Drupal development server install

How to install and configure a development server for Drupal projects on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server, as a LAMP server in virtual machine.

8.04 LTS Server install

We install here the LAMP and OpenSSH Server of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server.

The installation procedure of Ubuntu starts with choosing your preferred language (it's english in this tutorial).

the install screen of Ubuntu

At partitioning, I'm using the default, automated method, so partitioning the whole disk. Others can prefer the manual method, and define three partitions: the swap, the root and the home.

Don't forget to notice the name and password of your first user, you will need it later!

the first user on the LAMP

At the software selection, select the LAMP and OpenSSH server options, and just than continue.

the LAMP and the OpenSSH server options

Then it asks for the password of the MySQL root.

the MySQL root

Some seconds later, the install is completed, and you can reboot. You can left your "CD" in the CR-ROM.

LAMP install completed

And at the end, log on with your user and password you noticed before.

here we are: you can login

So you have an Ubuntu LAMP server out of the box, let's add some supplementary packages we need for Drupal develpoment, like phpMyAdmin, the GD library of PHP, and so on.

Additional components

Here we are going to upgrade to the latest packages, install Webmin and phpMyAdmin, the NFS common module, and some supplementary modules to PHP. At the end of this session, we will have all the components we need for the Drupal development environment.

Upgrade standard packages

First check whether new update packages are available to 8.04 LTS Server. To get the latest packages from Ubuntu, type to your terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get autoclean && sudo apt-get autoremove

The downloads and install process can take some time, so be patient!

upgrading the LAMP stack

Webmin install

We download here the minimal package of Webmin, as well as some Ubuntu packages needed. For the whole functionality, many Webmin modules will be downloaded later, during the configuration process. To download the the minimal webmin package, type:

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.420-minimal.tar.gz sudo apt-get install perl libnet-ssleay-perl libauthen-pam-perl

The 1.420 version includes already the fixes of Webmin for Ubuntu 8.04. For the latest webmin version, check also the webmin home

To install webmin type:

mv webmin-1.420-minimal.tar.gz /tmp cd /tmp tar xf webmin-1.420-minimal.tar.gz cd webmin-1.420 sudo ./setup.sh /usr/local/webmin rm -rf webmin-1.420 rm -rf webmin-1.420-minimal.tar.gz

During install, accept defaults, set the webmin user and its password, and say yes to ssl and to start webmin at boot time.

To start Webmin, open your browser and type: https://your-ip:10000/ where 'your-ip' is the IP address the LAMP server. It is now a temporary link to check this step, but we will set up the permanent address later on. In order to manage your Ubuntu, you will need some more webmin modules and theme. We'll configure Webmin in Session 3.

The NFS package

In order to mount source files from other servers or clients, we need to install the nfs-common package of Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install nfs-common

PphMyAdmin

It is the common tool for administrating the MySQL databases and tables during Drupal development.

sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

In the configuration screen, select apache2.

Configuration of phpMyAdmin

After that, open your browser, and type: http://your-ip:10000/phpmyadmin/ where 'your-ip' is the IP address the LAMP server to have the PhPMyAdmin.

The GD libraries of PHP

Because of the standard LAMP package does not contain a very important PHP graphical package used by Drupal, we install it, and also restart the webserver:

sudo apt-get install php5-gd sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now we have all of the packages for our development environment on Ubuntu LAMP server, we continue now with some configurations.

Configurations on LAMP

How to configure the LAMP server in a virtual machine for Drupal developments.

These are the configuration steps before Drupal install.

Fix IP and DNS

To work with NFS and web server, you'll need a fix IP and a domain name for the LAMP server. The quick-and-dirty solution is to edit some files like /etc/hosts and /etc/network/interfaces. Or you can install and config a BIND9 server for DNS and DHCP services.

We are going to have the quick-and-dirty solution, so let's login to the LAMP server and type:
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Change this line in the file, where eth0 can be differ in your environment:
iface eth0 inet dhcp

... to these lines, but use your own IP and gateway addresses:
iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.2.20 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.2.1

I will use in the following 192.168.2.20 as the fixed IP address of the LAMP server. Save (ctrl-o), exit (ctrl-x) and restart the networking:
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Now adjust the hosts file:
sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add the following line at the end:
192.168.2.20 drupal.local drupal 192.168.2.30 host.local

One line refers the developer server (drupal.local), the other one is the hosts static IP address. Don't forget to use your own IP address! Save and exit.

