|
Softpanorama
(slightly skeptical)
Open Source Software Educational Society |
May the
source be with you,
but remember the KISS principle ;-)
|
Suse Enterprise Administration
I know that suesse means sweet in German, but the name
is just abbreviation.
It is one of two major enterprise version of Linux which can run on cheap,
but high speed and high quality Intel-based hardware provided by Dell and HP.
Officially SLES has
relatively short for enterprise OS life span: five years. In reality it is
closer to 10. See SLES life cycle For example:
-
Suse 9 general support will end Jul 31, 2011
-
Suse 10 general support will end Jul 31, 2013
Visually Suse 10 is very appealing. But appearance is deceptive and inside
it is a pretty complicated and capricious monster with a lot of non-server
components present by default on the server (games, audio, etc). Several Novell
products that are used instead of simpler alternatives (for example Red Carpet
is used instead of yum). Mono is also preinstalled and cannot be
deleted.
For enterprise-class OS the registration process is too complex
unreliable/capricious especailly in case HTTP proxy is used within the
organization. In this case it would not be exaggeration to say that it is worse
that any other proprietary product.
Each year you need to reregister as new license in Novel-speak means new
registration code.
According to Novell there will be a simplified JeOS version of Suse (See
press-release
Novell Announces SUSE Appliance Program and
LimeJeos - openSUSE) .
Suse
10 supports Xen. Does not yet support KVM. See:
Novell is one of the few linux vendors that provides more or less decent manuals which
can help users beyond installing the product. see
SLES Documentation. There is special
document devoted to
Automated Installation using autoYAST.
The following is a list of the most commonly checked log
files and what they typically contain.
Log Files
|
/var/log/boot.msg
|
Messages from the kernel during the boot
process. |
|
/var/log/mail.*
|
Messages from the mail system. |
|
/var/log/messages
|
Ongoing messages from the kernel and system log
daemon when running. |
|
/var/log/NetworkManager
|
Log file from NetworkManager to collect problems
with network connectivity |
|
/var/log/SaX.log
|
Hardware messages from the SaX display and KVM
system. |
|
/home/user/.xsession-errors
|
Messages from the desktop applications currently
running. Replace user with the
actual username. |
|
/var/log/warn |
All messages from the kernel and system log
daemon assigned WARNING level or higher. |
|
/var/log/wtmp |
Binary file containing user login records for
the current machine session. View it with
last. |
|
/var/log/Xorg.*.log
|
Various start-up and runtime logs from the X
Window system. It is useful for debugging failed X start-ups.
|
|
/var/log/YaST2/
|
Directory containing YaST's actions and their
results. |
|
/var/log/samba/
|
Directory containing Samba server and client log
messages. |
Apart from log files, your machine also supplies you with
information about the running system. See
System Information.
System Information
|
/proc/cpuinfo |
This displays processor information, including
its type, make, model, and performance. |
|
/proc/dma |
This shows which DMA channels are currently
being used. |
|
/proc/interrupts
|
This shows which interrupts are in use and how
many of each have been in use. |
|
/proc/iomem |
This displays the status of I/O (input/output)
memory. |
|
/proc/ioports |
This shows which I/O ports are in use at the
moment. |
|
/proc/meminfo |
This displays memory status. |
|
/proc/modules |
This displays the individual modules. |
|
/proc/mounts |
This displays devices currently mounted. |
|
/proc/partitions
|
This shows the partitioning of all hard disks. |
|
/proc/version |
This displays the current version of Linux.
