Starlight

Simple project server, comparable to Shimmer. Increased emphasis on performance and redundancy.

Most likely, this server will continue operating for several years, even as newer and better servers supplant it.

For discussion purposes, server is nicknamed "Starlight".

ChiefAdmins

Julia "juri" Longtin Matthew "mirage335" Hines

Support

#hacdc on irc.freenode.net (or via chat.hacdc.org)

Login

On any unix terminal emulator, enter the command:

ssh <userName>@starlight.srv.hacdc.org -p ####

On other platforms, try applications like PuTTY with similar settings. Local connections (within HacDC's network) will need to use IP address 192.168.14.254 .

CommandReference

Routinely important commands unique to this server documented as follows.

Users

List

List OpenVZ VMs created for you.

cat ~/hovzList

Startup

sudo /usr/sbin/vzctl start <name>

Shutdown

sudo /usr/sbin/vzctl stop <name>

Console

Opens command line of running VM <name> .

sudo /usr/sbin/vzctl enter <name>

Root (Admin)

hostedOpenVZ

• ./hovzNewUser <userName> # Creates user account with default OpenVZ VM and permissions.
• ./hovzDelUser <userName> # Deletes user account, associated VMs, and associated OpenVZ permissions.
• ./hovzNewVM <userName> <VM_Number> <dist> # Creates VM accessible to non-root user <userName> . Dist is often"debian-7.0-x86_64-minimal" .
• vzctl set CTID --ram 128M --swap 256M --save
• vzctl set CTID --diskspace 4G:4.2G --save

Autostart

Through normal reboots, host will suspend/resume any guest VMs.

iptables

Investigation

• iptables -t nat -L -n -v #Lists port forwarding rules.
• iptables -t nat -F #Deletes port forwarding rules.
• iptables -D PREROUTING 1 #Deletes port forwarding rule.

Forwarding

Specific

/sbin/iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -i eth0 --dport 20283 -j DNAT --to 10.174.10.5:22

Persistent

Package iptables-persistent has been installed. Upon installation, existing iptables rules were saved. Edit /etc/iptables/rules.v4 .

ReInstall

• Install OpenVZ, documented at http://openvz.org/Installation_on_Debian .
• Install hostedOpenVZ, documented at https://github.com/mirage335/hostedOpenVZ .
• Change default kernel in /etc/default/grub.cfg .
• Apply "iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE" .

Characteristics

• CPU - Dual Processor, Octo-Core, Intel Xeon X5355
• RAM - 16GB ECC
• HDD - 750GB
• Hostname - HacDC-shared-m335-2
• FQDN - HacDC-shared-m335-2.hacdc.org

Redundancy (RAID)

None yet, keep backups. Nonetheless, hard disk is kept cool, so the server should have a long life ahead of it.

Policies

Permissions

Root

HacDC members with a demonstrable need or willingness to manage non-root users may be given root access. Imperative that root users do not jeopardize uptime.

Shell

All HacDC members are welcome to non-root shell accounts, directly provided by the server.

OpenVZ

All HacDC members are welcome to OpenVZ Virtual Machines. Resources, including CPU, disk space, and external network ports, will be allocated on an as-needed first-come-first-serve basis.

Root users, please use the provided hostedOpenVZ scripts. Following the naming conventions set therein helps account for which resources belong to whom.

Notifications

Internal server email will notify users, if feasible, on the following schedules, subject to change.

• Three days before planned downtime exceeding one hour.
• One week before planned permanent downtime (obsolescence).

Forwarding to another email address is possible with the following command.

echo '[email protected]' > ~/.forward

Removal

• Up to three months before removal of ex-member accounts. Exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

DataLoss

• Users should regularly backup critical data offiste.
• Onsite data storage is not guaranteed to be reliable.
• All server data may be deleted after obsolescence.
• Removed accounts may be deleted immediately and permanently upon deactivation.

Privacy

Machine is physically accessible to all keyholding HacDC members. Although HacDC members are generally responsible, privacy should not be expected.

AcceptableUse

Disk

Disk space is limited, but can be upgraded. Please do not needlessly use more than a few tens of GB.

Sharing

Sharing of account resources is permitted, however, additional resources will be allocated according to individual member needs for specific purposes. As a reminder, compromised accounts will be immediately removed as discovered.

Bandwidth

Although HacDC has a high-capacity 85/15Mbit link, it is shared with other tenants. Please be courteous. If internet bandwidth use is required for downloading large files, between 2200 and 0600 is best.

Hard bandwidth limits have not been set to ease administration of local file servers. However, please configure applications to limit maximum bandwidth use where possible, particularly for web servers.

• NOTE: If your bandwidth use is too high during normal hours, the church administrator will cut bandwidth available to the whole subnet and will call ITG or Haxwithaxe to resolve the issue (neither will be happy).

NamingConvention

Preferred network names for participating machines and virtual machines.

Physical

Hostnames

HacDC-shared-m335-2

• HacDC - Identifies machine as HacDC or HacDC member property on the local network.
• shared - One of private, restricted, shared. Private = one member only (eg. RasPi). Restricted = limited access (eg. HacDC web server). Shared = shared resources (ie. remote shells).
• m335 - Abbreviated member name or screen name. Full contact details should be written on the physical machine.
• 1 - Unique identifier.

FQDNs

HacDC-shared-m335-2.router.hacdc.org

Virtual

Hostnames

mirage335-1

• mirage335 - Local username.
• 1 - Unique machine identifier.

FQDNs

mirage335-1.HacDC-shared-m335-2.router.hacdc.org

Timezone

EST/EDT aka US Eastern, America/NewYork, or "Eastern"

Workarounds

SSH KeepAlive

Due to limited bandwidth, SSH sessions may freeze. To prevent this, consider the following to configuration, appended to client-side ~/.ssh/config .

Host *
  ServerAliveInterval 30

Disclaimer

No guarantees. Admins are expected to make best efforts toward reliability, security, and privacy. Monitoring may include without limitation system health, resource consumption, and authentication failures, and the like. More intrusive monitoring, such as of user filesystems, should be avoided if possible.

Excepting the case, reasonably requsitioned as a supply, the server is property of Julia Longtin. Administration is at the discretion of her and designated admins.

Credits

Julia Longtin - Donated core hardware.