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


2. Create a new database (or use existing) and execute the following SQL queries to create the PowerDNS table structure:

create table domains (
id INT auto_increment,
name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
master VARCHAR(128) DEFAULT NULL,
last_check INT DEFAULT NULL,
type VARCHAR(6) NOT NULL,
notified_serial INT DEFAULT NULL,
account VARCHAR(40) DEFAULT NULL,
primary key (id)
)type=InnoDB;
 
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX name_index ON domains(name);
 
CREATE TABLE records (
id INT auto_increment,
domain_id INT DEFAULT NULL,
name VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
type VARCHAR(6) DEFAULT NULL,
content VARCHAR(255) DEFAULT NULL,
ttl INT DEFAULT NULL,
prio INT DEFAULT NULL,
change_date INT DEFAULT NULL,
primary key(id)
)type=InnoDB;
 
CREATE INDEX rec_name_index ON records(name);
CREATE INDEX nametype_index ON records(name,type);
CREATE INDEX domain_id ON records(domain_id);
 
create table supermasters (
ip VARCHAR(25) NOT NULL,
nameserver VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
account VARCHAR(40) DEFAULT NULL
);


3. Configure PowerDNS to use the MySql backend by adding this line into the configuration file (pico /etc/powerdns/pdns.conf)

launch=gmysql


4. Configure MySql login information for the PowerDNS server that can read from the tables you created earlier by adding lines similar to these (pico /etc/powerdns/pdns.d/pdns.local)

gmysql-host=127.0.0.1
gmysql-user=pdns
gmysql-password=password
gmysql-dbname=pdns


Replace the username, password and dbname with a valid login information and database name.

5. Restart PowerDNS

/etc/init.d/pdns restart


Now you should have a fully functional PowerDNS server installed. To manage the database (adding zones and records), consider using the Poweradmin web-based administration tool.

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


2. cd into the munin plugins directory

/usr/share/munin/plugins


3. Download the munin-varnish plugin

git clone git://github.com/basiszwo/munin-varnish.git


4. Set correct permissions

chmod a+x /usr/share/munin/plugins/munin-varnish/varnish_*


5. Link the plugin sections to the munin config

ln -s /usr/share/munin/plugins/munin-varnish/varnish_* /etc/munin/plugins/


6. Add these lines to the bottom of the munin-node config (pico /etc/munin/plugin-conf.d/munin-node)

[varnish*]
user root


7. Restart munin-node

/etc/init.d/munin-node restart


1. Install rkhunter

apt-get install rkhunter


2. Run rkhunter to check your server

rkhunter --check


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


2. Use this command to send and receive information to a remote server

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a {ipmi_command}


You can also skip the "-a" parameter (which makes ipmitool prompt for a password everytime) and add "-P {password}" to avoid the password prompt.

Here are some examples of useful commands

Get hardware status (including hardware failures and power status)

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a chassis status


List all sensor values (including temperature, fan speed, voltage and more)

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a sensor list


Print system event log

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a sel list


Check if your server is on or off

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a chassis power status


Power off the server (soft shutdown via ACPI)

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a chassis power soft


Power off the server (hard)

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a chassis power off


Start the server

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a chassis power on


Restart server (hard)

ipmitool -H {ip_address} -U {username} -a chassis power reset


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


2. Configure the server (pico /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf)

mailhub=mail.example.org
FromLineOverride=YES


Replace mail.example.org with the external mail server that you want to relay all mail to.

If you would like to relay through Google Mail servers, change these configuration values:

mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
UseSTARTTLS=Yes
AuthUser={username}
AuthPass={password}
FromLineOverride=YES


Replace {username} with your Gmail username and {password} with your Gmail password.

That's all! sSMTP doesn't run as service so there's no restart required. sSMTP creates a link to /usr/sbin/sendmail which most programs use by default to send mail including PHP.

1. Install Apache2 and PHP5 (as an Apache module)

apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql


2. Install MySql server

apt-get install mysql-server


3. At this point you may need to restart Apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart


3. Create a test php file

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/info.php


The default document root for Debian is in /var/www so you can access the test file on this location: http://yourserver/info.php

3. Install phpMyAdmin (optional but preferred by most developers and administrators)

apt-get install phpmyadmin


By default, phpmyadmin will be accessible on: http://yourserver/phpmyadmin

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


2. Extract

tar -xvjf eaccelerator-0.9.6.1.tar.bz2


3. Install php5-dev

apt-get install php5-dev


3. Compile and install the eAccelerator

phpize
./configure
make
make install


4. Configure eAccelerator as PHP extension (create a new config file: pico /etc/php5/conf.d/eaccelerator.ini)

extension="eaccelerator.so"
eaccelerator.shm_size="16"
eaccelerator.cache_dir="/var/cache/eaccelerator"
eaccelerator.enable="1"
eaccelerator.optimizer="1"
eaccelerator.check_mtime="1"
eaccelerator.debug="0"
eaccelerator.filter=""
eaccelerator.shm_max="0"
eaccelerator.shm_ttl="0"
eaccelerator.shm_prune_period="0"
eaccelerator.shm_only="0"
eaccelerator.compress="1"
eaccelerator.compress_level="9"


5. Create a cache directory

mkdir -p /var/cache/eaccelerator
chmod 0777 /var/cache/eaccelerator


5. Restart apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart


1. Install the apache2-mpm-itk package

apt-get install apache2-mpm-itk


2. Configure user and group for each virtual host by adding the following line somewhere between <VirtualHost *:80>...</VirtualHost>

AssignUserId [user] [group]


Replace [user] and [group] with a username and group name that already exists on the system.

3. Change the owner of the web root

chown [user].[group] [location]


Replace [user] and [group] with the username and group name configured on the virtual host. Replace [location] with the location specified as DocumentRoot for the virtual host, eg. /var/www

4. Make sure the location isn't accessible by other users (optional)

chmod o= [location]


Replace [location] with the location specified as DocumentRoot for the virtual host, eg. /var/www

5. Restart apache

/etc/init.d/apache restart


1. Update all packages currently installed to the latest lenny versions

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade


2. Replace all occurrences of lenny with squeeze in the apt sources file (pico /etc/apt/sources.list). Here's an example of what the file could look like after the change:

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib


3. Update apt repository

apt-get update


4. Upgrade apt, dpkg and aptitude packages first

apt-get install apt dpkg aptitude


5. Do a dist-upgrade to upgrade the rest of the system

apt-get dist-upgrade


6. Reboot

reboot


7. Check the debian version

cat /etc/debian_version


It should read version 6.0.0 or greater

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


2. Download and import the dotdeb key

wget http://www.dotdeb.org/dotdeb.gpg
cat dotdeb.gpg | sudo apt-key add -


3. Update apt and dist-upgrade

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade