Abayomi Ayoola, O.

Your Thought Your Life I

2012-01-27T00:11:00.000+02:00

Life is believed to be beyond what we see on the physical. In order words, what manifest in the physical has a lot in connection to what has happened in the spiritual. It's beyond the imagination of some that it does happen this way but then, have you ever thought about it. When you think about things, I mean things yet untouched, things you cannot hold and it comes to past exactly the way you thought about them, would you rather conclude that it happened because it was expected or just as it should. However it came, there are forces on the planet working in direct alignment with our thought.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence things not seen. ~ Hebrews 11:1

Scientist believe that the human mind where our thought take place lies somewhere in the brain. It is also believed that thinking is the hardest work there is, the reason why many do not engage in it. These are facts and the truth is this, you can't live beyond your level of thought. The human mind is as a computer, you can only get out of it what you have put in, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). Your thought is the sum total of what you see, read and hear. The things that you read, see and hear are enhancer or rather catalyst to your thought.
When the human mind is stretched beyond limit unlike an elastic rubber does not return to the status quo. The multiplier effect of such action is great and continuous. Never underestimate the power of thought. What made every great man today lies in his thought. Your thought either makes you better or miserable as your actions are a direct function of your thought. We are used to the status quo of thinking or usual way of doing things. That it's someone's idea to do it a particular way does not mean it has to continue that way. A CEO I read about said his organization made $50 billion the previous year from a single idea and said they have to make do with another idea if they ever intend to hit it that much again or more, the need to come up with an entirely different idea. Lesson learnt here is, things can get better.

To be continued

You will succeed!

image from here

Attitude is Everything

2011-12-22T00:55:00.000+02:00

I once remember an advert as a kid by the Coca Cola Bottling Company of Nigeria for one of its many brands, Sprite and the slogan reads, "Image is everything" and that just about sum it all up.

In the course of my journey through life, I have learnt that talent is the path on which you thread on your journey to altitude but it isn't enough to keep you there. No matter how gifted or talented you are, without the right attitude, you lack value because your value is encapsulated in your character. Attitude is all you need to maintain the right standard.Your present position or situation is as a function of your level of understanding of life which is in direct proportion to your attitude to same. At the root of every destiny is attitude failure or success. Your attitude determines where you end up in the journey of life.

It is your habit that determines your inhabitant - David O. Oyedepo

Attitude might require that you stand out of the crowd, my mentor once told me never to follow the crowd but rather the cloud. I believe you can figure that out.

You will succeed!

Image found here

Risk: The Essence of Life

2011-12-10T20:18:00.001+02:00

My favourite quote goes thus "Life is a risk, it is riskier if you dont take a risk." One of John C. Maxwell's book is titled Failing Forward, that about sum it all up. Rev. Sam Adeyemi said, "To increase your success rate, double your failure rate" which simply translate to increasing your failure rate strategically even if you fail in that line, you would have learnt a lot of things in the process. Someone once asked me, "What would be your suggestion for someone (a graduate) with no job and needing to survive?" and my answer was "Create opportunities for yourself, your area of passion is a good place to start from. Then double your failure rate."

One of our major problem is that we are too comfortable with the status quo and as such are not willing to take any form of risk. Most at times, risks translates us from a level of life to another, in most cases the upper level. The truth is, you cannot achieve greatly until you dare to fail greatly and what do you do to dare to fail greatly, take risks. I would advise taking risks strategically. You don't achieve beyond where you already are until you step beyond the boundaries of what you presently enjoy. The thing here is, our daily lives are based on risk as it were as you never know where you'll end up the next minute.

You will succeed!

Making It Happen II

2011-12-05T12:51:00.001+02:00

[Continued from "Making It Happen I"]

People who take initiative go and do what they need to do; making most of opportunity and not waiting for things to happen. They do what they have got to doto make things happen the way they want them to be. Be a woman or man of action. Take the initiative by simply making the first the move. A lot of people know what they ought to do but they do not do it. One of the major differences between a success and a failure is action. Ninety-five percent of people know what they should do but would not do it.
A lot of people also know what they should not do but they do it because they feel like doing it. Lots of people have plans and interesting ideas but they never do anything about the ideas. It is not impossible to start a business. Check out those who have made it businesses and learn from them. Do not sit around hoping that something bad will not happen to you. Go out there and take control of the external forces that are on ground and make things work out for you. Get on the offensive. In conclusion, here are four qualities involved in taking initiative:

1. Have a clear vision. You have got to be able to see your new world in your mind before you start creating it. When I look back today, I realize I had seen my present world before it came to reality.

