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Another new server, Days 1 and 2 February 16, 2011

Posted by jmcomputer in Linux, Projects.
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So I was recently contacted by a client to come in and install a server for them. Requirements:

  • Repurpose existing hardware (i.e. no new hardware purchasing)
  • File Server
  • Program Versioning System
  • Customer Relation Management

Gee, this is sounding familiar, and I wish I had checked here before starting the install, as I could have save myself some headaches from the perspective of Day 2. Since I am a day late in updating for this, I’ll recap Day 1 of this build.

After some consulting with the client, it was decided to use a net-top (micro-sized pc, Atom processor, limited memory and hard-drive) and an external 1TB hard drive. Only problem here, no internal or external CDROM drive, so took about an hour to figure how to put ubuntu-server on a jump drive for installation AND get the net-top to boot from USB. For the File Server, requirements were: a shared-folder/drive type setup, all employees have same access, so single-user account in Samba should do fine here. For the Program Versioning for their programming work, decided to use Subversion, and found a decent gui management tool for later. For the CRM, vtiger of course, since I’ve had previous experience with it. At the end of Day 1, here’s what I accomplished:

  • Installed Ubuntu Server 10.04.1 i386
  • Installed LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql, Php), Samba, and OpenSSH
  • Updated all the packages
  • Fleshed out user requirements to plan on package installation
  • Started Server Documentation

And now for Day 2:

“The essence of stupidity is performing the same action repeatedly, and expecting different results.” – author unknown

That pretty much describes the end of Day 2, in a nutshell. What I got accomplished:

  • Installed the desktop packages for easy user performed administration
  • Configured SSH
  • Installed Webmin for easy administration
  • Configured basic User Accounts
  • Attempted both the binary and source installation for vtiger

The last bullet is the inspiration for the quote above, instead of referencing back to the previous posts of mine, I tried the same steps over again, expecting it to work nicely, and was met with the same problems just on the installation. Also side note: when I performed the earlier server install, I could have sworn I had seen an easy-to-use tool for administering and configuring Apache in Gnome; but for the life of me, I cannot remember the tool or location for it to try to use it again. Really made virtual hosts and apache2 configuring REALLY easy. Tried finding in Google searches and in Synaptic, but no such luck. Ah well, back to command line and Midnight Commander for me. Hmmm… wonder if Webmin is easy to configure Apache? Will see tomorrow.

New Server, Day 4 December 2, 2009

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So today I started off running late as it was, so I didn’t get to get much done today. What I did get done: I got the hostname changed from a generic one that I put in there for the installation, to the company’s website name; I also got the username put into vTiger, I can honestly say I wasn’t prepared for how full featured it was (more on this in a bit); I also figured out how to hook the Webmail and mail features tied into vTiger (again, more later). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a hold of the networking company for the building, but I at least emailed the contact, so all I have to do is wait.

STILL TO DO: Email aliases, talking with Networking firm to get NAT working to our server, transition from GoDaddy hosting to local hosting, move the /home and /var/www directories to the RAID, and have them permanently mounted as such.

So going back to the user accounts, I was really surprised with the features in vTiger! For instance, for the email, each user can configure the email server each uses (if you want to use gmail instead of the local, while others use local, etc). Other things that have to be done: you can designate Roles for the users (i.e. CEO, Salesmanager, Saleman are the pre-configured); now I have to see what needs to be done to change it to our use of a small, three-owner company. Hmmm… also wondering if it has a user template that they can use to create new users easily with all those things “pre-configured” (i.e. mail settings, etc). It also seems to handle more of the HR side (to an extent at least, no payroll, benefits or the like), as it will handle “Reports to:”, Departments, Titles, etc. I guess for the more advanced things, such as business processes and such, I’m leaving that mess to the owners… they can sort that stuff out 🙂

So my next project (once this one is completed), to make an Asset Tracking database using a LAMP server (Ubuntu +XAMPP), using this book.

New Server, Day 3 November 18, 2009

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Okay, so after my success with the VirtualBox install of vTiger, I went to the office to try to install vTiger on the server again. This time I am following a couple walkthroughs that I found earlier here and here. The first link is how to do the initial install, and written very nicely on a forum. The second link is how to finish the installation using vTiger’s Installation Wizard (completely html/php based).

So, I completely removed the old database, deleted the entire directory of vTiger in /var, and re-extracted the files again (good thing I saved that .tar file). After getting apache2 setup, and working my way through, I got to the configuring of vTiger, and had access denied messages, seems I had forgotten I had altered the envvars for Apache on my last few attempts. At this point, everything seems to be flowing nicely. Now I take a moment and write down all the different users/passwords that are being used (mysql, vtiger, user accounts, etc)…

Well, that went off nicely, now we have an empty CRM that we can start using (as soon as I start adding users into it). I’ve also got a couple bandwidth monitoring things running (I think I’ll have to start using screen on this too). Got Dovecot, Postfix, and SSH configured.

