tomcat6)
unprivileged user. But you can also deploy private instances that will run with your own user rights, and
that you should start and stop by yourself. This second way is particularly useful in a development server
context where multiple users need to test on their own private Tomcat instances.

System-wide installation

To install the Tomcat server, you can enter the following command in the terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l tomcat7

This will install a Tomcat server with just a default ROOT webapp that displays a minimal “It works” page
by default.

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Configuration

Tomcat configuration files can be found in /etc/tomcat7. Only a few common configuration tweaks will be
described here, please see Tomcat 7.0 documentation for more.

Changing default ports

By default Tomcat runs a HTTP connector on port 8080 and an AJP connector on port 8009. You might
want to change those default ports to avoid conflict with another application on the system. This is done by
changing the following lines in /etc/tomcat7/server.xml:
<Connector p o r t =”8080” p r o t o c o l =”HTTP/ 1 . 1 ”
c on n ec t io nT i me ou t =”20000”
r e d i r e c t P o r t =”8443” />
...
<Connector p o r t =”8009” p r o t o c o l =”AJP/ 1 . 3 ” r e d i r e c t P o r t =”8443” />

Changing JVM used

By default Tomcat will run preferably with OpenJDK JVMs, then try the Sun JVMs, then try some other
JVMs. You can force Tomcat to use a specific JVM by setting JAVA_HOME in /etc/default/tomcat7:
JAVA_HOME=/u s r / l i b /jvm/ java −6−sun

Declaring users and roles

Usernames, passwords and roles (groups) can be defined centrally in a Servlet container. This is done in the
/etc/tomcat7/tomcat−users.xml file:
<r o l e rolename=”admin”/>
<u s e r username=”tomcat ” password=” s 3 c r e t ” r o l e s =”admin”/>

Using Tomcat standard webapps

Tomcat is shipped with webapps that you can install for documentation, administration or demo purposes.

Tomcat documentation

The tomcat7-docs package contains Tomcat documentation, packaged as a webapp that you can access by
default at http://yourserver:8080/docs. You can install it by entering the following command in the terminal
prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l tomcat7−d o c s

Tomcat administration webapps

The tomcat7-admin package contains two webapps that can be used to administer the Tomcat server using
a web interface. You can install them by entering the following command in the terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l tomcat7−admin

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The first one is the manager webapp, which you can access by default at http://yourserver:8080/manager/html.
It is primarily used to get server status and restart webapps.
Note
Access to the manager application is protected by default: you need to define a user with the
role “manager-gui” in /etc/tomcat7/tomcat−users.xml before you can access it.
The second one is the host-manager webapp, which you can access by default at http://yourserver:8080/host-
manager/html. It can be used to create virtual hosts dynamically.
Note
Access to the host-manager application is also protected by default: you need to define a user
with the role “admin-gui” in /etc/tomcat7/tomcat−users.xml before you can access it.
For security reasons, the tomcat7 user cannot write to the /etc/tomcat7 directory by default. Some features
in these admin webapps (application deployment, virtual host creation) need write access to that directory.
If you want to use these features execute the following, to give users in the tomcat7 group the necessary
rights:
sudo chgrp −R tomcat7 / e t c / tomcat7
sudo chmod −R g+w / e t c / tomcat7

Tomcat examples webapps

The tomcat7-examples package contains two webapps that can be used to test or demonstrate Servlets and
JSP features, which you can access them by default at http://yourserver:8080/examples. You can install
them by entering the following command in the terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l tomcat7−examples

Using private instances

Tomcat is heavily used in development and testing scenarios where using a single system-wide instance
doesn’t meet the requirements of multiple users on a single system. The Tomcat packages in Ubuntu come
with tools to help deploy your own user-oriented instances, allowing every user on a system to run (without
root rights) separate private instances while still using the system-installed libraries.
Note
It is possible to run the system-wide instance and the private instances in parallel, as long as
they do not use the same TCP ports.

Installing private instance support

You can install everything necessary to run private instances by entering the following command in the
terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l tomcat7−u s e r

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Creating a private instance

You can create a private instance directory by entering the following command in the terminal prompt:
tomcat7−i n s t a n c e −c r e a t e my−i n s t a n c e

This will create a new my−instance directory with all the necessary subdirectories and scripts. You can for
example install your common libraries in the lib / subdirectory and deploy your webapps in the webapps/
subdirectory. No webapps are deployed by default.

Configuring your private instance

You will find the classic Tomcat configuration files for your private instance in the conf/ subdirectory. You
should for example certainly edit the conf/server .xml file to change the default ports used by your private
Tomcat instance to avoid conflict with other instances that might be running.

Starting/stopping your private instance

You can start your private instance by entering the following command in the terminal prompt (supposing
your instance is located in the my−instance directory):
my−i n s t a n c e / b i n / s t a r t u p . sh

Note
You should check the logs/ subdirectory for any error. If you have a java.net.BindException:
Address already in use<null>:8080 error, it means that the port you’re using is already taken
and that you should change it.
You can stop your instance by entering the following command in the terminal prompt (supposing your
instance is located in the my−instance directory):
my−i n s t a n c e / b i n / shutdown . sh

References

• See the Apache Tomcat website for more information.

• Tomcat: The Definitive Guide is a good resource for building web applications with Tomcat.
• For additional books see the Tomcat Books list page.

Web Servers
The primary function of a web server is to store, process and deliver Web pages to clients. The clients
communicate with the server sending HTTP requests. Clients, mostly via Web Browsers, request for a
specific resources and the server responds with the content of that resource or an error message. The
response is usually a Web page such as HTML documents which may include images, style sheets, scripts,
and the content in form of text.
When accessing a Web Server, every HTTP request that is received is responded to with a content and a
HTTP status code. HTTP status codes are three-digit codes, and are grouped into five different classes.
The class of a status code can be quickly identified by its first digit:

267
 • 1xx : Informational - Request received, continuing process
• 2xx : Success - The action was successfully received, understood, and accepted
• 3xx : Redirection - Further action must be taken in order to complete the request
• 4xx : Client Error - The request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled
• 5xx : Server Error - The server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request
More information about status code check the RFC 2616.

Implementation

Web Servers are heavily used in the deployment of Web sites and in this scenario we can use two different
implementations:
• Static Web Server: The content of the server’s response will be the hosted files “as-is”.
• Dynamic Web Server: Consist in a Web Server plus an extra software, usually an application server
and a database. For example, to produce the Web pages you see in the Web browser, the application
server might fill an HTML template with contents from a database. Due to that we say that the
content of the server’s response is generated dynamically.

Introduction to High Availability

A definition of High Availability Clusters from Wikipedia:

High Availability Clusters

High-availability clusters (also known as HA clusters , fail-over clusters or Metroclus-

ters Active/Active ) are groups of computers that support server applications that can be
reliably utilized with a minimum amount of down-time.
They operate by using high availability software to harness redundant computers in groups or
clusters that provide continued service when system components fail.
Without clustering, if a server running a particular application crashes, the application will be
unavailable until the crashed server is fixed. HA clustering remedies this situation by detecting
hardware/software faults, and immediately restarting the application on another system without
requiring administrative intervention, a process known as failover.
As part of this process, clustering software may configure the node before starting the application
on it. For example, appropriate file systems may need to be imported and mounted, network
hardware may have to be configured, and some supporting applications may need to be running
as well.
HA clusters are often used for critical databases, file sharing on a network, business applications,
and customer services such as electronic commerce websites.

High Availability Cluster Heartbeat

HA cluster implementations attempt to build redundancy into a cluster to eliminate single points
of failure, including multiple network connections and data storage which is redundantly con-
nected via storage area networks.
HA clusters usually use a heartbeat private network connection which is used to monitor the
health and status of each node in the cluster. One subtle but serious condition all clustering

268
 software must be able to handle is split-brain, which occurs when all of the private links go down
simultaneously, but the cluster nodes are still running.
If that happens, each node in the cluster may mistakenly decide that every other node has gone
down and attempt to start services that other nodes are still running. Having duplicate instances
of services may cause data corruption on the shared storage.

High Availability Cluster Quorum

HA clusters often also use quorum witness storage (local or cloud) to avoid this scenario. A
witness device cannot be shared between two halves of a split cluster, so in the event that all
cluster members cannot communicate with each other (e.g., failed heartbeat), if a member cannot
access the witness, it cannot become active.

Example

2nodeHAcluster|578x674,75%

Linux High Availability Projects

There are many upstream high availability related projects that are included in Ubuntu Linux. This section
will describe the most important ones.
For the latest LTS version, the following packages are considered

Ubuntu HA Core Packages

Packages in this list are supported just like any other package available in main repository would be.

Package URL
libqb Ubuntu | Upstream
kronosnet Ubuntu | Upstream
corosync Ubuntu | Upstream
pacemaker Ubuntu | Upstream
resource-agents Ubuntu | Upstream
fence-agents Ubuntu | Upstream
crmsh Ubuntu | Upstream
cluster-glue Ubuntu | Upstream
drbd-utils Ubuntu | Upstream
dlm Ubuntu | Upstream
gfs2-utils Ubuntu | Upstream
keepalived Ubuntu | Upstream

Ubuntu HA Community Packages

Packages in this list are supported just like any other package available in [universe] repository would be.

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 Package URL

Package URL
pcs* Ubuntu | Upstream
csync2 Ubuntu | Upstream
corosync-qdevice Ubuntu | Upstream
fence-virt Ubuntu | Upstream
sbd Ubuntu | Upstream
booth Ubuntu | Upstream

Note: pcs will likely replace crmsh in main repository in future Ubuntu versions.

Ubuntu HA Deprecated Packages

Packages in this list are only supported by the upstream community . All bugs opened against these
agents will be forwarded to upstream IF makes sense (affected version is close to upstream).

Package URL
ocfs2-tools Ubuntu | Upstream

Ubuntu HA Related Packages

Packages in this list aren’t necessarily HA related packages, but they have a very important role in High
Availability Clusters and are supported like any other package provide by the main repository.

Package URL
multipath-tools Ubuntu | Upstream
open-iscsi Ubuntu | Upstream
sg3-utils Ubuntu | Upstream
tgt OR targetcli-fb* Ubuntu | Upstream
lvm2 Ubuntu | Upstream

Note: targetcli-fb (Linux LIO) will likely replace tgt in future Ubuntu versions.

Upstream Documentation

The server guide does not have the intent to document every existing option for all the HA related softwares
described in this page, but to document recommended scenarios for Ubuntu HA Clusters. You will find more
complete documentation upstream at:
• ClusterLabs
– Clusters From Scratch
– Managing Pacemaker Clusters
– Pacemaker Configuration Explained
– Pacemaker Remote - Scaling HA Clusters
• Other
– Ubuntu Bionic HA in Shared Disk Environments (Azure)

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 A very special thanks, and all the credits, to ClusterLabs Project for all that detailed documen-
tation.

Ubuntu HA - Pacemaker Resource Agents Supportability

After discussions among Ubuntu Developers, it was decided that Ubuntu project should focus in splitting
all existing Pacemaker Resource Agents into different categories:
• Resource Agents: main
• Resource Agents: [universe]
• Resource Agents: [universe]-community
• Resource Agents: [non-supported]
• Resource Agents: [deprecated]
Note: There is a current plan to split resource agents into different packages so supported agents
can be installed independently.

Resource Agents: main

Agents in this list are supported just like any other package available in main repository would be.
|
RESOURCE AGENT
|
RESOURCE AGENT DESCRIPTION

||
SUPPORT AGENTS
|Delay|test resource for introducing delay| |MailTo|sends email to a sysadmin whenever a takeover occurs|
|ClusterMon|runs crm_mon to a html page from time to time| |HealthCPU|measures CPU idling and up-
dates #health-cpu attr| |HealthIOWait|measures CPU idling and updates #health-iowait attr| |HealthS-
MART|measures CPU idling and updates #health-smart attr| ||
SERVICES (OCF, Systemd, SysV)
| |apache|apache web server instance| |dovecot|dovecot IMAP/POP3 server instance| |dhcpd|chrooted ISC
dhcp server instance| |mysql|MySQL instance| |mysql-proxy|MySQL proxy instance| |pgsql|pgsql database
instance| |named|bind/named server instance| |nfsnotify|nfs sm-notify reboot notifications daemon| |nf-
sserver|nfs server resource| |exportfs|nfs exports (not the nfs server)| |nginx|Nginx web/proxy server instance|
|postfix|postfix mail server instance| |rabbitmq-cluster|cloned rabbitmq cluster instance| |remote|pacemaker
remote resource agent| |rsyncd|rsyncd instance| |rsyslog|rsyslogd instance| |slapd|stand-alone LDAP daemon
instance| |Squid|squid proxy server instance| |vsftpd|vsftpd server instance| | |
STORAGE
|Raid1|software RAID (MD) devices on shared storage| |iscsi|local iscsi initiator and its conns to targets|
|iSCSILogicalUnit|iSCSI logical units| |iSCSITarget|iSCSI target export agent (implementation: tgt / lio)|
|LVM|LVM volume as an HA resource| |LVM-activate|LVM activation/deact work for VGs (lvmlockd+LVM-
activate OR clvm+LVM-activate)| |Filesystem|filesystem on a shared storage medium| |symlink|symbolic
link| |ZFS|ZFS pools import/export| ||

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LOCKING & RESERVATIONS
|controld|distributed lock manager for clustered FSs| |clvm|clvmd daemon (cluster logical vol manager)|
|lvmlockd|agent manages the lvmlockd daemon.| |mpathpersist|SCSI persistent reservations on mpath devs|
|sg_persist|master/slave resource for SCSI3 reservations| ||
NETWORKING
|Route|network routes| |iface-bridge|bridge network interfaces| |iface-vlan|vlan network interfaces|
|IPaddr2|virtual IPv4 and IPv6 addresses| |ipsec|ipsec tunnels for VIPs| |IPsrcaddr|preferred source
address modification| |IPv6addr|IPv6 aliases| |conntrackd|conntrackd instance| |SendArp|send gratuitous
ARP for IP address| |VIPArip|virtual IP address through RIP2| |ifspeed|monitor action runs -> updates
CIB with if speed| ||
VIRTUALIZATION
|VirtualDomain|manages virtual domains through libvirt (virtual machine only)| ||
CONTAINERS
|lxc|allows LXC containers to be managed by the cluster|

Resource Agents: [universe]

Agents in this list are supported just like any other package available in [universe] repository would be.

