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Quick Tip : What software do I have installed on my Ubuntu / Debian server?
During troubleshooting, or even when setting up an unfamiliar server, it’s quite a common question to ask what software / packages is actually installed on the server you’re working on. For example, I...
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Configuring basic cisco network traffic monitoring with ntop and NetFlow
If you are the admin of a cisco (and sonicwall now in the newer firmware) network, NetFlow is a good and easy way of gathering insight into what exactly is passing through your cisco. Apart from seeing...
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IPv6 to IPv4 using proxies : lessons learned
As we progress into IPv6 networks, one of the more common transitory scenarios we will see will be similar to the following: Especially in earlier stages, it is to be expected that isolated “pools” of...
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SQUID + GreasySpoon : enhancing your proxy deployment with content adaptation
When comparing the two proxy solutions I am most familiar with, these being BlueCoat ProxySG and SQUID, the most striking difference is the capability of the bluecoat to easily change and modify the...
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Easy cisco syslog monitoring using Webmin
At some point probably a network team would need something similar to this, so I thought it would be a good article to document what I’ve used to achieve this scenario: There is a need to monitor...
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Nugget Post: LPIC-2 material
While hunting for good study material for the LPIC-2 certificate (linux professional institute certification) I came across a very good online book that’s up to date and very structured at the time of...
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Linux script for automatic notification of failed download
Scenario: We need a CentOS machine to periodically automatically download a file from a remote server on the internet. If this download fails for any reason, the network admin should be emailed to...
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Analyzing SQUID access logs
There are loads of programs on the internet which are squid log analyzers. While this article does address the same thing, it’s presented more with an eye to how you can use standard linux bash scripts...
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Nugget Post: LPI 201 exam notes
Just took my LPI 201 exam successfully (LPIC 201). Here are my personal notes taken during my studies and a few added after the exam...
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Tomcat configuration summary
Tomcat is one of the more involving servers to setup. It contains a rather large server.xml file that can be daunting at first. If you “break down” the massive xml file into containers however, it...
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Linux Mail Components
Drawing diagrams always helps visualize and understand concepts. While studying for LPIC202 I came up with the following diagram to help understand a simple linux mail system. I say simple because the...
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Nugget Post: LPIC 202 exam notes
Just took my LPI 202 exam successfully (LPIC 202). Here are my personal notes taken during my studies and a few added after the exam...
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Monitoring custom attributes via SNMP
There comes a time in every network admin’s career when management/developers/dbas need to monitor some obscure attribute on a particular server. Invariably, there is no pre-existing plugin in nagios...
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Creating a custom Nagios/Centreon passive alerter
Scenario: This is very probably a familiar problem that any sysadmin must solve: Using your monitoring setup to receive alerts from other servers. Note the highlighted "receive". This is different from...
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Entertainment: Asus O’play file share w/ Windows 7
A bit of a different post from the norm since this deals with IT in entertainment rather than the normal work IT, but seems to be a useful. @ Home I do not use any cable, TV or satellite description....
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Bringing IPv6 to the home : Part 1
World IPv6 day came and went, but for most of us nothing much changed. In Malta especially, there currently seems no interest for ISPs to start using IPV6, very probably due to the challenges it poses....
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Bringing IPv6 to the home : Part 2
The article is a more in-depth look at residential IPv6, the final installment of the 2 part series. If you’ve missed it, the 1st article can be found here. After having established a successful...
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Lessons Learned: Redhat 5.8 + IBM Bladecenter 88524TG + IBM Storwise V7000
Objective: Having a baremetal install of Redhat Enterprise on a blade within the IBM Bladecenter, configure the OS to successfully mount a LUN on the SAN (Storwise v7000) as usable storage. Hardware: -...
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Bash scripting: another use for “DD”
For most linux users, “dd” is mostly used when dealing with disk issues, such as copying one disk to another (byte for byte) creating an ISO from a CD/DVD, and so on. I personally didnt know what else...
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Adding agentless Windows WMI monitoring to Nagios
There are a couple of well documented methods to monitor Windows machines from Nagios. The most popular of these seems to be NRPE. This method works very well, but the biggest downside for me was the...
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