Chapter 5. Setting Develpment Environment

12.01.2022 — HaeramKim, BuildYourOwnIoTPlatform — 1 min read

NOTE: this notes are from “Build Your Own IoT Platform” by Anand Tamboli. And I can’t speak english very well, so some sentences or word might be inappropriate and might have some misunderstandings.

Settings that is best for us

Cloud instance

Register & make instance @ DigitalOcean
- Ubuntu(18.04 x64)
- Basic plan - 4GB RAM, 50GB Disk, Dual-core(Regular Intel)
- NY Data-storage region
- Authenticate with password
- IPv6, Monitoring, User data option enable

Firewall settings

Initiate firewall via “Uncomplicated Firewall”
- “Uncomplicated Firewall” is installed in Ubuntu by default
- Here is some “Uncomplicated Firewall” command that helps us to manage firewall.
- ufw app list: Show all available applications.
- ufw allow <application_name>: Allow that application.
- ufw enable: Run firewall.
- ufw status: Show firewall status.
- ufw app info "<application_name>": Show information of that application.
- ufw allow in "<application_name>": It also allows that application. I don’t know the difference between using and not using “in” command.
Allow OpenSSH from firewall

Apache2 server

Install Apache2

1apt update
2apt install apache2

Allow “Apache Full” from firewall

1ufw allow in "Apache Full"

Apache uses port 80 for HTTP and port 433 for HTTPS
If everything’s gonna be fine, apache ubuntu default page must be shown when you enter your IP address on your browser.

MySQL

Install MySQL installer

1apt install mysql-server

Install MySQL with secure version

1mysql_secure_installation

1* This will prompt additional configuration console.
2* You have to select `0(LOW)` for `password validation policy`.

Setting administration account for MySQL
- This is how to enter MySQL Shell:

1mysql

1* Query for showing all root account:

1SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user WHERE user="root";

1* Query for modifying password for root account:

1ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '$YOUR_PASSWORD';
2FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

1* And this is expected result when you type show-root query:

1| user | authentication_string | plugin | host |
2| root | *A0AF1999141933B3B4C7 
3AE72544AB01849669F98 | mysql_native_password| localhost |

PHP

Installing PHP

1apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql

Configuring PHP
1. Open configuring file that is exists in /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf
2. Edit that file to:

1<IfModule mod_dir.c>
2DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm index.cgi index.pl index.xhtml 
3</IfModule>

13. Restart apache2 server

1systemctl restart apache2

14. Test whether the server works correctly:

1vi /var/www/html/test.php
2# And add php script below to it
3<?php
4     echo "php ok";
5?>

PHPMyAdmin

This is a tool that allows developers to access DB.
Install PHPMyAdmin:

1apt update
2apt install phpmyadmin php-mbstring php-gettext

1* NOTE: php-gettext is not stable in Ubuntu 20.04. This is why you have to choose Ubuntu 18.04 when creating droplet.
2* While Installing PHPMyAdmin, several configuration console might be prompted. Here is recommened selection:

1# Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common 
2Yes
3
4# What kind of server do you plan to use
5Apache2 # You have to tap spacebar to select this opiton.
6
7# Communication
8Unix socket
9
10# Set database name, username, password on your own
11# Some errors might be occured when you select password policy to MEDIUM(1) or HIGH(2). That's why you have to choose LOW(0) when you select policies.

Configure plugin && restart server

1phpenmod mbstring
2systemctl restart apache2

Securing PHPMySQL
- We’re gonna use htaccessfeature of apache to securing it.

1# Open /etc/apache2/conf-available/phpmyadmin.conf and modify to:
2Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin
3<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin>
4    Options SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
5    DirectoryIndex index.php
6    AllowOverride All 
7.....
8.....

1* Add following contents to the file

1# Open /usr/share/phpmyadmin/.htaccess
2AuthType Basic
3AuthName "Restricted Files"
4AuthUserFile /etc/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd
5Require valid-user

1* Set admin password

1htpasswd -c /etc/phpmyadmin/.htpasswd $USERNAME
2# And then entering password line will be prompted

DNS

Use noip.com to register custom free domain
Set destination IP as droplet instance uses.
Register domain to DigitalRecord and create new record with Type A.

Virtual Host

I don’t know what exactly virtual host means, but i think when one server hosts more than two hosts, like www.example1.com and www.example2.com…, It is called virtual host

1mkdir -p /var/www/<your-domain>/html
2chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/<your-domain>/html
3chmod -R 755 /var/www/<your-domain>

Make main index file

1# Make index.php in /var/www/<your-domain>/html/
2# And then add following contents to the file:
3<?php
4     echo("Hi...this is our webpage with domain name !");
5?>

Make virtual host file

1# Make <your-domain>.conf file in /etc/apache2/sites-available/
2# And then add following contents:
3<VirtualHost *:80>
4    ServerAdmin admin@<your-domain>
5
6    ServerName <your-domain>
7    ServerAlias www.<your-domain>
8
9    DocumentRoot /var/www/<your-domain>/html
10
11    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
12    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
13</VirtualHost>

1* And then enable virtual host:

1a2ensite <your-domain>.conf
2a2dissite 000-default.conf
3
4# Typing command below must prints "Syntax OK"
5apache2ctl configtest
6
7# Restart server
8systemctl restart apache2

SSL Certificates

Install SSL Certificates via Let’s Encrypt and Certbot.

1add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
2apt install python-certbot-apache

Certificate our site

1# When you registered www-prefixed domain
2# like "www.example.com", add "www.<your-domain>" too.
3certbot --apache -d <your-domain>

1* After this command runs, you have to enter email address for notification and agree with policy stuff.
2* And also, you have to select "redirect" option when selection console is prompted.
3* When messages saying "Congratulations!" is printed, it's done.
4* You can verify the Certificate with `http://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=<your-domain>` page.

NodeJS & NodeRED

To install NodeJS to Ubuntu, you have to register NodeJS official repository to apt first.

1# Register repository
2curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo -E bash -
3
4# Install NodeJS & NPM
5apt install nodejs
6
7# Verify installation (Check version)
8nodejs -v
9npm -v

Install NodeRED

1npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red

Allow NodeRED from firewall. NodeRED uses port 1880.

1ufw allow 1880/tcp

Configure NodeRED Setting
- You can get settings.js file from Here
- path for old settings.js file is /root/.node-red/settings.js. You have to overwrite this file.
Securing NodeRED
1. Get a hashed-password

1# Install tool
2npm install -g node-red-admin
3
4# Get hashed password
5node-red-admin hash-pw

1* After typing the last command, password input console will be shown. Enter a password u like.
2* And then, hashed password will be printed to the console. Copy it to paste in `settings.js`.
32. Modify `settings.js`

1# Open settings.js and modify it to:
2adminAuth: {
3    type: "credentials",
4    users: [
5        {
6            username: "<your-username>",
7            password: "<hashed-password>",
8            permissions: "*"
9        },
10    ] 
11}, 
12...

Run NodeRED on background with logging

1node-red > node-red.log &