MY Experiences

Allow from IP without password prompt, and also allow from any address with password prompt

2012-01-24T10:51:00.007+01:00

You should write in .htaccess as follows:

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
AuthName "htaccess password prompt"
AuthUserFile /Path-to-Your-Password-File/.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
Require valid-user
#Your Allowed IP Here:
Allow from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
Satisfy Any

Apache and Active Directory Authentication on Debian

2012-01-20T23:24:00.011+01:00

Make sure your apache supports mod_authnz_ldap, then enable it:

a2enmod ldap
a2enmod authnz_ldap

and restart your Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

For the first Step (finding the user) we already need access to the Active Directory. As AD won't allow anonymous acces, you need a username and a password just to do the search. This is not

your administration account! Create a new account with minimal rights.

So what is the username? Depends on your AD Layout. This should give you a pretty good hint

CN=YOUR-NAME,OU=IT Department,OU=Germany,DC=example,DC=com

here is your sample .htaccess:

# Using this to bind
AuthLDAPBindDN "CN=YOUR-USER,OU=IT Department,DC=example,DC=com"
AuthLDAPBindPassword "XXX"

# search user
AuthLDAPURL "ldap://IP-DOMAIN-CONTROLLER/ou=Germany,dc=example,dc=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=*)"
AuthType Basic
AuthName "USE YOUR WINDOWS ACCOUNT"
AuthBasicProvider ldap

# Important, otherwise "(9)Bad file descriptor: Could not open password file: (null)"
AuthUserFile /dev/null
require valid-user

 you always need to specify at least one organizational unit (ou).

PS.: If your users are split into multiple OU's, your are limiting the logons to OU's  from one OU. This is the case im my environment where users are split into different regions. You should use another port (3268).

AuthType Basic
AuthBasicProvider ldap
AuthzLDAPAuthoritative Off
AuthName "whateveryouwant"
AuthLDAPURL "ldap://IP-DOMAIN-CONTROLLER:3268/dc=example,dc=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=*)"

# Using this to bind
AuthLDAPBindDN "YOUR-USER@example.com"
AuthLDAPBindPassword "XXX"
require valid-user

Fixing double-encoded UTF-8 data in MySQL

2012-01-13T11:46:00.003+01:00

When the data has been double-encoded, you will still have funny looking characters in the database.
Here is how to fix it, in two simple steps, using the mysqldump and mysql commands:

Source Database:
mysqldump -h DB_HOST -u DB_USER -p DB_PASSWORD --opt --quote-names \
--skip-set-charset --default-character-set=latin1 DB_NAME > DB_NAME-dump.sql

Target Database: mysql -h DB_HOST -u DB_USER -p DB_PASSWORD \
--default-character-set=utf8 DB_NAME < DB_NAME-dump.sql

Debian - files list file for package `PACKAGE-NAME' is missing final newline

2011-12-16T10:36:00.002+01:00

You have some problem in this file:

/var/lib/dpkg/info/PACKAGE-NAME.list

delete it and reinstall the package:

apt-get install PACKAGE-NAME --reinstall

URL based security constraint to SOLR

2011-12-13T15:02:00.004+01:00

In /var/lib/tomcat6/webapps/solr/WEB-INF/web.xml, add the following:

Add a username/password to /var/lib/tomcat6/conf/tomcat-users.xml

and restart the tomcat:

/etc/init.d/tomcat6 restart

Memcache and TYPO3

2011-12-12T16:00:00.011+01:00

In debian install the php5-memcache and memcached packages:

apt-get install php5-memcache memcached

add the memcache configuration lines to localconf.php:

$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['useCachingFramework'] = '1';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_pages']['backend'] = 't3lib_cache_backend_MemcachedBackend';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_pages']['options'] = array(
'servers' => array('localhost:11211'),
);

$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_pagesection']['backend'] = 't3lib_cache_backend_MemcachedBackend';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_pagesection']['options'] = array(
'servers' => array('localhost:11211'),
);

$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_hash']['backend'] = 't3lib_cache_backend_MemcachedBackend';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_hash']['options'] = array(
'servers' => array('localhost:11211'),
);

$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_pages']['frontend']= 't3lib_cache_frontend_VariableFrontend';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_pagesection']['frontend']= 't3lib_cache_frontend_VariableFrontend';
$TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['caching']['cacheConfigurations']['cache_hash']['frontend']= 't3lib_cache_frontend_VariableFrontend';

Typo3 Parstime

2011-12-08T15:56:00.002+01:00

You could see the parse time for a page in source of that page by adding this line in the localconf.php:

$TYPO3_CONF_VARS["FE"]["debug"] = '1';

TYPO3 Update - BLOB/TEXT column 'identifier' used in key specification without a key length

2011-11-03T13:26:00.003+01:00

By upgrading typo3 (after Database Compare) it might be happened sometimes this Error:

BLOB/TEXT column 'identifier' used in key specification without a key length

You can solve that simply by deleting [multiplyDBfieldSize] = 2 from localconf.php.
If DB is utf-8, it wouldn't need to use this parameter.

Plesk - Enabling change password in Webmail

2011-10-21T13:11:00.003+02:00

It is easy. Just rename the file /etc/xinetd.d/poppassd_psa.org to /etc/xinetd.d/poppassd_psa

then restart the xinet.d service:
/etc/init.d/xinetd restart

Windows 2008 BRP: Local activation permission to the iis wamreg admin service required

2011-10-14T12:51:00.002+02:00

* From the SBS console, click Administrative Tools > Component Services
(or, if you prefer: click Run > comexp.msc)

* Expand down Component Services > Computers > My Computer > DCOM Config

* Right click on IIS WAMREG Admin Service, then click Properties

* Click on the Security tab

* Click the Edit... button within the Launch and Activation Permissions section

* Click Add and add the user named: 'Network Service'
(NB: this is the step that confuses people. Most instructions simply tell you to add the appropriate user, but do not make it clear which user to add!)

* Click on the checkbox to Allow (enable) the Local Activation rights option for this user

* Click OK twice, and close Component Services

* Finally reboot the server for good measure and to ensure the change takes effect

http://msmvps.com/blogs/kwsupport/archive/2009/02/15/dcom-10016-event-error.aspx

Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites (Windows SharePoint Services 2.0)

2011-10-07T11:23:00.006+02:00

stsadm.exe is at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN.

Find the list of sites:

stsadm.exe -o enumsites -url 
To perform a simple backup of a site, you would use syntax similar to the following:

stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://server_name/site -filename backup.dat

To restore a site from a backup file, either to a new site or a separate server,
you would use syntax similar to the following:
stsadm.exe -o restore -url http://server_name/site -filename backup.dat

See also: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288330%28office.12%29.aspx

List all the loaded apache's modules in debian

2011-08-17T11:41:00.001+02:00

You can see the loaded modules by apache with this command:

apache2ctl -t -D DUMP_MODULES

Add HTTPS to Amazon AWS Loadbalancer

2011-08-03T13:04:00.002+02:00

First, I tried uploading the certificate using the AWS command line tools like so:

iam-servercertupload -b MyCert.crt -k MyCert.key -s TESTKEY -c CA_Bundle.pem

CA_Bundle.pem is the chain key provided by Certificate Issuer.

Find the name of uploaded certify:

CERT=`iam-servercertlistbypath`

add new listener to existed LoadBalancer:

elb-create-lb-listeners my-load-balancer --listener "protocol=https, lb-port=443, instance-port=8080, cert-id=$CERT" --region eu-west-1

Make sure your instances accept HTTP connections on port 8080 (add port to apache conf).

Debian Lenny - Update PHP 5.2 to 5.3

2011-07-29T13:34:00.005+02:00

It must be added the new source to apt-source. Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list:

vim /etc/apt/sources.list

and add these lines to it:

deb http://php53.dotdeb.org oldstable all
deb-src http://php53.dotdeb.org oldstable all

Then remove all php packages from the system. For example in my case:

apt-get remove php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-mysql
apt-get remove php5-curl php5-tidy php5-dev php-pear php5-cli
apt-get remove php5-common php5-suhosin

Update your sources:

apt-get update

and reinstall PHP packages:

apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-mysql
apt-get install php5-curl php5-tidy php5-dev php-pear php5-cli
apt-get install php5-common php5-suhosin

now the following command will show you the new PHP version:

php -v

Amazon AWS resize the Volume for a Linux instance

2011-07-27T11:17:00.003+02:00

Follow these steps:Stop the instance

Make a snapshot (MySnap) from volume.
Create new volume with new size from your snapshot (MySnap).
Detach the old volume
Attach the new volume as /dev/sda1
Start the instance
in terminal resize the partition:

resize2fs -p /dev/xvda1 (see fdisk -l for your partition name)

VPN Server on Debian

2011-07-19T12:50:00.004+02:00

Install the pptp server package:

sudo apt-get install pptpd

Edit the “/etc/pptpd.conf” configuration file:

sudo vim /etc/pptpd.conf

Add to it:

localip 10.55.55.1

remoteip 10.55.55.100-200

that means Clients will get the IPs from 100 to 200.

Edit the “/etc/ppp/pptpd-options” configuration file:

sudo vim /etc/ppp/pptpd-options

Append to the end of the file, the following directives:

ms-dns xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

nobsdcomp

noipx

mtu 1490

mru 1490

Where the IP used for the ms-dns directive is the DNS server for the local network your client will be connecting to and, again, it is your responsibility to adjust this to your network’s configuration.

Edit the chap secrets file:

sudo vim /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Add to it the authentication credentials for a user’s connection, in the following syntax:

username * users-password *

Restart the connection’s daemon for the settings to take affect:

sudo /etc/init.d/pptpd restart

If you don’t want to grant yourself access to anything beyond the server, then you’re done on the server side.

