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sysadmin-ticket-log

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Note: Please ignore red font used on tickets 1-48. Some information has been redacted for security purposes.

📋 Table of Contents

# Ticket Title
1 Deploy a new CentOS 9 Virtual Machine on Vsphere
2 Create your own resource pool on VSphere
3 Migrate your deployed VM to your Resource Pool
4 Network setup request
5 Install and Configure FreeIPA client
6 Add user msoriano to FreeIPA
7 Add user to group using FreeIPA
8 Add the following info to the local DNS file
9 Create the Following Mount points
10 Please mount the following NFS shares permanently
11 NFS home directory
12 Please deploy a dev webserver using configuration Template
13 Allow HTTP to use non-standard ports
14 Configure a repository
15 Create and Copy your SSH key
16 Add Dev Servers into Ansible inventory
17 Patch your Dev Servers using Ansible
18 Please use Ansible to create the task below
19 Please update the system inventory database
20 Push the script to gitlab repo
21 Spin up a Web server using a Kickstart file
22 Configure FreeIPA Client on the Stage Virtual Machine
23 Disable and prevent SSH root user access to all your servers
24 Restrict SSH access on all servers except Bastion Host (Rich Rule)
25 Graylog client
26 Install Apache Web Server
27 Allow apache to the firewall
28 Configure apache web content
29 Update web content for ariclaw
30 Install MariaDB
31 Create a snapshot of your VM
32 Register your VMs to Foreman
33 Run remote command from Foreman
34 Create a central location for logs
35 Users are having issues with SSH
36 Users are reporting repo issues
37 User is having issue in accessing file
38 Urgent! Malicious IP
39 Please provide the apache version
40 Get a list of all the users that have enrolled on FreeIPA
41 Please configure cronjob
42 Please create a cronjob
43 Create NAGIOS user and configure access
44 Add the servers to Nagios
45 Configure FTP Server and Client
46 Create tasks using Ansible Playbook
47 Closing these ports via an ansible playbook
48 Please create backups for your server kernel
49 Create a Symlink
50 Provide log information from Graylog
51 RAM upgrade request
52 Storage request
53 Create a script to gather these info below
54 Create your own GitLab repository
55 Please rotate HTTPD logs
56 Add both of your servers to CheckMK
57 Fix the issue on your Web Server
58 Create a systemd service for the script procored
59 Configure an NFS Server
60 Install and Configure Bacula
61 Run Performance script
62 Issues with the Performance script
63 Deploy WordPress Docker Containers
64 Dev-performance Web server is not responding
65 CPU Utilization issue with service
66 Notify that Procore Products website is under maintenance
67 Modify User Account Profile Picture
68 Update Performance chart on Procore Products Website
69 Update Order List on the Procore Products Website
70 Remove Maintenance Banner
71 Install Terraform on your Virtual Machine
72 Deploy Production Web Server from Template
73 Install PHP
74 Install a LAMP stack application
75 Create a WIKI page for Documentation Purposes
76 Perform a Security Audit on a Linux system using Lynis
77 Create a Python script
78 Project: Managing Active Directory
79 Access Active Directory Services
80 Create a New Organization Unit
81 Create a new user
82 Create a new user group
83 Research and create documentation
84 Vulnerability Scanning with OpenVAS
85 Fix the high Vulnerabilities showing in the report

1. Deploy a new CentOS 9 Virtual Machine on Vsphere

TASK: The Infrastructure Team is requesting a new CentOS 9 Virtual Machine (VM) to launch a new product for the software development team. Please use the naming convention in the requirements section below. Ensure VM details are added to the asset tiger inventory tool.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Accessed vSphere and selected the correct sandbox correlated to the Host IP address:

  2. Clicked on "Actions" and selected "New Virtual Machine"

  3. Selected "Create a new virtual machine"

  4. Created VM according to the "Requirements;" however, CentOS 9 was not listed as an option, so I chose CentOS 8 for the guest OS

  5. Then later I was able to select the ISO image as listed in the "Requirements"

  6. Once it was created, I powered it on and clicked "Launch Web Console"

  7. I booted the OS normally and went through the steps to perform a minimal installation:

  8. I was able to successfully login to the VM

  9. I ran ip a to obtain the IP address and MAC address (link)

  10. I ran dmidecode -t system | grep -i serial to obtain the serial number

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2. Create your own resource pool on VSphere

TASK: To efficiently manage and allocate organization's resources, we need to create resource clusters for our deployed and upcoming VMs.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Followed the instruction listed on the Wiki on "How to create a resource pool in Vsphere"

  2. Opened vSphere Client and highlighted Data Center location

  3. Right-click on the Data Center and choose 'New Resource Pool'

  4. Named my resource pool as JLEWIS-CLUSTER and clicked 'OK'

  5. Next, I selected the VM I created for Ticket 1 and right-clicked on it to select 'Migrate'

  6. Selected the first option: 'Change compute resource only', and clicked 'Next'

  7. Selected 'Resource Pools' tab, chose my resource pool, and clicked 'Next'

  8. Selected YT-Intran-VLAN and clicked 'Next' until I was able to click 'Finish'

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3. Migrate your deployed VM to your Resource Pool

TASK: Now that the Resource Pool has been successfully created, please proceed with moving your server/s into it.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. I selected the VM I created for Ticket 1 and right-clicked on it to select 'Migrate'

  2. Selected the first option: 'Change compute resource only', and clicked 'Next'

  3. Selected 'Resource Pools' tab, chose my resource pool, and clicked 'Next'

  4. Selected YT-Intran-VLAN and clicked 'Next' until I was able to click 'Finish'

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4. Network setup request

TASK: Please refer to the IP Address Management (IPAM sheet) to locate the necessary network information. Use this information to establish a static connection for your dev-app server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used the following command to add a static connection: nmcli c a con-name dev-app-static autoconnect yes ifname ens192 type ethernet ip4 <ipaddress> gw4 <gatewayaddress> ipv4.dns <dnsaddress>

  2. Added the user procore to wheel group and assigned password.

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5. Install and Configure FreeIPA client

TASK: Proceed with the installation and configuration of the IPA client on your new virtual machine (VM).

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Followed the steps listed for configuring an IPA-Client

  2. Ran the following to install package: dnf install ipa-client -y

  3. Ran the following to install IPA Client:

    • ipa-client-install --mkhomedir
    • procore.dev
    • ipa.procore.dev

  4. Entered username and password to enroll IPA Client and received the following confirmation:

  5. Used the id jlewis command to confirm if IPA was working correctly:

  6. Used the ipa user-show jlewis command to confirm the following:

  7. Note: While configuring IPA if you get an error message, try: ipa-client-install --mkhomedir --force-join or use kinit jlewis to use Kerberos (security software used w/IPA to ensure connection is genuine) in order to confirm your access and identity.

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6. Add user msoriano to FreeIPA

TASK: The developer's team recently hired Marie Soriano. Please create a username msoriano for the new user and add them to the group "webmasters." Additionally, set up a temporary password for the user and ensure this information is documented in the ticket.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Logged into freeIPA, added a new user for Marie Soriano, set password and clicked "Add and Edit"

  2. Clicked on the "User Groups" tab in order to add msoriano to the group "Webmasters" by selecting it and moving it from "Available" to "Prospective," then clicked "Add"

  3. Confirmed user was created by running the id msoriano command:

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7. Add user to group using FreeIPA

TASK: The user you recently added has been assigned to another project supporting the team in revamping the production webpage. Please add this user to the "support" group.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Clicked on "Active Users" and searched for msoriano

  2. Clicked on username, clicked on "User Groups" tab, then clicked "+Add" to move the support group from "Available" to "Prospective" and clicked "Add"

  3. Confirmed user was added to the group by running the id msoriano command:

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8. Add the following info to the local DNS file

TASK: Please add the following information to the local DNS file on the dev-app server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Added vim by installing it with: dnf install vim -y

  2. Used vim to add the following IP addresses to the /etc/hosts directory:

    • 10.1.XX.XX vcenter.sandbox.prod
    • 10.1.XX.XX ipa.procore.dev
    • 10.1.XX.XX dev-nagios.procore.prod1
    • 10.1.XX.XX stage-foreman.procore.prod
    • 10.1.XX.XX stage-bacula.procore.prod1
    • 10.1.XX.XX dev-ansible.procore.prod1 dev-ansible
    • 10.1.XX.XX stage-bastion.procore.prod1 stage-bastion
    • 10.1.XX.XX nfs-dev.procore.prod1
    • 10.1.XX.XX stage-graylog.procore.prod

  3. Used the ping command to confirm connection to the DNS files

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9. Create the Following Mount points

TASK: Please create the following mount points for the upcoming nfs share on the dev-app server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used the following command: mkdir -pv /nfs/incoming/{home,vhosts,scripts}

  2. Then used cd to enter directory /nfs/incoming to confirm mount points were created:

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10. Please mount the following NFS shares permanently

TASK: Please ensure the following NFS shares are mounted permanently on the dev-app server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Updated the /etc/fstab as shown below:

  2. Then ran mount -a and mount | grep nfs to confirm that the directories were mounted correctly:

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11. NFS home directory

TASK: Since you will be using SSH in accessing multiple servers, please create a shared directory using your username and 700 permission.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used cd to enter /nfs/incoming/home directory and then used mkdir jlewis to create my shared directory:

  2. Then used chown -R jlewis:jlewis jlewis/ to assign my freeIPA username to be the owner of the directory:

  3. Lastly, used chmod -R 700 jlewis/ to assign the proper permissions on the shared directory

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12. Please deploy a dev webserver using configuration Template

TASK: The web development team requires you to deploy a development web server using the NEW-YT-DEV-WEBSERVER-TEMPLATE. Please update the necessary information on the newly deployed server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Selected my Cluster folder and clicked on "Actions" to select "New Virtual Machine"

  2. For creation type, I selected "Deploy from template"

  3. Under "Select a Template," I clicked on the "Data Center" tab in order to select the NEW-YT-DEV-WEBSERVER-TEMPLATE and clicked "Next"

  4. Labeled new 'Virtual machine name' to dev-performance-jl.procore.prod1 and clicked "Next"

  5. When asked to select a compute resource, I selected my cluster folder and clicked "Next"

  6. For Storage, DS-01 was selected from the "Batch Configure" tab and then I clicked "Next"

  7. For Clone options, I left everything as default and clicked "Next," then clicked "Finish"

  8. Since I did not know the password for the account, I interrupted the GRUB process in order to access rescue mode via the shell

  9. Added password and created autorelabel file to bypass SELinux

  10. Logged into VM and enabled SSH, then proceeded to update the hostname as requested:

  11. Added static connection using the following nmcli c a con-name dev-perf-static ifname ens192 type ethernet ip4 <ipaddress> gw4 <gatewayaddress> ipv4.dns <dnsaddress> autoconnect yes, then set prod-web to autoconnect no

  12. Next, I installed freeIPA following the steps from ticket 5 and ran id jlewis to confirm that it was properly configured

  13. Added the DNS records as outlined in ticket 8, created the mount points as outlined in ticket 9, and permanently mounted the directories as outlined in ticket 10.

  14. Ran the following commands to add user procore with the requested information:

    • useradd -G wheel procore
    • echo procoreplus | passwd --stdin procore

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13. Allow HTTP to use non-standard ports

TASK: The network and security teams are requesting that your dev-performance web server listens on a non-standard port (8001). Please configure your server to meet this requirement and provide the link for testing.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Installed policycoreutils in order to utilize semanage

  2. Accessed the man page for semanage-port to view the example on how to allow a port via httpd services and then ran the following command: semanage port -a -t http_port_t -p tcp 8001

  3. To confirm it was added correctly, I ran the following: semanage port -l | grep 8001

  4. Installed httpd with the following command: dnf install httpd

  5. Then started the service by running systemctl enable --now httpd

  6. Edited the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file to listen for port 8001

  7. Installed netstat (dnf install net-tools) to confirm the server was listening: netstat -tuln | grep 8001

  8. Added the following services and port to the firewall:

    • firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
    • firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https
    • firewall-cmd --add-port=8001/tcp

  9. Created the link: http://{insertipaddress}:8001/

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14. Configure a repository

TASK: The Development team requires you to install a third-party application that can be found on below repository.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Added repository by using vim epel.repo to add the following information in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory

