Tag: Linux Tutorials

Memory object storage systems such as Memcached can optimize the performance of the backup database by temporarily storing information in memory and preserving frequently requested records. This will reduce the number of direct requests to your databases. We’ll look at how to add authentication to secure Memcached using Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL), as well as how to connect Memcached to a local or private network interface to make sure only on networks trusted by users. After reading this post, you will fully learn How To Install and Secure Memcached on Ubuntu 22.04. Therefore, we suggest you stay with us until the end of this article.

What is Memcached?

Memcached is a very powerful and free cache system that has been released as open source. Memcached is software for performing cache operations on Dynamic website servers that will make better and more efficient use of resources. Typically, it is using as a cache system to speed up applications by storing various objects from the results of database conversations.

This system is typically using to speed up websites that use the database, using data storage and objects in main memory (RAM) to reduce the number of times the data is read from an external data source (for example, the database). In the continuation of this article, you will learn about Install and Secure Memcached on Ubuntu 22.04

Prerequisites

A Linux VPS Ubuntu 22.04 server

– Non-root sudo user

– firewall enabled.

Install and Secure Memcached on Ubuntu 22.04

In this section, we are going to teach you step-by-step how to Install and Secure Memcached on Ubuntu 22.04. If you do not have Memcached installed on your server, install it from the official Ubuntu repositories. First, make sure your local package list is updated using the following command:

sudo apt update

Install the official package of memcached as follows:

sudo apt install memcached

You can install libmemcached-tools, which contain various tools that you can use to check, test, and manage your Memcached server. Add the package to the server using the following command:

sudo apt install libmemcached-tools

Memcached is installed as a service on your server, with tools that allow you to test its connectivity. To launch Memcached, run the systemctl command:

sudo systemctl start memcached

You can now go to secure the configuration settings.

How to Configure Memcached Network Settings

If the Memcached server only needs to support local IPv4 connections using TCP, you can skip this step and go to the next step. But if you want to configure Memcached to use UDP sockets, Unix domain sockets, or add support for IPv6 connections, follow the steps in this section.

First, make sure your Memcached instance listens to the local IPv4 127.0.0.1 Loopback interface. The current version of Memcached, which ships with Ubuntu and Debian, has its -l configuration parameter configured on the local interface to receive only connections from the server where Memcached runs.

Use the following command to verify that Memcached is currently connected to the local IPv4 127.0.0.1 interface and is listening for TCP connections:

sudo ss -plunt

The flags will alter ss output in the following ways:

-p adds the name of the process that is using a socket

-l limits the output to listening sockets only, as opposed to also including connected sockets to other systems

-u includes UDP-based sockets in the output

-n displays numeric values in the output instead of human-readable names and values

-t includes TCP-based sockets in the output

You should receive the output as follows:

This output verifies that Memcached is connected to the IPv4 Loopback address 127.0.0.1 using the TCP protocol. Now that it has been verified that Memcached is configured to support IPv4 with TCP connections only, you can edit /etc/memcached.conf to support UDP connections, Unix domain sockets, or IPv6.

How to Configuration IPv6 to Memcached

To enable IPv6 connections to Memcached, open the configuration file with Nano or other editors:

sudo nano /etc/memcached.conf

First, find the following command in the file:

. . .
-l 127.0.0.1

This line is where Memcached is configuring to listen to the local IPv4 interface. To add IPv6 support, add the IPv6 local loop address command (:: 1) as follows:

. . .
-l 127.0.0.1
-l ::1

Save and close the file by pressing CTRL+O, then ENTER to save, and then CTRL+X to exit Nano. Also, restart Memcached using the systemctl command:

sudo systemctl restart memcached

You can now check that Memcached also responds to IPv6 connections by repeating the ss command in the previous section:

sudo ss -plunt

You should receive the output as follows:

Output
Netid State Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address:Port Peer Address:Port Process 
. . .
tcp LISTEN 0 1024 127.0.0.1:11211 0.0.0.0:* users:(("memcached",pid=8889,fd=26)) 
. . .
tcp LISTEN 0 1024 [::1]:11211 [::]:* users:(("memcached",pid=8889,fd=27))

Output segments show that Memcached is now responding to TCP connections in the local IPv6 interface. If you want to disable IPv4 support and only listen to IPv6 connections, you can remove the -l 127.0.0.1 command from /etc/memcached.conf and restart the service using the systemctl command.