2. Push yourself to act. All objects remain at a state of rest until a force is applied. There is no company, city or nation that built itself. You must understand that in this life, problems don't solve themselves, people do. A beautiful future won't create itself. Push yourself to do whatever must be done to create the kind of future you want. Whether you are afraid or not, just make the move.

3. Be willing to take risks. Not acting is riskier than acting. Not taking a risk is riskier is the biggest risk in the world. Don't hesitate. Take the sting out of failure by feeling the fear but acting anyway. Act boldly. Act now.

4. Double your failure rate. Failure is not failure until you stop crying. You increase your chance of succeeding when you increase the rate at which you try things. The most interesting thing is that the world wil not remember you for the many things you tried that did not work but for the one thing you did that worked. Get out of your comfort zone. Success grows out of failure. To increase your success rate, double your failure rate.

There are several areas in our nation screaming for attention. In my mind, I see a new nation but and I have to dream, plan and work to turn it into reality. Only those who make moves make waves.

You will succeed!

As inspired by Rev. Sam Adeyemi.

Image from here

Making It Happen I

2011-11-25T14:25:00.001+02:00

In teaching patience, there's a common saying, "wait for your ship to come in." John L. Mason, however, once said, "Don't wait for your ship to come in, swim out to meet it." Our societal and educational structures produce people who put the responsibility on others to make things happen for them. We want others to create opportunities for us. Although we are now in a democratic system where the success of the society is actually left to the people, we are still waiting for the government to create our world for us. We do not exercise the power we have to create the the kind of country we would like to live in because of our mind set. Most people wait for something to happen before they react, because being reactive frees us from taking responsibility from our actions. It is easier to put the blame for our failure on someone else. Life, however, is not a reaction, it is an action.
People who are highly effective in life are people who are proactive. They do not wait for things to happen, they make things happen. One of the greatest needs of our country at the moment is entrepreneurs. Our country needs people of action. Entrepreneurs are people who refuse to surrender their lives to external forces. They are people who take initiative. The world is designed to be run by man's internal forces. As a man thinketh, so is he. True freedom begins from inside and not from outside. The journey from failure to success is an internal trip. True wealth begins from within you. Those who surrender their lives to external forces never succeed. To succeed, don't wait for perfect conditions, make conditions perfect. Entrepreneurs use time and chance as raw materials to create a favourable condition. People who take initiative use time and chance productively. It is frustrating to see people wait for things to happen and allow time slip by. Without a conscious effort to convert time to one's advantage, it will be lost.

Image from here

Becoming All You Can Be...

2011-11-18T11:36:00.001+02:00

I grew up believing that success is the accumulation of wealth and living in a tastily furnished apartment with the very latest and expensive cars, wearing trendy clothes and traveling the world until one of my very good friend asked and I quote, "What would become of a man if all of these were taken from him and he's left to start all over, would he be able to replicate or rather live in poverty the rest of his life?" This changed my mindset about been fulfilled and becoming successful. Now I see success and fulfillment as becoming the real you, I mean the person who could achieve these feats with resources available and even replicate it over again.

In becoming all you ever wanted to be, there are principles and allow me to say here that even the earth was created upon certain principles, that needs to be set into motion. One of my mentors said, "The first law of success is motion", and according to Isaac Newton's first law of motion, an object would continually be in a state of rest or straight line except acted upon by an external force to act otherwise. The Bible talked about David and the giant, Goliath, how David with all confidence not minding his size defeated and killed the giant. Bishop David Olaniyi Oyedepo said and I quote, "There's no mountain anywhere, every man's ignorance is his mountain." What I am trying to say is that your giant, whom you're to contend with is YOU. You have to contend and defeat you before anything at all can be set in motion. In simple English, your greatest enemy is YOU, it is not the work of the devil but how God Himself has created us. The battle of self is about the greatest you would have to fight . Maybe if you know you you would been far beyond the point you are presently.

Understanding who you are is the first point of achieving greatness in life. The great Greek schola, Plato, said,"Man, know thyself."

Building a Monitoring Infrastructure with Nagios II

2011-11-17T22:50:00.000+02:00

[Continued from Building a Monitoring Infrastructure with Nagios I]

Install binaries, init script, sample config files and set permissions on the external command directory.

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5#make install

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5#make install-init

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5#make install-config

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5#make install-commandmode

4. Customize Configuration

Edit the /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg config file with your favorite editor and change the email address associated with the nagiosadmin contact definition to the address you'd like to use for receiving alerts.

root@Nagios:~#emacs /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/contacts.cfg

By the way, emacs is like notepad in WIndows and there are other ones that you can use instead. It depends on your expertise on using them. Other such applications include nano, joe, pico etc

5. Configure the Web Interface

Install the Nagios web config file in the Apache conf.d directory.

