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5 <title>Cake LAMP VM Documentation</title>
8 <h1 style="text-align: center;">The cakelampvm VM:<br>
9 Configuration and Usage</h1>
10 <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Chris
11 Koeritz</span><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;"></span><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;"></span><br>
12 <span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;">feisty meow® concerns ltd</span>.</div>
13 <h3 style=" text-align: center;">VM Vintage: cakelampvm v003
15 Docs Updated: 2018-05-21</h3>
16 <p>The cakelampvm project provides a Virtualbox VM that acts as an "internet
17 in a bottle", serving up your web sites securely and only to your local
18 host. The virtual machine provides DNS services (<a target="_blank"
19 title="dns server" href="http://www.bind9.net/">bind9</a>), a Web server
20 (<a target="_blank" title="patchy" href="https://httpd.apache.org/">Apache2</a>),
21 a full <a target="_blank" title="ubuntu means compassion and humanity" href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>
22 <a target="_blank" title="it's pronounced leenoox" href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/">Linux</a>
23 desktop environment, the <a target="_blank" title="flux is change" href="http://fluxbox.org/">Fluxbox</a>
24 <a target="_blank" title="x11 -- best windowing system" href="https://www.x.org/">X
25 window manager</a>, and a suite of tools called the <a target="_blank"
26 title="feisty meow® concerns ltd. website" href="https://feistymeow.org/">Feisty
27 Meow® codebase</a> . Together, these services provide you with a
28 very flexible and powerful testbed for web development, especially suited
29 for <a target="_blank" title="it's cake" href="https://cakephp.org/">CakePHP</a>.
30 This VM was built with the assistance of and was partially funded by <a target="_blank"
31 title="saco design" href="http://sacodesign.com">Saco Design</a> of <a
32 target="_blank" title="winterport" href="http://www.winterportmaine.gov/">Winterport,
34 <p>Commands in fixed-width bold below are intended to be typed into a bash
35 shell running on the cakelampvm virtual machine. The bash shell can
36 be obtained either by logging into the VM through ssh or by logging in
37 directly to the Virtualbox VM console. You may find the ssh session
38 more convenient, because copy & paste features work as expected.</p>
39 <p>Commands preceded by a greater-than symbol ('>') are intended to be
40 run on the Host PC in a Windows command prompt (or in a bash prompt
41 running on the Host PC).</p>
42 <h2> Guest VM Configuration<a id="#config" name="#config"></a></h2>
44 <li>Hostname: <a target="_blank" title="the vm's website, when configured properly"
45 href="https://cakelampvm.com/">cakelampvm.com</a></li>
46 <li>Local IP Address: 10.28.42.20</li>
47 <li>Services Included: DNS (bind9), apache2, fluxbox X windowing system, <a
48 target="_blank" title="not just in the garden" href="https://www.gnome.org/">gnome
49 display manager</a></li>
50 <li>Main VM User: developer (password distributed separately)</li>
51 <li>Database Access: mysql root account (password distributed separately)</li>
53 <h2>How to set up virtualbox for your host PC<a id="#virtualbox-setup" name="#virtualbox-setup"></a></h2>
55 <li>Download and install virtualbox: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads">https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads</a></li>
56 <li>Install the extension pack for Virtualbox: This provides USB drivers
57 and other features. This is installed on Virtualbox itself (on the
58 Host PC), not on the guests.</li>
60 <li>Download the extension pack (also) at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads">https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads</a></li>
61 <li>Stop any running Virtualbox VMs.</li>
62 <li>Close the Virtualbox control panel.</li>
63 <li>Double-click on the downloaded extensions package (in a file
64 explorer) and Virtualbox should be launched to install it.</li>
66 <li>Run the Virtualbox control panel.</li>
67 <li>Download the cakelampvm guest vm package and unzip it. Store the
68 unzipped version in some appropriate place where you want the virtual
69 machine to reside on your host's hard drive.</li>
70 <li>Add the guest VM to your list of VMs. From the Virtualbox menus,
71 choose the "Machine" menu and select "Add". Point the selector
72 dialog at the cakelampvm folder you created above and open the
73 cakelampvm.vbox file.</li>
74 <li>Now the cakelampvm should show up in the list of virtual
75 machines. Before starting it, perform the following network
76 configuration sections.</li>
78 <h3>Configure the Host-Only network on Virtualbox<a id="#host-only" name="#host-only"></a></h3>
79 <p>Configuring host-only networking for the VM makes the VM completely local
80 to your machine. The cakelampvm will not be accessible on the
81 internet or from the LAN, and can only be accessed by your host PC.
82 This is a key component of security for your VM and your host PC, and is
83 considered a crucial configuration step.</p>
84 <p>Note: If the host-only or NAT network exist ahead of time, Virtualbox may
85 complain about them even if they have the correct configuration.
