V2 Server Setup

V2Master

Contents

Introduction

A Linux server capable of hosting multiple virtual machines (VMs)
Basic setup performed by hand:
1. OS installation
2. Install development tools
3. Setup RAID disk mirroring
Further provisioning automated by use of Puppet:
1. VirtualBox and Vagrant installation
2. Rinetd setup on host system
3. Reverse proxy gateway in VM
4. Internal DNS server in VM

Basic Platform

Hardware:
1. Multi-core Intel architecture with 64-bit processor(s)
2. 1 x SSD drive for the root, swap and main applications
3. 2 x identical hard disks for backups
Software:
1. VirtualBox - Virtualization software
2. Bagrant - Ruby-based command line front for VirtualBox
3. Other standard Linux packages (Bind, Apache, MySQL, Rails, etc.) as needed

Operating System Installation

Download Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS Server
1. Available from: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server
2. Select: 64-bit (recommended) - This is called amd64, with is appropriate for Interl and AMD 64-bit processors
Prepare a bootable memory stick
1. See instructions at:
  1. On an Ubuntu system: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu

Ubuntu Installation

Boot system from memory stick containing Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS server
Select language: English
Selection option: Install Ubuntu Server
Select system language: English
Select location: other --> Europe --> Switzerland
Select locale: en_US.UTF-8
Configure network:
1. DHCP configuration will start, enter cancel
2. Select primary network interface - This question does not appear for systems with a single ethernet port
3. Select: Configure manually
4. IP address: enter systems's IP address'
5. Gate IP address: enter system's gateway address
6. Nameserver address(es): enter system's primary DNS IP address(es)'
7. Hostname: enter system's hostname
Create initial user
1. Full name:
2. User name:
3. Enter & re-enter password
4. Encrypt home directory: no
Time zone: Accept Europe/Zurich
Partition disks:
1. Select entry for SSD drive
2. Select Automatically partition and use LVM
3. Select entire disk
4. Accept proposed partition and accept writing partition table to disk
Installs base operating system
Enter proxy information: Enter return (e.g. no proxy required)
Software selection: Select SSHD server, and nothing else
Installs and configures more software
Install GRUB boot loader: Yes
Installation complete. Remove memory stick a reboot

Initial Configuration

Login as the user defined during the installation
Set the root password:
- ```
sudo bash
passwd
```
Update system:
- ```
apt-get update
apt-get -y dist-upgrade
```

Install development tools, required for VirtualBox installation

apt-get -y install build-essential autoconf libtool pkg-config

Setup Mirrored Disks

Setup RAID-1 based mirrored disks

In a typical installation, the SSD and two hard disks have device names assigned as follows:

SSD: /dev/sda
Hard disk 1: /dev/sdb
Hard disk 2: /dev/sdc

Procedure:

Partition and format hard disks with 'ext4 filesystems

Partition: Perform this procedure once for heach hard dick, typically for /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc. Enter the following commands:

fdisk /dev/sdb p # Print partition table d # Delete all existing partitions. May need to use this command multiple times n # Create a new partition, accept defaults, which are for a primary partition using all availa disk space w # Write partition table to disk and exit

Example:
Command (m for help): p ..prints partition table (which will be empty for a new disk).. Command (m for help): n Partition type: p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free) e extended Select (default p): Partition number (1-4, default 1): Using default value 1 Command (m for help): w The partition table has been altered! Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

Partition and format