7 must-know tips to help you create better, stronger passwords

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/7-must-know-tips-to-help-you-create-better-stronger-passwords-706315.html

The hacking misdeeds were described in a New York Times story based on the findings of Hold Security, a Milwaukee firm that has a history of uncovering online security breaches.

Hold Security, called the data "the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials." Hold's researchers did not identify the origins of the data or name the victim websites, citing nondisclosure agreements. The company also said it didn't want to name companies whose websites are still vulnerable to hacking, according to the Times report.

Hold Security didn't immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.

If there's reason to believe any of your passwords might have been compromised, change them immediately. One of the best things you can do is to make sure your passwords are strong.

Here are seven ways to fortify them:

- Make your password long. The recommended minimum is eight characters, but 14 is better and 25 is even better than that. Some services have character limits on passwords, though.

-Use combinations of letters and numbers, upper and lower case and symbols such as the exclamation mark. Some services won't let you do all of that, but try to vary it as much as you can. "PaSsWoRd!43" is far better than "password43."

-Avoid words that are in dictionaries, even if you add numbers and symbols. There are programs that can crack passwords by going through databases of known words. One trick is to add numbers in the middle of a word - as in "pas123swor456d" instead of "password123456." Another is to think of a sentence and use just the first letter of each word - as in "tqbfjotld" for "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

-Substitute characters. For instance, use the number zero instead of the letter O, or replace the S with a dollar sign.

-Avoid easy-to-guess words, even if they aren't in the dictionary. You shouldn't use your name, company name or hometown, for instance. Avoid pets and relatives' names, too. Likewise, avoid things that can be looked up, such as your birthday or ZIP code. But you might use that as part of a complex password. Try reversing your ZIP code or phone number and insert that into a string of letters. As a reminder, you should also avoid "password" as the password, or consecutive keys on the keyboard, such as "1234" or "qwerty."

-Never reuse passwords on other accounts - with two exceptions. Over the years, I've managed to create hundreds of accounts. Many are for one-time use, such as when a newspaper website requires me to register to read the full story. It's OK to use simple passwords and repeat them in those types of situations, as long as the password isn't unlocking features that involve credit cards or posting on a message board. That will let you focus on keeping passwords to the more essential accounts strong.

The other exception is to log in using a centralized sign-on service such as Facebook Connect. Hulu, for instance, gives you the option of using your Facebook username and password instead of creating a separate one for the video site. This technically isn't reusing your password, but a matter of Hulu borrowing the log-in system Facebook already has in place. The account information isn't stored with Hulu. Facebook merely tells Hulu's computers that it's you. Of course, if you do this, it's even more important to keep your Facebook password secure.

-Some services such as Gmail even give you the option of using two passwords when you use a particular computer or device for the first time. If you have that feature turned on, the service will send a text message with a six-digit code to your phone when you try to use Gmail from an unrecognized device. You'll need to enter that for access, and then the code expires. It's optional, and it's a pain - but it could save you from grief later on. Hackers won't be able to access the account without possessing your phone. Turn it on by going to the account's security settings.

Tips & Tricks: Here's how you should create, manage, and store your passwords

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tech/tips-tricks-heres-how-you-should-create-manage-and-store-your-passwords-1007892.html

So many online accounts, so many passwords. No wonder it's tempting to turn to apps and services that promise to keep track of your passwords. But these password managers are like treasure chests for hackers. If your master password is compromised, all your accounts potentially go with it.

One such service, LastPass, says it has detected "suspicious activity." Although it says it found no evidence that individual passwords or user accounts were breached, it's advising users to change their LastPass master password.

I advise users instead to rely less on just passwords.

Here are some tips:

All accounts aren't equal

Instead of having to remember dozens of complex passwords, maybe you need to remember only a half-dozen.

Focus on accounts that are really important:

— Bank accounts, of course, along with shopping services with your credit card information stored.

— Don't forget email. Who would want your mundane chatter? Well, email accounts are important because they are gateways for resetting passwords for other services, such as your Amazon account to go on a shopping spree.

— As for social-media accounts and discussion forums, maybe there are some you value more than others. You might not care if someone posts on your behalf to a discussion board offering tech support. But if it's a forum you value, and you've established a reputation under that identity, you might want to prioritise that, too.

For these highly sensitive ones, choose a unique password and remember it. Write it down by hand and keep it in a safe place. If you must store it electronically, use password-protected files kept on your device — not online. And don't name that file "password." Use something boring, like "chores."

Lower priority

For the rest of your accounts, it's not as bad to turn to a password manager, but it might not be necessary.

