4MLinux Review and Installation Guide: Maintenance & security, firewall, DDOS and others.

21. Maintenance & security: firewall.

iptables can be managed with either Webmin (pictured below) or the 4MLinux Firewall. The latter has the following command-line usage: firewall start (stop, restart, test).

Note:

Do not use Webmin for iptables if you need the brute-force and DDOS protection offered by the 4MLinux Firewall (see the next two points below).

22. Maintenance & security: brute-force protection.

BRF (brute-force protection) is enabled by default in the 4MLinux Firewall. It allows only a limited number of SSH login attempts.

Note:

Go to the /etc/firewall/brf folder to view/edit the default settings. Execute 'firewall restart' to apply changes.

23. Maintenance & security: DDOS protection.

DDOS protection is disabled by default in the 4MLinux Firewall (see the picture below). When enabled, it automatically blacklists IPs/domains sending to many requests to your server.

Note:
Go to the /etc/firewall/ddos folder to view/edit the default settings. Execute 'firewall restart' to apply changes.

24. Maintenance & security: antivirus protection.

The 4MLinux Server provides its users with the ClamAV scanner. Just open your terminal and execute the antivir command.

Note:
As you can see in the picture above, the antivir script can update both ClamAV itself and its virus signature databases, so it's quite easy to keep the antivirus software up-to-date.
25. Maintenance & security: backups.

The 4MLinux backup scripts consist of the following three commands: backup (for manual backups), fsbackup (for automatic backups), and image (for disk imaging with GNU ddrescue, Partimage, and Partclone).

Note:
The rsync utility is also included. Alternatively, the lftp tool can also be used for syncing files.

26. Maintenance & security: system monitoring.

The 4MLinux Server includes a wide set of system monitoring tools. Just open your terminal and execute the nmonitor command.

Note:
All the programs (listed in the picture above) use ncurses, meaning that they are correctly displayed when a remote 4MLinux Server is accessed with a SSH client.

27. Maintenance & security: booting.

Webmin offers an interface to initiate the bootup and shutdown processes. 4MLinux itself supports all possible boot options: BIOS with 32-bit CPU, BIOS with 64-bit CPU, UEFI with 32-bit firmware, and UEFI with 64-bit firmware. 4MLinux can be installed on ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, jfs, xfs, btrfs, and nilfs2 partitions (see this post).

Note:
Execute the update-grub command in your terminal to install (or reinstall) GRUB with all your operating systems added to its menu (fully automatic process). Additionally, if you have UEFI, 4MLinux will ask you whether to install rEFInd for you.