Allocate dedicated IP address to a member

If a member wants a dedicated IP on one of our shared servers, these are the steps for setting it up.

Tasks that require administrator rights

• Allocated the IP by editing the ip_allocation page, putting the member domain name next to the next available IP address.

Xen or standalone server or KVM virtual server

• Edit the file /etc/network/interfaces on the machine in which the account is hosted. Add a stanza like the following (summup.org is the domain name of hosting order. The Address and netmask should reflect the address and netmask of the record you took from the IP allocation page):

  auto eth0:summup.org
  iface eth0:summup.org inet static
    address 209.51.163.204
    netmask 255.255.255.240
  

• Bring the new IP up with (change summup.org to the domain name that you used):

  sudo ifup eth0:summup.org 
  

vserver

For references, see ​linux-vserver.org faq.

• Add the following files on the vserver host in /etc/vservers/name-of-vserver/interfaces/name-of-interface/ (name-of-interface will typically be a number, like 1, 2, 3, etc.)
  • dev (the contents of this file should be eth0, eth1, eth2, etc. depending on the name of the network device on the host, probably eth0)
  • ip (the contents of this file is the IP address being assigned)
  • prefix (the contents is the network prefix, for example, 27 for a /27 address)
• To make it live without restarting the vserver, run the following on the host (not guest):
  • Add it via ip (change values as needed):

    ip addr add 194.169.123.23/24 dev eth0
    

  • Add the ip to the guest's network context (a guests NID is the same as the XID {context ID})

    naddress --add --nid <nid> --ip 194.169.123.23/24 
    

  • Enter the guest and restart any services needing the IP address

Tasks that only require member level permissions

• Modify the DNS records via the ​members control panel (DNS service).
  • Choose the canonical domain for your IP address (i.e. a single domain that will be returned if someone queries a DNS server to find out which domain name is assigned to your IP address). For example, you could use summup.org as the canonical domain.
  • Change the IP address AND DNS type for the canonical domain. The IP address should be changed to your new IP address. The DNS type should be changed to HOST (from A).
• If you want to use the IP address with an SSL certificate, the following additional steps are need and can be made via the ​members control panel.
  • Get a security certificate.
  • Under web config, click add new item. Be sure to copy and paste the values from the existing web config rather than taking the default values - you want to be sure to include any extras that you might have added (like the drupal AllowOverride lines).
  • Specify the same login as the owner,
  • Make it enabled,
  • Specify https,
  • For IP address specify the IP address that has been allocated.
  • Finally, add three new lines (Replace chavez with the name of the server the site is hosted on. NOTE: They will need to change these lines after they have purchased an SSL certificate so that they point to their own ssl certificate. These lines are just starters so that it works without an error.)

    #SSL Stuff
    SSLEngine On
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/chavez.mayfirst.org.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/chavez.mayfirst.org.key