whost 0.1.15

Cardshop Writer Host Tools

Cardshop Writer Host

Cardshop use writer hosts to download, write and ship SD-cards to recipient. A WriterHost is an always-running, always-connected computer connected to one or more USB SD-card readers.

Writer Hosts authenticate with the cardshop fetch tasks. The WriterHost operator is contacted (email) when an SD-card must be inserted, retrieved and shipped.

Requirements

• always-on-capable computer
• 500GB storage or more.
• high-speed, direct, permanent connection to internet via ethernet.
• one or more good-quality USB SD-card readers (Kingston)
• A writer account on the cardshop.
• An assigned port on the demo server (see maintenance).

Ubuntu Install

Just a regular, fresh Ubuntu-server install. Bellow are the defaults used for tests.

• Boot off the install media & select Install Ubuntu Server at grub prompt.
• Select language (English)
• Select Keyboard layout (English (US), English (US))
• Select Install Ubuntu (not cloud instance)
• Configure the network (eth via dhcp)
• Proxy Address: none
• Mirror Address: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu (pre-filled default)
• Use an entire Disk
• Choose disk to install to: selected disk
• Summary: confirm and continue
• Profile
  • name: whatever (maint)
  • server name: whatever (bkored)
  • username: whatever (maint_user)
  • password: whatever (maint_pwd)
• Reboot now
• Remove install media then ENTER

Setup software

• log-in and elevate as root (sudo su -)
• set a password for root (passwd)
• Make sure internet is working
• Configure SSH tunneling for remote access
  • Generate SSH key pair for root, ssh-keygen (no passphrase)
  • Copy /root/.ssh/id_rsa to /root/.ssh/tunnel
  • Share (via email for example) public key with cardshop admin, it's located at /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
  • This file will be append to /home/tunnel/.ssh/authorized_keys on the the tunneling server gateway by the cardshop admin, so the writer can connect.
• Download setup script curl -L -o /tmp/whost-setup https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kiwix/cardshop/master/whost/whost-setup
• Go to https://wiki.kiwix.org/wiki/Cardshop/maintenance and update the writer table
• run the setup script chmod +x /tmp/whost-setup && REVERSE_SSH_PORT=XXX /tmp/whost-setup

Configure the writer

• Open a terminal as root (no su)
• Internet connectivity should work, otherwise you will need need to manually configure it with (1)
• To configure the access to the cardshop you should get from the Cardshop admin your credentials and then configure the software with (2)
• Then configure your USB microSD adapters with (3), we recommend the usage of "Kingston MobileLite G4"
• You should then finally enable your writer with (5)
• You are now ready to use the writer with the cardshop