I’ve noticed that many people do not realize port 111 and a few other random ports are open on fresh debian installs. It is for the portmap daemon which is needed by RPC based services such as NFS. I barely have any use for NFS, especially on internet facing hosts.

Here we see TCP ports 111, 41394 and UDP ports 111, 742, 48841 are open. Portmap may be marked as secure right now, but it is always best to close up unused ports.

# netstat -nlp
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:111             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2251/portmap
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:41394           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2262/rpc.statd
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2490/sshd
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:25            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2757/exim4
tcp6       0      0 :::80                   :::*                    LISTEN      2818/apache2
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      2490/sshd
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:48841           0.0.0.0:*                           2262/rpc.statd
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:742             0.0.0.0:*                           2262/rpc.statd
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:111             0.0.0.0:*                           2251/portmap

Fortunately it is easy to remove (nfs-common relies on portmap, so we need to remove that as well):

# aptitude --purge remove portmap nfs-common
# netstat -nlp
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2490/sshd
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:25            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2757/exim4
tcp6       0      0 :::80                   :::*                    LISTEN      2818/apache2
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      2490/sshd
Active UNIX domain sockets (only servers)
Proto RefCnt Flags       Type       State         I-Node   PID/Program name    Path
unix  2      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     6113     2454/acpid          /var/run/acpid.socket

Now that’s much cleaner!

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mirror.peer1.net – debian and ubuntu mirror

On December 22, 2010, in howto, by nate

If you use Debian or Ubuntu you should consider using our fast (gigabit + nginx) mirror.

Here are some example sources.lists:

debian squeeze:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ squeeze main
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ squeeze main

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ squeeze-updates main
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ squeeze-updates main

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/debian-security/ squeeze/updates main
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/debian-security/ squeeze/updates main

debian lenny:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ lenny main
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ lenny main

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/debian-security/ lenny/updates main
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/debian-security/ lenny/updates main

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/debian-volatile/ lenny/volatile main
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/debian-volatile/ lenny/volatile main

ubuntu natty – 11.04:

root@media:~# cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty main restricted

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty-updates main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty-updates main restricted

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty universe
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty-updates universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty-updates universe

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty multiverse
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty-updates multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ natty-updates multiverse

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu natty-security main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu natty-security main restricted
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu natty-security universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu natty-security universe
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu natty-security multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu natty-security multiverse

deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty main
deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu natty main

ubuntu lucid – 10.04:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list 

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-updates main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-updates main restricted

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid universe
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-updates universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-updates universe

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid multiverse
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-updates multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-updates multiverse

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-security main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-security main restricted
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-security universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-security universe
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-security multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ lucid-security multiverse

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu lucid partner

ubuntu maverick – 10.10:

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list 

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick universe
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-security main restricted
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-security main restricted
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-security universe
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-security universe
deb http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-security multiverse
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/ubuntu/ maverick-security multiverse

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ maverick partner
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vim and syntax highlighting

On November 25, 2010, in howto, by nate

Syntax highlighting is a sysadmin’s dream, it allows you to code more efficiently or easily parse through relevant information in config files. To get vim syntax highlighting to work in Lenny, you first need to install vim – as the base version (vim-tiny) does not support syntax highlighting.

# aptitude install vim

Then edit /etc/vim/vimrc and go to line 20 and remove the quotation in front of ‘syntax on’ so it looks like this:

# vi /etc/vim/vimrc
" Vim5 and later versions support syntax highlighting. Uncommenting the next
" line enables syntax highlighting by default.
syntax on

" If using a dark background within the editing area and syntax highlighting
" turn on this option as well

Finally save by hitting ‘:’ and type ‘x’ then enter. (There are many ways to save and quit in vim, such as replacing the ‘x’ with ‘wq’ or just simply hitting ‘ZZ’)

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I’ve always had an issue with Debian Lenny and connecting via ssh or local console (xm console command). To sum it up you need to append the --role udev to the end of your xen-create-image command, and then add extra = ‘xencons=tty1 console=tty1′ to the newly created cfg file in /etc/xen.

# xen-create-image --size 10G --ip 1.2.3.4 --netmask 255.255.255.0 --gateway 1.2.3.1 --hostname newvm --lvm vg --role udev


# echo "extra = 'xencons=tty1 console=tty1'" >> /etc/xen/newvm.cfg


More info can be found at http://wiki.debian.org/Xen under “Additional note for domU on lenny using xen-tools”. Note: I do not follow their guide exactly – this is just what has worked for me.

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esxi/esx 4 vmwaretools install on debian

On June 22, 2010, in howto, by nate

Installing vmware tools on your vmware guests is a good idea, gives the ability to shut them from the vmware client, you get better disk/network performance, etc.

Install the packages required for the modules build as root:

# aptitude install autoconf automake binutils cpp gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r) make psmisc

In the vSphere client, right click on the guest VM. Go to ‘Guest -> Install/Upgrade VMware Tools’
This will insert a virtual cd to /dev/cdrom, which you then mount:

# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

Copy the files to /root, umount the virtual CD and extract:

# cp /mnt/VMwareTools-4.0.0-208167.tar.gz /root
# umount /mnt
# cd /root
# tar xvf VMwareTools-4.0.0-208167.tar.gz

Enter the vmware-tools-distrib folder and run the installer script:

# cd vmware-tools-distrib/
# ./vmware-install.pl

The default values are adequate for most cases. For the first question I like to use /usr/local/bin for the binary path, to separate vmware and system binaries. It will automatically set the prefixes for the other paths it uses to /usr/local.

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