Category: Blog Posts

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at GNOME GUI on Rocky Linux 8

To use Rocky Linux 8 in graphical mode, you will need to install GNOME package on the system to enable GUI. We will go through the steps required to install GNOME GUI.

Check the available package groups for Rocky Linux 8.

yum group list

Output:

[root@server ~]# yum group list
Last metadata expiration check: 0:01:49 ago on Fri 14 May 2021 10:00:46 AM EDT.
Available Environment Groups:
   Server with GUI
   Server
   Workstation
   KDE Plasma Workspaces
   Virtualization Host
   Custom Operating System
Installed Environment Groups:
   Minimal Install
Available Groups:
   Container Management
   .NET Core Development
   RPM Development Tools
   Development Tools
   Graphical Administration Tools
   Headless Management
   Legacy UNIX Compatibility
   Network Servers
   Scientific Support
   Security Tools
   Smart Card Support
   System Tools
   Fedora Packager
   Xfce

Installing Gnome GUI

Install Gnome GUI and in between it will prompt for download permission, enter “y” key and hit enter to proceed with installation.

yum groupinstall "Server with GUI"

To enable the GUI as default and boot into graphical mode.

systemctl set-default graphical

Output:

[root@server ~]# systemctl set-default graphical
Removed /etc/systemd/system/default.target.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/default.target → /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target.

Reboot the system so it can boot into the graphical mode.

reboot

GUI Setup

Access the Gnome desktop through VNC

GUI welcome page will appear and it will prompt for if you would like to enable Location Services and set up online accounts.

Create user by providing User name and Password.

Login Screen

Login to the user which you’ve created.

Rocky Linux 8 desktop screen and it’s system information.

Done!

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install OwnCloud on Rocky Linux 8

OwnCloud is an open source project that can be installed on your server to securely store and access files. Also allows you to share and collaborate contents that lets teams work on data easily from anywhere, on any device.

Find out more about OwnCloud.

Prerequisites

Before we begin with installing ownCloud, you would need either a LAMP or LEMP Stack installed and running on your server or home computer.

To install and configure LAMP Stack, Click here.

To install and configure LEMP Stack, Click here.

Updating your system

Before we begin, we will make sure our system is upto date and install any pending updated

yum update -y

Downloading OwnCloud

You can download the latest version of ownCloud by checking their downloads section.

Download ownCloud and extract it using the following command.

cd /tmp 

wget https://download.owncloud.org/community/owncloud-complete-20210326.tar.bz2

Now extract the owcloud tar file to /var/www/html/ directory.

yum install bzip2

tar -xvf owncloud-complete-20210326.tar.bz2 -C /var/www/html/

Set the permissions of owncloud directory so it can be accessible.

chown apache:apache -R /var/www/html/owncloud/

chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/owncloud

Create a new MySQL database

mysql -u root -p

mysql> CREATE DATABASE ownclouddb;

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ownclouddata.* TO 'ownclouduser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR-PASSWORD' WITH GRANT   
OPTION;

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

mysql> exit;

Note : Replace YOUR-PASSWORD with the actual password

Output:

[root@server tmp]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 14
Server version: 10.3.28-MariaDB MariaDB Server

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE ownclouddb;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.004 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ownclouddata.* TO 'ownclouduser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ENTER YOUR-PASSWORD' WITH GRANT
    -> OPTION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.004 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.006 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> exit;
Aborted
[root@server tmp]#

Configuring Firewall and SELinux

Open the port in firewall using following command.

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Next, we’ll update the SELinux configuration file.

Set SELinux mode to permissive by running the following command.

setenforce 0

Open the file using your preferred editor,

vi /etc/selinux/config

And update the settings as shown below,

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded.
  SELINUX=permissive
# SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
# targeted - Targeted processes are protected,
# mls - Multi Level Security protection.
  SELINUXTYPE=targeted

If SELinux is enabled and running, execute the command below to allow the Apache webserver to write to Owncloud’s directory.

setsebool -P httpd_unified 1

Now type your IP address in the URL to complete the ownCloud installation.

http://server_IP/owncloud

You will have to create admin account for ownCloud

Enter the username and password which you want to set.

