How to install ZNB bouncer on Ubuntu

ZNC is a bouncer for IRC. This is how I installed it on an Proxmox VM using Docker CE, Portainer (optional) and Watchtower (optional). I also used the ability through Nginx Reverse Proxy Manager to secure my cononection with an official certificate.

Table of contents

Getting started
Docker
Portainer
ZNC
1. Run
2. Configuration
Textual
1. Server Properties
  1. General
  2. Identity
Watchtower
NPM
Authors
Acknowledgments

Getting started

Prerequisites

Proxmox 6.1
Ubuntu 20.04

Set your time zone

read@arr:~$ date
Sat 11 Jan 21:22:53 GMT 2020
per@sson:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Current default time zone: 'Europe/Paris'
Local time is now:      Sat Jan 11 22:24:07 CET 2020.
Universal Time is now:  Sat Jan 11 21:24:07 UTC 2020.

read@arr:~$ $ date
Sat 11 Jan 22:24:16 CET 2020

Disable IPv6

read@arr:~$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub
(...)
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="maybe-ubiquity"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Change to:

(...)
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="maybe-ubiquity ipv6.disable=1"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="ipv6.disable=1"

Then run:

read@arr:~$ sudo update-grub

Change NTP server

read@arr:~$ nano /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf 
(...)
[Time]
#NTP=
(...)

Change to

(...)
[Time]
NTP=192.168.44.1 pool.ntp.org
(...)

Restart NTP service

read@arr:~$ sudo systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd

qemu-guest-agent

Install qemu-guest-agent for Proxmox VMs.

spider@man~$ sudo apt update
spider@man~$ sudo apt upgrade
spider@man~$ sudo apt install qemu-guest-agent

Shut down the VM. Enable Qemu Guest Agent in Proxmox and start the VM.

Docker

Installation of Docker:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-use-docker-on-ubuntu-20-04

Portainer

Install portainer to give an graphical overview for our Docker container.

https://hub.docker.com/r/portainer/portainer-ce

spider@man:~$ sudo docker volume create portainer_data
portainer_data

sudo docker pull portainer/portainer-ce

sudo docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9000:9000 --name=portainer --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer-ce

ZNC

Installation of ZNC:

[https://hub.docker.com//znc](https://hub.docker.com//znc)

spider@man:~$ docker pull znc

spider@man:~$ sudo docker volume create znc_data
znc_data

Create configuration file:

spider@man:~$ sudo docker run -it -v znc_data:/znc-data znc --makeconf
[ .. ] Checking for list of available modules...
[ ** ] 
[ ** ] -- Global settings --
[ ** ] 
[ ?? ] Listen on port (1025 to 65534): 1337
[ ?? ] Listen using SSL (yes/no) [no]: yes
[ ?? ] Listen using both IPv4 and IPv6 (yes/no) [yes]: no
[ .. ] Verifying the listener...
[ ** ] Unable to locate pem file: [/znc-data/znc.pem], creating it
[ .. ] Writing Pem file [/znc-data/znc.pem]...
[ ** ] Enabled global modules [webadmin]
[ ** ] 
[ ** ] -- Admin user settings --
[ ** ] 
[ ?? ] Username (alphanumeric): han
[ ?? ] Enter password: 
[ ?? ] Confirm password: 
[ ?? ] Nick [han]: 
[ ?? ] Alternate nick [han]: solo
[ ?? ] Ident [han]: 
[ ?? ] Real name (optional): J.F.K
[ ?? ] Bind host (optional): 
[ ** ] Enabled user modules [chansaver, controlpanel]
[ ** ] 
[ ?? ] Set up a network? (yes/no) [yes]: yes
[ ** ] 
[ ** ] -- Network settings --
[ ** ] 
[ ?? ] Name [freenode]: 
[ ?? ] Server host [chat.freenode.net]: 
[ ?? ] Server uses SSL? (yes/no) [yes]: 
[ ?? ] Server port (1 to 65535) [6697]: 
[ ?? ] Server password (probably empty): 
[ ?? ] Initial channels: linux
[ ** ] Enabled network modules [simple_away]
[ ** ] 
[ .. ] Writing config [/znc-data/configs/znc.conf]...
[ ** ] 
[ ** ] To connect to this ZNC you need to connect to it as your IRC server
[ ** ] using the port that you supplied.  You have to supply your login info
[ ** ] as the IRC server password like this: user/network:pass.
[ ** ] 
[ ** ] Try something like this in your IRC client...
[ ** ] /server <znc_server_ip> +1337 han:<pass>
[ ** ] 
[ ** ] To manage settings, users and networks, point your web browser to
[ ** ] https://<znc_server_ip>:1337/
[ ** ] 
[ ?? ] Launch ZNC now? (yes/no) [yes]: yes
[ .. ] Opening config [/znc-data/configs/znc.conf]...
[ .. ] Loading global module [webadmin]...
[ .. ] Binding to port [+1337] using ipv4...
[ ** ] Loading user [billard]
[ ** ] Loading network [freenode]
[ .. ] Loading network module [simple_away]...
[ >> ] [/opt/znc/lib64/znc/simple_away.so]
[ .. ] Adding 1 servers...
[ .. ] Loading user module [chansaver]...
[ .. ] Loading user module [controlpanel]...
[ ** ] Staying open for debugging [pid: 10]
[ ** ] ZNC 1.8.2 - https://znc.in

CTRL + C

Run

sudo docker run -d -p 1337:1337 -v znc_data:/znc-data znc

Configuration

https://address:1337

Username should be different from nickname.

/znc AddNetwork freenode

Textual

Server Properties

General

Connection Name:
Server Address:
Port:
Server Password: han’s password

Identity

Username: solo

Watchtower

To automatically update your ZNC container, you can use watchtower:

sudo docker run -d \
    --name watchtower \
    -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
    containrrr/watchtower \
    znc

NPM

Generate a certificate through NPM. Download the certificate, e.g. irc.example.com

cat privkey1.pem > fullchain-with-privkey.pem
cat fullchain1.pem >> fullchain-with-privkey.pem

cp fullchain-with-privkey.pem znc.pem
chmod 600 znc.pem

Remember to do a NAT portforwarding rule to your ZNC server’s ip address:port (1337) on your gateway, and maybe a host override in your network as well to allow connections using the certificate internally.

Authors

Mr. Johnson