This blog lists the actions I went through to setup an AWS EC2 Ubuntu Server and add the usual applications. This follows on from my guide to setup a Digital Ocean server server guide and Vultr setup guide.

Variable Pricing

Amazon Web Services give developers 12 months of free access to a range of products. Amazon don’ t have flat rate fees like Digital Ocean instead, AWS grant you a minimum level of CPU credits for each server type. A “t2.micro” (1CPU/1GB ram $0.013c/hour server) gets 6 CPU credits an hour.  That is enough for a CPU to run at 10% all the time, you can bank up to 144 CPU credits that you can use when the application spikes.  The “t2.micro” is the free tier server (costs nothing for 12 months), but when the trial runs our that’s $9.50 a month.  The next server up is a “t2.small” (1 CPU, 2GB ram) and you get 12 CCPUredits and hour and can bank 288, that enough for 20% CPU usage all the time.  

The “t2.medium” server (2 CPU’s, 4GB Ram), allows 40% CPU usage credits, 24 CPU credits an hour with 576 bankable.  That server costs $0.052c and hour and is $38 a month. Don’t forget to cache content. 

I used about 40 CPU credits generating a 4096bit secure prime Diffie-Hellman key for an SSL Certificate on my t2.micro server. More Information on AWS Instance pricing here and here.

Creating an AWS Account (Free Trial)

The signup process is simple.

1. Create a free AWS account.
2. Enter your CC details (for any non-free services) and submit your account.

It will take 2 days or more for Amazon to manually approve your account.  When you have been approved, navigate to https://console.aws.amazon.com login and set your region in the top right next to your name (in my case I will go with Australia ‘ap-southeast-2‘).

My console home is now: https://ap-southeast-2.console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home?region=ap-southeast-2#LaunchInstanceWizard

Create a Server

You can follow the prompts to set up a free tier EC2 Ubuntu server here.

1. Choose Ubuntu EC2

2. Choose Instance Type: t2-micro (1x CPU, 1GB Ram)

3. Configure Instance: 1

4. Add Storage: /dev/sda1, 8GB+, 10-3000 IOPS

5. Tag Instance: Your own role specific tags

6. Configure Security Group: Default firewall rules.

7. Review

Tip: Create a 25GB volume (instead of 8GB) or you will need to add an extra volume mount it with the following commands.

sudo nano /etc/fstab
(append the following line)
/dev/xvdf    /mydata    ext4    defaults,nofail    0    2
sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/xvdf
sudo mkdir /mydata
mount -a
cd /mydata
ls -al

Part of theEC2 server setup was to save a .PEM file to your SSH folder on your local PC ( ~/.ssh/mysererkeypair.pem).

You will need to secure the file:

chmod 400 ~/.ssh/mysererkeypair.pem

Before we connect to the server we need to configure the firewall here in the Amazon Console.

Type	Protocol	Port Range	Source	Comment
HTTP	TCP	80	0.0.0.0/0	Opens a web server port for later
All ICMP	ALL	N/A	0.0.0.0/0	Allows you to ping
All traffic	ALL	All	0.0.0.0/0	Not advisable long term but OK for testing today.
SSH	TCP	22	0.0.0.0/0	Not advisable, try and limit this to known IP’s only.
HTTPS	TCP	443	0.0.0.0/0	Opens a secure web server port for later

DNS

You will need to assign a status IP to your server (apparently the public IP is not static). Here is a good read on connecting a domain name to the IP and assigning an elastic IP to your server.  Once you have assigned an elastic IP you can point your domain to your instance.

Installing the Amazon Command Line Interface utils on your local PC

This is required to see your servers console screen and then connect via SSH.

curl "https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-cli/awscli-bundle.zip" -o "awscli-bundle.zip"
unzip awscli-bundle.zip
sudo ./awscli-bundle/install -i /usr/local/aws -b /usr/local/bin/aws
/usr/local/bin/aws --version

You now need to configure your AWS CLI, first generate Access Keys here. While you are there setup Multi-Factor Authentication with Google Authenticator.

aws configure
> AWS Access Key ID: {You AWS API Key}
> AWS Secret Access Key: {You AWS Secret Accss Key}
> Default region name: ap-southeast-2 
> Default output format: text

Once you have configured your CLI you can connect and review your Ubuntu console output (the instance ID can be found in your EC2 server list).

aws ec2 get-console-output --instance-id i-123456789

Now you can hopefully connect to your server and accept any certificates to finish the connection.

ssh -i ~/.ssh/myserverpair.pem [email protected]

Success, I can now access my AWS Instance.

Setting the Time and Daylight Savings.