How to Configure UDP on Memcached

If you want to use Memcached with UDP sockets, enable UDP support by editing the configuration file and opening /etc/memcached.conf using the nano or custom editor, then add the following command to the bottom of the file do:

. . .
-U 11211

If you do not need TCP support, find the -p 11211 command and change it to -p 0 to disable TCP connections. After editing the file, save and close it by entering CTRL+O to save and then CTRL+X to exit.

Restart the Memcached service with the systemctl command to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart memcached

Memcached listens to UDP connections using the following command:

sudo ss -plunt

If you have disabled TCP support and enabled IPv6 connections, you should get the following output:

[secondary_label Output] 
Netid State Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address:Port Peer Address:Port Process 
. . .
udp UNCONN 0 0 127.0.0.1:11211 0.0.0.0:* users:(("memcached",pid=8889,fd=28))
udp UNCONN 0 0 [::1]:11211 [::]:* users:(("memcached",pid=8889,fd=29))
. . .

Note that if you only enable IPv4 connections and enable TCP connections, your output may be different.

How to Configure Unix Domain Sockets

If you want to use Memcached with Unix domain sockets, you can enable support by editing the configuration file. Note that if you configure Memcached to use the Unix domain socket, Memcached disables TCP and UDP support, so before enabling socket support, make sure your applications do not need to connect using those protocols. Open /etc/memcached.conf using Nano or other editors, then add the following commands to the bottom of the file:

. . .
-s /var/run/memcached/memcached.sock
-a 660

The -a flag specifies the permissions in the socket file. Make sure the user to connect to Memcached is part of the Memcache group on your server, otherwise, a permission message will reject when you try to access the socket. Then, restart the Memcached service with the following command to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart memcached

Make sure Memcached listens to Unix domain socket connections using the following command:

sudo ss -lnx | grep memcached

The -x flag restricts the ss output to display socket files. You should receive the outputs as follows:

Output
u_str LISTEN 0 1024 /var/run/memcached/memcached.sock 20234658 * 0

Now that you have configured the Memcached network settings, go to the next step, adding SASL for authentication to Memcached.

How to Add Authorized Users to Memcached

To add authentication users to the Memcached service, use Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL), which separates authentication procedures from application protocols. First, add SASL support to the server and configure the user with authentication. Also, enable SASL in the Memcached configuration file and verify that everything is working properly.

Adding a Verified User

To start adding SASL support, you must install the sasl2-bin package, which includes management programs for the SASL user database. This tool helps you create an authenticated user. To install this tool, run the following command:

sudo apt install sasl2-bin

Create a directory and file that Memcached checks the SASL configuration settings using the mkdir command:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/sasl2

Now create the SASL configuration file using nano or the editor:

sudo nano /etc/sasl2/memcached.conf

Add the following command:

log_level: 5
mech_list: plain
sasldb_path: /etc/sasl2/memcached-sasldb2

In addition to setting the report level, mech_list is set to plain, which indicates to Memcached that it must use its password file and confirm the plain text password. The last command you added specifies the path to the user database file that you will create in the next step. Save and close the file when done.