Click on the Finish setup button.

Done!

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install Node.js on Rocky Linux 8

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment and it is primarily used for non-blocking, event-driven servers, due to its single-threaded nature. It’s used for traditional websites and back-end API services but was designed with real-time, push-based architectures. It offers users the ability to write websites in JavaScript whose code executes on the server instead of a client’s browser.

First, check for the update to keep the server up to date.

yum update -y

Installing Node.js

To list the available Node.js streams.

yum module list nodejs

Output:

[root@server ~]# yum module list nodejs
Last metadata expiration check: 2:07:57 ago on Thu 13 May 2021 01:00:13 PM EDT.
Rocky Linux 8 - AppStream
Name      Stream    Profiles                                Summary
nodejs    10 [d]    common [d], development, minimal, s2i   Javascript runtime
nodejs    12        common [d], development, minimal, s2i   Javascript runtime
nodejs    14        common [d], development, minimal, s2i   Javascript runtime

Hint: [d]efault, [e]nabled, [x]disabled, [i]nstalled

Command to Install Node.js.

yum module install nodejs:14

Output:

[root@server ~]# yum module install nodejs:14
Last metadata expiration check: 2:08:28 ago on Thu 13 May 2021 01:00:13 PM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package       Arch   Version                                   Repo       Size
================================================================================
Installing group/module packages:
 nodejs        x86_64 1:14.16.0-2.module+el8.3.0+100+234774f7   appstream  11 M
 npm           x86_64 1:6.14.11-1.14.16.0.2.module+el8.3.0+100+234774f7
                                                                appstream 3.7 M
Installing weak dependencies:
 nodejs-docs   noarch 1:14.16.0-2.module+el8.3.0+100+234774f7   appstream 7.9 M
 nodejs-full-i18n

Verify the installed Node.js version using the command,

node -v 

Output:

[root@server ~]# node -v
v14.16.0

This Concludes how you install Node.js on Rocky Linux 8. Now you can begin using it to host your website, along with using npm to install any necessary JavaScript packages.

Uninstalling Node.js

If you can not configure and face any technical difficulties, kindly reach out to us via Support Ticket.

If you wish to uninstall Node.js and npm packages, you can run the command,

yum module remove nodejs

Output:

[root@server ~]# yum module remove nodejs
Last metadata expiration check: 0:24:44 ago on Thu 13 May 2021 04:00:27 PM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package      Arch   Version                                   Repository  Size
================================================================================
Removing:
 nodejs       x86_64 1:14.16.0-2.module+el8.3.0+100+234774f7   @appstream  36 M
 npm          x86_64 1:6.14.11-1.14.16.0.2.module+el8.3.0+100+234774f7
                                                               @appstream  15 M
Removing unused dependencies:
 nodejs-docs  noarch 1:14.16.0-2.module+el8.3.0+100+234774f7   @appstream  60 M

To verify that node.js is uninstalled you can run the following command,

node --version

Output:

[root@server ~]# node --version
-bash: node: command not found

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install PHP 7 x on Rocky Linux 8

Installing the EPEL and Remi Repository

For this we use the PHP 7.x packaged by Remi, a third-party repository which offers multiple versions of PHP 7.x and 8.x

First, lets install the EPEL repository,

rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Next, install the Remi repository with the following command,

yum install -y https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm

List the available PHP module stream

To check/list the available PHP versions, use the following command,

yum module list php

Output:

[root@server ~]# yum module list php
Last metadata expiration check: 2:11:11 ago on Wed 12 May 2021 11:54:38 AM EDT.
Rocky Linux 8 - AppStream
Name     Stream         Profiles                       Summary
php      7.2 [d][e]     common [d], devel, minimal     PHP scripting language
php      7.3            common [d], devel, minimal     PHP scripting language
php      7.4            common [d], devel, minimal     PHP scripting language

Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64
Name     Stream         Profiles                       Summary
php      remi-7.2       common [d], devel, minimal     PHP scripting language
php      remi-7.3       common [d], devel, minimal     PHP scripting language
php      remi-7.4       common [d], devel, minimal     PHP scripting language
php      remi-8.0       common [d], devel, minimal     PHP scripting language

Hint: [d]efault, [e]nabled, [x]disabled, [i]nstalled

Installing PHP 7.x

First, lets disable the old version before enabling the new one,

dnf module reset php

Output:

[root@server ~]# dnf module reset php
Last metadata expiration check: 2:11:49 ago on Wed 12 May 2021 11:54:38 AM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package           Architecture     Version             Repository         Size
================================================================================
Resetting modules:
 php

Transaction Summary
================================================================================

Is this ok [y/N]: y
Complete!

