jkolden / catalog-ubuntu-vagrant

Udacity FSND - Linux Server Configuration Project

This describes the steps taken to deploy the catalog Flask application to an ubuntu linux server

IP address & URL

• Public IP address: 18.236.198.135
• URL: http://ec2-18-236-198-135.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/

The following software was installed on my ubuntu server to facilitate app hosting:

• apache2
• libapache2-mod-wsgi
• postgresql
• pip
• python-dev
• Flask
• sqlalchemy
• oauth2client
• requests
• psycopg2

Configurations

SSH login as ubuntu from the local machine

Login to Amazon Lightsail's machine only by the browser-based terminal window.

1. Generate ssh key pair for the user ubuntu on the client machine
   • cd ~/.ssh
   • ssh-keygen
     • I named the key pair "udacity"
2. Copy the content of udacity.pub file
   • cat ~/.ssh/udacity.pub
3. Paste it in authorized_keys on the Amazon Lightsail machine
   • sudo nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
4. Test we can login the remote machine by ssh from our local machines
   • ssh [email protected] -p 22 -i ~/.ssh/udacity.pem

Firewall Configuration

ufw

Open 80, 123, 2200.

1. Ensure that the firewall is currently disabled
   • sudo ufw status
2. Allow http to use the port 80
   • sudo ufw allow 80
3. Allow ntp to use the port 123
   • sudo ufw allow 123
4. Allow ssh to use the port 2200
   • sudo ufw allow 2200/tcp
5. Enable the firewall
   • sudo ufw enable
6. Check the firewall is configured properly
   • sudo ufw status
     • Confirm that only 22, 80, 123, 2200 are open

sshd

Modify sshd configuration so that sshd observes the port 2200.

1. Modify Port 22 to Port 2200 in sshd_config file
   • sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
2. Restart sshd
   • sudo service sshd restart
3. Confirm we cannot login by the old port 22
   • ssh [email protected] -p 22 -i ~/.ssh/udacity.pem
4. Re-login by new port 2200
   • ssh [email protected] -p 2200 -i ~/.ssh/udacity.pem

Close port 22

1. Let ufw deny port 22
   • sudo ufw deny ssh
2. Enable the firewall
   • sudo ufw enable
3. Check port 22 is successfully denied
   • sudo ufw status

Install most recent software

 `sudo apt-get update`
 `sudo apt-get upgrade`

User authentication

Disable password-based login

• Change PasswordAuthentication to no and make sure PubkeyAuthentication is yes
  • sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  • sudo service ssh restart

Disable remote login of the user root

• Change PermitRootLogin to no
  • sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  • sudo service ssh restart

Create new user grader

1. Create new user "grader"
   • sudo adduser grader
2. Give the user "grader" sudo access
   • sudo nano /etc/sudoers.d/grader
     • The content: grader ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
     • The grader user will have a password of "grader" when performing sudo commands.
3. Generate ssh key pair for grader on the client
   • cd ~/.ssh
   • ssh-keygen
   • I named my key pair grader_key
4. Load the generated public key to the ubuntu server
   • sudo su - grader
   • mkdir ~/.ssh
   • touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
   • Copy the content of pub file from the client
   • sudo nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
     • Paste the pub's content above
   • chmod 700 ~/.ssh
   • chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
5. Test you can login as grader by ssh on port 2200
   • ssh [email protected] -p 2200 -i ~/.ssh/grader_key

Add Google OAuth origin to the project on the Google Cloud Console

1. Add the URL http://ec2-18-236-198-135.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/ to authorized Javascript Origins and Authorized redirect URIs
2. Download new client_secrets.json and replace the old one. In my case I had already clones my git repo so I made this change via sudo nano on the ubuntu server.

Create environment for Flask app

1. Put Catalog app under /var/www

   • cd /var/www/
   • Clone this git repo: sudo git clone https://github.com/jkolden/catalog-ubuntu-vagrant.git

2. Install Flask in virtual environment by pip

   • cd catalog/
   • sudo apt-get install python-pip
   • sudo pip install virtualenv
   • sudo virtualenv venv
   • source venv/bin/activate
   • sudo pip install Flask sqlalchemy oauth2client requests psycopg2

Add Posgresql user and database for the Catalog app

1. Change the user to postgres
   • sudo su - postgres
2. Create the user catalog
   • createuser catalog with password 'catalog'
3. Create DB catalog
   • psql -c 'create database catalog;'
4. Create tables and load data to DB
   • cd /var/www/catalog/catalog
   • python database_setup1.py
   • python categories.py

Apache and wsgi

1. Install Apache

   • sudo apt-get install apache2

2. Set up Apache config for Item Catalog app

   • sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/catalog.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName 18.236.198.135.xip.io
    ServerAlias ec2-18-236-198-135.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com
    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>

3. Enable the virtual host
   • sudo a2ensite catalog
4. Install mod_wsgi
   • sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-wsgi python-dev
   • sudo a2enmod wsgi
5. Create the wsgi file
   • cd /var/www/catalog
   • sudo nano catalog.wsgi

#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
import logging
logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stderr)
sys.path.insert(0,"/var/www/catalog/")
from catalog.application import app as application
application.secret_= 'some_secret_key'

7. Restart Apache
   • sudo service apache2 restart
8. Navigate to http://ec2-18-236-198-135.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com/.

• Test login and adding categories/items.

Third-party references

• DNS Lookup
• How to deplay a Flask app - Digital Ocean
• How to install Postgresql on Ubuntu - Digital Ocean
• Engine Configuration¶
• PostgreSQL
• Great readme by RR Joson