Ubuntu

Initial Setup

Much of this section is borrowed from http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-ubuntu8.04-lts and http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-ubuntu8.04-with-software-raid1, they are well worth a read!

This section will create a Ubuntu VM installed on one partition, software RAID'ed across two VMDK's (my ESX's storage isn't resilient, hence the software RAID across VMDK's on separate physical disks, if you've got resilient storage you should not use software RAID).

Prepare Virtual Machine

1. Create a virtual machine with the following options (use Custom)
   • Guest OS: Linux > Ubuntu 32bit
   • CPU: 1
   • Memory: 756 MB
   • Disk: 36GB
2. Then add a second 36GB disk on a separate physical datastore (if you intend to use software RAID)
3. Attach Ubuntu install ISO to the CD-ROM

OS Installation

Follow the default or sensible choices for your locale, however, use the following notes as well...

• Configure the network
  • Enter the server's hostname (not a FQDN, just the hostname)
• Partition Disks
  • If setting up software RAID follow the steps below, otherwise just select "Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM"
    1. Select "Manual"
    2. Select the first disk (sda) and on the next screen, Yes, to "Create new empty partition table on this device?"
    3. Select the FREE SPACE, then "Create a new Partition", use all but the last 2GB of space, and select "Primary"
    4. Change Use as to "physical volume for RAID", and change the Bootable flag to "Yes", the select "Done setting up this partition
    5. Select the remaining FREE SPACE on sda, and create another primary "physical volume for RAID", but not bootable
    6. Select the second disk (sdb) and repeat the steps taken for sda
    7. On the same screen, select the "Configure Software RAID" option, and then confirm
    8. Select "Create MD device", then select "RAID1" (ie a mirror), then select 2 Active devices, and 0 Spare devices
    9. Select both /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 partitions, and then select "Finish"
    10. Repeat to create a RAID volume using /dev/sda2 and /dev/sdb2 partitions
    11. Now select the RAID device #0 partition (select the #1 just under RAID1 device line), and change the Use as and select "Ext3..."
    12. Change the Mount point to /, then select "Done configuring this partition"
    13. Now select the RAID device #1 partition (select the #1 just under RAID1 device line), and change the Use as and select "Swap area"
    14. Then select "Done configuring this partition" then finally "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk", and confirm
    15. Accept the "system will need to restart" complaints, after which the install will continue (note there's a little more to do more to do post install).
• Software Selection
  • DNS Server - Required in order to configure split DNS, which is required for an exchange server
  • OpenSSH Server - Required (allows you to Putty/SSH to the server)

Post OS Install Config

• Enable Root
  1. Use the command sudo passwd root
  2. Enter user password, and then a strong password for the root account
• Finish Software RAID config - only if configured during install
  1. Start-up grub (by entering grub and enter the following commands (seems to work better via SSH than direct console)...
     • device (hd1) /dev/sdb
     • root (hd1,0)
     • setup (hd1)
     • quit
  2. Then edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst config file. Go to the end of the file where the boot options are, and create a copy of the first option and edit the following lines
     • title Add "Primary disk fail" or something similar to end
     • root Change hd0 to hd1
  3. To check the RAID setup of your drives use
     • mdadm --misc -D /dev/md0
     • mdadm --misc -D /dev/md1

Change IP Address

• Edit the /etc/network/interfaces file in the following fashion

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.150
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        network 192.168.1.1
        broadcast 192.168.1.255
        gateway 192.168.1.1

• Then check the local hosts file /etc/hosts , so that the IP v4 part looks like...

127.0.0.1       localhost
192.168.10.210  mail.home.int   mail

• Check that DNS resolution is setup correctly (add DNS nameservers as required, as found in /etc/resolv.conf in order of pref...

nameserver 127.0.0.1

• Then restart networking
  • sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Install VM Tools

1. Select "Install VM Tools" from the VI Client
2. Mount the VM Tools CD-ROM
   • mount /media/cdrom
3. Copy to home directory
   • cp /media/cdrom/VMwareTools-4.0.0-219382.tar.gz /home/user/
4. Uncompress and then move into the vmware-tools-distrib directory
   • tar xf VMwareTools-4.0.0-219382.tar.gz
   • cd vmware-tools-distrib
5. Run the install script (which might complain enough to make you thing its failed, but check its worked via the VI Client)
   • ./vmware-install.pl

Update the OS

• Run the following command to update the apt package database
  • apt-get update
• To install any updates
  • apt-get upgrade

Exchange Server

DNS Records

Firstly, you need to own a public domain name, then get your ISP to create two DNS records...