RESOURCE AGENT RESOURCE AGENT DESCRIPTION

||
SUPPORT AGENTS
|anything|generic agent to manage virtually anything| |Dummy|testing dummy resource agent (template for
RA writers)| |AudibleAlarm|audible beeps at interval| |Stateful|example agent that supports two states|
|WinPopup|sends a SMB notification msg (popup) to a host| ||
SERVICES
|asterisk|asterisk PBX| |CTDB|clustered samba (for needed clustered underlying)| |dnsupdate|ip take-over via
dynamic dns updates| |fio|fio instance| |galera|galera instance| |garbd|galera arbitrator instance| |jboss|JBoss
application server instance| |jira|JIRA server instance| |kamailio|kamailio SIP proxy/registrar instance| |mari-
adb|MariaDB master/slave instance| |nagios|nagios instance| |ovsmonitor|clone resource to monitor net-
work bonds on diff nodes| |pgagent|pgagent instance| |pound|pound reverse proxy load-bal server instance|
|proftpd|proftpd instance| |Pure-FTPd|pure-ftpd instance| |redis|redis server (supports master/slave repli-
cas)| |syslog-ng|syslog-ng instance| |tomcat|tomcat servlet environment instance| |varnish|varnish instance|
||
STORAGE
|AoEtarget|ata over ethernet| ||
NETWORKING
|IPaddr|virtual IPv4 addresses| |ocf:pacemaker:ping|records in CIB number of nodes host can connect to|
|portblock|temporarily block/unblock access to tcp/udp ports| ||
OPENSTACK

272
|openstack-cinder-volume|attach cinder vol to an instance (os-info <->)| |openstack-floating-ip|move a float-
ing IP from an instance to another| ||
VIRTUALIZATION
|Xen|xen unprivileged domains| ||
REGISTRATION (CIB)
|lxd-info|nr of lxd containers running in CIB| |machine-info|records various node attributes in CIB| |NodeU-
tilization|cpu / host mem / hypervisor mem etc… into CIB| |openstack-info|records attributes of a node
into CIB| |SysInfo|records various node attributes into CIB| |SystemHealth|monitors health of system using
IPMI| |attribute|sets node attr one way when started and vice-versa|

Resource Agents: [universe]-community

Agents in this list are only supported by the upstream community. All bugs opened against these
agents will be forwarded to upstream IF makes sense (affected version is close to upstream).

RESOURCE AGENT RESOURCE AGENT DESCRIPTION

||
SERVICES
|SphinxSearchDaemon|sphix search daemon| |Xinetd|start/stop services managed by xinetd| |zab-
bixserver|zabbix server instance| ||
STORAGE
|o2cb|oracle cluster filesystem userspace daemon (oracle)| |sfex|excl access to shared storage using SF-EX| ||
VIRTUALIZATION
|aliyun-vpc-move-ip|move ip within a vpc of the aliyum ecs (alibaba)| |awseip|manages aws elastic IP address
(aws)| |awsvip|manages aws secondary private ip addresses (aws)| |aws-vpc-move-ip|move ip within a vpc of
the aws ec2 (aws)| |aws-vpc-route53|update route53 vpc record for aws ec2 (aws)| |azure-events|monitor for
scheduled events for azure vm (azure)| |azure-lb|answers azure load balancer health probe req (azure)| |gcp-
vpc-move-ip|floating ip address within a GCP VPC (google)| |ManageVE|openVZ virtual environment (vir-
tuozzo)| |minio|minio server instance| |podman|creates/launches podman containers| |rkt|creates/launches
container based on supplied image| ||
CONTAINERS
|docker|docker container resource agent|

Resource Agents: [non-supported]

Agents in this list are NOT supported in Ubuntu and might be removed in future Ubuntu HA versions.

RESOURCE AGENT RESOURCE AGENT DESCRIPTION

||

273
UNSUPPORTED
|db2|manages IBM DB2 LUW databases (IBM)| |eDir88|Novell eDirectory directory server instance (nov-
ell)| |ICP|ICP vortex clustered host drive (intel)| |ids|IBM informix dynamic server (IDS) (IBM)| |SAP-
Database|SAP database (of any type) instance agent (SAP)| |SAPInstance|SAP application server instances
agent (SAP)| |ServeRAID|enables/disables shared serveRAID merge groups (IBM)| |ManageRAID|raid de-
vices (/etc/conf.d/HB-ManageRAID)| |oraasm|oracle asm agent / uses ohasd for asm disk grp (oracle)| |ora-
cle|oracle database instance (oracle)| |oralsnr|oracle TNS listener (oracle)| |sybaseASE|sybase ASE failover in-
stance (Sybase)| |vdo-vol|https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1869825| |WAS|websphere application
server instance (IBM)| |WAS6|websphere application server instance (IBM)|

Resource Agents: [deprecated]

Agents in this list are NOT supported in Ubuntu OR Upstream (due to being deprecated in favor of other
agents) and might be removed in future Ubuntu HA versions.

RESOURCE AGENT RESOURCE AGENT DESCRIPTION

||
DEPRECATED
|Evmsd|clustered evms vol mgmt (evms is not maintained)| |EvmsSCC|clustered evms vol mgmt (evms is
not maintained)| |LinuxSCSI|enables/disables scsi devs through kernel scsi hotplug| |scsi2reservation|SCSI-
2 reservation agent (depends on scsi_reserve)| |ocf:heartbeat:pingd|monitors connectivity to specific hosts|
|ocf:pacemaker:pingd|replaced by pacemaker:ping (this is broken)| |vmware|control vmware server 2.0 virtual
machines (2009)|

Ubuntu HA - Pacemaker Fence Agents Supportability

After discussions among Ubuntu Developers, it was decided that Ubuntu project should focus in splitting
all existing Pacemaker Fence Agents into different categories:
• Fence Agents: main
• Fence Agents: [universe]
• Fence Agents: [universe]-community
• Fence Agents: [non-supported]
• Fence Agents: [deprecated]
Note: There is a current plan to split fence agents into different packages so supported agents
can be installed independently.

Fence Agents: main

Agents in this list are supported just like any other package available in main repository would be.

FENCE AGENT FENCE AGENT DESCRIPTION EXTRA DESCRIPTION

||

274
POWER FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_ipmilan|IPMI controlled machines|| |fence_ilo3|symlink to
fence_ipmilan|| |fence_ilo4|symlink to fence_ipmilan|| |fence_ilo5|symlink to fence_ipmilan|| |fence_imm|symlink
to fence_ipmilan|| |fence_idrac|symlink to fence_ipmilan|| ||
STORAGE FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_mpath|SCSI-3 persistent reservations to control mpath devs||
|fence_sbd|SBD (shared storage) fencing|| |fence_scsi|SCSI-3 persistent reservations|| ||
VIRTUALIZATION FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_virsh|Libvirt managed virtual machines||

Fence Agents: [universe]

Agents in this list are supported just like any other package available in [universe] repository would be.

FENCE AGENT FENCE AGENT DESCRIPTION EXTRA DESCRIPTION

||
GENERIC AGENTS|| |fence_dummy|dummy fence agent (for testing)|| |fence_ack_manual|override
fencing operations manually|| |fence_kdump|kdump crash recovery service (acks being in kdump)||
|fence_kdump_send|-|acks entered kdump crash recovery service (tool)| ||
POWER FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_amt|Intel AMT|| |fence_intelmodular|Intel Modular device
(Intel MFSYS25, MFSYS35)|| |fence_ilo|HP servers with iLO|| |fence_ilo2|-|symlink to fence_ilo|
|fence_ilo_ssh|HP iLO devices through ssh|| |fence_ilo3_ssh|-|symlink to fence_ilo_ssh| |fence_ilo4_ssh|-
|symlink to fence_ilo_ssh| |fence_ilo5_ssh|-|symlink to fence_ilo_ssh| |fence_ilo_moonshot|HP Moon-
shot iLO|| |fence_ilo_mp|HP iLO MP|| |fence_hpblade|HP BladeSystem and HP Integrity Super-
dome X|| |fence_cisco_ucs|Cisco UCS (fence machines)|| |fence_alom|Sun Microsystems ALOM||
|fence_bladecenter|IBM BladeCenter (w/ telnet/ssh support)|| |fence_ipdu|IBM iPDU (network
power switch) over SNMP|| |fence_lpar|IBM LPARs (using HMC)|| |fence_ibmblade|IBM BladeCen-
ter over SNMP|| |fence_rsa|IBM RSA II management interface|| |fence_drac|Dell remote access card||
|fence_drac5|Dell remote access card v5 or CMC (DRAC)|| |fence_hds_cb|Hitachi Compute Blade systems||
|fence_rsb|Fujitsu-Siemens RSB management interface|| ||
NETWORK FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_heuristics_ping|uses ping-heuristics to exec other fence in same
level|| |fence_ifmib|Any SNMP IF-MIB device (ethernet switches w/ iSCSI)|| ||
STORAGE FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_cisco_mds|Cisco MDS 9000 w/ SNMP enabled|| |fence_sanbox2|QLogic
SANBox2 FC switches|| |fence_brocade|Brocade FC switches (disables specified port)|| ||
VIRTUALIZATION FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_vmware|VMware ESX|ESXi virtual machines|
|fence_vmware_rest|VMware virtual machines (w/ VMware API)|| |fence_vmware_soap|VMware vir-
tual machines (w/ SOAP API v4.1+)|| |fence_vmware_vcloud|VMware virtual machines on VMware
vCloud Director API|| ||
CLOUD FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_aws|AWS (boto3 library)|| |fence_azure_arm|Azure Resource
Manager (Azure SDK for Python)|| |fence_compute|OpenStack Nova|| |fence_evacuate|OpenStack Nova||
|fence_openstack|Fence OpenStack’s Nova (w/ python-novaclient)|| |fence_gce|Google Cloud Engine
(googleapiclient lib)|| ||
CONTAINERS FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_docker|Docker engine containers||

275
Fence Agents: [universe]-community
Agents in this list are only supported by the upstream community. All bugs opened against these
agents will be forwarded to upstream IF makes sense (affected version is close to upstream).

FENCE AGENT FENCE AGENT DESCRIPTION EXTRA DESCRIPTION

||
POWER FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_apc|APC network power switch|| |fence_apc_snmp|APC net-
work power switch or Tripplite PDU devices|| |fence_tripplite_snmp|-|symlink to fence_tripplite_snmp|
|fence_rdc_serial|Serial cable to reset Motherboard switches|| |fence_eaton_snmp|Eaton network power
switch (SNMP)|| |fence_emerson|Emerson MPX and MPH2 managed rack PDU|| |fence_eps|ePowerSwitch
8M+|| |fence_netio|Koukaam NETIO-230B PDU (telnet)|| |fence_powerman|Powerman management utility
(LLNL Systems)|| |fence_raritan|Raritan Dominion PX (DPXS12-20 PDU)|| |fence_redfish|Out-of-Band
controllers supporting Redfish APIs|| |fence_wti|WTI Network Power Switch (NPS)|| ||
VIRTUALIZATION FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_xenapi|Citrix Xen Server over XenAPI|| |fence_vbox|VirtualBox
virtual machines|| |fence_pve|Proxmox Virtual Environment|| |fence_zvm|Power fencing on GFS VM in
z/VM cluster (z/VM SMAPI)|| |fence_zvmip|z/VM virtual machines (z/VM SMAPI via TCP/IP)|| ||
CLOUD FENCING AGENTS|| |fence_ovh|OVH Cloud Data Centers|| |fence_aliyun|Aliyun||

Fence Agents: [non-supported]

Agents in this list are NOT supported in Ubuntu and might be removed in future Ubuntu HA versions.
|FENCE AGENT|

FENCE AGENT DESCRIPTION EXTRA DESCRIPTION

fence_ironic OpenStack’s Ironic (not intended for production)
fence_rhevm RHEV-M REST API to fence virtual machines
fence_ldom Sun Microsystems Logical Domain virtual machines

Fence Agents: [deprecated]

Agents in this list are NOT supported in Ubuntu OR Upstream (due to being deprecated in favor of other
agents) and might be removed in future Ubuntu HA versions.
|FENCE AGENT|

FENCE AGENT DESCRIPTION EXTRA DESCRIPTION

N/A N/A N/A

276
Ubuntu HA - DRBD
Distributed Replicated Block Device (DRBD) mirrors block devices between multiple hosts. The replication
is transparent to other applications on the host systems. Any block device hard disks, partitions, RAID
devices, logical volumes, etc can be mirrored.
To get started using drbd, first install the necessary packages. From a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l drbd8−u t i l s

Note
If you are using the virtual kernel as part of a virtual machine you will need to manually compile
the drbd module. It may be easier to install the linux-server package inside the virtual machine.
This section covers setting up a drbd to replicate a separate /srv partition, with an ext3 filesystem between
two hosts. The partition size is not particularly relevant, but both partitions need to be the same size.