|
Troubleshooting Utilities
| UTILITY |
PURPOSE |
| df |
Reports total, used, and available disk space
across all mounted filesystems |
| du |
Estimates disk space usage by directories |
| free |
Displays total, used, and free memory statistics;
also reports information on memory buffers and swap space |
| hwinfo |
Reports detailed information on known hardware |
| iostat |
Reports input/output statistics for block
devices |
| KDE System Guard (ksysguard) |
Graphical utility used to monitor system load
performance |
| lsof |
Lists currently open files |
| ltrace |
Traces library calls made by a process |
| netstat |
Reports network statistics and route information |
| sitar |
Comprehensive reporting tool used to generate
a report documenting the entire running environment |
| strace |
Traces system calls and signals made by a
process |
| tcpdump |
Used to capture network traffic for later
review using a utility such as Ethereal |
| top |
Displays running process and various statistics
regarding each process (CPU utilization, memory, and so on) |
| vmstat |
Reports virtual memory statistics |
| xosview |
Graphical utility used to report system statistics
such as CPU usage, load average memory usage, and several other parameters |
SUSE Linux Enterprise patching is difficult to configure but after configuration
works more or less OK. Compatibility is good unless you use you compiled version
of daemons such as Sendmail and bind. In letter case it tries to overwrite them
you need to chose a location different from the standard.
Package management is not that polished in comparison
with smart and also much slower
but we have what we have. OpenSuse users actually can use Smart without
any problems.
SUSE Linux Enterprise can work with Microsoft Active Directory but I
did not check that.
SUSE Linux Enterprise includes
Novell AppArmor
application-level security which is vastly superior to Red Hat solution
based on SE-linux. AppArmore works by enforcing of a set of application-based
file permissions (which is a pretty elegant idea). Because each application
can have different set of permissions such a system tremendously helps to
protect against typical attacks as assumptions about system file permissions
used by the attacker became invalid. The latter alone makes it much more
difficult to explore application flaws as well as packaging flaws.
Many network application security solutions
never meet the purposes for which they were designed because they are
too complex or require too much maintenance. AppArmor,
on the other hand, is designed to get you started quickly with minimal
investment in time and resources. Its name-based access-control method
does not require relabeling of the file system as other methods do,
and applications don't have to be modified to benefit from AppArmor
protection. In addition, the default configuration of AppArmor includes
a number of predefined profiles for common Linux programs like Web,
e-mail and remote-login servers that can be deployed immediately. Security
profiles for custom or third-party applications can be developed using
the included wizard-based tools, which also make policy updates simple
as your environment change.
SUSE Linux Enterprise includes AutoYast, a tool similar to Jumpstart
in Solaris and Kickstart in Red Hat. It can help to deploy a custom configuration
across multiple machines. Documentation for AutoYast is weak and inconsistent.
Even Yast documentation is not that good probably because this is a moving
target.
OpenSuse is essentially an open beta of enterprise desktop. It is adequate
as pilot/experimentation OS and does not require a Novell license. Free
security patches are provided for two years which is a serious advantage
over Fedora. You can configure automatic patching or download patches
manually from
http://download.suse.com/update/10.2/
See also Package Repositories
- OpenSuse
YAST2 is dual purpose
software. It is simultaneously GUI installer and configuration tool. As
a configuration tool it looks superficially similar to Microsoft control
Panel: a single application that supposedly can help to configure almost
any aspect of the system, including such things as software installation,
services configuration, sharing files or configuring the external devices.
When it works it's OK (and actually hardware detection is really good
-- no complain here -- and this really matters). Interface (not mix with
functionality) is another story and it can be better. But when it does not
the quality of diagnostics is sometimes problematic. In a few cases is can
be misleading. My recommendation would be to try command line version of
YAST which sometimes provides more helpful diagnostics.
There is also a X-Window configuration tool — SaX2. It gives ability
to choose graphic card, set resolution, color depth etc. Please note
that Suse sometimes set refresh rate for monitors too high.
Notes:
- This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help
You For Free) site written by people for whom English
is not a native language.
Some amount of grammar and spelling errors should be
expected.
- The site contain some broken links
as it develops like a living tree...
Please try to use Google, Open directory,
etc. to find a replacement link (see
HOWTO search the WEB for details). We would appreciate
if you can
mail us a correct link.
|
|
|
|
| 2016 |
2015 |
2014 |
2013 |
2012 |
2011 |
2010 |
2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
Use a separate binary "cdrecord-dvd": cdrecord-dvd -v -data SLED-10-SP2-DVD-x86_64-GMC-DVD1.iso
04-15-2009 | Novell
cdrecord will not burn DVD ISO'sThis document (7003017) is provided subject
to the disclaimer at the end of this document.
