4 <meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv="content-type">
5 <title>Cake LAMP VM Documentation</title>
8 <h1 style="text-align: center;">The cakelampvm VM:<br>
9 Configuration and Usage</h1>
10 <h2 style=" text-align: center;">By Chris Koeritz</h2>
11 <h3 style=" text-align: center;"> Vintage: cakelampvm v002
12 Updated: 2017-11-16</h3>
13 <p>The cakelampvm project provides a Virtualbox VM that acts as an "internet
14 in a bottle". The virtual machine provides DNS services (<a title="dns server"
15 href="http://www.bind9.net/">bind9</a>), a Web server (<a title="patchy"
16 href="https://httpd.apache.org/">Apache2</a>), a full <a title="ubuntu means compassion and humanity"
17 href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> <a title="it's pronounced leenoox"
18 href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/">Linux</a> desktop environment,
19 the <a title="flux is change" href="http://fluxbox.org/">Fluxbox</a> <a
20 title="a better windows" href="https://www.x.org/">X window manager</a>,
21 and a suite of tools called the <a title="feisty meow® concerns ltd. website"
22 href="https://feistymeow.org/">Feisty Meow® codebase</a> .
23 Together, these services provide you with a very flexible and powerful
24 testbed for web development, especially suited for <a title="it's cake" href="https://cakephp.org/">CakePHP</a>.</p>
25 <h2> Guest VM Configuration<a id="#config" name="#config"></a></h2>
27 <li>hostname: <a title="the vm's website, when configured properly" href="https://cakelampvm.com/">cakelampvm.com</a></li>
28 <li>local IP address: 10.28.42.20</li>
29 <li>services: DNS (bind9), apache2, fluxbox X windowing system, <a title="not just in the garden"
30 href="https://www.gnome.org/">gnome display manager</a></li>
31 <li>main user: developer (password distributed separately)</li>
32 <li>mysql root password: (password distributed separately)</li>
34 <h2>Powering up with the Feisty Meow® scripts<a id="#powerup" name="#powerup"></a></h2>
35 The feisty meow scripts are a cohesive bash scripting environment for
36 getting a variety of tasks done. The scripts recently incorporated the
37 "avbash" collection from Saco Designs and added those scripts to the
38 "site_avenger" collection of scripts. These provide tools for bringing
39 up CakePHP web sites and managing the collection of repositories for those
40 sites. Each website is considered an "application", and the
41 application name itself (e.g. "winterportlibrary") can often provide all the
42 details for "powering up" the site. The feisty meow team has added
43 additional scripts for managing DNS domains and Apache websites that provide
44 the capability to "stand up" an entire website around an application, with
46 <p>The site avenger scripts are documented separately within the feisty meow
47 codebase. Consult the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">f</span><a
48 title="quickstart" href="https://feistymeow.org/feisty_meow/readme.txt">eisty
50 readme</a> file first, as it provides some valuable information on
51 configuring the codebase. The site avenger script documentation is
52 available in the <a title="useful commands" href="https://feistymeow.org/feisty_meow/documentation/feisty_meow_command_reference.txt">feisty
53 meow command reference</a> file.</p>
54 <p>(The feisty meow codebase is already configured for the developer account
55 on the cakelampvm virtual machine.)</p>
56 <h2>How to set up virtualbox for your host PC<a id="#virtualbox-setup" name="#virtualbox-setup"></a></h2>
58 <li>Download and install virtualbox:
59 https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads</li>
60 <li>Install the extension pack for virtualbox: This provides USB drivers
61 and other features. This is installed on virtualbox itself, not on
64 <li>Download the extension pack at
65 https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads</li>
66 <li>Stop any running virtualbox vms.</li>
67 <li>Close virtualbox control panel.</li>
68 <li>Double-click on the downloaded extensions package (in a file
69 explorer) and virtualbox should install it.</li>
71 <li>Run the virtualbox control panel.</li>
72 <li>Download the cakelampvm guest vm package and unzip it. Store the
73 unzipped version in some appropriate place where you want the virtual
74 machine to reside on your host's hard drive.</li>
75 <li>Add the guest VM to your list of VMs. From the virtualbox menus,
76 choose the "Machine" menu and select "Add". Point the selector
77 dialog at the cakelampvm folder you created above and open the
78 cakelampvm.vbox file.</li>
79 <li>Now the cakelampvm should show up in the list of virtual
