Bits Of Wood And Bits Of Strings

This article describes how to set up Jira 6.1.4 and Confluence 5.3.4 (hosted on tomcat 7.0.42 (running on Java OpenJDK JRE 1.7.0_45) with PostgreSQL 9.2.5 as a database back-end and apache httpd 2.4.6 as a reversy proxy front-end with SSL) on Qubes OS v2 Beta 2 (Fedora 18)

Audience: Unix/Web admin who are trying to set these services up on Fedora, Fedora on Qubes or who want to get familiar with how to set-up a service on a Qubes VM.
Implementation time: If you are an old developer and know the value of copie/paste to avoid problems, it should take you between 1 and 2 hours.

Jira and Confluence provide similar functionality to trac (bugs/issues tracking and wiki). It is free for open source projects. You however have to pay for a licence otherwise. There is a 30 days trial licence if you want to check it out before you buy. I am using the 2x $10 starter licence for 10 users and find such investment very valuable. Moreover for this licence, all benefits are going to the Room to Read charity, which promotes literacy and gender equality in the developing world.

Qubes OS is at the time of writing, to my view, one of the most secure Linux based desktop operating system. It can run Linux and Windows guest virtual machines and isolate VMs, networking, usb and graphical stacks levering on Xen hypervisor. It also leverage on a templating system to minimize the disk footprint of VMs based on the same template. It does not support 3D graphical operations out of the box but advanced users can set-up a second Video card and dedicate it to one of their VM. It is aimed to be used by IT security specialist on the go but it is also a very nice fit as a home desktop that you can leverage on to host services (file share, web site, etc...) more securely while browsing the dark net or the red district at the same time on the same hardware.
This blog post is discussed in the Qubes user group.

Target architecture

Risk analysis

The only information of value is the data in the database.

If Apache is compromised, The attacker would be able to impersonate any active user, and at some point be able to retrieve all the data in the database.
If Jira or Confluence is compromised, the credentials to the database would therefore be compromised as they have to be readable by the application daemon. Even if encrypted with a pass-phrase provided during boot time, a valid session is present in memory.
We are therefore for now going to run Apache, Jira, Confluence and PostgreSQL in the same VM.

Note: Based on the information provided in this tutorial it would however be easy to split into a three tier model Apache, Jira/Confluence, PostgreSQL with two legs (Jira/PostgreSQL and Confluence/PostgreSQL).

Methodology

Qubes OS offers template VM which present its file system to other VM in read only mode and allow patching of fedora packages. We will therefore leverage as much as possible on this by using fedora packages whenever possible.
In order to build and be able to test the various components as we stack them up, we will start with the far end by setting up the database, then Jira and Confluence and finally the reverse proxy which will sit in front.

Preparing the Template

Installing PostgreSQL

Launch the terminal in the template.

Click Application Menu (top left)
Select Template fedora-18-x64 / fedora-18-x64: Terminal

Install the PostgreSQL Server by typing in the template's Terminal:

sudo yum install postgresql-server

Installing Tomcat

Atlassian states that only Oracle JRE is supported. I am going to take the risk of using OpenJDK instead as I will have automatic update via fedora patches. I will also use the Tomcat package provided by fedora for the same reasons.

Note: If you want to use the Oracle JRE, do not install it in the template but in the app VM unless your are ready to patch it when required to ensure all your VMs use a patched version or if you are building a dedicated template.

Let's install tomcat.

sudo yum install tomcat

In my case this installs Tomcat 7.0.42 and will use OpenJDK Runtime Environment 1.7.0_45.

