csf/cpanel install and forget?

[newtoallthis]

i want to install CSF on my managed server. My host says they will install it but wont support. So any problems caused by the software on the server will mean charges to fix. If correctly installed by them would CSF basically be a fit and forget firewall? Something that once running it will take care of it self and not be a problem? I can do the basic things like edit allow and block ips and ports but otherwise its not something i can mess with.
Thanks.

[kernow]

1) There is no script or program you can "install and forget" they all need maintenance from time to time.
2) If your host won't support CSF ( an industry recognised firewall ) then find one who will.

[JordiCS]

1) There is no script or program you can "install and forget" they all need maintenance from time to time.
2) If your host won't support CSF ( an industry recognised firewall ) then find one who will.

I completely agree.

CSF is a great piece of software, definitely a must. But you always need to learn some basical things to configure it properly. From my experience, it is better you don't completely trust your host for doing this. Moreover, if your provider is going to charge you for possible issues related to CSF that may or may not be your fault, even when your server is supposed to be managed, look for a different one.

[newtoallthis]

yes its very disappointing, this is a major host managing large corporate servers. Point taken.

[Spiral]

Just for a side note for reference, very few of the data centers out there will do much to actually really manage your server and I have seen quite a few that claim to be "fully managed" and don't really do anything to manage your server whatsoever leaving you wide open and insecure.

Talking about CSF specifically, it is not something that you can just simply run the install script and be done with everything yet this is precisely what most of the data centers do and even quite a few server managers and administrators who should know better than to do that!

CSF is very easy to install but it **MUST** be properly configured!

Your data center will likely do just this and this alone and nothing more:

# wget http://www.configserver.net/free/csf.tgz
# tar zxvf ./csf.tgz
# cd csf
# ./install.sh

You will need to go to the Firewall configuration screen in WHM or go and directly edit /etc/csf/csf.conf in SSH to configure your CSF firewall before it will be of any use to you.

Fortunately the options are documented very well and there is comment explanations in the configuration file telling you what each option does which should be a lot of help to people trying to set things up for the first time

[newtoallthis]

Yes i can manage the basic stuff via WHM, i just cant handle any of the command line stuff or any bugs that arise after install. The host would set it up with the correct configuration but from then on i believe im on my own. Theier objection is that there uptime guarantee is affected by the installation. To be fair they do actually manage the server but i believe this is mostly software updates which are automated throughout their network of managed servers. However apache isnt updated unless i request it so its not as thorough as I would expect. Then again they say they dont like rolling out things like apache first off because they need to see if there are any issues from the updates. They claim any security issues are still rolled out. As i say although my personal needs are small the server is with one of the most respected hosts out there who run their own datacenter. As you say, to not support this firewall is ridiculous.