BitFolk Users February 2011

users@mailman.bitfolk.com

33 participants
18 discussions

by Andy Smith

Hi, You may recall recently that there was a period of poor network performance because the customer DNS resolver on 212.13.194.71 was overloaded: http://lists.bitfolk.com/lurker/message/20110102.221800.b90128dc.en.html In that thread I promised to provision a new dedicated resolver to avoid a re-occurrence of the issue. Instead I took the opportunity to provision several new resolver hosts in a cluster with fail over for the service IPs. All customers should change their resolvers from: 212.13.194.71 212.13.194.96 to: 85.119.80.232 85.119.80.233 There's some maintenance coming up in February (details in a separate email, shortly) which will take 212.13.194.71 offline for several hours. It's therefore important that you change to using the new resolvers before this time, otherwise you will experience severe network performance problems. If you have any questions please direct to users list or support(a)bitfolk.com. Cheers, Andy -- http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting _______________________________________________ announce mailing list announce(a)lists.bitfolk.com https://lists.bitfolk.com/mailman/listinfo/announce

13 years, 1 month

Re: [bitfolk] Deploying OpenVPN on a VPS

by Paul Stimpson

Hi, Thanks. That's working. I found this in the server config file: > # To assign specific IP addresses to specific > # clients or if a connecting client has a private > # subnet behind it that should also have VPN access, > # use the subdirectory "ccd" for client-specific > # configuration files (see man page for more info). > > # EXAMPLE: Suppose the client > # having the certificate common name "Thelonious" > # also has a small subnet behind his connecting > # machine, such as 192.168.40.128/255.255.255.248. > # First, uncomment out these lines: > ;client-config-dir ccd > ;route 192.168.40.128 255.255.255.248 > # Then create a file ccd/Thelonious with this line: > # iroute 192.168.40.128 255.255.255.248 > # This will allow Thelonious' private subnet to > # access the VPN. This example will only work > # if you are routing, not bridging, i.e. you are > # using "dev tun" and "server" directives. > > # EXAMPLE: Suppose you want to give > # Thelonious a fixed VPN IP address of 10.9.0.1. > # First uncomment out these lines: > ;client-config-dir ccd > ;route 10.9.0.0 255.255.255.252 > # Then add this line to ccd/Thelonious: > # ifconfig-push 10.9.0.1 10.9.0.2 I'm hoping that means I can assign a subnet of 10-dot addresses to the client rather than the single address and then issue those to other devices. I've got a USB NIC for my laptop. The other option would be to re-NAT the address the client receives. Cheers, Paul. On 27/02/11 09:56, Andryan wrote: > Oops, sorry, a typo. > >> sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 > Should be 1 not 0. :) > > > On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 4:55 PM, Andryan<andryan(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi Paul, >> >> First, you need to set up masquerading/SNAT on the OpenVPN server: >> >> iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE >> >> Second, you need to ensure ip_forwarding is enabled on the OpenVPN server: >> >> sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=0 >> >> Next, how do you plan to route your VOIP phone and BlackBerry through >> this OpenVPN client? >> >> >> Regards, >> Andryan >> >> >> On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 8:35 AM, Paul Stimpson >> <paul(a)stimpsonfamily.co.uk> wrote: >>> Hi, >>> >>> On 25/02/11 15:53, Andryan wrote: >>>> Hi Paul, >>>> >>>> Does the OpenVPN client get a default route? Have you set up iptables >>>> masquerading/SNAT on eth0? Show us your "iptables -t nat -vnL". >>>> >>> These seem to make vague sense from the client except for the 2 defaults. >>> >>> Kernel IP routing table >>> Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use >>> Iface >>> 10.26.0.1 10.26.0.5 255.255.255.255 UGH 0 0 0 >>> tun0 >>> 10.26.0.5 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 >>> 0 tun0 >>> redfox.vps.bitf 192.168.26.1 255.255.255.255 UGH 0 0 0 >>> wlan0 >>> 192.168.26.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 2 0 0 >>> wlan0 >>> link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 >>> wlan0 >>> default 10.26.0.5 128.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 >>> tun0 >>> 128.0.0.0 10.26.0.5 128.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 >>> tun0 >>> default 192.168.26.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 >>> wlan0 >>> >>> The iptables gives no entries as I haven't set this up because I'm not sure >>> how. I'd be really grateful if you could give me some advice on how to do >>> this. >>> >>> Going forward, I like to try to route a small subnet from the client so I >>> can take my VOIP phone and a wireless access point for my Blackberry with >>> me. OpenVPN's ability to do this is one of my reasons for choosing it. >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Paul. >>> >>> >>>