Let's create the Jira and Confluence user.

sudo /usr/sbin/useradd -r --comment "Account to run JIRA" --shell /bin/bash jira
sudo /usr/sbin/useradd -r --comment "Account to run Confluence" --shell /bin/bash confluence

Installing Apache httpd

Let's install httpd and make sure we can SSL enable it.

sudo yum install httpd mod_ssl openssl

In my case this installs httpd 2.4.6

For these changes to be visible to the wiki VM, shutdown the template VM.

sudo halt

Preparing the Wiki VM

Creating a Wiki VM

In Qubes OS, this is trivial. In Qubes VM Manager:

Select in the menu VM / Create AppVM
Give it the name wiki
Select the color blue
Launch the creation by pressing OK

Note: The attack surface of this VM is of medium size. However the threat is fairly small as I am planning on using this infrastructure only for personal use and will either access it within the same Qubes OS with a Disposable VM or possibly remotely after having connected to it via a reverse proxy hosted as a VM in my Qubes server with Client IP and Certificate validation and a Disposable VM Browser as a client. I have therefore used the blue color.

Preparing the PostgreSQL databases

Preparing the read-write partition

In the read-write partition, let's first prepare a set of folders on which we will deploy our data so that it survives a reboot.

In Wiki VM's Terminal:

cd /rw
sudo mkdir -p var/pgsql/data
sudo chown postgres:postgres var/pgsql/data
sudo chmod 700 var/pgsql/data
sudo mkdir -p var/pgsql/backups
sudo chown postgres:postgres var/pgsql/backups
sudo chmod 700 var/pgsql/backups

Initializing the database

Let's initialize the database cluster.

sudo su
rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql
ln -s /rw/var/pgsql /var/lib/pgsql
postgresql-setup initdb
exit

Configuring the database cluster

Let's make sure we can connect to the database cluster.

sudo su - postgres
vi /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
host confluence confluence 127.0.0.1/32 md5
host jira jira 127.0.0.1/32 md5

Add the following lines toward the end of the file, below the IPv4 local connections.

Note: If you wish to change the port, or make the database listen to another address than the local loop 127.0.0.1, you will need to edit pgsql/data/postgresql.conf and change the address above in pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf.

Once done exit from the posgres sudo session.

exit

Configuring the jira database

Let's create the jira database user and the database.

sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo -s -H -u postgres
/usr/bin/createuser -S -P -E jira

Enter the password for the jira database user and take note of it. Once done exit from the posgres sudo session.

/usr/bin/createdb --owner jira --encoding utf8 jira

Configuring the confluence database

Let's create the confluence database user and the database.

/usr/bin/createuser -S -P -E confluence

Enter the password for the confluence database user and take note of it. Once done exit from the posgres sudo session.

/usr/bin/createdb --owner confluence --encoding utf8 confluence
exit

Preparing for a reboot

Let's now edit our rc.local script so that we set everything in place when the VM reboots. In Wiki VM's Terminal:

sudo vi config/rc.local
#!/bin/bash
rm -rf /var/lib/pgsql
ln -s /rw/var/pgsql /var/lib/pgsql
/usr/bin/systemctl enable postgresql &
/usr/bin/systemctl start postgresql &

Let's not forget to make this file executable

sudo chmod u+x config/rc.local

Testing the databases

Stop the wiki VM.

sudo halt

Start the VM by opening its Terminal.
Let's test our databases.

sudo systemctl status postgresql

This should give you a status of active (running).

Try to connect to the Jira database.

psql -U jira -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5432 -d jira

Note: Exit the database by typing "\q" and pressing [Enter]

Try to connect to the Confluence database.

psql -U confluence -h 127.0.0.1 -p 5432 -d confluence

Hopefully you are like me, all set for the next stage.

Preparing the Jira Tomcat instance

Preparing the read-write partition

In the read-write partition, let's first prepare a set of folders on which we will deploy our application and data so that they survive a reboot.In Wiki VM's Terminal:

cd /rw
sudo mkdir -p opt/jira
sudo mkdir -p var/log/jira
sudo mkdir -p var/jira

Integrating with systemd

Looking into systemd tomcat's service config (/usr/lib/systemd/system/tomcat), it states that to run a new instance of tomcat, we need to copy /etc/sysconfig/tomcat to /etc/sysconfig/jira (jira being the name we want to give to this tomcat instance) and set the variables we need. As the file will not be persisted in our Qubes VM, let's prepare one that we will copy at boot time.

sudo mkdir config/sysconfig
sudo vi config/sysconfig/jira
CATALINA_BASE="/opt/jira"
CATALINA_TMPDIR="/opt/jira/temp"
TOMCAT_USER="jira"
CATALINA_PID="/var/run/jira.pid"

Note: If you are new to linux a more natural text editor than vi can be used. nano is a good one... replace vi with nano in all instructions. You just have to know to use [Ctrl] + [x] to exit and save your file.

