beszel

Beszel Setup

Interesting project at https://github.com/henrygd/beszel

Collects resource statistics from one or more systems, display CPU/RAM/DISK/NET/DOCKER information and be alerted in case "event" happens.

These days I set up beszel HUB on my VPS and beszel-agent on the same VPS, on our chatmail server and even on my desktop PC at home on WSL2: so now I'm monitoring 3 systems from a web interface and I'm being notified if one of them becomes unreachable or has exceeded %resources for every type of monitor.

This is my compose.yaml for the HUB and agent on "woodpeckersnest.eu":

services:
  beszel:
    image: 'henrygd/beszel'
    container_name: 'beszel'
    networks:
      beszel:
        ipv4_address: 172.30.0.2
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - '8090:8090'
    volumes:
      - beszel_data:/beszel_data
    environment:
      DISABLE_PASSWORD_AUTH: false

  beszel-agent:
    image: "henrygd/beszel-agent"
    container_name: "beszel-agent"
    networks:
      beszel:
        ipv4_address: 172.30.0.3
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    environment:
      PORT: 45876
      KEY: "SECRET"
      FILESYSTEM: /dev/sda3
      
networks:
  beszel:
    name: "beszel"
    external: true

volumes:
   beszel_data:
       external: true
       name: "beszel_data"

I created a named docker volume and a custom network beforehand:

docker volume create --name beszel_data

docker network create --subnet=172.30.0.0/16 --gateway=172.30.0.1 beszel

I didn't want to run the agent with network_mode: host, so here's a bridged setup. Network stats on my VPS won't be relevant, since the only net beszel can monitor is the docker bridged one, but I don't care very much.

For chatmail and home desktop I'm running the binary agent, respectively in a systemd unit for chatmail and with a bash script for my PC.

The systemd unit looks like this:

# /etc/systemd/system/beszel-agent.service
[Unit]
Description=Beszel Agent Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Environment="PORT=45876"
Environment="KEY=SECRET"
ExecStart=/home/chatmail/bin/beszel-agent
User=chatmail
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

The HUB has also got (automatic) backups, locally or on S3 - I tested both without issues. Beszel (both HUB and agent) take almost no CPU/RAM to do their job and stats are easy to read. Even the management tool is quite straightforward and has got the basic stuff right - I skipped OAUTH entirely though, while managing users manually.

Still young project but already recommended 😍

If you're interested in setting this up on WSL2, here I opened a discussion about this topic.. No need to repeat myself 😀

shout-out to "mforester@rollenspiel.social" who posted about beszel on the fediverse and gave me the idea to try it.


Onboarding

Hello,

this is "Opening Day": finally decided to open fully featured shell accounts' registration on WPN: woodpeckersnest.space/eu for friends.

Who are friends then? Since IRL friends have zero interest in this, my friends are people I know and respect over the Internet, in particular - but not limited to - the XMPP network. They are mostly Italian and English speaking folks, since those are the only 2 languages I know..

This is a first-time experience for me, so give me a few days (a week maybe) to "adjust" and set account(s) up.

If you feel lucky, click the title of this post and apply now! 😏


re: CardDAV Plugin for Roundcube Installed

Continuing from the previous article..

Today while trying to install yet another plugin (Calendar this time), I had a lil incident and destroyed everything 😃

Some hours later I restored a backup and we're up again. BUT! In the process I discovered some SQL errors which I believe were there since a lot ago, always gone unseen.

To make a long story short, I had to disable the standard "Personal Address Book" for everyone, because it was impossible to save any contact in there anyway.. And we are now relying on CardDAV, which is way better.

At one point I had the Calendar plugin working too, alongside CardDAV, but I had (wrongfully) installed it as a local one, so no sync to the cloud with CalDAV; it was later that I tried the CalDAV way by changing the config and shit got me.

Now I asked the people of libera.chat about the plugin, to see if it really supports any CalDAV implementation or not - and then I'll try again :) Feel free to check it out and leave a comment if you know better than me..

https://git.kolab.org/diffusion/RPK/browse/master/plugins/calendar/

and here's the configuration: https://git.kolab.org/diffusion/RPK/browse/master/plugins/calendar/config.inc.php.dist$28

I believe I'm done for today tho.. Looked like a full day's job. Ooh, yes.. Was already forgetting. I also updated the services blob in my website with all the new stuff.