86 This can be corrected simply by opening the cakelampvm settings and
87 selecting the appropriate network names again.</p>
88 <p>To configure the host-only network, follow these steps:</p>
90 <li> Go to virtual box "Preferences" (global preferences, not for a
92 <li> Click on the "Network" tab.</li>
93 <li> Choose the "Host-only Networks" tab from within "Network".</li>
94 <li> Click the plus icon to add a new host-only network, or if there is
95 already a Host-only network, then edit it.</li>
96 <li>Set the "Adapter" parameters:<br>
97 IPv4 Address: 10.28.42.1<br>
98 IPv4 Network Mask: 255.255.255.0<br>
99 IPv6 Address: (leave blank)<br>
100 IPv6 Prefix Length: 0<br>
101 Virtualbox will fill in the other details like so (this dialog may
102 differ between versions of virtualbox):<br>
103 <p><img alt="host only network adapter" src="images/host_only_network_adapter.png"></p>
105 <li>Set the "DHCP Server Settings" to disabled, e.g.<br>
106 <img alt="host only dhcp" src="images/host_only_adapter_dhcp_server.png"><br>
107 This is disabled because we will be using statically assigned addresses
108 for convenience and stability.</li>
110 <p>Additional information on host-only (and other) network adapter types is
111 at: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html#network_nat_service</p>
112 <h3>Configure the NAT Network on Virtualbox<a id="#nat-network" name="#nat-network"></a></h3>
113 <p>The NAT (Network Address Translation) network allows the VM to get off of
114 the machine and onto the internet safely. It will use this interface
115 for any communication off of the host machine. This is another
116 crucial component for the security of the VM and your host PC. Since
117 the real IP address of the VM is hidden behind the NAT firewall on
118 Virtualbox, this keeps the VM safe from attackers, and hence your machine
119 stays safe as well.</p>
120 <p>To set up the NAT network, follow these steps:</p>
122 <li> Go to virtual box "Preferences" (global preferences, not for a
124 <li> Click on the "Network" tab.</li>
125 <li> Choose the "Nat Networks" tab from within "Network".</li>
126 <li> Click the plus icon to add a new host-only network.</li>
127 <li>Set the "NAT Network Details" parameters:<br>
128 Network Name: NatNetwork<br>
129 Network CIDR: 10.0.2.0/24<br>
130 Supports DHCP: checked<br>
131 Supports IPv6: optionally checked<br>
132 These are my settings, with IPv6 left disabled (this dialog may differ
133 between versions of virtualbox):<br>
134 <img alt="nat net config" src="images/nat_network_config.png"></li>
136 <h2>Starting up the VM and Connecting to It<a id="#start-vm" name="#start-vm"></a></h2>
137 <p>★ This section requires that the VM is already configured properly for
138 Host-Only and NAT networks.</p>
139 <p>Using the Virtualbox interface, you should now be able to start your
140 virtual machine. Virtualbox will complain if it detects any
141 remaining configuration problems in the VM. The Linux boot sequence
142 will show many lines of text, before bringing up a black console window
143 with a login dialog.</p>
144 <p>If Windows complains about the Virtualbox application slamming into its
145 firewall, then allow the Virtualbox to get through. Usually, telling
146 Windows that once is enough, but if any odd network access problems
147 result, edit the Windows firewall settings and allow Virtualbox to use
148 both "Public" and "Private" networks. (Cortana can find the firewall
149 settings if you ask her about 'firewall'. Within the firewall
150 configuration dialog, look for "Allow an app or feature through..." on the
151 left and configure Virtualbox from within that list.)</p>
152 You can log in directly on the VM console with the developer account, but it
153 is generally more useful to connect to the cakelampvm over ssh. If the
154 networking has been established properly, you should be able to do this
156 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">ssh developer@10.28.42.20<br># or perform the equivalent connection with your ssh client.</span></pre>
157 <p>And then provide the password to log in.</p>
159 <p> ★ It is very important that the ssh connection is working properly
160 before proceeding to other configuration steps. If ssh is not
161 working, try pinging the host:</p>
162 <pre><b>ping 10.28.42.20</b></pre>
163 <p>If the ping is also failing, then please re-check the two network
164 configuration sections above (for Host-Only networking and NAT
165 networking). These are both required for the VM's network to
166 function as designed.</p>
167 <p>Optional: Once the DNS services are set up (discussed in detail below),
168 you will be able to run the much friendlier command:</p>
169 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">ssh developer@cakelampvm.com</span></pre>
170 <h4>Key Forwarding to the VM</h4>
171 <p>It is important to set up ssh key forwarding to enable your use of git
172 repositories while logged into the VM. Key forwarding should be
173 enabled for the VM's two fake host identities:</p>
174 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">cakelampvm.com<br>10.28.42.20</span></pre>
175 <p>The details of configuring ssh key forwarding vary for each ssh
176 client. For Linux ssh, the <b>~/.ssh/config</b> file might contain
177 this information:</p>
178 <pre><b>Host cakelampvm.com 10.28.42.20<br> ForwardAgent yes<br></b></pre>
179 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></pre>
180 <h2>Updating cakelampvm to the Latest Model<a id="#update-vm" name="#update-vm"></a></h2>
181 <p>★ This section requires that the VM is already configured and is
182 accessible via ssh.</p>
183 <p>argh: fix this info... The cakelampvm v002 is released with the intention
184 that it not need to be released again. Version 001 was not built
185 with that explicit intention, which then required the release of Version
186 002. But we hope to not need a v003 release...</p>
187 <p>There is an update feature built into the VM that is quite easy to
188 use. The updates are driven by the feisty meow script repository in
189 conjunction with a local scripted command. To activate the "update
190 process" for your VM, run the following commands on the VM, logged in as
191 the <i>developer</i> user:</p>
192 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;"># update to the latest version of feisty meow.<br>rpuffer $FEISTY_MEOW_APEX; recustomize<br># enact any configuration changes needed, such as permissions and account setup.
