IRCd Server on a Virtual Private Server

Lone_Wolf · 2007-10-05 09:13:17

Background :
Their was a small chat server that is used by players of a certain free online RPG game.
The server they used has broken down beyond repair and the guys that were maintaining it have left due to RL issues.
The head Chat operator only knows how to run chat and so asked for help.
As i have been playing this game for 3+ years i offered to take over the tech part .
After checking the requirements (security,privacy etc) for the chat i decided a IRC shell account was not good enough and far to limited.
A co-location or dedicated server is way out of the budget, so it will be a Virtual Private Server.

After some searching it was decided to start with a VPS from Linode (they use User Mode linux).

Linode has these distros available :
Arch Linux, Caker's Kernel Build Special [dev] , CentOS 4.0, Centos 5.0, Debian 3.1 , Debian 4.0, FC 6, Gentoo 2006.1,Gentoo 2007.0
Mandrake 9.1, Slackware 10, Slackware 12.0, Ubuntu 6.06, Ubuntu 7.04, ActiveGrid - Debian 4 [testing] 775

As this server needs to be stable, secure and low on maintenance i looked at other distros than arch and started testing them in a vm on my desktop.

First try : Ubuntu 6.06 server version (Dapper LTS)
- the ncurses based installer worked ok , although it felt very limited in options compared with an arch install.
you cannot select or deselect packages during install.
you don't have additional consoles and there's no way to edit configuration files during install
- PCMCIA support was included and started by default and FAILED offcourse.
(I wonder why a server distro enables pcmcia support by default ? )

I found out how to reactivate root and started to install my favorite console application Midnight Commander.
apt-cache search midnight commander & apt-cache search pkgnames mc did not find midnight commander.
Some googling and i found that mc is NOT in the ubuntu repos.
In order to get mc you need to enable the DEBIAN universe and multiverse repos !
So i asked myself : If i have to enable Debian repos to get an important program for a basic install , what benefits do i get from using ubuntu over debian ?

Ubuntu is out for this server, next try will be debian stable (Etch) .

Edit : typos

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2007-10-05 09:16:59)

Lone_Wolf · 2007-10-05 11:55:12

Debian Etch (netinstall iso)

This appears to be the same installer used by ubuntu, except you get a lot more control about the install and lot more info about what happens.
Additional consoles are also available.
(I still like arch install better, but the debian installer is workable).
I choose basic system only, since this server will probably not need X.

The first boot gave me similar info to what arch shows.
apt-get upgrade -u updated several packages, including a revision of the kernel (debian calls it linux image).
Installing mc was easy and apt-get even mentioned several suggested programs to add like zip/unzip and such.

With ubuntu i felt like i was in a hostile environment, debian feels a lot more like arch.
apt-get is clearly meant to be used from the command line and appears to have similar qualities as pacman.

I'll definitely try out debian for this server.

Lone_Wolf · 2007-10-07 21:12:21

Well, Debian/UnrealIRCd/Anope are installed and running, although in very basic configuration.

Since there are no debian packages for Unreal and Anope afaik (something with license confusion) i had to compile those from source.
The basic compiling tools like gcc, make, autoconf etc were not part of the basic installation.
(It's possible linode left those things out of the debian install image to reduce size/complexity).

There were several points where i missed the user-friendlyness and KISS of arch terribly . Debian could learn a few things from arch.

While i'll stay with debian stable for the time being for this server, i'll experiment with a setup with 2 servers (one for testing upgrades) running arch at home.

Lone_Wolf · 2007-10-09 21:38:22

The irc server is running stable, but i don't really like the way things work.

Even though the IRC server is run by a daemon, i haven't found a way to get it into the etc/rcx.d/ folders .
sysv-rc-conf doesn't see it, but upon reboot IRCd IS restarted.
Anope services however are not and need to be started manually after reboot through ssh.

It looks like i may need to create debian packages for both unrealIRCD and Anope that integrate correctly with the sysv booting process.

Creating packages for compiling from source (specially with daemons) appears to be a lot harder on debian than on arch .

Currently i don't have time to figure out deb packages and i've noticed that an UnrealIRCd package was recently added to AUR.

Looks like i have to decide whether to continue learning debian or switch the server to arch.

plut0nium · 2007-10-10 08:23:09

Lone_Wolf wrote:

Even though the IRC server is run by a daemon, i haven't found a way to get it into the etc/rcx.d/ folders .
sysv-rc-conf doesn't see it, but upon reboot IRCd IS restarted.
Anope services however are not and need to be started manually after reboot through ssh.

Have you looked at update-rc.d ?

it is used to create startup/stop symlinks in /etc/rcX.d/ from /etc/init.d/ scripts

Lone_Wolf · 2007-10-15 20:39:59

Thanks for the tip, PlutOnium. update-rc.d was exactly what i needed.

I've re-installed the server with debian Etch , configured iptables (stateful firewall from arch wiki) , did the unreal and anope configuration from scratch and now have a solid base in place.
As this irc server is meant to be family friendly a lot of things have to be restricted :
no private messages, when less then 3 people are in a channel talking must be blocked (to protect against child predators) etc.
Lot's of work to do still.

I still like arch better than debian, but for a server that needs to be stable and low maintenance debian is more suited.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-10-05 09:13:17

IRCd Server on a Virtual Private Server

#2 2007-10-05 11:55:12

Re: IRCd Server on a Virtual Private Server

#3 2007-10-07 21:12:21

Re: IRCd Server on a Virtual Private Server

#4 2007-10-09 21:38:22

Re: IRCd Server on a Virtual Private Server

#5 2007-10-10 08:23:09

Re: IRCd Server on a Virtual Private Server

#6 2007-10-15 20:39:59

Re: IRCd Server on a Virtual Private Server

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