SysAdmin

Ansible: the Automation Framework That Thinks Like a Sysadmin

I've written about and trained folks on various DevOps tools through the years, and although they're awesome, it's obvious that most of them are designed from the mind of a developer. There's nothing wrong with that, because approaching configuration management programmatically is the whole point.

Sysadmin 101: Patch Management

A few articles ago, I started a Sysadmin 101 series to pass down some fundamental knowledge about systems administration that the current generation of junior sysadmins, DevOps engineers or "full stack" developers might not learn otherwise. I had thought that I was done with the series, but then the WannaCry malware came out and exposed some of the poor patch management practices still

Testing the Waters: How to Perform Internal Phishing Campaigns

Phishing is one of the most dangerous threats to modern computing. Phishing attacks have evolved from sloppily written mass email blasts to targeted attacks designed to fool even the most cautious users. No defense is bulletproof, and most experts agree education and common sense are the best tools to combat the problem.

LINBIT's DRBD Top

Many proprietary high-availability (HA) software providers require users to pay extra for system-management capabilities. Bucking this convention and driving down costs is LINBIT, whose DRBD HA software solution, part of the Linux kernel since 2009, powers thousands of digital enterprises.

Tracking Down Blips

In a previous article, I explained the process for setting up Cacti, which is a great program for graphing just about anything. One of the main things I graph is my internet usage. And, it's great information to have, until there is internet activity you can't explain.

Sysadmin 101: Leveling Up

This is the fourth in a series of articles on systems administrator fundamentals. These days, DevOps has made even the job title "systems administrator" seems a bit archaic like the "systems analyst" title it replaced.

Sysadmin 101: Ticketing

This is the third in a series of articles on system administrator fundamentals where I focus on some lessons I've learned through the years that might be obvious to longtime sysadmins, but news to someone just coming into this position.

TeamViewer Linux Host

At last abandoning WINE and launching native Linux support, TeamViewer announced the availability of a new preview version of its Linux Host with native Linux support.

Sysadmin 101: Automation

This is the second in a series of articles on systems administrator fundamentals. These days, DevOps has made even the job title "systems administrator" seem a bit archaic, much like the "systems analyst" title it replaced. These DevOps positions are rather different from sysadmin jobs in the past.

Managing Docker Instances with Puppet

In a previous article, "Provisioning Docker with Puppet", in the December 2016 issue, I covered one of the ways you can install the Docker service onto a new system with Puppet. By contrast, this article focuses on how to manage Docker images and containers with Puppet.

Applied Expert Systems, Inc.'s CleverView for TCP/IP on Linux

The contemporary data center is typified by an ever-increasing amount of traffic occurring between servers, observes Applied Expert Systems, Inc. (AES), sagely. Fulfilling the logical need to facilitate improved server-to-server communications, AES created CleverView for TCP/IP on Linux, now at v2.7. CleverView provides IT staff access to current and

Sysadmin 101: Alerting

This is the first in a series of articles on system administrator fundamentals. These days, DevOps has made even the job title "system administrator" seem a bit archaic, much like the "systems analyst" title it replaced.

Automatic Slack Notifications

Slack is an incredible communication tool for groups of any size (see my recent piece on it). At the company I work for during the day, Slack has become more widely used than email or instant messaging. It truly has become the hub of company communication.

ioSafe Server 5

Until now, says ioSafe, true zero-recovery-point server solutions have been available only to the biggest of companies. However, with the arrival of ioSafe's Server 5, SMEs have access to "the industry's first fire and waterproof server" designed to eliminate data loss and minimize downtime.

Orchestration with MCollective

I originally got into systems administration because I loved learning about computers, and I figured that was a career that always would offer me something new to learn. Now many years later that prediction has turned out to be true, and it seems like there are new things to learn all the time.