193 revamp_cakelampvm</span></pre>
194 <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>
195 <p>These two commands can be run at any time to patch up your VM to the
196 latest configuration.</p>
197 <p>Recent versions of feisty meow support a new "<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">get_feisty</span>"
198 command, which will behave the same as the first line above. Once
199 you have run the "puffer..." command above for the first time (on
200 cakelampvm v002), this new command becomes available.</p>
202 <li>The "<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">get_feisty</span>"
203 command is useful in its own right for getting the latest version of the
204 feisty meow code; run it again if you need bug fixes or if you want the
205 most recent cakelampvm documentation.</li>
206 <li>The "<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: monospace;">revamp_cakelampvm</span>"
207 command can be used to repair many situations when the cakelampvm has
208 gone astray, especially for problems with permissions.</li>
210 <h2>First Tasks as the Developer User</h2>
211 <p>★ This section requires that the VM is already configured and is
212 accessible via ssh.</p>
213 <p>Here are some first steps that will make the vm your own.</p>
215 <li>Change your password for the developer account. (This may
216 eventually be required and automatic.) First, log into the VM with
217 ssh. Then type this command:<br>
218 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">passwd</span></pre>
219 The 'passwd' command will ask for your current password, and then for a
220 new password plus a verification of that new password.<br>
221 You will probably want to change your samba password as well, which is
222 used when accessing the virtual machine over the network. This is
223 a different, but very similar, command on Linux:<br>
224 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">smbpasswd</span></pre>
226 <li>Change your git configuration for the user and email address.
227 This is how we've configured it so far:<br>
230 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">git config --global user.email "developer@cakelampvm.com"</span></pre>
233 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">git config --global user.name "Developer J. Cakemo"</span></pre>
236 If you're developing on a real project, you probably don't want the
237 bogus email and even more bogus name above attached to your
238 commits. Just run the two commands again but with proper values.</li>
240 <h2>Powering up with the Feisty Meow® scripts<a id="#powerup" name="#powerup"></a></h2>
241 The feisty meow scripts are a cohesive bash scripting environment for
242 getting a variety of tasks done. The feisty meow scripts recently
243 incorporated the "avbash" collection from Saco Design and added those
244 scripts to a new "site_avenger" collection of scripts. The site
245 avenger scripts provide tools for bringing up CakePHP web sites and managing
246 the collection of repositories for those sites. Each website is
247 considered an "application", and the application name itself (e.g.
248 "winterportlibrary") can often provide all the details for "powering up" the
249 site. The feisty meow team has added additional scripts for managing
250 DNS domains and Apache websites that provide the capability to "stand up" an
251 entire website around an application, with an accompanying DNS domain and an
252 Apache2 site definition.
253 <p>The site avenger scripts are documented separately within the feisty meow
254 codebase. Consult the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">f</span><a
255 target="_blank" title="quickstart" href="https://feistymeow.org/feisty_meow/readme.txt">eisty
257 readme</a> file first, as it provides some valuable information on
258 configuring the codebase initially. The site avenger script commands
259 are documented in the <a target="_blank" title="useful commands" href="https://feistymeow.org/feisty_meow/documentation/feisty_meow_command_reference.txt">feisty
260 meow command reference</a> file.</p>
261 <p>(The feisty meow codebase is already configured for the developer account
262 on the cakelampvm virtual machine.)</p>
263 <h2>Using the guest VM's DNS services<a id="#dns-from-vm" name="#dns-from-vm"></a></h2>
264 <p>★ This section requires that the VM is already configured and is
265 accessible via ssh.</p>
266 <p>The cakelampvm has been set up to provide a DNS server which will answer
267 name lookup requests on any of the sites that the cakelampvm is hosting
268 for you. It will also serve as a general DNS server for any other
269 domains that need to be looked up.</p>
270 <p>To use the cakelampvm DNS, modify your host operating system network
271 configuration by adding or changing the DNS server to use the guest VM's
272 DNS service. The cakelampvm is available at the local IP address
273 10.28.42.20. (The DNS server can be tested with nslookup, dig and
275 <p>Note that the cakelampvm DNS should be listed first, if one intends to
276 override any DNS names that actually exist out on the internet.
