How-to: Create Your Own Server, Part 4
Now that we have Samba, DHCP and Webmin installed and working, we will setup a VPN server for monitoring the various running services.
Our first step is setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Networking) using PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunnelling Protocol) provided by the poptop team. This can also be configured by Webmin. To start off, we will need to install the PPTP server, as follows:
sudo apt-get install pptpd
(or use your package manager and search for poptop or pptp)
When prompted, hit enter, and apt-get will install PPTPD and all its dependencies.
Now, activate Webmin by going to:
Browse to Networking, then PPTP VPN Server.
First we will create our PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) accounts, so click on Create new PPP Account; add a new user called user, with a password of password; then click Save and click Return to index. Within the index of that module, click on PPTP Server Options; fill in the box IP addresses for server end of connection with the client end IP address; and fill in IP addresses to allocate to clients with the IP addresses to be assigned to the client machine coming in via the VPN. Click Save. Then, open PPP Options; change PAP authentication to May be used; change CHAP authentication to Cannot be used; change Server name for authentication to Real hostname (); disable MS-Chap and MS-Chap2; and the rest can stay on default. Click Save, and click Apply Configuration.
You can now set up a VPN on a Windows machine by following the guide located at www.openyourwindows.co.uk/fullcircle.
We will now set up monitoring for the system. Within Webmin, go to Others, System, and Server Status. Click on Schedule Monitoring; select Yes for Scheduled checking enabled?; change Check every to the frequency for checking the server - every 5 minutes is a good time frame, just in case there are any problems or any service faults. Set with offset to 0 so that it runs exactly every 5 minutes. Make sure all the hours and days are selected - to select more than one, use the Ctrl-key while you select them.
Change Send email when to When a service changes status or When a service goes down - whichever you feel is more appropriate to your system. Change Email status report to Email status report to, and fill in your email address. Click Save. You can also change Send mail via to an SMTP server which doesn't require authentication, otherwise select localhost, using 'Postfix' or 'Sendmail' - we will be setting up Postfix in future issues.
See my setup, right:
Within the System and Server Status pages, you can add various monitoring options from the drop down list, you can also delete them by putting a tick in the adjacent radio-box and clicking Delete.
You can also check your system logs by clicking on System and going to System Logs - in there you can click on a log file and click View logfile.
Next month, we will configure file system backups using TAR, and start setting up an email server which will allow both POP3 and IMAP connections.
Daniel Lamb owns and runs Flonix IT Solutions and is based in Perth, Scotland. He is also involved in a number of open source projects such as Moon Secure AV, Kantaris Media player, and open live support. He is also a committed Leeds United fan.