  2. Ran dnf clean all and dnf repoinfo, then ran dnf provides tmux and dnf install tmux

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15. Create and Copy your SSH key

TASK: The security and network team is requesting that all users generate SSH keys to access the Ansible server and our GitLab repository.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Logged into jlewis account on dev-app-jl.procore.prod1 server and ran ssh-keygen

  2. Then ran ssh-copy-id jlewis@dev-ansible.procore.prod1, entered my password and my key was added

  3. Then tested connection with ssh jlewis@dev-ansible.procore.prod1

  4. Ran the ssh-keygen command while in the dev-ansible.procore.prod1 directory

  5. Then ran ssh-copy-id jlewis@10.1.XX.XX since my server had not been added to the /etc/hosts file yet, entered my password and my key was added

  6. Accessed dev-app-jl.procore.prod1 server in order to obtain ssh public key by running cat id_ed25519.pub

  7. Finally, accessed GitLab and went to "User Settings" to click on "SSH Keys" and clicked "Add New Key" to paste key into database. Repeated the above steps for dev-performance server as well and uploaded both keys to GitLab:

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16. Add Dev Servers into Ansible inventory

TASK: To perform automated actions on our infrastructure, please add your development servers to the Ansible inventory file.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. SSH'd into dev-ansible server and edited the /etc/hosts file by adding the following to the end of the file:

    • 10.1.XX.XX dev-app-jl.procore.prod1 dev-app-jl
    • 10.1.XX.XX dev-performance-jl.procore.prod1 dev-perf-jl

  2. Accessed the inventory file (/etc/ansible/hosts) and added my ansible group [dev-jl]

  3. Ran the following to test ping compatibility with my ansible group ansible -m ping dev-jl

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17. Patch your Dev Servers using Ansible

TASK: In accordance with company policy, all development servers must be patched regularly. Please follow the instructions provided under Infrastructure Resources to patch your development servers using Ansible.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used dnf update python3 to confirm it was installed and up to date on both servers

  2. Used cd /opt/ansible/patching to view the dev-patch.yml file and copy the contents into dev-patch-jl.yml

  3. Ran ansible-playbook dev-patch-jl-app.yml -K and received results that did not match the wiki for a successful patch

  4. After reading the fatal error messages, removed the kernel-* exclusion and reran, which resolved 1 error

  5. Removed the filter for rpm-* and the var=out line and reran — achieved successful results on both servers

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18. Please use Ansible to create the task below

TASK: The programmers on the webmasters team want to have a shared directory for collaboration on scripting knowledge for their division on all development servers.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Read the documentation for ad-hoc commands and wrote the following command: ansible dev-jl -m ansible.builtin.file -a "dest=/opt/scripts/jlewis/ state=directory owner=jlewis group=webmasters mode=775" -K

  2. Command did not complete correctly due to permissions. Ran ansible --help and read the options page for "Privilege Escalation Options:"

  3. Added -b flag to run as root: ansible dev-jl -m ansible.builtin.file -a "dest=/opt/scripts/jlewis/ state=directory owner=jlewis group=webmasters mode=775" -K -b

  4. Verified both servers had the shared directory created: ll -d /opt/scripts/jlewis/

  5. Equivalent playbook (create_shared_directory.yml):

    - hosts: dev-jl
  tasks:
    - name: Create directory
      ansible.builtin.file:
        dest: /opt/scripts/jlewis/
        state: directory
        owner: jlewis
        group: webmasters
        mode: '775'

  6. Run with: ansible-playbook create_shared_directory.yml -K -b

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19. Please update the system inventory database

TASK: For inventory purposes, please populate the system inventory database of your dev servers.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created file git-repository.yml in /opt/ansible with tasks to install git, clone the repository, and run host_facts.sh

  2. Ran ansible-playbook git-repository.yml -K -b -vv — git installed but cloning stalled due to credential prompt

  3. Ran git clone manually and confirmed GitLab required authentication

  4. Updated playbook to use a Personal Access Token (PAT) for authentication

  5. Reran — error showed file was not being found

  6. Corrected the script filename to host_fact.sh_DoNotDelete (confirmed with Infrastructure team) and added double quotes around git_token and repo values

  7. Reran playbook — all tasks completed successfully

  8. Verified .txt files were generated in /tmp on both servers

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20. Push the script to gitlab repo

TASK: The development department will need to have a new version of the host_facts.sh created and uploaded to Gitlab.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Logged in as root on dev-app server and accessed /root/scripts: cp host_fact.sh_DoNotDelete jlewis_host_facts.sh

  2. Appended a date command and ran cat jlewis_host_facts.sh

  3. Ran git init, git add jlewis_host_facts.sh, and git status

  4. Ran git commit -m "Adding jlewis_host_facts.sh file" — error populated

  5. Ran git restore --staged jlewis_host_facts.sh and checked status

  6. Reran as git commit -m "Add jlewis_host_facts.sh" and received successful results

  7. Pushed with git push -u origin master

  8. Confirmed file was added to GitLab repository

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21. Spin up a Web server using a Kickstart file

TASK: One of our clients intends to build a staging web server to launch a new product. Please set up a new virtual machine (VM) using the naming convention provided below.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created new VM named stage-web-jl.procore.prod1

  2. Input all information requested for requirements

  3. Powered on VM and interrupted boot process, pressed e to edit the boot parameters for the linuxefi line

  4. Added the required line of code for GRUB to run the kickstart configuration file and pressed Ctrl-x to execute

  5. Server successfully booted; corrected the default IP address to allow package installation

  6. Completed the steps from tickets 8–10 to configure mount points and DNS records

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22. Configure FreeIPA Client on the Stage Virtual Machine

TASK: All new servers must be enrolled in our IPA server. Please enroll the staging server you just created.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Installed IPA onto staging server by following Ticket 5 steps

  2. Added SSH key from stage-web server: ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "jlewis@stage-web-jl" and copied to dev-ansible with ssh-copy-id jlewis@dev-ansible and vice versa

  3. Added stage-web-jl.procore.prod1 to inventory group and performed Ansible Ping test — all successful

  4. Added public key for stage-web server to GitLab using cat id_rsa.pub

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23. Disable and prevent SSH root user access to all your servers as part of the security audit requirement