Enable Forwarding (optional)

While this step is optional and could be viewed as a security risk for the extremely paranoid, it is my opinion that not doing it defeats the purpose of even having a VPN connection into your network.

By enabling forwarding we make the entire network available to us when we connect and not just the VPN server itself. Doing so allows the connecting client to “jump” through the VPN server, to all other devices on the network.

To achieve this we will be flipping the switch on the “forwarding” parameter of the system.

Edit the “sysctl” file:

sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf

Find the “net.ipv4.ip_forward” line and change the parameter from 0 (disabled) to 1 (enabled):

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

You can either restart the system or issue this command for the setting to take affect:

sudo sysctl -p

Add these rules to Firewall (IPTABLES):

iptables -A FORWARD -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED,NEW -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT

now all the server side settings are prepared.

Reference: http://www.howtogeek.com/51237/setting-up-a-vpn-pptp-server-on-debian/

Sendmail gethostbyaddr Problem

2011-05-27T12:13:00.002+02:00

The problem is that sendmail tries to resolve the ip of
every interface  your have. 

Change this line in sendmail.cf:

#O DontProbeInterfaces=False

to

O DontProbeInterfaces=True

and restert the sendmail.

Amzon EC2 - Changing Scale

2011-05-09T15:03:00.004+02:00

This script disables the Auto Scaling, because min-size and max-size are zero.

ZONE="us-east-1d"
LC_NAME="myscaling-lc"
SG_NAME="dmcleaner-sg"

as-update-auto-scaling-group $SG_NAME --availability-zones $ZONE --launch-configuration $LC_NAME --min-size 0 --max-size 0

Amazon Auto Scaling

2011-05-09T14:46:00.016+02:00

This script is enough for me :)

ZONE="us-east-1d" <=== Availability Zone
SECURITY_GROUP="default"
REGION="us-east-1"
INSTANCE_SIZE="t1.micro" <=== Instance Type (micro, small, Large, ...)
LB_NAME="myscaling-lb"
LC_NAME="myscaling-lc"
LC_IMAGE_ID="ami-xxxxxxxx" <=== Enter your AMI ID here
SG_NAME="dmcleaner-sg"

# Set up load balancer
elb-create-lb $LB_NAME --headers --listener "lb-port=80,instance-port=80,protocol=http" --availability-zones $ZONE --region $REGION

#Setup Load Balancer Health Check
elb-configure-healthcheck $LB_NAME --headers --target "HTTP:80/index.php" --interval 5 --timeout 2 --unhealthy-threshold 2 --healthy-threshold 2 --region $REGION

# Setup Auto Scaling
as-create-launch-config $LC_NAME --image-id $LC_IMAGE_ID --instance-type $INSTANCE_SIZE --group $SECURITY_GROUP --region $REGION

#Setup Auto Scaling Group
as-create-auto-scaling-group $SG_NAME --availability-zones $ZONE --launch-configuration $LC_NAME --min-size 1 --max-size 6 --load-balancers $LB_NAME --health-check-type ELB --grace-period 60 --region $REGION

# Setup Scaling Policies (to add instance)
SCALE_UP_POLICY=`as-put-scaling-policy MyScaleUpPolicy1 --auto-scaling-group $SG_NAME --adjustment=1 --type ChangeInCapacity --cooldown 300 --region $REGION`

#Setup Alarm (Add instance when CPU Load is more then 70%)
mon-put-metric-alarm MyHighCPUAlarm1 --region $REGION --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold --evaluation-periods 1 --metric-name CPUUtilization --namespace "AWS/EC2" --period 60 --statistic Average --threshold 70 --alarm-actions $SCALE_UP_POLICY --dimensions "AutoScalingGroupName=$SG_NAME"

# Setup Scaling Policies (to reduce instance)
SCALE_DOWN_POLICY=`as-put-scaling-policy MyScaleDownPolicy1 --auto-scaling-group $SG_NAME --adjustment=-1 --type ChangeInCapacity --cooldown 300 --region $REGION`

#Setup Alarm (Reduce instance when CPU Load is less then 30%)
mon-put-metric-alarm MyLowCPUAlarm1 --region $REGION --comparison-operator LessThanThreshold --evaluation-periods 1 --metric-name CPUUtilization --namespace "AWS/EC2" --period 60 --statistic Average --threshold 30 --alarm-actions $SCALE_DOWN_POLICY --dimensions "AutoScalingGroupName=$SG_NAME"

How can I log the client IP address on the backend in Varnish?

2011-03-30T10:23:00.003+02:00

All I see is the IP address of the varnish server. How can I log the client IP address?

We will need to add the IP address to a header used for the backend request, and configure the backend to log the content of this header instead of the address of the connecting client (which is the varnish server).

Varnish configuration:

sub vcl_recv {
    # Add a unique header containing the client address remove
    req.http.X-Forwarded-For;
    set    req.http.X-Forwarded-For = client.ip;
    # [...] }

For the apache configuration, we copy the “combined” log format to a new one we call “varnishcombined”, for instance, and change the client IP field to use the content of the variable we set in the varnish configuration:

LogFormat "%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" varnishcombined

And so, in our virtualhost, you need to specify this format instead of “combined” (or “common”, or whatever else you use):

 ServerName www.example.com 
# [...] 

 CustomLog /var/log/apache2/www.example.com/access.log varnishcombined

 # [...] 


Reference: Varnish Website

Installing Varnish on Debian

2011-03-30T10:05:00.004+02:00

Varnish is the key software that speeds up your web site. It is Open Source, built on industry standards and requires very few resources.

Install on Debian:

curl http://repo.varnish-cache.org/debian/GPG-key.txt | apt-key add -
echo "deb http://repo.varnish-cache.org/debian/ $(lsb_release -s -c) varnish-2.1" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get install varnish


Change the Apache's port in /etc/apache2/ports.conf

NameVirtualHost *:8000

Listen 8000

The configuration daemon for Varnish is located in /etc/default/varnish. Here you can pass the startup options:

DAEMON_OPTS=
           "-a :80 \            
            -T localhost:6082 \
            -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl \
            -S /etc/varnish/secret \
            -s malloc,256M \    
            -u www-data \
            -g www-data"

Now let's get to the configuration file (/etc/varnish/default.vcl). This is a very simple use of Varnish
which strips the cookies of some static files, like jpg and png, allowing them to be cached. In my case
this works best, and it also gives me a header information of what was cached and what not
(if you check the headers with something like FireBug). Of course you can find even better configurations available.
Having a specific configuration for your platform.

backend apache { 
     .host = "127.0.0.1";
     .port = "8000"; }

acl purge {
      "localhost";
      "127.0.0.1"; }

sub vcl_recv {
   // Strip cookies for static files:
   if (req.url ~ "\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|css|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|pdf|txt|tar|wav|bmp|rtf|js|flv|swf|html|htm)$") {
      unset req.http.Cookie;
      return(lookup); }

   // Remove has_js and Google Analytics __* cookies.
   set req.http.Cookie = regsuball(req.http.Cookie, "(^|;\s*)(__[a-z]+|has_js)=[^;]*", "");

   // Remove a ";" prefix, if present. 
   set req.http.Cookie = regsub(req.http.Cookie, "^;\s*", "");

   // Remove empty cookies. 
   if (req.http.Cookie ~ "^\s*$") {
         unset req.http.Cookie;  }   
   if (req.request == "PURGE") {
       if (!client.ip ~ purge) {
              error 405 "Not allowed.";}
       purge("req.url ~ " req.url " && req.http.host == " req.http.host);
       error 200 "Purged.";  }
}

sub vcl_hash {
    if (req.http.Cookie) {
         set req.hash += req.http.Cookie;   }
}

sub vcl_fetch {
   // Strip cookies for static files: 
   if (req.url ~ "\.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|ico|css|zip|tgz|gz|rar|bz2|pdf|txt|tar|wav|bmp|rtf|js|flv|swf|html|htm)$") {
        unset beresp.http.set-cookie;  }

   // Varnish determined the object was not cacheable 
   if (!beresp.cacheable) {
       set beresp.http.X-Cacheable = "NO:Not Cacheable";  }
   // You don't wish to cache content for logged in users
   elsif(req.http.Cookie ~"(UserID|_session)") {
        set beresp.http.X-Cacheable = "NO:Got Session";  
        return(pass);  }
   // You are respecting the Cache-Control=private header from the backend
   elsif ( beresp.http.Cache-Control ~ "private") {
         set beresp.http.X-Cacheable = "NO:Cache-Control=private";
         return(pass);  } 
   // You are extending the lifetime of the object artificially
   elsif ( beresp.ttl < 1s ) {
       set beresp.ttl   = 300s;
       set beresp.grace = 300s;  
       set beresp.http.X-Cacheable = "YES:Forced";  }
  // Varnish determined the object was cacheable
  else {  
      set beresp.http.X-Cacheable = "YES";  }
return(deliver);
}


then Restart Apache2 and Varnish processes:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart
/etc/init.d/varnish restart

Add new rule to SpamAssassin

2010-11-10T15:35:00.004+01:00

Add this lines to /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf:

body LOCAL_DEMONSTRATION_RULE   /test/
score LOCAL_DEMONSTRATION_RULE 0.1
describe LOCAL_DEMONSTRATION_RULE       This is a simple test rule

then you must restart the SpamAssassin Process:

/etc/init.d/psa-spamassassin restart

You can also add rule to each user in ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs

but remember that by default allow_user_rules is 0, and you must change
that to 1. Add this line to:

/etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf


allow_user_rules 1

Don't forget to restart the SpamAssassin.

