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Ubuntu Server Cookbook

By : Uday Sawant

5 (2)

Ubuntu Server Cookbook

5 (2)

By: Uday Sawant

Overview of this book

Ubuntu is one of the most secure operating systems and defines the highest level of security as compared other operating system. Ubuntu server is a popular Linux distribution and the first choice when deploying a Linux server. It can be used with a $35 Raspberry Pi to top-notch, thousand-dollar-per-month cloud hardware. Built with lists that there are 4 million + websites built using Ubuntu. With its easy-to-use package management tools and availability of well-known packages, we can quickly set up our own services such as web servers and database servers using Ubuntu. This book will help you develop the skills required to set up high performance and secure services with open source tools. Starting from user management and an in-depth look at networking, we then move on to cover the installation and management of web servers and database servers, as well as load balancing various services. You will quickly learn to set up your own cloud and minimize costs and efforts with application containers. Next, you will get to grips with setting up a secure real-time communication system. Finally, we’ll explore source code hosting and various collaboration tools. By the end of this book, you will be able to make the most of Ubuntu’s advanced functionalities.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Sections

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Managing Users and Groups

1. Managing Users and Groups

Introduction

Creating a user account

Creating user accounts in batch mode

Creating a group

Adding group members

Deleting a user account

Managing file permissions

Getting root privileges with sudo

Setting resource limits with limits.conf

Setting up public key authentication

Securing user accounts

2. Networking

2. Networking

Introduction

Connecting to a network with a static IP

Installing the DHCP server

Installing the DNS server

Hiding behind the proxy with squid

Being on time with NTP

Discussing load balancing with HAProxy

Tuning the TCP stack

Troubleshooting network connectivity

Securing remote access with OpenVPN

Securing a network with uncomplicated firewall

Securing against brute force attacks

Discussing Ubuntu security best practices

3. Working with Web Servers

3. Working with Web Servers

Introduction

Installing and configuring the Apache web server

Serving dynamic contents with PHP

Hosting multiple websites with a virtual domain

Securing web traffic with HTTPS

Installing Nginx with PHP_FPM

Setting Nginx as a reverse proxy

Load balancing with Nginx

Setting HTTPs on Nginx

Benchmarking and performance tuning of Apache

Securing the web server

Troubleshooting the web server

4. Working with Mail Servers

4. Working with Mail Servers

Introduction

Sending e-mails with Postfix

Enabling IMAP and POP3 with Dovecot

Adding e-mail accounts

Mail filtering with spam-assassin

Troubleshooting the mail server

Installing the Zimbra mail server

5. Handling Databases

5. Handling Databases

Introduction

Installing relational databases with MySQL

Storing and retrieving data with MySQL

Importing and exporting bulk data

Adding users and assigning access rights

Installing web access for MySQL

Setting backups

Optimizing MySQL performance – queries

Optimizing MySQL performance – configuration

Creating MySQL replicas for scaling and high availability

Troubleshooting MySQL

Installing MongoDB

Storing and retrieving data with MongoDB

6. Network Storage

6. Network Storage

Introduction

Installing the Samba server

Adding users to the Samba server

Installing the secure FTP server

Synchronizing files with Rsync

Performance tuning the Samba server

Troubleshooting the Samba server

Installing the Network File System

7. Cloud Computing

7. Cloud Computing

Introduction

Creating virtual machine with KVM

Managing virtual machines with virsh

Setting up your own cloud with OpenStack

Adding a cloud image to OpenStack

Launching a virtual instance with OpenStack

Installing Juju a service orchestration framework

Managing services with Juju

8. Working with Containers

8. Working with Containers

Introduction

Installing LXD, the Linux container daemon

Deploying your first container with LXD

Managing LXD containers

Managing LXD containers – advanced options

Setting resource limits on LXD containers

Networking with LXD

Installing Docker

Starting and managing Docker containers

Creating images with a Dockerfile

Understanding Docker volumes

Deploying WordPress using a Docker network

Monitoring Docker containers

Securing Docker containers

9. Streaming with Ampache

9. Streaming with Ampache

Introduction

Installing the Ampache server

Uploading contents and creating catalogs

Setting on-the-fly transcoding

Enabling API access for remote streaming

Streaming music with Ampache

10. Communication Server with XMPP

10. Communication Server with XMPP

Introduction

Installing Ejabberd

Creating users and connecting with the XMPP client

Configuring the Ejabberd installation

Creating web client with Strophe.js

Enabling group chat

Chat server with Node.js

11. Git Hosting

11. Git Hosting

Introduction

Installing Git

Creating a local repository with Git CLI

Storing file revisions with Git commit

Synchronizing the repository with a remote server

Receiving updates with Git pull

Creating repository clones

Installing GitLab, your own Git hosting

Adding users to the GitLab server

Creating a repository with GitLab

Automating common tasks with Git hooks

12. Collaboration Tools

12. Collaboration Tools

Introduction

Installing the VNC server

Installing Hackpad, a collaborative document editor

Installing Mattermost – a self-hosted slack alternative

Installing OwnCloud, self-hosted cloud storage

13. Performance Monitoring

13. Performance Monitoring

Introduction

Monitoring the CPU

Monitoring memory and swap

Monitoring the network

Monitoring storage

Setting performance benchmarks

14. Centralized Authentication Service

14. Centralized Authentication Service

Introduction

Installing OpenLDAP

Installing phpLDAPadmin

Ubuntu server logins with LDAP

Authenticating Ejabberd users with LDAP

Index

Index

Deleting a user account

If you no longer need a user account, it is good idea to delete that account.

Getting ready

You will need super user or root privileges to delete a group from the Ubuntu server.

How to do it...

Follow these steps to delete the user account:

Enter the following command to delete a user account:
```
$ sudo deluser --remove-home john
```
Enter your password to complete addgroup with root privileges:

How it works…

Here, we used the deluser command with the option --remove-home. This will delete the user account named john and also remove the home and mail spool directories associated with john. By default, the deluser command will delete the user without deleting the home directory.

It is a good idea to keep a backup of user files before removing the home directory and any other files. This can be done with an additional flag along with the deluser command:

$ deluser --backup --remove-home john

This will create a backup file with the name john.tar.gz in the current working directory, and then the user account and the home directory will removed.

There's more…

When called with the --group option, the deluser command will remove the group. Similarly, when called with two non-option arguments, the deluser command will try to remove a user from a specific group:

$ deluser john guest # this will remove user john from group guest
$ deluser --group guest # this will remove a group

If you want to disable the user account rather than delete it, you can do it with the following commands:

$ sudo usermod --expiredate 1 john # disable the user account john
$ sudo usermod --expiredate "" john # re-enable user account john
$ sudo usermod -e YYYY-MM-DD john # specify expiry date

See also

Refer to the manual page for deluser with man deluser

CONTINUE READING

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