Presentation

Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Security
DNS
phpBB3

CentoS Server running phpBB3

Pierce Preston

Cork Institute of Technology

March 21, 2010

Pierce Preston CentoS Server running phpBB3

Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Security
DNS
phpBB3

Outline
1 Project Over View
2 CentOS 5
Installation
3 Auxiliary Tools
Apache
Testing Apache
mySQL
PHP
Testing PHP
phpMyAdmin
vsftpd
Updating the Tools
4 Security
5 DNS
6 phpBB3

Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Security
DNS
phpBB3

What was the purpose of the project:
To install CentOS as a server.
To install and conﬁgure various auxiliary tools to complete the
server.
To install and conﬁgure a web 2.0 application.
To document the process in the form of a user guide.


Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Security
DNS
phpBB3

The project was broken into three main sections.
Install and configure CentOS 5.
Install and configure the various tools.
Install and configure phpBB3


Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Installation
Security
DNS
phpBB3

CentOS is a Linux distribution based on red hat enterprise edition.
Due to the fact that it is developed mainly for servers, it ships with
older, more secure and stable tools than other more home user
oriented distributions, such as Ubuntu.
CentOS comes in both 32 and 64 bit architectures. It also has an
ever increasing fan base, who add to the product in terms of
support for users and development of various tools. As well as this,
it provides virtualisation using Xen technology.


Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Installation
Security
DNS
phpBB3

To install CentOS, simply insert the disk, restart your PC and boot
into CD. Then follow the step by step stages of the installation. A
number of things to take note of.
When it asks you about partitions, make sure you have
selected a black partition, and that you are not going to cause
any damage to existing operating systems etc.
When it asks you what software and GUI you’d like, make sure
to unselected gnome, and not to select anything else (Its a
common mistake to select server here).


Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Installation
Security
DNS
phpBB3


Project Over View Apache
CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd
phpBB3 Updating the Tools

A number of auxiliary tools are required to fulﬁll the needs of the
basic server. These include:
Apache.
MySQL.
PHP.
phpMyAdmin.
Vsftpd.


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

Apache is a tool that allows you to host web pages on your server.
It is the most popular HTTP server available.
To install Apache, use the command
yum install httpd
To start the service, use the command
service httpd start
If you would like the service to start on start up, use the command
chkconﬁg httpd on


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

To test Apache, simply point your clients browser towards the IP
address of the server.


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

MySQL is a database management system. It works well with all
major operating systems, and most major programming languages.
To install mySQL, use the command
yum mysql httpd
To start the service, use the command
service mysqld start
If you would like the service to start on start up, use the command
chkconﬁg hmysqld on


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

PHP is a server side scripting language, which has many extensions
available to increase its usability. It is he ﬁnal component of a
LAMP server.
To install PHP, use the command
yum install php
You can also install any other the php plug ins you see ﬁt to.
Some suggested examples are php-mysql, php-mbstring and php-gd


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

To test PHP, create a ﬁle called index.php, and ﬁll it with the
following
1 <?php
2 phpinfo () ;
3 ?>

restart Apache, and point your clients browser to the IP address of
your server, followed by /index.php.


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

phpMyAdmin acts as a web-based utility for managing your
servers. It allows the user to do various tasks, like create, edit and
drop tables and databases.
To install phpMyAdmin, you will have to move to /var/www/html
cd /var/www/html
You will then need to use the wget tool to download phpMyAdmin
wget
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/phpmyadmin/
phpMyAdmin/3.2.5/phpMyAdmin-3.2.5-english.zip


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

Next, you will need to unzip the ﬁle using the following command
unzip phpMyAdmin-3.2.5-english.zip
To make life easier, rename the phpMyAdmin folder to something
more manageable
mv phpMyAdmin-3.2.5-english phpmyadmin
Move into this directory
cd phpmyadmin


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

Copy over the sample config file
cp config.sample.inc.php config.inc.php
Edit the config file, changing the line
“$cfg[’Servers’][$i][’auth type’] = ‘cookies‘;”
to
“$cfg[’Servers’][$i][’auth type’] = ‘http‘;”


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

Add a root user for mySQLAdmin using the following command
mysqladmin -u [user name] password [password]
Restart both the Apache and MySQL services
service httpd restart
service mysqld restart


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

vsftpd (or very secure FTP daemon) allows you to connect to your
server via an FTP client, and upload files directly.
To install vsftpd, use the command
yum install vsftpd
Next you will need to edit the config file, found at
/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
nano [or any editor you like] /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

You will need to change the line:
1 anonymous enable=YES to anonymous enable=NO.
You will need to uncomment (delete the #) the following lines:
1 ascii upload enable=YES
2 ascii download enable=YES
3 chroot list enable=YES
4 chroot list ﬁle=/etc/vsftpd/chroot list
5 ls recurse enable=YES


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

Finally, you will need to add these lines to the ﬁle:
1 chroot local user=YES
2 local root=public html
3 use localtime=YES
Save and exit this ﬁle. Restart vsftpd using the following command
service vsftpd restart


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

To test to see if vsftpd worked, create a new user, with the
following commands:
useradd [user name]
passwd [user name]
Then, create a file with the following path /etc/vsftpd/chroot list.
Into that file, add your new user. Using an FTP client of your
choice (gftp, filezilla etc), you should be able to connect using the
new users log in name and password.