80 machines. Before starting it, perform the following network
81 configuration sections.</li>
83 <h3>Configure the Host-Only network on virtualbox<a id="#host-only" name="#host-only"></a></h3>
84 <p>Configuring host-only networking for the VM makes the VM completely local
85 to your machine. The cakelampvm will not be accessible on the
86 internet or from the LAN, and can only be accessed by your host PC.</p>
88 <li> Go to virtual box "Preferences" (global preferences, not for a
90 <li> Click on the "Network" tab.</li>
91 <li> Choose the "Host-only Networks" tab from within "Network".</li>
92 <li> Click the plus icon to add a new host-only network, or if there is
93 already a Host-only network, then edit it.</li>
94 <li>Set the "Adapter" parameters:<br>
95 IPv4 Address: 10.28.42.1<br>
96 IPv4 Network Mask: 255.255.255.0<br>
97 IPv6 Address: (leave blank)<br>
98 IPv6 Prefix Length: 0<br>
99 Virtualbox will fill in the other details like so:<br>
100 <p><img alt="host only network adapter" src="images/host_only_network_adapter.png"></p>
102 <li>Set the "DHCP Server Settings" to disabled, e.g.<br>
103 <img alt="host only dhcp" src="images/host_only_adapter_dhcp_server.png"><br>
104 This is disabled because we will be using statically assigned addresses
105 for convenience and stability.</li>
107 <p>Additional information on host-only (and other) network adapter types is
108 at: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html#network_nat_service<br>
110 <h3>Configure the Nat Network on virtualbox<a id="#nat-network" name="#nat-network"></a></h3>
112 <li> Go to virtual box "Preferences" (global preferences, not for a
114 <li> Click on the "Network" tab.</li>
115 <li> Choose the "Nat Networks" tab from within "Network".</li>
116 <li> Click the plus icon to add a new host-only network.</li>
117 <li>Set the "NAT Network Details" parameters:<br>
118 Network Name: NatNetwork<br>
119 Network CIDR: 10.0.2.0/24<br>
120 Supports DHCP: checked<br>
121 Supports IPv6: optionally checked<br>
122 These are my settings, with IPv6 left disabled:<br>
123 <img alt="nat net config" src="images/nat_network_config.png"></li>
125 <h2>Start up the VM<a id="#start-vm" name="#start-vm"></a></h2>
126 <p>Using the virtualbox interface, you should now be able to start your
127 virtual machine. Virtualbox will complain if it detects any
128 remaining configuration problems in the VM, but it should start
129 normally. The Linux boot sequence will show many lines of text,
130 before bringing up a black console window with a login dialog.</p>
131 <p>You can log in directly on the VM console with the developer account, but
132 it is generally more useful to connect to the cakelampvm over ssh.
133 If the networking has been established properly, you should be able to do
135 <pre>ssh developer@cakelampvm.com (or equivalent with your ssh client)</pre>
136 <p>And then provide the password to log in.</p>
137 <p>If a feature called "X forwarding" is enabled in your ssh client, then
138 you can start graphical applications on the VM and display them on your
139 local machine. This works right away on most Linux hosts, but can
140 also work on PCs with X window system installed. The section below
141 describes how to set up Cygwin to run X server, which enable X forwarding
142 to your local display.</p>
143 <p>...{insert that info}...</p>
144 <h2>Using the guest VM's DNS services<a id="#dns-from-vm" name="#dns-from-vm"></a></h2>
145 <p>The cakelampvm has been set up to provide a DNS server which will answer
146 name lookup requests on any of the sites that the cakelampvm is hosting
147 for you. It will also serve as a general DNS server for any other
148 domains that need to be looked up.</p>
149 <p>To use the cakelampvm DNS, modify your host operating system network
150 configuration by adding or changing the DNS server to use the guest VM's
151 DNS service. The cakelampvm is available at the local IP address
152 10.28.42.20. (The DNS server can be tested with nslookup, dig and
154 <p>Note that the cakelampvm DNS should be listed first, if one intends to
155 override any DNS names that actually exist out on the internet. We
156 have also found it most effective to have only the cakelampvm as your DNS
157 server, because a secondary DNS server can "take over" providing the name
158 lookups, and thus foul up DNS requests that should succeed for your
160 <p>It is important to remember to switch back to a normal DNS server
161 configuration when you shut off the cakelampvm, or your machine will not
162 know the names of any sites on the internet any more!</p>
163 <p>Once the DNS server is properly set up, these ping commands should get
164 answering responses (from 10.28.42.20):</p>