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5# make install-webconf

Create a nagiosadmin account for logging into the Nagios web interface.

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5#make htpasswd -c /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users nagiosadmin

Restart Apache to make the new settings take effect.

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5# /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

6. Compile and Install the Nagios Plugins

Extract the Nagios plugins source code tarball.

root@Nagios:~#cd Downloads

root@Nagios:~#tar xzf nagios-plugins-1.4.11.tar.gz

root@Nagios:~#cd nagios-plugins-1.4.11

Compile and install the plugins.

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-plugins-1.4.11#./configure --with-nagios-user=nagios --with-nagios-group=nagios

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-plugins-1.4.11#make

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-plugins-1.4.11#make install

7. Start Nagios

Configure Nagios to automatically start when the system boots.

root@Nagios:~/Downloads# ln -s /etc/init.d/nagios /etc/rcS.d/S99nagios

Verify the sample Nagios configuration files.

root@Nagios:~# /usr/local/nagios/bin/nagios -v /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg

If there are no errors, start Nagios.

root@Nagios:~#/etc/init.d/nagios start

8. Login to the Web Interface

You should now be able to access the Nagios web interface at the URL below.

http://localhost/nagios/

NOTIFICATIONS

If you want to receive email notifications for Nagios alerts, you need to install the mailx (Postfix) package.

Any other Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) can be used to send email notifications. Postfix was used here because it's much more easier to configure for use.

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo apt-get install mailx

You'll have to edit the Nagios email notification commands found in /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg and change any '/bin/mail' references to '/usr/bin/mailx'. Once you do that you'll need to restart Nagios to make the configuration changes live.

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/nagios restart

INSTALL & CONFIGURE POSTFIX

To install postfix, run the following command:

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo apt-get install postfix

To configure postfix, run the following command:

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

The file /etc/postfix/main.cf should look like this

myhostname = Nagios.Linuxlab.com

alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases

myorigin = /etc/mailname

mydestination = Nagios.Linuxlab.com, localhost.Linuxlab.com, localhost

relayhost = miranda.dc.turkuamk.fi

mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128

mailbox_size_limit = 0

recipient_delimiter = +

inet_interfaces = all

inet_protocols = ipv4

The relayhost was what I changed as the host miranda.dc.turkuamk.fi is a relay server within the school network and so you might want to set up one for yourself in order that notification gets into your inbox.

Now the postfix initial configuration is complete. Run the following command to start postfix daemon:

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/postfix start

Object Configuration Overview

Objects are all the elements that are involved in the monitoring and notification logic and can be found in /usr/local/nagios/etc/objects.

Types of objects include:

Services

Service Groups

Hosts

Host Groups

Contacts

Contact Groups

Commands

Time Periods

Notification Escalations

Notification and Execution Dependencies

Main Configuration File

At installation a sample main configuration file /usr/local/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg is installed. The main configuration file is usually named nagios.cfg and located in the /usr/local/nagios/etc/ directory.

Law of Process

2011-11-15T21:36:00.001+02:00

A child born into the world today is not any different from an egg laid by a chicken at about the same day and time as they undergo a process before becoming whatever it is they eventually will become. A sperm as it is is such a tiny organism yet becomes a man or rather a woman after undergoing a process of metamorphosis. The Oxford Advanced Leaner Dictionary defines process as

i. a series of actions or tasks performed in order to do, make or achieve something.
ii. a series of changes

God has created everything in a way that it takes it a process or rather it goes through a series of change before it becomes, make or achieve something. This is confirmed in the scriptures when He said, "If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth... (Ecclesiastes 11:3 NLT)", this means that water goes through the process of evaporation before it becomes cloud and as it becomes filled with water, the wind moves on to the land where it falls on the earth as ran.
It is quite unfortunate that my generation do not understand this, as all you need to achieve in life requires time and all the courage you can garner. Majority of us wants to sleep and wake up the next morning with all the luxury of life; a big house; lots of money; exotic cars; trendy clothes etc but the Bible says in the book of Proverbs 13:14, "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat."

That dream, that idea, that project requires a process, time and a lot of work and not just work or hard work but working smart. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be. Nothing will be until you make it be. Time does not change things, people do.

Building a Monitoring Infrastructure with Nagios I

2011-11-14T12:58:00.001+02:00

This explains a project that I was involved in a course in school, Linux Network Server. I was required to come up with a Linux Project, Research, Plan and Deploy it. I chose Nagios because it helps system administrators keep an eye on the network they moderate. This is first in two series. Enjoy!

Nagios is an open source infrastructure system and enterprise network monitoring application. It monitors hosts and services, alerting users when things go wrong and again when they get better. It was originally created under the name Netsaint, was written and is currently maintained by Ethan Galstad, along with a group of developers actively maintaining both official and unofficial plugins.