TASK: Disallowing root logins over SSH requires system administrators to authenticate using their own individual accounts and then escalate to root via sudo or su.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Confirmed SSH access via jlewis IPA account, then accessed each server as root and edited /etc/ssh/sshd_config to set PermitRootLogin to no

  2. Ran systemctl restart sshd and systemctl daemon-reload

  3. Confirmed SSH as root was blocked; su still worked for local escalation

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24. Restrict SSH access on all servers except Bastion Host (Rich Rule)

TASK: The security department requests that all servers created on our infrastructure only accept SSH communication from the Bastion host.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Opened two terminal sessions per server, then allowed the Bastion Host IP: sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="{ipaddressofbastionhost}" port port="22" protocol="tcp" accept'

  2. Removed default SSH access rules:

    • sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --remove-port=22/tcp
    • sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --remove-service=ssh

  3. Reloaded the firewall to apply the changes

  4. Confirmed direct SSH was blocked

  5. SSH'd into the Bastion server with my IPA username

  6. Successfully SSH'd into my terminal from the Bastion server

  7. Updated /etc/hosts on Bastion and added RSA SSH keys from Bastion to each server

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25. Graylog client

TASK: Please configure your dev-app, dev-performance and stage-web virtual machines to send logs to the Graylog server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. SSH'd into stage-graylog and confirmed firewall was configured to accept syslog input over UDP port 5140

  2. Created /etc/rsyslog.d/90-graylog.conf on each server with: *.* @10.1.XX.XX:5140;RSYSLOG_SyslogProtocol23Format

  3. Restarted rsyslog and confirmed log transmission in the Graylog web interface

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26. Install Apache Web Server

TASK: Please install the apache webserver to the stage-web-jl.procore.prod1-IP server. Make sure to start and enable apache.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Checked if httpd was installed: sudo dnf info httpd and systemctl status httpd

  2. Installed with sudo dnf install httpd -y, started and enabled with systemctl enable --now httpd, and confirmed status

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27. Allow apache to the firewall

TASK: After installing Apache, please open ports 80 and 443 on the stage web server you created. Additionally, allow the Apache service through the firewall.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. On stage-web VM, ran the following commands:

    • sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
    • sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp
    • sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=http
    • sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https

  2. Verified with sudo firewall-cmd --list-all and reloaded

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28. Configure apache web content

TASK: Please configure ariclaw web server contents on stage-web server which can be found at the URL below.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Installed git and cloned: git clone git@gitlab.com:procoreplusmd/ariclaw.git

  2. Configured git user, moved repo to /var/www/html, and ran git config --list

  3. Accessed the IP address link — site was not displaying content

  4. Accessed /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf and commented out all lines

  5. Restarted the Apache services: systemctl restart httpd

  6. Site began displaying content at the IP address

  7. Verified SSH key was working — non-fatal GitLab warning noted (expected behavior)

  8. Changed permissions of the repository folder

  9. Created /etc/httpd/conf.d/ariclaw.conf with the required content

  10. Restarted httpd service

  11. Cleared browser cache and confirmed site loaded correctly

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29. Update web content for ariclaw

TASK: Ariclaw has recently changed their phone number. Please update the website content.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Identified phone number in two places on the current site

  2. Updated the contact.html file in /var/www/html and /nfs/incoming/vhosts/ariclaw/htdocs with the new phone number

  3. Ran sudo systemctl restart httpd and confirmed the updated number appeared on the site

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30. Install MariaDB

TASK: The development team requested the installation of MariaDB version 10.3 on your dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created and configured the MariaDB repository: sudo vi /etc/yum.repos.d/MariaDB.repo

  2. Installed MariaDB Server and Client, started and enabled the service, and confirmed status

  3. Ran the secure installation script: sudo mariadb-secure-installation

  4. Verified login with: mysql -u root -p

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31. Create a snapshot of your VM

TASK: The infrastructure team will perform a company wide maintenance next week. Please create a snapshot of all your Virtual Machines.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Accessed vSphere Client and clicked on each VM to access the "Snapshots" tab and clicked "Take Snapshot…"

  2. Named each snapshot respective to the server and Ticket 31

  3. Waited until all VM snapshots were created successfully

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32. Register your VMs to Foreman

TASK: The Security Team is requiring that all servers be registered with the Foreman server and patched accordingly moving forward.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. SSH'd into stage-foreman VM — unable to access due to firewall restrictions

  2. Updated /etc/ssh/sshd_config to allow root login and ran ssh-copy-id -i ~foreman-proxy/.ssh/id_rsa_foreman_proxy.pub 10.1.XX.XX for each VM

  3. Downloaded the subscription-manager package

  4. Installed the Katello CA cert and registered with Foreman

  5. Verified registration in Foreman Web UI under Hosts → Content Hosts

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33. Run remote command from Foreman

TASK: The Security Team needs to create a local user on all the VMs of the infrastructure using Foreman, the user's name is Reuben Camilo, the username would be rcamilo.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Selected all 3 VMs in Foreman and clicked "Schedule Remote Job"

  2. Added command useradd -C "Reuben Camilo" rcamilo — all jobs failed

  3. Identified PermitRootLogin was set to no — updated one server to test

  4. Identified the flag error: used -C instead of -c

  5. Reran with corrected command — still required PermitRootLogin yes

  6. Set all servers to PermitRootLogin yes and reran — all 3 VMs showed successful

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34. Create a central location for logs

TASK: We would like to establish a central location on the server dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP to store logs.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Powered off VM, added a new 1 GB hard disk in vSphere, and powered back on

  2. Confirmed disk at /dev/sdb using lsblk

  3. Used fdisk /dev/sdb to create partition

  4. Created ext4 filesystem via VG and LV

  5. Created mount point /lfjs/logs, user lfjs, and assigned ownership: sudo chown -R lfjs:webmasters /lfjs/logs

  6. Set SGID permissions: sudo chmod 2755 /lfjs/logs/

  7. Edited /etc/fstab to mount persistently

  8. Confirmed with lsblk

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35. Users are having issues with SSH

TASK: We have received numerous emails from developers regarding issues with SSH access to your dev-app server. Please investigate the issue and attach the last 20 lines of the logs to this ticket.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used id apprentice to confirm user existed, then attempted ssh apprentice@localhost

  2. Attempted to access /lfjs/logs as apprentice — permissions had reset to root

  3. Re-applied correct permissions and confirmed as apprentice via su

  4. Accessed the directory — no contents found

  5. Checked /var/log, tallylog, and lastlog — nothing notable found

  6. Ran find / -type f -user apprentice | grep ssh — noted similar keys in known_hosts and known_hosts.old

  7. Checked /var/log/secure for the last 20 lines — found that user apprentice was not using port 22 for SSH

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36. Users are reporting repo issues

TASK: One of our clients has reported that the del.extreme-ix repository is not functioning properly on dev-app-[initials].procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Accessed the epel.repo file — noted enabled=1 was included during original setup (not part of original instructions). Possible issue if the URL requires https.