Below are the commands to install a specific version of PHP to your requirements,

dnf module install php:remi-7.2

dnf module install php:remi-7.3

dnf module install php:remi-7.4

dnf module install php:remi-8.0

In our case, we will install PHP 7.4 via the remi repository,

dnf module install php:remi-7.4

Output:

[root@server ~]# dnf module install php:remi-7.4
Last metadata expiration check: 2:12:20 ago on Wed 12 May 2021 11:54:38 AM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package            Arch        Version                 Repository         Size
================================================================================
Upgrading:
 php                x86_64      7.4.19-1.el8.remi       remi-modular      3.0 M
 php-cli            x86_64      7.4.19-1.el8.remi       remi-modular      4.6 M
 php-common         x86_64      7.4.19-1.el8.remi       remi-modular      1.2 M
 php-fpm            x86_64      7.4.19-1.el8.remi       remi-modular      1.6 M
 php-gd             x86_64      7.4.19-1.el8.remi       remi-modular       93 k
 php-json           x86_64      7.4.19-1.el8.remi       remi-modular       77 k

You can update your system and installed packages at any time by running the following command,

dnf update

Check Installed PHP Version

Now that we have installed PHP 7.4 via the remi repository, we can verify the version installed by running the php -v command,

php -v

Output:

[root@server ~]# php -v
PHP 7.4.19 (cli) (built: May  4 2021 11:06:37) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.4.19, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Done!

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Composer on Rocky Linux 8

Composer is basically a dependency manager for the programming language, PHP. It functions as some sort of project manager that helps the programmer manage dependencies that will be used on a project to project basis.

Installing PHP

Install PHP by running the following command.

dnf install @php

Output:

[root@server ~]# dnf install @php
Last metadata expiration check: 0:50:18 ago on Thu 13 May 2021 01:00:13 PM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package          Arch   Version                                Repo       Size
================================================================================
Installing group/module packages:
 php-cli          x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.3.0+200+280400f1   appstream 3.1 M
 php-common       x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.3.0+200+280400f1   appstream 660 k
 php-fpm          x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.3.0+200+280400f1   appstream 1.6 M
 php-json         x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.3.0+200+280400f1   appstream  72 k
 php-mbstring     x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.3.0+200+280400f1   appstream 579 k
 php-xml          x86_64 7.2.24-1.module+el8.3.0+200+280400f1   appstream 187 k

Download Composer installer

We will install wget package so we can download files over the internet, you can skip this part if you already have it installed.

dnf -y install wget

We will now download the composer from the official website

wget https://getcomposer.org/installer -O composer-installer.php

Output:

[root@vps ~]# wget https://getcomposer.org/installer -O composer-installer.php
--2021-02-23 12:59:23--  https://getcomposer.org/installer
Resolving getcomposer.org (getcomposer.org)... 142.44.245.229, 2607:5300:201:2100::4:d105
Connecting to getcomposer.org (getcomposer.org)|142.44.245.229|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 58460 (57K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘composer-installer.php’

composer-installer. 100%[===================>]  57.09K  --.-KB/s    in 0.1s

2021-02-23 12:59:24 (420 KB/s) - ‘composer-installer.php’ saved [58460/58460]

Installing PHP Composer

Install the PHP Composer by running the following command.

php composer-installer.php --filename=composer --install-dir=/usr/local/bin 

Output:

[root@server ~]# wget https://getcomposer.org/installer -O composer-installer.php
--2021-05-13 13:52:13--  https://getcomposer.org/installer
Resolving getcomposer.org (getcomposer.org)... 142.44.245.229, 2607:5300:201:2100::4:d105
Connecting to getcomposer.org (getcomposer.org)|142.44.245.229|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 58460 (57K) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘composer-installer.php’

composer-installer. 100%[===================>]  57.09K  --.-KB/s    in 0.1s

2021-05-13 13:52:14 (421 KB/s) - ‘composer-installer.php’ saved [58460/58460]

Verify the PHP Composer version once installation is done

composer --version

Output:

[root@server ~]# php composer-installer.php --filename=composer --install-dir=/usr/local/bin
All settings correct for using Composer
Downloading...