Web browsers from Apple and Google have built-in mechanisms for storing frequently used passwords. You even have options to sync those online if you use multiple devices. Google's new Smart Lock feature extends that to Android apps, too, so you're not limited to Web browsing.

Many services also let you sign in with your Facebook or other ID instead of generating new passwords each time. Make sure the ID service offers two-step verification, as I'll explain later. Turn that on.

Phones and fingerprints

If you haven't protected your phone with a passcode, tsk tsk! Someone can easily swipe your phone and get to your email account to unlock all sorts of other accounts.

Fortunately, the latest iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones have fingerprint IDs that make it easier to unlock phones. Instead of typing in the four-digit passcode each time, you can tap your finger on the home button.

Apple now allows other app developers to use that fingerprint ID, too. So you can unlock banking apps with just a tap of your finger. In its upcoming Android update, called M, Google is also promising to make it easier for app makers to incorporate fingerprint ID. And Microsoft plans support for biometrics — such as a fingerprint or iris scan — in the upcoming Windows 10 system.

Double security

Major services including Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Dropbox offer a second layer of authentication, typically in the form of a numeric code sent as a text message. After you enter your regular password, you type in the code you receive on your phone to verify that it's really you. A hacker wouldn't have access to your phone.

You need to go into the account settings to turn on this feature, which goes by such names as two-factor authentication or two-step verification.

It's a hassle, but it keeps your accounts safer. Just assume that your password will get compromised at some point. This extra layer will keep the hacker from doing anything with it.

Even safer ...

When given a choice, consider signing in with your mobile number rather than your email address. It's much easier to hack into an email account to reset passwords. Of course, you'll have to trust the service not to use your mobile number for marketing. (I don't like to share my mobile number, so in many cases, I still use my email — knowing I have protection with two-step verification turned on.)

Also be careful when creating security questions to reset passwords. Your dog's name? Your first school? These are things someone might find on your social-media page or elsewhere online. I make up answers and make them as strong as my regular passwords.

The Linux AIO project: All of a distro's desktops in one ISO

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2936258/linux/the-linux-aio-project-all-of-a-distros-desktops-in-one-iso.html

Want to try out all of the desktop environments for a distro? Linux AIO makes it a whole lot easier

If you are working with Linux and, like me, want to explore all of the desktop options of a distro, you’ll wind up downloading an endless list of disk images. I find this both mildly annoying and quite time consuming and apparently so do other people. Much to my pleasure, a small team (Milan Rajcic, Zeljko Popivoda, Erich Eickmeyer, and Milos Mladenovic) decided to do something about it. They created the Linux AIO project.

Linux AIO combines all of the desktop environments available for each distro and wraps them up in a disk image for a “live” (i.e. bootable) system that can be burned to a DVD or a USB 4GB+/8GB+ flash drive. The team now publishes six compilations:

·         Linux AIO Ubuntu ISOs

·         Linux AIO Linux Mint ISOs 

·         Linux AIO LMDE ISOs 

·         Linux AIO Debian Live ISOs 

·         Linux AIO Fedora ISOs  

·         Linux AIO Other ISO releases

All compilations include both current and old releases and the Ubuntu ISOs also includes the Long Term Support (LTS) versions. To give you an idea of what’s on one of these ISOs, the Linux AIO Debian Live 8.1.0 64bit ISO includes:

·         Debian Live 8.1.0 Cinnamon desktop AMD64

·         Debian Live 8.1.0 GNOME desktop AMD64

·         Debian Live 8.1.0 KDE desktop AMD64

·         Debian Live 8.1.0 LXDE desktop AMD64

·         Debian Live 8.1.0 MATE desktop AMD64

·         Debian Live 8.1.0 Xfce desktop AMD64

All of the ISOs are hosted on SourceForge where they can be retrieved by either HTTP or BitTorrent. The Linux AIO project also provides instructions for creating bootable USB drives. Here’s what the Debian ISO displays on boot:

This is an excellent concept and the only downside is the Linux AIO haveing the time and finanical resources to keep up to date with distro releases. On the other hand, this is an idea all distro developers really should adopt as a general strategy for promoting the breadth and depth of their offerings.

A Brief Guide to Starting Your IT Career as a Linux Sysadmin

http://training.linuxfoundation.org/sysadmin-it-career-guide

According to the 2015 Linux Jobs Report, 97% of hiring IT managers are looking to add Linux talent this year. There are almost 12,000 open jobs on dice.com requiring Linux experience. And individuals with Linux experience are being recruited at an unprecedented rate. Learning Linux has never been more profitable or interesting.