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37. User is having issue in accessing file

TASK: User created in ticket 6 has reported that he/she is unable to write to the directory /lfjs/logs when logged into dev-app-[initials].procore.prod.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. msoriano is part of the webmasters group but still unable to write. Created an ACL: sudo setfacl -m u:msoriano:rw /lfjs/logs

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38. Urgent! Malicious IP

TASK: The networking team has reported a malicious IP that is trying to get into our network.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Ran the following on each VM to block the malicious IP: sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="XX.XX.XX.XX" port port="22" protocol="tcp" drop'

  2. Ran sudo firewall-cmd --reload to apply the rule

  3. Ran sudo firewall-cmd --list-all to confirm it was applied

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39. Please provide the apache version

TASK: The development team is helping us troubleshoot an issue with apache on stage-web-jl.procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Ran both dnf list httpd and dnf info httpd to obtain the version information in two different formats

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40. Get a list of all the users that have enrolled on FreeIPA

TASK: The administration is requesting a detailed list of all users registered on the FreeIPA server. Please generate this list using IPA commands and redirect the output to a file.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used ipa user-find msoriano to confirm user was in database and then ran ipa user-del msoriano to delete user

  2. Ran ipa user-find >> ipa_users.txt to export all users into a file

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41. Please configure cronjob

TASK: The engineering team would like to have a cron job configured on the dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Copied the script file from /nfs/incoming/scripts/logs.sh to ~/ and changed ownership to my freeIPA user

  2. Confirmed crond was running and ran crontab -eu jlewis to input the cron schedule

  3. Checked /var/log/cron and confirmed the script was running every 6 hours

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42. Please create a cronjob

TASK: Please create a cronjob on stage-web-jl.procore.prod1-IP server to restart apache every 2 days at 11 AM.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Set up initial cronjob on stage-web-jl server

  2. Confirmed cronjob was running by setting up a temporary duplicate that ran every 2 minutes

  3. Checked /var/log/cron — job ran but produced an error (required authentication)

  4. Ran sudo crontab -eu root to add the cronjob as root and tested

  5. Finalized cronjob: 0 11 */2 * * systemctl restart httpd as root

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43. Create NAGIOS user and configure access

TASK: To utilize the NAGIOS service, you need to create an HTTP user on the server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. SSH'd into dev-nagios server

  2. Added user with: htpasswd /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users jlewis

  3. Edited /usr/local/nagios/etc/cgi.cfg and appended jlewis to all directives

  4. Restarted Nagios and verified user access via the Nagios web UI

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44. Add the servers to Nagios

TASK: Please add your Virtual machines to Nagios monitoring system.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Installed NRPE and Nagios plugins on each server: sudo dnf install epel-release nrpe nagios-plugins-{load,http,users,procs,disk,swap,nrpe,uptime} -y

  2. Edited /etc/nagios/nrpe.cfg and updated allowed_hosts to include the Nagios server IP

  3. Started NRPE and created config files for each server by copying yt-templates.cfg.bak

  4. Linked new config files in /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

  5. Reloaded Nagios — received warning message

  6. Ran sudo /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg to diagnose

  7. Commented out missing referenced file, reran — no errors or warnings

  8. Found that someone had changed the user:group of /usr/local/nagios/. Ran sudo chown -R nagios:nagios /usr/local/nagios/ to correct and got the service running again

  9. Verified hosts were being monitored in the Nagios web UI — both statuses showed OK!

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45. Configure FTP Server and Client

TASK: Please configure the FTP server on dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP and the FTP client on stage-web-jl.procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used sudo dnf install ftp -y to install ftp on both servers, then copied ftp-prod.config from the NFS share

  2. Added ftp service to both servers: sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ftp and reloaded

  3. Ran ftp stage-web-jl — received an error

  4. Installed vsftpd on both servers, opened port 21, and started the service

  5. Used ftp dev-app-jl from stage-web-jl, logged in with freeIPA credentials, and ran get ftp-prod.config

  6. Confirmed the file was on the home directory with ll

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46. Create tasks using Ansible Playbook

TASK: Please create an ansible playbook that would perform the below tasks on dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created user_add.yml in /etc/ansible/playbook/jlewis referencing Ansible documentation for user and dnf modules

  2. Ran ansible-playbook user_add.yml -K -b

  3. Confirmed on dev-app-jl server that everything was completed correctly

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47. Closing these ports via an ansible playbook

TASK: Please create an Ansible playbook to close ports 80 and 443 on dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Reviewed ansible.posix.firewalld documentation and wrote close_ports.yml

  2. Ran ansible-playbook close_ports.yml -K -b

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48. Please create backups for your server kernel

TASK: The infrastructure team will deploy a company wide kernel update next week.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Accessed /lib/modules on each server and created backups to the requested location:

    • sudo tar -czvf /nfs/incoming/vhosts/backup/dev-app-jl-kernel-backup.tar.gz 5.14.0-621.el9.x86_64
    • sudo tar -czvf /nfs/incoming/vhosts/backup/stage-web-jl-kernel-backup.tar.gz 5.14.0-575.el9.x86_64/

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49. Create a Symlink

TASK: Please create a symlink in your home directory on your stage-web VM for the file /var/www/html/ariclaw/elements.html and name the symlink elements.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Ran the following command: ln -s /var/www/html/ariclaw/elements.html ~/elements

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50. Provide log information from Graylog

TASK: The development team requires information about the MariaDB database you installed on your dev-app server. Please query the logs using the Graylog server to determine the exact date and time of the installation.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Accessed Graylog site and searched for "MariaDB"

