stressfree - apache

A great example of Windows' evolutionary drawbacks

David — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 01:11:28 +0000

If you have ever tried working through an NSA guide on securing Microsoft IIS you will appreciate how many internal systems exists under the hood of Windows and their many deficiencies. For those that have been fortunate to not go through the experience Richard Stiennon uses some compelling visuals by Sana Security to explain why Windows is less secure than Linux because of its long evolutionary history. This history has seen one set of functionality bolted in place over another with little or no thought to the clarity of the overarching system architecture. Consequently whilst Windows works what goes on under the hood is not pretty and very difficult to secure.

Setting up Awstats in an OpenSUSE 10 Apache vhost

David — Tue, 09 May 2006 03:18:51 +0000

Installing awstats is easy in OpenSUSE through Yast. Unfortunately only half the job is done if you wish to activate it for a certain virtual host.

Firstly in the vhost configuration file add the following parameters:

Alias /awstatsicons /srv/www/icons/awstats
ScriptAlias /usage /srv/www/cgi-bin
<Directory "/srv/www/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options +ExecCGI -Includes
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
</Directory>
<Directory "/srv/www/icons/awstats">
        AllowOverride None
        Options None
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
</Directory>

This will create an alias from http://your-domain-name/usage to the awstats cgi script and an alias to the awstats icon directory (awstatsicons). Once this configuration is changed restart the Apache server.

Once this is done create a domain configuration file in /etc/awstats. Make sure the domain file is named in the following manner: awstats.your-domain-name.conf

There is an example configuration file in the /etc/awstats to build on, otherwise see below for a fairly standard configuration file.
During the Yast install process a cron job will have been setup to scan Apache log files so once the awstats configuration file is in place your server will begin scanning the Apache logs when the cron job next runs.

You should now be able to browse to http://your-domain-name/usage and get a rundown of webserver usage. Note: mod_cgi must be enabled in Apache for live viewing of awstats data to work.

LogFile="/var/log/apache2/your-domain-name-access_log"
LogFormat=1
LogSeparator=" "
SiteDomain="your-domain-name"
HostAliases="localhost 127.0.0.1"
DNSLookup=1
DirData="/var/cache/awstats"
DirCgi="/cgi-bin"
DirIcons="/awstatsicons"
AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser=0
EnableLockForUpdate=0
DNSStaticCacheFile="dnscache.txt"
DNSLastUpdateCacheFile="dnscachelastupdate.txt"
SkipDNSLookupFor=""
AllowAccessFromWebToAuthenticatedUsersOnly=0
AllowAccessFromWebToFollowingAuthenticatedUsers=""
AllowAccessFromWebToFollowingIPAddresses=""
CreateDirDataIfNotExists=0
SaveDatabaseFilesWithPermissionsForEveryone=0
PurgeLogFile=0
ArchiveLogRecords=0
KeepBackupOfHistoricFiles=0
DefaultFile="index.html"
SkipHosts=""
SkipUserAgents=""
SkipFiles=""
OnlyHosts=""
OnlyFiles=""
NotPageList="css js class gif jpg jpeg png bmp"
ValidHTTPCodes="200 304"
ValidSMTPCodes="1"
AuthenticatedUsersNotCaseSensitive=0
URLNotCaseSensitive=0
URLWithAnchor=0
URLQuerySeparators="?;"
URLWithQuery=0
URLWithQueryWithoutFollowingParameters=""
URLReferrerWithQuery=0
WarningMessages=1
ErrorMessages=""
DebugMessages=1
NbOfLinesForCorruptedLog=50
WrapperScript=""
DecodeUA=0
MiscTrackerUrl="/js/awstats_misc_tracker.js"

LevelForRobotsDetection=2            # 0 will increase AWStats speed by 1%.
LevelForBrowsersDetection=2            # 0 disables Browsers detection. No speed gain.
LevelForOSDetection=2                # 0 disables OS detection. No speed gain.
LevelForRefererAnalyze=2            # 0 will increase AWStats speed by 5%.

