Full web server setup with Debian 12 (Bookworm)

23 Jul 2024

Matteo Mattei

linux server mariadb debian nginx php iptables postfix ssl letsencrypt sftp

Setup bash and update the system

apt update
apt dist-upgrade

Configure hostname correctly

Make sure to have the following two lines (with the same format) at the top of your /etc/hosts file

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain localhost
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx web1.myserver.com web1

Note: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the public IP address assigned to your server.

Add you full hostname (for example web1.myserver.com) to /etc/hostname and apply it:

hostname -F /etc/hostname

Then to validate that the FQDN is valid and correctly applied type this:

hostname -f
// the answer should be web1.myserver.com

Install all needed packages

apt install wget vim git acl screen rsync net-tools pwgen mariadb-server mariadb-client nginx iptables shorewall php php-cli php-curl php-dev php-gd php-imagick php-imap php-memcache php-pspell php-tidy php-xmlrpc php-pear php-fpm php-mbstring php-mysql certbot phpmyadmin python3-pip python3-tld postfix ntp ca-certificates bsd-mailx tree

Postfix:

Select Internet Site
System mail name: (insert here the FQDN, for example web1.myserver.com)

Web server to reconfigure automatically:

Do not select anything and continue

Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common?

Select Yes

MySQL application password for phpmyadmin:

Leave blank and press Ok

Setup Nginx

Stop Nginx web server:

/etc/init.d/nginx stop

Backup Nginx configuration:

cp /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.backup

Add the following lines in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf after tcp_nopush on;:

tcp_nodelay on;
keepalive_timeout 65;

And the following lines after gizp on;:

gzip_disable "msie6";

gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_http_version 1.1;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

# max body size
client_max_body_size 10M;

Copy some nginx configuration files:

mkdir -p /etc/nginx/certs
ln -s /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem /etc/nginx/certs/server.crt
ln -s /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key /etc/nginx/certs/server.key

mkdir -p /etc/nginx/global
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/codeigniter_production.conf > /etc/nginx/global/codeigniter_production.conf
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/codeigniter_testing.conf > /etc/nginx/global/codeigniter_testing.conf
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/common.conf > /etc/nginx/global/common.conf
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/dokuwiki.conf > /etc/nginx/global/dokuwiki.conf
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/phpmyadmin.conf > /etc/nginx/global/phpmyadmin.conf
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/plainphp.conf > /etc/nginx/global/plainphp.conf
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/ssl.conf > /etc/nginx/global/ssl.conf
wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/nginx/global/wordpress.conf > /etc/nginx/global/wordpress.conf

Restart Nginx:

/etc/init.d/nginx restart

Setup let’s encrypt

certbot register --agree-tos -m <your@email>

Setup MariaDB

Secure MariaDB installation:

mysql_secure_installation

Enter current password for root (enter for none): [ENTER]
Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n] Y
Change the root password? [Y/n] Y
New password: MARIAB_ROOT_PASSWORD
Re-enter new password: MARIAB_ROOT_PASSWORD
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y

Set MariaDB root password in a configuration file (the same password configured before!)

cat << EOF > /root/.my.cnf
[client]
user = root
password = MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD
EOF

Optional enable MySQL slow query logging (often useful during slow page load debugging):

sed -i "{s/^#slow_query_log_file /slow_query_log_file /g}" /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
sed -i "{s/^#long_query_time /long_query_time /g}" /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
sed -i "{s/^#log_slow_verbosity /log_slow_verbosity /g}" /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
sed -i "{s/^#log-queries-not-using-indexes/log-queries-not-using-indexes/g}" /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

MySQL is now configured, so restart it:

/etc/init.d/mariadb restart

Configure Shorewall firewall rules

Copy the default configuration for one interface:

cd /usr/share/doc/shorewall/examples/one-interface
cp interfaces /etc/shorewall/
cp policy /etc/shorewall/
cp rules /etc/shorewall/
cp zones /etc/shorewall/

Now open /etc/shorewall/policy file and change the line:

net             all             DROP            info

removing info directive given it fills the system logs:

net             all             DROP

Now open /etc/shorewall/rules and add the following rules at the bottom of the file:

HTTP/ACCEPT     net             $FW
HTTPS/ACCEPT    net             $FW
SSH/ACCEPT      net             $FW

NOTE: in case you want to allow ICMP (Ping) traffic from a specific remote hosts you need to add a rule similar to the following where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the remote IP address, before the Ping(DROP) rule:

Ping(ACCEPT)    net:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx       $FW

Now edit /etc/default/shorewall and change startup=0 to startup=1 You are now ready to start the firewall:

/etc/init.d/shorewall start

Setup Postfix

Stop postfix server:

/etc/init.d/postfix stop

Edit /etc/mailname and set your server domain name, for example:

server1.mycompany.com

Restart Postfix:

/etc/init.d/postfix start

Select correct timezone

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
# Select your timezone (for example Europe/Rome)

Log rotation

In order to correctly log files you need to adjust logrotate configuration for Nginx:

cat << EOF >> /etc/logrotate.d/nginx
/home/*/*/logs/*.log {
        daily
        missingok
        rotate 14
        compress
        delaycompress
        notifempty
        create 0640 www-data adm
        sharedscripts
        prerotate
                if [ -d /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate ]; then \
                        run-parts /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate; \
                fi \
        endscript
        postrotate
                invoke-rc.d nginx rotate >/dev/null 2>&1
        endscript
}
EOF

Install virtualhost manager

wget -q -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/lemp_manager.py > /usr/local/sbin/lemp_manager.py
chmod 770 /usr/local/sbin/lemp_manager.py

Download also the tools that will be used with cron:

mkdir /root/cron_scripts
cd /root/cron_scripts
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/cron_scripts/backup_mysql.sh
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matteomattei/servermaintenance/master/Debian12/cron_scripts/mysql_optimize.sh
chmod 770 *.sh

Configure CRON

Edit /etc/crontab and add the following lines at the bottom:

# mysql optimize tables
3  4  *  *  7   root    /root/cron_scripts/mysql_optimize.sh

# mysql backup
32 4  *  *  *   root    /root/cron_scripts/backup_mysql.sh

How to use virtualhost manager

You can use the virtualhost manager for adding or removing virtualhosts:

# lemp_manager

Usage:
/usr/local/sbin/lemp_manager -a|--action=<action> [-d|--domain=<domain>] [-A|--alias=<alias>] [options]

Parameters:
	-a|--action=ACTION
		it is mandatory
	-d|--domain=domain.tld
		can be used only with [add_domain, remove_domain, add_alias, get_certs, get_info]
	-A|--alias=alias.domain.tld
		can be used only with [add_alias, remove_alias, get_info]

Actions:
	add_domain	Add a new domain
	add_alias	Add a new domain alias to an existent domain
	remove_domain	Remove an existent domain
	remove_alias	Remove an existent domain alias
	get_certs	Obtain SSL certificate and deploy it
	get_info	Get information of a domain or a domain alias (username)

Options:
	-f|--fakessl	Use self signed certificate (only usable with [add_domain, add_alias])