Migrate MySQL to Oracle

2010-10-28T17:22:00.001+02:00

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/migration/mysqllauncher-086083.html

Likewise-Open: Authenticate a Linux machine to an Active Directory domain

2010-08-13T12:12:00.003+02:00

To install the likewise-open package in Ubuntu, open a terminal prompt and enter:

sudo apt-get install likewise-open

Or you could download appropriate Script from here.

The main executable file of the likewise-open package is /usr/bin/domainjoin-cli, which is used to join your computer to the domain. Before you join a domain you will need to make sure you have:

Access to an Active Directory user with appropriate rights to join the domain.
The Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the domain you want to join. If your AD domain does not match a valid domain such as example.com, it is likely that it has the form of domainname.local.
DNS for the domain setup properly. In a production AD environment this should be the case. Proper Microsoft DNS is needed so that client workstations can determine the Active Directory domain is available.

To join a domain, from a terminal prompt enter:

sudo domainjoin-cli join example.com Administrator


See here for more details.

Qmail & SpamAssassin - Change Default Rules Score

2010-08-13T12:02:00.002+02:00

Under this directory:

/var/qmail/mailnames/DOMAIN-NAME/USERNAME/.spamassassin

edit user_prefs and add the new Score for desire rule:

Example:

score RDNS_NONE 5.0

that overrides the defualt score.

You can find all rules here:

http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/Rules/

Ubuntu - Convert jpg files to gif animator

2010-06-02T17:37:00.000+02:00

Run this command:

convert -delay 10 -loop 0 *.jpg animation.gif

Chrooted SSH/SFTP

2010-05-10T11:31:00.003+02:00

with these settings, works for me in Debian Lenny:

Be sure that this line in /etc/ssh/sshd_config exists:

Subsystem sftp internal-sftp

Chroot the user to his home:

ChrootDirectory %h

The owner of home must be root (mod 755).

These lines are important, otherwise the root user could not login into system:

Match User root
ChrootDirectory /

Restart the ssh process:

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

Colored output in bash

2010-04-08T14:33:00.002+02:00

Use escape sequences:

echo -e '\E[color1;color2mYour Text.'
(color1 is the foreground, color2 the background color)

Shell Scripting Syntax

 echo -e '\E[30m black \E[31mred \E[32mgreen \E[33myellow \E[34mblue \E[35mmagenta \E[36mcyan \E[37mwhite'
 echo -e '\E[30;41mblack on red'
<strong class="highlight">echo</strong> -e '\E[30m black \E[31mred \E[32mgreen \E[33myellow \E[34mblue \E[35mmagenta \E[36mcyan \E[37mwhite' <strong class="highlight">echo</strong> -e '\E[30;41mblack on red'

Shell Scripting Syntax

Color:           Foreground:           Background:
---------------------------------------------------------
black             30                       40
red               31                       41
green             32                       42
yellow            33                       43
blue              34                       44
magenta           35                       45
cyan              36                       46
white             37                       47

Counting files number in a directory under Linux

2010-03-08T14:24:00.000+01:00

One way is:

ls -1 /YOUR/DIRECTORY | grep -c ""

Ubuntu - If your desktop icons are disappeared, try this

2010-03-02T17:08:00.001+01:00

Press Alt+F2 and type gconf-editor in window.

Then apps --> nautilus --> preferences

Make sure "show_desktop" is checked.

If it's checked then double click on it and hit ok.

Send test mail from command line with Sendmail

2010-02-24T11:48:00.001+01:00

In shell run this command:

( echo subject: test; echo ) | sendmail -v -oi YOUR-EMAIL@ADDRESS.COM

MySQL - debian-sys-maint account

2010-02-24T11:41:00.004+01:00

Find your debian-sys-maint password in /etc/mysql/debian.cnf.

Then use this command in Mysql shell:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' \
IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION;

Replace PASSWORD with your debian-sys-maint password.

Backup and restore debian/ubuntu package selection

2010-02-24T11:35:00.002+01:00

If you are running Debian and have lost track of which packages you are running, it could be useful to get a backup of your currently installed packages. You can get a list by running:

dpkg --get-selections > debianlist.txt

This will put the entire list in debianlist.txt. You could then install the same packages on a different computer with:

dpkg --set-selections < debianlist.txt

You should bear in mind that you would also need to copy over configuration files from /etc when copying your system to a new computer.

To actually install the selections, use:

apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

Source: http://www.tuxradar.com/content/linux-tips-every-geek-should-know

Convert a ssh-keygen to putty format using puttygen

2010-02-16T15:02:00.002+01:00

First install putty-tools:

apt-get install putty-tools

then use this command to convert ssh-key:

puttygen YOUR-KEY -o OUTPUTFILE.PPK

How-To: Find missing packages in Debian

2010-01-25T16:30:00.002+01:00

apt-file is a command line tool for searching packages in Debian/Ubuntu repositories.
Unlike apt-cache search, apt-file can find files in uninstalled or can list the content of uninstalled packages.

First, we will install the apt-file package:

apt-get install apt-file

then we need to update database:

apt-file update

now we can query the database for myfile:

apt-file search FILENAME

Find Windows LDAP Schema

2009-12-10T16:40:00.001+01:00

Run this command:

adsiedit.msc

Connect to your Server and expand the tree to see it!!

Find mailbox size - Exchange Server 2007

2009-11-16T16:00:00.001+01:00

in Exchange Console type:

Get-Mailboxstatistics | ft DisplayName, TotalItemSize

View and change the Queue Lifetime in qmail

2009-10-27T11:54:00.003+01:00

With this command you can see the Queue-Lifetime:

/var/qmail/bin/qmail-showctl | grep life

this returns the Lifetime in seconds. (Default is 604800 seconds or 7 days)

You can change this value by edit the queuelifetime file in /var/qmail/control:

echo 86400 > /var/qmail/control/queuelifetime

and then restart the Qmail:

/etc/init.d/qmail restart

Install Linux from Internet

2009-10-08T16:53:00.001+02:00

Look this site:

http://boot.kernel.org/

Run windows command line from Ubuntu

2009-09-16T10:21:00.004+02:00

Install wmi-client package.

Download the package for Jaunty from here.

Run winexe. For example as follows:

winexe -U DOMAIN/USERNAME //HOST-OR-IP "ipconfig /all".

See the Winexe Website here.

Linux Security Checklist

2009-09-14T14:57:00.009+02:00

Disabling Unnecessary Services

ps –ax :will list all currently running processes

ls –l /etc/rc.d/rc3.d/S* :will show all start-up scripts (if you boot into
graphics mode, replace rc3.d with rc5.d)

netstat –a :will list all open ports

Check for Security on Key Files

• /etc/fstab: make sure the owner & group are set to root:root and the
permissions are set to 0644 (-rw-r--r--)
• verify that /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow & /etc/group are all owned by 'root'
• verify that permissions on /etc/passwd & /etc/group are rw-r--r-- (644)
• verify that permissions on /etc/shadow are r-------- (400)

Limit root access using SUDO

/etc/sudoers

Only allow root to access CRON

To enhance security of the cron scheduler, you can establish the cron.deny and
cron.allow files to control use of the crontab. The following commands will
establish root as the only user with permission to add cron jobs:

cd /etc/bin/rm -f cron.deny at.deny
echo root >cron.allow
echo root >at.allow
/bin/chown root:root cron.allow at.allow
/bin/chmod 400 cron.allow at.allow

Remote Access and SSH Basic Settings

Telnet is not recommended for remote access. Secure Shell (SSH) provides
encrypted telnet-like access and is considered a secure alternative to telnet.
However, older versions of SSH have vulnerabilities and should not be used.
To disable SSH version 1 and enhance the overall security of SSH, consider
making the following changes to your sshd_config file:

Protocol 2
PermitRootLogin yes
PermitEmptyPasswords no
Banner /etc/issue
IgnoreRhosts yes
RhostsAuthentication no
RhostsRSAAuthentication no
HostbasedAuthentication no
LoginGraceTime 1m (or less – default is 2 minutes)
SyslogFacility AUTH (provides logging under syslog AUTH)
AllowUser [list of users allowed access]
DenyUser [list of system accounts and others not allowed]
MaxStartups 10 (or less – use 1/3 the total number of remote users)

Note: MaxStartups refers to the max number of simultaneous
unauthenticated connections. This setting can be helpful against a brute-
force script that performs forking.

Apache Security

Verify that your apache subdirectories are all owned by root and have a
mod of 755:

ls -l /etc/apache2

To prevent users from setting up .htaccess files that can override security
features, change the server configuration file to include:

AllowOverride None

To prevent users from accessing the entire filesystem (starting with the root
directory), add the following to your server configuration file:

Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all

To provide access into individual directories, add the following:

Order Deny,Allow
Allow from all

Apache Configuration File

In Apache, the ServerTokens directive allow the system administrator to set different type of Server HTTP response header:

ServerTokens Prod
this is the most restrictive, in our example, apache will respond Server: Apache

ServerTokens Major
responds -> Server: Apache/2

ServerTokens Minor
responds -> Server: Apache/2.0

ServerTokens Min
responds -> Server: Apache/2.0.55

ServerTokens Os
responds -> Server: Apache/2.0.55 (Ubuntu)

ServerTokens Full
responds -> Server: Apache/2.0.55 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.1.4-1.dotdeb.2 mymod1/X.Y mymod2/W.Z

By default, ServerTokens is set to Full. To change that value, edit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and look for the line containing ServerTokens.