We also have to provide a copy of /usr/lib/systemd/system/tomcat for our service.

Note: This copy needs to have SERVICE_NAME set prior to launching the tomcat start-up script. As systemd mandate an absolute path for the command to be executed, we are going to need to pass it via a shell command.

In Wiki VM's Terminal:

sudo mkdir -p config/systemd/system
sudo cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/tomcat.service config/systemd/system/jira.service

Let's modify the ExecStart, ExecStop, User and Group lines as follow:

sudo vi config/systemd/system/jira.service
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'export SERVICE_NAME="jira"; /usr/sbin/tomcat-sysd start'
ExecStop=/bin/bash -c 'export SERVICE_NAME="jira"; /usr/sbin/tomcat-sysd stop'
User=jira
Group=jira

Preparing CATALINA_BASE

Let's prepare our CATALINA_BASE (/opt/jira), but we first need our jira account set-up.

sudo chown jira:root var/log/jira
sudo chmod 770 var/log/jira
sudo chown jira:root var/jira
sudo chmod 770 var/jira
cd opt/jira
sudo mkdir -p conf/Catalina/localhost logs temp webapps work
sudo chown jira logs temp work
sudo chmod 770 logs temp work

Preparing for a reboot

Let's now edit our rc.local script so that we set everything in place when the VM reboots.

cd /rw
sudo vi config/rc.local

At the end of the file add the following:

rmdir /opt
ln -s /rw/opt /opt
ln -s /rw/var/jira /var/jira
ln -s /rw/var/log/jira /var/log/jira
cp /rw/config/sysconfig/jira /etc/sysconfig/
cp /rw/config/systemd/system/jira.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/
touch /var/run/jira.pid
chown jira:jira /var/run/jira.pid
/usr/bin/systemctl enable jira &
/usr/bin/systemctl start jira &

Preparing the Confluence Tomcat instance

Preparing the read-write partition

In the read-write partition, let's first prepare a set of folders on which we will deploy our application and data so that they survive a reboot.In Wiki VM's Terminal:

sudo mkdir -p opt/confluence
sudo mkdir -p var/log/confluence
sudo mkdir -p var/confluence

Integrating with systemd

Looking into systemd tomcat's service config (/usr/lib/systemd/system/tomcat), it states that to run a new instance of tomcat, we need to copy /etc/sysconfig/tomcat to /etc/sysconfig/confluence (confluence being the name we want to give to this tomcat instance) and set the variables we need. As the file will not be persisted in our Qubes VM, let's prepare one that we will copy at boot time.

sudo vi config/sysconfig/confluence
CATALINA_BASE="/opt/confluence"
CATALINA_TMPDIR="/opt/confluence/temp"
TOMCAT_USER="confluence"
CATALINA_PID="/var/run/confluence.pid"

We also have to provide a copy of /usr/lib/systemd/system/tomcat for our service.

Note: This copy needs to have SERVICE_NAME set prior to launching the tomcat start-up script. As systemd mandate an absolute path for the command to be executed, we are going to need to pass it via a shell command.

