SysAdmin

Not So Dynamic Updates

Typically when a network is under my control, I like my servers to have static IPs. Whether the IPs are truly static (hard-coded into network configuration files on the host) or whether I configure a DHCP server to make static assignments, it's far more convenient when you know a server always will have the same IP.

Non-Linux FOSS: MenuMeters

It sounds like a "back in my day" story, but I really do miss the days when laptops had LED activity lights for hard drives and Wi-Fi. Sure, some still have them, but for the most part, the latest trend is to have no way of knowing if your application is pegging the CPU at 100%, or if it just locked up.

High-Availability Storage with HA-LVM

In recent years, there has been a trend in which data centers have been opting for commodity hardware and software over proprietary solutions. Why shouldn't they? It offers extremely low costs and the flexibility to build an ecosystem the way it is preferred. The only limitation is the extent of the administrator's imagination.

DNSMasq, the Pint-Sized Super Dæmon!

I've always been a fan of putting aftermarket firmware on consumer-grade routers. Whether it's DD-WRT, Tomato, OpenWRT or whatever your favorite flavor of "better than stock" firmware might be, it just makes economic sense. Unfortunately, my routing needs have surpassed my trusty Linksys router.

Wondershaper—QOS in a Pinch

In past articles, I've discussed my BirdCam setup and how it automatically archives video footage from my bird feeders to YouTube every night. That's a really cool process, but unfortunately, it saturates my upstream bandwidth in the evening.

Ideal Backups with zbackup

Data is growing both in volume and importance. As time goes on, the amount of data that we need to store is growing, and the data itself is becoming more and more critical for organizations. It is becoming increasingly important to be able to back up and restore this information quickly and reliably. Using cloud-based systems spreads out the data over many servers and locations.

November 2014 Issue of Linux Journal: System Administration

Folger's Crystals Every time I write a Bash script or schedule a cron job, I worry about the day I'll star in my very own IT version of a Folger's commercial. Instead of "secretly replacing coffee with Folger's Instant Crystals", however, I worry I'll be replaced by an automation framework and a few crafty FOR loops.

Promise Theory—What Is It?

During the past 20 years, there has been a growing sense of inadequacy about the "command and control" model for managing IT systems. Years in front of the television with a remote control have left us hard pressed to think of any other way of making machines work for us.

Practical Tiny Core in the Fire Service

I'm sure many of you have at least heard of Tiny Core Linux—legends of how small it is, how little it takes it to run a system with it and even now how it's been ported to run on Raspberry Pi. It's an esoteric minimalist distribution.

Security Hardening with Ansible

Ansible is an open-source automation tool developed and released by Michael DeHaan and others in 2012. DeHaan calls it a "general-purpose automation pipeline" (see Resources for a link to the article "Ansible's Architecture: Beyond Configuration Management").

Adminer—Better Than Awesome!

I've always loved PHPMyAdmin for managing MySQL databases. It's Web-based, fairly robust and as powerful as I've ever needed. Basically, it's awesome. Today, however, I discovered something better than awesome: Adminer. Although it is conceptually identical to PHPMyAdmin, it is far simpler and far more powerful. How can it be both?

How YARN Changed Hadoop Job Scheduling

Scheduling means different things depending on the audience. To many in the business world, scheduling is synonymous with workflow management. Workflow management is the coordinated execution of a collection of scripts or programs for a business workflow with monitoring, logging and execution guarantees built in to a WYSIWYG editor.

The Growing Role of UEFI Secure Boot in Linux Distributions

With the increasing prevalence of open-source implementations and the expansion of personal computing device usage to include mobile and non-PC devices as well as traditional desktops and laptops, combating attacks and security obstacles against malware is a growing priority for a broad community of vendors, developers and end users.

Debugging Web Sites

I know, I'm in the middle of a series of columns about how to work with ImageMagick on the command line, but when other things arise, well, I imagine that a lot of you are somehow involved in the management of servers or systems, so you all understand firefighting.

DNSSEC Part II: the Implementation

This article is the second in a series on DNSSEC. In the first one, I gave a general overview of DNSSEC concepts to lay the foundation for this article, which discusses how to enable DNSSEC for a zone using BIND.

LVM, Demystified

I've been a sysadmin for a long time, and part of being a sysadmin is doing more than is humanly possible. Sometimes that means writing wicked cool scripts, sometimes it means working late, and sometimes it means learning to say no. Unfortunately, it also sometimes means cutting corners. I confess, I've been "that guy" more than once. A good example is SELinux.

Solid-State Drives: Get One Already!

I've been building computers since the 1990s, so I've seen a lot of new technologies work their way into the mainstream. Most were the steady, incremental improvements predicted by Moore's law, but others were game-changers, innovations that really rocketed performance forward in a surprising way.