  2. Filtered by source dev-app-jl and changed time range to "last 14 days" — confirmed MariaDB was initially installed on October 18

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51. RAM upgrade request

TASK: The infrastructure team is requesting that you scale up dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP due to an increase in user requests. Please create a clone of the virtual machine before making any changes.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Powered down dev-app-jl and cloned it as dev-app-jl-clone in vSphere

  2. Updated memory from 1GB to 1536 MB

  3. Powered back on and ran free -mh to confirm RAM was updated

  4. Powered on the clone VM and confirmed the additional memory was reflected

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52. Storage request

TASK: Users have requested additional space to be allocated to the /lfjs/logs filesystem on dev-app-jl.procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Ran lsblk — confirmed no free space available to extend existing filesystem

  2. Ran fdisk /dev/sdb to add another 100MB partition

  3. Created the PV to add it to the VG

  4. Extended the VG and LV: sudo vgextend vglogs /dev/sdb2 and lvextend -r -L +96 /dev/vglogs/lvlogs

  5. Confirmed new storage amount with lsblk

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53. Create a script to gather these info below

TASK: Please create a script to gather information about your VM.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Identified the required commands after reviewing man pages:

    • date, last -F 10, free -h, uname -srv, nmcli | grep "inet4 10.*"

  2. Created /tmp/serverinfo.info and populated it with the script content

  3. Made executable with sudo chmod +x serverinfo.info and ran on each server

  4. Network access was giving issues at the time — unable to provide additional screenshots for the second server.

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54. Create your own GitLab repository

TASK: For documentation purposes, we request that everyone create their own GitLab repository and upload their Ansible playbooks and Bash scripts.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used rsync to copy playbooks from dev-ansible to dev-app-jl: rsync -avs --delete jlewis@dev-ansible:/etc/ansible/playbook/jlewis /home/jlewis/gitlab

  2. Created a new blank GitLab project at https://gitlab.com/justintimejlew/ansible_playbooks

  3. Initialized git, added remote, committed, and attempted git push -u origin master — failed because the branch was named main

  4. Ran git pull --rebase origin main then git push -u origin main successfully

  5. Confirmed files were committed to: https://gitlab.com/justintimejlew/ansible_playbooks/

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55. Please rotate HTTPD logs

TASK: The ariclaw website is generating a large number of logs. Please modify the log rotation settings to rotate the HTTPD logs daily and ensure that log rotation retains logs for only 14 days on stage-web-jl.procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Accessed /etc/logrotate.d/httpd and set daily and rotate 14

  2. Ran sudo systemctl status logrotate — confirmed service runs and deactivates after completion

  3. Forced the changes: sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/httpd

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56. Add both of your servers to CheckMK

TASK: Please add both of your servers to CheckMK monitoring tools.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Installed wget and the Checkmk agent, then ran sudo dnf -y localinstall check-mk-agent-2.3.0p2-1.noarch.rpm

  2. Opened port 6556 for Checkmk agent communication and started the socket

  3. Accessed the Checkmk Web Interface, navigated to the DEV directory, and clicked "Add Host"

  4. Entered hostname and IP for each VM and clicked "Save & run service discovery"

  5. Clicked "Changes" to activate

  6. Clicked "Activate on selected sites"

  7. Verified hosts were created by filtering with "jl" in the Hosts view

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57. Fix the issue on your Web Server

TASK: We have been receiving a lot of emails about your stage-web-jl-procore.prod1-IP. Verify and troubleshoot critical services using CheckMK.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Searched for stage-web-jl in CheckMK and clicked on the hostname

  2. Checked "Monitoring Status" — nothing of concern found

  3. Reviewed "Rules" — listed several rules CheckMK was running

  4. Checked "Test notification" — found fallback email address was missing

  5. Added email address to the system

  6. Activated changes on selected sites

  7. Reviewed all monitoring services — NTP showed "CRIT"

  8. Ran sudo systemctl enable --now chronyd and rescanned

  9. NTP showed OK after rescan. Removed test email from Global Settings.

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58. Create a systemd service for the script procored

TASK: Procore-Plus has deployed a new daemon that needs to be running on every server.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Copied procored.sh to /usr/bin/procored on each server

  2. Ran sudo systemctl enable --now procored — received an error (no unit file found)

  3. Created /etc/systemd/system/procored.service unit file

  4. Ran sudo systemctl daemon-reload, sudo systemctl enable --now procored, and confirmed status

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59. Configure an NFS Server

TASK: Please configure an NFS server on dev-app-jl.procore.prod1.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created /nfs-jlewis directory and downloaded the required rpm

  2. Edited /etc/exports and added: /nfs-jlewis stage-web-jl(rw,sync,no_root_squash)

  3. Ran exportfs -rav to refresh the NFS export table

  4. Confirmed nfs service was allowed in the firewall

  5. On stage-web-jl, created mount point, mounted the NFS share, and confirmed with df -hT

  6. Updated /etc/fstab for persistent mounting

  7. Ran sudo systemctl daemon-reload and sudo mount -a — confirmed access to /nfs-jlewis

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60. Install and Configure Bacula

TASK: The infrastructure team needs to back up your VMs. Please install the Bacula Client (downgrade) and Libraries on both of your servers.

STEPS TAKEN:

Client Installation:

  1. Installed required development tools and libraries on each server

  2. Downloaded and extracted Bacula 9.6.6 source code

  3. Configured the build for client only: sudo ./configure --enable-client-only

  4. Compiled and installed: sudo make -j$(nproc) and sudo make install

  5. Created the bacula-fd.service unit file

  6. Enabled and started the Bacula File Daemon — confirmed symlink was created

Client Configuration:

  1. Configured /etc/bacula/bacula-fd.conf

  2. Configured /etc/bacula/bconsole.conf

  3. Added clients in the Bacula Web Interface

  4. Verified connectivity for each server via "Status Client"

  5. Created backup jobs using the "New job wizard"

  6. Ran backup jobs for each server

  7. Verified backup ran successfully for each server

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61. Run Performance script

TASK: The development team has notified all users to manually run a performance script on all servers. Please execute the script located at /nfs/incoming/scripts/perfomance.sh as the root user. After running the script, a file named /setup_file.cfg should be created.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created a snapshot on each VM prior to starting this ticket.

