HP

Web Server Upgrade

Posted on by Tyrone

Its been 1 year since I began using a HP ProLiant DL360 G3 as my web server to host this web site. The last server upgrade was talked about in this post. During that time I have had two fan kit fail which caused a around a week of down time. I knew it was time to decommission the aging server. The HP ProLiant DL360 G3 server  had caused me issues long before it started to fail such as it doesn’t support a 64 bit operating system, limited ram slots, only supports two hard disks and the lack of processing power meant that a reverse proxy (Varnish) was a must.

My replacement server is a HP ProLiant DL380 G4. The specs for this server are as:

  • 64 bit support
  • 6 GB of RAM
  • Two  Intel Xeon CPUs clocked at 3.60GHz with hyperthreading
  • Two 72 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM hard disks in a RAID 1 for the root file system
  • Four 146 GB SCSI 15,000 RPM hard disks in a RAID 10 for the www and mysql data

Just like the old server I am running Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS as my operating system but this time I can install the 64 bit version. Due to the upgrade in performance I have chosen to not install varnish or any reverse proxy but simply use PHP caching.  I went with APC (Alternative PHP Cache) as is maintained by PHP.  I have done some basic performance testing and found that my router is more likely to freeze due to high load than my web server.

Configure HP Procurve Switch via Command Line Interface

Posted on by Tyrone

After getting my eyes of a Cisco 2960 configured created by DEECD, I decided to replicate their config on our HP Procurve switches.

Connect to the switch via telnet or the serial console and enter config mode

switch# config

Set IP address gateway

ip default-gateway 10.136.236.1

Set hostname and contact details

switch(config)# hostname "2510_01"
2510_01(config)# snmp-server contact "tyrone.wyatt@gmail.com"
2510_01(config)# snmp-server location "Senior Campus, Server Room"

Set timezone and network time protocol details

2510_01(config)# timesync sntp
2510_01(config)# sntp server 10.10.20.69
2510_01(config)# sntp unicast

Set timezone offset from GMT in minutes

2510_01(config)# time timezone 600

Enable web management SSL and disable web management plaintext

2510_01(config)# crypto key generate cert 1024
2510_01(config)# crypto host-cert generate self-signed
Validity start date [10/21/2012]: 10/21/2012
Validity end date [10/21/2013]: 10/21/2018
Common name [0.0.0.0]: 10.136.236.68
Organizational unit [Dept Name]: ICT
Organization [Company Name]: XXXX College
City or location [City]: XXXX
State name [State]: VIC
Country code [US]: AU
2510_01(config)# web-management ssl
2510_01(config)# no web-management plaintext

Enable SSH and disable telnet

2510_01(config)# crypto key generate ssh
Installing new RSA key. If the key/entropy cache is depleted, this could take up to a minute.

Enable SSH version 2 if supported

2510_01(config)# ip ssh version 2

Enable SSH version 1 if version 2 isn’t supported

2510_01(config)# ip ssh
2510_01(config)# no telnet-server

Set username and passwords

2510_01(config)# password manager user-name admin
2510_01(config)# password operator user-name monitor

Set banner

2510_01(config)# banner motd %
#######################################################################
# Authorised Users Only #
# The information on this computer and network is the property of #
# <COMPANY NAME> and is protected by intellectual property #
# rights. You must be assigned an account on this computer to #
# access the information and are only allowed to access information as #
# defined by the System Administrator(s). Your activities are #
# monitored for security reasons. #
########################################################################
%

Set name for interface/s

interface B1-B6 name " "

Save and view the configuration

2510_01(config)# write memory
2510_01(config)# show run

References

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01868095/c01868095.pdf
http://www.rienbroekstra.nl/?q=node/18
http://linuxman.wikispaces.com/HP+ProCurve+E-series+setup

Web Server Upgrade Time Baby!

Posted on by Tyrone

After many years of having my website hosted on a generic home-made server I have  upgraded to a newer server.

The new server is a HP ProLiant DL360 G3 with the specs-
CPU x2: Intel Xeon 3.06GHz
RAM: 2.5Gb ECC
HDD: x2 146.6GB SCSI 10,000RPM in a RAID1

The old server was a Intel D845EWD entry-level server motherboard with the specs-
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz
RAM: 2Gb non ECC
HDD x2 80 IDE in a RAID 1, 3x 300Gb SATA1 in a RAID5 on a Adaptec PCI Hardware RAID controller
Case: Antec beige tower

The choice of which Linux distribution to use was a not a decision I look lightly. In the end Ubuntu 12.04 LTS won over Centos 6.2. Both operating systems offered an awesome Enterprise OS but I am familiar with Ubuntu and already use it on my desktop and other servers.

I upgraded my firewall server a few weeks ago and since then have performed some tweaks to varnish the reverse web proxy service and now my website should load quicker and almost be slashdot proof. I think only only issue now is my lack of upload bandwidth and my ADSL router is crappy.