UseFramesWhenCGI=0
DetailedReportsOnNewWindows=1
Expires=0
MaxRowsInHTMLOutput=1000
Lang="auto"
DirLang="/var/lib/awstats/lang"

ShowMenu=1
# Show monthly chart
# Default: UVPHB, Possible codes: UVPHB
ShowMonthStats=UVPHB
# Show days of month chart
# Default: VPHB, Possible codes: VPHB
ShowDaysOfMonthStats=VPHB
# Show days of week chart
# Default: PHB, Possible codes: PHB
ShowDaysOfWeekStats=PHB
# Show hourly chart
# Default: PHB, Possible codes: PHB
ShowHoursStats=PHB
# Show domains/country chart
# Default: PHB, Possible codes: PHB
ShowDomainsStats=PHB
# Show hosts chart
# Default: PHBL, Possible codes: PHBL
ShowHostsStats=PHBL
# Show authenticated users chart
# Default: 0, Possible codes: PHBL
ShowAuthenticatedUsers=0
# Show robots chart
# Default: HBL, Possible codes: HBL
ShowRobotsStats=HBL
# Show email senders chart (For use when analyzing mail log files)
# Default: 0, Possible codes: HBML
ShowEMailSenders=0
# Show email receivers chart (For use when analyzing mail log files)
# Default: 0, Possible codes: HBML
ShowEMailReceivers=0
# Show session chart
# Default: 1, Possible codes: None
ShowSessionsStats=1
# Show pages-url chart.
# Default: PBEX, Possible codes: PBEX
ShowPagesStats=PBEX
# Show file types chart.
# Default: HB, Possible codes: HBC
ShowFileTypesStats=HB
# Show file size chart (Not yet available)
# Default: 1, Possible codes: None
ShowFileSizesStats=0
# Show operating systems chart
# Default: 1, Possible codes: None
ShowOSStats=1
# Show browsers chart
# Default: 1, Possible codes: None
ShowBrowsersStats=1
# Show screen size chart
# Default: 0 (See also MiscTrackerUrl if set to 1), Possible codes: None
ShowScreenSizeStats=0
# Show origin chart
# Default: PH, Possible codes: PH
ShowOriginStats=PH
# Show keyphrases chart
# Default: 1, Possible codes: None
ShowKeyphrasesStats=1
# Show keywords chart
# Default: 1, Possible codes: None
ShowKeywordsStats=1
# Show misc chart
# Default: ajdfrqwp (See also MiscTrackerUrl parameter), Possible codes: ajdfrqwp
ShowMiscStats=ajdfrqwp
# Show http errors chart
# Default: 1, Possible codes: None
ShowHTTPErrorsStats=1
# Show smtp errors chart (For use when analyzing mail log files)
# Default: 0, Possible codes: None
ShowSMTPErrorsStats=0

# Data array values for the ShowMonthStats report
AddDataArrayMonthStats=1
# Data array values for the ShowDaysOfMonthStats report
AddDataArrayShowDaysOfMonthStats=1
# Data array values for the ShowDaysOfWeekStats report
AddDataArrayShowDaysOfWeekStats=1
# Data array values for the ShowHoursStats report
AddDataArrayShowHoursStats=1

# Stats by domains
MaxNbOfDomain = 10
MinHitDomain = 1
# Stats by hosts
MaxNbOfHostsShown = 10
MinHitHost    = 1
# Stats by authenticated users
MaxNbOfLoginShown = 10
MinHitLogin   = 1
# Stats by robots
MaxNbOfRobotShown = 10
MinHitRobot   = 1
# Stats by pages
MaxNbOfPageShown = 10
MinHitFile    = 1
# Stats by OS
MaxNbOfOsShown = 10
MinHitOs      = 1
# Stats by browsers
MaxNbOfBrowsersShown = 10
MinHitBrowser = 1
# Stats by screen size
MaxNbOfScreenSizesShown = 5
MinHitScreenSize = 1
# Stats by referers
MaxNbOfRefererShown = 10
MinHitRefer   = 1
# Stats for keyphrases
MaxNbOfKeyphrasesShown = 10
MinHitKeyphrase = 1
# Stats for keywords
MaxNbOfKeywordsShown = 10
MinHitKeyword = 1
# Stats for emails
MaxNbOfEMailsShown = 20
MinHitEMail   = 1
FirstDayOfWeek=1
ShowFlagLinks="de en es fr nl"
ShowLinksOnUrl=1

UseHTTPSLinkForUrl=""
MaxLengthOfURL=72
ShowLinksToWhoIs=0
LinksToWhoIs="http://www.whois.net/search.cgi2?str="
LinksToIPWhoIs="http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput="
HTMLHeadSection=""
HTMLEndSection=""

