Questions about configuring my new server

[BrandMan211]

Hello. It seems that the VPS I co-administrate has gone down. I'm not sure if it's something on our part or yours. The main website for it is http://www.parahosting.net/ As we host a decent amount of sites on this server, it would be greatly appreciated if we could resolve this.

Thank you,
BrandMan211.

[birty]

submit a support ticket and usually rick will fix it within a couple of hours

[Rick]

http://dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=parahosting.net

either your dns server isn't runnning or its misconfigured.
this is preventing your domain from resolving properly.

[BrandMan211]

Oh thank you so much, I was able to fix it. But... I'm curious to know how this happened.

Also, I tried restarting MySQL, and I got an error. Please assist.

[Rick]

you didnt say what the problem was, so how could I know?

If named wasnt running, check your syslog.

[BrandMan211]

Well I was hoping you had an idea. Is it possible it was a hacker?

And about the system log, as I'm newer to this then the other admin (Faltzer), could you please tell me how to access that?

In case it'll help, this is what the error said:
chown: `mysql:mysql': invalid user
chown: `mysql:mysql': invalid user
Timeout error occurred trying to start MySQL Daemon.
Starting MySQL: [FAILED]

[Rick]

I wouldn't jump to such a conclusion about a hacker, the problem is a lot more likely to be a misconfiguration on your end. The error you reported has nothing to do with your dns service, this sounds like you guys removed the mysql user and your software needs it to run. you can add this back with the useradd command, (man useradd), or you can reinstall the mysql rpm since you may have caused other problems with your experimentation. If named quit running due to some runtime problem, you will see entries about it in /var/log/messages.

[BrandMan211]

Well I would understand why you would think this, but there are 2 things that make me suspicious of a hacker.

1. This was overnight.
2. We have gotten a threat letter recently.

Either way I'm very sorry for my stupidity but I do not get how to the useradd command that you speak of. Could you please tell me where I should execute this?

[Rick]

I'd say any electronic event is 50% likely to happen overnight. Anyway, you would run the command on the command line via an ssh client.

[BrandMan211]

The options which apply to the useradd command are:
What should I type?

[Rick]

you should type:


man useradd

[BrandMan211]

That's what it says after I type that.

[Faltzer]

We've tried re-adding the mySQL user, and the program ceases to start. I've also revised the system log file, and if it helps, it mentioned something about mySQL socket incorrectly configured. And I see nothing inside the mysql.sock file in /var/lib/mysql. That's currently where all mySQL databases are stored.

I also have a question. Do I set mySQL's home directory to the mySQL default root path if that helps?

[Faltzer]

Hmm, this just got to me but if it says the connection timed out, does this mean that it's down for now until later on?

[BrandMan211]

I wonder what caused this in the first place. Anyway we were able to start up everything else so I'm really hoping this'll work out.

Timeout error occurred trying to start MySQL Daemon.
Starting MySQL: [FAILED]

The first 2 lines are no longer there. Does that mean anything?

[Faltzer]

I added a mySQL user, that's why.

[BrandMan211]

Please help us out.

[yager]

I suggest a fresh restart; reloading the VPS and starting the setup process all over again from scratch, one slow careful step at a time, using what you've learned from this experience to date.

That way you're actually building progress, rather than fighting with a complex arrangement possibly made worse with each stab at fixing "something".

[Faltzer]

I used Webmin to make a file system backup, and when I uploaded the file system backup, nothing appeared.

[Rick]

dont rely on webmin for anything. treat it as a convenience tool, not an excuse not to properly administer your server. To upload files to your server, you should use sftp or ftp. http is not meant for transferring gigabytes and gigabytes of data on an upload.

Anyway, since you have told me in a private email you are so unhappy with our poor "support" to you and that you want free service from us in compensate, I am not sure how I can better help you on the forum.

You should realize that you are still learning system adminsitration. If you are selling service to clients with your skills, and relying on another company (us) to help you along this way, this probably isn't fair to anyone.

Everyone had to spend 1-3 years learning something before you can make money with it. this goes for anything in life, not just web hosting/administration.