I will use in the following drupal.local as the basic domain name on the LAMP server. You can have so many local domain names for your development projects, as you want, you just have to update the /etc/hosts
192.168.2.20 project1.local project1
192.168.2.20 project2.local project2

So from now on the LAMP server has a fix IP address, and can be found on your local network as drupal.local.

You can check the result with ping from a terminal of an other host:
ping drupal.local

SSH login

We are going to use the SSH protocol to login to the LAMP server. It should work out-of-the-box, but first update the etc/hosts file of your host, as well. So open a terminal from your host, and type:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add the following line at the end:
192.168.2.20 drupal.local drupal

Save and exit, then you can login via ssh from a terminal of your host:
ssh user@drupal.local

Type yes, if it complains about the unknown authenticity of the LAMP server, and type your password also.

In best case, you are logged in, but here you are some steps for smooth usage.

Public key propagation

This optional part is to upload your public key to the LAMP. If you don't have any public key, you can skip this section, but then you have to always supply your password during SSH login. See more details at http://sial.org/howto/openssh/publickey-auth/.
First, upload public key from host to guest. At the host's terminal:
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@drupal.local:

Next, configure the public key on the LAMP server. Login to LAMP and type:
ssh user@drupal.local mkdir ~/.ssh cat ~/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys chmod 700 ~/.ssh rm ~/id_rsa.pub

Logout and close the terminal. From the next ssh login on, there is no more password needed.

Install SSH client on your host

If you need an SSH client on your host, type:
sudo apt-get install openssh-client

NFS mount

Instead of copy or ftp the drupal source to the web directory (/var/www) of the LAMP, we are going to setup a NFS mount. So we can store and edit our source away from the LAMP, but can do real-time testing using the LAMP server.

We assume here the source are properly exported at this point in your host (host.local), serving as an NFS server. To check it, type in a terminal of your host:
exportfs

How to setup an NFS server, see: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-nfs-on-ubuntu-8.04-amd64

On the LAMP server, start by creating the mounting points at /var/www
cd /var/www sudo mkdir drupal6 sudo mount host.local:/home/www/projects/drupal-6.6 /var/www/drupal6

To check the mount, switch to /var/www/drupal6 and make a directory listing by ls. You should see the content in the mounting directory

If it's OK, then let's set up mounting also in boot time. Open the fstab file:
sudo nano /etc/fstab

and add one line to the end:
host.local:/home/www/projects/drupal-6.6 /var/www/drupal6 nfs defaults 0 0

So, that's it. We have the source code mounted into the LAMP servers web directory. To test it, type df at the LAMP servers terminal. Or go with your browser to: http://drupal.local/drupal6. It should start the drupal install procedure. But stop now here, we have some other steps ahead us.

Adjust the default LAMP configs

We have to activate the Rewrite Engine in Apache. It is needed by Drupals "Clean-URL" feature.
sudo a2enmod rewrite

Next, we increase the memory limit of 16 MB in PHP5,
sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
Search for memory, and set it at least to 32M.

Don't forget to restart the webserver.
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

Firewall

As the last step here, we also configure iptables, the build-in firewall of Ubuntu. You can skip this step, if you will have the LAMP server away from others.

So, let's check what we have running now:
sudo iptables -L

You will see something like this:
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

As you can see, we are accepting anything from anyone on any port and allowing anything to happen.