In Wiki VM's Terminal:

sudo cp config/systemd/system/jira.service config/systemd/system/confluence.service

Let's modify the ExecStart, ExecStop, User and Group lines as follow:

sudo vi config/systemd/system/confluence.service
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'export SERVICE_NAME="confluence"; /usr/sbin/tomcat-sysd start'
ExecStop=/bin/bash -c 'export SERVICE_NAME="confluence"; /usr/sbin/tomcat-sysd stop'
User=confluence
Group=confluence

Preparing CATALINA_BASE

Let's prepare our CATALINA_BASE (/opt/confluence), but we first need our confluence account set-up.

sudo chown confluence:root var/log/confluence
sudo chmod 770 var/log/confluence
sudo chown confluence:root var/confluence
sudo chmod 770 var/confluence
cd opt/confluence
sudo mkdir -p conf/Catalina/localhost logs temp webapps work
sudo chown confluence logs temp work
sudo chmod 770 logs temp work

Preparing for a reboot

Let's now edit our rc.local script so that we set everything in place when the VM reboots.

cd /rw
sudo vi config/rc.local

At the end of the file add the following:

ln -s /rw/var/confluence /var/confluence
ln -s /rw/var/log/confluence /var/log/confluence
cp /rw/config/sysconfig/confluence /etc/sysconfig/
cp /rw/config/systemd/system/confluence.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/
touch /var/run/confluence.pid
chown confluence:confluence /var/run/confluence.pid
/usr/bin/systemctl enable confluence &
/usr/bin/systemctl start confluence &

Installing Jira

We have 2 potential way to proceed. Go with the WAR distribution and configure Tomcat based on Fedora basic settings or go with the standalone distribution and modify it to use our tomcat instance. I am going to fo with the second option as the editor (Atlassian) has already done a good job at configuring it, particularly in such a simple set up as the one I want to do.

Note: In the background I have looked at the differences between the two. I have used a tool to remove html comments called XMLStarlet using the command "xmlstarlet ed -d '//comment()' file.xml > file-clean.xml" and a very good graphical diff program called meld. The Atlassian files are as expected better one to use as a starting point with a few exceptions like conf/web.xml (which contains more recent mime types).

Downloading the standalone distribution

Go to Atlassian Jira download page

Toward the bottom of the page toggle the "All JIRA Download Options"
Download the Linux tar.gz file

Copying the tar.gz file to Wiki VM

This is documented in the Qubes OS user documentation page.

In Firefox menu select Tools/Downloads.
Right-Click on atlassian-jira-<version>.tar.gz and select Open Containing Folder.
Right-Click on the file and select Scripts / Copy to other AppVM.
input wiki as the destination domain name.
Allow the transfer to happen by clicking Yes

Install Jira in the read-write partition

Let's expand our Jira distribution.

cd
tar xzvf QubesIncoming/disp<X>/atlassian-jira-<version>.tar.gz
cd atlassian-jira-<version>-standalone

Let's move into place the things we want.

sudo mv conf/* /rw/opt/jira/conf
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/jira/conf
sudo mv atlassian-jira /rw/opt/jira
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/jira/atlassian-jira
sudo mv lib /rw/opt/jira
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/jira/lib
sudo mv external-source /rw/opt/jira
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/jira/external-source
sudo mv licenses /rw/opt/jira
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/jira/licenses
sudo mv tomcat-docs /rw/opt/jira
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/jira/tomcat-docs

Let's make sure all parameters are past to the JVM. You can review this which is what was in bin/setenv.sh which builds up JAVA_OPTS

sudo vi /rw/config/sysconfig/jira

Add the following at the begining of the file:

#
# Occasionally Atlassian Support may recommend that you set some specific JVM a rguments. You can use this variable below to do that.
#
JVM_SUPPORT_RECOMMENDED_ARGS=""
#
# The following 2 settings control the minimum and maximum given to the JIRA Jav a virtual machine. In larger JIRA instances, the maximum amount will need to be increased.
#
JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY="384m"
JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORY="768m"
#
# The following are the required arguments for JIRA.
#
JVM_REQUIRED_ARGS="-Djava.awt.headless=true -Datlassian.standalone=JIRA -Dorg.apache.jasper.runtime.BodyContentImpl.LIMIT_BUFFER=true -Dmail.mime.decodeparameters=true -Dorg.dom4j.factory=com.atlassian.core.xml.InterningDocumentFactory"
# Perm Gen size needs to be increased if encountering OutOfMemoryError: PermGen problems. Specifying PermGen size is not valid on IBM JDKs
JIRA_MAX_PERM_SIZE=384m

You should have then this...