Now create a valid SASL database and use the saslpasswd2 command with the -c flag to create a new user entry in the SASL database. The user here will be Linda, but you can replace this name with your own. The -f flag specifies the path to the database. This is the path you set in /etc/sasl2/memcached.conf:

sudo saslpasswd2 -a memcached -c -f /etc/sasl2/memcached-sasldb2 linda

Give the SASL database ownership to the user and memcache group with the following chown command:

sudo chown memcache:memcache /etc/sasl2/memcached-sasldb2

You now have a SASL configuration that Memcached uses for authentication. Next, verify that Memcached is running with its default settings, then reconfigure it and verify that it works with SASL authentication.

How to Configure SASL Support of the Memcached

First test the connection of the Memcached instance with the memcstat command. This check helps determine if Memcached is running and properly configured before activating SASL and authenticating the user. After making changes to the configuration files, run the command again to check for different outputs. To verify that Memcached is enabled and running using the memcstat command, type the following:

memcstat --servers="127.0.0.1"

If you are using IPv6, replace :: 1 with IPv4 127.0.0.1. If you are using a Unix domain socket, use the socket path instead of the IP address, for example –servers =/var/run/memcached/memached.sock. When you run the memcstat command and successfully connect to Memcached, you should get the following output:

Output
Server: 127.0.0.1 (11211)
pid: 2299875
uptime: 2020
time: 1632404590
version: 1.5.22
. . .

Tip: If you are using Memcached with UDP support, the memcstat command cannot connect to the UDP port. Use the following netcat command to confirm the connection:

nc -u 127.0.0.1 11211 -vz

If Memcached responds, you should get the output as follows:

Output
Connection to 127.0.0.1 11211 port [udp/*] succeeded!

If you are using Memcached with IPv6 and UDP, the command should look like this:

nc -6 -u ::1 11211 -vz

Enable SASL now. Add the -S parameter to the configuration file. Reopen the file with Nano:

sudo nano /etc/memcached.conf

In the file, add the following command:

. . .
-S

Next, find and ignore the -vv option, which provides full output to /var/log/memcached. The command without comment should be as follows:

. . .
-vv

Save and close the file. Restart the Memcached service using the systemctl command below:

sudo systemctl restart memcached

Check the journalctl report for Memcached to make sure SASL support is enabled:

sudo journalctl -u memcached |grep SASL

You should receive the output command as follows to indicate that SASL support is enabled:

Output
Sep 23 17:00:55 memcached systemd-memcached-wrapper[2303930]: Initialized SASL.

Now try connecting to Memcached again. Despite SASL support and initialization, the following memcstat command must fail without valid authentication:

memcstat --servers="127.0.0.1"

The command should not generate output. Enter the following shell command to check the status as follows:

echo $?

$? Always returns the exit code of the last command that came out. Anything other than 0 indicates process failure. In this case, you should get exit status 1, which indicates the failure of the memcstat command. Re-running memcstat, with the username and password, verifies that the authentication process works.

If you use different credentials, replace the following command with the values linda and your_password:

memcstat --servers="127.0.0.1" --username=linda --password=your_password

You should receive the output as follows:

Output
Server: 127.0.0.1 (11211)
pid: 3831
uptime: 9
time: 1520028517
version: 1.4.25
. . .

Memcached is now configuring and executing with SASL support and user authentication.

Allowing Access Over the Private Network (Optional)

Memcached is configuring to listen only to the local loopback interface (127.0.0.1), which protects the Memcached interface from being exposed to outside parties. There may be times when you need permission to access from other servers. You can configure it to connect Memcached to a private network interface.

How to Restrict IP Access with a Firewall

Before configuring settings, set firewall rules to restrict machines that can connect to your Memcached server. You must first record the private IP address of each device you used to connect to Memcached. Once you have a private IP address, add the explicit firewall rule to allow the device to access Memcached. If you are using a UFW firewall, restrict access to the Memcached instance by entering the following commands in the Memcached server:

sudo ufw allow from client_system_private_IP/32 to any port 11211

If more than one system has access to Memcached over a private network, be sure to add the ufw rules for each device using the above rule as a template. Make changes to the Memcached service to connect to the server’s private network interface.