To edit the firewall rules, dump the present configuration:
sudo iptables-save > ~/iptables.up.rules

Then open this file and replace the content by this:
*filter

# Allows all loopback (lo0) traffic and drop all traffic to 127/8 that doesn't use lo0
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -i ! lo -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j REJECT

# Accepts all established inbound connections
-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

# Allows all outbound traffic
# You can modify this to only allow certain traffic
-A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT

# Allows HTTP and HTTPS connections from anywhere (the normal ports for websites)
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

# Allows SSH connections
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW --dport 22 -j ACCEPT

# Allows ping
-A INPUT -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT

# Allows NFS connections
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 111 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 2049 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 32771 -j ACCEPT

# log iptables denied calls
-A INPUT -m limit --limit 5/min -j LOG --log-prefix "iptables denied: " --log-level 7

# Reject all other inbound - default deny unless explicitly allowed policy
-A INPUT -j REJECT
-A FORWARD -j REJECT

COMMIT

Then load this new configuration to the firewall by:
sudo iptables-restore < ~/iptables.up.rules

To check it, type:
sudo iptables -L

If it looks good, then move the config file to its place:
sudo mv iptables.up.rules /etc/iptables.up.roles

To switch on these rules at boot, edit the interface file:
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Add this line to the loopback interface:
pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.up.rules

It should look like this:
# The loopback network interface auto lo iface lo inet loopback pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.up.rules

Please note, this rule set is not the strongest one. We could also change the default ports, and so on. But for Drupal development, it should be enough.

Drupal install

How to install Drupal development environment.

So, up to now, there is a drupal core exported via NFS to the development server. Now we set up a new development project, adding specific modules and themes to the /sites directory. The /sites/all will contain all the standard modules, like CCK, Views, Mollom, Pathauto, which are used in every project. The project stuff (/sites/project-1.com, /sites/nw-cee.com and /sites/wepoca.net) will be set up and exported to the development server separately. The /sites directory will look like this:
defaults all - modules - themes - default.setting.php project-1.com - modules - themes - files - setting.php nw-cee.com - modules - themes - files - setting.php wepoca.net - modules - themes - files - setting.php

So let's assume, we have a project directory in our host, and each Drupal project is listed there:
project-1.com nw-cee.com wepoca.net

Each project contains the content for the /site directory. For example, the nw-cee.com looks like this here:
v1 - modules - themes - files - setting.php v2 - modules - themes - files - setting.php

In order to export the project specific stuff to the development server, type:
sudo nano /etc/exports

And add one line to the end:
/home/www/projects/nw-cee.com/v1 192.168.2.1/24(rw,no_root_squash,async,no_subtree_check)

Save and exit, than restart the NFS server
/etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart

Check the result with exportfs.

Then we have to mount this on the development server.
cd /var/www sudo mkdir nw-cee.com sudo mount host.local:/home/www/projects/nw-cee.com/v1 /var/www/nw-cee.com

To make it permanent, update the /etc/fstab file, and add one line to the end:
host.local:/home/www/projects/nw-cee.com/v1 /var/www/nw-cee.com nfs defaults 0 0

We just need now a link in the development server, in order to bind the nw-cee.com directory into the drupal sites:
ln -s /var/www/nw-cee.com /var/www/drupal6/sites/nw-cee.local

Now we configure a virtual host for Apache.
(http://www.debuntu.org/2006/02/22/7-virtual-hosting-using-apache-2)
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/nw-cee.com.conf

Add this to the file. Replace nw-cee.local according to your project name.
<VirtualHost nw-cee.local> DocumentRoot /var/www/drupal6 ServerName nw-cee.local ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost <Directory "/var/www/d6"> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride All Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log LogLevel warn CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined ServerSignature On </VirtualHost>

Enable this new host, and restart Apache
sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/nw-cee.com.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/nw-cee.com.conf sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

As a last step, we just have to set up a database in MySQL, and run the Drupal install script.
mysql -u root -p
and enter the root password for MySQL. Recall, it has been set up during the install phase.

Once you have the "mysql>" promt, type:
create database nwcee; GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER ON *.* TO 'YOUR-DRUPAL-USER'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR-PWD'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit

So you have now a database called 'nwcee' and a database user called 'YOUR-DRUPAL-USER' with privileges necessary for Drupal. This user will have the same access rights to all databases you create here.

And it's convenient to have an DBA user, creating and deleting databases, and for database maintenance tasks via phpMyAdmin. If you want to use the root here, it's also possible, but not recommended.
mysql -u root -p

In the "mysql>" promt, type:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'YOUR-DB-ADMIN'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR-PWD' WITH GRANT OPTION; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit

And now you can open your browser, type nw-cee.local and start the Drupal install procedure.