Atomicorp

I recently upgraded one of my servers to CentOS 5 / PSA 8.3.0.

I'm interested in ASL and wanted to get a few reviews from current ASL subscription users.

Thanks!

Review away folks, you wont hurt my feelings.

I have two (almost three) servers running with ALS without any problems and if I have questions, support handles them very quickly. Most important, your Plesk 8.3 CentOS 5 systems are very secure running ASL. So I would recommend ASL, nothing else will get the same security! So do not hesitate just get it full security for only $128 per year per server

I have installed ASL about one week ago, and I'm having problems (there is another thread about this).

I'm having support from ART's staff, but the problem isn't fixed yet.

It is not clear if the problem is BIOS related (some bug in the BIOS), or other problem related to my system and ASL.

I have error messages about this BIOS problem, and I'm focusing on this since I have no other clue.

I have to say I'm impressed with the amount of attacks blocked by ASL.

I'll persist and try to fix this problem as much as I can, since I believe ASL worth all this effort and temporary problem I'm having.

Got a ASL subscription for one of my servers last night. Here is my initial review thus far:

Installation: used the automated installer per http://www.atomicorp.com/wiki/index.php ... stallation. Install was painless.

Setup/Config: Fairly straight forward. Was a little confusing at first due to my in-ability to find documentation on configuration.

Kernel Testing/Boot-in: No problems. Booted in fine. (followed instructions per http://www.atomicorp.com/wiki/index.php ... S_users.29)

ASL Scan / Fix - straight forward and the detail was impressive. I used command per Post-Installation Quickstart/Configuration: asl -s -f

Started getting DenyHost email reports about IP's being added to rules. Also was initially getting an email every minute from psmon about PSA VPS module.

PSA admin interface: OK - I didn't notice a way to add IP's via Block List interface.

Thus far I'm glad I purchased the subscription.

My thoughts so far

The Bad

OSSEC is a fickle mistress sometimes. I have several internal apps that we heavily use here (all PHP based) to process orders. Some people work from home and have dynamic IPs and the usage of these apps tends to throw it for a loop sometimes (my boss called me several times on a Saturday about the server going down before I finally realized what was going on). It also goes overboard in its email notifications (had to turn it off since I got emails over non-issues every hour). You'll also have to consult the OSSEC manual to tweak settings you don't like.

ASL doesn't automatically add you to /etc/hosts.allow for some reason when you whitelist an IP. Be sure to do this or you can lock yourself out really quick (especially if you use SFTP over SSH).

It needs a GUI. I know that's in the works but needs to be said. The current GUI is still beta for the most part.

mod_security will almost certainly need tweaking unless you run all vanilla open-source apps (Wordpress, etc). It's still not all that friendly with phpMyAdmin (I have a DB I admin daily and I don't want to have to log into Plesk every time to do it). It's also a long time between yum releases.

If you're not all that familiar with ASL it doesn't tell you where to get documentation. I know about the wiki and these forums but something in the install process would be nice to have some idea where to look.

Doesn't inform you to reboot to get the kernel installed.

The Good

The setup is super easy with the asl installer. It sets up the yum repo, installs itself and starts the config process for you. The config is well written and spells out what's going on.

The only non-ASL security program we run now is APF. It's that thorough.

Quite tight security. We recently had Hackersafe give us a free trial and the only holes it found were low and mostly around extra open ports. We're now PCI compliant according to them.

The Plesk interface is great. Has a few quirks to still be ironed out but I have faith As a GUI it's come a long way but it still has a few things yet to go.

Fast email support. Usually get a response in an hour or two during the day.

Overall I'm pleased. it does what I need it to do and it's not been arm-twisting to get it to stop doing what I don't need. It's just not 100% pain-free (but then again, what is?).

I have ASL on my server and love it to death. It has it's quirks to be sure, but it is as close to "push a button and be secured" as you are ever going to get.

Let's face it folks, security takes a bit of work, but ASL takes almost all the pain out of locking down a box. Although educating customers on why getting "shunned" out when posting an article in Joomla is actually a good thing is all on you, as well as customizing a bit to your specific environment.

Well worth the price of admission in my view.

I started with my webserver (Fedora Core 6) with ASL. I found support excellent and even some really quirky bugs just related to me running Fedora 7 were resolved (as I was the first running Plesk and ASL on a Fedora 7 server).

I found support more than helpful implementing new tweaked mod_sec rules to fix and broken php stuff you have.

I even was so happy I got another subscription for our own LAN/WAN gateway Fedora 8 server, and Scott was more than happy to put up a Fedora 8 repository for ASL.

So if you want support that stands behind you and will even support an issue if its only effecting you, your money is well spent.

AAA+

I can only agree with the positive comments above.

As aus-city experienced, ASL support is excellent with rules adapted to suit some very specific aspects of my server and quickly too!

I agree with Highland's observations regarding the Good and Bad; especially the mod_security rules and SFTP over SSH points, but these are reasonable trade-off's compared to the huge benefits.

There will always be room for some improvements (GUI config), but ASL works where it should and works well.

Would I consider an ASL subscription for additional servers? YES of course! I whole-heartedly recommend it. ASL gives me the confidence of knowing my Plesk server is secure and (importantly) well supported.

ASL has saved my butt countless times. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR EASE OF USE AND EFFECTIVENESS! ASL is worth every single penny. Thanks ASL team keep it coming!

Thanks guys! Please let us know what we can do to make ASL better for you.

I'll keep mine short. I don't think I will ever have another server without ASL installed.

There was a little bit of a learning curve (and some fine tuning) at the beginning and more documentation would definitely be nice. But overall, it's an excellent product.

I'm also a very satisfied ASL customer. Like previous posts mentioned it takes a huge amount of work away from you.
Your server is secured in a manner you would not be able to setup that quick and without having ultra deep knowledge of different sections like OSI layer, kernel, services and application.
The support is very quick and very good. The wiki is doing a good job for me as a documentation so I do not agree with some other posts of a missing docu.
Besides that a very huge PLUS is that everybody can suggest features and atomicorp is releasing new version quickly.
The new ASL3 is going to have a tons of new features that were suggested and wished by customers. And that is something you wont get from a lot of vendors.
Of course there are sometimes some bugs but they get fixed very quickly.

A big thanks to atomicorp from my side.

Most of it has already been said. You get a, in my opinion, perfect security solution for your servers. Works like a charm, even for the novice, and you always get the right kind of attention as a customer. I haven't had this good customer experience from any other company, anywhere, anytime for any product.