17. Installing Webmin
Webmin is a Web based configuration tool for Linux. It acts as a central system to configure various system configuration like users, disk quota, services and configurations of HTTP server, Apache, MySQL, etc.
# wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.740-1.noarch.rpm # rpm -ivh webmin-*.rpm
After webmin installation, you will get a message on terminal to login to your host (http://ip-address:10000) using your root password on port number 10000. If running a headless server you can forward the port and access it on a machine/server that is headed.
18. Enable Third Party Repositories
It is not a good idea to add untrusted repositories specially in production and it may be fatal. However just for example here we will be adding a few community approved trusted repositories to install third party tools and packages.
Add Extra Package for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) Repository.
# yum install epel-release
Add Community Enterprise Linux Repository.
# rpm -Uvh http://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-7.0-2.el7.elrepo.noarch.rpm
Attention! Extra care is needs to be taken while adding Third Party Repository.
19. Install 7-zip Utility
In the CentOS Minimal Install you don’t get utility like unzip or unrar. We have the option to install each utility as required or an utility that servers for all. 7-zip is such an utility which compress and extract files of all known types.
# yum install p7zip
Notice: The package is downloaded and installed from Fedora EPEL 7 Repository.
20. Install NTFS-3G Driver
A small yet very useful NTFS driver called NTFS-3G is available for most of the UNIX-like distribution. It is useful to mount and access Windows NTFS file system. Though other alternatives like Tuxera NTFS is available, NTFS-3G is most widely used.
# yum install ntfs-3g
After installing ntfs-3g has been installed, you can mount Windows NTFS partitions (where /dev/sda5 is my windows drive) using following command.
# mount -ro ntfs-3g /dev/sda5 /mnt # cd /mnt # ls -l
21. Install Vsftpd FTP Server
VSFTPD which stands for Very Secure File Transfer Protocol Daemon is a FTP server for UNIX-like System. It is one of the most efficient and secure FTP Server available today.
# yum install vsftpd
Edit the configuration file located at ‘/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf‘ to secure vsftpd.
# vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
Edit a few fields and leave other as it is, unless you know what you are doing.
anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES write_enable=YES chroot_local_user=YES
You may also change the port number and open vsftpd port through the firewall.
# firewall-cmd --add-port=21/tcp # firewall-cmd --reload
Next restart vsftpd and enable to start at boot time.
# systemctl restart vsftpd # systemctl enable vsftpd
22. Install and Configure sudo
sudo which is commonly called as super do as well as suitable user do is a program for UNIX-like operating system to execute a program with the security privileged of another user. Let’s see how to configure sudo…
# visudo
It will open the file /etc/sudoers for editing..
Give all the permission (equal to root) to a user (say tecmint), that has already been created.
tecmint ALL=(ALL) ALL
Give all the permission (equal to root) to a user (say tecmint), except the permission to reboot and shutdown the server.
Again open the same file and edit it with the below contents.
cmnd_Alias nopermit = /sbin/shutdown, /sbin/reboot
Then add alias with Logical (!) operator.
tecmint ALL=(ALL) ALL,!nopermit
Give permission to a group (say debian) to run a few root privilege command say (add user and delete user) .
cmnd_Alias permit = /usr/sbin/useradd, /usr/sbin/userdel
And then add the permission to group debian.
debian ALL=(ALL) permit
23. Install and Enable SELinux
SELinux which stands for Security-Enhanced Linux is a security module at kernel level.
# yum install selinux-policy
Check SELinux Mode.
# getenforce
The output is enforcing mode which means SELinux policy is in effect.
For debugging, set selinux mode to permissive temporarily. No need to reboot.
# setenforce 0
After debugging set selinux to enforcing again without rebooting.
# setenforce 1
24. Install Rootkit Hunter
Rootkit Hunter abbreviated as Rkhunter is an application that scan rootkits and other potentially harmful exploits in Linux systems.
# yum install rkhunter
Run rkhunter as a scheduled job, from a script file or manually to scan harmful exploits in Linux.
# rkhunter --check
I followed this guide. Its really helpful. As you said quite extensively about installing apache, databases and others.
Can you also provide a guide regarding how to upload a site in CentOS after doing all this?
You can use WordPress and add the blogs.create new website add the domain to that website apache.
I am wondering why httpd,php is installed after installing virtualbox. Initially it is installed, will it conflict
Resourceful tutorial for Linux enthusiast.
There is a mistake in the SSH section. The config file is NOT ‘ssh-config’. That is meant for the SSH client not the server. The SSH server settings are in ‘sshd-config’. As a noob, it took me a while to figure out why my changes had no effect on the server.
Otherwise, this has been a great resource for someone like me learning Linux for the first time. Thanks!
@Gary,
Thanks for notifying, yes it should sshd_config for configuring SSH Server. We’ve corrected in the article.
One of the commands didn’t work for me, the one related to opening up the httpd port through firewalld. I got a syntax error
I got a successful execution with the following command, because I did not choose to assign http a funky port, just the standard one (80)
If you want to use a custom port for httpd, use this command, which specifies the port/protocol:
SOURCE:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24729024/open-firewall-port-on-centos-7
Thank you for getting this information together, it is very helpful for people not familiar to minimal dekstop-less installations.
There’s a syntax error in the article, it should say:
(two dashes instead of one, before every argument)
@IvanZ,
Thanks, I have corrected the command in the article..