Environment
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10
Situation
Executing:
cdrecord -v -data SLED-10-SP2-DVD-x86_64-GMC-DVD1.iso
you will get the similar output:
cdrecord: Found DVD+ media but DVD+R/DVD+RW support code is missing.cdrecord: If
you need DVD+R/DVD+RW support, ask the Author for cdrecord-ProDVD.cdrecord: Free
test versions and free keys for personal use are at ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/ProDVD/cdrecord:
Sorry, no CD/DVD-Recorder or unsupported CD/DVD-Recorder found on this
target.cdrecord: This version of cdrecord does not include DVD-R/DVD-RW support
code.cdrecord: If you need DVD-R/DVD-RW support, ask the Author for
cdrecord-ProDVD.cdrecord: Free test versions and free keys for personal use are
at ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/ProDVD/cdrecord: Unspecified command not
implemented for this drive.cdrecord: Data will not fit on any disk.cdrecord:
Cannot write more than remaining DVD capacity.Burning of CD-ROM sized ISO images
works fine.
Resolution
Use a separate binary "cdrecord-dvd"
Executing:
cdrecord-dvd -v -data SLED-10-SP2-DVD-x86_64-GMC-DVD1.iso
results in a proper DVD record to DVD media.
Document
-
Configure RAID and Create Dell Service Partition
-
Boot from Suse SP2 Installation DVD or Other Medium
-
Partition
the Harddrives
-
Select set of packages to be installed
-
Configure root and Perform network configuration
-
Reboot the system and perform post-install configuration
- Harden
the server
Jul 22, 2009 | Insecure.org
"Insecure.Org is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability
of the Nmap Security Scanner version 5.00 from
http://nmap.org/ . This is the first
stable release since 4.76 (last September), and the first major release
since the 4.50 release in 2007. Dozens of development releases led up
to this."
InternetNews.com
"We have invested heavily in our Linux business to gain
market share and acquire new customers," Novell CFO Dana Russell said
on the company's quarterly conference call last night. "While the business
is not yet profitable, we are making steady progress and plan for it
to be break-even no later than 12 to 18 months from today."
Novell entered the Linux business in 2003 with the
acquisition
of SUSE Linux for $210 million and
Linux desktop vendor Ximian.
Novell reported its second quarter fiscal 2009 results
after the market close yesterday, with net revenue for the quarter coming
in at $216 million, a decline from the $236 million reported for the
second quarter of 2008 and just below Wall Street estimates.
Kiwi is one of the tools used by the openSUSE Build Service, a complete
distribution development platform that allows you to create and release
software for openSUSE and other Linux distributions.
Kiwi focuses on openSUSE itself, allowing you to do the following:
- Create a custom, bootable live CD/DVD image of the openSUSE
distribution, containing only the packages you want or need.
- Build a bootable USB image.
- Create Xen, VMware or QEMU virtual machine images, complete
with configuration files.
- Convert (migrate) your own installation into a deployable image
of any kind.
We've already seen most of these cool tricks done:
- We've had
Remastersys,
which runs on Debian-based distros and can convert your physical
installation into a bootable .iso image, whether to be used for
backup or distributed as a live CD/DVD.
- We've had remaster-on-the-fly, in
PCLinuxOS, which does the same as Remastersys.
- We've had QEMU at work, converting VMware hard disks (.vmdk)
disks into Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) images (.ami), as
covered in
this
tutorial.
- We've learned how to clone VMware
Server and
ESXi virtual machines.
- We've had
VMware Converter doing lots of wonders, creating all sorts of
images.
Still, some of these phenomenal solutions did not provide us with
everything we need. For instance, Remastersys does not create virtual
machines, only images that you can use to install as guest operating
systems. But this requires extra work and user interaction. Amazon conversion
was neat, but this was mainly a command-line work, with quite a few
preparatory steps and lots of user interaction. VMware Converter provided
us with an almost the entire solution that we need here.
Kiwi can do all of the above - and then some.
that's a very useful trick: single init=/bin/sh. It works also
with grub.