That’s why we’ve created a free 15-page ebook entitled “A Brief Guide to Starting Your IT Career as a Linux Sysadmin.”

This guide answers questions like:

• How do I quickly go from Linux newbie to Linux professional?
• What does a Linux system administrator do?
• How do I get my first Linux sysadmin job?
• What’s the best way to advance my career once I’m a Linux sysadmin?
• And more!

Interested in learning more about starting your IT career with Linux? Check out our free ebook “A Brief Guide To Starting Your IT Career In Linux.”

Protect your data with these five Linux encryption tools

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/protect-your-data-with-these-five-linux-encryption-tools/

Encryption on Linux has gotten much easier, thanks to apps like these. 

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If you think data is more precious than ever, you should certainly consider its security to be a priority. And with more and more businesses working with multiple platforms, you have to be prepared to work with encryption on just about every business-ready operating system available. Including Linux. Fortunately, you have plenty of encryption-ready tools to choose from.

But which tools should you be looking at? If you open up, say, the Ubuntu Software Center, you'll find the majority of tools available (under the "encryption" search results) to be nothing more than libraries to resolve dependencies. Dig a bit deeper, though, and you'll find everything you need for easy-to-use encryption. I've uncovered five such tools for encryption on the Linux platform.

1: GnuPG

GnuPG (Figure A) is the basis for which all encryption is handled on Linux. Without it, you won't get very far. But don't think GnuPG is just the foundation that enables all other tools to be used. Believe it or not, you can easily encrypt a file with GnuPG from the command line. The command to encrypt a file is:

gpg -c filename

where filename is the name of the file to encrypt. The encryption will attach a .gpg extension to the file.

To decrypt a file, the command is:

gpg filename.gpg

This is the easiest, fastest way to encrypt files (even though you do have to touch the command line).

2: VeraCrypt

VeraCrypt (Figure B) is an enhanced version of TrueCrypt that works on a much more secure level. How much more secure? Well, TrueCrypt uses PBKDF2-RIPEMD160 with 1,000 iterations--and VeraCrypt uses 327,661 iterations. The GUI for VeraCrypt is simple to use and walks you through the entire process of creating encrypted containers.

Figure B

One caveat: The creation, encryption, mounting, and decryption of containers take a bit of time. But the added time is worth the extra security. VeraCrypt can load containers created by TrueCrypt and convert TrueCrypt containers to the VeraCrypt format.

3: Files

Files (Figure C) is the default file manager for the GNOME and Ubuntu Unity desktops. Within this user-friendly tool lies the ability to easily protect your files and folders with a low-level password encryption. Just select the file for compression, select a compression format that works with encryption (such as zip), add a password, and compress.

Figure C

When you extract the compressed file, you will be prompted to enter the encryption password. Although this type of encryption isn't nearly as strong as what you would get with, say VeraCrypt, if you're looking for something quick and easy to use, this is what you want.

4: KGpg

KGpg (Figure D) is a user-friendly interface for using GnuPG. Although you won't actually be encrypting/decrypting binary and folders with KGpg, you will be managing the encryption keys that work with a number of encryption tools. Without encryption keys, many of those tools simply won't work--and some people avoid working with encryption on Linux because of the perceived complexity of the GnuPG command-line tools.

Figure D

With a GUI like KGpg, you remove that barrier to entry and managing those encryption keys becomes exponentially easier. And KGpg comes with a built-in editor that allows you to open and edit simple text documents. With this editor you can also encrypt and decrypt those documents, although you can't open documents created in tools such as LibreOffice or Microsoft Word. This is text-only.

5: Gnome Encfs Manager

Gnome Encfs Manager (Figure E) is a GUI tool for the venerable encfs file encryption system. It should be noted that there is a vulnerability with encfs that, should your system(s) be prone to attack, makes encfs not ideal for sensitive data. However, if your host system (or network) isn't prone to attack, you should be good to go.

Figure E

Gnome Encfs Manager makes creating "stashes" (aka containers) easy. With just a few clicks, you can create and configure a hidden folder on your Linux directory. Options include mounting on boot, idle timeout locks, stash groups, and password change. Gnome Encfs Manager can work only with encfs, so you won't be decrypting containers from other systems--this is Linux-only.

Your picks?

