I’m re-installing CentOS 7 on the parish server today. I’ve decided to take the easy way out and I’ll be using Webmin so I don’t have to pick over all the grisly details to get things running properly. One of the first things I’ll do is set up the FTP server on the box itself and use port forwarding through the router. Later this week I hope to install DD-WRT on the big router and move it back into place.
However, for the FTP thing, all the logins and passwords will change. I’ll create a general account and password for most folks. Those of you who need write access will have your own individual account and password. I realize this is not as convenient as an anonymous login, but this is the best way to protect the machine and my Internet access.
At any rate, we should have everything up and running per the original plan pretty soon, I hope.
Update: Well, that was a boondoggle. Webmin failed to fix SELinux security policies for using the FTP server. Worse, there are no instructions on how to take care of it. If I have to do all that stuff manually, there’s not much point in using something like Webmin. This will take longer than I first anticipated.
Sounds like you have figured it out. I look forward to accessing the server again!
Oops! Just read your uodate. Challenges are certainly not in short supply.
I’ve got the alternative FTP service running; I just have to finish learning how to configure it. Then I’ll figure out how to get the router to pass it on.
I hope you got this resolved. If you need SELinux help ever, buzz me. I either recall or can refer to my notes for what blew up in my face when it bit me.
I have been doing RHEL for some time now, every system in enforcing mode since as we can see, it does block things very well :). Plus if you want me to write-up a guide ever, let me know. Although that does remind me to clean up, finish, and publish a whole slew of guides sitting on my WordPress install’s draft bin.
Thanks, Andrew; gracious offer. To be honest, I gave up on Webmin because it assumes knowledge and experience I don’t have. I got it working quite well on Debian using their peculiar approach, but then my ISP shut down all of that stuff. No incoming requests can reach my server, not even by direct IP address. But it was fun while it lasted.
What about using a different port? Such as 10021.
Don’t know, Andrew. Keep in mind the context: Just a few folks were using it in the first place, and they were not techies at all. It was barely worth the effort when it was simple; moving into obscure solutions like that has already killed what interest there was. I wasn’t doing it to learn sysadmin, but to offer something useful to my virtual parish.
Gotcha.
I’m still a fan of RHEL/CentOS; I just need a mission for it.