It was originally designed to run under Linux, but also runs well on other Unix variants and nowadays on Windows Operating Systems. It is a free software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

FUNCTIONS
Some of the functions performed by Nagios include

Monitoring of network services (SMTP, POP3, HTTP, SSH)
Monitoring of host resources (processesor load, disk usage, system logs) on a majority of Network Operating System, including Microsoft Windows with the NRPE_NT plugins.
Remote monitoring supported through SSH or SSL encrypted tunnels.
Simple plugin design that allows users to easily develop their own service checks depending on needs, by using the tools of choice (Bash, C++, Perl, Ruby, Python, PHP, C#, etc.)
Contact notifications when service or host problems occur and get resolved (via e-mail, pager, SMS, or any user-defined method through plugin system)
Automatic log file rotation
Support for implementing redundant monitoring hosts
Optional web-interface for viewing current network status, notifications, problem history, log files, etc

INSTALLATION
This particular deployment was carried out on Ubuntu Server 8.04. By default, Nagios would be installed underneath /usr/local/nagios and would be configured to monitor a few aspects of our local system (CPU load, disk usage, etc.). The Nagios web interface would be accessible at http://localhost/nagios/
Package Requirements
For the proper functioning of our installation, the following software packages are require:

Apache 2

GCC compiler and development libraries

GD development libraries

And in order to install them, just issue the following commands

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo apt-get install apache2

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo apt-get install libgd2-xpm-dev

For starters, I would like to explain the above. aayoola is the username on the server, which you would have given during or after the OS installation.

1. Create Account Information

Become the root user.

aayoola@Nagios:~$ sudo -s

Create a new nagios user account and give it a password.

root@Nagios:~#/usr/sbin/useradd -m nagios passwd nagios

On Ubuntu server edition (6.01 and possible newer versions), you will need to also add a nagios group. You should be able to skip this step on desktop editions of Ubuntu.

root@Nagios:~#/usr/sbin/groupadd nagios

root@Nagios:~#/usr/sbin/usermod -G nagios nagios

Create a new nagcmd group for allowing external commands to be submitted through the web interface. Add both the nagios user and the apache user to the group.

root@Nagios:~# /usr/sbin/groupadd nagcmd

root@Nagios:~# /usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd nagios

root@Nagios:~#/usr/sbin/usermod -a -G nagcmd www-data

2. Download Nagios and the Plugins
Create a directory for storing the downloads.

root@Nagios:~#mkdir downloads

Enter the created folder

root@Nagios:~#cd downloads

Download Nagios as follow

root@Nagios:~/Downloads#wget http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/nagios/nagios-3.0.5.tar.gz

root@Nagios:~/Downloads# wget http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/nagiosplug/nagios-plugins-1.4.11.tar.gz

Be sure to confirm the links are still valid.

3. Compile and Install Nagios

Extract the Nagios source code tarball

root@Nagios:~/Downloads# tar xzf nagios-3.0.5.tar.gz cd nagios-3.0.5

Enter Nagios folder

root@Nagios:~/Downloads# cd nagios-3.0.5

Run the Nagios configure script, passing the name of the group you created earlier like this:

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5# ./configure --with-command-group=nagcmd

Compile the Nagios source code.

root@Nagios:~/Downloads/nagios-3.0.5# make all

A New World Order

2011-11-13T11:14:00.000+02:00

"I have a dream", those were the words of Martin Luther King Jr., the man who almost single handedly changed black segregation in the United States of America. The dream was becoming a reality when he was shot and killed but today the dream is a reality.
A lot of people think that the reality of their dream is tied to a particular location of the earth, people like Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Ford and so many other understood beyond this and they made their reality even when the United States of America wasn't as this known. These people against all odds decided that if it was ever going to be, it is up to them as individuals and not to the government. What America has become today wasn't as a decision the government took but the decisions of individuals to see a better health service, better housing for all, better educational system and better things in all aspect of life.

In Nigeria, things can only get better, someone said that, "The largest room in the world is improvement", there is always room for improvement on the educational system, the health care service, governance and for such to happen, it has to begin with you and I. Africa is not backward because there are blacks living there but because we lack information to make it go forward, the information is readily available and yet we do not seek it because we never believed that things can get better. Our fathers have missed it and the generations to come depend on us to make things right. The REVOLUTION is here and that revolutions is you and I. The revolution of the mind in the area of leadership, management, belief, relationship etc. You are the revolution Nigeria has long awaited, let it begin now. This Nation, Nigeria is an offshoot for any change in Africa and it requires that we take a stand and work towards it. Reverend Idahosa Odiri says and I quote, "The first law of success is motion." Until we take action nothing will function.