Check your time.

sudo hwclock --show
> Fri 21 Oct 2016 11:58:44 PM AEDT  -0.814403 seconds

My Daylight savings have not kicked in.

Install ntp service

sudo apt install ntp

Set your Timezone

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Go to http://www.pool.ntp.org/zone/au and find my NTP server (or go here if you are outside Australia)

server 0.au.pool.ntp.org
server 1.au.pool.ntp.org
server 2.au.pool.ntp.org
server 3.au.pool.ntp.org

Add the NTP servers to “/etc/ntp.conf” and restart he NTP service.

sudo service ntp restart

Now check your time again and you should have the right time.

sudo hwclock --show
> Fri 21 Oct 2016 11:07:38 PM AEDT  -0.966273 seconds

🙂

Installing NGINX

I am going to be installing the latest v1.11.1 mainline development (non-legacy version). Beware of bugs and breaking changes here.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/nginx-devel
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nginx
sudo service nginx start
nginx -v

NGINX is now installed. Try and get to your domain via port 80 (if it fails to load, check your firewall).

Installing NodeJS

Here is how you can install the latest NGINX (development build), beware of bugs and frequent changes. Read the API docs here.

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
nodejs -v

NodeJS is installed.

Installing MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-common
sudo apt-get install mysql-server
mysql --version
sudo mysql_install_db
sudo mysql_secure_installation
service mysql status

Install PHP 7.x and PHP7.0-FPM

I am going to install PHP 7 due to the speed improvements over 5.x.  Below were the commands I entered to install PHP (thanks to this guide)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt-get install -y language-pack-en-base
sudo LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php7.0
sudo apt-get install php7.0-mysql
sudo apt-get install php7.0-fpm
sudo nano /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini
> edit: cgi.fix_pathinfo=0
sudo service php7.0-fpm restart	
service php7.0-fpm status

Now install misc helper modules into php 7 (thanks to this guide)

apt-get install php-xdebug
sudo apt-get install php7.0-phpdbg php7.0-mbstring php7.0-gd php7.0-imap 
sudo apt-get install php7.0-ldap php7.0-pgsql php7.0-pspell php7.0-recode 
sudo apt-get install php7.0-snmp php7.0-tidy php7.0-dev php7.0-intl 
sudo apt-get install php7.0-gd php7.0-curl php7.0-zip php7.0-xml
sudo nginx –s reload
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
sudo service php7.0-fpm restart
php -v

NGINX Configuration

NGINX can be a bit tricky to setup for newbies and your configuration will certainly be different but here is mine (so far):

File: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
worker_cpu_affinity auto;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;
events {
        worker_connections 1024;
        multi_accept on;
}
http {
        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;
        # server_tokens off;
        # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
        # server_name_in_redirect off;
        client_body_buffer_size      128k;
        client_max_body_size         10m;
        client_header_buffer_size    1k;
        large_client_header_buffers  4 4k;
        output_buffers               1 32k;
        postpone_output              1460;

        proxy_headers_hash_max_size 2048;
        proxy_headers_hash_bucket_size 512;

        client_header_timeout  1m;
        client_body_timeout    1m;
        send_timeout           1m;

        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;

        # ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
        # ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

        access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        gzip on;
	gzip_disable "msie6";
	gzip_vary on;
	gzip_proxied any;
	gzip_comp_level 6;
	gzip_buffers 16 8k;
	gzip_http_version 1.1;
	gzip_min_length 256;
	gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf font/opentype image/svg+xml image/x-icon;

        include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
        include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

File: /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

proxy_cache_path /tmp/nginx-cache keys_zone=one:10m;

server {
        # listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on; ## listen for ipv6

        access_log /var/log/nginx/myservername.com.log;

        root /usr/share/nginx/www;
        index index.php index.html index.htm;

        server_name www.myservername.com myservername.com localhost;

        # ssl on;
        # ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/cert_chain.crt;
        # ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/myservername.key;
        # ssl_ciphers "EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH";              # disable some old ciphers
        # ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
        # ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/ssl/dhparams.pem;
        # ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
        # server_tokens off;
        # ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:40m;                                           # More info: http://nginx.com/blog/improve-seo-https-nginx/
        # Set SSL caching and storage/timeout values:
        # ssl_session_timeout 4h;
        # ssl_session_tickets off; # Requires nginx >= 1.5.9
        # OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) is a protocol for checking if a SSL certificate has been revoked
        # ssl_stapling on; # Requires nginx >= 1.3.7
        # ssl_stapling_verify on; # Requires nginx => 1.3.7
        # add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains; preload";