Configuration

The two hosts in this example will be called drbd01 and drbd02. They will need to have name resolution
configured either through DNS or the /etc/hosts file. See ??? for details.
• To configure drbd, on the first host edit /etc/drbd.conf:
g l o b a l { usage−count no ; }
common { s y n c e r { r a t e 100M; } }
r e s o u r c e r0 {
p r o t o c o l C;
startup {
wfc−t i m e o u t 1 5 ;
degr−wfc−t i m e o u t 6 0 ;
}
net {
cram−hmac−a l g sha1 ;
shared −s e c r e t ” s e c r e t ” ;
}
on drbd01 {
d e v i c e / dev / drbd0 ;
d i s k / dev / sdb1 ;
address 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 1 : 7 7 8 8 ;
meta−d i s k i n t e r n a l ;
}
on drbd02 {
d e v i c e / dev / drbd0 ;
d i s k / dev / sdb1 ;
address 1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 0 . 2 : 7 7 8 8 ;
meta−d i s k i n t e r n a l ;
}
}

Note
There are many other options in /etc/drbd.conf, but for this example their default values
are fine.
• Now copy /etc/drbd.conf to the second host:

277
 s c p / e t c / drbd . c o n f drbd02 : ~

• And, on drbd02 move the file to /etc:

sudo mv drbd . c o n f / e t c /

• Now using the drbdadm utility initialize the meta data storage. On each server execute:
sudo drbdadm c r e a t e −md r 0

• Next, on both hosts, start the drbd daemon:

sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t drbd . s e r v i c e

• On the drbd01, or whichever host you wish to be the primary, enter the following:
sudo drbdadm −− −−o v e r w r i t e −data−of −p e e r primary a l l

• After executing the above command, the data will start syncing with the secondary host. To watch
the progress, on drbd02 enter the following:
watch −n1 c a t / p r o c / drbd

To stop watching the output press Ctrl+c.

• Finally, add a filesystem to /dev/drbd0 and mount it:
sudo mkfs . e x t 3 / dev / drbd0
sudo mount / dev / drbd0 / s r v

Testing

To test that the data is actually syncing between the hosts copy some files on the drbd01, the primary, to
/srv:
sudo cp −r / e t c / d e f a u l t / s r v

Next, unmount /srv:

sudo umount / s r v

Demote the primary server to the secondary role:

sudo drbdadm s e c o n d a r y r 0

Now on the secondary server promote it to the primary role:

sudo drbdadm primary r 0

Lastly, mount the partition:

sudo mount / dev / drbd0 / s r v

Using ls you should see /srv/default copied from the former primary host drbd01.

278
References

• For more information on DRBD see the DRBD web site.

• The drbd.conf man page contains details on the options not covered in this guide.
• Also, see the drbdadm man page.
• The DRBD Ubuntu Wiki page also has more information.

Byobu
One of the most useful applications for any system administrator is an xterm multiplexor such as screen
or tmux. It allows for the execution of multiple shells in one terminal. To make some of the advanced
multiplexor features more user-friendly and provide some useful information about the system, the byobu
package was created. It acts as a wrapper to these programs. By default Byobu is installed in Ubuntu server
and it uses tmux (if installed) but this can be changed by the user.
Invoke it simply with:
byobu

Now bring up the configuration menu. By default this is done by pressing the F9 key. This will allow you
to:
• Help – Quick Start Guide
• Toggle status notifications
• Change the escape sequence
• Byobu currently does not launch at login (toggle on)
byobu provides a menu which displays the Ubuntu release, processor information, memory information, and
the time and date. The effect is similar to a desktop menu.
Using the “Byobu currently does not launch at login (toggle on)” option will cause byobu to be executed any
time a terminal is opened. Changes made to byobu are on a per user basis, and will not affect other users
on the system.
One difference when using byobu is the scrollback mode. Press the F7 key to enter scrollback mode. Scroll-
back mode allows you to navigate past output using vi like commands. Here is a quick list of movement
commands:
• h - Move the cursor left by one character
• j - Move the cursor down by one line
• k - Move the cursor up by one line
• l - Move the cursor right by one character
• 0 - Move to the beginning of the current line
• $ - Move to the end of the current line
• G - Moves to the specified line (defaults to the end of the buffer)
• / - Search forward
• ? - Search backward
• n - Moves to the next match, either forward or backward

279
Resources

• For more information on screen see the screen web site.

• And the Ubuntu Wiki screen page.
• Also, see the byobu project page for more information.

etckeeper
etckeeper allows the contents of /etc to be stored in a Version Control System (VCS) repository. It integrates
with APT and automatically commits changes to /etc when packages are installed or upgraded. Placing
/etc under version control is considered an industry best practice, and the goal of etckeeper is to make this
process as painless as possible.
Install etckeeper by entering the following in a terminal:
sudo apt i n s t a l l e t c k e e p e r

The main configuration file, /etc/etckeeper/etckeeper.conf, is fairly simple. The main option is which VCS
to use and by default etckeeper is configured to use git. The repository is automatically initialized (and
committed for the first time) during package installation. It is possible to undo this by entering the following
command:
sudo e t c k e e p e r u n i n i t

By default, etckeeper will commit uncommitted changes made to /etc daily. This can be disabled using the
AVOID_DAILY_AUTOCOMMITS configuration option. It will also automatically commit changes before
and after package installation. For a more precise tracking of changes, it is recommended to commit your
changes manually, together with a commit message, using:
sudo e t c k e e p e r commit ” Reason f o r c o n f i g u r a t i o n change ”

The vcs etckeeper command allows to run any subcommand of the VCS that etckeeper is configured to run.
t will be run in /etc. For example, in the case of git:
sudo e t c k e e p e r v c s l o g / e t c / passwd

To demonstrate the integration with the package management system (APT), install postfix:
sudo apt i n s t a l l p o s t f i x

When the installation is finished, all the postfix configuration files should be committed to the repository:
[ master 5 a16a0d ] committing c ha n g es i n / e t c made by ” apt i n s t a l l p o s t f i x ”
Author : Your Name <xyz@example . com>
36 f i l e s changed , 2987 i n s e r t i o n s (+) , 4 d e l e t i o n s (−)
c r e a t e mode 100755 i n i t . d/ p o s t f i x
c r e a t e mode 100644 i n s s e r v . c o n f . d/ p o s t f i x
c r e a t e mode 100755 network / i f −down . d/ p o s t f i x
c r e a t e mode 100755 network / i f −up . d/ p o s t f i x
c r e a t e mode 100644 p o s t f i x / dynamicmaps . c f
c r e a t e mode 100644 p o s t f i x /main . c f
c r e a t e mode 100644 p o s t f i x /main . c f . p r o t o
c r e a t e mode 120000 p o s t f i x / makedefs . out
c r e a t e mode 100644 p o s t f i x / master . c f
c r e a t e mode 100644 p o s t f i x / master . c f . p r o t o

280
 create mode 100755 p o s t f i x / post− i n s t a l l
create mode 100644 postfix / postfix −f i l e s
create mode 100755 p o s t f i x / p o s t f i x −s c r i p t
create mode 100755 ppp/ ip−down . d/ p o s t f i x
create mode 100755 ppp/ ip−up . d/ p o s t f i x
create mode 120000 r c 0 . d/ K 0 1 p o s t f i x
create mode 120000 r c 1 . d/ K 0 1 p o s t f i x
create mode 120000 r c 2 . d/ S 0 1 p o s t f i x
create mode 120000 r c 3 . d/ S 0 1 p o s t f i x
create mode 120000 r c 4 . d/ S 0 1 p o s t f i x
create mode 120000 r c 5 . d/ S 0 1 p o s t f i x
create mode 120000 r c 6 . d/ K 0 1 p o s t f i x
create mode 100755 r e s o l v c o n f / update−l i b c . d/ p o s t f i x
create mode 100644 r s y s l o g . d/ p o s t f i x . c o n f
create mode 120000 systemd / system / multi −u s e r . t a r g e t . wants / p o s t f i x . s e r v i c e
create mode 100644 ufw / a p p l i c a t i o n s . d/ p o s t f i x

For an example of how etckeeper tracks manual changes, add new a host to /etc/hosts. Using git you can
see which files have been modified:
sudo e t c k e e p e r v c s s t a t u s

and how:
sudo e t c k e e p e r v c s d i f f

If you are happy with the changes you can now commit them:
sudo e t c k e e p e r commit ” added new h o s t ”

Resources

• See the etckeeper site for more details on using etckeeper.

• For documentation on the git VCS tool see the Git website.

Munin

Installation

Before installing Munin on server01 apache2 will need to be installed. The default configuration is fine for
running a munin server. For more information see ???.
First, on server01 install munin. In a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l munin

Now on server02 install the munin-node package:

sudo apt i n s t a l l munin−node

281
Configuration

On server01 edit the /etc/munin/munin.conf adding the IP address for server02:

## F i r s t our ” normal ” h o s t .
[ server02 ]
address 172.18.100.101

Note
Replace server02 and 172.18.100.101 with the actual hostname and IP address for your server.
Next, configure munin-node on server02. Edit /etc/munin/munin−node.conf to allow access by server01:
allow ^172\.18\.100\.100 $

Note
Replace ˆ172\.18\.100\.100$ with IP address for your munin server.
Now restart munin-node on server02 for the changes to take effect:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t munin−node . s e r v i c e

Finally, in a browser go to http://server01/munin, and you should see links to nice graphs displaying
information from the standard munin-plugins for disk, network, processes, and system.
Note
Since this is a new install it may take some time for the graphs to display anything useful.

Additional Plugins

The munin-plugins-extra package contains performance checks additional services such as DNS, DHCP,
Samba, etc. To install the package, from a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l munin−p l u g i n s −e x t r a

Be sure to install the package on both the server and node machines.

References

• See the Munin website for more details.

• Specifically the Munin Documentation page includes information on additional plugins, writing plugins,
etc.

Nagios

Installation

First, on server01 install the nagios package. In a terminal enter:

sudo apt i n s t a l l n a g i o s 3 n a g i o s −nrpe−p l u g i n

282
You will be asked to enter a password for the nagiosadmin user. The user’s credentials are stored in /etc/
nagios3/htpasswd.users. To change the nagiosadmin password, or add additional users to the Nagios CGI
scripts, use the htpasswd that is part of the apache2-utils package.
For example, to change the password for the nagiosadmin user enter:
sudo htpasswd / e t c / n a g i o s 3 / htpasswd . u s e r s nagiosadmin

To add a user:
sudo htpasswd / e t c / n a g i o s 3 / htpasswd . u s e r s s t e v e

Next, on server02 install the nagios-nrpe-server package. From a terminal on server02 enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l n a g i o s −nrpe−s e r v e r

Note
NRPE allows you to execute local checks on remote hosts. There are other ways of accomplishing
this through other Nagios plugins as well as other checks.

Configuration Overview

There are a couple of directories containing Nagios configuration and check files.
• /etc/nagios3: contains configuration files for the operation of the nagios daemon, CGI files, hosts, etc.
• /etc/nagios−plugins: houses configuration files for the service checks.
• /etc/nagios: on the remote host contains the nagios-nrpe-server configuration files.
• /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/: where the check binaries are stored. To see the options of a check use the
-h option.
For example: /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_dhcp −h
There are a plethora of checks Nagios can be configured to execute for any given host. For this example
Nagios will be configured to check disk space, DNS, and a MySQL hostgroup. The DNS check will be on
server02, and the MySQL hostgroup will include both server01 and server02.
Note
See ??? for details on setting up Apache, ??? for DNS, and ??? for MySQL.
Additionally, there are some terms that once explained will hopefully make understanding Nagios configura-
tion easier:
• Host: a server, workstation, network device, etc that is being monitored.
• Host Group: a group of similar hosts. For example, you could group all web servers, file server, etc.
• Service: the service being monitored on the host. Such as HTTP, DNS, NFS, etc.
• Service Group: allows you to group multiple services together. This is useful for grouping multiple
HTTP for example.
• Contact: person to be notified when an event takes place. Nagios can be configured to send emails,
SMS messages, etc.
By default Nagios is configured to check HTTP, disk space, SSH, current users, processes, and load on the
localhost. Nagios will also ping check the gateway.
Large Nagios installations can be quite complex to configure. It is usually best to start small, one or two
hosts, get things configured the way you like then expand.

283
Configuration

• First, create a host configuration file for server02. Unless otherwise specified, run all these commands
on server01. In a terminal enter:
sudo cp / e t c / n a g i o s 3 / c o n f . d/ l o c a l h o s t _ n a g i o s 2 . c f g \
/ e t c / n a g i o s 3 / c o n f . d/ s e r v e r 0 2 . c f g

Note
In the above and following command examples, replace “server01”, “server02”
172.18.100.100, and 172.18.100.101 with the host names and IP addresses of your
servers.
Next, edit /etc/nagios3/conf.d/server02.cfg:
defin e host {
use g e n e r i c −h o s t ; Name o f h o s t t e m p l a t e t o
use
host_name server02
alias S e r v e r 02
address 172.18.100.101
}

# check DNS s e r v i c e .
define service {
use g e n e r i c −s e r v i c e
host_name server02
service_description DNS
check_command check_dns ! 1 7 2 . 1 8 . 1 0 0 . 1 0 1
}

Restart the nagios daemon to enable the new configuration:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o 3 . s e r v i c e

• Now add a service definition for the MySQL check by adding the following to /etc/nagios3/conf.d/
services_nagios2.cfg:
# check MySQL s e r v e r s .
define service {
hostgroup_name mysql−s e r v e r s
service_description MySQL
check_command check_mysql_cmdlinecred ! n a g i o s ! s e c r e t !
$HOSTADDRESS
use g e n e r i c −s e r v i c e
notification_interval 0 ; s e t > 0 i f you want t o be r e n o t i f i e d
}

A mysql-servers hostgroup now needs to be defined. Edit /etc/nagios3/conf.d/hostgroups_nagios2.cfg

adding:
# MySQL h o s t g r o u p .
d e f i n e hostgroup {
hostgroup_name mysql−s e r v e r s
alias MySQL s e r v e r s
members localhost , server02
}

284
 The Nagios check needs to authenticate to MySQL. To add a nagios user to MySQL enter:
mysql −u r o o t −p −e ” c r e a t e u s e r n a g i o s i d e n t i f i e d by ’ s e c r e t ’ ; ”

Note
The nagios user will need to be added all hosts in the mysql-servers hostgroup.
Restart nagios to start checking the MySQL servers.
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o s 3 . s e r v i c e

• Lastly configure NRPE to check the disk space on server02.

