My Web Server Configuration

This blog introduce the detailed configuration of my cloud server, including customizing shell theme and vim theme. It also tell you how to run a apache http server and deploy your blog resource to the server.

1. Get Cloud Server

I bought it from Tecent Cloud.

学生云服务器_学生云主机_学生云数据库_云+校园特惠套餐 - 腾讯云 (tencent.com)

2. Configuration

(1) Set basic environment

a. switch to zsh

Install zsh

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zsh

Change default shell to zsh

chsh -s /bin/zsh

Close and reopen terminal, then use

echo $SHELL

to check if you have seccessfully changed to zsh

b. install oh-my-zsh

I choose oh-my-zsh. A powerful and beautiful zsh shell theme.

It’s hard to directly download files from github in China, so I use a domestic mirror to accelarate the procedure. If you don’t have that problem, just follow the instruction from here to install it.

Download install.sh by

wget https://gitee.com/mirrors/oh-my-zsh/raw/master/tools/install.sh

Change the below lines

REPO=${REPO:-ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh}
REMOTE=${REMOTE:-https://github.com/${REPO}.git}

to

REPO=${REPO:-mirrors/oh-my-zsh}
REMOTE=${REMOTE:-https://gitee.com/${REPO}.git}

Then run

zsh install.sh

Modify the remote url of oh-my-zsh to make it update from the mirror instead of github

cd ~/.oh-my-zsh
git remote set-url origin https://gitee.com/mirrors/oh-my-zsh.git

c. enable ssh pubkey authentication

Generate your local rsa key pair

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Copy the content of id_rsa.pub and add to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.

Then entersshd_config to enable authentication

sudo vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config

uncomment those two lines

PubkeyAuthentication yes 
AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys

restart sshd service

systemctl restart sshd

d. keep connection alive

It annoys me that my cloud server always disconnect with my local ssh terminal after a period of time without manipulation. One solution is to modify /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

Uncomment those two lines:

#ClientAliveInterval 0
#ClientAliveCountMax 3

and change them to:

ClientAliveInterval 60
ClientAliveCountMax 3

which means the server will send signals to client every 60 seconds to keep the connection alive, and the connection will be closed if denied for 3 times.

Then restart sshd service

systemctl restart sshd

Reopen the terminal, then you won’t be disconnected

(2) Oh-my-zsh advance config

a. color themes

You can select various color themes, my favorite is agnoster.

It looks like that:

Change it by modifying ZSH_THEME="agnoster" or something else in ~/.zshrc.

If you do not want to display user name and server name, just like me, add prompt_context() {} at the end of ~/.zshrc .

Check Themes · ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh Wiki (github.com) to find more oh-my-zsh themes.

b. add plugins

I add three plugins to oh-my-zsh

zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlighting need manual installation

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

z has been installed by default.

Then add these plugins to plugins = (...) in ~/.zshrc, just like below

plugins=(git z zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting)

Note that git is both installed and added to plugins list by default.

You can add as many plugins as you can, but it may slow down the zsh shell, be cautious!

(3) Vim advance config

This is my personal configuration file .vimrc

syntax on                                                        
filetype off
set nocompatible
set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

call vundle#begin()
Plugin 'VundleVim/Vundle.vim'
Plugin 'tomasr/molokai'
Plugin 'vim-airline/vim-airline'
Plugin 'vim-airline/vim-airline-themes'
Plugin 'jiangmiao/auto-pairs'
call vundle#end()

filetype plugin indent on

colorscheme molokai
let g:molokai_original = 1
let g:airline_theme='molokai'

set backspace=2
set showcmd
set cursorline
set hlsearch
set background=dark
set ts=4
set softtabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set autoindent
set number

I use Vundle, the plug-in manager for Vim as my vim plugin manager.

To install Vundle, run git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim, with Vundle, you can manage your vim plugin more conveniently.

You can choose awesome vim plugins from Vim Awesome, type vim +PluginInstall +qall every time you add plugins between call vundle#begin() and call vundle#end().

This is how it looks like.

tomasr/molokai, vim-airline/vim-airline and so on are all plugins that I added, but keep in mind that too many plugins may slow down your editor, so I prefer to install most necessary vim plugins only.

(4) Apache server

I use apache as the web engine to post my blogs.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

See if apache service is running in your server.

sudo systemctl status apache2

Then type my server’s IP address in browser

Done!

Substitute /var/www/html/index.html with your own resources, such as your blogs, then people can go to the website to view your blogs.