PSIgroup | Computing / PSI Group Server

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1. JED editor (for FC4)
2. Enabling restart after power failure for Apple PowerPC machines
3. YUM and authentication proxy
4. Install minimal X11 + Gnome
5. Install elinks
6. Configuring Apache
7. S.M.A.R.T. disk checking

1. JED editor (for FC4)

sudo yum --enablerepo extras install jed

2. Enabling restart after power failure for Apple PowerPC machines

/etc/rc.local:

# activate automatic restart after power failure
echo "server_mode=1" > /proc/pmu/options

3. YUM and authentication proxy

YUM 2.4.1 does not use proxy for mirrorlist so mirrorlist must be disabled for now

[main]
proxy=http://proxy.wits.ac.za:80/
proxy_username=XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
proxy_password=XXXXX
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest

and do not forget to chmod go-r /etc/yum.conf, else everybody will see the password!

4. Install minimal X11 + Gnome

Used for emacs and for the graphical admin tools
yum install gdm gnome-panel system-config-display

5. Install elinks

Text mode browser, used for GroupMeetingMail
yum install elinks
make /root/bin/Mail_PSIgroup_Meeting.sh
put in root's crontab:

[root@psi bin]# crontab -l
# every Monday at 6h00, send Group Meeting mail
00 6 * * 1 /root/bin/Mail_PSIgroup_Meeting.sh

6. Configuring Apache

sudo yum install mod_ssl

/etc/httpd/conf.d/mailman.conf:

ScriptAlias /mailman/ /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/
<Directory /usr/lib/mailman/cgi-bin/>
    SSLRequireSSL on # Force clients to use HTTPS
    AllowOverride None
    Options ExecCGI
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>
Alias /pipermail/ /var/lib/mailman/archives/public/
<Directory /var/lib/mailman/archives/public>
    SSLRequireSSL on # Force clients to use HTTPS
    Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>
# Uncomment the following line, replacing www.example.com with your server's
# name, to redirect queries to /mailman to the listinfo page (recommended).
# Force clients to use HTTPS
RedirectMatch ^/mailman[/]*$ https://psi.phys.wits.ac.za/mailman/listinfo
RedirectMatch ^/pipermail[/]*$ https://psi.phys.wits.ac.za/pipermail

/etc/httpd/conf.d/squirrelmail.conf:

Alias /webmail /usr/share/squirrelmail
# a RedirectMatch causes a loop, so I have to use Rewrite
# Force clients to use HTTPS
RewriteEngine        on
RewriteCond          %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule          (.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI}
<Directory /usr/share/squirrelmail>
SSLRequireSSL on
</Directory>

7. S.M.A.R.T. disk checking

Enable the smartd Hard Disk monitor to mail root if a disk develops a failure. See also this article on LJ and the BadBlockHowTo.

/etc/smartd.conf

/dev/hda -H -m root@localhost.localdomain
/dev/hdc -H -m root@localhost.localdomain

chkconfig smartd on
service smartd restart

PSI Group Server - Other things