On server01 add the service check to /etc/nagios3/conf.d/server02.cfg:
# NRPE d i s k check .
define service {
use g e n e r i c −s e r v i c e
host_name server02
service_description nrpe−d i s k
check_command check_nrpe_1arg ! c h e c k _ a l l _ d i s k s
!172.18.100.101
}

Now on server02 edit /etc/nagios/nrpe.cfg changing:

allowed_hosts =172.18.100.100

And below in the command definition area add:

command [ c h e c k _ a l l _ d i s k s ]=/ u s r / l i b / n a g i o s / p l u g i n s / check_disk −w 20% −c 10%
−e

Finally, restart nagios-nrpe-server:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o s −nrpe−s e r v e r . s e r v i c e

Also, on server01 restart nagios:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o s 3 . s e r v i c e

You should now be able to see the host and service checks in the Nagios CGI files. To access them point a
browser to http://server01/nagios3. You will then be prompted for the nagiosadmin username and password.

References

This section has just scratched the surface of Nagios’ features. The nagios-plugins-extra and nagios-snmp-
plugins contain many more service checks.
• For more information see Nagios website.
• Specifically the Nagios Online Documentation site.
• There is also a list of books related to Nagios and network monitoring:
• The Nagios Ubuntu Wiki page also has more details.

285
pam_motd
When logging into an Ubuntu server you may have noticed the informative Message Of The Day (MOTD).
This information is obtained and displayed using a couple of packages:
• landscape-common: provides the core libraries of landscape-client, which is needed to manage systems
with Landscape (proprietary). Yet the package also includes the landscape-sysinfo utility which is
responsible for displaying core system data involving cpu, memory, disk space, etc. For instance:

System l o a d : 0.0 Processes : 76

Usage o f / : 30.2% o f 3 . 1 1GB Users logged in : 1
Memory u s a g e : 20% IP a d d r e s s f o r e t h 0 : 1 0 . 1 5 3 . 1 0 7 . 1 1 5
Swap u s a g e : 0%

Graph t h i s data and manage t h i s system a t h t t p s : / / l a n d s c a p e .

c a n o n i c a l . com/

Note
You can run landscape-sysinfo manually at any time.
• update-notifier-common: provides information on available package updates, impending filesystem
checks (fsck), and required reboots (e.g.: after a kernel upgrade).
pam_motd executes the scripts in /etc/update−motd.d in order based on the number prepended to the script.
The output of the scripts is written to /var/run/motd, keeping the numerical order, then concatenated with
/etc/motd.tail.
You can add your own dynamic information to the MOTD. For example, to add local weather information:
• First, install the weather-util package:
sudo apt i n s t a l l weather−u t i l

• The weather utility uses METAR data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
and forecasts from the National Weather Service. In order to find local information you will need the
4-character ICAO location indicator. This can be determined by browsing to the National Weather
Service site.
Although the National Weather Service is a United States government agency there are weather stations
available world wide. However, local weather information for all locations outside the U.S. may not be
available.
• Create /usr/local/bin/local−weather, a simple shell script to use weather with your local ICAO indi-
cator:
#!/ b i n / sh
#
#
# P r i n t s t h e l o c a l weather i n f o r m a t i o n f o r t h e MOTD.
#
#

# R ep lac e KINT with your l o c a l weather s t a t i o n .

# L o c a l s t a t i o n s can be found h e r e : h t t p : / /www. weather . gov / t g / s i t e l o c .
shtml

echo

286
 weather KINT
echo

• Make the script executable:

sudo chmod 755 / u s r / l o c a l / b i n / l o c a l −weather

• Next, create a symlink to /etc/update−motd.d/98−local−weather:

sudo l n −s / u s r / l o c a l / b i n / l o c a l −weather / e t c / update−motd . d/98− l o c a l −
weather

• Finally, exit the server and re-login to view the new MOTD.
You should now be greeted with some useful information, and some information about the local weather that
may not be quite so useful. Hopefully the local-weather example demonstrates the flexibility of pam_motd.

Resources

• See the update-motd man page for more options available to update-motd.
• The Debian Package of the Day weather article has more details about using the weatherutility.

Puppet
Puppet is a cross platform framework enabling system administrators to perform common tasks using code.
The code can do a variety of tasks from installing new software, to checking file permissions, or updating
user accounts. Puppet is great not only during the initial installation of a system, but also throughout the
system’s entire life cycle. In most circumstances puppet will be used in a client/server configuration.
This section will cover installing and configuring Puppet in a client/server configuration. This simple example
will demonstrate how to install Apache using Puppet.

Preconfiguration

Prior to configuring puppet you may want to add a DNS CNAME record for puppet.example.com, where
example.com is your domain. By default Puppet clients check DNS for puppet.example.com as the puppet
server name, or Puppet Master. See Domain Name Server for more details.
If you do not wish to use DNS, you can add entries to the server and client /etc/hosts file. For example, in
the Puppet server’s /etc/hosts file add:
1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1 l o c a l h o s t . l o c a l d o m a i n l o c a l h o s t puppet
1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 7 p u p p e t c l i e n t . example . com p u p p e t c l i e n t

On each Puppet client, add an entry for the server:

1 9 2 . 1 6 8 . 1 . 1 6 puppetmaster . example . com puppetmaster puppet

Note
Replace the example IP addresses and domain names above with your actual server and client
addresses and domain names.

287
Installation

To install Puppet, in a terminal on the server enter:

sudo apt i n s t a l l puppetmaster

On the client machine, or machines, enter:

sudo apt i n s t a l l puppet

Configuration

Create a folder path for the apache2 class:

sudo mkdir −p / e t c / puppet / modules / apache2 / m a n i f e s t s

Now setup some resources for apache2. Create a file /etc/puppet/modules/apache2/manifests/init.pp con-
taining the following:
c l a s s apache2 {
package { ’ apache2 ’ :
e n s u r e => i n s t a l l e d ,
}

service { ’ apache2 ’ :
ensure => t r u e ,
enable => t r u e ,
require => Package [ ’ apache2 ’ ] ,
}
}

Next, create a node file /etc/puppet/code/environments/production/manifests/site.pp with:

node ’ p u p p e t c l i e n t . example . com ’ {
i n c l u d e apache2
}

Note
Replace puppetclient .example.com with your actual Puppet client’s host name.
The final step for this simple Puppet server is to restart the daemon:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t puppetmaster . s e r v i c e

Now everything is configured on the Puppet server, it is time to configure the client.
First, configure the Puppet agent daemon to start. Edit /etc/default/puppet, changing START to yes:
START=y e s

Then start the service:

sudo s y s t e m c t l s t a r t puppet . s e r v i c e

View the client cert fingerprint

sudo puppet a g e n t −−f i n g e r p r i n t

288
Back on the Puppet server, view pending certificate signing requests:
sudo puppet c e r t l i s t

On the Puppet server, verify the fingerprint of the client and sign puppetclient’s cert:
sudo puppet c e r t s i g n p u p p e t c l i e n t . example . com

On the Puppet client, run the puppet agent manually in the foreground. This step isn’t strictly speaking
necessary, but it is the best way to test and debug the puppet service.
sudo puppet a g e n t −−t e s t

Check /var/log/syslog on both hosts for any errors with the configuration. If all goes well the apache2
package and it’s dependencies will be installed on the Puppet client.
Note
This example is very simple, and does not highlight many of Puppet’s features and benefits. For
more information see Resources.

Resources

• See the Official Puppet Documentation web site.

• See the Puppet forge, online repository of puppet modules.
• Also see Pro Puppet.

Zentyal
Zentyal is a Linux small business server that can be configured as a gateway, infrastructure manager, unified
threat manager, office server, unified communication server or a combination of them. All network services
managed by Zentyal are tightly integrated, automating most tasks. This saves time and helps to avoid errors
in network configuration and administration. Zentyal is open source, released under the GNU General Public
License (GPL) and runs on top of Ubuntu GNU/Linux.
Zentyal consists of a series of packages (usually one for each module) that provide a web interface to configure
the different servers or services. The configuration is stored on a key-value Redis database, but users, groups,
and domains-related configuration is on OpenLDAP. When you configure any of the available parameters
through the web interface, final configuration files are overwritten using the configuration templates provided
by the modules. The main advantage of using Zentyal is a unified, graphical user interface to configure all
network services and high, out-of-the-box integration between them.
Zentyal publishes one major stable release once a year based on the latest Ubuntu LTS release.

Installation

If you would like to create a new user to access the Zentyal web interface, run:
sudo a ddu se r username sudo

Add the Zentyal repository to your repository list:

sudo add−apt−r e p o s i t o r y ” deb h t t p : / / a r c h i v e . z e n t y a l . o r g / z e n t y a l 3 . 5 main e x t r a
”

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Import the public keys from Zentyal:
sudo apt−key adv −−k e y s e r v e r k e y s e r v e r . ubuntu . com −−recv −k e y s 10E239FF
wget −q h t t p : / / k e y s . z e n t y a l . o r g / z e n t y a l −4.2− a r c h i v e . a s c −O− | sudo apt−key add
−

Update your packages and install Zentyal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt i n s t a l l z e n t y a l

During installation you will be asked to set a root MySQL password and confirm port 443.

First steps

Any system account belonging to the sudo group is allowed to log into the Zentyal web interface. The user
created while installing Ubuntu Server will belong to the sudo group by default.
To access the Zentyal web interface, point a browser to https:// localhost/ or to the IP address of your remote
server. As Zentyal creates its own self-signed SSL certificate, you will have to accept a security exception on
your browser. Log in with the same username and password used to log in to your server.
Once logged in you will see an overview of your server. Individual modules, such as Antivirus or Firewall,
can be installed by simply clicking them and then clicking Install. Selecting server roles like Gateway or
Infrastructure can be used to install multiple modules at once.
Modules can also be installed via the command line:
sudo apt i n s t a l l <z e n t y a l −module>

See the list of available modules below.

To enable a module, go to the Dashboard, then click Module Status. Click the check box for the module,
then Save changes.
To configure any of the features of your installed modules, click the different sections on the left menu. When
you make any changes, a red “Save changes” button appears in the upper right corner.
If you need to customize any configuration file or run certain actions (scripts or commands) to config-
ure features not available on Zentyal, place the custom configuration file templates on /etc/zentyal/s-
tubs/<module>/ and the hooks on /etc/zentyal/hooks/<module>.<action>. Read more about stubs and
hooks here.

Modules

Zentyal 2.3 is available on Ubuntu DISTRO-REV-SHORT Universe repository. The modules available are:
• zentyal-core & zentyal-common: the core of the Zentyal interface and the common libraries of the
framework. Also includes the logs and events modules that give the administrator an interface to view
the logs and generate events from them.
• zentyal-network: manages the configuration of the network. From the interfaces (supporting static
IP, DHCP, VLAN, bridges or PPPoE), to multiple gateways when having more than one Internet
connection, load balancing and advanced routing, static routes or dynamic DNS.
• zentyal-objects & zentyal-services: provide an abstraction level for network addresses (e.g. LAN instead
of 192.168.1.0/24) and ports named as services (e.g. HTTP instead of 80/TCP).
• zentyal-firewall: configures the iptables rules to block forbiden connections, NAT and port redirections.

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 • zentyal-ntp: installs the NTP daemon to keep server on time and allow network clients to synchronize
their clocks against the server.
• zentyal-dhcp: configures ISC DHCP server supporting network ranges, static leases and other advanced
options like NTP, WINS, dynamic DNS updates and network boot with PXE.
• zentyal-dns: brings ISC Bind9 DNS server into your server for caching local queries as a forwarder or
as an authoritative server for the configured domains. Allows to configure A, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT
and SRV records.
• zentyal-ca: integrates the management of a Certification Authority within Zentyal so users can use
certificates to authenticate against the services, like with OpenVPN.
• zentyal-openvpn: allows to configure multiple VPN servers and clients using OpenVPN with dynamic
routing configuration using Quagga.
• zentyal-users: provides an interface to configure and manage users and groups on OpenLDAP. Other
services on Zentyal are authenticated against LDAP having a centralized users and groups management.
It is also possible to synchronize users, passwords and groups from a Microsoft Active Directory domain.
• zentyal-squid: configures Squid and Dansguardian for speeding up browsing thanks to the caching
capabilities and content filtering.
• zentyal-samba: allows Samba configuration and integration with existing LDAP. From the same inter-
face you can define password policies, create shared resources and assign permissions.
• zentyal-printers: integrates CUPS with Samba and allows not only to configure the printers but also
give them permissions based on LDAP users and groups.
Not present on Ubuntu Universe repositories, but on Zentyal Team PPA you will find these other modules:
• zentyal-antivirus: integrates ClamAV antivirus with other modules like the proxy, file sharing or mail-
filter.
• zentyal-asterisk: configures Asterisk to provide a simple PBX with LDAP based authentication.
• zentyal-bwmonitor: allows to monitor bandwith usage of your LAN clients.
• zentyal-captiveportal: integrates a captive portal with the firewall and LDAP users and groups.
• zentyal-ebackup: allows to make scheduled backups of your server using the popular duplicity backup
tool.
• zentyal-ftp: configures a FTP server with LDAP based authentication.
• zentyal-ids: integrates a network intrusion detection system.
• zentyal-ipsec: allows to configure IPsec tunnels using OpenSwan.
• zentyal-jabber: integrates ejabberd XMPP server with LDAP users and groups.
• zentyal-thinclients: a LTSP based thin clients solution.
• zentyal-mail: a full mail stack including Postfix and Dovecot with LDAP backend.
• zentyal-mailfilter: configures amavisd with mail stack to filter spam and attached virus.
• zentyal-monitor: integrates collectd to monitor server performance and running services.
• zentyal-pptp: configures a PPTP VPN server.
• zentyal-radius: integrates FreeRADIUS with LDAP users and groups.
• zentyal-software: simple interface to manage installed Zentyal modules and system updates.
• zentyal-trafficshaping: configures traffic limiting rules to do bandwidth throttling and improve latency.

