I’ve run a bunch of different VPS servers for my own projects over the years, and one odd hobby was checking the /var/log/auth.log and seeing just how frequently random mass scans of the internet would turn into unauthorised SSH attempts on my server. The following is one minute of my logs:
May 15 06:55:23 srsbzns sshd[6401]: Invalid user ubnt from 116.110.92.78 port 55134 May 15 06:55:23 srsbzns sshd[6401]: Connection closed by invalid user ubnt 116.
I’ve got an old HP N40L Proliant MicroServer that I’ve written about before and mentioned a couple of times in the past ([1], [2]). It’s been sitting variously in a storage locker and under my desk for the better part of six years and four house moves but I decided it’s finally time to either throw it out or repurpose it.
I’ve finally found a use for it that I can hopefully discuss in a future post, but here I’m dedicating some time to an issue I ran into when getting it all set up and going over some of the issues with troubleshooting when all signs point you in the wrong direction.
Herein you shalt find the hardware that currently (+/- time) acts as the base for the various parts of my life that require servers not provided by places of work and/or education.
I’ve recently decided to repurpose my HP N40L Proliant MicroServer, loaded in some spare 500GB hard drives (bringing the total to 4x 500GB split between Western Digital Caviar Blue and generic Hitachi drives) and put Ubuntu Server 14.04 on it.
Preface HP produces a brilliant (in my experience) line of microservers under the ProLiant label and I managed to pick up an N40L some time ago on special at my local computer shop.