CATALINA_BASE="/opt/jira"
CATALINA_TMPDIR="/opt/jira/temp"
TOMCAT_USER="jira"
CATALINA_PID="/var/run/jira.pid"

Add the following at the end:

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# In general don't make changes below here
#
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JVM_EXTRA_ARGS="-XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow"
JAVA_OPTS="-XX:MaxPermSize=${JIRA_MAX_PERM_SIZE} -Xms${JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY} -Xmx${JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORY} ${JAVA_OPTS} ${JVM_REQUIRED_ARGS} ${DISABLE_NOTIFICATIONS} ${JVM_SUPPORT_RECOMMENDED_ARGS} ${JVM_EXTRA_ARGS}

OK, let's clean the dust up.

cd
rm -rf atlassian-jira-<version>-standalone

Set the Jira Home directory

Let's set our JIRA Home Directory.

sudo vi /rw/opt/jira/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/jira-application.properties
jira.home = /var/jira

Fix the context

There is a small bug (or relaxed configuration as it is a standalone distrib) in the Atlassian package as the server.xml is referring to catalina.home instead of catalina.base.

sudo vi /rw/opt/jira/conf/server.xml
replace the docBase value from ${catalina.home} to ${catalina.base}

Note: While you are at it, you may want to also change the ports the server is listening on.

Prepare Jira for reverse proxy aware responses

Set the context path

sudo vi /rw/opt/jira/conf/server.xml

Replace the following line:

<Context path="" docBase="${catalina.base}/atlassian-jira" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true">

With:

<Context path="/jira" docBase="${catalina.base}/atlassian-jira" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true">

Set the URL for redirection

sudo vi /rw/opt/jira/conf/server.xml

Replace the following line:

<Connector port="8080" maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" connectionTimeout="20000" enableLookups="false" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192" protocol="HTTP/1.1" useBodyEncodingForURI="true" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100" disableUploadTimeout="true"/>

With:

<Connector port="8080" maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" connectionTimeout="20000" enableLookups="false" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192" protocol="HTTP/1.1" useBodyEncodingForURI="true" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100" disableUploadTimeout="true" proxyName="www.example.com" proxyPort="443" scheme="https"/>

Which set the name of the external URL, its port and protocol so that content generated by Tomcat contains links in the form https://www.example.com/<blah>. Obviously replace www.example.com with your server name.

Installing Confluence

Downloading the standalone distribution

Go to Atlassian Confluence download page

Download the Standalone Linux tar.gz file

Copying the tar.gz file to Wiki VM

This is documented in the Qubes OS user documentation page.

In Firefox menu select Tools/Downloads.
Right-Click on atlassian-confluence-<version>.tar.gz and select Open Containing Folder.
Right-Click on the file and select Scripts / Copy to other AppVM.
input wiki as the destination domain name.
Allow the transfer to happen by clicking Yes

Install Confluence in the read-write partition

Let's expand our Confluence distribution.

cd
tar xzvf QubesIncoming/disp<X>/atlassian-confluence-<version>.tar.gz
cd atlassian-confluence-<version>

Let's move into place the things we want.

sudo mv conf/* /rw/opt/confluence/conf
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/confluence/conf
sudo mv confluence /rw/opt/confluence
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/confluence/confluence
sudo mv lib /rw/opt/confluence
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/confluence/lib
sudo mv licenses /rw/opt/confluence
sudo chown -R root:root /rw/opt/confluence/licenses

Let's make sure all parameters are past to the JVM. You can review this which is what was in bin/setenv.sh which builds up JAVA_OPTS

sudo vi /rw/config/sysconfig/confluence

Add the following at the end of the file:

JAVA_OPTS="-Xms256m -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m $JAVA_OPTS -Djava.awt.headless=true "

