“WebNode” is a IaC script to quickly build and deploy a PHP WordPress WebServer and Email Relay Host on a virtualized server and possibly copied over to an actual Physical Hard Disk. It is a work in progress…as I write these lines.

IaC

‘Infrastructure as Code’ or IaC is the process of managing and deploying System infrastructure on virtualized environments. In simple words it is a fancy name given to creating and editing Virtual Machines (and system services) using scripts and code.

IaC has some benefits and some limitations. Benefits include the fact that all this code can be saved in repositories and replayed automatically when needed. One limitation is that if some physical work is involved, that can not be expressed as code.

I started on my Ansible journey impressed by the work done by Jeff Geerling in Ansible (A system for automating repititive tasks as code) and also his Video Series on teaching Ansible. I forked his Packer-boxes Github repository to provide some latest Vagrant images for VirtualBox. Then learning from his Ansible videos, book, and other Ansible books, I am creating another Github repository that will create VirtualBox (and Cloud – Linode.com, Azure etc.) image named WebNode. WebNode will be a server that has Apache, MariaDB, PHP3, WordPress, and Postfix/Dovecot Email Relay software installed on it. Plus you will be able to bring your own WordPress Database into this node. It is still a work in progress.

Usefulness of Generic CI/CD System

CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery. It refers to the concept of automating integration of minor developmental changes automatically into the bigger system along with automated testing. It also provides this successfully tested overall system ready for deployment to the end user, automatically deploying also if configured like so.

Terraform by itself is not a complete CI/CD tool. Any large scale deployment of Terraform/Ansible/Vagrant can not undermine the usefulness of generic CI/CD tools like Jenkins. Jenkins can provide the missing glue in your automated pipeline.

git clone https://github.com/build-boxes/webnode.git
cd webnode

It can be used in Windows 10/11 (a bit difficult to setup), or you can use Debian/Ubuntu host environemnt.

1. Install VirtualBox
2. Install Vagrant, Ansible (Use Windows Subsystem for Linux 2)
3. Install some plugins in WSL2 to allow Ansible and Vagrant to access Windows VirtualBox (Google Search, related link).
4. Change into the project root folder.
5. Download required roles with the following command:

   rm -rf ~/.ansible/roles/
   ansible-galaxy install --force -r ./roles/requirements.yml 

6. Run:

   vagrant up
   OR
   vagrant up debian

7. Now you can ssh into your Virtual server.

   vagrant ssh
   

8. Get the Local Network IP Address.

   ip a
   

10. Open the IP Address in Browser.

    

11. There is not much to see or test in the WebNode project itself, at this time, other than the page in previuos step. It is a work in progress. Follow the Github repository listed above for uptodate status.
12. To shutdown the VM, run:

    vagrant halt
    OR
    vagrant halt debian

13. To Destroy the VM,  run:

    vagrant destroy -f
    OR
    vagrant destroy debian -f

It can be used in Windows 10/11 (a bit difficult to setup), or you can use Debian/Ubuntu host environment.

1. Install Ansible, Terraform (Use Windows Subsystem for Linux 2)
2. Install some plugins in WSL2 for Ansible (Google Search, related link)
3. Change into the project root folder.
4. Download required roles with the following command:

   rm -rf ~/.ansible/roles/
   ansible-galaxy install --force -r ./roles/requirements.yml

5. Change into one of the”tf-linode*” or “tf-azure*” subfolders
6. Run:

   terraform init
   terraform plan
   terraform apply -auto-approve

7. To Destroy run:

   terraform destroy -auto-approve

Using the VirtualBox Images

Apart for use in the WebNode project above, the VirtualBox images can be used for other tasks also. Make sure Vagrant and Oracle VirtualBox are installed. Start by obtaing the Vagrantfile automatically as follows:

$ vargrant init raufhammad/centos9

OR

C:\> vargrant init raufhammad/centos9

This will show output like below:

C:\Users\XYZ>mkdir temp

C:\Users\XYZ>cd temp

C:\Users\XYZ\temp>vagrant init raufhammad/centos9
A `Vagrantfile` has been placed in this directory. You are now
ready to `vagrant up` your first virtual environment! Please read
the comments in the Vagrantfile as well as documentation on
`vagrantup.com` for more information on using Vagrant.

Once the Vagrantfile is downloaded, you may modify this file as per your needs, before the next step.