13 years, 1 month

Deploying OpenVPN on a VPS

by paul＠stimpsonfamily.co.uk

Hi, I'm going on a foreign trip to somewhere the only network available will be firewalled and behind an HTTP proxy so I'm trying to set up a VPN on my VPS so I can get "proper" Internet. Don't worry about the permission-to-vpn-out; I've dealt with that. I used to have a bridged VPN set up at home that let me join my home network. That worked fine but since I don't own a subnet at Bitfolk I don't think I can use that configuration here. I've installed OpenVPN and set it up for a routed network. The client connects fine to the server on the VPS and gets a ten-dot address from it. I can ping the .1 address from the ten-dot range and the other interfaces on the VPS. I've got no connectivity to the outside world. My VPS has 2 IP addresses on eth0 and eth0:1. I think I need to NAT the eth0:1 address so it can be used by the client as an Internet connection. I've tried the advice from a couple of online guides but I can't get it to work. I may have to travel as early as tomorrow so I'm running out of time for random experimentation. Can anyone give me some pointers on how to make this setup functional please? Thanks, Paul.

13 years, 1 month

2011-02-26 1700Z onwards - scheduled maintenance for customers on curacao, faustino, kahlua, obstler, urquell

by Andy Smith

Hi, On the evening of Saturday 26th February 2011 starting from about 1700Z we will be taking part in maintenance to completely re-rack all servers in one suite. Goals of this maintenance: - Turn the rack around 180 degrees to improve air flow based on the location of cold air ingress from the under-floor air conditioning. - Adjust rack posts to allow better air flow up through the rack. - Re-rack servers in a way that doesn't impede air flow. - Install new power metering equipment. This is expected to take several hours. It's difficult to be more specific because it depends on how fast we are able to work; obviously we will be working as fast as is safely possible. Customers on the following servers will be affected because these servers are in the rack that we'll be working on: - curacao - kahlua - obstler - urquell Additionally, - faustino which is currently in a different suite will be powered off and moved. This outage will be much shorter - should be no more than 30 minutes maximum. This will be done after the other work is completed so it's not possible to specify a time. How to find out which server you are on: https://bitfolk.com/customer_information.html#toc_3_Which_piece_of_actual_h… We will be performing a clean shut down of all VPSes, followed by a boot again when servers are re-racked. The following BitFolk services will be unavailable during the maintenance: - The old primary DNS resolver, 212.13.194.71 - apt-cacher - cacti - tracker - wiki The resolver outage means that it's important that all customers configure use of the new resolvers that were announced here: http://lists.bitfolk.com/lurker/message/20110124.233915.2c058600.en.html Failure to do this will lead to very poor network performance during the outage, because your first resolver will not respond at all. If you are otherwise unaffected by the maintenance and assuming you configure the new resolvers, the absence of the above services should not impact the operation of your VPS. We can't alter the date/time of the maintenance, but if this timing is disastrous for you then please let support(a)bitfolk.com know and me may be able to accommodate a move of your VPS to a server that will be unaffected. Cheers, Andy -- http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting _______________________________________________ announce mailing list announce(a)lists.bitfolk.com https://lists.bitfolk.com/mailman/listinfo/announce

13 years, 1 month

Best way to answer to an range of IPs (without interface aliases)?

by Aaron B. Russell

Hey everyone, Just wondered if anyone had any experience with making an interface listen to a whole range of IPs without using interface aliases? I want to use a lot of my IPv6 address space, not just one IP (I'd like to be able to give each website hosted with File Sanctuary it's own IPv6 address), and I want to be able to define a range of IP addresses for the server to listen on, but creating lots of interface aliases, one for each IP, in /etc/network/interfaces is going to be a) ugly and b) probably very bad practice. Googling mostly points me to interface aliases, but there has to be a better way? -- Aaron B. Russell email: aaron(a)unadopted.co.uk web: http://unadopted.co.uk music: http://unadopted.co.uk/podcast blog: http://lostentropy.com tel: +44 20 3137 4147