Memcached Connection to Private Network Interface

Now that your firewall is in place, configure Memcached to connect to the server’s private network interface instead of 127.0.0.1. Find the Memcached server’s private network interface using the IP command below.

ip -brief address show

Depending on the server network configuration, the output may differ.

Once you find the IP address or private addresses of the server, reopen the configuration file using Nano:

sudo nano /etc/memcached.conf

Find the -l 127.0.0.1 command that you previously checked or modified, and change the address to match the server’s private network interface:

. . .
-l memcached_servers_private_IP
. . .

If you want Memcached to listen to multiple addresses, add another similar instruction for each address, either IPv4 or IPv6 using the -l memcached_servers_private_IP format. Save and close the file after completing the steps. Then restart the Memcached service:

sudo systemctl restart memcached

Check the new settings with ss to confirm the change:

sudo ss -plunt

Test your external customer connection to make sure you can still access the service. Also, check the access of an unauthorized client (try connecting without a username and password) to make sure your SASL authentication works properly. Also, try connecting to Memcached from another server that is not allowed to connect to make sure the firewall rules created are effective.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned How To Install and Secure Memcached on Ubuntu 22.04. Also configure Memcached with IPv4, IPv6, TCP, UDP, and Unix domain sockets and how to secure your Memcached server by enabling SASL authentication. Finally, you learned how to connect Memcached to your local or private network interface and configure firewall rules to restrict access to Memcached. We hope you find this article useful. Share your comments with us via the form below.

Redis is a kind of data structure storage and is used as a message broker, key-value database, and also cache system. It is written in C language and supports a large amount of data types like strings, lists, hashes, and many others. Here, we are going to analyze this applicable data store and learn 2 ways to install Redis on Ubuntu 22.04.

Steps to Install Redis on Ubuntu 22.04

Installing Redis is an easy process that may take just a few minutes. But first, you should prepare some requirements.

Prerequisites

– A Linux VPS with Ubuntu 22.04 OS

– A root user or non-root user with sudo privileges

1- Updating system packages

Before you start the installation part, your system should be up to date. So, use the following command:

sudo apt update

2- Adding PPA repository

This section will show how you can add the PPA repository to the Ubuntu operating system.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:redislabs/redis

3- Installing Redis

As you add the PPA repository, use the following command to start the installation process:

sudo apt-get install redis

4- checking the version of Redis

If you desire to see the version of the installed Redis, you can run the following command:

redis-server -v

After the installation, It’s time to do the configuration part.

Configuring Redis on Ubuntu 22.04

Here, you can use step-by-step instructions to Configure Redis on your Ubuntu system.

1- Enabling Redis on Ubuntu

If you want to configure Redis, first of all, you should enable the Redis service by running the following command:

sudo systemctl enable --now redis-server

2- Opening the Configuration File

In this section, you should open the Redis configuration file in your desired editor to make changes:

Tip: Here, we will use nano editor.

Sudo nano/etc/redis/redis.conf

Here is what the configuration file looks like:

Now, you should find the Bind address line (127.0.0.1) and replace it with the (Bind 0.0.0.0):

You will need a password for the configuration part which must be specified with the “Requirepass” attribute. Then hit the Ctrl+O keys to apply the changes and return to the terminal:

3- Restarting the Redis

In this section, you can use the command below to restart the Redis:

sudo systemctl restart redis-server

4- Verifying Redis IP and Port

Use the command below to check the IP and Port number which is used by this service:

ss -tunelp | grep 6379

Tip: To have a TCP connection you can use port: (6379)

sudo ufw allow 6379/tcp

5- Testing Redis Server

Run the related command to test the Redis server and connect locally:

redis-cli

Now, you should run the “AUTH” command and specify the password you set in the configuration part:

AUTH specify_the_password

For a stable connection and positive output (Ok), you should enter the correct password.