From the same box directory, run the following command after the Vagrantfile has been downloaded:

$ vagrant up

$ vagrant destroy -f

References

1. The WebNode project repository (Work in progress…), https://github.com/build-boxes/webnode , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
2. Jeff Geerlings original Packer-Boxes Github Repository, https://github.com/geerlingguy/packer-boxes , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
3. My fork from the above with updated Packer-Boxes, https://github.com/build-boxes/packer-boxes , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
4. Ready built VagrantUp.com (Vagrant boxes) repository, https://app.vagrantup.com/raufhammad , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
5. Install Oracle VirtualBox Link, https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
6. Install Vagrant link (Install in wsl2 in Windows) , https://developer.hashicorp.com/vagrant/install , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
7. Install Terraform link, https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
8. Install Ansible guide link, https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/installation_guide/intro_installation.html , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
9. Install Ansible in WSL2, https://4sysops.com/archives/install-ansible-on-windows/ , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
10. Using Windows VirtualBox from Ansible in WSL2 – Tricks, https://slavid.github.io/2021/11/28/running-vagrant-ansible-windows-through-wsl2/#configuration , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
11. Book – Ansible: Up and Running (3rd Edition), Bas Meijer, Lorin Hochstein, and Rene Moser, Published by O’Reilly Media Inc, July 2022. Website: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/ansible-up-and/9781098109141/, https://www.ansiblebook.com/
12. Jeff Geerling (GeerlingGuy) Ansible Video Series, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2_OBreMn7FqZkvMYt6ATmgC0KAGGJNAN , Date Accessed: April 18, 2024
13. Custom Ansible Roles:
    • What are Ansible-Roles? Date Accessed: May 11, 2024
    • hammadrauf.sudousers – https://github.com/hammadrauf/sudousers/tree/main – Date Accessed: May 11, 2024
    • hammadrauf.apache2 – https://github.com/hammadrauf/apache2 – Date Accessed: May 11, 2024
      1. hammadrauf.apache_vhosts – https://github.com/hammadrauf/apache_vhosts
14. Jenkins Tutorial, https://www.jenkins.io/doc/tutorials/, Date Accessed: July 12, 2024

Many people pay hefty monthly subscription fees to have a Website for their Business or Personal use. It is possible to setup up a functional website in your home or small business office in a cost effective way. It will save you money in the long run, and you have total control over the site. The only catch is that you (or someone in your home/team) will have to be a little tech savvy.

Raspberry Pi is a small Single Board Computer (SBC), which is available in different forms for low prices, some as low as US$ 10. These articles will particularly be referring to Raspberry Pi 2B that sells for US$ 35. Your circumstance may lead you to more expensive setup. I would also be using an USB Thumb Drive (16GB), that costs about US$ 8 on Amazon. Almost all homes and small offices already have an Broad-Band Internet connection, so I will not factor in that cost. Plus there will be a cost for the Wall Adapter, Case, SD Card and Heat Sink.

• One of Raspberry Pi 2B, Raspberry Pi 3B or Raspberry Pi 4B
• Heat Sink (Optional for 2B)
• A Plastic or Aluminum Case for your Model of Raspberry Pi
• Wall Power Adapter
• SD Card (8 GB or higher)
• USB Thumb Drive (16 GB)
• Internet Connection: Connected 24 Hours 7 days a Week – Minimum Download speed of 50 Mbps, Minimum Upload speed of 50 Mbps.

[CP_CALCULATED_FIELDS id=”6″]

So your total lifetime expense for the Web-Site will be at the least US$ 80, using free versions of most software items. For a faster site you may opt for Raspberry Pi 4B 8 GB Model but that is a bit more expensive then the other models. You may also opt for paid domain names, non-free SSL Certificates, and paid versions of WordPress-plugins, those will be extra costs if you go that path. In this series of articles we will be using free versions of what ever is possible, if you want you can replace those items with paid versions later on.

The beautiful thing about Raspberry Pi is that it is very quite (usually no fan coolers), consumes very little electrical power (Pi 2B needs 2 Amperes at 5 Volts = 10 Watts). In this Web-Server use-case it does not need a Monitor screen to run, it can run headless. You can use you MacBook, Laptop or Desktop to configure or monitor it via network connection using SSH Protocol.

This series of articles will guide you through to set up a WordPress Site on your Raspberry Pi. WordPress is a very popular Open-Source, Blogging Application written in PHP Programming Language, designed to run on a Web Site Server. Over the years it has seen many Plugins developed for it and a huge community of developers, vendors and users . WordPress is also used to sell products, services, and many Shopping-cart plugins are available for it. Many web sites around the world are executing in WordPress Application in the background.

This series of articles will be made up of the following parts:

Part 1 – Setup the Pi (Coming Soon)

Part 2 – Install Apache2 – (Coming Soon)

Part 3 – Install PHP – (Coming Soon)

Part 4 – Install MariaDB/MySQL – (Coming Soon)

Part 5 – Setup Domain Name – (Coming Soon)

Part 6 – Obtain and Install SSL Certificate – (Coming Soon)

Part 7 – Install WordPress – (Coming Soon)

Part 8 – Basic Configuration and Security in WordPress – (Coming Soon)

Part 9 – Secure Raspberry Pi with fail2Ban – (Coming Soon)

Part 10 (Bonus) – Setup Private DNS Server – Having multiple sites in Apache – (Coming Soon)

Part 11 (Bonus) – Backup and Remote Private Cloud Sync – (Coming Soon)