277 Further, we have found it most effective to have *only* the cakelampvm as
278 your DNS server, because a secondary DNS server can "take over" providing
279 the name lookups, and thus foul up DNS requests that should succeed for
280 your VM-hosted sites.</p>
281 <p>If your Host PC is running Windows, see the DNS configuration section
282 below that is tailored to that operating system.</p>
283 <p>Important Note: It behooves you to remember to switch back to a normal
284 DNS server configuration when you shut off the cakelampvm, or your machine
285 will not know the names of any sites on the internet any more! The
286 official Google DNS servers are 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.</p>
287 <p>Once the DNS server is properly set up (by whatever means necessary),
288 these ping commands should get answering responses (from 10.28.42.20) on
289 both the cakelampvm VM and on your host PC. Note: ping on Linux
290 keeps going forever, so hit control-C when you are tired of seeing the
292 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">ping cakelampvm.com</span></pre>
293 <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>
294 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">ping www.cakelampvm.com</span></pre>
295 <p>Note that any other answer than 10.28.42.20 for the address is *bzzzt*
296 wrong, and means something needs to be fixed.</p>
297 <p>If these pings succeed (which hopefully they will!), then try accessing
298 the websites of each domain:</p>
299 <pre>(browse to) <a target="_blank" title="vm website if dns working" href="http://cakelampvm.com">http://cakelampvm.com</a></pre>
300 <pre>(browse to) <a target="_blank" title="mapsdemo app, hopefully functional"
301 href="http://mapsdemo.cakelampvm.com">http://mapsdemo.cakelampvm.com</a></pre>
302 <p>These should show local sites on the VM rather than sites on the
303 internet. If you instead get failures to find the domains, or if the
304 "real internet" site comes up for cakelampvm.com (the page covered with
305 red X marks and complaining), then the DNS is not hooked up properly yet.</p>
306 <h4>Setting up DNS on Windows<a id="#windoze-dns" name="#windoze-dns"></a></h4>
307 <p>The ipconfig tool will provide helpful information about your current
308 networking and DNS configuration:</p>
309 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">> ipconfig /all</span></pre>
310 <p>The DNS configuration on Windows is somewhat byzantine. The pipe
311 characters ('|') below are used to separate the menus or tabs or dialogs
312 to traverse. Follow this path to get to the DNS config:</p>
313 <pre>Control Panel | Network & Internet | Network & Sharing | click WiFI or Ethernet link near top right | click Adapter Settings button...<br> | click on the specific network device to modify | select Properties</pre>
314 <p>Once the properties dialog is displayed, find "internet protocol version
315 4" in the list and double click it.</p>
316 <p>Change the DNS setting from "obtain...automatically" to "use the
317 following dns addresses".</p>
318 <p>Enter 10.28.42.20 as the first DNS address and clear the second address
320 <p>Hit okay, then okay, then close, etc to back out of adapter
322 <h4>Troubleshooting the DNS</h4>
323 <p>If your pings are getting the wrong answers and you're certain the DNS
324 settings on your Host PC are right, then you may need to flush your DNS
325 cache, and that might be sufficient to start getting the right IP
326 address. On Windows, the command for flushing DNS is:</p>
327 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">> ipconfig /flushdns</span></pre>
328 <p>and on Linux the flush DNS command can be many different things, but try
329 these two most common options:</p>
330 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;"># restarts the client side DNS cache.<br>sudo service dns-clean restart</span></pre>
332 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;"># restarts the nscd caching server.<br>sudo service nscd restart</span></pre>
333 After, this try the pings again. If they still fail, please go back
334 over your DNS configuration very carefully. The cakelampvm's DNS
335 feature *does* actually work, but operating systems sometimes do their best
337 <h4>Host Key Issues for ssh</h4>
338 <p>There is one caveat to be aware of when connecting to the cakelampvm.com
339 domain. If you have accidentally added the "real" cakelampvm.com
340 domain from the internet to your ssh known_keys at some point, then ssh
341 will complain about connecting to the VM on the cakelampvm.com
342 domain. This complaint will look like:</p>
343 <pre>The authenticity of host 'cakelampvm.com (104.236.56.82)' can't be established.</pre>
344 <p>Note that the IP address shown is not our beloved 10.28.42.20 local IP
346 <p>To fix this, remove the entry pointing at the "real" site from the
347 known_hosts file (ssh will print out the line number of the offending
348 entry). The DNS configuration needs to be configured before you will
349 get the warning about the cakelampvm.com domain. Up until then, the
350 domain name is always referring to the site out on the internet with the
351 red X's and warnings. See the DNS configuration section below to
352 configure DNS the first time.</p>
353 <p>Once you connect to the VM and the ssh client records the VM's host key
354 in your known_hosts, then you're in good shape. This state also
355 gives you a "canary in a coal mine" warning system... Once the VM is
356 registered as a known host, then any attempt to connect back to the "real"
357 internet version of cakelampvm.com will garner a complaint from ssh.