Resetting a forgotten root password
To perform system administration tasks, you have
to know the root password. What happens if you
forget the root password? Not to worry: Just
reboot the PC and you can reset the root password
by following these steps:
1. Reboot the PC (select Reboot as
you log out of the GUI screen) or power up as usual.
Soon you see the graphical boot
screen that shows the names of the operating systems
you can boot. The text cursor rests on a line labeled
Boot Options.
2. If you have more than one operating
system installed, use the arrow key to select SUSE Linux
as your operating system.
3. Type the following and then press
Enter:
single init=/bin/sh
Linux starts up as usual but
runs in a single-user mode that does not require you
to log in. After Linux starts, you see the following
command line prompt that ends with a hash mark (#),
similar to the following:
sh-3.00#
4. Type the following command, and
then press Enter:
mount / -n -o remount,rw
This makes the root file system
— the forward slash (/) in the mount command — writeable
so that you can change the password (which is stored
in a file in the root file system).
5. Type the passwd command to change
the root password as follows:
sh-3.00# passwd
Changing password for user root.
New password:
6. Type the new root password that
you want to use (it doesn't appear on-screen), and then
press Enter.
The passwd command asks for
the password again, like this:
Re-enter new password:
7. Type the password again, and press
Enter.
If you enter the same password
both times, the passwd command changes the root password.
8. Type the following command and
press Enter.
mount / -n -o remount,ro
This remounts the root file
system in a read-only mode.
9. Now type /sbin/reboot to reboot
the PC.
After SUSE Linux restarts, you
can again become root by typing su - and entering the
new password. When GUI utilities such as YaST prompt
for the root password, enter the new root password.
Make sure that your SUSE Linux PC
is physically secure. As these steps show, anyone who
can physically access your SUSE Linux PC can simply
reboot, set a new root password, and do whatever
they want with the system.
See also KleanSweep:
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=28631
BleachBit is a simple cool utility to delete unnecessary files on
the systemt to free disk space. This includes
application and browser cache, temporary fiiles and
cookies. Among the many supported application files are Bash, Beagle,
Epiphany, firefox, Adobe flash,
java, KDE, openoffice,Opera, XChat, rpmbuild etc.
While, DIsk space may not be an issue these days on most of the
systems, it is always cool clear those items not required
anymore on the system.
Novell has one three major disk imaging solutions on the market...
Step 1: Prepare the USB Hard drive for use with ZENworks Imaging
- The first step in this is to create an ext2fs partition on the
external hard drive. This is to get over the 2GB file-size limitation
Linux has on Fat 32 partitions. To do this I used the GParted utility
in the System Rescue CD. An ISO and further instructions for use
can be found here.
- Boot to the CD.
- Type startx to bring up the graphical interface.
- Double-click on the highlighted icon on the right side of the
screen to open the gparted partitioning tool.
- You should create and format a partition at least as big as
the image you want to create. I would suggest a minimum of 30Gb
to give you plenty of space, the rest of the disk can be partitioned
and formatted as NTFS/Fat32 and used with your Windows PC without
affecting the ZENworks images.
Step 2: Mount the USB Hard Drive Within the ZENworks Boot CD environment
- Attach your USB Hard Drive to the PC you want to image.
- Insert ZENworks 7 Boot CD and restart the PC.
- When prompted, select Manual Mode and boot as normal.
- Start Imaging application (img).
- Press F8 to Modify partitions. You will now see a list of devices
attached to your PC.
- Find the one that has partition type of "Linux EXT2". Take note
of this as this is the device you need to mount.
- Exit Imaging application.
- Now you need to create a mount point for the USB hard drive.
Do this by typing:
mkdir /mnt/usbhd.
- To mount the drive type the following command:
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbhd
(change /dev/sdb1 to the device you noted earlier)
- The drive is now mounted to /mnt/usbhd.
Step 3: Start Imaging to USB Hard Drive
- Type img at bash prompt to load imaging application.
- Select Make Image.
- Select Local as destination.
- Type path as /mnt/usbhd/<filename>.zmg
- Start Image creation.
Step 4: Copy Image from USB Hard Drive (optional)
- Attach the USB Hard Drive to a PC running Windows.
