Overview

Born2beRoot is a system administration project that introduces the fundamentals of virtualisation and server configuration. The goal is to create and configure a Virtual Machine (VM) following strict security guidelines and best practices. This project aims to teach essential skills in operating system installation, partitioning, user management, security policies, and service configuration.

Caution

Since this project serves as an introduction to virtualisation, I will focus on installing the minimum of services. For this reason, I will not provide sources concerning the graphical interface.

Requirements

Host Operating System (Host OS)

• OS: Ubuntu
• Version: 22.04.4 LTS
• Codename: jammy

Virtualisation Software (Hypervisor)

• Software: VirtualBox
• Version: 7.0.20

Guest Operating System (Guest OS)

• OS: Debian
• Version: 13.2.0 (amd64)
• Codename: trixie

Features

Caution

Keep in mind this documentation concerns the creation of a minimalist VM and server. I am going to discuss exclusively the implementation of the essential elements. I am NOT going to address the implementation of UI or other additional features.

• Create a Virtual Machine
• Debian Installation
  • Configure Locals
  • Configure the Network
  • Partition Disk
  • Configure the package manager & Software Selection
  • Install the GRUB boot loader
• Server Features (Services, Packages, Utilities)
  • Package Manager: apt and aptitude
  • sudo Installation
  • AppArmor
  • SSH
  • UFW
  • Strong Password Policy Implementation
  • Users & Groups Management
  • Monitoring Script
    • Cron: Time-based job scheduling
  • Website Hosting:
    • WordPress: Content Management System (CMS)
    • lighttpd: Web Server
    • MariaDB: Database Management System
    • PHP: Scripting Language
    • Fail2Ban: Bonus Service