# Maintaining and securing the "Perfect Rails/Debian/Lighttpd

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maintaining-and-securing-the-perfect-rails-debian-lighttpd/93519>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 4, 2006, 11:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maintaining-and-securing-the-perfect-rails-debian-lighttpd/93519 "2006-04-04T11:52:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a4c791/32.png) [@alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alder)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maintaining-and-securing-the-perfect-rails-debian-lighttpd/93519/1 "2006-04-04T11:52:43Z")

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Hi there

I’m planning to build “The Perfect Rails/Debian/Lighttpd Stack”,  
published by Ezra Z. and Sean S. at  
[http://brainspl.at/rails\_stack.html](http://brainspl.at/rails_stack.html)

I’m wondering what sort of constant maintanance that setup would  
incur. What actions have be regularly performed to keep this setup  
healthy and secure under normal conditions?

Alder

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**Author:** ![alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a4c791/32.png) [@alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alder)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maintaining-and-securing-the-perfect-rails-debian-lighttpd/93519/2 "2006-04-04T14:03:08Z")

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Alder G. \<alder.green@…\> writes:

> Alder

Please keep me informed (if possible) on this topic,

Thanks

Gaspard

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**Author:** ![alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a4c791/32.png) [@alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alder)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maintaining-and-securing-the-perfect-rails-debian-lighttpd/93519/3 "2006-04-05T01:47:02Z")

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On Apr 4, 2006, at 4:52 AM, Gaspard B. wrote:

> > incur. What actions have be regularly performed to keep this setup  
> > healthy and secure under normal conditions?
> > 
> > Alder
> 
> Please keep me informed (if possible) on this topic,
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Gaspard

Guys-

```
This is a very broad question ;-) IF you follow the steps to put

```

sshd on a higher port you will avoid tons of automated ssh attacks.  
As far as maintenance goes, you will need to rotate your log files  
and delete sessions older then a certain time frame with a cron job.

```
THere is a great debian sys admin web site that has many tutorials

```

on things like firewall rules and other security measures. Aside from  
these things mentioned, as long as you don’t write insecure web apps  
that allow attackers to gain a foothold, you should be alright.

[http://www.debian-administration.org/](http://www.debian-administration.org/)

```
Its not a ton of work to run your own server, especially if its just

```

for a few small apps. I have a vps setup with the same guidekines  
that runs my blog and I hardly ever have to log into the server to do  
anything. YMMV of course but don’t be afraid of your own server. Its  
a rewarding experience.

```
And you can always ask here on the list and I will try to help out

```

with problems you run into.

Good Luck-

Ezra

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**Author:** ![alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a4c791/32.png) [@alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alder)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 7:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maintaining-and-securing-the-perfect-rails-debian-lighttpd/93519/4 "2006-04-05T07:30:23Z")

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On 4/5/06, Ezra Z. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> > > [Ruby on Rails Blog / What is Ruby on Rails for?](http://brainspl.at/rails_stack.html)
> 
> ```
> THere is a great debian sys admin web site that has many tutorials
> 
> ```
> 
> a rewarding experience.  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

Thanks (again!) Ezra.

Alder

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**Author:** ![alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a4c791/32.png) [@alder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alder)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 10:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/maintaining-and-securing-the-perfect-rails-debian-lighttpd/93519/5 "2006-04-05T10:54:14Z")

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Alder G. wrote:

> Hi there
> 
> I’m planning to build “The Perfect Rails/Debian/Lighttpd Stack”,  
> published by Ezra Z. and Sean S. at  
> [Ruby on Rails Blog / What is Ruby on Rails for?](http://brainspl.at/rails_stack.html)
> 
> I’m wondering what sort of constant maintanance that setup would  
> incur. What actions have be regularly performed to keep this setup  
> healthy and secure under normal conditions?
> 
> Alder

Hi Alder,

Just a note to say I followed the tutorial and all went swimmingly. I  
had a little problem when I went for a newer version of lighty than was  
mentioned, reverted, all was well, and have since upgraded to a newer  
newer version and all is still well.

Alan