6- Checking the Redis Info

Use the Info command to get detailed information about Redis:

INF0

You can use the ping command to ping the Redis:

ping

7- How to exit Redis

To exit Redis, use the “quit” command:

quit

Uninstalling Redis on Ubuntu 22.04

If you decide to uninstall Redis from your Ubuntu operating system, you can run the following command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove redis-server -y

This method was the best and easiest way to install and use Redis on Ubuntu OS.

Conclusion

You can install Redis on any server. But here we decided to focus on the Ubuntu operating system. Here, you learned how to install Redis on Ubuntu 22.04. We thought about the way of installation and configuration of this service. Also, we showed how you can uninstall Redis. Hope you enjoyed this article.

FAQ

Have you ever heard of Thumbor? This practical application has many features such as resizing, applying various features, and flipping images. The advantage of this tool is its ease of use because users only need to access the URL of the Thumbor service to make changes to images. In this article, we decided to introduce you to a Top Way to Setup Thumbor on Ubuntu 20.04.

What is Thumbor?

As we mentioned in the introduction, Thumbor is a smart imaging service that cuts, resizes, and flips images based on your taste and desire. This tool uses advanced face recognition algorithms to determine the important points of images for better cropping and resizing. In fact, Thumbor is an Http service and is provided as a free and open-source service.

Install and Setup Thumbor on Ubuntu 20.04

Now that you are somewhat familiar with the Thumbor service, let’s learn how to install and configure it, which is explained step-by-step in this section.

Prerequisites

To install Thumbor you have to prepare some requirements:

– A Linux VPS with Ubuntu 20.04 OS

– Update the operating system

– A non-root user with sudo privileges and login with ssh

How to Install Thumbor on Ubuntu

We have to mention that Thumbor is a Python service but you can use it for Ubuntu. So, use the apt command to install Thumbor on Ubuntu 20.04 and follow the instructions below to start the process:

– The first step is Updating the package information:

sudo apt update

– Use the following command to do the installation of Python virtual environment library:

sudo apt install python3-venv -y

– Then you should install the Thumbor dependencies:

sudo apt install build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libcairo2-dev libjpeg-progs gifsicle ffmpeg -y

– To create a virtual environment use the below command:

python3 -m venv thumbor-venv

– Run the command below for activating the virtual command:

source thumbor-venv/bin/activate

– Now, you can use this command to install Thumbor:

(thumbor-venv) $ pip install thumbor[all]

If you want to check the status of dependencies, follow the command below:

(thumbor-venv) $ thumbor-Doctor

After the installation of Thumbor, you will see that all plugins and compiled libraries support this service.

How to Start Thumbor

In the Thumbor launch section, you should run the related command in the virtual environment:

(thumbor-venv) $ thumbor

Now, the application will run in your system’s foreground, on port 8888.

Using Thumbor is very easy through URL. So that, if you have an image and you want to resize or apply a filter, the location will be like this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Acorus_calamus1.jpg

This is how you can pass an image to Thumbor through a URL.

If you want to open another ssh session on your server, you can access the image through the URL:

$ wget http://localhost:8888/unsafe/300x200/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Acorus_calamus1.jpg -O small_pic.jpg

If you close the SSL session, the Thumbor command will die, and if you want to prevent that, run it in the background with screen or tmux.

The common way to run Thumbor is to run this service with supervisors or systems.

You can use another port for Thumbor. Run it on port 80 using sudo permission. The point is that this solution runs Thumbor outside of the Python virtual environment.

To deactivate the Thumbor command use Ctrl+C and deactivate Python virtual environment:

(thumbor-venv) $ deactivate

Now, run Thumbor with the full pass:

sudo thumbor-venv/bin/thumbor -p 80

Then use the command below to make sure that port 80 has been opened to the public:

sudo /sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT 

Use a browser to insert the URL and access Thumbor:

http://your_server_ip_address/unsafe/300x200/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Acorus_calamus1.jpg.

