Proftpd

I want to use Proftpd instead of vsftpd which is SUSE's default FTP server because the control panel software I am going to install on this server (ISPConfig) requires Proftpd on SUSE 9.2 (on other distributions this is different). Since there are no SUSE packages for Proftpd I have to compile it manually:

cd /tmp/
wget --passive-ftp ftp://ftp.proftpd.org/distrib/source/proftpd-1.2.10.tar.gz

tar xvfz proftpd-1.2.10.tar.gz
cd proftpd-1.2.10/
./configure --sysconfdir=/etc
make
make install

cd ../
rm -fr proftpd-1.2.10*

Now create the file /etc/init.d/proftpd:

#! /bin/sh
# Copyright (c) 2000-2001 SuSE GmbH Nuernberg, Germany.
# All rights reserved.
#
# Original author: Marius Tomaschewski <mt@suse.de>
#
# Slightly modified in 2003 for use with SuSE Linux 8.1,
# by http://www.learnlinux.co.uk/
#
# Slightly modified in 2005 for use with SuSE Linux 9.2,
# by Falko Timme
#
# /etc/init.d/proftpd
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:                proftpd
# Required-Start:        $network $remote_fs $syslog $named
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start:        3 5
# Default-Stop:        0 1 2 6
# Description:                Starts ProFTPD server
### END INIT INFO

# Determine the base and follow a runlevel link name.
base=${0##*/}
link=${base#*[SK][0-9][0-9]}

# Force execution if not called by a runlevel directory.
test $link = $base && START_PROFTPD=yes  # Modified by learnlinux.co.uk
test "$START_PROFTPD" = yes || exit 0    # Modified by learnlinux.co.uk

# Return values acc. to LSB for all commands but
# status (see below):
#
# 0 - success
# 1 - generic or unspecified error
# 2 - invalid or excess argument(s)
# 3 - unimplemented feature (e.g. "reload")
# 4 - insufficient privilege
# 5 - program is not installed
# 6 - program is not configured
# 7 - program is not running

proftpd_cfg="/etc/proftpd.conf"
proftpd_bin="/usr/local/sbin/proftpd"
proftpd_pid="/usr/local/var/proftpd.pid"

[ -r $proftpd_cfg ] || exit 6
[ -x $proftpd_bin ] || exit 5

# Source status functions
. /etc/rc.status

# First reset status of this service
rc_reset

case "$1" in
    start)
  echo -n "Starting ProFTPD Server: "
  test -f /etc/shutmsg && rm -f /etc/shutmsg
  /sbin/startproc $proftpd_bin
  rc_status -v
  ;;

    stop)
  echo -n "Shutting down ProFTPD Server: "
  test -x /usr/local/sbin/ftpshut && /usr/local/sbin/ftpshut now && sleep 1
  /sbin/killproc -TERM $proftpd_bin
  test -f /etc/shutmsg && rm -f /etc/shutmsg
  rc_status -v
  ;;

    restart)
  ## If first returns OK call the second, if first or
  ## second command fails, set echo return value.
  $0 stop
  $0 start
  rc_status
  ;;

    try-restart)
  ## Stop the service and if this succeeds (i.e. the
  ## service was running before), start it again.
  ## Note: not (yet) part of LSB (as of 0.7.5)
  $0 status >/dev/null &&  $0 restart
  rc_status
  ;;

    reload|force-reload)
  ## Exclusive possibility: Some services must be stopped
  ## and started to force a new load of the configuration.
  echo -n "Reload ProFTPD Server: "
  /sbin/killproc -HUP $proftpd_bin
  rc_status -v
  ;;

    status)
  # Status has a slightly different for the status command:
  # 0 - service running
  # 1 - service dead, but /var/run/  pid  file exists
  # 2 - service dead, but /var/lock/ lock file exists
  # 3 - service not running
  echo -n "Checking for ProFTPD Server: "
  checkproc $proftpd_bin
  rc_status -v
  ;;

    probe)
  ## Optional: Probe for the necessity of a reload,
  ## give out the argument which is required for a reload.
  [ $proftpd_cfg -nt $proftpd_pid ] && echo reload
  ;;

    *)
  echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|reload|try-restart|probe}"
  exit 1
  ;;
esac

# Set an exit status.
rc_exit

chmod 755 /etc/init.d/proftpd
chkconfig --add proftpd

/etc/init.d/proftpd start

For security reasons you can also add the following lines to /etc/proftpd.conf:

DefaultRoot ~
IdentLookups off
ServerIdent on "FTP Server ready."

Be sure to comment out the following lines in order to allow ftp users to CHMOD:

# Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default
# <Limit SITE_CHMOD>
#  DenyAll
# </Limit>

and restart Proftpd:

/etc/init.d/proftpd restart

Webalizer

To install webalizer, just run

apt-get install webalizer

Synchronize the System Clock

If you want to have the system clock synchronized with an NTP server do the following:

apt-get install netdate

netdate tcp time.nist.gov

Create /var/spool/cron/tabs/root:

# update time with ntp server
0 3,9,15,21 * * * /usr/sbin/netdate time.nist.gov

Then run

chmod 600 /var/spool/cron/tabs/root
/etc/init.d/cron restart

Install some Perl Modules needed by SpamAssassin (comes with ISPConfig)

Installation using the Perl Shell

Login to your command line as root and run the following command to start the Perl shell:

perl -MCPAN -e shell

If you run the Perl shell for the first time you will be asked some questions. In most cases the default answers are ok.

Please note: If you run a firewall on your system you might have to turn it off while working on the Perl shell in order for the Perl shell to be able to fetch the needed modules without a big delay. You can switch it on afterwards.

The big advantage of the Perl shell compared to the two other methods described here is that it cares about dependencies when installing new modules. I.e., if it turns out that a prerequisite Perl module is missing when you install another module the Perl shell asks you if it should install the prerequisite module for you. You should answer that question with "Yes".

Run the following commands to install the modules needed by SpamAssassin:

install HTML::Parser
install Net::DNS (when prompted to enable tests, choose no)
install Digest::SHA1
install DB_File
q (to leave the Perl shell)

If a module is already installed on your system you will get a message similar to this one:

HTML::Parser is up to date.

Successful installation of a module looks like this:

/usr/bin/make install -- OK

The End

The configuration of the server is now finished, and if you wish you can now install ISPConfig on it.

A Note On SuExec

If you want to run CGI scripts under suExec, you should specify /srv/www/htdocs as the home directory for websites created by ISPConfig as SUSE's suExec is compiled with /srv/www/htdocs as Doc_Root. Run /usr/sbin/suexec2 -V, and the output should look like this:

To select /srv/www/htdocs as the home directory for websites during the installation of ISPConfig do the following: When you are asked for the installation mode, select the expert mode.

Later during the installation you are asked if the default directory /home/www should be the directory where ISPConfig will create websites in. Answer n and enter /srv/www/htdocs as the home directory for websites.

Links

• http://www.suse.com
• http://www.ispconfig.org