There you have it... encryption made simple, even within the Linux platform. Some of these tools can also go well beyond user-friendliness and into the land of very powerful. But if you're looking for an app that offers the security of encryption, and does so with a nod to user-friendliness, these five apps will get you started

How to speed up Chrome on Android

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-speed-up-chrome-on-android/?tag=nl.e067&s_cid=e067&ttag=e067&ftag=TRE40fd434

If you're looking for ways to speed up Chrome on Android, Jack Wallen has four tips that are sure to give your browsing a performance boost. 

If you're a heavy browser user on the Android platform, chances are that you're using Chrome. When you first started using that browser, it was probably pretty zippy--but as time wore on, the browser slowed a bit until its performance degradation was noticeable. Or maybe, from your initial usage, Chrome never seemed fast enough.

No matter your case, I have a few tips that will help you speed up the Chrome browser on Android. None of these tips will require the installation of third-party software, and they're do-able by any level of user. Let's get to it!

Close tabs

It's really easy to forget you have that plethora of tabs open... until Chrome bogs down. When you have too many Chrome tabs open, your browser may slow down and your device can take a performance hit.

When you open up the browser, look for the small square with a number inside. Tap that number to open up the Chrome tabs overview (Figure A). Close any of those tabs you don't use by tapping the associated X.

Figure A

Closing tabs on a Verizon-branded Nexus 6.

Clear the cache

Your browser cache can get out of control. Clearing the cache can clean out temporary and fragmented data. When the cache gets too full, Chrome can slow down. This is a very easy fix. Here's how:

• Open Settings
• Tap Apps
• Locate and tap Chrome (you might have to swipe to the ALL tab)
• Tap the CLEAR CACHE button (Figure B)

Chrome should now be a bit faster.

Figure B

Clearing Chrome's cache.

Give Chrome more memory

Some websites are simply more demanding of memory than others. When you land on such a site, Chrome can come to a crawl. Why is that? By default, Chrome gets 128 MB of memory. For older devices, that should probably remain as-is. For newer devices, with over 32 GB of memory, you'll want to bump that up to gain more performance on demanding sites. Here's how:

1. Open Chrome
2. In the address bar, type chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area
3. Tap the "Go" button (which is probably a right-facing arrow at the bottom right of your keyboard)
4. Locate the entry for Maximum tiles for interest area
5. Tap the drop-down and then select 512 (Figure C)
6. When prompted, tap the Relaunch Now button

Figure C

Giving more memory over to Chrome.

The one thing you must take into consideration with maxing out memory for Chrome is that it will get priority over memory. This means that if you have a lot of apps open, and there isn't enough memory for Chrome, some of those other apps will be closed. On modern phones (especially flagship models), this won't be a problem. If, however, you find that maxing out memory for Chrome causes issues with other apps, lower the memory to 256 MB.

Turn on Data Saver

Chrome includes a handy little feature called Data Saver. When this is on, Google's servers reduce the amount of data that gets downloaded when you visit a site. This saves on your data plan, plus it has the added bonus of speeding up the loading of certain pages. There are a few caveats to this:

• Some sites may not be able to determine your location
• Some site images may appear fuzzy
• Internal sites (such as company CRMs) may not load
• You might have trouble logging into certain sites (especially sites for carrier billing)

If you're still interested in Data Saver, here's how to to enable it:

1. Open Chrome
2. Tap the menu button (three dots in upper right corner)
3. Tap Settings
4. Locate and tap Data Saver
5. Tap the On/Off switch until it's enabled (Figure D)

Figure D

Enabling Chrome's Data Saver.

After enabling and/or using all of these tips, you should see a noticeable improvement in Chrome's performance... all without having to use a single, third-party application.

WPS Office

WPS Office (also known as Kingsoft Office) is a freeware office suite having the same features as Microsoft Office (more of a Microsoft Office clone), installed by default on Ubuntu Kylin, the Ubuntu flavor developer for its Chinese users.

The main three software included in the WPS Office is the Kingsoft Writer, Presentation, and Kingsoft Spreadsheet, being alternatives to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

While it has been available on Linux systems only as 32 bit (i386/i686) deb and rpm packages, 64 bit (amd64/x86_64) packages have been also created by the community, so that the users can install WPS office on 64 bit systems without having to install all the 32 bit dependencies.

Despite the fact that WPS Office is only an alpha release, it is already usable, permitting the users to benefit from the main features of a modern office suite.

Installation instructions:

So, to install WPS office on your Linux system, you have to download the deb or rpm packages suitable for your system (depending on your system and architecture) and install them, via command-line.

The below instructions should work on Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pinguy OS, Elementary OS, Deepin, Peppermint, LXLE, Linux Lite, Robolinux, Debian, SparkyLinux, Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Mageia, OpenMandriva and other systems using either deb or rpm packages.