And clean the dust up.

cd
rm -rf atlassian-confluence-<version>

Set the Confluence Home directory

Let's set our Confluence Home Directory.

sudo vi /rw/opt/confluence/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties
confluence.home = /var/confluence

Prepare Confluence for reverse proxy aware responses

Set the context path

sudo vi /rw/opt/confluence/conf/server.xml

Replace the following line:

<Context path="" docBase="../confluence" debug="0" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true">

With:

<Context path="/confluence" docBase="../confluence" debug="0" reloadable="false" useHttpOnly="true">

Set the URL for redirection

sudo vi /rw/opt/jira/conf/server.xml

Replace the following line:

<Connector className="org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteConnector" port="8090" minProcessors="5" maxProcessors="75" enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="10" debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" useURIValidationHack="false" URIEncoding="UTF-8"/>

With:

<Connector className="org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteConnector" port="8090" minProcessors="5" maxProcessors="75" enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="10" debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000" useURIValidationHack="false" URIEncoding="UTF-8" proxyName="www.example.com" proxyPort="443" scheme="https"/>

Preparing the reverse proxy

In order to present both applications under the same web server and to map the ports to a default port, we are going to use mod_proxy and mod_proxy_http. For more information on how to set-up a more complex set-up you may want to look at the Atlassian page. We will not use mod_proxy_connect as we will decrypt the connection on our reverse proxy and forward the traffic unencrypted to tomcat.

Note: If you are planning on hosting other web applications than Jira and Confluence, you may prefer to host the reverse proxy in a dedicated VM which will forward traffic to different web application back end VMs.
Note2: This set-up does not provide caching due to the small expected number of users and the increased attack surface.

Preparing the read-write partition

In the read-write partition, let's first prepare a set of folders on which we will deploy our application and data so that they survive a reboot.In Wiki VM's Terminal:

cd /rw
sudo mkdir -p config/httpd/conf
sudo mkdir -p config/httpd/conf.d
sudo mkdir -p config/httpd/conf.modules.d

Configuring httpd

Let's prepare our httpd.conf file.

sudo cp /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf config/httpd/conf
sudo vi config/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Comment out the following line:

Listen 80

Change the following line:

ServerAdmin root@localhost

Add the following lines:

ServerName www.example.com

The proxy load module file /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-proxy.conf is already loading everything.Let's prepare the associated conf file:

sudo vi config/httpd/conf.d/00-proxy.conf
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
<Proxy *>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Proxy>
<Location /confluence>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
ProxyPass http://127.0.0.1:8090/confluence
ProxyPassReverse http://127.0.0.1:8090/confluence
SetEnv proxy-sendchunks 1
SetEnv proxy-interim-response RFC
SetEnv proxy-initial-not-pooled 1
</Location>
<Location /jira>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
ProxyPass http://127.0.0.1:8080/jira
ProxyPassReverse http://127.0.0.1:8080/jira
SetEnv proxy-sendchunks 1
SetEnv proxy-interim-response RFC
SetEnv proxy-initial-not-pooled 1
</Location>

Configuring openssl

Let's start by adjusting the SSL configuration file.

sudo cp /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf config/httpd/conf.d
sudo vi config/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
SSLProtocol TLSv1.2
SSLCipherSuite ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA
SSLHonorCipherOrder on

To enable TLSv1.2 in Firefox:

browse to "about:config"
accept the risk
search for tls and set security.tls.version.max=3

/!\ Under construction /!\|!| Note: Road blocked.|!|
\!/ After this sign \!/

Let's generate our private key. I will not get it signed as I do not have a fixed IP address and do not want to trust Certificates Authorities.

sudo yum install crypto-utils
genkey www.example.com

Note: I have used a 4096bits key without certificate request or passphrase.
Note2: There is a bug in fedora broken by upstream package for self signed certificate (as reliant at the moment on md5).

