FSND-project-5-linux-server-configuration

Project 5 (Deploying to linux server)

Configuring a Linux server to host a web app securely using flask application on to Digitalocean. Installation of a Linux distribution on a virtual machine and prepare it to host web application(Item Catalog). It includes installing updates, securing it from a number of attack vectors and installing/configuring web and database servers.

IP address: 139.59.130.134

Accessible SSH port: 2200

Application URL: http://139.59.130.134

Configuration Steps:

Step 1 : Create new user named grader and give it the permission to sudo

• Run sudo adduser grader to create a new user named grader
  
• Create a new file in the sudoers directory with sudo nano /etc/sudoers.d/grader
  
• Add the following line grader ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
  

Step 2 : Update all currently installed packages

• Download package lists with sudo apt-get update
  
• New versions of packages with sudo apt-get upgrade
  

Step 3 : Change SSH port from 22 to 2200

• Run sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  
• Change the port from 22 to 2200
  
• sudo service ssh restart
  

Step 4 : Configure the Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) to only allow incoming connections for SSH (port 2200), HTTP (port 80), and NTP (port 123)

• sudo ufw allow 2200/tcp
  
• sudo ufw deny 22
  
• To delete port from status sudo ufw delete <DENY/ALLOW> <PORT NUMBER>
  
• sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
  
• sudo ufw allow 123/udp
  
• sudo ufw allow ssh
  
• sudo ufw allow www
  
• sudo ufw allow ftp
  
• sudo ufw enable
  

Step 5 : Configure the local timezone to UTC

• Run sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata and then choose none of above then UTC
  

Step 6 : Configure key-based authentication for grader user

• Generate key-pair with ssh-keygen
  
• Save keygen file into (/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa).and fill the password . 2 keys will be generated, public key (id_rsa.pub) and identification key(id_rsa).
  
• Login into grader account using sudo login grader
  
• Make a directory in grader account : mkdir .ssh
  
• Make a authorized_keys file using touch .ssh/authorized_keys
  
• From your local machine,copy the contents of public key(id_rsa.pub) paste that contents on authorized_keys of grader account using nano authorized_keys and save it .
  
• Give the permissions : chmod 700 .ssh and chmod 644 .ssh/authorized_keys.
  
• nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config , change PasswordAuthentication to no
  
• sudo service ssh restart
  

Step 7 : Disable ssh login for root user

• Run sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  
• Change PermitRootLogin without-password to PermitRootLogin no
  
• Restart ssh with sudo service ssh restart
  

Step 8 : Install Apache

• sudo apt-get install apache2
  

Step 9 : Install mod_wsgi

• Run sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-wsgi python-dev
  
• Enable mod_wsgi with sudo a2enmod wsgi
  
• Start the web server with sudo service apache2 start
  

Step 10 : Clone the Catalog app from Github

• Install git using sudo apt-get install git
  
• cd /var/www
  
• sudo mkdir catalog
  
• Change owner of the newly created catalog folder sudo chown -R grader:grader catalog
  
• cd catalog
  
• Clone your project from github git clone <LINK FOR PROJECT 4 REPOSETORY> catalog
  
• Create a catalog.wsgi file nano catalog.wsgi, then add this inside:
  
  

import sys
import logging
logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stderr)
sys.path.insert(0, "/var/www/catalog/")
from catalog import app as application
application.secret_key = 'super_secret_key'
WTF_CSRF_ENABLED = True

.

• Rename application.py to init.py mv application.py __init__.py
  

Step 11 : Install virtual environment

• Install pip with sudo apt-get install python-pip
  
• Install the virtual environment sudo pip install virtualenv
  
• Create a new virtual environment with sudo virtualenv venv
  
• Activate the virutal environment source venv/bin/activate
  
• Change permissions sudo chmod -R 777 venv
  

Step 12 : Install Flask and other dependencies

• Install Flask pip install Flask
  
• Install other project dependencies sudo pip2 install httplib2 oauth2client sqlalchemy flask-sqlalchemy psycopg2-binary bleach requests sqlalchemy_utils
  

Step 13 : Update path of client_secrets.json file

• nano __init__.py
  
• Change client_secrets.json path to /var/www/catalog/catalog/client_secrets.json
  

Step 14 : Configure and enable a new virtual host

• run sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf
  
  

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName 139.59.130.134
    ServerAlias http://139.59.130.134
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    WSGIDaemonProcess catalog python-path=/var/www/catalog:/var/www/catalog/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages
    WSGIProcessGroup catalog
    WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/catalog/catalog.wsgi
    <Directory /var/www/catalog/catalog/>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    Alias /static /var/www/catalog/catalog/static
    <Directory /var/www/catalog/catalog/static/>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    LogLevel warn
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost> 

.

Step 15 : Install and configure PostgreSQL

• sudo apt-get install libpq-dev python-dev
  
• sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib
  
• sudo su - postgres
  
• psql
  
• Write these lines line-by-line :
  
• CREATE USER catalog WITH PASSWORD 'password';
  
• ALTER USER catalog CREATEDB;
  
• CREATE DATABASE catalog WITH OWNER catalog;
  
• \c catalog
  
• REVOKE ALL ON SCHEMA public FROM public;
  
• GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO catalog;
  
• \q
  
• exit
  
• Change create engine line in your __init__.py , database_setup.py and fakedata.py to: engine = create_engine('postgresql://catalog:password@localhost/catalog')
  
• Run sudo python database_setup.py
  

Step 16 : Restart Apache

• sudo service apache2 restart
  

Step 17 : Visit site at Catalog App

Oauth not work because the domain

References :

• Udacity FSND
  
• Deploying a Python
  
• stackoverflow
  
• ask Ubuntu
  
• Amazon EC2 Linux Instances
  
• mod_wsgi (Apache)
  
• mod_wsgi
  
• project 4 Item Catalog
  

SOME COMMANDS MAY HELP :

• sudo tail -100 /var/log/apache2/error.log ----> To check if there any error with apatche
  
• python <File_name>.py runserver -d ----> debug mode