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 • zentyal-usercorner: allows users to edit their own LDAP attributes using a web browser.
• zentyal-virt: simple interface to create and manage virtual machines based on libvirt.
• zentyal-webmail: allows to access your mail using the popular Roundcube webmail.
• zentyal-webserver: configures Apache webserver to host different sites on your machine.
• zentyal-zarafa: integrates Zarafa groupware suite with Zentyal mail stack and LDAP.

References

Zentyal Official Documentation page.

Zentyal Community Wiki.
Visit the Zentyal forum for community support, feedback, feature requests, etc.

Monitoring

Overview
The monitoring of essential servers and services is an important part of system administration. Most net-
work services are monitored for performance, availability, or both. This section will cover installation and
configuration of Nagios for availability monitoring, and Munin for performance monitoring.
The examples in this section will use two servers with hostnames server01 and server02. Server01 will be
configured with Nagios to monitor services on itself and server02. Server01 will also be setup with the munin
package to gather information from the network. Using the munin-node package, server02 will be configured
to send information to server01.
Hopefully these simple examples will allow you to monitor additional servers and services on your network.

Nagios

Installation

First, on server01 install the nagios package. In a terminal enter:

sudo apt i n s t a l l n a g i o s 3 n a g i o s −nrpe−p l u g i n

You will be asked to enter a password for the nagiosadmin user. The user’s credentials are stored in /etc/
nagios3/htpasswd.users. To change the nagiosadmin password, or add additional users to the Nagios CGI
scripts, use the htpasswd that is part of the apache2-utils package.
For example, to change the password for the nagiosadmin user enter:
sudo htpasswd / e t c / n a g i o s 3 / htpasswd . u s e r s nagiosadmin

To add a user:
sudo htpasswd / e t c / n a g i o s 3 / htpasswd . u s e r s s t e v e

Next, on server02 install the nagios-nrpe-server package. From a terminal on server02 enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l n a g i o s −nrpe−s e r v e r

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 Note
NRPE allows you to execute local checks on remote hosts. There are other ways of accomplishing
this through other Nagios plugins as well as other checks.

Configuration Overview

There are a couple of directories containing Nagios configuration and check files.
• /etc/nagios3: contains configuration files for the operation of the nagios daemon, CGI files, hosts, etc.
• /etc/nagios−plugins: houses configuration files for the service checks.
• /etc/nagios: on the remote host contains the nagios-nrpe-server configuration files.
• /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/: where the check binaries are stored. To see the options of a check use the
-h option.
For example: /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/check_dhcp −h
There are a plethora of checks Nagios can be configured to execute for any given host. For this example
Nagios will be configured to check disk space, DNS, and a MySQL hostgroup. The DNS check will be on
server02, and the MySQL hostgroup will include both server01 and server02.
Note
See details on setting up Apache, Domain Name Service, and MySQL.
Additionally, there are some terms that once explained will hopefully make understanding Nagios configura-
tion easier:
• Host: a server, workstation, network device, etc that is being monitored.
• Host Group: a group of similar hosts. For example, you could group all web servers, file server, etc.
• Service: the service being monitored on the host. Such as HTTP, DNS, NFS, etc.
• Service Group: allows you to group multiple services together. This is useful for grouping multiple
HTTP for example.
• Contact: person to be notified when an event takes place. Nagios can be configured to send emails,
SMS messages, etc.
By default Nagios is configured to check HTTP, disk space, SSH, current users, processes, and load on the
localhost. Nagios will also ping check the gateway.
Large Nagios installations can be quite complex to configure. It is usually best to start small, one or two
hosts, get things configured the way you like then expand.

Configuration

• First, create a host configuration file for server02. Unless otherwise specified, run all these commands
on server01. In a terminal enter:
sudo cp / e t c / n a g i o s 3 / c o n f . d/ l o c a l h o s t _ n a g i o s 2 . c f g \
/ e t c / n a g i o s 3 / c o n f . d/ s e r v e r 0 2 . c f g

Note
In the above and following command examples, replace “server01”, “server02”
172.18.100.100, and 172.18.100.101 with the host names and IP addresses of your
servers.

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 Next, edit /etc/nagios3/conf.d/server02.cfg:
defin e host {
use g e n e r i c −h o s t ; Name o f h o s t t e m p l a t e t o
use
host_name server02
alias S e r v e r 02
address 172.18.100.101
}

# check DNS s e r v i c e .
define service {
use g e n e r i c −s e r v i c e
host_name server02
service_description DNS
check_command check_dns ! 1 7 2 . 1 8 . 1 0 0 . 1 0 1
}

Restart the nagios daemon to enable the new configuration:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o 3 . s e r v i c e

• Now add a service definition for the MySQL check by adding the following to /etc/nagios3/conf.d/
services_nagios2.cfg:
# check MySQL s e r v e r s .
define service {
hostgroup_name mysql−s e r v e r s
service_description MySQL
check_command check_mysql_cmdlinecred ! n a g i o s ! s e c r e t !
$HOSTADDRESS
use g e n e r i c −s e r v i c e
notification_interval 0 ; s e t > 0 i f you want t o be r e n o t i f i e d
}

A mysql-servers hostgroup now needs to be defined. Edit /etc/nagios3/conf.d/hostgroups_nagios2.cfg

adding:
# MySQL h o s t g r o u p .
d e f i n e hostgroup {
hostgroup_name mysql−s e r v e r s
alias MySQL s e r v e r s
members localhost , server02
}

The Nagios check needs to authenticate to MySQL. To add a nagios user to MySQL enter:
mysql −u r o o t −p −e ” c r e a t e u s e r n a g i o s i d e n t i f i e d by ’ s e c r e t ’ ; ”

Note
The nagios user will need to be added all hosts in the mysql-servers hostgroup.
Restart nagios to start checking the MySQL servers.
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o s 3 . s e r v i c e

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 • Lastly configure NRPE to check the disk space on server02.
On server01 add the service check to /etc/nagios3/conf.d/server02.cfg:
# NRPE d i s k check .
define service {
use g e n e r i c −s e r v i c e
host_name server02
service_description nrpe−d i s k
check_command check_nrpe_1arg ! c h e c k _ a l l _ d i s k s
!172.18.100.101
}

Now on server02 edit /etc/nagios/nrpe.cfg changing:

allowed_hosts =172.18.100.100

And below in the command definition area add:

command [ c h e c k _ a l l _ d i s k s ]=/ u s r / l i b / n a g i o s / p l u g i n s / check_disk −w 20% −c 10%
−e

Finally, restart nagios-nrpe-server:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o s −nrpe−s e r v e r . s e r v i c e

Also, on server01 restart nagios:

sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t n a g i o s 3 . s e r v i c e

You should now be able to see the host and service checks in the Nagios CGI files. To access them point a
browser to http://server01/nagios3. You will then be prompted for the nagiosadmin username and password.

References

This section has just scratched the surface of Nagios’ features. The nagios-plugins-extra and nagios-snmp-
plugins contain many more service checks.
• For more information see Nagios website.
• Specifically the Nagios Online Documentation site.
• There is also a list of books related to Nagios and network monitoring:
• The Nagios Ubuntu Wiki page also has more details.

Munin

Installation

Before installing Munin on server01 apache2 will need to be installed. The default configuration is fine for
running a munin server. For more information see setting up Apache.
First, on server01 install munin. In a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l munin

Now on server02 install the munin-node package:

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sudo apt i n s t a l l munin−node

Configuration

On server01 edit the /etc/munin/munin.conf adding the IP address for server02:

## F i r s t our ” normal ” h o s t .
[ server02 ]
address 172.18.100.101

Note
Replace server02 and 172.18.100.101 with the actual hostname and IP address for your server.
Next, configure munin-node on server02. Edit /etc/munin/munin−node.conf to allow access by server01:
allow ^172\.18\.100\.100 $

Note
Replace ˆ172\.18\.100\.100$ with IP address for your munin server.
Now restart munin-node on server02 for the changes to take effect:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t munin−node . s e r v i c e

Finally, in a browser go to http://server01/munin, and you should see links to nice graphs displaying
information from the standard munin-plugins for disk, network, processes, and system.
Note
Since this is a new install it may take some time for the graphs to display anything useful.

Additional Plugins

The munin-plugins-extra package contains performance checks additional services such as DNS, DHCP,
Samba, etc. To install the package, from a terminal enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l munin−p l u g i n s −e x t r a

Be sure to install the package on both the server and node machines.

References

• See the Munin website for more details.

• Specifically the Munin Documentation page includes information on additional plugins, writing plugins,
etc.

Rsnapshot
Rsnapshot is an rsync-based filesystem snapshot utility. It can take incremental backups of local and remote
filesystems for any number of machines. Rsnapshot makes extensive use of hard links, so disk space is only
used when absolutely necessary. It leverages the power of rsync to create scheduled, incremental backups.
To install it open a terminal shell and run:

296
sudo apt−g e t i n s t a l l r s n a p s h o t

If you want to backup a remote filesystem the rsnapshot server needs to be able to access the target machine
over SSH without password. For more information on how to enable it please see OpenSSH documentation.
If the backup target is a local filesystem there is no need to set up OpenSSH.

Configuration

The rsnapshot configuration resides in /etc/rsnapshot.conf. Below you can find some of the options available
there.
The root directory where all snapshots will be stored:
snapshot_root / var / c a c h e / r s n a p s h o t /

How many old backups you would like to keep. Since rsnapshot uses incremental backups, we can afford
to keep older backups for awhile before removing them. You set these up under the BACKUP LEVELS /
INTERVALS section. You tell rsnapshot to retain a specific number of backups of each kind of interval.
retain daily 6
retain weekly 7
retain monthly 4

In this example we will keep 6 snapshots of our daily strategy, 7 snapshots of our weekly strategy, and 4
snapshots of our monthly strategy. These data will guide the rotation made by rsnapshot.
If you are accessing a remote machine over SSH and the port to bind is not the default (port 22), you need
to set the following variable with the port number:
ssh_args −p 22222

And the most important part, you need to decide on what you would like to backup. If you are backing up
locally to the same machine, this is as easy as specifying the directories that you want to save and following
it with localhost/ which will be a sub-directory in the snapshot_root that you set up earlier.
backup /home/ localhost /
backup / etc / localhost /
backup / usr / l o c a l / localhost /

If you are backing up a remote machine you just need to tell rsnapshot where the server is and which
directories you would like to back up.
backup root@example . com : / home/ example . com/ +rsync_long_args=−−b w l i m i t =16 ,
e x c l u d e=c o r e
backup root@example . com : / e t c / example . com/ e x c l u d e=mtab , e x c l u d e=c o r e

As you can see you can see you can pass extra rsync parameters (the + append the parameter to the default
list, if you remove the + sign you override it) and also exclude directories.
You can check the comments in /etc/rsnapshot.conf and the rsnapshot man page for more options.

Test Configuration

After modifying the configuration file is a good practice to check if the syntax is ok:
sudo r s n a p s h o t c o n f i g t e s t

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You can also test your backup levels with the following command:
sudo rsnapshot -t daily
If you are happy with the output and want to see it in action you can run:
sudo r s n a p s h o t d a i l y

Scheduling Backups

With rsnapshot working correctly with the current configuration, the only thing left to do is to schedule it
to run at certain intervals. We will use cron to make this happen since rsnapshot includes a default cron file
in /etc/cron.d/rsnapshot. If you open this file there are some entries commented out as reference.
0 4 * * * root / usr / bin / rsnapshot d a i l y
0 3 * * 1 root / u s r / b i n / r s n a p s h o t weekly
0 2 1 * * root / u s r / b i n / r s n a p s h o t monthly

The settings above added to /etc/cron.d/rsnapshot run:

• the daily snapshot everyday at 4:00 am
• the weekly snapshot every Monday at 3:00 am
• the monthly snapshot on the first of every month at 2:00 am
For more information on how to schedule a backup using cron please take a look at Executing with cron
section in Backups - Shell Scripts.

References

• Rsnapshot offical web page

• Rsnapshot man page
• Rsync man page

PHP - Scripting Language

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language suited for Web development. PHP scripts can be embedded
into HTML. This section explains how to install and configure PHP in an Ubuntu System with Apache2 and
MySQL.
This section assumes you have installed and configured Apache2 Web Server and MySQL Database Server.
You can refer to the Apache2 and MySQL sections in this document to install and configure Apache2 and
MySQL respectively.