Then, make sure you access the server with the HTTP protocol, and as the final step replace your_server_ip_address with your real IP address or domain.

An Example of Thumbor Usage

For example, if you want to flip an image using a URL, you would do it like this:

http://your_server_ip_address/unsafe/-300x-200/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Acorus_calamus1.jpg.

The -300 part will make the image flip horizontally and the -200 part means you flipped vertically.

If you want to configure and launch Thumbor, then you should kill it and start with the configuration file.

Configure Thumbor on Ubuntu

Use a configuration file to configure the behaviors of the Thumbor. The first step is creating a sample configuration file:

thumbor-venv/bin/thumbor-config > thumbor_sample.conf

The configuration file is full of comments:

################################### Logging ####################################

## Logging configuration as json

## Defaults to: None

#THUMBOR_LOG_CONFIG = None


## Log Format to be used by thumbor when writing log messages.

## Defaults to: '%(asctime)s %(name)s:%(levelname)s %(message)s'

#THUMBOR_LOG_FORMAT = '%(asctime)s %(name)s:%(levelname)s %(message)s'



## Date Format to be used by thumbor when writing log messages.

## Defaults to: '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'

#THUMBOR_LOG_DATE_FORMAT = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'

################################################################################

################################### Imaging ####################################

## Max width in pixels for images read or generated by thumbor

## Defaults to: 0

#MAX_WIDTH = 0
...
## Result Storage that will be used with the compatibility layer, instead of the

## compatibility result storage. Please only use this if you can't use up-to-

## date result storages.

## Defaults to: None

#COMPATIBILITY_LEGACY_RESULT_STORAGE = None

Using the command below, you can edit the setting. Here, uncomment MAX_WIDTH set it like this:

MAX_WIDTH = 100

This action will show that you set the maximum width of the image that is allowed to be read.

Use the configuration file to run the Thumbor command:

sudo thumbor-venv/bin/thumbor -p 80 -c thumbor_sample.conf

In the following URL, you will see that the width of your image is much smaller than the height:

Open this URL, http://your_server_ip_address/unsafe/400x400/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Acorus_calamus1.jpg.

To edit the configuration file, kill the Thumbor again. Now, you should uncomment FILE_STORAGE_ROOT_PATH and set it like this:

FILE_STORAGE_ROOT_PATH = '/tmp/storage'

Then use the configuration file and run Thumbor again and open the related URL:

http://your_server_ip_address/unsafe/400x400/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Acorus_calamus1.jpg.

Here, do the same action again and kill the Thumbor. Thumbor will save your image in the /tmp/storage directory:

ls /tmp/storage

Now that you installed and configured Thumbor successfully, you can edit your images so easily. Enjoy the service.

Conclusion

By reading this content, you learned how to install and Setup Thumbor on Ubuntu 20.04. Thumbor is created for Python environments but you can use it on old Ubuntu versions. We hope you enjoyed this article. For any questions, just leave a comment below.

FAQ

DNS or Domain Name System is a type of network service that every Linux administrator should be familiar with. This internet service acts like a phone book that resolves IP addresses like 192.168.1.1 to FQDNs (Fully Qualified Domain Names). Read the following article carefully to find out how to configure the DNS server on Ubuntu 22.04.

Steps to Configure DNS Server on Ubuntu

In order to make the configuration of the DNS server on Ubuntu 22.04, the first action is to install this server. Therefore, we recommend you choose the plan you need with the Ubuntu operating system from our Linux VPS server plans. We will use Bind DNS for this reason. Bind is a software that is open-source, scalable, and full-featured software suited for DNS services.

The desired Environment

First of all, you should create a DNS domain for your site. (e.g. neuronvm.local)

– Neuronvm.local is the domain name

– ns.neuronvm.local is the DNS server name

– The IP address is 192.168.1.1

Tip 1: Here, the used IP address is just an example.

Tip 2: Make sure that your DNS server has a static IP address.