- Install the ext2fsd driver (which can be downloaded from
here). This will allow you
to access the ext2fs (linux) file system from Windows and copy to
another drive.
- Once loaded you can view the ext2fs file system as normal and
copy, delete, etc., from Windows Explorer.
Tabbed viewing was added
Adobe Reader 9.1 for Linux and Solaris x86 has been released today.
Solaris x86 support was one of the most requested feature by users.
As per the
Reader team's announcement, this release includes the following
major features: - Support for Tabbed Viewing (preview)
- Super fast launch, and better performance than previous
releases
- Integration with Acrobat.com
- IPv6 support
- Enhanced support for PDF portfolios (preview)
The complete list is available
here.
Adobe Reader 9.1 is now
available for download and works on OpenSolaris, Solaris 10 and
most modern Linux distributions such as Ubuntu 8.04, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva
2009, SLED 10, Mint Linux 6 and Fedora 10.
See also Sneak Preview of the Tabbed Viewing interface in Adobe
Reader 9.x (on Ubuntu)
Oracle Cluster File System 2 (OCFS2) is a general-purpose
journaling file system that is fully integrated in the Linux 2.6 kernel
and later. OCFS2 allows you to store application binary files, data
files, and databases on devices in a SAN. All nodes in a cluster have
concurrent read and write access to the file system. A distributed lock
manager helps prevent file access conflicts. OCFS2 supports up to 32,000
subdirectories and millions of files in each directory. The O2CB cluster
service (a driver) runs on each node to manage the cluster.
In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and later,
OCFS2 can be used for any of the following storage solutions:
-
Oracle RAC and other databases
-
General applications and workloads
-
XEN image store in a cluster
XEN virtual machines and virtual servers
can be stored on OCFS2 volumes that are mounted by cluster
servers to provide quick and easy portability of XEN virtual
machines between servers.
-
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP
| PERL | Python) stacks
In addition, it is fully integrated with Heartbeat
2.
As a high-performance, symmetric, parallel cluster
file system, OCFS2 supports the following functions:
-
An application’s files are available
to all nodes in the cluster. Users simply install it once
on an OCFS2 volume in the cluster.
-
All nodes can concurrently read and
write directly to storage via the standard file system interface,
enabling easy management of applications that run across
a cluster.
-
File access is coordinated through the
Distributed Lock Manager (DLM).
DLM control is good for most cases,
but an application’s design might limit scalability if it
contends with the DLM to coordinate file access.
-
Storage backup functionality is available
on all back-end storage. An image of the shared application
files can be easily created, which can help provide effective
disaster recovery.
OCFS2 also provides the following capabilities:
-
Metadata caching
-
Metadata journaling
-
Cross-node file data consistency
-
A GTK GUI-based administration via the
ocfs2console utility
-
Operation as a shared-root file system
-
Support for multiple-block sizes (each
volume can have a different block size) up to 4 KB, for
a maximum volume size of 16 TB
-
Support for up to 255 cluster nodes
-
Context-dependent symbolic link (CDSL)
support for node-specific local files
-
Asynchronous and direct I/O support
for database files for improved database performance
Oracle Cluster File System 2 (OCFS2) is a general-purpose journaling
file system that is fully integrated in the Linux 2.6 kernel and later.
OCFS2 allows you to store application binary files, data files, and
databases on devices in a SAN. All nodes in a cluster have concurrent
read and write access to the file system. A distributed lock manager
helps prevent file access conflicts. OCFS2 supports up to 32,000 subdirectories
and millions of files in each directory. The O2CB cluster service (a
driver) runs on each node to manage the cluster.
13.1.1 Features and
Benefits
In August 2005, OCFS2 was added to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 to support Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) databases and
Oracle Home (its application files). In SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 and later, OCFS2 can be used for any of the following storage
solutions:
-
Oracle RAC and other databases
-
General applications and workloads
-
XEN image store in a cluster
XEN virtual
machines and virtual servers can be stored on OCFS2 volumes
that are mounted by cluster servers to provide quick and
easy portability of XEN virtual machines between servers.