165 <pre>ping cakelampvm.com</pre>
166 <pre>ping defaultcake.cakelampvm.com</pre>
167 <pre>ping mapsdemo.cakelampvm.com</pre>
168 <h3>Setting up DNS on Windows</h3>
169 <p>The ipconfig tool will provide helpful information about your current
170 networking and DNS configuration:</p>
171 <pre>ipconfig --all</pre>
172 <p>The DNS configuration on Windows is somewhat byzantine. The pipe
173 characters ('|') below are used to separate the menus or tabs or dialogs
174 to traverse. Follow this path to get to the DNS config:</p>
175 <pre>Control Panel | Network & Sharing | click WiFI or Ethernet link near top right | click Adapter Settings on left | click on specific network device to modify | select Properties</pre>
182 <h2>Editing files on the guest VM from the host</h2>
183 <p>On the host computer, look for the guest vm as a networked computer
184 called cakelampvm. This should provide some network shares using
185 Microsoft SMB protocol, and they can be attached to using the "developer"
186 user and its password.</p>
187 <p>On windows, one may want to mount this network location as a drive letter
188 for easier access.</p>
189 <p>Currently, the root of all web servers is exposed as "www". Editing
190 the files in those folders requires ownership by the developer user.
191 Currently the defaultcake server is owned by developer.</p>
192 <p>One should be able to create a new directory in the www folder owned by
193 the developer user over the network also, which can be used for creating
194 new projects. However, there is a config issue in the current vm
195 (v001) about this; to fix, run this command on the guest vm as the
197 <pre>sudo chmod g+w /var/www</pre>
198 <p>Afterwards, the www folder should allow the developer user to create new
200 <h2>Accessing files on the host PC from the guest VM</h2>
201 <p>If you want to share a folder from the host to the guest, perhaps for
202 driver updates or other conveniences, then make the share with these
205 <li>Create a folder on the host that is to be shared.</li>
206 <li>Right-click on the vm in virtualbox manager and choose "Settings".</li>
207 <li>In the "Shared Folders" tab of the settings, go to "Machine Folders".</li>
208 <li>Click the folder plus icon to create a new share.</li>
209 <li>Fill in the "Folder Path" on the host PC to the folder that will be
210 shared, and give it a name for the guest. We assume the folder
211 name will be "myshare".</li>
212 <li>On the guest vm, run the following commands to mount the share:<br>
213 <pre>mkdir ~/shared # for the guest's version of the shared folder</pre>
214 <pre>sudo mount -t vboxsf myshare ~/shared # mount the vm's share name onto the folder on the vm.</pre>
217 <h2>Adding a new website and domain on the guest VM</h2>
218 <p>To add a new website, you will need to pick one of the DNS options below
219 (A or B) depending on how you want to name the site. After the DNS
220 is updated, then follow the section after for creating a new apache conf
222 <p>Assuming one has created a new folder in "www" called "greatsite", then
223 the new web site can be brought online on the vm with one of the following
225 <h3>DNS Option A: Using a sub-domain in the cakelampvm.com domain</h3>
226 Connect to the cakelampvm via ssh as the developer user, e.g.: ssh
227 developer@cakelampvm.com
228 <p>Execute the following command to edit the DNS file for the cakelampvm
230 <pre>sudo vi /etc/bind/cakelampvm.com.conf</pre>
231 <p>Add a stanza for the new site at the end of this file:</p>
232 <pre>greatsite.cakelampvm.com IN A 10.28.42.20<br> IN HINFO "linux server" "ubuntu"</pre>
233 <p>Restart the DNS server: sudo service bind9 restart</p>
234 <p>Afterwards, pinging greatsite.cakelampvm.com should work from either the
235 guest or the host.</p>
236 <h3>DNS Option B: Using an entirely new domain for the site</h3>
237 <p>Similar procedure to above, but we will create a new file for the new
238 domain and add it to the bind directory. For this example, we will
239 create a file called /etc/bind/greatsite.tv.conf for our new domain
240 greatsite.tv with these contents:</p>
241 <pre>$TTL 1W<br>@ IN SOA @ fred.cakelampvm.com. (<br> 2017100801 ; serial<br> 2H ; refresh<br> 8M ; retry<br> 14D ; expiry<br> 6H ) ; minimum<br><br> IN NS ns.cakelampvm.com.<br> IN MX 10 mail.cakelampvm.com.<br><br># main domain for machine.<br>greatsite.tv. IN A 10.28.42.20<br> IN HINFO "linux server" "ubuntu"</pre>
242 The gnarly prefix stuff above the "greatsite.tv." listing establishes
243 configuration info for the new domain. This file relies on the
244 existing cakelampvm.com infrastructure in DNS, such as the "ns" host, which
245 is the domain's name server.
