roberthernandez's sandbox: WALID

One Appliance to Rule Them All

Well, to make them play nice together anyway...

I was looking for a production/staging server build script or appliance that had LAMP, Webmin, Aegir, ISPConfig, and all the Drupal dependencies on top of a long term support (LTS) version of uBuntu.

On top of web and database services, I also wanted email and DNS, open source anti-spam and anti-virus, a firewall, and protection from DOS and other similar attacks. I also wanted all my admin interfaces to use SSL and I wanted secure SMTP enabled.

Basically, I wanted the offspring of a debaucherous affair between Webmin, Aegir, a slightly hardened LAMP, ISPConfig, and Drupal. I wanted - WALID.

Meet WALID. It's that genetically engineered super offspring.

WALID's the output of a build script that smaller-scale Drupal developers can use to quickly build a production server on a Cloud or Dedicated VPS (or download as an appliance). For Drupal developers that need more than shared hosting but aren't experienced in building or maintaining Linux servers, this will get you going. For developers who have reached a certain level in their Drupal-fu but who aren't experienced with Linux, WALID is a relatively secure and stable Drupal-centric production environment that can be managed via secure web interfaces by even non-Linux pros. [This is the goal anyway...]

Requirements:
Install and have a basic understanding of Oracle VirtualBox (free) or another virtual machine application that supports .ova files.

Networking:
The appliance uses bridged networking and has the following static IP:

Hostname Resolution:
Because Aegir works on hostnames (not IPs) you need to edit the host file on WALID and your local machine. If you run Windows on your local machine, edit c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts; on most Linux distros it's at /etc/hosts.

Add the following entry:

Miscellaneous:

• ALL user passwords are set to "walid".
• uBuntu Users:
  • root - uBuntu root account
  • aegir - the aegir process account
  • walid - in place of the "administrator" user that's created during the uBuntu server build process
• ISPConfig3 users:
  • admin - the default superuser
  • walid - the hostmaster for all internal non-client hosting
  • aegir-test - a test user based on a client template that removes all functionality that would conflict with AEGIR (mainly, website creation). This is the type of user that would be created for a domain managed through AEGIR, but for who you still wanted to enable/manage email for that domain.
• Inside of the root's home folder is a folder named "config" (/root/config/ or ~/config if logged in as root). It has links to all of the most important config files and directories. Enjoy.
• The domain "notdrupal.dev" is a domain created in the ISPConfig3 interface.
• The domain "testsite1.dev" is a site created using the AEGIR interface.

Admin links, usernames, and passwords [u:p]:

• aegir: http://aegir.walid.dev [admin:walid]
• ispc: https://ispc.walid.dev:8080 [admin:walid]
• phpmyadmin: https://ispc.walid.dev:8080/phpmyadmin [root:walid]
• webmail: https://ispc.walid.dev:8080/webmail [postmaster@walid.dev:walid]
• webmin: https://webmin.walid.dev:1000 [root:walid]
• notdrupal: http://notdrupal.dev [admin:walid]
• aegir test site: http://testsite1.dev [admin:walid]

Replace walid.dev, notdrupal.dev, and testsite1.dev with your TLDs (or leave at default for local VM implementations).

Main App/Lib Versions:
Ubuntu Linux 10.04.2 LTS server x64 (built with 1024MB RAM, 40GB HD)
Kernel and CPU Linux 2.6.32-28-server on x86_64
Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu)
PHP 5.3.2-1 ubuntu4.9
MySQL: 5.1.41-3 ubuntu12.10
PHPMyAdmin 3.3.2 deb1
AEGIR 1.1
Drush 4.4
ISPConfig 3.0.3.3
Webmin 1.550
SquirrelMail 1.4.20
All Drupal dependencies (upload progress, rewrite, php/mysql tweaks, etc.)
I had APC installed but had some problems/conflicts. Expect this in a future release.

WALID Info:
Version: 0.2
Release: 13 May 2011 16:45 GMT -6
Filename: walid-u10.04s-x64-002.ova (480MB)

Download Links:
By likely download speed, fastest on top

1. Readme/Install Instructions: README.TXT
2. OVA File (Google Docs): http://bit.ly/lak09E
3. OVA Mirror (MegaUpload): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VLJ0JN5F
4. OVA Mirror (MediaFire): http://www.mediafire.com/?51j3s4hpjnrp7
5. OVA Mirror (Box.net): http://www.box.net/walid
6. OVA Mirror (Live Drive): http://bit.ly/kOblq1

Update 16 May 2011 08:57 GMT -6:
CRITICAL: See comments 6 - 9 at http://drupal.org/node/1158272 and the README.TXT file for critical fixes.

Update 26 May 2011 12:29 GMT -6:
Version 0.3 is coming soon (before June). This has many improvements including additional server hardening and a more robust configuration of the installed apps.

Update 26 June 2011 14:02 GMT -6:
After lots (and lots) of hard work and testing, we have a release candidate that we will be posting here within days. This will be released as a set of install scripts and a virtual appliance.

Update 11 July 2011 16:41 GMT -6:
RC3 local testing has gone well. Just commenting the script. Expect posting in the next 48 hours.