How to install the latest version of the WPS Office on 32 bit (i386/i686) Ubuntu, Debian and derivative systems:

$ sudo apt-get install gdebi
$ wget http://kdl.cc.ksosoft.com/wps-community/download/a18/wps-office_9.1.0.4953~a18_i386.deb


$ sudo gdebi wps-office_9.1.0.4953~a18_i386.deb

How to install the latest version of the WPS Office on 64 bit (amd64/x86_64) Ubuntu, Debian and derivative systems:

$ sudo apt-get install gdebi
$ wget http://kdl.cc.ksosoft.com/wps-community/download/a18/wps-office_9.1.0.4953~a18_amd64.deb


$ sudo gdebi wps-office_9.1.0.4953~a18_amd64.deb

How to install the latest version of the WPS Office on 32 bit (i386/i686) Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Mageia, OpenMandriva and derivative systems:

$ wget http://kdl.cc.ksosoft.com/wps-community/download/a18/wps-office-9.1.0.4953-1.a18.i686.rpm


$ sudo rpm -i wps-office-9.1.0.4953-1.a18.i686.rpm

How to install the latest version of the WPS Office on 64 bit (amd64/x86_64) Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Mageia, OpenMandriva and derivative systems:

$ wget http://kdl.cc.ksosoft.com/wps-community/download/a18/wps-office-9.1.0.4953-1.a18.x86_64.rpm


$ sudo rpm -i wps-office-9.1.0.4953-1.a18.x86_64.rpm

Install GLPI (IT and Asset Management) Tool with Fusion Inventory in Debian Linux

http://www.tecmint.com/glpi-it-asset-management-with-fusion-inventory-in-debian-linux/

Any type of business is bound to have innumerable amounts of items that need to be inventoried, tracked, and managed. Doing so by means of pen and paper not only takes excessive amounts of time but is often prone to multiple user errors. Moving to a digital system such as Excel/Libre Calc worksheets is a little bit more productive and easier to back up but does present some other interesting issues such as access to the spreadsheet, inability to easily query data, or the simple fact that multiple spreadsheets easily becomes a logistical nightmare!

GLPI is a fantastic piece of information-resource management software that can be installed to track company resources. GLPI is comparable in functionality to several commercial pieces of software such as LanSweeper,EasyVista,and ManageEngine. GLPI boasts several very useful features:

1. Hardware/Software inventory
2. Network and printing hardware inventory
3. Support for Fusion Inventory and OCS Inventory
4. Computer peripherals inventory such as monitors, scanners, telephones, etc
5. Help-desk Ticketing System
   1. SLA Management
   2. Change Management
   3. Project Management
6. Reporting to PDF, CSV, PNG, SVG, etc

When GLPI is paired with Fusion Inventory:

1. Software deployment abilities
2. Automated inventory through client agents
3. Ability to do handle Android, Windows, Linux, BSD, HP-UX, and many other operating systems

All in all with GLPI and Fusion Inventory installed, the combination can be used to create an all encompassing help-desk/document management/inventory system for businesses of all sizes.

This tutorial will walk through the steps necessary to quickly setup, configure, and begin importing inventory into GLPI with the help of Fusion Inventory on Debian 8 Jessie, but the same instructions also works on Debian based systems like Ubuntu and Mint.

Necessary Components

1. Debian 8 Jessie already installed ( TecMint has an article on installing Debian 8 here:
   1. Debian 8 Installation Guide
2. Working network connection (necessary for the automatic inventory).
3. A secondary machine to install the inventory agent (also with a network connection to the Debian server)
4. Root/Administrator access to both machines

Installation of GLPI/Fusion Inventory Server

Step 1: Dependency Installation

1. The first step in the process is to boot up and prepare the Debian server. GLPI will require Apache2, MySQL, and some PHP additions in order to function properly. The easiest way to get these packages is with the Aptmeta-packager.

# apt-get install apache2 mysql-server-5.5 php5 php5-mysql php5-gd

This command will download and install the necessary packages and start the basic server services. WhileMySQL is installing, it will likely ask to have the MySQL root password set. Set this password but DO NOT forget it as it will be needed soon.

Set MySQL Root Password

2. After all of the packages finish installing, it is always a good idea to make sure that the server services are running. This is easily accomplished by evaluating the system to see what services are listening on what ports with the ‘lsof‘ utility.