246 <p>Now that the config file is in place, edit "named.conf.local" to add the
247 new file by adding this bit of configuration at the end:</p>
248 <pre>zone "greatsite.tv" in {<br> file "/etc/bind/greatsite.tv.conf";<br> type master;<br> allow-query { any; };<br>};</pre>
249 <p>Restart the DNS server: sudo service bind9 restart</p>
250 <p>Afterwards, pinging greatsite.tv should work from either the guest or the
252 <h3>Create a new apache configuration file and load it</h3>
253 <p>Start with the following template file for the new website, and modify it
254 for the appropriate host name:</p>
255 <pre><VirtualHost *:80><br> ServerName greatsite.cakelampvm.com<br> ServerAlias greatsite.cakelampvm.com *.greatsite.cakelampvm.com<br> DocumentRoot /var/www/greatsite<br> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/greatsite.cakelampvm.com-error.log<br> CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/greatsite.cakelampvm.com-access.log combined<br> Alias /statistics "/var/www/webwork.repository/webwork/maps_demo/webroot/statistics"<br> Include /etc/apache2/conf-library/basic-options.conf<br> Include /etc/apache2/conf-library/rewrite-enabling.conf<br></VirtualHost></pre>
256 <p>The above example is pre-modified for DNS Option A above, the
257 greatsite.cakelampvm.com name. Switching all of those to
258 "greatsite.tv" instead would support DNS option B.</p>
259 <p>Copy that file into /etc/apache/available-sites under an appropriate
260 name, which here we will call "greatsite.conf".</p>
261 <p>Tell apache to use the new file:</p>
262 <pre>a2ensite greatsite.conf</pre>
263 <p>Finally, restart apache to get it to begin serving the site:</p>
264 <pre>sudo service apache2 restart</pre>
265 <h3>Test the new web site</h3>
266 <p>Given the configuration above, your host PC should now be able to access
268 <p>To test this, first try pinging the hostname, e.g.: ping
269 greatsite.cakelampvm.com or ping greatsite.tv</p>
270 <p>Then, if there are responses to the ping, it means the DNS is
271 working. If there are no responses, check the instructions in the
272 above DNS option section.</p>
273 <p>Once the DNS is working, one can try browsing to the site at:
274 http://greatsite.cakelampvm.com or http://greatsite.tv (depending on the
275 DNS option chosen).</p>
276 <p>If the site is not showing up properly, try examining the apache logs for
277 error messages that can be corrected. The log files are stored in
278 /var/log/apache2 and are generally named after the website.</p>
279 <h2>Configuring the guest VM</h2>
280 <p>The guest VM should already be set up appropriately. These steps
281 are provided for reference and updates.</p>
282 <h3>Set up virtualbox guest additions for the VM</h3>
283 <p>** note for v001 of cakelampvm: the below steps are still needed on the
285 <p>This procedure is needed if the guest provides an older or incompatible
286 version of the guest additions (which have already been installed on the
287 guest vm). It may also be necessary when a new version of the guest
288 additions becomes available.</p>
290 <li>To install the guest additions, open the guest VM and have its window
292 <li>Choose the "Devices" menu and select "Insert Guest Additions CD
293 Image". This will mount the CD's ISO image on the VM.</li>
294 <li>On the guest VM, it may be necessary to mount the CD image that's now
296 sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom</li>
297 <li>Since the VM currently has no windowing system installed, one must
298 start the Guest Additions install manually:<br>
300 sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run</li>
301 <li>This should install the guest additions.</li>
303 <h3>Set up network adapters on guest VM</h3>
304 <p>The network interfaces should already be configured on the guest within