CardDAV Plugin for Roundcube Installed

Hello o/

Just completed a new software installment for the "woodpeckers" webmail, powered by roundcube. It's a plugin to manage CardDAV address books, so you can import them in your web contacts; I've tested it with "Radicale Cal/CardDAV" server and the import to roundcube was fast and easy peasy; hopefully it'll be the same for every other compatible server 😎

https://webmail.woodpeckersnest.space/

Yeah, that was all for your local news! Until next.


chatmail recap Giugno 2024

Statistiche

$ uptime
 03:54:18 up 34 days,  8:19,  4 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
$ free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:             877         503         159           8         377         374
Swap:            499          87         412
$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            428M     0  428M   0% /dev
tmpfs            88M  8.4M   80M  10% /run
/dev/vda1       9.7G  2.8G  6.6G  30% /
tmpfs           439M     0  439M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
/dev/vda15      124M   12M  113M  10% /boot/efi
tmpfs            88M     0   88M   0% /run/user/1000
$ ip -s link
2: ens6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    RX:   bytes  packets errors dropped  missed   mcast
     1444308867 14871375      0   32828       0       0
    TX:   bytes  packets errors dropped carrier collsns
    18414348377 21921709      0       0       0       0
$ curl https://chatmail.woodpeckersnest.space/metrics
accounts 83 1719367201634

etckeeper log and diff specific files

store /etc in git, mercurial, brz or darcs

The etckeeper program is a tool to let /etc be stored in a git, mercurial, brz or darcs repository. It hooks into APT to automatically commit changes made to /etc during package upgrades. It tracks file metadata that version control systems do not normally support, but that is important for /etc, such as the permissions of /etc/shadow. It's quite modular and configurable, while also being simple to use if you understand the basics of working with version control.

https://packages.debian.org/stable/etckeeper

root@pandora:/etc# git log --oneline mumble-server.ini
c1e2238 daily autocommit
2e66cf6 daily autocommit
76fd073 daily autocommit
baaff1c saving uncommitted changes in /etc prior to apt run
9980c10 daily autocommit
830fa84 daily autocommit
0cc8fd9 saving uncommitted changes in /etc prior to apt run
4e7b545 saving uncommitted changes in /etc prior to apt run
20d692a daily autocommit
c05a405 saving uncommitted changes in /etc prior to apt run
3a00635 daily autocommit
62e0e1c Initial commit
root@pandora:/etc# git diff c1e2238 2e66cf6 mumble-server.ini
diff --git a/mumble-server.ini b/mumble-server.ini
index 3332154..d91f520 100644
--- a/mumble-server.ini
+++ b/mumble-server.ini
@@ -236,8 +236,8 @@ logdays=5
 ; If you only wish to give your "Root" channel a custom name, then only
 ; uncomment the 'registerName' parameter.
 ;
-registerName=SpaceNest
-registerPassword=sekret
+registerName=SpaceNest[EN/IT]
+registerPassword=newsekret
 registerUrl=https://woodpeckersnest.space/
 registerHostname=voice.woodpeckersnest.space
 registerLocation=IT

Slixfeed News Bot Home

Hello, do you remember about Slixfeed? Talked about that here a while ago.

Schimon, the bot's author, chose woodpeckersnest.space to host a new home for it and I was am very happy about that 😀

More to that, he also decided to move Slixfeed's source repository from "gitgud.io" to the Italian XMPP-IT Community GIT server - even if we're not sure everything will be migrated (WIP). Oh, I also want to mention the other XMPP-related projects which Schimon also moved to our community server, which you should check out!

Thanks Schimon for trusting us with your work. Keep it up!

Now, links!

Finally, I would like to remember you that the XMPP-IT Git server is not open to registrations, but if you want an account there to post your work (we only accept XMPP-related stuff!), you can request an account to one of the XMPP-IT admins or by sending an email to "admin [at] xmpp-it [dot] net" with desired username; we'll use that email address of yours to register the account and will set a password for you, to be changed at first login.

Thanks, bye 😀


More on WebDAV - Connecting a remote WebDAV folder in Windows

After some failed attempt at this, I think I found the right way to "mount" a remote WebDAV folder under Windows' Explorer.

Initially my baby steps took me here: https://note.woodpeckersnest.space/share/0TJT81fgI8Jy

After following that tutorial I didn't succeed, so I investigated further. I can say that everythig looks correct until you get to point 9.