-
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP
| PERL | Python) stacks
In addition, it is fully integrated with Heartbeat 2.
As a high-performance, symmetric, parallel cluster file system,
OCFS2 supports the following functions:
-
An application’s files are available
to all nodes in the cluster. Users simply install it once
on an OCFS2 volume in the cluster.
-
All nodes can concurrently read and
write directly to storage via the standard file system interface,
enabling easy management of applications that run across
a cluster.
-
File access is coordinated through the
Distributed Lock Manager (DLM).
DLM control is good for most cases,
but an application’s design might limit scalability if it
contends with the DLM to coordinate file access.
-
Storage backup functionality is available
on all back-end storage. An image of the shared application
files can be easily created, which can help provide effective
disaster recovery.
OCFS2 also provides the following capabilities:
-
Metadata caching
-
Metadata journaling
-
Cross-node file data consistency
-
A GTK GUI-based administration via the
ocfs2console utility
-
Operation as a shared-root file system
-
Support for multiple-block sizes (each
volume can have a different block size) up to 4 KB, for
a maximum volume size of 16 TB
-
Support for up to 255 cluster nodes
-
Context-dependent symbolic link (CDSL)
support for node-specific local files
-
Asynchronous and direct I/O support
for database files for improved database performance
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 was released on March 24, 2009 and include
Linux kernel 2.6.27,
Oracle Cluster File System 2, support for the
OpenAIS cluster communication protocol for server and storage clustering,
and
Mono 2.0.
Meanwhile, Novell is also hoping to rev up the application market
around its OS, with SUSE Linux Enterprise JeOS (just enough operating
system), which ISVs can use along with a
set of
tools called
Suse Studio, to package their products as virtual appliances.
Novell has a "supportability algorithm" for vetting appliances; those
that pass muster will receive technical support from Novell
Perl-based
freshmeat.net
Cluster SSH opens terminal windows with connections to specified
hosts and an administration console. Any text typed into the administration
console is replicated to all other connected and active windows.
This tool is intended for, but not limited
to, cluster administration where the same configuration or commands
must be run on each node within the cluster. Performing
these commands all at once via this tool ensures all nodes are kept
in sync.
See also: Software
Distribution, Enterprise Unix
System Administration
Problem:
As an administrator of SLES/OES Linux clusters or multiple SUSE Linux
servers you are probably familiar with that fact that you have to make
an identical change on more than one server. Those can be things like
editing files, execute commands, collect data or some other administrative
task.
There are a couple of way to do this. You can write a script that
performs the change for you, or you can SSH into a server, make the
change and repeat that task manually for every server.
Now both ways can cost an extended amount of time. Writing and testing
a shell script takes some time and performing the task by hand on lets
say five or more servers also costs time.
Now, wouldn't it be a real timesaver when you have only one console
in which you can perform tasks on multiple servers simultaneously? This
solution can be found in ClusterSSH.
Solution:
With ClusterSSH it is possible to make a SSH connection to multiple
servers and perform tasks from one single
command window, without any scripting. The 'cssh' command
lets you connect to any server specified as a command line argument,
or to groups of servers (or cluster nodes)
defined in a configuration file.
The 'cssh' command opens a terminal window to every server which
can be used to review the output sent from the cssh-console, or to edit
a single host directly. Commands given in to the cssh-console are executed
on every connected host. When you start typing in the cssh-console you'll
see that the same command also show up on the commandline of the connected
systems.
The state of connected systems can be toggled from the cssh-console.
So if you want to exclude certain hosts temporarily from specific command,
you can do this with a single mouseclick. Also, hosts can be added on
the fly and open terminal windows can automatically be rearranged.
One caveat to be aware of is when editing files. Never assume that
file is identical on all systems. For example, lines in a file you are
editing may be in a different order. Don't just go to a certain line
in a file and start editing. Instead search for the text you want to
exit, just to be sure the correct text is edited on all connected systems.