/!\ Under construction /!\|!| Note: Road blocked.|!|
\!/ Before this sign \!/

Preparing for a reboot

Let's now edit our rc.local script so that we set everything in place when the VM reboots.

sudo vi config/rc.local

At the end of the file add the following:

mv /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.origin
cp /rw/config/httpd/conf/httpd.conf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
cp /rw/config/httpd/conf.d/00-proxy.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d
cp /rw/config/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d
/usr/bin/systemctl enable httpd &
/usr/bin/systemctl start httpd &

If you want to be able to access Jira and Confluence from another browser than the wiki VM one, add the following line where 10.137.2.x is the wiki VM's IPAddress of eth0 (ifconfig | grep -i ast) and y.y.y.y/z is the subnet you want to allow in.

/usr/sbin/iptables -I INPUT 5 -j ACCEPT -d 10.137.2.x -s y.y.y.y/z -p tcp --dport 443 -m state --state NEW

You need to have www.example.com configured in your DNS. If you prefer to do that later you can add the following line to allow you to continue the configuration via the wiki VM firewall without the DNS entry set.

echo 10.137.2.x www.example.com >> /etc/hosts

Note: becareful to have two superior sign so that the line is appended to the file.

Testing the httpd service

Stop the wiki VM.

sudo halt

Start the VM by opening its Firefox browser and browse to:

https://www.example.com

You should get a warning that "This Connection is Untrusted". This is because we have a self signed certificate.

Click on I Understand the Risks
Add Exception...
Confirm Security Exception...

You should see the Fedora Apache test page.

Note: If you get a "Secure Connection Failed", remember that you have to enable TLSv1.2 in Firefox as mentioned above.

Troubleshooting httpd

If you have issues. Troubleshoot meticulously. Let's first do very basic check on the server side.

Apache httpd service is up

Check the service is started:

sudo systemctl status httpd

Apache httpd service is listening on the right port

Check the service is listening on the right port (443)

netstat -an | grep LIST | grep -v STREAM

Browser proxy settings

Your browser will use your browser proxy settings and either go direct or via proxy.

DNS resolution

If the browser is going via a proxy, the proxy will do the dns resolution. otherwise, the first thing your browser does is a dns query to the name you entered in the browser destination bar.

Make sure you can resolve this name using a command line toolsuch as nslookup or dig.

If it can't check you /etc/hosts file then your /etc/resolv.conf file where your dns server is defined.

TCP Connection

The next thing your browser (or proxy) will do is establish a TCP connection on port 443.This should give you a status of active (running).

Make sure you can connect over TCP to the web server by issuing telnet 10.137.2.<x> 443. you should get a promt. If you don't, you can install a tool such as tcptraceroute to help identify where routing is broken or where a firewall is in the way.

SSL Handshake

If you have gone this far you should be OK unless there is a mismatch between the Protocol and Cipher supported by the web server and your browser. You can check the protocols you browser support by going to this Hannover's university web site.
If you manage to connect you can view which cipher suite you used by looking in the httpd logs:

sudo su
tail /var/log/httpd/ssl_request_log
exit

Testing the Jira and Confluence tomcat instances

Browse to Jira and Confluence:

https://www.example.com/jira
https://www.example.com/confluence

After a little time you should see the Jira Welcome page and the Confluence Setup Wizard page.

Troubleshooting Jira and Confluence tomcat instances

Jira tomcat instance is up

Check the service is started:

sudo systemctl status jira

In case of issues check the logs:

sudo cat /opt/jira/logs/catalina.out

Jira tomcat instance is visible through the reverse proxy

Check that your request is hitting httpd:

sudo su
tail /var/log/httpd/ssl_request_log
tail /var/log/httpd/ssl_access_log
tail /var/log/httpd/ssh_error_log
exit

Check that your request is hitting Jira tomcat instance:

sudo su
tail /opt/jira/logs/access_log.<date>
exit

The first you should look for is a 302 response for /jira redirecting you.
Which should therefore be followed by another 302 response for /jira/ redirecting you again.
Which should then be followed by a 200 response for /jira/secure/SetupDatabase!default.jspa.