The address they tell you have to enter isn't correct in my experience and they aren't even using https for the URL. What worked for me was instead something like:

\\webdav.woodpeckersnest.space@SSL\folder

You have to input the network-path-stile address which is common in Windows, as in: double backslash, FQDN of your WebDAV server, "@SSL" and then the path (folder) where you have access to files in your WebDAV server, with a backslash preceding it.

That's it, a prompt will ask for username and password and then a new Network Path (WebFolder) will be connected in Explorer, just below your local drives.

You can then browse, copy, upload, delete (and so on) whatever content you like.

EDIT: Just found out I couldn't rename files/folders from Windows or Total Commander (Android)

Fixed by setting nginx virtualhost like this:

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    server_name  webdav.woodpeckersnest.space;


    # HTTPS configuration
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/webdav.woodpeckersnest.space/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/webdav.woodpeckersnest.space/privkey.pem;

    access_log /var/log/nginx/webdav/access.log;
    error_log /var/log/nginx/webdav/error.log;

  location / {
    set $destination $http_destination;

    if ($destination ~* ^https(.+)$) {
         set $destination http$1;
    }

    proxy_set_header   Destination $destination;
    proxy_set_header   X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header   Host $host;
    proxy_pass         http://127.0.0.1:17062/;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header   Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header   Connection "upgrade";
  }

  client_max_body_size 0;

}

Now I'm quite happy 😀


Sharing big files with Thunderbird filelink on self-hosted webdav

Thunderbird filelink with self-hosted webdav

Me and friends on xmpp:lozibaldone@conference.xmpp-it.net?join had a discussion about big attachments in Thunderbird and one person ("idice"), which I thank, suggested to use (long forgotten by me) Thunderbird's "filelink" functionality.

filelink lets you upload your big attachments to the cloud and send a link to download them, to your email contact. For it to work, you have to download an extension for Thunderbird and choose a cloud instance.

There are a few in the community, ranging from Dropbox, to Nectcloud and webdav. I chose webdav, because I already have a docker container with a running instance.

The tricky part in setting the extension up and working with my server was to have a private and a public URLs: you have credentials for webdav, so the private one is easily accomplished, while I had never thought about having a public site to share stuff without authentication; and in the end it was really straightforward.

What I did was basically: mount a volume in docker where I want to publish stuff to be shared. So at first when uploading I'm asked for credentials and everything just works.. files go to the volume.

Then, to have people access those files, I simlinked (ln -s) the docker volume dir to a path under my main site's virtualhost in nginx. Like:

My site is in /var/www/html/, so I changed dir to that location and:

ln -s /path/to/public-docker-volume/ public

Now I have a /public/ dir in my website with all the files that I publish in webdav and since index is off in nginx, you can't just browse it - you have to know the exact file name to access it.

And that's it.

Now for the Thunderbird setup, I'll show a few shots. For starters, this is the extension I used: https://addons.thunderbird.net/it/thunderbird/addon/filelink-provider-for-webdav/

This is the "attachments" settings in Thunderbird, the only place where you configure the extension:

As you can see it asks for a private and a public URLs, as explained before.

When you compose a new message, go to the attachments menu as always and you'll find a new item, called Filelink - WebDAV:

Click it and select your attachment from disk. It will ask for a username and password (those you set up for webdav in docker) and will begin uploading the file.

Then you'll see the message being populated like this:

It says:

I have linked 1 file to this email:

  • mibunny.png

    Size: 408 KB

    Link: the link

If you keep uploading files, the number in the first row will be automatically incremented and there will be another file section with new info about it.

And.. we're done!? 😀

If you got any question, leave a comment down below.


Grand Opening: Istanza Italiana Chatmail per DeltaChat

Istanza Italiana Chatmail per DeltaChat

Annunciazione, annunciazione! [cit. per i diversamente giovani]

Da qualche giorno è nata l'istanza Italiana Chatmail per DeltaChat.. Arabo?

Delta Chat è un’app di messaggistica che funziona tramite e-mail

Chatmail è un server di posta "particolare", progettato per l'utilizzo con DeltaChat

Il nostro amico Federico, in arte Fede 😀 ha deciso di sponsorizzare il progetto con un VPS dedicato, sul quale Io ho poi provveduto ad installare il servizio Chatmail, la cui componente web può essere visitata al seguente indirizzo: https://chatmail.woodpeckersnest.space/

Tramite l'appena citato sito web potete registrare il vostro account mail anonimo "chatmail" da usare in DeltaChat: è sufficiente scansionare il QR code con l'app di DeltaChat e sarete immediatamente loggati sul server. Tutte le future conversazioni saranno esclusivamente cifrate e2ee.