[yager]

Anyway, since you have told me in a private email you are so unhappy with our poor "support" to you. ... I am not sure how I can better help you on the forum.I am *stunned* to see this. Rick, I admire your ability to have helped so much for so long. I also admire the initiative for a couple kids to venture into the unknown and seek to learn something. However, Faltzer, learning is to be achieved by research, practice, and experience; not by having things done for you, or even being shown how to do everything in detail. ... I agree with Rick's statement here, and if you've been reading these forums you should have seen it more than once already:

You should realize that you are still learning system adminsitration. ... Everyone had to spend 1-3 years learning something before you can make money with it. this goes for anything in life, not just web hosting/administration.Hence the arising among us of the "professional" who is paid for what they know and can do, by those who don't know and can't do. It's great that the VPS market provides both "managed" and "unmanaged" plans. The distinction isn't difficult to understand fully.

If you are selling service to clients with your skills, and relying on another company (us) to help you along this way, this probably isn't fair to anyone.Man, that's quite the reason I left shared hosting. The evolution of "control panels" very much enabled the incompetent to misrepresent themselves. And the second generation enabled "resellers" who were even more lame.

I don't see that in the VPS market.

[BrandMan211]

Either way at this point in trying to fix this, we truly have no clue what is wrong. We have the files uploaded, DNS set, and Apache configured. I really wish to be able to fix this. Currently now we are hosting mainly friends of ours, and most of the people go with a free plan we offer.

I am sorry for being so angry, but we are very very frustrated. Please understand we are coming from. We have no idea what caused the problem to begin with, and no offense but I don't see a single way we could have caused it if it happened overnight.

[Rick]

Why don't you say exactly what the problem is, and be as specific as possible.

For example:

"when I run command XXXX, I see error YYY in log file ZZZ!!!"

"When I query dns for domain XXXX, a valid response is not returned!!. I am verifying with command 'dig XXXXX'."

"We ran command XXXX and now problem YYY has arisen, how can we reverse the change?"


Knowing how to properly ask a technical question is half the battle. I wrote this page to try and combat "OmG my server is teh broken! can you fix it ASAP OR REFUND MY MONIES": http://wiki.rapidvps.com/index.php/Getting%20Help%20from%20RapidVPS

[BrandMan211]

Ok, to lower frustration, I will try my best to do this.

All sites on our server (Such as http://www.parahosting.net), do not load. As far as I can see, the Apache is running and so is the DNS. The site won't ping. The files are uploaded, and I fail to see what's wrong. Please assist, all help is appreciated.

[Rick]

ok, I'm gonna ultra mega hold your hand on this one.

DNS on your server is not even running. I verify this with:

root@venus [/]# dig @66.97.174.169

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @66.97.174.169
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
root@venus [/]#

I entered your server:
[root@parahosting /]# /etc/init.d/named restart
Stopping named: [FAILED]
Starting named: [FAILED]
[root@parahosting /]# tail /var/log/messages
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: starting BIND 9.3.3rc3 -u named
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: found 2 CPUs, using 2 worker threads
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: loading configuration from '/etc/named.conf'
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: no IPv6 interfaces found
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: listening on IPv4 interface lo, 127.0.0.1#53
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: listening on IPv4 interface venet0:0, 66.97.174.169#53
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: listening on IPv4 interface venet0:1, 66.97.174.163#53
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: could not configure root hints from '/etc/db.cache': file not found
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: loading configuration: file not found
Mar 1 23:03:55 parahosting named[5844]: exiting (due to fatal error)


Clearly, your named.conf is misconfigured.


........

while I am typing this, you are editing the file. I'll let you finish it up, or let me know if you want me to work on it. 2 admins doing the same thing..- bad results.

[angus]

Have you tried accessing your site by its IP address? You may have better luck troubleshooting if you start from the basics.

Ok, to lower frustration, I will try my best to do this.

All sites on our server (Such as http://www.parahosting.net), do not load. As far as I can see, the Apache is running and so is the DNS. The site won't ping. The files are uploaded, and I fail to see what's wrong. Please assist, all help is appreciated.