Example:
Configuration files section from the man-page:
/etc/clusters
This file contains a list of tags to server names mappings. When
any name is used on the command line it is checked to see if it is a
tag in /etc/clusters (or the .csshrc file, or any additional cluster
file specified by -c). If it is a tag, then the tag is replaced with
the list of servers from the file. The file is formatted as follows:
<tag> [user@]<server> [user@]<server> [...]
i.e.
# List of servers in live
live admin1@server1 admin2@server2 server3 server4
Clusters may also be specified within the users .csshrc file, as
documented below.
/etc/csshrc & $HOME/.csshrc
This file contains configuration overrides - the defaults are as
marked. Default options are overwritten first by the global file, and
then by the user file.
Environment:
ClusterSSH can be used to any system running the SSH daemon.
See also: Software
Distribution, Enterprise Unix
System Administration
- MySQL 5 Installation
- Prerequisites
- Download the Source
- Unpack, Copy, Configure
- Create my.cnf File
- Additional Settings
- Start Server, Check It, Connect
- Set the Root Password
- Restart MySQL Server
- Automatic Startup
- Apache
2 Installation
- PHP 5
Installation
If you've ever typed a command at the Linux shell
prompt, you've probably already used bash -- after all, it's the default
command shell on most modern GNU/Linux distributions.
The bash shell is the primary interface to the Linux operating system
-- it accepts, interprets and executes your commands, and provides you
with the building blocks for shell scripting and automated task execution.
Bash's unassuming exterior hides some very powerful tools and shortcuts.
If you're a heavy user of the command line, these can save you a fair
bit of typing. This document outlines 10 of the most useful tools:
- Easily recall previous commands
Bash keeps track of
the commands you execute in a history buffer, and allows you to
recall previous commands by cycling through them with the Up and
Down cursor keys. For even faster recall, "speed search" previously-executed
commands by typing the first few letters of the command followed
by the key combination Ctrl-R; bash will then scan the command history
for matching commands and display them on the console. Type Ctrl-R
repeatedly to cycle through the entire list of matching commands.
- Use command aliases
If you always run a command with the same set of options, you
can have bash create an alias for it. This alias will incorporate
the required options, so that you don't need to remember them or
manually type them every time. For example, if you always run ls
with the -l option to obtain a detailed directory listing, you can
use this command:
bash> alias ls='ls -l'
To create an alias that automatically includes the -l option.
Once this alias has been created, typing ls at the bash prompt will
invoke the alias and produce the ls -l output.
You can obtain a list of available aliases by invoking alias
without any arguments, and you can delete an alias with unalias.
- Use filename auto-completion
Bash supports filename
auto-completion at the command prompt. To use this feature, type
the first few letters of the file name, followed by Tab. bash will
scan the current directory, as well as all other directories in
the search path, for matches to that name. If a single match is
found, bash will automatically complete the filename for you. If
multiple matches are found, you will be prompted to choose one.
- Use key shortcuts to efficiently edit the command line
Bash supports a number of keyboard shortcuts for command-line navigation
and editing. The Ctrl-A key shortcut moves the cursor to the beginning
of the command line, while the Ctrl-E shortcut moves the cursor
to the end of the command line. The Ctrl-W shortcut deletes the
word immediately before the cursor, while the Ctrl-K shortcut deletes
everything immediately after the cursor. You can undo a deletion
with Ctrl-Y.
- Get automatic notification of new mail
You can configure
bash to automatically notify you of new mail, by setting the $MAILPATH
variable to point to your local mail spool. For example, the command:
bash> MAILPATH='/var/spool/mail/john'
bash> export MAILPATH
Causes bash to print a notification on john's console every time
a new message is appended to John's mail spool.
- Run tasks in the background
Bash lets you run one or
more tasks in the background, and selectively suspend or resume
any of the current tasks (or "jobs"). To run a task in the background,
add an ampersand (&) to the end of its command line. Here's an example:
bash> tail -f /var/log/messages &
[1] 614
Each task backgrounded in this manner is assigned a job ID, which
is printed to the console. A task can be brought back to the foreground
with the command fg jobnumber, where jobnumber
is the job ID of the task you wish to bring to the foreground. Here's
an example:
bash> fg 1
A list of active jobs can be obtained at any time by typing jobs
at the bash prompt.
