Description

This cookbook aims to normalize setup of a fresh server and set sane
defaults for global settings, and work with various initial
environments (tested on EC2 images, Hetzner "minimal" installations,
and debootstrap-created LXC images). At the moment it supports only
Ubuntu, Debian support is planned.

It calls recipes chef-client::config and omnibus_updater, and
works only with Omnibus Chef client package.

This cookbook is developed on GitHub at
https://github.com/3ofcoins/chef-cookbook-sanitize

Requirements

• apt
• chef-client
• iptables
• omnibus_updater

Attributes

• sanitize.iptables -- if false, does not install and configure
  iptables; defaults to true.

• sanitize.keep_access -- if true, don't disable direct access users
  (ubuntu user or root password); defaults to false.

• sanitize.ports -- if sanitize.iptables is true, specifies TCP
  ports to open. It is a dictionary, where keys are port numbers or
  service names, and values can be:

  • true -- open port for any source address
  • false -- close port
  • a string -- will be used as --src argument to iptables
  • an array of strings -- for many different --src entries
  • TODO: It should be possible to specify a node search query

If the key is a list of ports (port,port) or a range
(port1:port2), then the multiport iptables module will be used.

Default:

default['sanitize']['ports']['ssh'] = true

• sanitize.apt_repositories -- dictionary of APT repositories to add. Key is repository name, value is remaining attributes of the apt_repository resource provided by the apt cookbook (see http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/apt). If you set distribution to "lsb_codename", node['lsb']['codename'] attribute will be used instead.:

Ubuntu's PPAs can be specified as a simple string, or as a ppa
key; the second form allows for customizing some of the attributes.

:sanitize => {
  :apt_repositories => {
    :percona => {
      :uri => 'http://repo.percona.com/apt',
      :distribution => 'lsb_codename',
      :components => [ 'main' ],
      :deb_src => true,
      :keyserver => 'hkp://keys.gnupg.net',
      :key => '1C4CBDCDCD2EFD2A'
    },
    :ruby_ng => 'ppa:brightbox/ruby-ng',
    :nginx => {
      :ppa => 'nginx/stable',
      :distribution => 'precise' # force distribution regardless of lsb.codename
    }
    }}

• sanitize.install_packages -- a list of packages to install on all
  machines; defaults to an empty list.

• sanitize.chef_gems -- Chef gems to install. By default, installs
  chef-helpers, chef-sugar, chef-rewind, and
  chef-vault. Keys are gem names, values can be:

  • false -- skip the package (use that to override defaults; you can also set version to false)
  • true -- install best version available, don't upgrade (equivalent to just writing chef_gem "gem_name" in recipe code)
  • string with version requirement
  • directory, where following keys are recognized:
  • version - false, true (default), or version string
  • require - true (default) means require gem after installing; false means don't require anything; if a string is given, it's name of library to require.

Example (which is also the default set of gems):

:sanitize => {
  :chef_gems => {
    'chef-helpers' => '~> 0.1',
    'chef-sugar' => {
      :version => '~> 1.1',
      :require => 'chef/sugar'
    },
    'chef-rewind' => {
      :version => '~> 0.0.8',
      :require => 'chef/rewind'
    },
    :chef-vault => '~> 2.1'
  }
}

Usage

Include recipe[sanitize] in your run list after your user accounts
are created and sudo and ssh is configured, and otherwise as early as
possible. In particular, if you use omnibus_updater cookbook, it
should be after sanitize in the run list.

sanitize::default

This is the default "base settings" setup. It should be called
after shell user accounts and sudo are configured, as it locks
default login user and direct root access.

1. Deletes ubuntu system user
2. Locks system password for root user (assumes that only sudo is used to elevate privileges)
3. Ensure all FHS-provided directories exist by creating some that have been found missing on some of the installation (namely, /opt)
4. Sets locale to en_US.UTF-8, generates this locale, sets time zone to UTC
5. Changes mode of /var/log/chef/client.log to 0600 -- readable only for root, as it may contain sensitive data
6. Deletes annoying motd.d files
7. Installs vim and sets it as a default system editor
8. Installs and configures iptables, opens SSH port (optional, but enabled by default)
9. Installs can-has command as a symlink to apt-get
10. Runs chef-client::config and omnibus_updater recipes

Roadmap

Plans for future, in no particular order:

• Depend on and include openssh-server; configure SSH known hosts, provide sane SSH server and client configuration defaults
• Provide hooks (definitions / LWRP / library) for other cookbooks for commonly used facilities, such as opening up common ports, "backend" http service, SSL keys management, maybe some other "library" functions like helpers for encrypted data bags
• Test with test-kitchen