INN configuration cheat sheet

INN Configuration Cheat Sheet

This is a configuration guide for the system administrator that needs to setup an INN cluster in a hurry. It isn't comprehensive and emphasis is given to getting it running. It is recommended that if you have the time, read the INSTALL file that comes with INN as it will instill knowledge that you will need at some point anyway.

Installation and General Setup

Create a new system user and group called "news". Most modern unices come with this user already created. Set a password if you're not going to be accessing this user via su.
Get the latest version of INN from the Internet Software Consortium. At the time of writing, that is 2.3.3.
Untar in a temporary location
CFLAGS=-O ./configure --with-openssl --enable-static --disable-shared --with-berkeleydb --prefix=/opt/inn
make; sudo make install
su - news
Fetch the current active file: wget ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/CONFIG/active.Z
Uncompress and install the active file to $INN/db
cd $INN/db; touch history; makedbz -i
for a in history.n.*; do mv $a `echo $a | sed -e 's/\.n//'`; done
Edit $INN/etc/inn.conf to contain appropriate values for your organization
Execute rc.news to start INN.

Leaf node setup

The following configuration steps are appropriate when your INN installation will be receiving a news feed from somewhere, e.g. your ISP.

cd $INN/etc/
Edit storage.conf to contain the following section; It defines a "timehash" storage method that uses the file system as a news spool. For higher performance, use dedicated disks and employ CNFS.
```
  method timehash {
        newsgroups: *
        class: 2
        size: 1,512000  #maximum article size. Adjust if necessary
  }
```

Edit incoming.conf and add an entry for the hosts that will be feeding you news.

peer uunet {
        hostname: "nntp-out1.uu.net, nntp-out2.uu.net, nntp-out3.uu.net, nntp-ou
t4.uu.net, nntp-out5.uu.net, nntp-out6.uu.net, nntp-out7.uu.net, nntp-out8.uu.ne
t, nntp-out9.uu.net, nntp-out10.uu.net, nntp-out11.uu.net, nntp-out12.uu.net, nn
tp-out13.uu.net, nntp-out14.uu.net, nntp-out15.uu.net"
        streaming: true
}

Upon startup, INN will whine about not having any sites configured for feeding. Ignore.

Authentication Setup

Out of the box, INN will only allow localhost originated connections to actually read any news. To allow remote clients to access the news service, perform one of the following:

Open Access configuration

This setup will allow anyone to use the news server. Use with care.

Edit $INN/readers.conf to include the following:

auth "pub" {
  hosts: *
  default: ""
}
access "full" {
  users: ""
  newsgroups: *
  access: RP       # Read and post access. Adjust accordingly
}

You can configure for news access from certain IP addresses by modifying the auth section above to contain the required hosts in the hosts line.

User Authentication configuration

This is your typical username and password configuration, which employs a local user database.

Create the user database by creating the file $INN/etc/authdb, the format being username:crypted-password, one per line.

Edit $INN/readers.conf to include the following:

  auth all {
    auth: "ckpasswd -f /opt/inn/etc/authdb"  # edit for the correct path
  }

  access full {
    users: *
    newsgroups: *
  }

News Feeder setup

These configuration steps are useful if your INN installation is going to use the NNTP protocol to feed news to other sites. This configuration uses innfeed, which is a near realtime feed.

For each feedee host, add a line in $INN/newsfeeds:

feedee1:*:Tm:innfeed!    # second field is newsgroup wildmat, edit if necessary
feedee2:*:Tm:innfeed!

Add master innfeed "feed" in $INN/newsfeeds:

  # innfeed funnel master.
  innfeed!\
        :!*\
        :Tc,Wnm*:/opt/inn/bin/startinnfeed

Add each feedee in $INN/innfeed.conf:

peer feedee1 {
  ip-name: feedee1.isp.net
  max-connections: 10
}
peer feedee2 {
  ip-name: feedee2.isp2.net
  max-connections: 10
}

$Id: inn-cheatsheet.html,v 1.2 2002-07-01 02:37:40 kos Exp $