Working on Managed Servers - Puppetized LAMP

This is specific to the hosted Managed Server offering, maintained by the Application Delivery team within IS&T. Specific requests should go to ops-help@mit.edu. This article is intended for Web Development contractors working for an MIT customer.

SSH Access

User level access is the usual access given out, where sufficient see: Login Overview for IS&T Managed Server Hosting for details; this guide is intended for those following Option 1, on that page.

Of note, you need to be comfortable using the Linux command line. Your login access path is:

• Connect to the MIT VPN using Global Protect
• ssh to the given hostname of your server from there, with your Athena username as your login name
• You may use password authentication or Kerberos5/GSSAPI (preferred), not public key
• You may not use FTP; SFTP, however, is available.

root/sudo access

Many root tasks require more complex interaction with the Puppet configuration management; at the discretion of your MIT customer, you may have root access following option 2 on Login Overview for IS&T Managed Server Hosting. Sudo access is not available.

Many website configurations will require that some files and directories are chown'd to the apache user, after upload. In most cases, you should upload the content and then request of ops-help@mit.edu that we update this.

Puppet Management

Puppet is normally managing:

• The Apache configuration in /etc/httpd/conf.d/
• The PHP configuration and list of software packages
• User accounts
• root's crontab
• The location and ownership of the docroots
• The names of databases and the password and identity of database users
  Most changes pertaining to the above should be requested of ops-help.

SELinux

For RHEL7 based systems, SELinux is normally enabled, and restrictions are in place potentially limiting such activities as

• Sending mail from the CMS
• Uploading to non-designated directories

Database Access

We do not offer PHPMyAdmin or other graphical administration tools; you should be prepared to upload your database using the command line mysql client.

In some cases read-only remote access via Mysql Workbench, or other desktop tools is appropriate.