Installation

PHP is available in Ubuntu Linux. Unlike Python, which is installed in the base system, PHP must be
added.
To install PHP and the Apache PHP module you can enter the following command at a terminal prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l php l i b a p a c h e 2 −mod−php

You can run PHP scripts at a terminal prompt. To run PHP scripts at a terminal prompt you should install
the php-cli package. To install php-cli you can enter the following command:

298
sudo apt i n s t a l l php− c l i

You can also execute PHP scripts without installing the Apache PHP module. To accomplish this, you
should install the php-cgi package via this command:
sudo apt i n s t a l l php−c g i

To use MySQL with PHP you should install the php-mysql package, like so:
sudo apt i n s t a l l php−mysql

Similarly, to use PostgreSQL with PHP you should install the php-pgsql package:
sudo apt i n s t a l l php−p g s q l

Configuration

If you have installed the libapache2-mod-php or php-cgi packages, you can run PHP scripts from your web
browser. If you have installed the php-cli package, you can run PHP scripts at a terminal prompt.
By default, when libapache2-mod-php is installed, the Apache 2 Web server is configured to run PHP scripts
using this module. Please verify if the files /etc/apache2/mods−enabled/php7.*.conf and /etc/apache2
/mods−enabled/php7.*.load exist. If they do not exist, you can enable the module using the a2enmod
command.
Once you have installed the PHP related packages and enabled the Apache PHP module, you should restart
the Apache2 Web server to run PHP scripts, by running the following command:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

Testing

To verify your installation, you can run the following PHP phpinfo script:
<?php
phpinfo () ;
?>

You can save the content in a file phpinfo.php and place it under the DocumentRoot directory of the Apache2
Web server. Pointing your browser to http://hostname/phpinfo.php will display the values of various PHP
configuration parameters.

References

• For more in depth information see the php.net documentation.

• There are a plethora of books on PHP. A good book from O’Reilly is Learning PHP, which includes
an exploration of PHP 7’s enhancements to the language. PHP Cook Book, 3rd Edition is also good,
but has not yet been updated for PHP 7.
• Also, see the Apache MySQL PHP Ubuntu Wiki page for more information.

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Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is an open source web framework for developing database backed web applications. It is
optimized for sustainable productivity of the programmer since it lets the programmer to write code by
favouring convention over configuration.

Installation

Before installing Rails you should install Apache (or a preferred web server) and a database service such as
MySQL. To install the Apache package, please refer to HTTPD - Apache2 Web Server. For instructions on
installing and configuring a database service refer to MySQL documentation for example.
Once you have a web server (e.g. Apache) and a database service (e.g. MySQL) installed and configured,
you are ready to install Ruby on Rails package.
To install the Ruby base packages and Ruby on Rails, you can enter the following command in the terminal
prompt:
sudo apt i n s t a l l r a i l s

Configuration

Web Server

Modify the /etc/apache2/sites−available/000−default.conf configuration file to setup your domains.

The first thing to change is the DocumentRoot directive:
DocumentRoot / path / t o / r a i l s / a p p l i c a t i o n / p u b l i c

Next, change the <Directory “/path/to/rails/application/public”> directive:

<D i r e c t o r y ”/ path / t o / r a i l s / a p p l i c a t i o n / p u b l i c ”>
Options I n d e x e s FollowSymLinks MultiViews ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
Order a l l o w , deny
a l l o w from a l l
AddHandler c g i −s c r i p t . c g i
</D i r e c t o r y >

You should also enable the mod_rewrite module for Apache. To enable mod_rewrite module, please enter
the following command in a terminal prompt:
sudo a2enmod r e w r i t e

Finally you will need to change the ownership of the /path/to/rails/application/public and /path/to/rails/
application/tmp directories to the user used to run the Apache process:
sudo chown −R www−data :www−data / path / t o / r a i l s / a p p l i c a t i o n / p u b l i c
sudo chown −R www−data :www−data / path / t o / r a i l s / a p p l i c a t i o n /tmp

If you need to compile your application assets run the following command in your application directory:
RAILS_ENV=p r o d u c t i o n r a k e a s s e t s : p r e c o m p i l e

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Database

With your database service in place you need to make sure your app database configuration is also correct.
For example, if you are using MySQL your config/database.yml should look like this:
# Mysql
production :
a d a p t e r : mysql2
username : u s e r
password : password
host : 1 2 7 . 0 . 0 . 1
d a t a b a s e : app

To finally create your application database and apply its migrations you can run the following commands
from your app directory:
RAILS_ENV=p r o d u c t i o n r a k e db : c r e a t e
RAILS_ENV=p r o d u c t i o n r a k e db : m i g r a t e

That’s it! Now you have your Server ready for your Ruby on Rails application. You can daemonize your
application as you want.

References

• See the Ruby on Rails website for more information.

• Also Agile Development with Rails is a great resource.

Backups
There are many ways to backup an Ubuntu installation. The most important thing about backups is to
develop a backup plan consisting of what to backup, where to back it up to, and how to restore it.
It is good practice to take backup media off-site in case of a disaster. For backup plans involving physical
tape or removable hard drives, the tapes or drives can be manually taken off-site, but in other cases this may
not be practical and the archives will need copied over a WAN link to a server in another location.

Archive Rotation
The shell script in Shell Scripts only allows for seven different archives. For a server whose data doesn’t
change often, this may be enough. If the server has a large amount of data, a more complex rotation scheme
should be used.

Rotating NFS Archives

In this section, the shell script will be slightly modified to implement a grandfather-father-son rotation
scheme (monthly-weekly-daily):
• The rotation will do a daily backup Sunday through Friday.
• On Saturday a weekly backup is done giving you four weekly backups a month.

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 • The monthly backup is done on the first of the month rotating two monthly backups based on if the
month is odd or even.
Here is the new script:
#!/ b i n / bash
####################################
#
# Backup t o NFS mount s c r i p t with
# g r a n d f a t h e r −f a t h e r −son r o t a t i o n .
#
####################################

# What t o backup .
b a c k u p _ f i l e s =”/home / var / s p o o l / m a i l / e t c / r o o t / boot / opt ”

# Where t o backup t o .
d e s t =”/mnt/ backup ”

# Setup v a r i a b l e s f o r t h e a r c h i v e f i l e n a m e .
day=$ ( d a t e +%A)
hostname=$ ( hostname −s )

# Find which week o f t h e month 1−4 i t i s .

day_num=$ ( d a t e +%−d )
i f ( ( $day_num <= 7 ) ) ; then
w e e k _ f i l e =”$hostname−week1 . t g z ”
e l i f ( ( $day_num > 7 && $day_num <= 14 ) ) ; then
w e e k _ f i l e =”$hostname−week2 . t g z ”
e l i f ( ( $day_num > 14 && $day_num <= 21 ) ) ; then
w e e k _ f i l e =”$hostname−week3 . t g z ”
e l i f ( ( $day_num > 21 && $day_num < 32 ) ) ; then
w e e k _ f i l e =”$hostname−week4 . t g z ”
fi

# Find i f t h e Month i s odd o r even .

month_num=$ ( d a t e +%m)
month=$ ( expr $month_num % 2 )
i f [ $month −eq 0 ] ; then
mo n t h _ f il e=”$hostname−month2 . t g z ”
else
mo n t h _ f il e=”$hostname−month1 . t g z ”
fi

# Create a r c h i v e filename .
i f [ $day_num == 1 ] ; then
a r c h i v e _ f i l e=$ m on t h _ f il e
e l i f [ $day != ” Saturday ” ] ; then
a r c h i v e _ f i l e =”$hostname−$day . t g z ”
else
a r c h i v e _ f i l e=$ w e e k _ f i l e
fi

# P r i n t s t a r t s t a t u s message .
echo ” Backing up $ b a c k u p _ f i l e s t o $ d e s t / $ a r c h i v e _ f i l e ”

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date
echo

# Backup t h e f i l e s u s i n g t a r .
tar czf $dest / $archive_file $backup_files

# P r i n t end s t a t u s message .
echo
echo ” Backup f i n i s h e d ”
date

# Long l i s t i n g o f f i l e s i n $ d e s t t o check f i l e s i z e s .
l s −l h $ d e s t /

The script can be executed using the same methods as in Executing the Script.
As discussed in the introduction, a copy of the backup archives and/or media can then be transferred off-site.

Tape Drives

A tape drive attached to the server can be used instead of an NFS share. Using a tape drive simplifies
archive rotation, and makes taking the media off-site easier as well.
When using a tape drive, the filename portions of the script aren’t needed because the data is sent directly
to the tape device. Some commands to manipulate the tape are needed. This is accomplished using mt, a
magnetic tape control utility part of the cpio package.
Here is the shell script modified to use a tape drive:
#!/ b i n / bash
####################################
#
# Backup t o t a p e d r i v e s c r i p t .
#
####################################

# What t o backup .
b a c k u p _ f i l e s =”/home / var / s p o o l / m a i l / e t c / r o o t / boot / opt ”

# Where t o backup t o .
d e s t =”/dev / s t 0 ”

# P r i n t s t a r t s t a t u s message .
echo ” Backing up $ b a c k u p _ f i l e s t o $ d e s t ”
date
echo

# Make s u r e t h e t a p e i s rewound .
mt −f $ d e s t rewind

# Backup t h e f i l e s u s i n g t a r .
tar czf $dest $backup_files

# Rewind and e j e c t t h e t a p e .
mt −f $ d e s t r e w o f f l

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# P r i n t end s t a t u s message .
echo
echo ” Backup f i n i s h e d ”
date

Note
The default device name for a SCSI tape drive is /dev/st0. Use the appropriate device path for
your system.
Restoring from a tape drive is basically the same as restoring from a file. Simply rewind the tape and use
the device path instead of a file path. For example to restore the /etc/hosts file to /tmp/etc/hosts:
mt −f / dev / s t 0 rewind
t a r −x z f / dev / s t 0 −C /tmp e t c / h o s t s

Bacula
Bacula is a backup program enabling you to backup, restore, and verify data across your network. There
are Bacula clients for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X - making it a cross-platform network wide solution.

Overview

Bacula is made up of several components and services used to manage which files to backup and backup
locations:
• Bacula Director: a service that controls all backup, restore, verify, and archive operations.
• Bacula Console: an application allowing communication with the Director. There are three versions
of the Console:
– Text based command line version.
– Gnome based GTK+ Graphical User Interface (GUI) interface.
– wxWidgets GUI interface.
• Bacula File: also known as the Bacula Client program. This application is installed on machines to be
backed up, and is responsible for the data requested by the Director.
• Bacula Storage: the programs that perform the storage and recovery of data to the physical media.
• Bacula Catalog: is responsible for maintaining the file indexes and volume databases for all files backed
up, enabling quick location and restoration of archived files. The Catalog supports three different
databases MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
• Bacula Monitor: allows the monitoring of the Director, File daemons, and Storage daemons. Currently
the Monitor is only available as a GTK+ GUI application.
These services and applications can be run on multiple servers and clients, or they can be installed on one
machine if backing up a single disk or volume.

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Installation

Note
If using MySQL or PostgreSQL as your database, you should already have the services available.
Bacula will not install them for you. For more information take a look at Databases -MySQL
and Databases - PostgreSQL.
There are multiple packages containing the different Bacula components. To install Bacula, from a terminal
prompt enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l b a c u l a

By default installing the bacula package will use a PostgreSQL database for the Catalog. If you want to use
SQLite or MySQL, for the Catalog, install bacula−director−sqlite3 or bacula−director−mysql respectively.
During the install process you will be asked to supply a password for the database owner of the bacula
database.

Configuration

Bacula configuration files are formatted based on resources comprising of directives surrounded by “{}”
braces. Each Bacula component has an individual file in the /etc/bacula directory.
The various Bacula components must authorize themselves to each other. This is accomplished using the
password directive. For example, the Storage resource password in the /etc/bacula/bacula−dir.conf file must
match the Director resource password in /etc/bacula/bacula−sd.conf.
By default the backup job named BackupClient1 is configured to archive the Bacula Catalog. If you plan on
using the server to backup more than one client you should change the name of this job to something more
descriptive. To change the name edit /etc/bacula/bacula−dir.conf:
#
# D e f i n e t h e main n i g h t l y s a v e backup j o b
# By d e f a u l t , t h i s j o b w i l l back up t o d i s k i n
Job {
Name = ” BackupServer ”
JobDefs = ” D e f a u l t J o b ”
Write B o o t s t r a p = ”/ var / l i b / b a c u l a / C l i e n t 1 . b s r ”
}

Note
The example above changes the job name to BackupServer matching the machine’s host name.
Replace “BackupServer” with your appropriate hostname, or other descriptive name.
The Console can be used to query the Director about jobs, but to use the Console with a non-root user, the
user needs to be in the bacula group. To add a user to the bacula group enter the following from a terminal:
sudo a ddu se r $username b a c u l a

Note
Replace $username with the actual username. Also, if you are adding the current user to the
group you should log out and back in for the new permissions to take effect.