358 This version of the ssh warning should be heeded; you do not want to
359 connect to the real internet site, and the warning indicates that the host
360 PC is no longer using the DNS on the VM (since it reached the real
361 internet site instead of the VM). That situation needs to be
362 corrected by running through the DNS configuration section again (and
363 testing the DNS until it is working).</p>
364 <h4>Troubleshooting the Apache Sites</h4>
365 <p>If your DNS pings and lookups are functioning properly, but you're just
366 not getting the right websites, then try clearing your browser's cache and
367 shutting the browser application down. Then, start the browser up
368 and try the address again. Often this cache dumping is enough to fix
369 the browser so that you start seeing the local website versions on
371 <h2>Editing files on the guest VM from the host<a id="#editing-files-on-vm"
372 name="#editing-files-on-vm"></a></h2>
373 <p>On the host computer, look for the guest vm as a networked computer
374 called cakelampvm. This should provide some network shares using
375 Microsoft SMB protocol, and they can be attached to using the "developer"
376 user and its password.</p>
377 <p>On windows, one may want to mount this network location as a drive letter
378 for easier access.</p>
379 <p>Currently, the root of all web servers is exposed as "www". Editing
380 the files in those folders requires ownership by the developer user.
381 The existing mapsdemo site is owned by a different user ("fred") rather
382 than developer, mostly as a test case. The "fred", "developer", and
383 "www-data" accounts on the VM have all been put into each others Unix
384 "groups" so that they can access each other's files, and thus you may not
385 notice any issues editing fred's files.</p>
386 <p>One should be able to create a new directory over the network also.
387 Try creating a junk folder in the "www" folder, and then deleting it
388 again. That should succeed, and this approach can be used to create
389 folders (from the Host PC) that are owned by the developer user (on the
390 VM). You should be able to create folders or copy files within the
391 developer's home folder also ("/home/developer").</p>
392 <p>If you run into any permission problems that prevent file access, either
393 remotely or within the VM itself, then try running this command to fix
394 them (repeated from the section above about updating the cakelampvm):</p>
395 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">revamp_cakelampvm</span></pre>
396 <p>Afterwards, the www folder and others should allow the developer user to
397 create new folders at will.</p>
398 <h2>Accessing files on the host PC from the guest VM<a id="#samba-shares" name="#samba-shares"></a></h2>
399 <p>If you want to share a folder from the host to the guest, perhaps for
400 driver updates or other conveniences, then make the share with these
403 <li>Create a folder on the host that is to be shared.</li>
404 <li>Right-click on the vm in Virtualbox manager and choose "Settings".</li>
405 <li>In the "Shared Folders" tab of the settings, go to "Machine Folders".</li>
406 <li>Click the folder plus icon to create a new share.</li>
407 <li>Fill in the "Folder Path" on the host PC to the folder that will be
408 shared, and give it a name for the guest. We assume the folder
409 name will be "myshare".</li>
410 <li>On the guest vm, run the following commands to mount the share:<br>
411 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;"># make the guest's version of the shared folder<br>mkdir ~/shared<br># mount the vm's share name onto the folder on the vm.<br>sudo mount -t vboxsf myshare ~/shared</span></pre>
414 <h2>X11 applications launched from the VM</h2>
415 <p>[incomplete section]</p>
416 <p>If a feature called "X forwarding" is enabled in your ssh client, then
417 you can start graphical applications on the VM and display them on your
418 local machine. This works right away on most Linux hosts, but can
419 also work on PCs with X window system installed. This section
420 describes how to set up Cygwin to run X server, which enables X11
421 forwarding to your local display.</p>
422 <p>...{insert that info}...</p>
423 <h2>Handy Techniques for Using cakelampvm</h2>
424 <h3>Assorted Guides and Cheat-Sheets</h3>
425 <p>A Cheat sheet for the Vim editor (there are many of these available): <a
426 target="_blank" title="vim commands" href="https://vim.rtorr.com/">https://vim.rtorr.com/</a></p>
427 <p>A git branching model that seems to work well: <a target="_blank" title="release and patch process"
428 href="http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/">http://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/</a></p>
429 <p>This is a basic guide to the Google Developer Console and API Key
430 management: <a target="_blank" title="apis and creds at google" href="https://feistymeow.org//feisty_meow/documentation/google_apis/google_apis_and_credentials.pdf">Google
431 API Docs</a> </p>
432 <h3>Using the "meld" Tool to Compare Files & Directories</h3>
433 <p>Meld is a great comparison tool that displays differences between two
434 files or directories or directory trees in a graphical view. Meld is
435 pre-installed on the VM. This tool can be launched either in the
436 VM's X Windowing System (on the console) or if X11 forwarding is enabled.</p>
437 <p>To run meld, just type this command:</p>
438 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">meld A B</span></pre>
439 <p>where A and B are either both file names or they are both directory
440 names. If A and B are directories, meld will compare the entire tree
441 structure between the two directories. It allows one to copy from
442 one side to the other, even if the item that needs to be copied is an
443 entire subdirectory.</p>
444 <h3>Get the network address on the guest vm</h3>
445 <p>Run this command:</p>
446 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">ifconfig</span></pre>
447 <p>In the results, look for "<span style="font-family: monospace;">inet addr</span>".