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

To update an software packages installed onto CentOS, use the
following command:
yum update [tool name]
To update all packages, simply type:
yum update


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

Some of the tools we have downloaded require up to date software
packages that don’t get catered for with CentOS’ base repositories.
This is due to the fact that they may not be fully tested yet, and
therefore may present bugs and instability. To update our tools to
the latest versions, we will have to add the testing repository.
To do this, ﬁrst move to /etc/yum.repos.d
cd /etc/yum.repos.d


CentOS 5 mySQL
Auxiliary Tools PHP
Security phpMyAdmin
DNS vsftpd

Next, use the following command to add the testing repository:
wget http://dev.centos.org/centos/5/CentOS-Testing.repo
Once this has been done, you can call this repository when
updating using the following command:
yum –enablerepo=c5-testing update [tool name]


Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Security
DNS
phpBB3

Securing the server is of utmost importance. You can do this by
restricting ports and by using a proper, stateful firewall. A stateful
firewall logs information related to a session, thus allowing it to
make filtering decisions in the context of entire sessions.
To secure the server, you can start up iptables, and write a few
rules to stop unwanted traffic. The syntax for rules is:
iptables [chain name] [matching criteria] [action]
For a more in depth look at iptables, see:
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iptables
2 http://www.netfilter.org/
3 http://www.frozentux.net/iptables-tutorial/iptables-
tutorial.html


Project Over View
CentOS 5
Auxiliary Tools
Security
DNS
phpBB3

Another idea is to introduce DNS into your hosting server. To do
this, BIND can be used. BIND is considered the most widely used
DNS software tool.
BIND uses various zones, and associated attributes to manage
addressing.
For more information on BIND, See:
1 http://www.isc.org/software/bind
2 http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?
topic id=6485&forum=31
3 http://www.howtoforge.com/bind-installation-on-centos


Project Over View
CentOS 5 Introduction
Auxiliary Tools Download
Security Installation
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

phpBB3 is a software tool that allows you to host an on-line board.
It allows you to create and manage forums and sub-forums,
manage users and groups, change the look and feel of the board,
and limit access to certain areas using a highly customisable
permissions system.
phpBB3 is the most widely used open source forum tool.


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

You will first have to download phpBB3. The latest version can be
found here:
http://www.phpbb.com/downloads/olympus.php
Once you have downloaded the .zip file, simply use an FTP client
to transfer it over to your server. Then, move the .zip file to:
/var/www/html/
and once you have unzipped it, you are ready to install it.


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Now that the .zip file has been expanded, you can start installing
phpBB3. The first step is to give permissions to a number of
folders and files. Simply move into the phpBB3 directory and type
the following lines to change the permissions:
chmod 666 connfig.php.
chmod 777 store/.
chmod 777 cache/.
chmod 777 files/.
chmod 777 images/avatars/upload/.


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Now you can start the installation. To do this, simply point your
clients browser to:
http://[servers IP]/phpBB3
and follow the step by step instructions.
When it comes to the database set up, use “localhost” for the
server name, and give the values for phpMyAdmin. You should
also have a database created for phpBB3. If you haven’t already
created a database, log into phpMyAdmin, and use the “Create
new database” option on the front page.


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Create a database for phpBB3:


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Fill in the database form with the phpMyAdmin data:


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

A useful guide is provided by phpBB3 on the following link:
http://www.phpbb.com/support/documentation/3.0/quickstart
/quick installation.php


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Once you have finished installing phpBB3, you will be sent to the
administrators control panel, where you can start customising your
board to suit you.
The first thing I will look at is changing the style of the forum. To
do this, find a style that you like, download it and transfer the
compressed file over to your server, then into the /styles
subdirectory in the phpBB3 directory. Expand the compressed file,
and in the administrators control panel, go to the “styles” tab.
There you should see your new style. Just press install, and, if
you’d like to make it the default skin, select yes for that option.


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

You can create as many forums as you like. If you go to the
“Forums” tab, you can edit existing forums by clicking on the
image of the green cog next to the forum you wish to edit, or
create a new one by putting the name of the new forum into the
text box provided, and pressing “Create new forum”. Choose the
settings that you wish to have for that forum, and press “Submit”.
If you wish to change the permissions of the forum (say you want
to allow only moderators and above to be able to see it), you can
do that on the permissions screen.


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Permissions screen:


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Now that you have extra forums, its time to manage them. This is
done using moderators, and they can be easily selected. Just move
to the “Users and Groups” tab, Once there, select the ”Manage
Groups” option. Assuming its moderators you want to add to,
select the “members” option for that group that from the list of
groups. Alternatively, select a diﬀerent group if you want to give
the user diﬀerent rights, or create a new group.


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Manage Users Screen:


Project Over View
DNS Customisation
phpBB3

Simply type the users name into the box, and press submit. The
user will then be added to the group, and given the appropriate
permissions and rights for that group.


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