SysAdmin

Dynamic DNS—an Object Lesson in Problem Solving

Shawn Powers — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:47:39 +0000

The other day in the Linux Journal IRC room (#linuxjournal on Freenode), I was whining to the channel about no-ip.com deleting my account without warning. My home IP address hadn't changed in a couple months, and because there was no update, it appeared abandoned. more>>

Home, My Backup Data Center

Kyle Rankin — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:24:03 +0000

New Linux users often ask me "what is the best way to learn about Linux?" My advice always comes down to this: install and use Linux (any distribution will do but something stable works better), and more>>

Fabric: a System Administrator's Best Friend

Adrian Hannah — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:09:40 +0000

Do you routinely make changes to more than a dozen machines at a time? Read this article to find out about a tool to make that task much easier. more>>

How to Deploy A Server

Kyle Rankin — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:37:30 +0000

When I write my column, I try to stick to specific hacks or tips you can use to make life with Linux a little easier. Usually, I describe with pretty specific detail how to accomplish a particular task including command-line and configuration file examples. This time, however, I take a step off this tried-and-true path of tech tips and instead talk about more-general, high-level concepts, strategies and, frankly, personal opinions about systems administration. more>>

Book Excerpt: DevOps Troubleshooting: Linux Server Best Practices

Kyle Rankin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

This excerpt is from the book, 'DevOps Troubleshooting: Linux Server Best Practices' by Kyle Rankin, published by Pearson/Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0321832043, Nov 2012, Copyright 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. more>>

Troubleshooting with Telnet

Kyle Rankin — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:58:05 +0000

Poor telnet, it used to be the cool kid on the block. It was the program all sysadmins turned to when they needed to connect to a remote server. Telnet just wasn't that good at keeping a secret—all communication went over plain text—so administrators started switching to SSH for encrypted remote shell sessions. more>>

Android System Administration Utilities

Jayson Broughton — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:19:55 +0000

“Change is inevitable in a progressive society. Change is constant” Benjamin Disraeli 1867. Quite a fitting quote if I say so myself. When I started in systems administration back in the mid 90’s everything was done either remoted in from your desktop, a server, or you plugged a terminal into the back of the server. more>>

February 2013 Issue of Linux Journal: System Administration

Shawn Powers — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:35:42 +0000

Digital Duct Tape

I've had enough system administration jobs to know that companies tend to take drastically different approaches to how they handle technology. more>>

Python Scripts as a Replacement for Bash Utility Scripts

Richard Delaney — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:22:20 +0000

For Linux users, the command line is a celebrated part of our entire experience. Unlike other popular operating systems, where the command line is a scary proposition for all but the most experienced veterans, in the Linux community, command-line use is encouraged. more>>

Getting Started with Salt Stack-the Other Configuration Management System Built with Python

Ben Hosmer — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:34:33 +0000

I was proudly wearing one of my Salt Stack shirts the other day when my daughter asked me, "What is Salt Stack?" I began by explaining the problem it solved. If you have multiple servers and want to do things to those servers, you would need to log in to each one and do those things one at a time on each one. They could be fairly simple tasks like restarting them or checking how long they have been running. Or, you might want to do more complicated things like installing software and then configuring that software based upon your own specific criteria. You also might want to add users and configure permissions for them. more>>

Rsync, It's GRRRRaphical!

Shawn Powers — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:15:05 +0000

Every year for our Readers' Choice survey, the venerable tool rsync gets votes for favorite backup tool. That never surprises us, because every time I need to copy a group of files and folders, rsync is the tool I use by default. more>>

Introducing Vagrant

Jay Palat — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:56:05 +0000

Have you ever heard the following? "Welcome to the team! Here's a list of 15 applications to install, the instructions are in the team room, somewhere. more>>

Ubuntu's New DNS: Unknown Host

Shawn Powers — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:03:28 +0000

If you're the type of person who installs Ubuntu's server edition, you're also likely the sort of person who knows how to configure network settings. For most distributions, especially those based on Debian, the process is a bit strange, but familiar. more>>

The Sysadmin's Toolbox: iftop

Kyle Rankin — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:19:26 +0000

Who's using up all the bandwidth, and what are they doing? Use iftop to find out. more>>

Stop Waiting For DNS!

Shawn Powers — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:44:38 +0000

I am an impulse domain buyer. I tend to purchase silly names for simple sites that only serve the purpose of an inside joke. The thing about impulse-buying a domain is that DNS propagation generally takes a day or so, and setting up a Web site with a virtual hostname can be delayed while you wait for your Web site address to go "live". more>>