# lsof -i :80     [will confirm apache2 is listening to port 80]
# lsof -i :3306    [will confirm MySQL is listening to port 3306]

Another way to confirm apache2 is working and delivering a web-page is to open a web browser and type the Debian server’s IP address in the URL bar. If Apache2 is working, the web browser should return the “default” Apache2 page.

http://Your-IP-Addresss

Apache Default Page

Now that Apache2 is at least serving up a web-page, lets first prepare the MySQL database and then configureApache2 to server GLPI.

Step 2: MySQL Configuration

3. From the Debian server, log into the MySQL command line interface using the ‘mysql‘ command.

# mysql -u root -p

This command will attempt to log into MySQL as the MySQL root user (NOT the system root user). The ‘-p‘ argument will prompt the user for the MySQL root user password that was configured when MySQL was installed in the prior paragraph. At this point, a new database ‘glpi‘ needs to be created for GLPI. The SQL command to do accomplish this task:

mysql> create database glpi; 

To confirm that this new database was indeed created, the ‘show databases;‘ command can be issued. The result should look similar to the below screen-shot.

mysql> show databases;

Show MySQL Databases

4. From here, a new user with privileges to this database should be created. It is never a good idea to use the root user! To create a new MySQL user and assign them permissions to the ‘glpi‘ database:

1. create user ‘glpi’@’localhost'; → creates a MySQL user called ‘glpi‘.
2. grant all privileges on glpi.* to ‘glpi’@’localhost’ identified by ‘some_password'; → this grants all database privileges on the database called ‘glpi‘ to the newly created user ‘glpi‘ and then assigns a password required for that user to access the SQL database.
3. flush privileges; → run this for the new privileges to be read by the MySQL server.

mysql> create user 'glpi'@'localhost';
mysql> grant all privileges on glpi.* to 'glpi'@'localhost' identified by 'some_password';
mysql> flush privileges;

At this point, MySQL is ready and it is time to obtain the GLPI software.

Step 3: Obtain and Prepare GLPI for Installation

5. Obtaining GLPI is very simple and can be accomplished one of two ways. The first method is to visit the project’s home page and Download GLPI Software or via the command line utility known as ‘wget‘.

This will download and install version 0.85.4 which is the current version as of this article.

# wget -c https://forge.indepnet.net/attachments/download/2020/glpi-0.85.4.tar.gz 

6. Once the software is downloaded, the contents of the tarball need to be extracted. Using the tar utility, the contents can be decompressed, extracted, and placed in the proper location on the Debian server for the GLPI webpage to be accessible.

This will extract the tarball contents to a folder called ‘glpi‘ in the /var/www directory. By default, this is the directory that Apache2 serves files on Debian.

# tar xzf glpi-0.85.4.tar.gz -C /var/www 

7. The above tar command will extract all the contents into the ‘/var/www/glpi‘ directory but it will all be owned by the root user. This will need to be changed for Apache2 and other security reasons using the chowncommand.

This will change the owner and primary group ownership for all of the files in /var/www/glpi to www-datawhich is the user and group that Apache2 will be using.

# chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/glpi

At this point, Apache2 will need to be reconfigured in order to serve the newly extracted GLPI contents and the following section will detail the steps.

Step 4: Configuring Apache2 to serve GLPI

8. Apache2 in Debian systems is setup a little differently than other distributions. Some find it easier to manage and others find it more difficult.

This tutorial will keep things as simple as possible and will assume that GLPI is the only website being served by this Apache2 server and that it will be served on the traditional port 80 HTTP port.

This will allow for the least amount of modifications to the default Apache2 install and will allow users to get GLPI up and running quickly. Let’s begin!

The first thing to do is switch directories to the Apache2 configuration files directory. The configuration directory is ‘/etc/apache2/sites-available‘ and the command:

# cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

9. The only items in this directory by default will be the two default Apache2 site configuration files. A new configuration file should be created for GLPI and can be created from the default in this directory using the copycommand.

This will copy the configuration of the default site into a new configuration file for GLPI.

# cp 000-default.conf glpi.conf 

This new GLPI configuration file needs to be modified so that apache2 knows where the files to serve for GLPI reside. Open ‘glpi.conf‘ with a text editor and proceed to configure as follows:

1. nano glpi.conf → open glpi.conf in the nano text editor.
2. DocumentRoot /var/www/glpi → This tells Apache2 where the files for GLPI start. This line isn’t a command but rather something that is added to the glpi.conf file.