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Localhost Backup

This section describes how to backup specified directories on a single host to a local tape drive.
• First, the Storage device needs to be configured. Edit /etc/bacula/bacula−sd.conf add:
De vice {
Name = ”Tape Drive ”
Devi ce Type = t a p e
Media Type = DDS−4
Ar c h i v e D evice = / dev / s t 0
Hardware end o f medium = No ;
AutomaticMount = y e s ; # when d e v i c e opened , r e a d i t
AlwaysOpen = Yes ;
RemovableMedia = y e s ;
RandomAccess = no ;
A l e r t Command = ” sh −c ’ t a p e i n f o −f %c | g r e p TapeAlert ’ ”
}

The example is for a DDS-4 tape drive. Adjust the “Media Type” and “Archive Device” to match your
hardware.
You could also uncomment one of the other examples in the file.
• After editing /etc/bacula/bacula−sd.conf the Storage daemon will need to be restarted:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t bacula −sd . s e r v i c e

• Now add a Storage resource in /etc/bacula/bacula−dir.conf to use the new Device:

# D e f i n i t i o n o f ”Tape Drive ” s t o r a g e d e v i c e
Storage {
Name = TapeDrive
# Do not u s e ” l o c a l h o s t ” h e r e
Address = b a c k u p s e r v e r # N. B . Use a f u l l y q u a l i f i e d name
here
SDPort = 9103
Password = ” Cv70F6pf1t6pBopT4vQOnigDrR0v3LT3Cgkiyjc ”
Devi ce = ” Tape Drive ”
Media Type = t a p e
}

The Address directive needs to be the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the server. Change
backupserver to the actual host name.
Also, make sure the Password directive matches the password string in /etc/bacula/bacula−sd.conf.
• Create a new FileSet, which will determine what directories to backup, by adding:
# LocalhostBacup F i l e S e t .
FileSet {
Name = ” L o c a l h o s t F i l e s ”
Include {
Options {
s i g n a t u r e = MD5
c o m p r e s s i o n=GZIP
}
File = / etc
F i l e = /home

306
 }
}

This FileSet will backup the /etc and /home directories. The Options resource directives configure the
FileSet to create an MD5 signature for each file backed up, and to compress the files using GZIP.
• Next, create a new Schedule for the backup job:
# LocalhostBackup S c h e d u l e −− D a i l y .
Schedule {
Name = ” L o c a l h o s t D a i l y ”
Run = F u l l d a i l y a t 0 0 : 0 1
}

The job will run every day at 00:01 or 12:01 am. There are many other scheduling options available.
• Finally create the Job:
# L o c a l h o s t backup .
Job {
Name = ” LocalhostBackup ”
JobDefs = ” D e f a u l t J o b ”
Enabled = y e s
Level = Full
FileSet = ” LocalhostFiles ”
Schedule = ” LocalhostDaily ”
S t o r a g e = TapeDrive
Write B o o t s t r a p = ”/ var / l i b / b a c u l a / LocalhostBackup . b s r ”
}

The job will do a Full backup every day to the tape drive.
• Each tape used will need to have a Label. If the current tape does not have a label Bacula will send
an email letting you know. To label a tape using the Console enter the following from a terminal:
bconsole

• At the Bacula Console prompt enter:

label

• You will then be prompted for the Storage resource:

A u t o m a t i c a l l y s e l e c t e d C a t a l o g : MyCatalog
Using C a t a l o g ” MyCatalog ”
The d e f i n e d S t o r a g e r e s o u r c e s a r e :
1: File
2 : TapeDrive
S e l e c t S t o r a g e r e s o u r c e (1 −2) : 2

• Enter the new Volume name:

Enter new Volume name : Sunday

Defined Pools :
1: Default
2: Scratch

307
 Replace Sunday with the desired label.
• Now, select the Pool:

S e l e c t t h e Pool (1 −2) : 1
Connecting t o S t o r a g e daemon TapeDrive a t b a c k u p s e r v e r : 9 1 0 3 . . .
Sending l a b e l command f o r Volume ” Sunday ” S l o t 0 . . .

Congratulations, you have now configured Bacula to backup the localhost to an attached tape drive.

Resources

• For more Bacula configuration options, refer to Bacula’s Documentation.

• The Bacula Home Page contains the latest Bacula news and developments.
• Also, see the Bacula Ubuntu Wiki page.

Shell Scripts
One of the simplest ways to backup a system is using a shell script. For example, a script can be used
to configure which directories to backup, and pass those directories as arguments to the tar utility, which
creates an archive file. The archive file can then be moved or copied to another location. The archive can
also be created on a remote file system such as an NFS mount.
The tar utility creates one archive file out of many files or directories. tar can also filter the files through
compression utilities, thus reducing the size of the archive file.

Simple Shell Script

The following shell script uses tar to create an archive file on a remotely mounted NFS file system. The
archive filename is determined using additional command line utilities.
#!/ b i n / bash
####################################
#
# Backup t o NFS mount s c r i p t .
#
####################################

# What t o backup .
b a c k u p _ f i l e s =”/home / var / s p o o l / m a i l / e t c / r o o t / boot / opt ”

# Where t o backup t o .
d e s t =”/mnt/ backup ”

# Create a r c h i v e filename .
day=$ ( d a t e +%A)
hostname=$ ( hostname −s )
a r c h i v e _ f i l e =”$hostname−$day . t g z ”

# P r i n t s t a r t s t a t u s message .
echo ” Backing up $ b a c k u p _ f i l e s t o $ d e s t / $ a r c h i v e _ f i l e ”

308
date
echo

# Backup t h e f i l e s u s i n g t a r .
tar czf $dest / $archive_file $backup_files

# P r i n t end s t a t u s message .
echo
echo ” Backup f i n i s h e d ”
date

# Long l i s t i n g o f f i l e s i n $ d e s t t o check f i l e s i z e s .
l s −l h $ d e s t

• $backup_files: a variable listing which directories you would like to backup. The list should be cus-
tomized to fit your needs.
• $day: a variable holding the day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc). This is used to
create an archive file for each day of the week, giving a backup history of seven days. There are other
ways to accomplish this including using the date utility.
• $hostname: variable containing the short hostname of the system. Using the hostname in the archive
filename gives you the option of placing daily archive files from multiple systems in the same directory.
• $archive_file: the full archive filename.
• $dest: destination of the archive file. The directory needs to be created and in this case mounted before
executing the backup script. See ??? for details of using NFS.
• status messages: optional messages printed to the console using the echo utility.
• tar czf 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡/archive_file $backup_files: the tar command used to create the archive file.
– c: creates an archive.
– z: filter the archive through the gzip utility compressing the archive.
– f: output to an archive file. Otherwise the tar output will be sent to STDOUT.
• ls -lh $dest: optional statement prints a -l long listing in -h human readable format of the destination
directory. This is useful for a quick file size check of the archive file. This check should not replace
testing the archive file.
This is a simple example of a backup shell script; however there are many options that can be included in
such a script. See References for links to resources providing more in-depth shell scripting information.

Executing the Script

Executing from a Terminal

The simplest way of executing the above backup script is to copy and paste the contents into a file. backup.sh
for example. The file must be made executable:
chmod u+x backup . sh

Then from a terminal prompt:

sudo . / backup . sh

This is a great way to test the script to make sure everything works as expected.

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Executing with cron

The cron utility can be used to automate the script execution. The cron daemon allows the execution of
scripts, or commands, at a specified time and date.
cron is configured through entries in a crontab file. crontab files are separated into fields:
# m h dom mon dow command

• m: minute the command executes on, between 0 and 59.

• h: hour the command executes on, between 0 and 23.
• dom: day of month the command executes on.
• mon: the month the command executes on, between 1 and 12.
• dow: the day of the week the command executes on, between 0 and 7. Sunday may be specified by
using 0 or 7, both values are valid.
• command: the command to execute.
To add or change entries in a crontab file the crontab -e command should be used. Also, the contents of a
crontab file can be viewed using the crontab -l command.
To execute the backup.sh script listed above using cron. Enter the following from a terminal prompt:
sudo c r o n t a b −e

Note
Using sudo with the crontab -e command edits the root user’s crontab. This is necessary if you
are backing up directories only the root user has access to.
Add the following entry to the crontab file:
# m h dom mon dow command
0 0 * * * bash / u s r / l o c a l / b i n / backup . sh

The backup.sh script will now be executed every day at 12:00 pm.
Note
The backup.sh script will need to be copied to the /usr/local/bin/ directory in order for this
entry to execute properly. The script can reside anywhere on the file system, simply change the
script path appropriately.
For more in-depth crontab options see References.

Restoring from the Archive

Once an archive has been created it is important to test the archive. The archive can be tested by listing
the files it contains, but the best test is to restore a file from the archive.
• To see a listing of the archive contents. From a terminal prompt type:
t a r −t z v f /mnt/ backup / host−Monday . t g z

• To restore a file from the archive to a different directory enter:

t a r −x z v f /mnt/ backup / host−Monday . t g z −C /tmp e t c / h o s t s

310
 The -C option to tar redirects the extracted files to the specified directory. The above example will
extract the /etc/hosts file to /tmp/etc/hosts. tar recreates the directory structure that it contains.
Also, notice the leading “/” is left off the path of the file to restore.
• To restore all files in the archive enter the following:
cd /
sudo t a r −x z v f /mnt/ backup / host−Monday . t g z

Note
This will overwrite the files currently on the file system.

References

• For more information on shell scripting see the Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
• The book Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours is available online and a great resource for
shell scripting.
• The CronHowto Wiki Page contains details on advanced cron options.
• See the GNU tar Manual for more tar options.
• The Wikipedia Backup Rotation Scheme article contains information on other backup rotation schemes.
• The shell script uses tar to create the archive, but there many other command line utilities that can
be used. For example:
– cpio: used to copy files to and from archives.
– dd: part of the coreutils package. A low level utility that can copy data from one format to
another.
– rsnapshot: a file system snapshot utility used to create copies of an entire file system. Also check
the Tools - rsnapshot for some information.
– rsync: a flexible utility used to create incremental copies of files.

LAMP Applications

Overview
LAMP installations (Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP/Perl/Python) are a popular setup for Ubuntu
servers. There is a plethora of Open Source applications written using the LAMP application stack. Some
popular LAMP applications are Wiki’s, Content Management Systems, and Management Software such as
phpMyAdmin.
One advantage of LAMP is the substantial flexibility for different database, web server, and scripting lan-
guages. Popular substitutes for MySQL include PostgreSQL and SQLite. Python, Perl, and Ruby are also
frequently used instead of PHP. While Nginx, Cherokee and Lighttpd can replace Apache.
The fastest way to get started is to install LAMP using tasksel. Tasksel is a Debian/Ubuntu tool that installs
multiple related packages as a co-ordinated “task” onto your system. To install a LAMP server:
At a terminal prompt enter the following command:
sudo t a s k s e l i n s t a l l lamp−s e r v e r

311
After installing it you’ll be able to install most LAMP applications in this way:
• Download an archive containing the application source files.
• Unpack the archive, usually in a directory accessible to a web server.
• Depending on where the source was extracted, configure a web server to serve the files.
• Configure the application to connect to the database.
• Run a script, or browse to a page of the application, to install the database needed by the application.
• Once the steps above, or similar steps, are completed you are ready to begin using the application.
A disadvantage of using this approach is that the application files are not placed in the file system in a
standard way, which can cause confusion as to where the application is installed. Another larger disadvantage
is updating the application. When a new version is released, the same process used to install the application
is needed to apply updates.
Fortunately, a number of LAMP applications are already packaged for Ubuntu, and are available for instal-
lation in the same way as non-LAMP applications. Depending on the application some extra configuration
and setup steps may be needed, however.
This section covers how to install some LAMP applications.

Moin Moin
MoinMoin is a wiki engine implemented in Python, based on the PikiPiki Wiki engine, and licensed under
the GNU GPL.

Installation

To install MoinMoin, run the following command in the command prompt:

sudo apt i n s t a l l python−moinmoin

You should also install apache2 web server. For installing the apache2 web server, please refer to ??? sub-
section in ??? section.

Configuration

To configure your first wiki application, please run the following set of commands. Let us assume that you
are creating a wiki named mywiki:
cd / u s r / s h a r e /moin
sudo mkdir mywiki
sudo cp −R data mywiki
sudo cp −R u n d e r l a y mywiki
sudo cp s e r v e r /moin . c g i mywiki
sudo chown −R www−data :www−data mywiki
sudo chmod −R ug+rwX mywiki
sudo chmod −R o−rwx mywiki

Now you should configure MoinMoin to find your new wiki mywiki. To configure MoinMoin, open /etc/moin
/mywiki.py file and change the following line:
data_dir = ’ / o r g / mywiki / data ’

312
to
data_dir = ’ / u s r / s h a r e /moin/ mywiki / data ’

Also, below the data_dir option add the data_underlay_dir:

data_underlay_dir =’/ u s r / s h a r e /moin/ mywiki / underlay ’

Note
If the /etc/moin/mywiki.py file does not exist, you should copy /usr/share/moin/config/wikifarm
/mywiki.py file to /etc/moin/mywiki.py file and do the above mentioned change.
Note
If you have named your wiki as my_wiki_name you should insert a line “(”my_wiki_name“,
r”.*“)” in /etc/moin/farmconfig.py file after the line “(”mywiki“, r”.*“)”.
Once you have configured MoinMoin to find your first wiki application, mywiki, you should configure apache2
and make it ready for your wiki.
You should add the following lines in /etc/apache2/sites−available/000−default.conf file inside the “<Vir-
tualHost *>” tag:
### moin
S c r i p t A l i a s / mywiki ”/ u s r / s h a r e /moin/ mywiki /moin . c g i ”
a l i a s / moin_static <v e r s i o n > ”/ u s r / s h a r e /moin/ h t d o c s ”
<D i r e c t o r y / u s r / s h a r e /moin/ htdocs >
Order a l l o w , deny
a l l o w from a l l
</D i r e c t o r y >
### end moin

The version in the above example is determined by running:

$ moin −−v e r s i o n

If the output shows version 1.9.7, your second line should be:
a l i a s / m o i n _ s t a t i c 1 9 7 ”/ u s r / s h a r e /moin/ h t d o c s ”

Once you configure the apache2 web server and make it ready for your wiki application, you should restart
it. You can run the following command to restart the apache2 web server:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

Verification

You can verify the Wiki application and see if it works by pointing your web browser to the following URL:
h t t p : / / l o c a l h o s t / mywiki

For more details, please refer to the MoinMoin web site.

References

• For more information see the moinmoin Wiki.

• Also, see the Ubuntu Wiki MoinMoin page.

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phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin is a LAMP application specifically written for administering MySQL servers. Written in PHP,
and accessed through a web browser, phpMyAdmin provides a graphical interface for database administration
tasks.