448 There may be more than one, if there are multiple network interfaces.</p>
449 <p>The standard IP address is 10.28.42.20 for the cakelampvm.</p>
450 <h3>How to cleanly reboot or shut down the guest VM</h3>
451 <p>When you've got the DNS and everything integrated, these commands will
452 manage the vm's state:</p>
453 <p>First, log into the guest VM:</p>
454 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">ssh developer@cakelampvm.com</span></pre>
455 <p>Then, to reboot the guest VM:</p>
456 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo reboot</span></pre>
457 <p>Or, to halt the guest VM:</p>
458 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo shutdown -h now</span></pre>
459 <p>Using these commands is kinder to the VM than just cycling the power from
460 the Virtualbox control panel.</p>
461 <h1>Gritty Details of the Nitty Variety<a id="#nitty-gritty" name="#nitty-gritty"></a></h1>
462 <p>This is the lowest level of plumbing for your VM. Hopefully you
463 will not need to engage with this section. The most useful doc
464 section here is the one below about the "Virtualbox guest additions",
465 which you will probably need at some future point. Oracle releases
466 updates to the guest additions fairly regularly.</p>
467 <h2>Configuring the guest VM</h2>
468 <p>The guest VM should already be set up appropriately. These steps
469 are provided for reference and updates.</p>
470 <h3>Set up Virtualbox guest additions for the VM</h3>
471 This procedure is needed if the guest provides an older or incompatible
472 version of the guest additions (which have already been installed on the
473 guest vm). It may also be necessary when a new version of the guest
474 additions becomes available.
476 <li>To install the guest additions, open the guest VM and have its window
478 <li>Choose the "Devices" menu and select "Insert Guest Additions CD
479 Image". This will mount the CD's ISO image on the VM.</li>
480 <li>On the guest VM, it may be necessary to mount the CD image that's now
482 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom</span></pre>
483 <p>Linux will mention that the device is mounted "read-only".</p>
485 <li>Since the VM currently has no windowing system installed, one must
486 start the Guest Additions install manually:<br>
487 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">cd /media/cdrom<br>sudo sh VBoxLinuxAdditions.run</span></pre>
489 <li>The latest Virtualbox guest additions should now be installed.</li>
491 <h3>Set up network adapters on guest VM</h3>
492 <p>The network interfaces should already be configured on the guest within
493 the Virtualbox configuration. This is available by clicking on the
494 VM in the Virtualbox manager and selecting "Settings". These are the
495 configuration settings used:</p>
497 Attached to: Host-only Adapter<br>
498 Name: vboxnet0 <br>
500 Attached to: Nat Network<br>
501 Name: NatNetwork</p>
502 <p>On the guest VM itself, the network settings are specified in a file
503 called /etc/network/interfaces. Here are the current contents of
505 <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>
506 <pre>auto enp0s8</pre>
507 <pre>iface enp0s8 inet dhcp</pre>
509 <h3>Compacting the VM Disk Image</h3>
510 <p>To minimize the size used for the disk image, there are three major
512 <p>1. While running the VM, run this command:</p>
513 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo apt clean</span></pre>
514 <p>This throws away any cached data from the apt tool, which can be
516 <p>If there are other junk files you know of that can be removed, delete
518 <p>2. Reboot the VM to the gparted ISO image (available at the <a target="_blank"
519 title="great free partition editor" href="https://gparted.org/livecd.php">gparted
520 site</a>) and run the following command:</p>
521 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo zerofree /dev/sda</span></pre>
522 <p>This sets all free space to the zero byte, enabling Virtualbox to free
523 that space in the next step.</p>
524 <p>3. Shut the vm down after zerofree is complete and run this command on
525 the host PC (this is the Linux version of the command):</p>
526 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">VBoxManage modifyhd --compact ~/cake_lamp_vm/cake-lamp-vm-hd.vdi</span></pre>
527 <p>Replace the <span style="font-family: monospace;">~/cake_lamp_vm</span>
528 path with the real VM storage path. This command compacts the root
529 (and only) partition of the VM.</p>
530 <p>After these steps are complete, the VM should be its minimal size.</p>
531 <h2>Adding a new website and domain on the guest VM</h2>
532 <p>Note: these instructions, even the quick approaches below, pale in
533 comparison to the ease of use of the "standup" command in feisty meow's
534 site avenger scripts. The standup command is detailed in the <a
535 target="_blank" title="useful commands" href="https://feistymeow.org/feisty_meow/documentation/feisty_meow_command_reference.txt">feisty