`ServerSignature Off`

Securing FTP

If you really have to use FTP (without wrapping it with sslwrap or inside a SSL or SSH tunnel), you should chroot ftp into the ftp users' home directory, so that the user is unable to see anything else than their own directory. Otherwise they could traverse your root file system just like if they had a shell in it. You can add the following line in your proftpd.conf in your global section to enable this chroot feature:

     DefaultRoot ~

Restart ProFTPd by /etc/init.d/proftpd restart and check whether you can escape from your homedir now.

To prevent ProFTPd DoS attacks using ../../.., add the following line in /etc/proftpd.conf: DenyFilter \*.*/

iscsicli Examples

2009-09-10T10:25:00.008+02:00

The original Link is here.

Users\john>sc config msiscsi start= auto

The output was:

[SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

Then I entered:

Users\john>net start msiscsi

The output was:

The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service service is starting.
The Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service service was started successfully.

Then, you use the Iscsicli command-line interface to connect to an iSCSI Target and list the available targets. The command I entered was:

Users\john>iscsicli QAddTargetPortal 192.168.1.31

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000
The operation completed successfully.

Next I entered:

Users\john>iscsicli ListTargets

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000

Targets List:
quorum
data
The operation completed successfully.

You can then connect to a target using the following code as an example:

Users\john>iscsicli qlogintarget data

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000
Session Id is 0xfffffa800626e018-0x4000013700000006
Connection Id is 0xfffffa800626e018-0x5
The operation completed successfully.

The following code checked to make sure the operation was successful:

Users\john>iscsicli reporttargetmappings

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000

Total of 1 mappings returned
Session Id : fffffa800626e018-4000013700000006
Target Name : data
Initiator : Root\ISCSIPRT\0000_0
Initiator Scsi Device : \\.\Scsi4:
Initiator Bus : 0
Initiator Target Id : 0
Target Lun: 0x0 <--> OS Lun: 0x0

The operation completed successfully.

You log out by using the logouttarget switch with the session ID, as the following sample code shows:

Users\john>iscsicli logouttarget fffffa800626e018-4000013700000006

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000

The operation completed successfully.

To confirm the operation was successful, I entered the following code:

Users\john>iscsicli reporttargetmappings

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000

No Mappings
The operation completed successfully.

The mappings obtained through the qlogintarget command aren’t persistent and will be lost at reboot. If you want a persistent connection, use the perssitenlogintarget switch, as the following code shows:

Users\john>iscsicli persistentlogintarget 
              data T * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 0

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000

The operation completed successfully.

To confirm that the operation was successful, I entered:

Users\john>iscsicli listpersistenttargets

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000

Total of 1 peristent targets
Target Name : data
Address and Socket : 192.168.1.31 3260
Session Type : Data
Initiator Name : Root\ISCSIPRT\0000_0
Port Number :
++Security Flags : 0x0
++Version : 0
++Information Specified: 0x20
++Login Flags : 0x8
++Username :

The operation completed successfully.

Entering T * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 0 specifies all the required switches. To remove a persistent target, apply the information obtained from the listpersistentargets command, using the following code as an example:

Users\john>iscsicli removepersistenttarget Root\ISCSIPRT\0000_0 
               data * 192.168.1.31 3260

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000

The operation completed successfully.

To confirm the success of the operation, I entered:

Users\john>iscsicli listpersistenttargets

The output was:

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Version 6.0 Build 6000
Total of 0 peristent targets
The operation completed successfully.

You'll notice that I passed the initiator name first, then the target name, the port number (which is *), and last of all the iSCSI target server IP address and socket.

Use Ubuntu ISCSI in Windows

2009-09-09T10:35:00.007+02:00

Install the packages:

apt-get install libssl-dev
apt-get install iscsitarget

Edit /etc/default/iscsitarget and set:

ISCSITARGET_ENABLE=true

Make a new Partition or new disk, for Example /dev/sda3.

Edit /etc/ietd.conf:

change this line:
Lun 0 Path=/dev/sda3,Type=fileio

Restart the iscsitarget service:

/etc/init.d/iscsitarget restart

Use iscsi:

Windows:

Run iscsi-initiator, add the Ubuntu machine IP in Discovery tab, under Target Portals.

Connect to iscsi by pressing Log On, in Target tab. Close the iscsi-initiator.

Add iscsi Partition in Windows Partitions same as a new partition.

Linux:

run this command:

iscsiadm -m discovery -t st -p IP-FOR-ISCSI-TARGET

The informations of nodes are saving in /etc/iscsi/nodes.

Then run this:

iscsiadm -m node --targetname "UNIQUE-NAME-OF-TARGET" --portal "IP-FOR-ISCSI-TARGET:3260" --login

You can Mount the new device. See fdsik -l

Shutdown Computer Remotely

2009-09-04T15:12:00.003+02:00

You can shut down from one Windows another Windows remotely:
in command prompt type:

c:/> shutdown -m \\COMPUTERNAME /s (/r for restart)

From Linux:
net rpc shutdown -I HOSTNAME(OR IP) -U USERNAME%PASSWORD

Pass Password to SSH Command

2009-07-31T16:03:00.001+02:00

Install sshpass (Debian Package).

run ssh command as follow:

sshpass -p [yourpassword] ssh [yourusername]@[host]

Find Windows XP Administrator Password

2009-07-23T14:33:00.003+02:00

First reboot your windows with a Linux-Live CD such as ubuntu.

Take two files SAM and SYSTEM under folder WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG.

With Rainbow Tables (for example OPHCRACK) you can find very fast the Password.

This HOW-TO tells you how to install OPHCRACK in Ubuntu:

HOW-TO INSTALL OPHCRACK ON Ubuntu

Ubuntu - Install all dependecies for a package

2009-07-23T14:30:00.001+02:00

Run this command:

apt-get build-dep PACKAGE_NAME

Search and Replace in bash

2009-07-15T11:29:00.001+02:00

#!/bin/bash
origvar="This is the original string";
replvar=${origvar//original/changed};
replvar=${replvar//string/result.};
echo "replvar==\"${replvar}\".";
echo "this should now state \"This is the changed result.\".";

Import Domain from Plesk 7 to Plesk 9

2009-07-15T10:59:00.005+02:00

run in Plesk 7 this command:

/usr/local/psa/bin/pleskbackup -v domains DOMAIN.NAME /tmp/FILENAME

copy FILENAME to plesk 9 (for example tmp directory).

Add same Customer and domain in plesk 9.

Convert the Backup:

/usr/local/psa/bin/pre9-backup-convert -v convert -d /var/lib/psa/dumps/ /tmp/FILENAME

this command makes a XML file under /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/DOMAIN.NAME

import the domain:

/usr/local/psa/bin/pleskrestore --restore /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/DOMAIN.NAME/converted_DOMAIN.NAME_info_xxxxxxxxxx.xml -level domains

How to switch from Qmail to Postfix and vice versa?

2009-07-08T12:55:00.002+02:00

You may run the following command to switch MTA to Postfix:

Code:

/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller --select-release-current --install-component postfix

and for switching to Qmail:

Code:

/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/autoinstaller --select-release-current --install-component qmail

Change Crontab Editor

2009-06-05T13:45:00.001+02:00

In .bashrc add this line:

export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim

or each editor you would have!

Exmerge error: "Store 'MSPST MS' was not opened."

2009-06-04T13:40:00.001+02:00

I was running an Exchange Server in English and then tried to move the accounts using exmerge to one in German when I ran into this error. After much reading I came accross this website: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124178.aspx which states:

"Store 'MSPST MS' was not opened Store 'MSEMS' was not opened

The Store 'MSPST MS' was not opened or Store 'MSEMS' was not opened errors might be seen in the ExMerge log file (ExMerge.log) after merging data from the recovery storage group has failed. These errors typically indicate a language localization mismatch problem. The errors can usually be resolved by entering the correct localized names for the MAPI services on which ExMerge depends.

In the ExMerge.ini file that is bundled with the ExMerge tool, find the LoggingLevel line and set its value to 3 instead of 0. This enables verbose logging of ExMerge errors.
Run ExMerge again to generate the error condition again. To reduce the output to the log file, select only a single mailbox to merge.

In the ExMerge.log file, find the lines that begin with "Checking service" and that are followed by a "was not opened" error. For example:

[15:02:19] Checking service 'Microsoft Exchange Message Store'
[15:02:19] Checking service 'Personal Folders'
[15:02:19] Store 'MSPST MS' was not opened.
[15:02:19] Ending Routine: EDKRoutines::OpenStores)

In the ExMerge.ini file, find LocalisedExchangeServerServiceName and remove the semicolon (;) that precedes the line. Then set the value to the service name displayed in the ExMerge.log file. For example:

LocalisedExchangeServerServiceName = Microsoft Exchange Message Store
In the ExMerge.ini file, find LocalisedPersonalFoldersServiceName and remove the semicolon (;) that precedes the line. Then set the value to the service name displayed in the ExMerge.log file. For example:
```
LocalisedPersonalFoldersServiceName = Personal Folders
```

So, simply find the localised names and remove the ';' from the one you need to use. For example, in my case I needed spanish so I removed it from the Spanish one and here is what I ended up with:

; French
;LocalisedPersonalFoldersServiceName=Dossiers personnels
; Spanish
LocalisedPersonalFoldersServiceName=Carpetas personales
; German
;LocalisedPersonalFoldersServiceName=Persönliche Ordner
; Italian
;LocalisedPersonalFoldersServiceName=Cartelle personali

From the looks of it, you will run into issues if you are using ExMerge for a French, Spanish, German or Italian system. Hope this helps!

