Running A File- And Print-Server With eBox On Ubuntu 8.04 Server
Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme
This article shows how to run a file- and print-server for small and medium enterprises (SME) on one single Ubuntu 8.04 server. It is very easy to set up, and management is done with an easy-to-use web interface called eBox so once the system is set up, you can forget about the command line. eBox was developed to administrate advanced services for corporate networks.
This document comes without warranty of any kind! I want to say that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
1 Preliminary Note
I assume you have already set up a basic Ubuntu 8.04 server. You can set up your system as described on the first three pages (chapters 1 - 10) of this tutorial: The Perfect Server - Ubuntu Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server).
I use 192.168.0.100 as the IP address and server1.example.com as the hostname of my Ubuntu server in this tutorial. If your Ubuntu system does not have a static IP address you should now change its network configuration as shown in chapter 7 of the above tutorial.
Also make sure that you change the default shell and disable AppArmor, as described in chapters 9 and 10.
2 Install eBox
There are Ubuntu packages available for eBox. To install them, we must edit our /etc/apt/sources.list first:
vi /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following line to your existing sources.list:
[...] deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/juruen/ubuntu hardy main [...] |
Then update your package database:
apt-get update
Afterwards we can install eBox with all needed modules with one single command:
apt-get install "^ebox-.*"
You will be asked a few questions. Most of the time you can simply accept the default values:
Administrator password: <-- somepasswd
Confirm password: <-- somepasswd
LDAP server Uniform Resource Identifier: <-- ldapi:///
Distinguished name of the search base: <-- dc=example,dc=net
LDAP version to use: <-- 3
Make local root Database admin: <-- Yes
Does the LDAP database require login? <-- No
LDAP account for root: <-- cn=manager,dc=example,dc=net
LDAP root account password: <-- [empty]
Create directories for web-based administration? <-- No
General type of mail configuration: <-- Internet Site
System mail name: <-- server1.example.com
SSL certificate required <-- Ok
eBox administrator password: <-- somepasswd
Confirm password: <-- somepasswd
eBox HTTPS port: <-- 443
3 Logging In To eBox
Now that eBox is installed, open your browser and go to https://192.168.0.100. The login screen appears. Enter the eBox password that you've created in the previous step and log in:
After the login, you'll see the eBox status page (Summary):
4 Enabling/Disabling Modules
Now we go to Module Status...
... and enable the modules that we need for a file- and print-server:
- users and groups
- network
- file sharing
- printers
- software
- logs
- ntp
Whenever you click on a checkbox to enable a module, you will see something like this:
Click on Accept to continue.
In almost all cases when you change a setting, you will see the red Save changes rectangle in the upper right corner afterwards. Click on it (you don't have to click on it after each module you've enabled, you can do this after you've enabled all desired modules - eBox remembers all the changes and does all the configuration in one turn):
After you have clicked on the red rectangle, another screen comes up telling you to save the configuration; click on Save:
eBox is now performing the necessary configuration changes:
