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A hardened appliance, with Windows support, that will communicate with NTP servers around the world to keep current time.

Features

Collegiate:
No

One-line Description:
A hardened appliance, with Windows support, that will communicate with NTP servers around the world to keep current time.

Filename:
ntpvmapp_final.tar.bz2

Size Compressed:
28MB

Allocated Memory:
24MB

VMware Tools Installed?:
Yes

Operating System:
Mandrivia Linux 2006

Torrent?:
No

Applications:
iptables 1.3.3
Shorewall 2.4.1
Samba 3.0.20
ntpd 4.2.0@1.1161-r

Last Updated:
January 28, 2008 - 07:16

Description:
1. This appliance will attempt to pull random ip addresses from pool.ntp.org (13 + time.nist.gov), synchronize the virtual machine clock, and start the server service for Network Time Protocol (NTP). Having correct time is important for many servers. For example, logs from Intrusion Detection Systems without proper clocks may be thrown out of court as evidence for a crime. Considering Microsoft's Active Directory and Domains, all domain controllers must have their system clocks synchronized in order for "replication" to occur. An unsynchronized domain controller will only be able to provide read-only access to Active Directory objects. Another useful scenario for this virtual appliance is the clock synchronization for all machines. The virtual appliance is able to respond to NTP queries as well as support for the Windows Operating System. Even certain phone or PBX systems, such as Avaya's IP Office, will be able to synchronize the correct time with this appliance. Cost is also a factor. Compare this free virtual machine appliance to other hardware based models. Quoting from http://www.buyntp.com/resources_buying_guide.asp, "A high quality time server costs roughly $3,000 to $10,500, depending on the level of accuracy required." The appliance is setup to be automatic and very little end-user configuration is needed. To increase security, shorewall and iptables is used to harden the appliance, only allowing NTP communications and/or Windows support.
2. Mandrivia Linux 2006 was used for the initial setup of this appliance. Only the base system was installed (no XWindows) and tools were installed for kernel compilation. In order to provide Windows support with the "net time" command, Samba was installed and setup. Throughout the course of development, new Linux kernels were released and the one currently in this appliance is kernel 2.6.16.18. The kernel was custom compiled to reduce size occupied on disk and in memory. VMtools was installed, however vmhgfs was removed since file sharing is not a desirable option. The only other module that can be compiled is vmxnet. The modules vmdesched and vmmemctl appear to only be available if the host is VMware ESX; this appliance was developed under VMware Workstation 5.5.1. After testing, a meticulous process of hand pruning unnecessary files was done. Then an empty virtual machine harddisk was set up to accomodate this final smaller size for the guest operating system. Files were tar'd to a backup virtual disk and untar'd to this new drive to shrink the vmdk file for final submission. A custom menu system was created to aid the end-user in managing this virtual machine, so there should be no reason to enter the "command console." If the end user wishes, a bash console is found in the custom menu.
Developed to use the fewest resources, this virtual appliance is configured to only use 24megs of RAM and up to a maxium of 100megs of physical hard disk space. Hard disk usage is approximately 78megs on "first time" uncompress but usually stays around 80megs during normal usage.
3. An end user should just start the virtual machine normally. The appliance is configured for "first time" setup and will prompt the end user for configuration of the system.
4. Everything in this appliance is open source.

Technical Specifications

Operating System:

Mandrivia Linux 2006

VMware Tools installed: No

Size: 28MB

Allocated Memory (RAM): 24

Applications Installed:

iptables 1.3.3Shorewall 2.4.1Samba 3.0.20ntpd 4.2.0@1.1161-r

Virtual Appliance Account Information