Composer (version 2.0.13) successfully installed to: /usr/local/bin/composer
Use it: php /usr/local/bin/composer

Testing Composer

To test your installation, run the following command.

composer

Output:

[root@server ~]# composer --version
Composer version 2.0.13 2021-04-27 13:11:08
[root@server ~]# composer
   ______
  / ____/___  ____ ___  ____  ____  ________  _____
 / /   / __ \/ __ `__ \/ __ \/ __ \/ ___/ _ \/ ___/
/ /___/ /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ (__  )  __/ /
\____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/ .___/\____/____/\___/_/
                    /_/
Composer version 2.0.13 2021-04-27 13:11:08

Usage:
  command [options] [arguments]

Done!

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Docker on Rocky Linux 8

What is Docker?

Docker is basically a container engine which uses the Linux Kernel in order to create the containers on top of an operating system. Which is use to create, deploy and run applications in a containerized environment.

First, check and install any pending system updates.

yum update 

Adding Docker repository

Enable the Docker CE repository by running the following command.

dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo

Output:

[root@vps ~]# dnf config-manager --add-repo=https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
Adding repo from: https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo

Installing Docker-ce package

Install Docker-ce package on AlmaLinux 8 by running the following command.

dnf -y  install docker-ce --nobest

Output:

[root@server ~]# dnf -y  install docker-ce --nobest
Docker CE Stable - x86_64                        50 kB/s |  12 kB     00:00
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package                      Arch   Version             Repository        Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 docker-ce                    x86_64 3:20.10.6-3.el8     docker-ce-stable  27 M
Installing dependencies:
 checkpolicy                  x86_64 2.9-1.el8           baseos           345 k
 container-selinux            noarch 2:2.155.0-1.module+el8.3.0+161+9c4b50ff
                                                         appstream         50 k
 containerd.io                x86_64 1.4.4-3.1.el8       docker-ce-stable  33 M
 docker-ce-cli                x86_64 1:20.10.6-3.el8     docker-ce-stable  33 M

Enable the Docker service.

systemctl enable --now docker

Output:

[root@vps ~]# systemctl enable --now docker
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/docker.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service.

Checking the Docker service

To verify the Docker service by running the following command.

systemctl status  docker

Output:

 [root@server ~]# systemctl status  docker
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor pres>
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2021-05-12 16:05:02 EDT; 11s ago
     Docs: https://docs.docker.com
 Main PID: 12504 (dockerd)
    Tasks: 8
   Memory: 44.1M
   CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
           └─12504 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/conta>

May 12 16:04:59 server dockerd[12504]: time="2021-05-12T16:04:59.724605461-04:0>
May 12 16:04:59 server dockerd[12504]: time="2021-05-12T16:04:59.724671035-04:0>
May 12 16:04:59 server dockerd[12504]: time="2021-05-12T16:04:59.726331220-04:0>

Done!

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Fail2Ban on Rocky Linux 8

Fail2Ban is an intrusion prevention framework written in the Python programming language. It works by reading SSH, ProFTP, Apache logs, etc. And uses iptables profiles to block brute-force attempts.

To install Fail2ban, The EPEL repository needs to be installed first.

yum install epel-release

Note: It will prompt for several permission Press “y” and “Enter” to continue.

Next, install fail2ban package.

yum install fail2ban

Note: This will prompt for several permissions, Press “y” and “Enter” to continue.

Set fail2ban to start on boot automatically,

systemctl enable fail2ban

Configuring local file settings.

Jail.conf contains a section which Configuration settings can be done for the fail2ban, we are not going edit this file because package upgrade can overwrite this file.