  2. Accessed /nfs/incoming/scripts/ and ran sudo ./perfomance.sh on each VM — setup_file.cfg was created on each.

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62. Issues with the Performance script

TASK: After running the performance script, the development team noticed some issues with the NFS and HTTPD services. Most of the files for these services were deleted. Please restore these files from the backup you created earlier using Bacula.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Visited Bacula Web Interface — "Restore wizard" was not working properly, so accessed the "Jobs" tab

  2. Clicked "Job history" and selected the "Full" backup to click "Details"

  3. Clicked "Restore"

  4. Navigated the folder tree to the etc folder, added both files, and clicked "Next"

  5. Left "Where" settings as default

  6. Left "Options" settings as default

  7. Clicked "Run restore"

  8. Restore job produced warning messages, but files were placed in /tmp/restore/etc

  9. Moved files to /etc using mv: sudo mv exports /etc/ and sudo mv httpd/ /etc/httpd.bak

  10. Confirmed httpd and nfs-server services were running

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63. Deploy WordPress Docker Containers

TASK: The Public Relations department wants to deploy a WordPress website. Please follow the instructions at the URL below to complete this request.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Ran docker run --name some-wordpress --network some-network -d wordpress — selected docker.io/library/wordpress:latest

  2. Received an error

  3. Tried docker run --name some-wordpress -p 8080:80 -d wordpress — same error

  4. Ran sudo podman system migrate and reran — ran successfully

  5. Accessed 10.1.XX.XX:8080 — redirected to WordPress setup page, confirming WordPress was configured

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64. Dev-performance Web server is not responding

TASK: Some end users are reporting connectivity issues with the internal dev-performance system. Please troubleshoot the issue.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Checked network connection with nmcli c s and ping -c4 google.com

  2. Checked sudo systemctl status NetworkManager — service was running

  3. Ran ss -tuln | grep :80 and ss -tuln | grep :443 — HTTPS did not appear to be working

  4. Found that httpd.conf was missing from /etc/httpd/conf. Copied it from the backup restoration and added Listen 443

  5. Restarted httpd and confirmed curl -k http://localhost returned HTML content

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65. CPU Utilization issue with service

TASK: Please stop and disable the procored system service on all servers. Afterward, verify that CPU utilization is normal using Check_MK.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. On each server, ran sudo systemctl stop procored, sudo systemctl disable procored, and confirmed status

  2. Visited CheckMK and confirmed CPU utilization was only about 5.06%

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66. Notify that Procore Products website is under maintenance

TASK: The webmaster would like you to add a banner indicating that the website will be down for maintenance.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Attempted sudo git clone git@gitlab.com:procoreplusmd/procore-products.git — error

  2. Ran git init then cloned with sudo git clone

  3. Ran git config --global --add safe.directory /var/www/html and checked git status

  4. Commented out all lines in /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf and restarted httpd

  5. Removed the hidden .git directory and re-cloned using https:// instead of git@

  6. Copied index.html to /var/www/html/ — site displayed web contents at http://10.1.XX.XX

  7. Copied the maintenance banner index.html from websiteDownForMaintenance folder

  8. Copied all site contents and applied the maintenance banner

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67. Modify User Account Profile Picture

TASK: Please modify the profile picture for user Jessica on the website. Use the following files to update her information.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Used browser "Inspect" tool to identify Jessica's current photo as notification-01.jpg

  2. Confirmed the updated photo in GitLab was labeled notification-dog.img

  3. Ran: sudo cp notification-dog.img /var/www/html/img/notification-01.jpg

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68. Update Performance chart on Procore Products Website

TASK: The website requires a new feature to be added to the performance chart.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Took a snapshot of the performance chart before making changes

  2. Confirmed file location in /var/www/html/js and ran: sudo cp tooplate-scripts-orig.js /var/www/html/js/tooplate-scripts.js

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69. Update Order List on the Procore Products Website

TASK: Please update the Order List table on the Procore Products website to ensure that all cancelled orders are removed.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Took a screenshot of the current order list

  2. Accessed /var/www/html/procore-products/removeCancelledProducts and ran: sudo cp index.html /var/www/html/

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70. Remove Maintenance Banner

TASK: Now that all issues on the dev-performance server have been resolved, please remove the maintenance banner that was added.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Took a screenshot of the site before making changes

  2. Accessed /var/www/html/procore-products/websiteUpAndReady and ran: sudo cp index.html /var/www/html/

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71. Install Terraform on your Virtual Machine

TASK: Please install terraform on your dev-app-jl.procore.prod1 VM.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Visited https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install and selected ARM64 Version: 1.13.4

  2. Downloaded Terraform: sudo wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.13.4/terraform_1.13.4_linux_arm64.zip

  3. Unzipped and moved to /usr/bin

  4. Ran terraform -v — received an error

  5. Installed via the HashiCorp repo instead — terraform -v worked successfully

  6. Cloned dev-performance-jl to a template in vSphere

  7. Confirmed template was created by deploying a test VM from it

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72. Deploy Production Web Server from Template

TASK: Please use Terraform code to deploy the newly fixed web server into production. The server should be created within your vSphere resource pool.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created a terraform directory on dev-app-jl, initialized git, and cloned the Terraform repo

  2. Edited terraform.tfvars with the required configuration

  3. Updated main.tf with hostname prod-webserver-jl.procore.prod1

  4. Ran sudo terraform init

  5. Ran sudo terraform plan — resource pool not found due to case-sensitivity

  6. Updated terraform.tfvars and reran sudo terraform plan — successful

  7. Ran sudo terraform apply — received an error (likely a permissions restriction on VM deletion)

  8. Despite the error, the VM was created and I was able to log into it

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73. Install PHP

TASK: The web development team requests that PHP be installed on stage-web-jl.procore.prod1-IP.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Ran sudo dnf info php to check availability

  2. Ran sudo dnf install php to install PHP and all dependencies

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74. Install a LAMP stack application

TASK: The development team has released a new application, and you have been assigned the task of deploying it and configuring the associated database.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Cloned the CRM project: sudo git clone https://gitlab.com/procoreplusmd/crm-project