[Rick]

You are hosting, or trying to host, many domains on this server. For the good of your clients, you should use a WHM reseller account to host these, at least for right now. Email me and I'll get you set up with an easy way to host these websites, without downtime, with a control panel, etc. This would be on a seperate server which we administer for you.

While you are hosting the sites on a sepeate system, you should then develop and learn on this rapid vps. Its not fair to your cusotmers for you to be learning basic administration (check past history of this thread) while people are paying you, or at least counting on you for their site to be up.

just trying to give you some friendly advice and help here on how to be the most successfull..

[BrandMan211]

Please, go ahead. I'm not gonna touch it if I know your going to. And about the IP, I can access webmin through it, but we don't have the IP pointing to any actual site. As far as I saw, I thought BIND was running. I apologize for only knowing webmin so far, I will attempt learning further.

About the reseller plan, the problem with that is that we were hoping to be able to still have root. We can't learn without getting some experience, no? But the more I see this, the more we may consider this. For now, can we just please handle getting this up? Later we will seriously consider going with the reseller.

Edit: I see it's back up. Could you please tell me what you did so I can learn from this?

[Rick]

picking up from my previous post about your system..

I removed the . zone, as you shouldn only need to be authoritive for domains on this box. I then started named.conf with a valid config:

[root@parahosting /]# /etc/init.d/named restart
Stopping named: [FAILED]
Starting named: [ OK ]
[root@parahosting /]# tail /var/log/messages
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.163#58848: received notify for zone 'pokerindin.com'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.163#58848: received notify for zone 'killfishtank.com'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.163#58848: received notify for zone 'fwii4all.org'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.169#58848: received notify for zone 'pokerindin.com'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.169#58848: received notify for zone 'fwii4all.org'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.163#58848: received notify for zone 'parahosting.net'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.169#58848: received notify for zone 'killfishtank.com'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.163#58848: received notify for zone 'bmestudioz.com'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.169#58848: received notify for zone 'pokeuniverse.info'
Mar 1 23:12:55 parahosting named[17667]: client 66.97.174.163#58848: received notify for zone 'pokeuniverse.info'

next we check to see if named is actually bound to the udp sockets, port 53 of course

[root@parahosting /]# netstat -alpn | grep :53
tcp 0 0 66.97.174.163:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 17667/named
tcp 0 0 66.97.174.169:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 17667/named
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 17667/named
udp 0 0 66.97.174.163:53 0.0.0.0:* 17667/named
udp 0 0 66.97.174.169:53 0.0.0.0:* 17667/named
udp 0 0 127.0.0.1:53
it is. now we query your nameserver for a domain you are hosting.

[root@mercury ~]# dig @66.97.174.163 fwii4all.org

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> @66.97.174.163 fwii4all.org
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 18596
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;fwii4all.org. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
fwii4all.org. 38400 IN A 66.97.174.163

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
fwii4all.org. 38400 IN NS ns1.faltzershq.com.
fwii4all.org. 38400 IN NS ns2.faltzershq.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.faltzershq.com. 38400 IN A 66.97.174.169
ns2.faltzershq.com. 38400 IN A 66.97.174.163

;; Query time: 72 msec
;; SERVER: 66.97.174.163#53(66.97.174.163)
;; WHEN: Thu Mar 1 15:15:50 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 128

[root@mercury ~]#
that is excellent, it even looks like a correct zone file.

next we will try to visit that site and see what happens:

[root@mercury ~]# wget fwii4all.org
--15:16:30-- http://fwii4all.org/
=> `index.html.2'
Resolving fwii4all.org... 66.97.174.163
Connecting to fwii4all.org|66.97.174.163|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 403 Forbidden
15:16:31 ERROR 403: Forbidden.
uh oh, so we check apache on your box:

[root@parahosting /]# tail -100 /var/log/httpd/error_log | grep fwii
[Thu Mar 01 23:16:30 2007] [error] [client 72.29.79.79] Directory index forbidden by Options directive: /home/fwii4all.org/
ok, not a bad thing. you just do not have an index defined. to verify:

[root@parahosting /]# echo "welcome to fwii4all.org" > /home/fwii4all.org/index.html
[root@parahosting /]# ls -al /home/fwii4all.org/
total 24
drwxrwsr-x 2 hauntermaster hauntermaster 4096 Mar 1 23:18 .
drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4096 Feb 28 23:39 ..
-rwxrwxr-x 1 hauntermaster hauntermaster 24 Feb 19 21:01 .bash_logout
-rwxrwxr-x 1 hauntermaster hauntermaster 176 Feb 19 21:01 .bash_profile
-rwxrwxr-x 1 hauntermaster hauntermaster 124 Feb 19 21:01 .bashrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root hauntermaster 24 Mar 1 23:18 index.html
[root@parahosting /]# chown hauntmaster.hauntmaster /home/fwii4all.org/index.html
chown: `hauntmaster.hauntmaster': invalid user
[root@parahosting /]# chown hauntermaster.hauntermaster /home/fwii4all.org/index.html
[root@parahosting /]#
we put some cool content in your docroot. now we will fetch it from the remote server, immitating a web browser:

[root@mercury ~]# wget fwii4all.org
--15:19:40-- http://fwii4all.org/
=> `index.html.2'
Resolving fwii4all.org... 66.97.174.163
Connecting to fwii4all.org|66.97.174.163|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 24 [text/html]

100%[================================================== ================================================== =================================>] 24 --.--K/s

15:19:40 (1.09 MB/s) - `index.html.2' saved [24/24]

[root@mercury ~]# cat index.html.2
welcome to fwii4all.org

Success! Case and point- nothing is broken, rapidvps isn't trying to screw you, we aren't giving you poor support, the server isn't malfunctioning, etc etc.

these are your friends:

configuration
manuals
documentation
research
google
log files

[angus]

At one job, I had to use Unix every day for a few years.. I didn't have a choice, since the company was a competitor to Microsoft. It was a great learning experience that well prepared me for a RapidVPS.

I found having several Linux machines and a Linux router (Linksys) to also be invaluable in understanding networking. I use Windows on my desktop now only because I've got devices that don't have Linux drivers and applications that don't have Linux counterparts. There's so much you can do with config files and a command line than you could ever do with a GUI (includes control panels). If you really want to learn Linux, I would recommend you start using it...and understand how to read the man pages. If you don't have a spare computer, you can always use VMWare on your computer. But, the best way to learn is from experience. When the DNS on my router went down, it took me hours to fix it...But, now when it happens, it doesn't take me anymore than 5 minutes to figure out the problem and fix it. As long as you're not doing anything critical, don't be afraid to break things. You'll learn so much more than if things never broke.

Please, go ahead. I'm not gonna touch it if I know your going to. And about the IP, I can access webmin through it, but we don't have the IP pointing to any actual site. As far as I saw, I thought BIND was running. I apologize for only knowing webmin so far, I will attempt learning further.

About the reseller plan, the problem with that is that we were hoping to be able to still have root. We can't learn without getting some experience, no? But the more I see this, the more we may consider this. For now, can we just please handle getting this up? Later we will seriously consider going with the reseller.

Edit: I see it's back up. Could you please tell me what you did so I can learn from this?

[BrandMan211]

We will have to study more on this. Thank you.

[Faltzer]

Okay, as I said in the Support ticket, I apologize for this.

[Faltzer]

In addition, how in the world did you restore the home directories? What commands did you use?

[Rick]

No problem buddy, we are still friends. I didn't restore /home, so however you did it, worked!

[BrandMan211]

I apologize too. As much as I did not say anything I was very angry about the whole deal. I should have trusted you guys more.

[Faltzer]

No problem buddy, we are still friends. I didn't restore /home, so however you did it, worked!
Incorrect. Seems that Jeremy C. (support) fixed this for me, and I'm going to ask him exactly how he did this so I can do so in the future.