A questo punto dovrete aggiungere qualche amico o unirvi ad un gruppo di altre persone. Il QR è sempre la via per fare tutto ciò.. Ed a questo proposito lascio qui il link del QR ed il QR stesso, utili per entrare nel gruppo (più o meno) ufficiale dell'istanza, dove troverete me, Fede, Andrea, darhma, ndo, Mario etc..

https://i.delta.chat/#6FE1642916908F1AC9CC7557CC99CF5DDB92043C&a=groupsbot@testrun.org&g=Amici Delta Cchino δ🦃️&x=g9GMUqKwvgB&i=0qBMdsGrq7n&s=_tiLU2IcUrs

Ah, e non dimenticate di leggere anche la pagina sulla privacy Tutto il sito verrà a breve tradotto in Italiano (grazie Andrea).. Soon Done!!

Guida

Si riportano qui i comandi base per installare il proprio server chatmail autogestito. Per tutte le altre specifiche, comandi, suggerimenti e dettagli vari si prega di far riferimento alla guida ufficiale https://github.com/deltachat/chatmail/blob/main/README.md

Installazione del tuo server chatmail

Usiamo chat.esempio.org come dominio chatmail nei passi seguenti. Sostituiscilo col tuo dominio.

  1. Installa il comando cmdeploy in virtualenv:
 git clone https://github.com/deltachat/chatmail
 cd chatmail
 scripts/initenv.sh
  1. Crea il file di configurazione chatmail.ini:

scripts/cmdeploy init chat.esempio.org # <-- usa il tuo dominio

  1. Imposta prima i record DNS per il tuo dominio chatmail, secondo i suggerimenti proposti da cmdeploy init

Verifica che l'accesso SSH come root funzioni:

ssh root@chat.esempio.org # <-- usa il tuo dominio

  1. Installalo sul tuo server remoto:

scripts/cmdeploy run

Questo script inoltre ti mostrerà dei record DNS aggiuntivi che dovresti configurare sul tuo provider (potrebbe passare del tempo perché siamo resi pubblici).

Le porte da aprire sul server sono: 25, 80, 143, 443, 465, 587, 993.

Consigli per l'installazione

Bene, per finire vorrei lasciare qualche consiglio sull'installazione di Chatmail, sperando che qualcun altro decida di creare un'altra istanza in futuro.

La guida nel README del repository Github è già sufficiente, ma un paio di appunti vorrei farli:

  • Innanzi tutto in caso la cosa risultasse poco chiara, per installare Chatmail su un VPS remoto, avremo bisogno di una macchina locale dalla quale fare il "deploy".

Io ho usato una Virtual Machine Debian 12 installata in Windows 10 tramite WSL, e come destinazione per il server Chatmail abbiamo di nuovo scelto una Debian 12.. Debian rocks!

  • Seconda nota: quando comincerete a lanciare i vari script/cmdeploy verso il server remoto vi verrà chiesta una password.. e qui casca l'asino.

La password che il servizio si aspetta è la "passphrase" della chiave SSH dell'utente root sul VPS remoto E NON la password dell'utente root. Va da sè che dovrete aggiungere una chiave SSH prima di cominciare il deploy.

Ultima cosa da sapere, anche se è accennata anche nel README, è che dopo il comando scripts/cmdeploy run verranno stampati a schermo tutti i record DNS, necessari al server di posta, che andranno inseriti nel pannello di controllo del vostro registrar. Niente di nuovo direi, visto che per cominciare l'installazione viene già chiesto di registrare il dominio principale.. Tuttavia preparatevi a configurare record TXT, SRV, CAA, MX.

Vi lascio con un paio di comandi utili a fine installazione:

journalctl -u postfix.service (leggere i log del server di posta)

Sostituite il servizio per leggere ad esempio i log degli accessi SSH

journalctl -u ssh.service

mailq (leggere la coda dei messaggi non ancora recapitati - per qualsiasi motivo)

La configurazione del webserver sta dentro /etc/nginx/nginx.conf La directory dove sono ospitati i file veri e proprio è la classica /var/www/html/

Ultima cosa: verificate che il vostro gestore VPS lasci aperta la porta 25, o se vada richiesto espressamente, come ad esempio succede per IONOS e Digital Oceans.

Si ringraziano tutti i DeltaCchini 😘

FIN!