If you are missing the 302 to /jira/ you may have an incorrect Connector set-up in /opt/jira/conf/server.xml. Verify your proxyName, proxyPort and scheme values. They should be so that whatever the server is sending to the client allows the client to connect back.

Configuring Jira and Confluence

Configuring Jira

Open the wiki VM's Firefox browser and browse to:

https://www.example.com/jira
Select the server Language.
Select My Own Database as the Database Connection
Select PostgreSQL as the Database Type
Input 127.0.0.1 as the Hostname
Input 5432 as the Port
Input jira as the Database
Input jira as the Username
Input the jira's database password as Password
Input public as the Schema
Click on Test Connection
Click on Next

It will take some time (a couple of minutes for me) for the database and Jira to be set-up, be patient.

Input an Application Title
Select the Mode
Verify the Base URL (https://www.example.com/jira)

Note: I recommend you get the 10 users licences. The trial licence is for several hundreds of users, I suspect there is no issue in going for the 10 users licences later, but I haven't tested this.

Select the I have a licence option

Open a Disposable VM Firefox Browser and go to https://my.atlassian.com/ to retrive it.

Copy the licence from the disposable VM to the wiki VM browser.

After some time you will be prompted to enter the details of the administrator account.

Configuring Confluence

Open the wiki VM's Firefox browser and browse to:

https://www.example.com/confluence
Copy the licence from the disposable VM to the wiki VM browser.
Select the external database option
select the JDBC connector option

Setup the Database

Verify org.postsgresql.Driver is the Driver Class Name
Verify jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/confluence is the Database URL
Input confluence as the User Name
Input the confluence's database password as the Password
Click Next

Sunday, 7 February 2016

Migrating my Blog to a Git based system

Sunday, 1 December 2013

How-to set up Jira and Confluence on Fedora VM in Qubes OS

Target architecture

Risk analysis

Methodology

Preparing the Template

Installing PostgreSQL

Installing Tomcat

Installing Apache httpd

Preparing the Wiki VM

Creating a Wiki VM

Preparing the PostgreSQL databases

Preparing the read-write partition

Initializing the database

Configuring the database cluster

Configuring the jira database

Configuring the confluence database

Preparing for a reboot

Testing the databases

Preparing the Jira Tomcat instance

Preparing the read-write partition

Integrating with systemd

Preparing CATALINA_BASE

Preparing for a reboot

Preparing the Confluence Tomcat instance

Preparing the read-write partition

Integrating with systemd

Preparing CATALINA_BASE

Preparing for a reboot

Installing Jira

Downloading the standalone distribution

Copying the tar.gz file to Wiki VM

Install Jira in the read-write partition

Set the Jira Home directory

Fix the context

Prepare Jira for reverse proxy aware responses

Set the context path

Set the URL for redirection

Installing Confluence

Downloading the standalone distribution

Copying the tar.gz file to Wiki VM

Install Confluence in the read-write partition

Set the Confluence Home directory

Prepare Confluence for reverse proxy aware responses

Set the context path

Set the URL for redirection

Preparing the reverse proxy

Preparing the read-write partition

Configuring httpd

Configuring openssl

Preparing for a reboot

Testing the httpd service

Troubleshooting httpd

Apache httpd service is up

Apache httpd service is listening on the right port

Browser proxy settings

DNS resolution

TCP Connection

SSL Handshake

Testing the Jira and Confluence tomcat instances

Troubleshooting Jira and Confluence tomcat instances

Jira tomcat instance is up

Jira tomcat instance is visible through the reverse proxy

Configuring Jira and Confluence

Configuring Jira

Configuring Confluence

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

How-to set up dnscrypt-proxy and unbound on Qubes OS

Preparing the Template

Installing Unbound

Setting up dnscrypt-proxy on a DNS VM

Creating a DNS VM

Starting the DNS VM

Installating the development tools

Downloading the source code

Copying the source code to the dns VM

Verifying the source

Building the source