Brain

brain.md

Linux (Ubuntu)

Commands/Actions

• Add user: $ adduser dog
• Allow user to sudo (see DigitalOcean for great explanation):

$ visudo
# This allows user to sudo but prompts for password
dog     ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
# This allows user to sudo without prompting for password (not very secure but useful during automation)
dog     ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

Security

• See Rackspace's security best practices
• Disable root account: $ sudo passwd -dl root

VSFTPD (FTP Server for Ubuntu)

• Great instructional article at DigitalOcean
• Note: A *.crt can be in PEM format already. See this StackOverflow answer

PostgreSQL

Best Practices

• Use Ident Authentication whenever possible. Basically this means access to the database uses the currently logged in user on the OS. For example: if your Rails application runs as the user dog connections to the PG database will use that user.

Commands/Actions

• Become a PostgreSQL super user (postgres) to perform database operations unimpeded:
  • From root: $ su - postgres
  • From sudo: $ sudo su - postgres
• Permit user to create databases:

$ psql
> ALTER USER username CREATEDB;

• Create a database and permit the current user: $ createdb database_name

Rails

Example database.yml with PostgreSQL & Ident Authentication

# config/database.yml

default: &default
  adapter: postgresql
  pool: 5
  
development:
  <<: *default
  database: example_development

test:
  <<: *default
  database: example_test
  
staging:
  <<: *default
  database: example_staging
  
production:
  <<: *default
  database: example_production