TODO: Add users to the CRM, add the mail server to the CRM, get hostname configured properly (aside from localhost stuff), and finally contact the network provider to get NAT tables set up for this server.

WOW! Almost finished on this thing!

New Server, Testing… November 13, 2009

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One of the reasons I love Linux, you google an issue and you can find a solution if you have enough time to sift. So I found two install manuals/write-ups, tested them on a test install on virtualbox, so I got the CRM installed, then just needed to configure it. Enter the second manual, and WOOHOO! after a little bit, I had it fully up and running! Now to just do the same on the server I was working on.

Side note, checked into phpmyadmin hoping it had some user utilities, seems that it doesn’t, and mysql navigator kept giving me errors when trying to add users… dunno if I will have to investigate that one further or not.

New server, Day 2 November 12, 2009

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Okay, so I came in today with 4 hours to spare and had planned on finishing up the server. At the point where I am having to leave soon, I realize I should have planned my approach rather than just taking a shotgun approach… sigh

Tried to install the vTiger CRM (http://vtiger.com) from their provided binary, and unfortunately it does not seem to be adapted for the apache builds from Ubuntu’s repos; or there is something that I am missing in the setup of Apache 2.2.12. Either way, even when I specified the apache root directories (both the content and the binaries) it wouldn’t take (could this have something to do with the fact that it’s not using httpd binary but the apache2 binary instead?)

Okay, time for the long way, or rather what seemed like the long way… downloaded source, dumped it into /var/www and point firefox to localhost/vtigercrm… Hey, at least that works, but now vtiger is telling me it doesn’t have a lot of permissions, so now to hunt for that. Seems Ubuntu’s apache install didn’t add the apache user or group. Okay, let’s add that… vtiger now says that it can access the IMAP, but now all the permissions that were shown are missing??? Does this mean it worked? Wait, it’s also saying that the php.ini file is not configured right (*confused*)!

Okay, fire up gedit and check it, seems I made the changes right, does vtiger not see what directory it’s in? Let’s just see where the installation goes, not putting much faith into it, and seems it’ll have to build 300+ tables, WOW! SO I finish the walkthrough web interface, and it finally gets around to “setting up”; impressive, looks like it worked, reasonably well, let’s sign into it… Oh wait, I didn’t specify users or passwords to get into it…. (*HEAVY sigh*)

And now I have run out of time, will have to look into this more next week sometime.

Mental Note: How about firing up a Virtualbox, install UB9.10, and see if I can get this thing to work at home and document steps… or maybe should I switch to CentOS or something?

To be continued….

New Server Install November 11, 2009

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Okay, so my first post.

Set up a server today as one of my projects, hardware’s a little on the aged side, and somewhat smaller than I would like for a production server, but beggers cannot be chosers, right?

Specs:

2 Ghz Celeron, 768M mem, 40G ATA-33, 2x 18G SCSI, everything else integrated on motherboard.

So I had the debate over which distro to install since there’s not much money for software.  So debated between Ubuntu or CentOS, ended up with Ubuntu, so then time for Desktop or Server install. Both good options, but the “client” would like to have a desktop environment for some administration. So it came down to the Desktop CD. The standard install went through without a problem, even got most of the services installed (apache, Dovecot, postfix, etc). Now here’s where the fun begins, I have been searching for an Open Source CRM, and had checked out quite a few (SugarCRM, and a couple others), found vTiger CRM, contacted clients and asked them to see the demo. Come to find out they really liked it, so that’s on the plan to install later. Now what to do with those SCSI drives…

Since I’m installing a CRM and IMAP mail server, I decided to make the SCSI drives a RAID1 (mirroring). So I started researching this so that I was at least somewhat prepared as to what packages to install and steps to take and the like. Found a nice walkthrough (wish I hadn’t deleted the link already) that talked about setting up software RAIDs using mdadm. Followed it through generally, although on the first run somehow I ended up with the /dev/md0 missing the superblock (or was it just /dev/sdb1?), so it took me another hour or so attempting to delete the /dev/md0 and then the partition tables on the drives. Eventually I did get the RAID assembled and running, got the /home directory copied over, so later I’ll copy again and mount it as the /home directory.

Also interesting, if the Ubuntu devs ever read this, I used the User and Groups administration tool to create some users and change root’s password, oddly enough the users were created but none of the passwords worked, I actually had to use the terminal to change the passwords (yeah, I know, lazy using the GUI, but was trying to do that at the same time I was mucking with the package installs, RAID setup, etc).

TODO: finish configuring apache, sshd, imap, contact the company handling the network and have the network configured for the server. Then I can finally pull down the pages from GoDaddy and hand out the usernames/passwords.