1. MX record - Mail Exchanger (MX) record
   • EG sandfordit.com [MX] -> mail.sandfordit.com
   • sandfordit.com is the domain you own, and mail is hostname of your email server (can be anything you like)
2. A record - Standard DNS record
   • EG mail.sandfordit.com [A] -> 158.25.34.124
   • 158.25.34.124 is the static IP address assigned by your ISP. You'll need to set-up a NAT on your router (often oddly called a virtual server in domestic routers) to map incoming mail on TCP 25 to your email server's actual address (EG 158.25.34.124:25 -> 192.168.1.150:25 .

Note, instead of an A record you can use a CNAME record if you prefer, though obviously the CNAME record will still need to point to a valid A record. Using a CNAME might be preferable, if for example you've multiple services running from a single public IP, that you might want to split out in the future to run on separate IP's, at which point you can replace the CNAME records with A records.

OS DNS Setup

In order to get round the fact that your exchange server won't have the same IP (or name even) on the public internet as it will on your internal network, a DNS server is installed on the exchange server to provide MX record resolution. Procedure assumes DNS (Bind) is already installed.

Terminology...

• Private = Home or internal network IP address and network name (eg 192.168.1.150 and mail.home.int)
• Public = Global internet, ISP assigned IP address and registered domain name (eg 158.25.34.124 and mail.sandfordit.com)

Firstly, add the IP('s) of the DNS servers you use for resolution on your other machines to your local DNS server's list of forwarders (so that your exchange server forwards DNS resolution requests for unknown names to your normal DNS servers), edit /etc/bind/named.conf.options

options {
        directory "/var/cache/bind";
        query-source address * port 53;

        forwarders {
                192.168.1.1; 158.25.30.10;
        };

        auth-nxdomain no;    # conform to RFC1035
};

Edit /etc/resolv.conf to force the server to use its local DNS server for resolution

nameserver 127.0.0.1

Restart bind using /etc/init.d/bind9 restart and check you can resolve external addresses properly.

Now create the internal zone that will eventually contain the local MX record for your exchange server, append the following to /etc/bind/named.conf.local , using your publicly registered domain name

zone "sandforit.com"  {
    type master;
    file "/etc/bind/db.sandfordit.com";
};

Lastly create the database file for you DNS domain /etc/bind/db.sandfordit.com, using your publicly registered domain name and private (internal) IP address for your exchange server...

;
; BIND data file for sandfordit.com
;
$TTL    604800
@       IN      SOA     mail.sandfordit.com. admin.sandfordit.com. (
                         070725         ; Serial
                         604800         ; Refresh
                          86400         ; Retry
                        2419200         ; Expire
                         604800 )       ; Negative Cache TTL
;
@       IN      NS      mail
        IN      MX      10 mail
        IN      A       192.168.1.150
mail    IN      A       192.168.1.150

Zimba Install

Reference http://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=Ubuntu_8.04_LTS_Server_%28Hardy_Heron%29_Install_Guide

1. Copy the install to the server
   • EG pscp C:\Users\Simon\Downloads\zcs-6.0.5_GA_2213.UBUNTU8.20100202225756.tgz simons@mail:zcs-6.0.5_GA_2213.UBUNTU8.20100202225756.tgz
2. Uncompress the package
   • tar -xzf zcs-6.0.5_GA_2213.UBUNTU8.20100202225756.tgz
3. Start the install
   • ./install.sh
   • The install will fail due to missing packages!
4. Install the missing prerequisite packages
   • EG apt-get install libpcre3 libgmp3c2 libstdc++5 sysstat
5. Restart the install
6. Part-way through the install will complain about your domain not having a DNS record, change the domain to your publicly registered domain (without server hostname, so sandfordit.com rather than mail.sandfordit.com
7. At the end of the install, address the unconfigured item (ie an admin password)

Once the install is completed, login to administer the exchange server using https://mail:7071

To enforce https for Zimbra Desktop clients use the following commands (requires a restart to take effect)...

su - zimbra
zmtlsctl https