536 meow command reference</a> document. These instructions are for
537 situations when the domain or site is idiosyncratic in some way that
538 standup doesn't support.</p>
539 <p>To add a new website, you will first need to pick one of the DNS options
540 below (A or B) depending on how you want to name the site. If the
541 DNS name of the site is contained within another existing domain (e.g.,
542 "A.B.C" has subdomain A contained in domain B.C), use Option A. If
543 the DNS name is a so-called "Second Level Domain" (SLD), then it stands on
544 its own (e.g., "B.C" is an SLD).</p>
545 <p>Once the DNS option has been picked and implemented, continue to the next
546 section of "Creating a New Apache Site".</p>
547 <p>For either Option A or Option B, first connect to the cakelampvm via ssh
548 as the developer user, e.g.: ssh developer@cakelampvm.com </p>
549 <h3>DNS Option A: Adding a sub-domain in an existing domain</h3>
550 <p>Let us say a customer needs an application called "excalibur". It
551 will be a new subdomain within an existing domain, such as the
552 "cakelampvm.com" domain, meaning we want the VM to start answering
553 requests for "excalibur.cakelampvm.com".</p>
554 Note that this option requires the containing domain "cakelampvm.com" to
555 already exist before adding the subdomain; see DNS Option B below for
556 details on how to add a containing domain for the first time.
557 <h4>Quick approach: Use the feisty meow "add_domain" command.</h4>
558 <p>Run this command in a bash shell on the VM:</p>
559 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">add_domain excalibur.cakelampvm.com</span></pre>
561 <h4>Manual approach: Edit the bind9 configuration.</h4>
562 <p>Note: the manual approach is not compatible with later use of feisty
563 meow's "remove_domain".</p>
564 Execute the following command to edit the DNS file for the cakelampvm
566 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo vi /etc/bind/cakelampvm.com.conf</span></pre>
567 <p>Add a stanza for the new site at the end of this file:</p>
568 <pre>excalibur.cakelampvm.com. IN A 10.28.42.20<br> IN HINFO "linux server" "ubuntu"</pre>
569 <p>Restart the DNS server:</p>
570 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo service bind9 restart</span></pre>
571 <p>Afterwards, pinging excalibur.cakelampvm.com should work from both the
572 guest VM and the host PC.</p>
573 <h3>DNS Option B: Using an entirely new domain for the site</h3>
574 <p>This is a similar procedure to Option A, but we will create a totally new
575 config file for the new domain and add it to the bind directory. For
576 this example, we need to add the site "excalibur.tv" into the DNS.</p>
577 <h4>Quick approach: Use the feisty meow "add_domain" command.</h4>
578 Run this command in a bash shell on the VM:
579 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">add_domain excalibur.tv</span></pre>
581 <h4>Manual approach: Edit a new DNS config file</h4>
582 <p>Note: the manual approach is not compatible with later use of feisty
583 meow's "remove_domain".</p>
584 Create a file called /etc/bind/excalibur.tv.conf for our new domain
585 excalibur.tv with these contents:
586 <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># new SLD for our excalibur site.<br>excalibur.tv. IN A 10.28.42.20<br> IN HINFO "linux server" "ubuntu"</pre>
587 The gnarly prefix stuff above the "excalibur.tv." listing establishes
588 configuration info for the new domain. This file relies on the
589 existing cakelampvm.com infrastructure in DNS, such as the "ns" host, which
590 is the domain's name server. However, the new domain does <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span>
591 live inside the cakelampvm.com domain.<br>
592 <p>Now that the config file is in place, edit "/etc/bind/named.conf.local"
593 to add the new file by adding this bit of configuration at the end:</p>
594 <pre>zone "excalibur.tv" in {<br> file "/etc/bind/excalibur.tv.conf";<br> type master;<br> allow-query { any; };<br>};</pre>
595 <p>Restart the DNS server:</p>
596 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo service bind9 restart</span></pre>
597 <p>Afterwards, pinging excalibur.tv should work from both the guest and the
599 <h3>Creating a New Apache Site</h3>
600 <p>First, connect to the cakelampvm via ssh as the developer user, e.g.: ssh
601 developer@cakelampvm.com </p>
602 <h4>Quick approach: Use the feisty meow "add_apache_site" command.</h4>
603 <p>Run this command in a bash shell on the VM:</p>
604 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">add_apache_site excalibur excalibur.tv</span></pre>
605 <p>(The first parameter is the application name, the second is the domain
608 <h4>Manual approach: Edit an Apache config file</h4>
609 <p>Note: the manual approach is not compatible with later use of feisty