Reset VTIGER Admin password

2009-05-27T13:03:00.002+02:00

If you can get access to the database, try changing the user_password field value in vtiger_users table to:

adpexzg3FUZAk which makes the password as admin

mysql> update vtiger_users set user_password='adpexzg3FUZAk' where user_name='admin' ;

You will also need to set the crypt_type field of vtiger_users to blank (empty value) if you are on 5.0.4 and above.update

mysql> vtiger_users set crypt_type='' where user_name='admin' ;

Now the password for "admin" is "admin"!

NOTE: Once you login make sure to update the password to a secure one through 'My Preferences' link.

Ubuntu Encrypted directory with EncFS

2009-05-20T16:16:00.005+02:00

Install the ENCFS package:

apt-get install encfs fuse-utils

modprobe fuse

Make the directory where encrypted data will be stored:

mkdir /encrypted

Make a mount point:

mkdir /temp-encr

use encfs with this directories:

encfs /encrypted /temp-encr

enter your Password.

for avoid the others to access the encrypted data, just unmount the folder:

fusermount -u /encrypted /temp-encr

In encrypted folder only "Encrypted Data" could be seen.

If you want to encrypt a directory on your fileserver and have the decrypted mountpoint accessible by Linux or Windows clients via Samba, you need to modify your setup slightly to permit "other" access to the Fuse device.

First, modify the /etc/fuse.conf file so that the last line "user_allow_other" does NOT have a leading hash. Save and exit.

Next, add an option to your EncFS mount command:

encfs /encrypted /temp-encr -- -o allow_other

Mysql - Change Root Password

2009-05-14T14:11:00.002+02:00

First stop the Mysql:

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

run this command to start Mysql again:

mysqld_safe –skip-grant-tables

Go to mysql:

mysql -u root mysql

and run this command in Mysql:

mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('newrootpassword') WHERE User='root';

then this command:

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

exit Mysql:

mysql> exit ;

Stop the mysqld service:

killall mysqld

and start that normally:

/etc/init.d/mysql start

That's all.

Solaris Remote Console (XDMCP)

2009-05-12T10:43:00.002+02:00

vi /etc/default/login

and comment this line with # symbole:

Console=/dev/console

Solaris Shell Profile

2009-05-12T10:37:00.002+02:00

Type the following in terminal:

su -
stty erase ^H
TERM=vt100
export TERM
exec tcsh -l
eval `/usr/openwin/bin/resize -c`

Now, type in:

passwd -e

as the new shell, type in “/bin/tcsh”. Your default shell has now been changed to the Tenex C-shell; it can do everything bash can.

Don’t modify root’s SHELL.

type in “exit”
type in “exit” again, then log in.

Create and edit the following files with your preferred text editor:

vi /.login
add this line:
stty erase ^H

vi /.cshrc
add these lines:
set Resize="/usr/openwin/bin/resize"

set autolist
set notify
set correct=cmd
set prompt="[%B%n@%m%b][%B%~%b]> "
set savehist=7000

eval "$Resize" -c

setenv TERM vt100
setenv PAGER ´less -s´

Anyways, now your cursor keys and the [BACKSPACE] will always work properly

Debian Root-Mail Forwarding

2009-05-07T10:38:00.001+02:00

In /root/.forward give your email address.

For forwarding www-data emails to root, open the /etc/aliases and add this line:

www-data: root

Debian Lenny Fonts

2009-03-25T13:52:00.001+01:00

My Fonts in Debain desktop war not correct.
I ran the following command:

dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config

and answer all question with yes.

Now everything is OK.

Remove Permission from User on Public Folder in Exchange Server 2007

2009-03-09T16:20:00.002+01:00

Run this command from ExchangeServerManagerShell:

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity \FOLDERNAME -AccessRights None -User USERNAME

Let's the image flying

2009-03-05T12:09:00.003+01:00

Open a web page by IE ( the page must have image) and then in address bar copy and paste this java script:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

:)

Mysql - Minimize Master-Slave Traffic during replication

2009-02-19T12:28:00.002+01:00

Put to the my.cnf:

 slave_compressed_protocol=ON

or you can change this value in the run time in mysql with:

 SET global slave_compressed_protocol=OFF;

Installing Windows 2000 on eee-PC

2009-02-18T17:17:00.002+01:00

I have been reading a couple of posts saying how people got the blue screen of death while trying to install Win2k.

If you don't have win2k sp4, the thing will crash. I think sp4 has some files that support booting/installing from usb external devices.

That's it! Please install win2k with sp4!!

Ramfs on Ubuntu

2009-02-11T17:55:00.001+01:00

Make a new folder for mount, for example:

mkdir /mnt/ramdisk

then run this command:

mount -t ramfs RAMDISK /mnt/ramdisk -o maxsize=1024000

That's all!

How to reset gnome-panel to default in Ubuntu/GNOME2

2009-02-10T17:50:00.000+01:00

Remove ~/.gconf/apps/panel or just move the folder elsewhere if you want to back it up.

Log out of GNOME, then back in.

MYSQL - Too many connections

2009-02-10T12:23:00.002+01:00

You might have a user with SUPER privilege.

grant Super, Processlist on *.* to admin identified by 'PASSWORD' ;

Connect with that user to Mysql and change the Max_connection variable Online:

set Global max_connections=XXX ; (XXX is a new Value)

Or you can Kill the process(es) ;

show processlist ;

Kill PROC_NO ;

Activate SSH on VMware Server ESX 3i

2009-02-05T10:14:00.000+01:00

Boot your ESXi server, wait for it to finish loading, and then do the following:

1. ALT-F1 to change to the main console.

2. Type 'unsupported' (you will not be able to see what you're typing).

3. When prompted, enter the root user's password.

4. Type: vi /etc/inetd.conf

5. Find the line that begins with #ssh

6. Cursor over the first 's' and press the 'i' key (for insert mode)

7. Press backspace

8. Press ESC

9. Type SHIFT+colon (:) and then 'wq!' to write and exit.

10. Type 'ps | grep inetd' to find the inetd process

11. Send the hangup signal to the process ID output from step 10 with:

kill -s HUP

12. You can now SSH into your ESXi server.

Ubuntu Number of Files

2009-01-28T12:20:00.002+01:00

With help of this command you could find the number of open files by each program:

lsof -n|grep -oE '^[a-z]+'|sort|uniq -c|sort -n

This command shows the Resources limitaions and number of fails:

cat /proc/user_beancounters

Winscp and ssh user with jail for Website

2009-01-14T17:54:00.002+01:00

Look at this very useful page:

http://www.fuschlberger.net/programs/ssh-scp-sftp-chroot-jail

Download make_chroot_jail.sh from there,

and add in the line useradd ... the desired group (e.g.: -g www-data).

Then run script as follows:

./make_chroot_jail.sh USERNAME /var/www/vhosts/YOURDOMAIN.COM/.bashrc /var/www/vhosts/YOURDOMAIN.COM

Change the access rights for desired folder(s):

chown 775 /var/www/vhosts/YOURDOMAIN.COM/htdocs -R

That's all!

Webpage Password Protection (.htaccess)

2009-01-14T12:50:00.002+01:00

Edit the .htaccess file and add these lines to it:

AuthName "Member's Area Name"
AuthUserFile /full/path/to/.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
require valid-user

Change the file mode:

chmod 755 .htaccess

Go to this site http://www.kxs.net/support/htaccess_pw.html and generate your encrypted password.

Copy and paste it to .htpasswd file (It's recommended that, you create this file in another directory).

Go to web page, you must give your username and password to enter it!

Mysql Performance Tuning - 1

2009-01-14T12:04:00.007+01:00

Command: mysqladmin -u root -p extended

The values making most sense to monitor are:

Slave_running: If the system is a slave replication server, this is an indication of the slave's health.
Threads_connected: The number of clients currrently connected. This should be less than some preset value (like 200), but you can also monitor that it is larger than some value to ensure that clients are active.
Threads_running: If the database is overloaded you'll get an increased number of queries running. That also should be less than some preset value (20?). It is OK to have values over the limit for very short times. Then you can monitor some other values, when the Threads_running was more than the preset value and when it did not fall back in 5 seconds.
Aborted_clients: The number of clients that were aborted (because they did not properly close the connection to the MySQL server). For some applications this can be OK, but for some other applications you might want to track the value, as aborted connects may indicate some sort of application failure.
Questions: Number of queries you get per second. Also, it's total queries, not number per second. To get number per second, you must divide Questions by Uptime.
Handler_*: If you want to monitor low-level database load, these are good values to track. If the value of Handler_read_rnd_next is abnormal relative to the value that you normally would expect, it may indicate some optimization or index problems. Handler_rollback will show the number of queries that have been rolled back. You might want to wish to investigate them.
Opened_tables: Number of table cache misses. If the value is large, you probably need to increase table_cache. Typically you would want this to be less than 1 or 2 opened tables per second.
Select_full_join: Joins performed without keys. This should be zero. This is a good way to catch development errors, as just a few such queries can degrease the system's performance.
Select_scan: Number of queries that performed a full table scan. In some cases these are OK but their ratio to all queries should be constant. if you have the value growing it can be a problem with the optimizer, lack of indexes or some other problem
Slow_queries: Number of queries longer than --long-query-time or that are not using indexes. These should be a small fraction of all queries. If it grows, the system will have performance problems.
Threads_created: This should be low. Higher values may mean that you need to increase the value of thread_cache or you have the amount of connections increasing, which also indicates a potential problem.

Command: mysqladmin -u root -p processlist

You can get the number of threads connected and running by using other statistics, but this is a good way to check how long queries that are running take. If there are some very long-running queries (e.g. due to being badly formulated) the admin should be informed. You might also want to check how many queries are in "Locked" state - these are not counted as running but are inactive, i.e. a user is waiting on the database to respond.

