Installing PowerDNS with MySql backend
The PowerDNS Nameserver is a modern, advanced and high performance authoritative-only nameserver. It is written from scratch and conforms to all relevant DNS standards documents. Furthermore, PowerDNS interfaces with almost any database.
This tutorial has been tested and is working on Debian etch and lenny
1. Install the PowerDNS server and MySql backend using apt
apt-get install pdns-server pdns-backend-mysql
Monitoring Varnish with Munin
Varnish is a great reverse proxy and very useful for load balancing. Here you can find a tutorial on installing Varnish: Installing and configuring Varnish HTTP accelerator.
Munin is a network/system monitoring application that presents output in graphs through a web interface. If you haven't installed it already, use this tutorial: Monitoring multiple servers with Munin.
Assuming you have both varnish and munin installed, here's a tutorial on installing a plugin for munin to monitor Varnish.
1. Install git-core to receive the plugin from github
apt-get install git-core
Scan your server for rootkits with rkhunter
rkhunter (Rootkit Hunter) is a tool that scans for rootkits, backdoors and possible local exploits. It does this by comparing SHA-1 hashes of important files with known good ones in online database, searching for default directories (of rootkits), wrong permissions, hidden files, suspicious strings in kernel modules, and special tests for Linux and FreeBSD.
1. Install rkhunter
apt-get install rkhunter
Installing and using the IPMI tool
The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a standardized computer system interface used by system administrators to manage a computer system and monitor its operation.
The development of this interface specification was led by Intel Corporation and is supported by more than two hundred computer systems vendors including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and NEC Corporation.
1. Install the ipmitool which is used to send commands and receive information from the management interface.
apt-get install ipmitool
Installing sSMTP MTA (Mail Transfer Agent)
sSMTP is an extremely simple MTA to get mail off the system to a mail hub. It contains no suid-binaries or other dangerous things - no mail spool to poke around in, and no daemons running in the background. Mail is simply forwarded to the configured mailhost. Extremely easy configuration.
This is ideal for web servers to avoid running MTA daemons like sendmail, Exim and Postfix which use up resources on the server.
1. Install sSMTP (Note: Any previously installed MTA will be removed)
apt-get install ssmtp
How to install LAMP (Apache, PHP and MySql in Linux)
Here's a basic guide on how to get Apache2, PHP5 and MySql working on most Debian based distros in a few easy steps.
1. Install Apache2 and PHP5 (as an Apache module)
apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql
Installing eAccelerator
eAccelerator is a free open-source PHP accelerator & optimizer. It increases the performance of PHP scripts by caching them in their compiled state, so that the overhead of compiling is almost completely eliminated. It also optimizes scripts to speed up their execution. eAccelerator typically reduces server load and increases the speed of your PHP code by 1-10 times.
eAccelerator only works with mod_php or php in fastcgi mode. It can't be used in cgi or cli because eAccelerator needs to set up shared memory, and this can only be done when all php instances that need to access it are forks of the first process.
1. Download the eAccelerator source. The latest version is mirrored on www.debiantutorials.com as it's not available on the official site anymore.
cd /tmp
wget http://www.debiantutorials.com/static/eaccelerator-0.9.6.1.tar.bz2
Running Apache2 virtual hosts as different users with mpm-itk
apache2-mpm-itk is an MPM (Multi-Processing Module) for the Apache web server. mpm-itk allows you to run each of your vhost under a separate uid and gid — in short, the scripts and configuration files for one vhost no longer have to be readable for all the other vhosts.
1. Install the apache2-mpm-itk package
apt-get install apache2-mpm-itk
Upgrade from lenny to squeeze
Debian has released a stable version of Debian 6.0 (squeeze). If you're running previous version of Debian, you can easily upgrade.
1. Update all packages currently installed to the latest lenny versions
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
How to upgrade to PHP 5.3 on Debian Lenny
Dotdeb provides a repository with PHP 5.3 for lenny and it's easy to upgrade:
1. Add these lines to the apt sources (pico /etc/apt/sources.list)
deb http://php53.dotdeb.org stable all
deb-src http://php53.dotdeb.org stable all