Logo="awstats_logo1.png"
LogoLink="http://awstats.sourceforge.net"
BarWidth   = 260
BarHeight = 90
StyleSheet=""
color_Background="FFFFFF"        # Background color for main page (Default = "FFFFFF")
color_TableBGTitle="CCCCDD"        # Background color for table title (Default = "CCCCDD")
color_TableTitle="000000"        # Table title font color (Default = "000000")
color_TableBG="CCCCDD"            # Background color for table (Default = "CCCCDD")
color_TableRowTitle="FFFFFF"    # Table row title font color (Default = "FFFFFF")
color_TableBGRowTitle="ECECEC"    # Background color for row title (Default = "ECECEC")
color_TableBorder="ECECEC"        # Table border color (Default = "ECECEC")
color_text="000000"                # Color of text (Default = "000000")
color_textpercent="606060"        # Color of text for percent values (Default = "606060")
color_titletext="000000"        # Color of text title within colored Title Rows (Default = "000000")
color_weekend="EAEAEA"            # Color for week-end days (Default = "EAEAEA")
color_link="0011BB"                # Color of HTML links (Default = "0011BB")
color_hover="605040"            # Color of HTML on-mouseover links (Default = "605040")
color_u="FFB055"                # Background color for number of unique visitors (Default = "FFB055")
color_v="F8E880"                # Background color for number of visites (Default = "F8E880")
color_p="4477DD"                # Background color for number of pages (Default = "4477DD")
color_h="66F0FF"                # Background color for number of hits (Default = "66F0FF")
color_k="2EA495"                # Background color for number of bytes (Default = "2EA495")
color_s="8888DD"                # Background color for number of search (Default = "8888DD")
color_e="CEC2E8"                # Background color for number of entry pages (Default = "CEC2E8")
color_x="C1B2E2"                # Background color for number of exit pages (Default = "C1B2E2")

LoadPlugin="tooltips"
LoadPlugin="userinfo"

Getting Rails up and Running with Apache2 on SUSE

David — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 05:23:04 +0000

After some Googl'ing, reading and playing about I have got Ruby on Rails running on my SuSE 9.2 server. The process was made difficult by the need to compile quite a few different pieces of software from source and configure mod_fastcgi (which has not been worked on for a while). If you are stuck on this subject take a look at the tutorial here:

https://www.stress-free.co.nz/node/163/59/

Rails, Apache2 and SUSE

David — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 05:14:43 +0000

Getting Rails up and running on Apache2 on SUSE is takes a little work as at the moment Rails is not part of the the SUSE software updates network. This means you must build Rails (and Ruby if using SuSE < 9.3) and the FastCGI development kit from source.

1. First off it you need Ruby 1.8.2 (or greater) to run Rails. If you have a version less than this you will need to compile and install Ruby from source.
Install GCC, make, the C devel, zlib and zlib-devel packages using Yast.
Download the latest version of Ruby from http://www.ruby-lang.org/
Untar the source file to /usr/local/src, compile and install (as root or sudo):

tar -xzf ruby-1.8.3.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.8.3
./configure
make
make test
make install

Once completed this will set Ruby up on your system (by default into /usr/local/bin). Create a link in /usr/bin to ruby.

ln -s /usr/local/bin/ruby /usr/bin/ruby

2. Install gems (a ruby package manager). Download gems from http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubygems/
Untar the source code into /usr/local/src, compile and install (as root or sudo):

tar -xzf rubygems-0.8.11.tgz
cd rubygems-0.8.11
./configure
make
make install

This will install gems into /usr/local/bin. Create a link in /usr/bin

ln -s /usr/local/bin/gem /usr/bin/gem

3. With ruby and gems installed install Rails:

gem install rails --include-dependencies

4. With Rails installed create a test project and test the Rails WebBrick server.

5. Using Yast install the mod_fastcgi package for integrating Rails into Apache2.

6. From http://www.fastcgi.com/ download the FastCGI development package. Untar the source into /usr/local/src and compile:

tar -xzf fcgi-2.4.0.tar.gz
cd fcgi-2.4.0
./configure
make install

7. Now install the fcgi component for ruby using gem.

gem install fcgi -- --with-fcgi-dir=/usr/local/

8. Edit /etc/sysconfig/apache2 and in the modules section add fastcgi to the list of modules loaded by Apache when it starts.

9. Create a new virtualhost in Apache for your Rails application. Use the following template as an example:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName rails.test.domain
        AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi
        AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
        DocumentRoot /srv/www/rails/RailsTestProject/public
        <Directory /srv/www/rails/RailsTestProject/public>
                RewriteEngine On
                RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA]
                RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA]
                RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
                RewriteRule ^(.*)$ dispatch.fcgi [QSA,L]
                ErrorDocument 500 "<h2>Application error</h2>Rails application failed to start properly"
                Options ExecCGI FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride all
                Allow from all
           Order allow,deny
        </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

10. Restart Apache and test the virtual host. Hopefully fastcgi should be working with Rails to display your new application.