Fedora 16 Day 2
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- Category: Linux
- Published on Tuesday, 20 December 2011 12:52
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 157
Fedora 16 Day 2
Fedora 16 is working out excellent for me so far. I have not had any crashes or lockups. With a cutting edge OS I would expect some issues but I have not had any. I was looking for a GUI Linux system for my main system. If this was my server systems, I would go with a command line Linux system only to save system resources and a GUI is really not needed on a server system. It looks like Fedora will be my main system for a while. I hope all the tools hold up for all the administration task I like to do.
I do feel that there should have been more software on the system. I found myself installing thing I needed; such as, flash, office, xchat, skype, burn, nmap, vim and git. I can understand keeping the system light but how about the option during install. I also found myself falling back to yum to install tools. The GUI install tool just did not feel normal to me.
Linux Mint has Climbed To The Top
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- Category: Linux
- Published on Sunday, 18 December 2011 18:33
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 132
Linux Mint has Climbed To The Top
Linux Mint has climbed to the top of the charts on distrowatch.com. Mint is now adding a Debian version to their wide spread of Distributions. This will make Mint a good option for server system. Mint has a really good looking GUI. I am not one to use the GUI but the Mint GUI looks really nice. The thing I don’t like about Debian Mint is no 64x version at this point. It is still early so we will let Mint work out the bugs before we give Mint a good look.
If there are any questions, stop by and see our forum at http://forum.the-server-admin.com
NMAP and ZENMAP
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- Category: Security
- Published on Tuesday, 13 December 2011 12:55
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 234
NMAP and ZENMAP
NMAP is a security tool I use to see network traffic on remote servers. NMAP can do many type of scans and this post is only touching the beginning of the command. When I am looking for a port on a remote server I use the command nmap 192.168.1.100. This will show me all open ports. If I want to scan an entire subnet I run the command NMAP 192.168.1.0/24. ZENMAP is the GUI frontend to NAMP and I have never used the GUI. I am not one to use GUIs. They just sound messy. :)
Here is a good book on nmap at http://nmap.org/book/
Simple command
nmap 192.168.1.100
nmap 192.168.1.0/24
If there are any questions, see our forum at http://forum.the-server-admin.com
Network Time Protocol (NTP)
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- Category: Server Room
- Published on Monday, 12 December 2011 12:47
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 250
Network Time Protocol (NTP)
Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a protocol that system administrators use to update time on network devices or host on a packed switched network. Clients and servers on the the same network should have the same time because of security and troubleshooting. Time is important in the server world with out it administration would be difficult at best.
How is Network Time Protocol (NTP) Implemented
Normally Network Time Protocol (NTP) is implemented in the operating system (OS) of the network host. Linux and Unix systems use a daemon that runs around the clock and this daemon process is called NTPD. Windows systems 2000 and above have the Windows Time Server. Windows and Linux NTP clients synchronizes with a server regardless of the OS.
How dose Network Time Protocol (NTP) help Troubleshooting
The time on a system helps troubleshooting by setting the time for all the system task and files. For example, log files with an accurate time will give the system administrator a better feeling for what the server is doing. Also, system files being created with the right times can help tremendously. Being able to modify files and system tasks by timestamps can speed up task.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
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- Category: Server Room
- Published on Friday, 09 December 2011 03:40
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 159
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
Should you host your server on the Amazon EC2? First you need to know what is Amazon EC2. The Amazon EC2 is a cloud base scalable server solution. Acording to http://aws.amazon.com, “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. So the questions becomes do I need a scalable solution? Hmm...Power just for the sake of power the Jedi way is not (I know I am bad Yoda).
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a good solution if the company is planning to grow. If you are building a large site and don't have the funds up font to start with, using Ubuntu and scaling out to EC2 is a good plan.
If there are any questions, comment on our new comment system or see our forum at http://forum.the-server-admin.com
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2
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- Category: Linux
- Published on Thursday, 08 December 2011 12:34
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 163
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2
Looks like Red Hat has announced the release of Enterprise Linux 6.2. today.
"Red Hat announces the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2, which delivers to customers a second wave of feature enhancements and demonstrates the continued value that Red Hat delivers as part of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 life cycle. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 delivers significant improvements in virtualization, resource management and high availability, and offers new features in storage and file system performance and identity management. The key benefits for organizations employing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 are higher levels of efficiency realized through resource management and performance optimization."
The Red Hat Enterprise is a good distribution for the server world. Red Hat is sound and secure, thus making a good OS for the business.
If there are any questions, ask them in our forum at http://forum.the-server-admin.com.
Why is RAID 5 Dead?
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- Category: Server Room
- Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2011 12:53
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 157
Why is RAID 5 Dead?
A buddy of mine told me how bad RAID 5 was so here it is. Like every technology RAID 5 has been over taken by better technologies. Here are the reasons why:
Disks fail
Disk to fail and when more than two disk fail the array is done for causing hours of wrk getting the system back online and you better have a backup ready.
Disk capacities double
With RAID 5 you lose a lot of disk space. I do not like to give up disk space
Now What?
There are many technologies out today that are better than RAID 5.RAID6 is a bit better but the most common file system people are moving to is ZFS. ZFS gives you many option and right speeds out of this world.
If there are any questions, see out forum at http://forum.the-server-admin.com
Linux Cron
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- Category: Commands
- Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2011 03:37
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 134
Linux Cron
Cron jobs are task setup on a Linux or UNIX system to run at a set time. I seen a few questions around about cronjobs. Here is a reference on cron.
How do I visit a site every day at 5 AM?Run the command “crontab -e” to edit the cron file. Then type:
0 5 * * * curl http://www.the-server-admin.com
Curl is a basic Linux command. Cron will run any command in this order.
How do I get cron Emails? Edit he crontab file: crontab -e Then make cron look like:
MAILTO: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
0 5 * * * curl http://www.the-server-admin.com
You can also get disk space output via cron. Edit the crontab... you should know who to do this by now. :) Make cron look like this:
MAILTO: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
0 5 * * * curl http://www.the-server-admin.com
0 12 * * * df -h
So any command you want to run everyday add the command to crontab.
If there are any questions, see our forum at http://forum.the-server-admin.com
When did you start using the Internet?
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- Category: Tech
- Published on Tuesday, 06 December 2011 12:51
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 367
I was talking to a buddy and he ask me “When did you start using the Internet?” It made me feel like an old man when I said twenty years ago--way back in 92. Lol. If you really think about it, the Internet has came a long way in the last twenty years. Tech in general has jumped light years in twenty years. I can’t wait for the next twenty years. 
DOS Denial-of-services Attack
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- Category: Security
- Published on Monday, 05 December 2011 12:46
- Written by Server Administrator
- Hits: 193
DOS Denial-of-services Attack
Many web servers are being attacked with an attacked called a DOS or Denial-of-services. A DOS attack works by servers or computers on the internet requesting the site many times and this stops all incoming requests. This type of attack is common on the internet and there is really only one way t stop a DOS. To stop a DOS one must block the incoming request that is not wanted.
Below are a few tools to block incoming request:
* Use a CISCO PIX
* Use iptables in Linux (iptables -A INPUT -s IP-ADDRESS -j DROP)
* Smoothwall – This is iptables
Really one needs to use a firewall of some type to block the IP addresses that are not wanted.
If there are any questions, stop by and see our forum at http://forum.the-server-admin.com.