610 meow's "remove_apache_site".</p>
611 <p>For Apache, the choice of DNS Option A or B, subdomain or SLD, does not
612 matter. The site configuration file just has to accurately specify
613 the domain in question.</p>
614 <p>Start with the following template file for the new website, and modify it
615 for the appropriate host name and "DocumentRoot" path:</p>
616 <pre><VirtualHost *:80><br> ServerName excalibur.tv
617 DocumentRoot /home/apps/excalibur<br> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/excalibur.tv-error.log<br> CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/excalibur.tv-access.log combined<br> Include /etc/apache2/conf-library/basic-options.conf<br> Include /etc/apache2/conf-library/rewrite-enabling.conf<br></VirtualHost></pre>
618 <p>The above example is appropriate for our excalibur app in the
619 excalibur.tv domain (using DNS Option B). Modifying the excalibur.tv
620 references in it (and the path in the DocumentRoot) is sufficient to
621 re-target it for any domain you want.</p>
622 <p>Copy the new site config file into "/etc/apache2/sites-available" with an
623 appropriate file name that includes the site's domain name. We will
624 call our config file "excalibur.tv.conf". If you developed the file
625 in your home folder, this would be the command to move it up to Apache:</p>
626 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo cp ~/excalibur.tv.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available</span></pre>
627 <p>Then tell apache to use the new file:</p>
628 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo a2ensite excalibur.tv<br># the '.conf' portion of the filename is unnecessary for this command.</span>
630 <p>Finally, restart apache to get it to begin serving the site:</p>
631 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">sudo service apache2 restart</span></pre>
632 <h3>Test the new web site</h3>
633 <p>Given the configuration above, your host PC should now be able to access
634 the new website on the domain "excalibur.tv".</p>
635 <p>To test this, first try pinging the new DNS name:</p>
636 <pre><span style="font-weight: bold;">ping excalibur.tv</span></pre>
637 <p>If there are responses to the ping <span style="font-weight: bold;">*and*</span>
638 the answer is 10.28.42.20, then it means the DNS is working.</p>
639 <p>If there are no responses or it's some other IP address talking back,
640 check the instructions in the above DNS sections.</p>
641 <p>Once the DNS is working, try browsing to the site at "<a title="it's excalibur, wilbur!"
642 href="http://excalibur.tv">http://excalibur.tv</a>". That should
643 at least bring up the configured site storage path, even if nothing is
644 being served from that folder yet.</p>
645 <p>If the new site is not showing up properly, try examining the apache logs
646 for any error messages that can be corrected. The log files are
647 stored in "/var/log/apache2" and are named after the website (if
648 configured through the above process).</p>
649 <h2>Notes on building the Cake Lamp VM</h2>
650 <p>This is all work that should already have been done. It is
651 mentioned here just as breadcrumbs for a future vm builder.</p>
653 <li>Downloaded and installed Virtualbox for host computer (where the vm
654 image will be built).</li>
655 <li>Downloaded ubuntu server 16.04 iso. (<a target="_blank" title="ubuntu server"
656 href="https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server">https://www.ubuntu.com/download/server</a>)</li>
657 <li>Created a new vm in Virtualbox, telling it to start from the ubuntu
659 <li>Installed LAMP stack on guest VM. Some help here: <a target="_blank"
660 title="lamplighter" href="http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-install-lamp-on-ubuntu">http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-install-lamp-on-ubuntu</a></li>
661 <li>Configured CAKE on the guest VM. Useful link: <a target="_blank"
662 title="cakebundtu" href="https://askubuntu.com/questions/628938/how-to-install-cakephp-in-ubuntu-14-04">https://askubuntu.com/questions/628938/how-to-install-cakephp-in-ubuntu-14-04</a></li>
663 <li>Configured the two network adapters as needed (one for host-only
664 network and one for nat network). Here's some info about
665 Virtualbox networking with two adapters similar to our setup: <a target="_blank"
666 href="https://askubuntu.com/questions/293816/in-virtualbox-how-do-i-set-up-host-only-virtual-machines-that-can-access-the-in">https://askubuntu.com/questions/293816/in-virtualbox-how-do-i-set-up-host-only-...</a><br>
668 <li>Installed and configured Samba service for the guest VM. The
669 main config file lives in "/etc/samba/smb.conf". Some pointers
670 here: <a target="_blank" href="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">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/How%20to%20Create...</a></li>
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