Installation

Before installing phpMyAdmin you will need access to a MySQL database either on the same host as that
phpMyAdmin is installed on, or on a host accessible over the network. For more information see ???. From
a terminal prompt enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l phpmyadmin

At the prompt choose which web server to be configured for phpMyAdmin. The rest of this section will use
Apache2 for the web server.
In a browser go to http://servername/phpmyadmin, replacing servername with the server’s actual hostname.
At the login, page enter root for the username, or another MySQL user, if you have any setup, and enter the
MySQL user’s password.
Once logged in you can reset the root password if needed, create users, create/destroy databases and tables,
etc.

Configuration

The configuration files for phpMyAdmin are located in /etc/phpmyadmin. The main configuration file is /etc
/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php. This file contains configuration options that apply globally to phpMyAdmin.
To use phpMyAdmin to administer a MySQL database hosted on another server, adjust the following in
/etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php:
$ c f g [ ’ S e r v e r s ’ ] [ $ i ] [ ’ host ’ ] = ’ db_server ’ ;

Note
Replace db_server with the actual remote database server name or IP address. Also, be sure
that the phpMyAdmin host has permissions to access the remote database.
Once configured, log out of phpMyAdmin and back in, and you should be accessing the new server.
The config .header.inc .php and config . footer . inc .php files are used to add a HTML header and footer to
phpMyAdmin.
Another important configuration file is /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf, this file is symlinked to /etc/apache2/
conf−available/phpmyadmin.conf, and, once enabled, is used to configure Apache2 to serve the phpMyAdmin
site. The file contains directives for loading PHP, directory permissions, etc. From a terminal type:
sudo l n −s / e t c /phpmyadmin/ apache . c o n f / e t c / apache2 / conf −a v a i l a b l e /phpmyadmin .
conf
sudo a 2 e n c o n f phpmyadmin . c o n f
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d apache2 . s e r v i c e

For more information on configuring Apache2 see ???.

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References

• The phpMyAdmin documentation comes installed with the package and can be accessed from the
phpMyAdmin Documentation link (a question mark with a box around it) under the phpMyAdmin
logo. The official docs can also be access on the phpMyAdmin site.
• Also, Mastering phpMyAdmin is a great resource.
• A third resource is the phpMyAdmin Ubuntu Wiki page.

WordPress
Wordpress is a blog tool, publishing platform and CMS implemented in PHP and licensed under the GNU
GPLv2.

Installation

To install WordPress, run the following comand in the command prompt:

sudo apt i n s t a l l w o r d p r e s s

You should also install apache2 web server and mysql server. For installing apache2 web server, please refer
to ??? sub-section in ??? section. For installing mysql server, please refer to ??? sub-section in ??? section.

Configuration

For configuring your first WordPress application, configure an apache site. Open /etc/apache2/sites−
available/wordpress.conf and write the following lines:
Alias / blog / usr / share / wordpress
<D i r e c t o r y / u s r / s h a r e / wordpress >
Options FollowSymLinks
A l l o w O v e r r i d e Limit Options F i l e I n f o
D i r e c t o r y I n d e x i n d e x . php
Order a l l o w , deny
Allow from a l l
</D i r e c t o r y >
<D i r e c t o r y / u s r / s h a r e / w o r d p r e s s /wp−c o n t e n t >
Options FollowSymLinks
Order a l l o w , deny
Allow from a l l
</D i r e c t o r y >

Enable this new WordPress site

sudo a 2 e n s i t e w o r d p r e s s

Once you configure the apache2 web server and make it ready for your WordPress application, you should
restart it. You can run the following command to restart the apache2 web server:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e s t a r t apache2 . s e r v i c e

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To facilitate multiple WordPress installations, the name of this configuration file is based on the Host header
of the HTTP request. This means that you can have a configuration per VirtualHost by simply matching
the hostname portion of this configuration with your Apache Virtual Host. e.g. /etc/wordpress/config-
10.211.55.50.php, /etc/wordpress/config-hostalias1.php, etc. These instructions assume you can access
Apache via the localhost hostname (perhaps by using an ssh tunnel) if not, replace /etc/wordpress/config-
localhost.php with /etc/wordpress/config-NAME_OF_YOUR_VIRTUAL_HOST.php.
Once the configuration file is written, it is up to you to choose a convention for username and password to
mysql for each WordPress database instance. This documentation shows only one, localhost, example.
Now configure WordPress to use a mysql database. Open /etc/wordpress/config−localhost.php file and write
the following lines:
<?php
d e f i n e ( ’DB_NAME’ , ’ wordpress ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’DB_USER’ , ’ wordpress ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’DB_PASSWORD’ , ’ yourpasswordhere ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’DB_HOST’ , ’ l o c a l h o s t ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’WP_CONTENT_DIR’ , ’ / u s r / s h a r e / w o r d p r e s s /wp−c o n t e n t ’ ) ;
?>

Now create this mysql database. Open a temporary file with mysql commands wordpress.sql and write the
following lines:
CREATE DATABASE w o r d p r e s s ;
GRANT SELECT, INSERT ,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,ALTER
ON w o r d p r e s s . *
TO w o r d p r e s s @ l o c a l h o s t
IDENTIFIED BY ’ yourpasswordhere ’ ;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES ;

Execute these commands.

c a t w o r d p r e s s . s q l | sudo mysql −−d e f a u l t s −e x t r a − f i l e =/ e t c / mysql / d e b i a n . c n f

Your new WordPress can now be configured by visiting http://localhost/blog/wp-admin/install.php. (Or

http://NAME_OF_YOUR_VIRTUAL_HOST/blog/wp-admin/install.php if your server has no GUI and
you are completing WordPress configuration via a web browser running on another computer.) Fill out the
Site Title, username, password, and E-mail and click Install WordPress.
Note the generated password (if applicable) and click the login password. Your WordPress is now ready for
use.

References

• WordPress.org Codex
• Ubuntu Wiki WordPress

LAMP Applications

Overview
LAMP installations (Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP/Perl/Python) are a popular setup for Ubuntu
servers. There is a plethora of Open Source applications written using the LAMP application stack. Some

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popular LAMP applications are Wiki’s, Content Management Systems, and Management Software such as
phpMyAdmin.
One advantage of LAMP is the substantial flexibility for different database, web server, and scripting lan-
guages. Popular substitutes for MySQL include PostgreSQL and SQLite. Python, Perl, and Ruby are also
frequently used instead of PHP. While Nginx, Cherokee and Lighttpd can replace Apache.
The fastest way to get started is to install LAMP using tasksel. Tasksel is a Debian/Ubuntu tool that installs
multiple related packages as a co-ordinated “task” onto your system. To install a LAMP server:
At a terminal prompt enter the following command:
sudo t a s k s e l i n s t a l l lamp−s e r v e r

After installing it you’ll be able to install most LAMP applications in this way:
• Download an archive containing the application source files.
• Unpack the archive, usually in a directory accessible to a web server.
• Depending on where the source was extracted, configure a web server to serve the files.
• Configure the application to connect to the database.
• Run a script, or browse to a page of the application, to install the database needed by the application.
• Once the steps above, or similar steps, are completed you are ready to begin using the application.
A disadvantage of using this approach is that the application files are not placed in the file system in a
standard way, which can cause confusion as to where the application is installed. Another larger disadvantage
is updating the application. When a new version is released, the same process used to install the application
is needed to apply updates.
Fortunately, a number of LAMP applications are already packaged for Ubuntu, and are available for instal-
lation in the same way as non-LAMP applications. Depending on the application some extra configuration
and setup steps may be needed, however.
This section covers how to install some LAMP applications.

phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin is a LAMP application specifically written for administering MySQL servers. Written in PHP,
and accessed through a web browser, phpMyAdmin provides a graphical interface for database administration
tasks.

Installation

Before installing phpMyAdmin you will need access to a MySQL database either on the same host as that
phpMyAdmin is installed on, or on a host accessible over the network. For more information see MySQL
documentation. From a terminal prompt enter:
sudo apt i n s t a l l phpmyadmin

At the prompt choose which web server to be configured for phpMyAdmin. The rest of this section will use
Apache2 for the web server.
In a browser go to http://servername/phpmyadmin, replacing servername with the server’s actual hostname.
At the login, page enter root for the username, or another MySQL user, if you have any setup, and enter the
MySQL user’s password.

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Once logged in you can reset the root password if needed, create users, create/destroy databases and tables,
etc.

Configuration

The configuration files for phpMyAdmin are located in /etc/phpmyadmin. The main configuration file is /etc
/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php. This file contains configuration options that apply globally to phpMyAdmin.
To use phpMyAdmin to administer a MySQL database hosted on another server, adjust the following in
/etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php:
$ c f g [ ’ S e r v e r s ’ ] [ $ i ] [ ’ host ’ ] = ’ db_server ’ ;

Note
Replace db_server with the actual remote database server name or IP address. Also, be sure
that the phpMyAdmin host has permissions to access the remote database.
Once configured, log out of phpMyAdmin and back in, and you should be accessing the new server.
The config .header.inc .php and config . footer . inc .php files in /etc/phpmyadmin directory are used to add
a HTML header and footer to phpMyAdmin.
Another important configuration file is /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf, this file is symlinked to /etc/apache2/
conf−available/phpmyadmin.conf, and, once enabled, is used to configure Apache2 to serve the phpMyAdmin
site. The file contains directives for loading PHP, directory permissions, etc. From a terminal type:
sudo l n −s / e t c /phpmyadmin/ apache . c o n f / e t c / apache2 / conf −a v a i l a b l e /phpmyadmin .
conf
sudo a 2 e n c o n f phpmyadmin . c o n f
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d apache2 . s e r v i c e

For more information on configuring Apache2 see this documentation.

References

• The phpMyAdmin documentation comes installed with the package and can be accessed from the
phpMyAdmin Documentation link (a question mark with a box around it) under the phpMyAdmin
logo. The official docs can also be access on the phpMyAdmin site.
• Another resource is the phpMyAdmin Ubuntu Wiki page.

WordPress
Wordpress is a blog tool, publishing platform and CMS implemented in PHP and licensed under the GNU
GPLv2.

Installation

To install WordPress, run the following comand in the command prompt:

sudo apt i n s t a l l w o r d p r e s s

You should also install apache2 web server and mysql server. For installing apache2 web server, please refer
to Apache2 documentation. For installing mysql server, please refer to MySQL documentation.

318
Configuration

For configuring your first WordPress application, configure an apache site. Open /etc/apache2/sites−
available/wordpress.conf and write the following lines:
Alias / blog / usr / share / wordpress
<D i r e c t o r y / u s r / s h a r e / wordpress >
Options FollowSymLinks
A l l o w O v e r r i d e Limit Options F i l e I n f o
D i r e c t o r y I n d e x i n d e x . php
Order a l l o w , deny
Allow from a l l
</D i r e c t o r y >
<D i r e c t o r y / u s r / s h a r e / w o r d p r e s s /wp−c o n t e n t >
Options FollowSymLinks
Order a l l o w , deny
Allow from a l l
</D i r e c t o r y >

Enable this new WordPress site

sudo a 2 e n s i t e w o r d p r e s s

Once you configure the apache2 web server and make it ready for your WordPress application, you should
restart it. You can run the following command to restart the apache2 web server:
sudo s y s t e m c t l r e l o a d apache2 . s e r v i c e

To facilitate multiple WordPress installations, the name of this configuration file is based on the Host header
of the HTTP request. This means that you can have a configuration per VirtualHost by simply matching
the hostname portion of this configuration with your Apache Virtual Host. e.g. /etc/wordpress/config-
10.211.55.50.php, /etc/wordpress/config-hostalias1.php, etc. These instructions assume you can access
Apache via the localhost hostname (perhaps by using an ssh tunnel) if not, replace /etc/wordpress/config-
localhost.php with /etc/wordpress/config-NAME_OF_YOUR_VIRTUAL_HOST.php.
Once the configuration file is written, it is up to you to choose a convention for username and password to
mysql for each WordPress database instance. This documentation shows only one, localhost, example.
Now configure WordPress to use a mysql database. Open /etc/wordpress/config−localhost.php file and write
the following lines:
<?php
d e f i n e ( ’DB_NAME’ , ’ wordpress ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’DB_USER’ , ’ wordpress ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’DB_PASSWORD’ , ’ yourpasswordhere ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’DB_HOST’ , ’ l o c a l h o s t ’ ) ;
d e f i n e ( ’WP_CONTENT_DIR’ , ’ / u s r / s h a r e / w o r d p r e s s /wp−c o n t e n t ’ ) ;
?>

Now create this mysql database. Open a temporary file with mysql commands wordpress.sql and write the
following lines:
CREATE DATABASE w o r d p r e s s ;
CREATE USER ’ wordpress ’ @’ l o c a l h o s t ’
IDENTIFIED BY ’ yourpasswordhere ’ ;
GRANT SELECT, INSERT ,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,ALTER
ON w o r d p r e s s . *
TO w o r d p r e s s @ l o c a l h o s t ;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES ;

319
Execute these commands.
c a t w o r d p r e s s . s q l | sudo mysql −−d e f a u l t s −e x t r a − f i l e =/ e t c / mysql / d e b i a n . c n f

Your new WordPress can now be configured by visiting http://localhost/blog/wp-admin/install.php. (Or

http://NAME_OF_YOUR_VIRTUAL_HOST/blog/wp-admin/install.php if your server has no GUI and
you are completing WordPress configuration via a web browser running on another computer.) Fill out the
Site Title, username, password, and E-mail and click Install WordPress.
Note the generated password (if applicable) and click the login password. Your WordPress is now ready for
use.

References

• WordPress.org Codex
• Ubuntu Wiki WordPress

Generated on 2020-05-18 03:53:15

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