305 the virtualbox configuration. This is available by clicking on the
306 VM in the virtualbox manager and selecting "Settings". These are the
307 configuration settings used:</p>
309 Attached to: Host-only Adapter<br>
310 Name: vboxnet0 <br>
312 Attached to: Nat Network<br>
313 Name: NatNetwork</p>
314 <p>On the guest VM itself, the network settings are specified in a file
315 called /etc/network/interfaces. Here are the current contents of
317 <pre>source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*<br><br>auto lo<br>iface lo inet loopback<br><br>auto enp0s3<br>iface enp0s3 inet static<br> address 10.28.42.20<br> netmask 255.255.255.0<br> network 10.28.42.0<br> broadcast 10.28.42.255<br> dns-domain cakelampvm.com<br> dns-search cakelampvm.com<br> dns-nameservers 127.0.0.1 8.8.8.8</pre>
318 <pre>auto enp0s8</pre>
319 <pre>iface enp0s8 inet dhcp</pre>
321 <h2>Handy Techniques</h2>
322 <h3>Assorted Guides and Cheat-Sheets</h3>
323 <p>Cheat sheet for Vim: <a title="vim commands" href="https://vim.rtorr.com/">https://vim.rtorr.com/</a></p>
324 <p>Git branching model that seems to work well: <a title="release and patch process"
325 href="http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/">http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/</a></p>
328 <h3>Get the network address on the guest vm</h3>
329 <p>Run this command: ifconfig</p>
330 <p>In the results, look for "inet addr". There may be more than one,
331 if there are multiple network interfaces.</p>
332 <h3>How to cleanly reboot or shut down the guest VM</h3>
333 <p>When you've got the DNS and everything integrated, these commands will
334 manage the vm's state:</p>
335 <p>First, log into the guest VM: ssh developer@cakelampvm.com</p>
336 <p>Then, reboot the guest VM: sudo reboot</p>
337 <p>Or, halt the guest VM: sudo shutdown -h now</p>
338 <p>Using these commands is better than just cycling the power from the
339 virtualbox control panel.</p>
340 <h2>Notes on building the Cake Lamp VM</h2>
341 <p>This is all work that should already have been done. It is
342 mentioned here just as breadcrumbs for a future vm builder.</p>
344 <li>Downloaded and installed virtualbox for host computer (where the vm
345 image will be built).</li>
346 <li>Downloaded ubuntu server 16.04 iso.
347 (https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server)</li>
348 <li>Created a new vm in virtualbox, telling it to start from the ubuntu
350 <li>Installed LAMP stack on guest VM. Some help here:
351 http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-install-lamp-on-ubuntu</li>
352 <li>Configured CAKE on the guest VM. Useful link:
353 https://askubuntu.com/questions/628938/how-to-install-cakephp-in-ubuntu-14-04</li>
354 <li>Configured the two network adapters as needed (one for host-only
355 network and one for nat network). Here's some info about
356 virtualbox networking with two adapters similar to our setup:
357 https://askubuntu.com/questions/293816/in-virtualbox-how-do-i-set-up-host-only-virtual-machines-that-can-access-the-in<br>
359 <li>Installed and configured Samba service for the guest VM. The
360 main config file lives in "/etc/samba/smb.conf". Some pointers
362 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/How%20to%20Create%20a%20Network%20Share%20Via%20Samba%20Via%20CLI%20%28Command-line%20interface/Linux%20Terminal%29%20-%20Uncomplicated%2C%20Simple%20and%20Brief%20Way%21</li>
364 <p><span style="font-style: italic;"><br>
366 <p><span style="font-style: italic;"><br>
368 <p><span style="font-style: italic;"><br>
370 <p><span style="font-style: italic;">remaining work:</span></p>
371 <p>todo: arrange gritty details to back.</p>
372 <p>todo: toc goes after intro paragraph.</p>
376 <h2><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br>
projects / feisty_meow.git / blob