Command: mysql -u root -p -e "SHOW INNODB STATUS"

This statement produces a great deal of information, from which you should extract the parts in which you are interested. The first thing you need to check is: "Per second averages calculated from the last xx seconds". InnoDB rounds stats each minute.

Pending normal aio reads: These are InnoDB IO request queue sizes. If they are bigger than 10-20 you might have some bottleneck.
reads/s, avg bytes/read, writes/s, fsyncs/s: These are IO statistics. Large values for reads/writes means the IO subsystem is being loaded. Proper values for these depend on your system configuration.
Buffer pool hit rate: The hit rate also depends a lot on your application. Check your hit rate, when there are problems.
inserts/s, updates/s, deletes/s, reads/s: These are low level row operations that InnoDB does. You might use these to check your load if it is in expected range.

You can examine the state of the cache from the mysql command line:

mysql> show status like 'qcache%';

+-------------------------+----------+
| Variable_name           | Value    |
+-------------------------+----------+
| Qcache_free_blocks      | 9990     |
| Qcache_free_memory      | 34431360 |
| Qcache_hits             | 2165383  |
| Qcache_inserts          | 461500   |
| Qcache_lowmem_prunes    | 113692   |
| Qcache_not_cached       | 1894     |
| Qcache_queries_in_cache | 28203    |
| Qcache_total_blocks     | 66628    |
+-------------------------+----------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here we can see that there have been 2 million cache hits and that about half of the allocated cache is still available (free_memory). The cache has been flushed (lowmem_prunes), so it might be useful to increase the value of cache_size in my.cnf slightly.

Change Crontab Editor

2009-01-13T15:43:00.001+01:00

Temporary:
env EDITOR=vim crontab -e

Permanently:

add this line in ~/.bashrc:

export EDITOR=vim

Apache Tuning

2009-01-13T10:07:00.017+01:00

Links:

(Apache)
http://phplens.com/phpeverywhere/tuning-apache-php
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/misc/perf-tuning.html
http://perl.apache.org/docs/1.0/guide/performance.html#the_crashme_Script
http://tldp.org/LDP/LGNET/123/vishnu.html
http://www.perlcode.org/tutorials/apache/tuning.html
http://drupal.org/node/215516

(PHP)
http://phplens.com/lens/php-book/optimizing-debugging-php.php

Apache is configured using the httpd.conf file. The following parameters are particularly important in configuring child processes:

Directive	Default	Description
MaxClients	256	The maximum number of child processes to create. The default means that up to 256 HTTP requests can be handled concurrently. Any further connection requests are queued.
StartServers	5	The number of child processes to create on startup.
MinSpareServers	5	The number of idle child processes that should be created. If the number of idle child processes falls to less than this number, 1 child is created initially, then 2 after another second, then 4 after another second, and so forth till 32 children are created per second.
MaxSpareServers	10	If more than this number of child processes are alive, then these extra processes will be terminated.
MaxRequestsPerChild	0	Sets the number of HTTP requests a child can handle before terminating. Setting to 0 means never terminate. Set this to a value to between 100 to 10000 if you suspect memory leaks are occurring, or to free under-utilized resources.

For large sites, values close to the following might be better:

MinSpareServers 32

MaxSpareServers 64

Apache on Windows behaves differently. Instead of using child processes, Apache uses threads. The above parameters are not used. Instead we have one parameter: ThreadsPerChild which defaults to 50. This parameter sets the number of threads that can be spawned by Apache. As there is only one child process in the Windows version, the default setting of 50 means only 50 concurrent HTTP requests can be handled. For web servers experiencing higher traffic, increase this value to between 256 to 1024.

Other useful performance parameters you can change include:

Directive	Default	Description
SendBufferSize	Set to OS default	Determines the size of the output buffer (in bytes) used in TCP/IP connections. This is primarily useful for congested or slow networks when packets need to be buffered; you then set this parameter close to the size of the largest file normally downloaded. One TCP/IP buffer will be created per client connection.
KeepAlive [on\|off]	On	In the original HTTP specification, every HTTP request had to establish a separate connection to the server. To reduce the overhead of frequent connects, the keep-alive header was developed. Keep-alives tells the server to reuse the same socket connection for multiple HTTP requests. If a separate dedicated web server serves all images, you can disable this option. This technique can substantially improve resource utilization.
KeepAliveTimeout	15	The number of seconds to keep the socket connection alive. This time includes the generation of content by the server and acknowledgements by the client. If the client does not respond in time, it must make a new connection. This value should be kept low as the socket will be idle for extended periods otherwise.
MaxKeepAliveRequests	100	Socket connections will be terminated when the number of requests set by MaxKeepAliveRequests is reached. Keep this to a high value below MaxClients or ThreadsPerChild.
TimeOut	300	Disconnect when idle time exceeds this value. You can set this value lower if your clients have low latencies.
LimitRequestBody	0	Maximum size of a PUT or POST. O means there is no limit.

If you do not require DNS lookups and you are not using the htaccess file to configure Apache settings for individual directories you can set:

# disable DNS lookups: PHP scripts only get the IP address

HostnameLookups off

# disable htaccess checks

AllowOverride none

If you are not worried about the directory security when accessing symbolic links, turn on FollowSymLinks and turn off SymLinksIfOwnerMatch to prevent additional lstat() system calls from being made:

Options FollowSymLinks

#Options SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

MaxClients:

You can, and should, control the MaxClients setting so that your server does not spawn so many children it starts swapping. The procedure for doing this is simple: determine the size of your average Apache process, by looking at your process list via a tool such as top, and divide this into your total available memory, leaving some room for other processes.

MaxRequestsPerChild:

when using PHP's persistent database connections: don't set MaxRequestsPerChild too high so idle resources are released quickly

Tools:

http://2bits.com/articles/tools-for-performance-tuning-and-optimization.html

HTTPERF:
ftp://ftp.hpl.hp.com/pub/httperf/

ab (Apache Benchmark)

PHP:

Enable the compression of HTML by putting in your php.ini:

output_handler = ob_gzhandler

Mysql Multiple Instance

2009-01-06T16:00:00.003+01:00

Add mysqld_admin part in /etc/mysql/my.cnf:

[mysqld_multi]
mysqld = /usr/bin/mysqld_safe
mysqladmin = /usr/bin/mysqladmin
user = multi_admin
password = multi

Add new instance parameters:

[mysqld3]
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysql3.sock
port = 3308
pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysql3.pid
datadir = /var/lib/mysql/data3
language = /usr/share/mysql/english
server-id = 5

Build new Data directory:

mysql_install_db --user=mysql --ldata=/var/lib/mysql/data3

Restart mysql server:

/etc/init.d/mysql restart

Start new instance:

mysqld_multi start 3

Check that is runing:

mysqld_multi report 3

Set the root password for new instance:

mysqladmin -uroot password "NEWPASSWORD" -S /var/run/mysqld/mysql3.sock

Check new instance is available:

mysql -uroot -p -S /var/run/mysqld/mysql3.sock

Change RAMDISK size in Debian

2008-12-31T12:38:00.002+01:00

Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (or grub.conf or lilo.conf) and add ramdisk_size=512000 to this line:
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/md1 ro console=tty0 console=ttyS0,57600

kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/md1 ro ramdisk_size=512000 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,57600

it defines 512 MB Ramdisk.

Reboot system.

To create an ext2fs file system, the following command is used :

mke2fs -m 0 /dev/ram0

The -m 0 option keeps mke2fs from reserving any space on the file system for the root user. This makes the complete ramdisk space available to any regular user.

To mount the ramdisk :

mkdir /mnt/RAMDISK
mount /dev/ram0 /mnt/RAMDISK

Run mount to check whether the RAMDISK has been mounted.
Now the RAMDISK can be used as a regular directory. You can read, write, delete and modify files on the RAMDISK as if you are working on a regular hard disk. Linux would handle it as if it were handling a regular directory on the disk. The difference between RAMDISK and normal DISK would be invisible to a regular user.

The only problem is that if the system is either rebooted or crashes. In that case, all data in the RAMDISK is lost. You will need to recreate the RAMDISK and redo all that has been done.

Keyboard problem in VMware under Ubuntu 8.10

2008-11-26T14:44:00.002+01:00

In VMWARE Server on my fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10,after powering on a Windows XP vm, I realized that I could not use the some keys properly. On hitting the left arrow key, start menu was being displayed and other arrow keys had similar issues. Also, using VMware player was completely impossible as ctrl-alt-del wasn’t working.

To fix this issue, you simply need to run the following command,

echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true' > /etc/vmware/config

Install Mysql Activity Report on Ubuntu

2008-11-13T15:27:00.014+01:00

Install these two packages:

apt-get install librrd2-dev libmysqlclient15-dev

Download the Mysql Report Activity:

wget http://freshmeat.net/redir/mysqlard/...d-1.0.0.tar.gz

tar -xvzf mysqlard-1.0.0.tar.gz
cd mysqlard-1.0.0

./configure
make
make install

Edit /usr/local/share/mysqlard/mysqlar.php and change username and password for your Mysql Database.

Give access right to www-data user for vim /usr/local/share/mysqlard/ :

chown www-data.www-data /usr/local/share/mysqlard/mysqlar.php

Add the alias to apache config file ( I added a new conf file in /etc/apache2/conf.d/ ):

vim /etc/apache2/conf.d/mysqlard.conf

and add these lines to it:

Alias /mysqlard /usr/local/share/mysqlard

"Directory /usr/local/share/mysqlard"

php_flag register_globals off
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

"IfModule mod_dir.c"
DirectoryIndex mysqlard.php
"/IfModule"

"/Directory"

(change "" with <>).

