blog.plee.me About software, technology and random things

17Dec/160

Installing mod_cloudflare For Apache HTTPd 2.4 On Debian 8 (Jessie) Via Aptitude Repository

[Update on 2019-09-19] Warning: From Debian 9 (stretch) upwards, according to the official documentation Cloudflare has dropped support for mod_cloudflare. Instead they recommend replacing it with the new alternative: the official Apache HTTPd module mod_remoteip.

Hi!

If you are using the Cloudflare proxy functionality, you will find that your web server will end up only working with Cloudflare's IPs instead of the visitors'. After quite some time I thought that there has to be a better way to go about this, and I found mod_cloudflare, a solution officially developed by Cloudflare themselves.

When I was looking at the official Cloudflare documentation on how to install mod_cloudflare for Apache 2.4 on Debian 8 (Jessie) today, I was disappointed to find that they were only recommending manual ways: installing a .deb package or compiling the module yourself.

Luckily I found a guide on how to accomplish the installation with the standard apt-get / aptitude tool for Debian / Ubuntu.

This is how:

  1. Add the aptitude repository to a new sources list file, e.g. at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cloudflare-main.list - with this content:
    deb http://pkg.cloudflare.com/ jessie main
  2. Download the Cloudflare repository key and add it to the aptitude known keys:
    # wget https://pkg.cloudflare.com/pubkey.gpg
    # apt-key add pubkey.gpg
    # rm pubkey.gpg
  3. Update the aptitude cache:
    # aptitude update
  4. Look at which packages are available in the new repository:
    # grep ^Package: /var/lib/apt/lists/pkg.cloudflare.com_dists_jessie_main_binary-amd64_Packages
  5. Install mod_cloudflare:
    # aptitude install libapache2-mod-cloudflare
  6. Restart the Apache HTTPd service:
    # service apache2 restart

Hopefully this way of installing will enable everyone to update / maintain it much more easily and with less one-time use packages installed.

Additionally, this could prove even more useful for people who want to install more Cloudflare packages.

I am confident that this method also works for Ubuntu and other versions of Debian - just replace the "jessie" part in the aptitude sources list file with your distribution major release codename (like "wheezy" for Debian 7 or "vivid" for Ubuntu 15.04).

Thanks for reading!

Original source: https://emtunc.org/blog/01/2016/installing-mod_cloudflare-ubuntu-14-04-apache-server/

10Jun/090

How To: Migrate an Existing Windows System to Another Hard Drive Using Acronis TrueImage

Hi!

Because of a new hard drive I bought a week ago I decided to transfer my existing system, running on a 250 GB hard drive, to my new 1 TB one. I was lucky enough to at least have made some experiences with migrating an existing system to a Virtual Machine in conjunction with Acronis TrueImage Home 2009 before, so that's what came in handy for me.

What you need

  • Backup software like Acronis TrueImage Home 2009
  • BartPE with Acronis TrueImage Plug-In / bootable version of your backup software
  • Windows installation disc (preferably the same Windows version as your current system)
  • New system hard drive which is either empty or ready to be re-formatted (backup your important data on it!)

Procedure

  1. Start Acronis TrueImage Home 2009 and make a backup of your system partition.
  2. Save the backup to a partition / hard drive that you will have access to later on while using the bootable backup restorer. This means: No (TrueCrypt-)encrypted partition. Ideally it would fit on a disc or USB stick (which my didn't with a size of 7 GB). Just make sure you will be able to access it later on. I know BartPE is able to access all hard drives (without encryption at least) and should give you access to a USB drive as well, as long as you have it connected while it's booting up. If you don't want to move it over to a USB drive or DVD or anything else, there is also a nice little trick at the end of this howto: (*).
  3. Shut down your computer and make sure your new system drive is connected as the first device to avoid improper device numbering. This means using the first connector for SATA/IDE or whatever. If you are using both SATA and IDE, I don't know how that's handled. I'm just assuming you somehow have figured it out 🙂
  4. Boot from your Windows installation disc.
  5. If you haven't done it previously under Windows, partition the new system drive properly. That means to have the partitions created in the correct order. If you haven't (or aren't sure any more), delete them and do it over again just to make it right. Maybe the order is not necessary, but I had a lot of trouble with that before, so I'm just playing safe.
  6. Install Windows as usual to the point when you've started up your brand new Windows installation for the first time and are watching the Start Menu in awe.
  7. Boot from your bootable backup software (or BartPE with the plugin) and fire it up.
  8. Restore the image. Don't select MBR / Track 0, however, because we just created a proper MBR (Master Boot Record) by installing Windows.
  9. That's it! You should be done. Now a reboot should provide you with your old system on a new hard drive. Congratulations 🙂

I don't guarantee anything, and I admit to having tried several methods for half a day till I got it right 🙂 This should work fine though, because it basically is what I did the time when it finally worked.

If you have partitions with programs on it that would be started on bootup, make sure you copy it (file by file) before you start your system on the new hard drive.

While you could do that by connecting your old system drive and booting from that, then copying the files over, you could also do it beforehand by using the Windows Disk Management tool to erase all partitions and partition it properly before the Windows installation. This allows you to format the specific partitions and copy the files over to it while you're still on your old system. (*) Also, you can add the backup image onto that partition, so you don't have to burn a DVD or move the image over to a USB stick or ... (you get the point). However, if you create and format the partitions on your old system, make sure to

  • (naturally) not touch them during the Windows installation progress or your data on them will be inaccessible
  • rename your partitions properly after booting up your new system because your old Windows already assigned them (probably different) drive letters. You can do that in the Windows Disk Management tool as well.

I hope I didn't forget anything. If I did, I'll be sure to add it later on 🙂

Thanks for reading and good luck!

   
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