        # add_header X-Frame-Options DENY;                                            # Prevent Clickjacking

        # Prevent MIME Sniffing
        # add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;


        # Use Google DNS
        # resolver 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 valid=300s;
        # resolver_timeout 1m;

        # This is handled with the header above.
        #rewrite ^/(.*) https://myservername.com/$1 permanent;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                index index.php index.html index.htm;
                proxy_set_header Proxy "";
        }

        fastcgi_param PHP_VALUE "memory_limit = 512M";

        # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
        location ~ .php$ {
                try_files $uri =404;

                # include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;

                fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+.php)(/.+)$;
                fastcgi_index index.php;
                fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                include fastcgi_params;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;

                # NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
                # With php5-cgi alone:
                # fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
        }

        # deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
        #location ~ /.ht {
        #       deny all;
        #}
}

Test and Reload NGINX Config

sudo nginx -t
sudo nginx -s reload
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

Don’t forget to test PHP with a script that calls ‘phpinfo()’.

Install PhpMyAdmin

Here is how you can install the latest branch of phpmyadmin into NGINX (no apache)

cd /usr/share/nginx/www
mkdir my/secure/secure/folder
cd my/secure/secure/folder
sudo apt-get install git
git clone --depth=1 --branch=STABLE https://github.com/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin.git

If you need to import databases into MySQL you will need to enable file uploads in PHP and set file upload limits.  Review this guide to enable uploads in phpMyAdmin.  Also if your database is large you may also need to change the “client_max_body_size” settings on nginx.conf ( see guide here ). Don’t forget to disable uploads and reduce size limits in NGINX and PHP when you have uploaded databases.

Note: phpMyAdmin can be a pain to install so don’t be afrait of using an alternative management gui.  Here is a good list of MySQL management interfaces. Also check your OS App store for native mysql database management clients.

Install an FTP Server

Follow this guide here then..

sudo nano /etc/vsftpd.conf
write_enable=YES
sudo service vsftpd restart

Install: oracle-java8 (using this guide)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer
cd /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle
ls -al
sudo nano /etc/environment
> append "JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle""
echo $JAVA_HOME
sudo update-alternatives --config java

Install: ncdu – Interactive tree based folder usage utility

sudo apt-get install ncdu
sudo ncdu /

Install: pydf – better quick disk check tool

sudo apt-get install pydf
sudo pydf

Install: rcconf – display startup processes (handy when confirming pm2 was running).

sudo apt-get install rcconf
sudo rcconf

I started “php7.0-fpm” as it was not starting on boot.

I had an issue where PM2 was not starting up at server reboot and reporting to https://app.keymetrics.io.  I ended up repairing the /etc/init.d/pm2-init.sh as mentioned here.

sudo nano /etc/init.d/pm2-init.sh
# edit start function to look like this
...
start() {
    echo "Starting $NAME"
    export PM2_HOME="/home/ubuntu/.pm2" # <== add this line
    super $PM2 resurrect#
}
...

Install IpTraf – Network Packet Monitor

sudo apt-get install iptraf
sudo iptraf

Install JQ– JSON Command Line Utility

sudo apt-get install jq
# Downlaod and display json file with jq
curl 'https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits?per_page=5' | jq .

Install Ruby – Below commands a bit out of order due to some command not working for unknown reasons.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git-core curl zlib1g-dev build-essential libssl-dev libreadline-dev libyaml-dev libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev python-software-properties libffi-dev
sudo gem install bundler
sudo git clone git://github.com/sstephenson/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
sudo git clone git://github.com/sstephenson/ruby-build.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build
sudo git clone https://github.com/sstephenson/rbenv-gem-rehash.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/rbenv-gem-rehash
sudo echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
sudo echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc
sudo exec $SHELL
sudo rbenv install 2.2.3
sudo rbenv global 2.2.3
sudo rbenv rehash
ruby -y
sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

Install Twitter CLI – https://github.com/sferik/t

sudo gem install t
sudo t authorize# follow the prompts

Mutt (send mail by command line utility)

Help site: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mutt

sudo nano /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx yourdomain.com yourdomain

Configuration:

sudo apt-get install mutt
[configuration none]
sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf
[setup a]

Configure postfix guide here

Extend the History commands history

I love the history command and here is how you can expand it’s hsitory and ignore duplicates.

HISTSIZE=10000
HISTCONTROL=ignoredups

Don’t forget to check your servers IP with www.shodan.io to ensure there are no back doors.

Cont…

Next: I will add an SSL cert, lock down the server and setup Node Proxies.

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v1.61 added vultr guide link