Jail.local contains same section where jail.conf file contains and it can override this values.

/etc/fail2ban/jail.d/ can override both jails.local and jails.conf files

First we begin with the jail.local file.

Open the file for editing,

nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

Add the following content,

[DEFAULT]
# Ban hosts for one hour:
bantime = 3600

# Override /etc/fail2ban/jail.d/00-firewalld.conf:
banaction = iptables-multiport

[sshd]
enabled = true

If server uses firewalld instead of iptables, simply comment the banaction line

Restarting the Fail2Ban service to load new settings.

systemctl restart fail2ban

To check status

fail2ban-client status

Output:

Status
|- Number of jail:      1
`- Jail list:   sshd

To view detailed information of sshd

fail2ban-client status sshd

Ouput:

[root@server ~]# fail2ban-client status sshd
Status for the jail: sshd
|- Filter
|  |- Currently failed: 5
|  |- Total failed:     238
|  `- Journal matches:  _SYSTEMD_UNIT=sshd.service + _COMM=sshd
`- Actions
   |- Currently banned: 19
   |- Total banned:     19
   `- Banned IP list:   221.131.165.56 183.89.70.240 211.200.178.178 218.92.0.207 221.181.185.143 221.181.185.220 189.207.242.90 120.246.124.254 51.254.84.249 103.20.34.169 218.22.36.135 1.179.185.50 171.245.229.51 106.55.240.205 212.64.60.50 58.240.52.43 209.141.60.60 171.225.250.69 221.181.185.151

Modify the content of the file /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

Setting ban time

#ban time setting to 600sec
bantime = 600 

Setting conditions to ban a client

findtime = 600 
maxretry = 3

In this example, the client is blocked if he makes 3 unsuccessful login attempts with in 10 mins.

To check the details of banned IPs and number of login attempts,

fail2ban-client status sshd

Output:

[root@server ~]# fail2ban-client status sshd
Status for the jail: sshd
|- Filter
|  |- Currently failed: 5
|  |- Total failed:     262
|  `- Journal matches:  _SYSTEMD_UNIT=sshd.service + _COMM=sshd
`- Actions
   |- Currently banned: 21
   |- Total banned:     21
   `- Banned IP list:   221.131.165.56 183.89.70.240 211.200.178.178 218.92.0.207 221.181.185.143 221.181.185.220 189.207.242.90 120.246.124.254 51.254.84.249 1        03.20.34.169 218.22.36.135 1.179.185.50 171.245.229.51 106.55.240.205 212.64.60.        50 58.240.52.43 209.141.60.60 171.225.250.69 221.181.185.151 142.93.215.8 222.18        7.238.136

Hello,

In this week’s feature highlight, we look at How to Install WordPress on Rocky Linux 8

Prerequisites:

WordPress requires LAMP stack installed and running

For detailed installation, refer to LAMP Stack on Rocky Linux 8

Creating the new database:

Log into MySQL with the following command,

mysql -u root -p

First, we’ll create a new database,

CREATE DATABASE wordpress;

Next, create a new MySQL user account that we will use to operate on WordPress’s new database, with username “admin”

CREATE USER `admin`@`localhost` IDENTIFIED BY '<Enter Strong Password here>';

Link the user and DB together by granting our user access to the database,

GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO `admin`@`localhost`;

Flush the privileges so that MySQL knows about the user permissions we just added,

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit out of the MySQL command prompt by typing,

exit

Output:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE wordpress;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.000 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER `admin`@`localhost` IDENTIFIED BY '<Enetered Password>';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON wordpress.* TO `admin`@`localhost`;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]>

Download and extract WordPress:

Download the wordpress by using curl command and extract the downloaded file

curl https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz --output wordpress.tar.gz

tar xf wordpress.tar.gz

Copy the extracted WordPress directory into the /var/www/html directory:

cp -r wordpress /var/www/html

Change permissions and change file SELinux security context:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/wordpress

chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/html/wordpress -R

Navigate your browser:

http://server_IP/wordpress

Start WordPress Installer

Start WordPress installation by clicking on “Run the installation” button:

Provide the requested information:

Once the wordpress is installed login with your new user credentials:

Done!