Copy of my TYPST LXC Alpine Guide

[TrevorSmale]

#set page(paper: "a4", margin: (x:2cm, y:2cm))
#set text(font: "arial", size: 10pt)
#set page(footer: context [
Trevor Smale Alpine Linux LXC Guide v0.3b | Dec 14th 2024
#h(0.5fr)
Page
#counter(page).display(
"1 of 1",
both: true,
)
])

// Logo

#align(center)[
#image("img/alpine_logo.svg", width: 80pt)
]

#v(-20pt)

// Title
#align(center)[
#text(size: 28pt,)[Alpine Linux]
]

#v(-25pt)

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 17pt,)[LXC Setup]
]

#v(-12pt)

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 10pt,)[Version 0.2 alpha by: Trevor Smale]
]

#v(-5pt)

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 10pt,)[Nov 4th 2024]
]

#align(center)[
#line(length: 60%, stroke: luma(80%))
]

// Intro

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 14pt,)[Overview]
]

Intro\

LXC Containers are minimal, low resource environments much like Docker or Podman containers that can be run in ProxMox. This is a guide for proxmox users to create a container for practicing for the RHCSA & RHCE with low stakes machines that can be created and destroyed from templates.\

🪶 LXC\

LXC containers are lighter and faster than virtual machines (VMs) because they share the host’s kernel and resources, avoiding the overhead of running a separate operating system for each instance. This allows containers to use less memory and CPU compared to VMs, which need to emulate full hardware environments through hypervisors.\

🏔️ Alpine\

Alpine Linux is a lightweight, security-focused Linux distribution designed for efficiency and simplicity, commonly used in containerized environments due to its minimal resource footprint.

🧐 In this Guide\

We will go through the following procedures:

1. Adding & Configuring a new user with sudo privledges
2. Installing, Configuring and Activating SSH services for remote access
3. Installing useful packages like VIM, Python, GO, SSH, Ansible, Podman ++
4. Converting completed LXC container into a template for replication

🔍 Pre-Requisites\

• Must have a ProxMox VE setup.\
• Must have prior understanding of how to find and download LXC templates within ProxMox.\
• Must have prior linux command line experience.\

⚙️ Recommended Container Specs\

• Alpine 3.20 LXC Template
• Processors = 1
• Memory = 512 MiB
• Swap = 512 MiB
• Bootdisk = 4GiB (1GiB Req'd for packages)

#pagebreak()

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 14pt,)[⚙️ Configuration Procedure]
]

#line(length: 100%, stroke: rgb(38, 166, 153,))

*🧑‍🍳 Add user and make them Super🦄 *\

1. Create a new user: apk add sudo'\
2. Create a password for that new user adduser 'username' wheel\
3. Update the sudoers file visudo
   Changes to sudoers file by adding a line above or below the root user privileges. This can be found near bottom add user below root and give same privs\

'username' ALL=(ALL) ALL\

5. Write changes and Quit vi (esc :wq)
6. Become this new user. su 'username'\
7. test sudo powers sudo apk update 👍\

#line(length: 100%, stroke: rgb(38, 166, 153,))

☎️ Install and Configure SSH 🔧\

Adding SSH involves several steps that must be done correctly in order for things to work properly\

1. apk update\
2. apk add openssh\
3. rc-update add sshd\
4. vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config\

These are the settings we must modify using vi. We do this by first un-commenting the line by removing the # mark, then altering the text. You will find these lines sequentially from top to bottom:\

Fields in the sshd_config file that need to be altered:

• AuthorizedKeysFile
• PasswordAuthentication yes
• Hostkey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key
• PermitRootLogin no
• PubkeyAuthentication yes
• AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys

7. Write changes and Quit vi (esc :wq)

8. Restart sshd service:\

service sshd start

9. Test your SSH connection 👍

#pagebreak()

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 14pt,)[* Download and install packages*]
]

#line(length: 100%, stroke: rgb(38, 166, 153,))

1. Update repository reference info:\

apk update

2. Install most packages: \

apk add go git shadow gcc musl-dev ansible tree fping arp-scan pwgen bash-completion logrotate iperf3 atop psmisc tmux net-tools wget nmap bind-tools sysstat iotop tcpdump strace lsof ncdu iftop htop curl vim ca-certificates rsync tar unzip sudo iptables bash libc6-compat podman

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 14pt,)[© Template Conversion]
]

#line(length: 100%, stroke: rgb(38, 166, 153,))

• Ensure that you are satisfied with the containers operation.\
• Test SSH Access to both the Root and new sudo privileged user.\
• Once satisfied, convert the container into a template.\
  • do this by right clicking on the container in the left hand column of the pve list and choosing convert to template.
• Be patient and allow for the process to proceed uninterrupted.
• Once the template is created, it is trivial to make copies either by GUI, TUI or CLI\

#linebreak()

#pagebreak()

// Subtitle
#align(center)[
#text(size: 14pt,)[📦 Full APK Package List]
]

#set text(font: "arial", size: 9pt)

#table(
align: left,
stroke: (0.1pt),
columns: (auto, 1fr),
table.header(
[Package Name],
[Description],
),
[ansible], [Automation tool for configuration management tasks],
[arp-scan], [Scans IP addresses via ARP protocol],
[atop], [Performance monitoring tool for system processes],
[bash], [Essential command-line shell for Linux],
[bash-completion], [Autocompletion functionality for bash commands],
[bind-tools], [DNS query tools (e.g., dig)],
[ca-certificates], [SSL certificate authority files for security],
[curl], [Transfers data from URLs using commands],
[fping], [Ping multiple hosts over IP network],
[gcc], [GNU C Compiler for building software],
[git], [Distributed version control system for code],
[htop], [Interactive process viewer for system monitoring],
[iftop], [Real-time network bandwidth usage monitor],
[iperf3], [Measures network performance and bandwidth usage],
[iptables], [Command-line firewall utility for packet filtering],
[iotop], [Monitors disk I/O usage in real-time],
[libc6-compat], [Compatibility libraries for glibc on musl],
[logrotate], [Automatically rotates and compresses system logs],
[lsof], [Lists open files and associated processes],
[musl-dev], [Musl development libraries for C programming],
[ncdu], [Disk usage analyzer with text interface],
[net-tools], [Legacy networking tools (e.g., ifconfig)],
[nmap], [Network scanner and mapper for security],
[podman], [Manages Linux containers without needing Docker],
[psmisc], [Utilities like killall, fuser, and more],
[pwgen], [Generates random passwords from command-line tool],
[rsync], [File copying and synchronization tool for networks],
[shadow], [Manages encrypted user account passwords securely],
[strace], [Traces system calls and signals for debugging],
[sudo], [Executes commands as root or superuser],
[sysstat], [Performance monitoring tools for CPU, disk, memory],
[tar], [Archiving utility for file compression and packaging],
[tcpdump], [Analyzes and captures network traffic packets],
[tmux], [Terminal multiplexer for managing multiple sessions],
[tree], [Displays directories and files in tree format],
[unzip], [Extracts files from ZIP format archives],
[vim], [Powerful, customizable text editor for developers],
[wget], [Command-line downloader for HTTP/FTP protocols],

)