  2. Extracted and copied the CRM project to /var/www/html

  3. Installed MariaDB, enabled the service, and ran sudo mysql_secure_installation

  4. Attempted to install Apache — service could not start because httpd.conf was deleted by the script

  5. Restored httpd.conf via rsync from dev-perf-jl

  6. Restarted httpd, opened firewall ports, and confirmed site access

  7. Installed PHP with opcache and created /var/www/html/info.php to test

  8. Installed MySQL support and common PHP modules

  9. Reran install without php-xmlrpc (not found) and restarted Apache

  10. Revisited info.php to verify module installation

  11. Installed phpMyAdmin: sudo dnf -y install phpMyAdmin

  12. Edited Apache's phpMyAdmin config to allow remote access

  13. Attempted phpMyAdmin login — did not work initially

  14. Updated dbconnection.php files with the correct password

  15. Accessed the admin panel at http://10.1.XX.XX/crm/admin

  16. Created the crm database in phpMyAdmin and imported: mysql -u root -p crm < /var/www/html/crm/crm.sql

  17. Recreated user account and confirmed access to the site

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75. Create a WIKI page for Documentation Purposes

TASK: Please create a wiki document outlining the steps to install and configure a firewall for an HTTP server. Name the page using your username and place it in the Procore-Plus How-To Guides section.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Created an account on the wiki site

  2. Visited the Procore-Plus Wiki and clicked the "Edit" tab

  3. Populated the editing page with my username link

  4. Added the following content to the "JLewis" wiki page and confirmed changes were shown

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76. Perform a Security Audit on a Linux system using Lynis

TASK: The security team has notified all administrators to conduct an audit and scan for security vulnerabilities and loopholes on your Linux machine using the Lynis tool.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Ran sudo dnf provides lynis and confirmed the package, then installed with sudo dnf install lynis

  2. Ran sudo lynis audit system >> /tmp/systemaudit to perform the audit and redirect output

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77. Create a Python script

TASK: The security team requires that administrators create a Python script to gather information about the VM they are working on (Hostname, IP address, OS System, Release, Version, Machine architecture).

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Confirmed Python 3.9.23 was installed via python -V. Created sudo vim python.sh on the dev-app server with the required script content.

  2. Made executable with sudo chmod u+x python.sh and ran: sudo ./python.sh >> /tmp/pythoninfo

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78-83. Project : Managing Active Directory

TASK: Accessing the Windows Active Directory server to manage and administer user accounts.

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79. Access Active Directory Services

OBJECTIVE: Use the Remote Desktop Client to connect to Active Directory services.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Accessed Microsoft Remote Desktop on iMac and clicked on "Add PC"

  2. Input the Server and User information as directed on the wiki

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80. Create a New Organization Unit

OBJECTIVE: Add a new Organizational Unit (OU) under the domain using the Active Directory Users and Computers tool.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Right clicked on the VITI folder under "sandbox.prod → Yellow tail" and selected "New → Organizational Unit," named it "JLewis-VITI," and unchecked "Protective Container"

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81. Create a new user

OBJECTIVE: Enhance system administration skills through identity management using Active Directory.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Right clicked on the OU, then selected "New" and "User"

  2. Entered user information and clicked "Next"

  3. Selected "password never expire" and entered the provided password

  4. Clicked "Finish"

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82. Create a new user group

OBJECTIVE: Enhance system administration skills through identity management using Active Directory.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Right clicked on the OU, then selected "New" and "Group"

  2. Entered group name and confirmed "Global" and "Security" were selected

  3. Right clicked on user "Mike Tyson" and selected "Add to a group…"

  4. Entered group name and clicked "OK"

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83. Research and create documentation

OBJECTIVE: Research and create a document explaining what an Active Directory Domain is and the steps to join a Windows 10 device to it.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Researched via Microsoft documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/get-started/virtual-dc/active-directory-domain-services-overview

  2. Summary: An Active Directory Domain is a directory on a network that stores information about users for access across the network based on assigned permissions. Users can be added to groups and permissions can be assigned individually or collectively. Users and groups can also be removed to preserve the structure of any organization.

  3. Researched how to join a Windows 10 device via Microsoft documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/manage/join-computer-to-domain — reviewed the Control Panel Method, Settings App Method, and Command Line Method.

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84. Vulnerability Scanning with OpenVAS

TASK: Scan a Linux System with OpenVAS and generate an auto report of all the vulnerabilities found on the system.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Opened the firewall on development servers: sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-source=10.1.XX.XX and sudo firewall-cmd --reload

  2. Accessed the OpenVAS console and logged in

  3. Created new credentials under Configuration → Credentials

  4. Created a scan target under Configuration → Targets

  5. Created a scan task under Scans → Tasks

  6. Clicked "Start" to run the scan

  7. After the scan finished, accessed Scans → Reports and downloaded the report

  8. Scan results: OpenVAS-Rescan-Validation.pdf

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85. Fix the high Vulnerabilities showing in the report

TASK: This ticket documents the remediation and subsequent validation of vulnerabilities reported in the initial OpenVAS scan. As part of compliance requirements, provide a clean re-scan as evidence.

STEPS TAKEN:

  1. Reviewed the scan report. For Host Authentications, checked /etc/ssh/sshd_config and changed PermitRootLogin to yes to allow root login and result in a "Success."

  2. Could not update the OpenVAS version (22.4.1 to 23.0.1) as it was outside my control. Instead, ran sudo dnf update to update all packages and address a portion of 2.1.1 High general/tcp threats.

  3. For 2.1.2 Medium 8080/tcp, ran sudo podman system migrate to stop the container and remove the public configuration.

  4. For 2.1.3 Medium 21/tcp, reviewed /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf, commented out problematic lines, and removed the ftp service from the firewall: sudo firewall-cmd --remove-service=ftp

  5. For 2.1.4 Low general/icmp, edited /etc/sysctl.conf to add net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_all = 1. Then ran the following firewall commands to block ICMP timestamp responses:

    • sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" icmp-type name="timestamp-reply" drop'
    • sudo firewall-cmd --reload

  6. For 2.1.5 Low general/tcp, added net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps = 0 to /etc/sysctl.conf and ran sudo sysctl -p to apply.

  7. Rebooted the VM and reran the scan — all vulnerabilities were addressed. Scan results: OpenVAS-Rescan-Validation-2025-11-17.pdf

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