Create a user in MYSQL:

GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO mysqlar@localhost;

and then change the user in mysqlar.php.

Check too all paths in these files:

mysqlard.server
mysqlard.cnf
mysqlard_graph

Copy the following files in appropriate crontab folders:
mysqlar.daily
mysqlar.weekly
mysqlar.monthly

You need to add a cron job to generate the graphs. For example :

*/5 * * * * root hourly=1 daily=1 weekly=1 monthly=1\
/usr/bin/mysqlar_graph > /dev/null

Restart apache2 service:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

You can access Mysql Activity Report with following url:

http://localhost/mysqlard/mysqlar.php

Apache Server Status

2008-11-13T13:10:00.007+01:00

The Status module allows a server administrator to find out how well their server is performing. A HTML page is presented that gives the current server statistics in an easily readable form. If required this page can be made to automatically refresh (given a compatible browser). Another page gives a simple machine-readable list of the current server state.

The details given are:

The number of worker serving requests
The number of idle worker
The status of each worker, the number of requests that worker has performed and the total number of bytes served by the worker (*)
A total number of accesses and byte count served (*)
The time the server was started/restarted and the time it has been running for
Averages giving the number of requests per second, the number of bytes served per second and the average number of bytes per request (*)
The current percentage CPU used by each worker and in total by Apache (*)
The current hosts and requests being processed (*)

The lines marked "(*)" are only available if ExtendedStatus is On.

To enable status reports only for browsers from the foo.com domain add this code to your /etc/apache2/apache2conf configuration file:

"Location /server-status"
SetHandler server-status Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from foo.com

"/Location"

(change " with <>)

You can now access server statistics by using a Web browser to access the page http://your.server.name/server-status

You can get the status page to update itself automatically if you have a browser that supports "refresh". Access the page http://your.server.name/server-status?refresh=N to refresh the page every N seconds.

A machine-readable version of the status file is available by accessing the page http://your.server.name/server-status?auto. This is useful when automatically run, see the Perl program in the /support directory of Apache, log_server_status.

Mount a remote folder in Ubuntu

2008-11-12T13:01:00.000+01:00

SSHFS (Secure SHell FileSystem) is a file system for Linux capable of operating on files on a remote computer.

apt-get install sshfs

(Remote host must run the ssh daemon)

sshfs remoteuser@remotehost:/path/to/remote_dir local_mountpoint

Zoneminder in Ubuntu

2008-11-06T15:06:00.000+01:00

In Ubuntu run:

apt-get install zoneminder

apt-get -f install

modprobe -r zc0301
modprobe -r gspca
modprobe gspca

add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:
blacklist zc0301

Give access right to Video Devices:

chmod 777 /dev/video(x)

MySQL Tuning

2008-10-23T14:54:00.000+02:00

These are two perl scripts that help to tune the MySQL Database:

tuning-primer.sh

mysql-tuner.pl

Enable SSH in VMware ESX 3.x

2008-10-17T13:37:00.000+02:00

ESXi 3.5 does ship with the ability to run SSH, but this is disabled by default (and is not supported). If you just need to access the console of ESXi, then you only need to perform steps 1 - 3.

1) At the console of the ESXi host, press ALT-F1 to access the console window.

2) Enter unsupported in the console and then press Enter. You will not see the text you type in.

3) If you typed in unsupported correctly, you will see the Tech Support Mode warning and a password prompt. Enter the password for the root login.

4) You should then see the prompt of ~ #.

Edit the file inetd.conf (enter the command vim /etc/inetd.conf).

5) Find the line that begins with #ssh and remove the #. Then save the file.

6) Once you've closed the vi editor, run the command /sbin/services.sh restart to restart the management services. You'll now be able to connect to the ESXi host with a SSH client.

Disable Beep in Ubuntu Hardy

2008-09-22T10:35:00.000+02:00

Open the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist as root in a text editor:

vim /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Add this line to the end of the file:

blacklist pcspkr

The next time Ubuntu boots up pcspkr will be blocked from loading and you will no longer hear the beep. Peace and quiet at last!

But if you only need a temporary solution to disable the beep, just run this command (as root):
modprobe -r pcspkr

Make Hostname permanent in Strato - Debian

2008-09-18T17:38:00.000+02:00

Chnage this line in file /etc/hostname.sh:

[ -f /etc/hostname ] && HOSTNAME="$(cat /etc/hostname)"

to:

[ -f /etc/hostname ] && HOSTNAME="YOURHOSTNAME"

Setting POP3 Connector & email server

2008-09-15T11:30:00.000+02:00

Download and install these two patches from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7B1FF109-092E-4418-AA37-A53AF7B8F6FC&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=206e4e32-1e37-4836-b4f7-8d6a543a7c7f&DisplayLang=en

Follow this link:

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Configuring-Incoming-Outgoing-Email-Windows-Small-Business-Server-2003.html

Enable HTTPS in Debian

2008-08-29T16:12:00.000+02:00

install this package:

apt-get install libapache-mod-ssl

Enable ssl mode in Apache:

a2enmod ssl

add port 443 in /etc/apache2/ports.conf:

Listen 443

Make certificate (after run this command you must answer some questions):

make-ssl-cert /usr/share/ssl-cert/ssleay.cnf /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem

add these lines to
/etc/apache2/sites-available/YOURSERVER.COM.conf:

>VirtualHost *:443>

. . .
SSLEngine On
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem
. . .

>/VirtualHost>

restart Apache2.

To redirect HTTP to HTTPS add these lines to
/etc/apache2/sites-available/YOURSERVER.COM.conf under 443 options:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^80$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}$1 [L,R]
RewriteLog "/var/log/apache2/rewrite.log"
RewriteLogLevel 2

and restart Apache2 again!

ftp user in a jail

2008-08-29T16:08:00.000+02:00

Edit vsftpd configuration file - /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf and

make sure following line exists (and uncommented):

chroot_local_user=YES

Save and close the file. Restart vsftpd.

Windows Vista - Clear cache for dead offline files

2008-08-19T11:27:00.000+02:00

Add the FormatDatabase (DBWD) registry entry to the following registry subkey:

(First add Parameters under Csc, if doesn't exist)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Csc\Parameters

Then, set the FormatDatabase registry entry to 1.

The restart your computer.

Bacula automatic startup

2008-08-18T13:16:00.001+02:00

Create a bacula file in /etc/init.d/ :

#!/bin/sh

case "$1" in
'start')
/etc/bacula/bacula start
;;
'stop')
/etc/bacula/bacula stop
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 { start | stop }"
;;
esac
exit 0

add these links as follows:

ln -s /etc/init.d/bacula /etc/rc2.d/S90bacula
ln -s /etc/init.d/bacula /etc/rc3.d/S90bacula
ln -s /etc/init.d/bacula /etc/rc4.d/S90bacula
ln -s /etc/init.d/bacula /etc/rc5.d/S90bacula
ln -s /etc/init.d/bacula /etc/rc0.d/K90bacula
ln -s /etc/init.d/bacula /etc/rc1.d/K90bacula
ln -s /etc/init.d/bacula /etc/rc6.d/K90bacula

or simply run:

update-rc.d bacula defaults 90

Heartbeat - DRBD - MYSQL - APACHE - TYPO3

2008-08-15T17:25:00.000+02:00

With two ubuntu (8.04) machine: ubuntu-five and ubuntu-six.
On both boxes exists two pure partitions: /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc
Install these packages on both:

apt-get install heartbeat-2 drbd8-utils stonith mysql-server apache2
apt-get install typo3-base typo3-env
apt-get install php5 php5-cgi php5-mysql typo3-site-installer

Here is my /etc/drbd.conf:

resource testing { # name of resources for mysql database

protocol C;

on ubuntu-five { # first server hostname
device /dev/drbd0; # Name of DRBD device
disk /dev/sdb1; # Partition to use, which was created using fdisk
address 10.66.66.22:7788; # IP addres and port number used by drbd
meta-disk internal; # where to store metadata meta-data
}

on ubuntu-six { # second server hostname
device /dev/drbd0;
disk /dev/sdb1;
address 10.66.66.26:7788;
meta-disk internal;
}

disk {
on-io-error detach;
}

net {
max-buffers 2048;
ko-count 4;
}

syncer {
rate 10M;
al-extents 257;
}

startup {
wfc-timeout 0;
degr-wfc-timeout 120; # 2 minutos.
}
}

resource typo3 { # name of resources apache2 and typo3

protocol C;

on ubuntu-five { # first server hostname
device /dev/drbd1; # Name of DRBD device
disk /dev/sdc1; # Partition to use, which was created using fdisk
address 10.66.66.22:7789; # IP addres and port number used by drbd
meta-disk internal; # where to store metadata meta-data
}

on ubuntu-six { # second server hostname
device /dev/drbd1;
disk /dev/sdc1;
address 10.66.66.26:7789;
meta-disk internal;
}

disk {
on-io-error detach;
}

net {
max-buffers 2048;
ko-count 4;
}

syncer {
rate 10M;
al-extents 257;
}

startup {
wfc-timeout 0;
degr-wfc-timeout 120; # 2 minutos.
}
}

Here is my /etc/ha.d/ha.cf:

logfile /var/log/ha-log
keepalive 2
deadtime 30
udpport 695
bcast eth0
auto_failback off
stonith_host ubuntu-five meatware ubuntu-six
stonith_host ubuntu-six meatware ubuntu-five
node ubuntu-six ubuntu-five

and the /etc/ha.d/haresources:

ubuntu-five IPaddr::10.66.66.74/24/eth0\
drbddisk::testing Filesystem::/dev/drbd0::/var/lib/mysql::ext3\
drbddisk::typo3 Filesystem::/dev/drbd1::/data::ext3 mysql apache2

First make new Partitions on sdb and sdc on both boxes:
fdsik /dev/sdb
> n
> p
> 1
> enter
> enter
> w

fdsik /dev/sdc
> n
> p
> 1
> enter
> enter
> w

make drbd with these commands on both boxes:

drbdadm create-md testing
#mkfs.ext3 /dev/drbd0

drbdadm create-md typo3
(#mkfs.ext3 /dev/drbd1)

On ubuntu-five run:
drbdadm -- --overwrite-data-of-peer primary all
drbdadm connect all

On ubuntu-six run:
drbdadm -- --overwrite-data-of-peer secondary all
drbdadm connect all

Wait until new DRBD drive to syncing.