# nano glpi.conf

DocumentRoot /var/www/glpi

Configure Apache for GLPI

10. Apache2 has a TON of other options but for brevity’s sake, this change is the only change needed in this file. Now apache2 has to be made aware of the new GLPI site as well as told to stop serving the “default” page. This is easily accomplished with two tools a2ensite and a2dissite.

1. a2dissite 000-default.conf → This will disable the default website Apache2 serves.
2. a2ensite glpi.conf → This will enable the newly created GLPI website configuration.
3. service apache2 reload → This will be necessary for Apache2 to stop/start serving the above changes.

# a2dissite 000-default.conf
# a2ensite glpi.conf
# service apache2 reload

At this point, Apache2 should be configured and serving the GLPI site information, the MySQL database is created and has an assigned user. The next step is to run the GLPI installer.

Step 5: Installing and Configuring GLPI

11. To start the installation of GLPI, simply visit the IP address of the server running Apache2. This can be done from the server itself if a graphical desktop environment has been installed; otherwise the other machine requested for this tutorial will be needed.

Upon visiting the IP address of the Apache2 server, the user will be presented with the GLPI installation page:

http://Your-IP-Address

Select GLPI installation Language

12. At this point, select the appropriate language and click ‘OK‘. The next prompt will ask if this install is an upgrade or a fresh installation. This tutorial is assuming that this will be a fresh installation of GLPI.

GLPI Installation

13. The next screen will be a quick dependency check by GLPI. Everything on this next page should come back with a green light. Anything with a red light should be addressed and corrected on the server.

GLPI Dependency Checks

14. When all the lights are green, the next step is to inform the GLPI installer where the MySQL database is as well as the credentials to access the database. This information was determined earlier in this guide and should be as follows:

GLPI MySQL Database Settings

The server name of ‘localhost‘ can be used in this example due to the fact that this installer is running from the same server as the MySQL server.

Click continue after the three fields are filled in and the GLPI installer will run a SQL check to ensure that it can make contact with the SQL database. Since a database was already created earlier be sure to select that database in this step.

Select GLPI MySQL Database

15. This next step will take a couple of minutes depending on the speed of the MySQL server. The final page that the GLPI installer will show will be the default username/password page.

The only user account that will be needed for this guide will be the administrator account which defaults to username: ‘glpi‘ and password: ‘glpi‘.

GLPI User Login Details

16. At this point, GLPI is ready for usage. Click the ‘Use GLPI‘ button to be taken to the login screen and log in as the administrator. Once logged in to GLPI, the GLPI landing screen will issue some warnings about the user-names above having the default passwords configured.

For now this can be ignored but should be changed when moving GLPI to production! The other warning will be a warning that recommends removing the installer file. This is easily accomplished by running the following ‘rm‘ command on the Debian server:

# rm /var/www/glpi/install/install.php

This concludes the installation of GLPI. At this point users can start adding inventory, creating tickets, creating a document library, and many other tasks. However, the rest of this guide will talk about how to setup the Fusion Inventory plug-in to further extend the capabilities of GLPI.

Step 6: Installation and Configuration of Fusion Inventory

17. Now that GLPI is up and running, it is time to add the Fusion Inventory plug-in. Heading back over to the Debian server, the Fusion Inventory plugin can be obtained with another simple wget command.

# cd /var/www/glpi/plugins
# wget -c http://forge.fusioninventory.org/attachments/download/1755/fusioninventory-for-glpi_0.85+1.1.tar.gz 

18. Now that Fusion Inventory has been downloaded, the contents of the tarball need to be extracted and then ownership changed in order for Apache2 to have access to the new plug-in on GLPI’s behalf:

# tar xzf fusioninventory-for-glpi_0.85+1.1.tar.gz
# chown -R www-data:www-data fusioninventory 

This above chown command will change the ownership of all the files in the newly extracted folder. The ‘tar‘ command above must be run BEFORE this command!

19. Now all of the files are ready for GLPI to install the Fusion Inventory module. Head back over to the second computer (the one with the web browser) and log-in to GLPI.

At the top of the screen, there are several menu options for GLPI. One of these options will say ‘Setup‘. Hover over this menu and wait for the drop down menu to appear and at the bottom will be a ‘plug-ins‘ option.

Install Fusion Inventory Plugin

20. The next screen will be the installed and ready to be installed list of plug-ins for GLPI. Assuming that Fusion Inventory was placed in the proper directory in the above paragraphs (/var/www/glpi/plugins) this page will show the Fusion Inventory plug-in waiting to be installed.

Fusion Plugin Install

21. Click the ‘Install‘ button to install Fusion Inventory into GLPI. The page should refresh and then Fusion Inventory will need to be ‘enabled‘ which is done by clicking the newly visible ‘enable‘ button.