13 years, 1 month

Installing later versions of packages than provided by http://apt-cacher.lon.bitfolk.com

by Ian Piper

Hi, Having installed some packages for a server that I want to run, I think that the versions supplied by http://apt-cacher.lon.bitfolk.com are older than I need. In particular, I need later versions of python and Django. Those on the server are 2.5.2 and 1.0.2 respectively, and I need 2.6.6 and 1.2.3. I used the apt-get and aptitude tools but these confirm that the latest version is what I have already installed. Are these the latest versions available with Debian Lenny? I can't see what parameter I could use with apt-get in order to look elsewhere for the later versions. If not, is it OK to edit the entries in /etc/apt/sources.list to point to a non-cached repository? Thanks for any advice, and apologies for all the questions. I am just setting things up and am keen to get the server working! Ian. -- Ian Piper Tellura Information Services - the web, document and information people Registered in England and Wales: 5076715, VAT Number: 874 2060 29 http://www.tellura.co.uk/ Author of "Learn Xcode Tools for Mac OS X and iPhone Development", Apress, December 2009 01926 811574 | 07973 156616 --

13 years, 1 month

Getting my DNS records right for my new VPS

by Ian Piper

Hi all, I have just purchased an unmanaged VPS from Bitfolk and need some advice on getting DNS configured correctly. I have a domain (openvocabs.org) registered and currently hosted with Dreamhost. My new Bitfolk server is also called openvocabs.org. I want to put the web application onto the new server and then do whatever configuration is necessary in order that users who go to http://openvocabs.org (or www...) will load the application on my new server. I have almost no experience in DNS matters and don't want to start making changes that could screw everything up. So could anyone advise me what change I need to make, either at the Dreamhost end or at the Bitfolk end, to make this happen? I initially thought that I would be able to achieve what I want by changing the nameserver entries at the Dreamhost end to those of bitfolk rather than those of Dreamhost, since Bitfolk presumably has a record for openvocabs.org at 212.13.194.162. However, Andy Smith has advised that I need to insert records into the openvocabs.org domain to point openvocabs.org and www.openvocabs.org to my new server's ip address (212.13.194.162). I've looked at the Dreamhost DNS management page for this domain and it has the facility to change the nameservers for the domain or add custom records (A, CNAME, TXT, NS, SRV or AAAA) or custom MX. Is that what I need to do? I have no idea of the implications of putting an entry here. This page also shows a non-editable record for this domain, as follows: A 69.163.156.237 NS ns1.dreamhost.com NS ns2.dreamhost.com NS ns3.dreamhost.com ftp A 69.163.156.237 www A 69.163.156.237 Hopefully this isn't going to be complicated - seems like a fairly simple thing to want to do! Anyway, any advice or guidance or links to plain English explanations of this stuff would be appreciated. Thanks, Ian. -- Ian Piper Tellura Information Services - the web, document and information people Registered in England and Wales: 5076715, VAT Number: 874 2060 29 http://www.tellura.co.uk/ Author of "Learn Xcode Tools for Mac OS X and iPhone Development", Apress, December 2009 01926 811574 | 07973 156616 --

13 years, 1 month

Apache2 file

by Daniel Case

Hello! :) Has anybody else on this list noticed that /etc/init.d/apache2 keeps wiping itself? It seems to happen on Ubuntu 10.04 quite regurlarly, does anybody know any work around apart from redownloading the file from apt and replacing it? Daniel

13 years, 1 month

2011-02-19 ~1400Z - Unscheduled power cycle of kahlua.bitfolk.com

by Andy Smith

Hi, At approximately 1400Z today host kahlua appears to have been power cycled. It immediately rebooted and as I type the last VPSes are starting again. I am still looking into what has happened here, as no one was working on the server or in the rack at the time. Please accept my apologies for the disruption. Cheers, Andy -- http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting _______________________________________________ announce mailing list announce(a)lists.bitfolk.com https://lists.bitfolk.com/mailman/listinfo/announce

13 years, 1 month

Domain Registrars (.uk)

by Robert Gauld

I've now migrated all my stuff over from my previous hosting company to my bitfolk VPS, which means they'll no longer renew my domains for me for. Has anyone got any recommendations for a no hassle registrar I could transfer my domains to? -- Robert Gauld http://www.robertgauld.co.uk

13 years, 1 month

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BitFolk Users February 2011