Move the mysql data files and test mounting on ubuntu-five:

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql.org
mkdir /var/lib/mysql
mount /dev/drbd0 /var/lib/mysql
mv /var/lib/mysql.org/* /var/lib/mysql/
chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql

/etc/init.d/mysql start

On ubuntu-six do:

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql.org

Shutdown ubuntu-six and restart ubuntu-five.
Now start ubutnu-six after the ubuntu-five completely came up.

End :)

Cloning typo3 Site

2008-08-14T10:41:00.000+02:00

Copy the apache folder (/var/www/... or /var/srv/... to destination).

Make links for typo3 folders.

Backup database in source:

mysqldump -u {user} -p {databasename} > typo3_db.sql

Copy the file typo3_db.sql to destination.

Build new database in destination:

mysql -u root -p

mysql> grant all privileges on {datenbankname}.* \
      to {username}@localhost identified by '{passwort}';

mysql> quit ;

mysql -u {username} -p

mysql> create database {databasename};

mysql> quit ;

mysql -u {username} -p {databaseame} < typo3_db.sql

Ubuntu - Change eth0 to eth1

2008-08-11T16:52:00.001+02:00

Edit this file:

vim /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

# PCI device 0x1022:0x2000 (pcnet32)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:0c:29:bf:c8:1b", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0"

# PCI device 0x1022:0x2000 (pcnet32)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="00:0c:29:bf:c8:1b", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth1"

delete eth0 line, and change eth1 line to eth0:

MySQL Clustering - Master / Slave

2008-08-05T16:47:00.001+02:00

We will need two Ubuntu Servers.

for example:

hostname: IP
--------------------------------------
ubuntu-one: 10.66.66.36
ubuntu-two: 10.66.66.29

To begin with we'll install and configure MySQL for normal use on each of the boxes.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server --yes

Set a strong MySQL root password and wait for the packages to download and install, then edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf to make MySQL listen on all IP addresses.

bind-address = 0.0.0.0

Now restart MySQL and fire up the MySQL command-line client to check all is good.

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

mysql -u root -p
Enter password: [enter the MySQL root password you chose earlier]
mysql>

If you got the mysql> prompt then MySQL is running. Try connecting to the other node across the network to see if the firewall is opened and MySQL is listening on the network interface.

From ubuntu-one run:

mysql -h ubuntu-two -u root -p

Enter password: [enter the MySQL root password you chose earlier]
ERROR 1130 (00000): Host 'db-01' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server

If you got the above error then everything is working fine - MySQL connected and refused to authorise the client.

The first thing we want to do is setup a simple master-slave
replication to see that it's possible to replicate data from one
database host to the other. This requires a binary log so tell MySQL on
ubuntu-one to keep one.

Edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf and set the following values under the replication section:

server-id               = 1
log_bin                 = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
expire_logs_days        = 10
max_binlog_size         = 100M
binlog_do_db            = my_application <=== Database to replicate
binlog_ignore_db        = mysql <=== Database to ignore
binlog_ignore_db        = test <=== Database to ignore  On ubuntu-one grant\
                                   replication slave rights to ubuntu-two.

Change some_password to a real, strong password.
Afterwards, make sure you restart MySQL.

mysql -u root -p

Enter password: [enter the MySQL root password you chose earlier]
mysql> grant replication slave on *.* to 'replication'@'ubuntu-two' identified by 'some_password';

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

Jump on to ubuntu-two and set it up to replicate data from ubuntu-one by editing /etc/mysql/my.cnf, again replacing the hostname, username and password with the values for ubuntu-one.

server-id                 = 2
master-host               = ubuntu-one
master-user               = replication
master-password           = some_password
master-port               = 3306

One way replication should now be setup. Restart MySQL and check the
status of the slave on ubuntu-two. If the Slave_IO_State is "Waiting for
master to send event" then you've been successful.

# Run this on ubuntu-two only

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart
mysql -u root -p
Enter password: [enter the MySQL root password you chose earlier]
mysql> show slave status ;
*************************** 1. row ***************************
          Slave_IO_State: Waiting for master to send event
             Master_Host: 193.219.108.241
             Master_User: replication
             Master_Port: 3306
           Connect_Retry: 60
         Master_Log_File: mysql-bin.000005
     Read_Master_Log_Pos: 98
          Relay_Log_File: mysqld-relay-bin.000004
           Relay_Log_Pos: 235
   Relay_Master_Log_File: mysql-bin.000005
        Slave_IO_Running: Yes
       Slave_SQL_Running: Yes
         Replicate_Do_DB:
     Replicate_Ignore_DB:
      Replicate_Do_Table:
  Replicate_Ignore_Table:
 Replicate_Wild_Do_Table:
Replicate_Wild_Ignore_Table:
              Last_Errno: 0
              Last_Error:
            Skip_Counter: 0
     Exec_Master_Log_Pos: 98
         Relay_Log_Space: 235
         Until_Condition: None
          Until_Log_File:
           Until_Log_Pos: 0
      Master_SSL_Allowed: No
      Master_SSL_CA_File:
      Master_SSL_CA_Path:
         Master_SSL_Cert:
       Master_SSL_Cipher:
          Master_SSL_Key:
   Seconds_Behind_Master: 0

Change IP in SUSE

2008-07-21T17:15:00.000+02:00

Change the content of this file:

/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-(yourdevicename)

Example:

BOOTPROTO='static'
BROADCAST=''
IPADDR='192.168.1.65'
MTU=''
NAME='Intel PRO/1000 T Server Adapter'
NETMASK='255.255.255.0'
NETWORK=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='auto'
UNIQUE='JNkJ.yxXKhRPGaBB'
USERCONTROL='no'
_nm_name='bus-pci-0000:00:09.0'
PREFIXLEN=''

See this file for more descriptions:

/etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg.template

Connect Outlook to Exchange over the Internet

2008-07-18T14:43:00.000+02:00

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

If you are viewing Control Panel in the default Category view, switch to Classic view, and then double-click Mail.
If you are viewing Control Panel in Classic view, double-click Mail.

Click on Show Profiles.

If you already have a profile:
1. Highlight the profile you wish to use and click Properties.
2. Click on E-mail Accounts.
3. Make sure that the E-mail tab is selected, click New.
4. Choose Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP, or HTTP and click Next.
If you do not have a profile:
1. You will be prompted to create a profile, name it anything you would like.
Click Manually configure server settings or additiona server types.
In the Microsoft Exchange Server box, type the local name of the Exchange server:
be01.hosting01.fpweb.net
In the User Name box, type the full email address of the user. Do not click Check Name.
In the Exchange Server settings page, click More Settings.

You may get an error message that the name could not be found. Ignore the error and continue.
Click Cancel in the next window.

On the Connection tab, under Exchange over the Internet, select Connect to my Exchange mailbox using HTTP, and then click Exchange Proxy Settings. The Exchange Proxy Settings dialog box appears.
Under Use this URL to connect to my proxy server for Exchange, type the following URL:
webmail.hosting01.fpweb.net
Select Connect using SSL only.
Select On fast networks, connect using HTTP first, then connect using TCP/IP. Make sure On slow networks, connect using HTTP first, then connect using TCP/IP is selected.
Under Proxy authentication settings, select Basic Authentication.
Click OK, and then click OK again. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Open Outlook and type your full email address when prompted. You can now work with your Outlook mailbox.

VmWare Server not starting after boot on my Ubuntu

2008-07-11T10:58:00.000+02:00

I actually found out that this failure was actually due to an older installation of vmware-player. Even though I removed it at the time, vmware-player left /etc/init.d/vmware-player to start on boot up :s.... and as a result, messed everything up.

To sort this out, you need to remove vmware-player service simply run:

sudo update-rc.d -f vmware-player remove

Don't forget to remove /etc/vmware/not_configured, if it is still there, before you reboot.

Find UUID in Ubuntu

2008-07-04T15:19:00.000+02:00

Just simple! run this:

blkid

ls /dev/disk/by-uuid

Check Public IP from Command Line

2008-06-26T15:49:00.000+02:00

run this command:

wget -q -O - checkip.dyndns.org|sed -e 's/.*Current IP Address: //' -e 's/<.*$//'

that's all!

Remember Password for Map Network Drive

2008-06-25T14:16:00.000+02:00

Create a Batch file with this line:

net use DRIVE: \\SERVERNAME\FOLDERNAME PASSWORD /user:USERNAME /persistent:yes

then put this file into startup!!

Enable M Drive in Exchange Server

2008-06-18T13:22:00.000+02:00

You need to add a string value called DriveLetter, with a value of M, into the following location:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\ExIFS\Parameters

and change the Value of EnableMDLReads to 1.

Obviously, the value M means that drive M: will be used. You can change this to be a different value if you desire.

If you do re-enable the ExIFS drive letter, be careful out there!