Notice that the ‘Status‘ field for Fusion will say ‘Installed / not activated‘ until the ‘Enable‘ button is selected!

Enable Fusion Inventory Plugin

22. Once the ‘Enable‘ button is selected, the Fusion Inventory plug-in will now be activated and ready for configuration.

In GLPI, a new ‘Plugins‘ menu will be visible and hovering over the menu will present a drop-down menu labeled ‘FusionInventory‘. Clicking on this option will likely present the following error screen since Fusion does not have a URL for agents to access the system configured yet.

Fusion Inventory Plugin Error

23. To fix this issue, hover over the ‘Administration‘ menu option. When the drop down menu appears, select the ‘Entities‘ dialog. When the page loads, select ‘Root Entity‘ and then on the left side of the webpage, select the ‘FusionInventory‘ selection.

This will allow for the service URL to be set. The service URL in this tutorial can simply be the server’s IP address however, if a functional DNS system (such as BIND9) is setup, an actual URL can be used here as long as the appropriate changes are made in the DNS system as well.

Set Fusion Service URL

Finally, GLPI and Fusion are ready to go. The next task is to start importing inventory into the system. This tutorial will continue with installing the Fusion Inventory Agent and confirming that the agent properly sends the inventory information to the server.

Step 7: Fusion Inventory Agent Installation

24. Now that all of the difficult stuff is out of the way, it is time to actually test the GLPI/Fusion Inventorysystem! Fusion has an agent for almost every operating system out there and all of them can be located on the following URL:

1. http://www.fusioninventory.org/documentation/agent/installation/

25. However, this tutorial will walk through configuring the agent on a Linux machine as the inventory agent is already in the repositories for most distributions.

The agent will be installed on a Linux Mint 17.1 machine in this example. This is a Debian/Ubuntu based distro and it uses the ‘apt‘ meta-packager to obtain packages from the repositories.

# apt-get install fusioninventory-agent

This will install all the necessary dependencies as well as the necessary configuration file for Fusion Inventory. It will be necessary to modify the configuration file in order to tell the agent where the Fusion server resides. The configuration file is located at ‘/etc/fusioninventory/agent.cfg‘ and can be opened with any text editor.

# nano /etc/fusioninventory/agent.cfg

Just to get a machine inventoried, there is only one line that needs to be changed in this particular file and that is the ‘server =‘ line.

For this example the server line should be configured as follows (be sure to substitute the ip for the proper ip or hostname):

server = http://192.168.1.5/plugins/fusioninventory/front/plugin_fusioninventory.communication.php

Add Fusion Server IP

Save the changes to this file and exit out of the text editor.

26. At this point as long as there is network connectivity to the Debian server, Fusion Inventory agent should be ready to inventory this Linux Mint machine. The command to run the agent is ‘fusioninventory-agent‘.

After running this command there wont be much, if any, output. When the command line returns to the normal prompt, it is time to check GLPI/Fusion to see if the machine was inventoried.

There are a couple of places to see whether or not the inventory worked. The first place to look is the agents view in Fusion Inventory. This will show whether or not the client actually connected to the server. To get to this view click on the following menu options: Plugins → FusionInventory → Agent.

Fusion Agent View

27. This screen shows that the Fusion Inventory agent successfully connected to the server from the test Linux Mint machine. The other place to check is within GLPI’s Assets menu; after all this is where the inventory of machines, software, and peripherals should reside! To access this menu, simply hover over ‘Assets‘ menu in the top left of the web browser and then select ‘computers‘ when the drop down menu appears.

Inventory View

This will bring up the main inventory page. The newly inventoried machine will be the only entity on this page for the time being but should be there never the less.

Newly Inventoried Machine

Success! There is the Linux Mint machine with a small amount of details about the machine. To view more complex details about this machine, simply click on the name of the machine in the column on the far left.

This will present a detailed view of this particular machine’s inventory. Everything from monitors, USB drives, scanners, and software will be displayed here and any information about those devices will also be available.

Detailed Inventory View

At this point, GLPI and Fusion are working harmoniously and should be ready for more agents to begin transmitting information from other machines! There are currently agents available for all the major operating systems available as well as source code for those who wish to compile from source.

Thank you for sticking through this rather lengthy tutorial and hopefully this tutorial has resulted in a workingGLPI/Fusion Inventory system. Please feel free to ask any questions and best of luck inventorying assets!

Resource Link: GLPI HomePage