Not too long ago I was tasked with deploying a decent number of CentOS 5.3 and Redhat servers to BL490 blades and VMs in our datacenter (part of a massive environment deployment with HP C7000 enclosures, virtual connect, and a lot of patience). I hate manual configuration so I figured now is as good of time as any to get on the kickstart bandwagon. Here is how I did it:
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CentOS/Redhat 5.x Kickstart Deployment
GNS3 on Ubuntu 8.04 – Migrating Your Install
Don’t have much time due to work obligations but I wanted to quickly drop this one out there for any who have followed my install guides. I was always ragging on and on about making the install somewhat portable by putting it into the /opt/ directory and now I’ll give a good example why.
Ubuntu Server 8.04 Post Install Tip #4: Setup SMART
Setup SMART Disk Monitoring
If your disk is going bad no one going to tell you about it until you start hearing it. And if you start hearing issues with your drive it may be too late to backup your data or do anything else you need to do to not be driveless. I’m uncertain why some of this is not available as an install option for more distros but a good warning before the storm can save your data and your sanity.
Ubuntu Server 8.04 Post Install Tip #3: Blacklist Modules
Here is another one that you may find useful to do after a default install of probably any Linux server, Disabling extra stuff from loading at startup. Ubuntu loads a ton of them and many I do not use at all. Since when do you need joystick or sound support on a server anyway? Anyways, here are some I disable and how I disable them.
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Ubuntu Server 8.04 Post Install Tip #1: Auto Updating
On a headless server that you have at home or for testing I like to make sure that all security updates and trivial updates are done automatically. A good sys admin will shy away from this practice for a good reason, updates can mess things up. In a production environment or where the server setup is very complex I can understand the need to manually run updates. For me, well I’m lazy when it comes to my home machines and generally don’t have too complex of setups. Also, in my experience, I’ve hardly ever seen an apt security or trivial update cause any harm (desktop linux I have seen issues though). That being said, I like to force security and trivial updates to happen daily.
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GNS3 on Ubuntu 8.04 – Choosing and Using your IOS
As promised here is the post regarding choosing and using an IOS image that will fit your study needs.
If you followed the first post in this series you are technically now ready to start loading up images and making labs of your own. You will need to get your hands on some IOS images (legally of course).But which IOS should you use?
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GNS3 on Ubuntu 8.04 – Install Guide
GNS3 is a frontend for dynagen (which is a scripting language for dynamips). Getting it to work nicely in Ubuntu was a bit of a pain in the arse but I was able to get it to work in a manner I’m happy with. This setup will essentially encapsulate a large portion of the install to one directory in /opt. Some libraries and executables will be installed through apt though, but not many. I previously wrote part of a writeup for this on Ubuntu 7.10, I’d ignore that in favor of this one which is much more up to date and polished.
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N810 File System Backup and KDE
It has been a while since I’ve maintained my site. Shame on me! Here is a little rundown of a KDE install I did on my brand new Nokia N810. This little internet tablet is a fun hack, so fun I’ve had to reflash the thing like 4 times now. Either way, the big and scary part is doing the dual boot to allow the device to not only boot from internal flash but also to the intenal 2G memory card or an external Mini (not micro) SD card. I’ve taken some information from here , here, and here. Actually you can follow most of the first link but with some changes and explanations that I’ll note below.
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GNS3 on Ubuntu 7.10 Part 1
GNS3 is a frontend for dynagen (which is a scripting language for dynamips). Getting it to work nicely in Ubuntu was a bit of a pain in the arse but I was able to get it to work nicely.
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Headless torrentbox with ipblock
As you may or may not know there are a lot of people who seem to be interested in the torrent activities of others. Some just like to track, others are government agencies, and of course the RIAA. I personally don’t like this intrusion into my habits so I do my best to block their attempts. In this small tutorial I’m going to cover how to install torrentflux with ipblock and fail2ban in a headless mode so you can download and seed torrents a bit more securely.
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