Installing DNS Server on Ubuntu 22.04

In this part, you will learn how to install a DNS server using Bind software. But first, you need to update your system using the following command:

sudo apt update

In this example, the package name is Bind9 and it is accessible in your base OS repository. Now, to update your system use the apt command below:

sudo apt install -y bind9 bind9-utils

The installation part was easy and simple.

Configuring the DNS Server

The next part of your process is to make the configuration part. For this reason, you can use the /etc/bind/ directory that will hold configuration files and zone files. Also, /etc/bind/named.conf is the global configuration file for the DNS server.

Creating Zones

You can apply the /etc/bind/named.conf.local directory and replace it with the global configuration file to create zones.

Here, we will show with the related command, how you can do this process:

sudo nano /etc/bind/named.conf.local

Create Forward Zone

We will use the domain neuronvm.local for forward zone entry in the file named.conf.local. The role of this forward zone is to translate a fully qualified domain name into an IP address:

zone "neuronvm.local" IN { // Domain name
type master;
file "/etc/bind/neuronvm.local.db"; // Forward Zone file
allow-update { none; }; // Since this is the primary DNS, it should be none.
};

Create Reverse Zone

For the creation of a reverse name resolution zone in the named.conf.local file, you should go through the command below:

zone "0.168.192.in-addr.arpa" IN { // Reverse lookup name, should match your network in reverse order
type master;
file "/etc/bind/r.neuronvm.local.db"; // Reverse lookup file
allow-update { none; }; // Since this is the primary DNS, it should be none.
};

Create Zone Files

Now you should create zone files for your forward and reverse DNS zones.

– To create a forward DNS zone file /etc/bind/neuronvm.local.db, use the following command:

sudo nano /etc/bind/neuronvm.local.db

The record types :

SOA is the start of authority.

NS is the name server.

A is A record.

MX is mail for exchange.

CN is a canonical name.

Tip 1: Pay attention that domain names have to be ended with a dot (.).

Tip 2: As you want to change any record in your zone file, you should update the serial number of +1with the current number.

$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA ns.neuronvm.local.root.neuronvm.local.
200101 ; Serial
21600 ; Refresh
3600 ;
604800 ; Expire
86400 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
;
;Name Server Information
@ IN NS ns.neuronvm.local.
;IP address of Name Server
ns IN A 192.168.0.10
;Mail Exchanger
@ IN MX 10 mail.neuronvm.local.
;A – Record HostName To IP Address
www IN A 192.168.0.101
mail IN A 192.168.0.102
;CNAME record
ftp IN CNAME www.neuronvm.local.

– Now, for the creation of reverse DNS zone file /etc/bind/r.neuronvm.local.db, run this command:

sudo nano /etc/bind/r.neuronvm.local.db

Update the parts which are shown below:

PTR is the pointer.

SOA is the start of authority.

Tip 3: As you want to change any records in the lookup file, you should update the serial number +1 with the current number.

$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA ns.neuronvm.local.root.neuronvm.local.
200101 ; Serial
21600 ; Refresh
3600 ;
604800 ; Expire
86400 ) ; Negative Cache TTL
;
;Name Server Information
@ IN NS ns.neuronvm.local.
;Reverse lookup for Name Server
10 IN PTR ns.neuronvm.local.
;PTR Record IP address to HostName
101 IN PTR www.neuronvm.local.
102 IN PTR mail.neuronvm.local.

DNS Server Validation

For checking any errors in the syntax of the DNS configuration file, apply this command:

sudo named-checkconf

If no error occurred, the command will return to the shell.

Validation of Forward Zone

Use the command below to check the validation of the forward zone:

sudo named-checkzone neuronvm.local /etc/bind/neuronvm.local.db

Validation of Reverse Zone

Use the following command, to check the validation of the reverse zone:

sudo named-checkzone 0.168.192.in-addr.arpa /etc/bind/r.neuronvm.local.db

As the final step, you can reload both of the file zones. Also, you can use this command when you are willing to change the zone and zone file.

sudo rndc reload

Verifying DNS Server

If you want to verify the DNS server, you should run the dig command by looking up records.

dig www.neuronvm.local @192.168.1.1

For confirmation go through this way:

dig -x 192.168.1.11 @192.168.1.1

And at the end, you will be able to confirm that both lookup and reverse zones are working well.

Conclusion

By reading this article, you learned how you can install a DNS server on the Ubuntu operating system. Also, you learned how to create DNS and file zones and the way to confirm and verify both lookup and reverse zones. We hope you enjoy this tutorial.

FAQ

This article will help you to install Xubuntu on Vmware workstation. We recommend Xubuntu because of its impressive benefits. This beautiful operating system can be used as a free distribution and is fast. Also, using the Xfce desktop environment is a significant advantage for Xubuntu. So, follow this article to find out how you can setup Xubuntu on Vmware.

What Is Xubuntu?

Xubuntu is a derivation of the Ubuntu operating system provided by Canonical Ltd company. The name Xubuntu is a combination of Xfce and Ubuntu. This distribution tries to provide a stable, customizable, and lightweight desktop environment using Xfce and also, is intended for both beginners and professional users.

Steps to Setup Xubuntu on Vmware

After a short explanation about Xubuntu distribution, let’s see how we can set it up on Vmware workstation through a step-by-step guide prepared for you. After purchasing a Linux VPS server from NeuronVM, you can test this training on it and enjoy it.

1- Downloading Xubuntu

This step is straightforward. Just go to the official page and download Xubuntu. It is recommended to use a torrent file because it’s flexible or uses the iso image file under the Mirror Downloads section. you should choose the closest location:

– Then go to the downloads folder and find the image file. Probably, the file name starts with Xubuntu and is an iso file

– Now you can start the installation process. open the Vmware workstation but if you don’t have it on your system you can download it from the official page.

2- Creating a Virtual Machine on Vmware

– To start the process of installing Xubuntu, Open the Vmware workstation and click on Create a new virtual machine on your home screen or you can go through this pass: File > New Virtual Machine. Also, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N.

– In this section, you will start the Vmware virtual machine Wizard. As soon as you see the welcome window of the wizard, you can do the configuration. Custom is a more advanced setting, so, the only thing you have to do is select the Typical option which is checked in default mode. Enter Next to continue:

– In the next step, you should browse the downloaded iso image file and click Next:

– Here, you should enter your virtual machines Name, Username, and Password:

– Then, specify your VMs name in the dialog box or leave it as the default. Also, you can accept the default location. Your folders name will be the same as your VM file name:

– It is time to determine the Disk Space capacity. The default amount is 20 GB. We should mention that if you are not using heavy applications like Photoshop, this amount will be enough. Mark the Split Virtual Disk into Multiple Files option and go to the next part:

– This is the final dialog box. Here, you can see the details of your setup. The only thing to do is click on the Finish button:

– Now power on a virtual machine to start and Vmware will start automatically:

3- Setting up Xubuntu

– After an automatic reboot, you should enter the Username and Password:

###

– Vmware tools will install automatically. If you see the VM > Reinstall Vmware tools then You have already installed them. To check the status, use the command below:

vmware-toolbox-cmd -v

If you notice the version number, you have installed the Vmware tools. If not, go through this pass VM > Install VMware tools and restart the system:

Now, you can see the Xubuntu desktop on full scream. If you can not see the full-screen mode, then you should restart your system:

Conclusion

Xubuntu is an easy-to-use, great operating system that is derived from Ubuntu. This article can be a helpful guide to show the way to setup Xubuntu on Vmware. We tried to teach how you can download and install it on Vmware and how you can create a virtual machine to start your task. Hope you enjoyed the content. If you have any questions or ideas, just leave a comment.

FAQ