- Quickly jump to frequently-used directories
You probably
already know that the $PATH variable lists bash's "search path"
-- the directories it will search when it can't find the requested
file in the current directory. However, bash also supports the $CDPATH
variable, which lists the directories the cd command will look in
when attempting to change directories. To use this feature, assign
a directory list to the $CDPATH variable, as shown in the example
below:
bash> CDPATH='.:~:/usr/local/apache/htdocs:/disk1/backups'
bash> export CDPATH
Now, whenever you use the cd command, bash will check all the
directories in the $CDPATH list for matches to the directory name.
- Perform calculations
Bash can perform simple arithmetic
operations at the command prompt. To use this feature, simply type
in the arithmetic expression you wish to evaluate at the prompt
within double parentheses, as illustrated below. Bash will attempt
to perform the calculation and return the answer.
bash> echo $((16/2))
8
- Customise the shell prompt
You can customise the bash
shell prompt to display -- among other things -- the current username
and host name, the current time, the load average and/or the current
working directory. To do this, alter the $PS1 variable, as below:
bash> PS1='\u@\h:\w \@> '
bash> export PS1
root@medusa:/tmp 03:01 PM>
This will display the name of the currently logged-in user, the
host name, the current working directory and the current time at
the shell prompt. You can obtain a list of symbols understood by
bash from its manual page.
- Get context-specific help
Bash comes with help for
all built-in commands. To see a list of all built-in commands, type
help. To obtain help on a specific command, type help command,
where command is the command you need help on. Here's an
example:
bash> help alias
...some help text...
Obviously, you can obtain detailed help on the bash shell by
typing man bash at your command prompt at any time.
Configuration Steps
-
Connect a null
modem cable between the system that will act as the console and
the server. Refer to the Wikipedia article
Null modem for details,
including pin mapping.
-
If the server's BIOS supports serial console, configure the BIOS
for it. The details of this procedure are dependent on the BIOS
vendor - refer to vendor documentation.
- Configure GRUB
on the server to use the first serial port. In the file
/boot/grub/menu.lst,
comment out the
color
and gfxmenu
lines and add the following lines:
serial --unit=0 --speed=115200
terminal --timeout=15 serial console
- Configure the
kernel (and hypervisor) on the server to use the serial port.
This configuration differs between Xen setups and non-Xen setups.
Non-Xen setup
In the file /boot/grub/menu.lst,
add the following options to the kernel command line:
console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200
Kernel messages will be written to both
tty0
and ttyS0,
but OS messages will only be written to
ttyS0.
OS messages go to the last console defined on the boot options line.
A sample /boot/grub/menu.lst
file illustrating these changes:
#color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
#gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
serial
--unit=0 --speed=115200
terminal
--timeout=15 serial console
title Linux
! SERIAL CONSOLE !
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz
root=/dev/sda3 selinux=0 splash=0 resume=/dev/sda1 showopts
elevator=cfq vga=791 console=tty0
console=ttyS0,115200
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd
Xen setup
When Xen virtualization is used, both the Xen hypervisor and the
Dom0 kernel need to be instructed to use the serial connection:
- Add
console=vga,com1
com1=115200 to the parameters for
the hypervisor.
- Add console=tty0
console=xvc0,115200 to the parameters
for the Dom0 kernel.
A sample /boot/grub/menu.lst
file illustrating these changes:
#color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
#gfxmenu (hd1,0)/boot/message
serial --unit=0
--speed=115200
terminal
--timeout=15 serial console
title Linux - Xen
! SERIAL CONSOLE !
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/xen.gz
console=vga,com1 com1=115200
module (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz
root=/dev/sda3 console=tty0
console=xvc0,115200
module (hd0,1)/boot/initrd
Configure the server to allow logins
over the serial connection. In the file
/etc/inittab,
add the following line.
S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty
-L 115200 console vt102
To allow single-user mode to work using the serial connection, additionally
change the line
~~:S:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
in /etc/inittab
to
~~:S:respawn:/sbin/sulogin
/dev/console
NOTE: Single-user mode will
only work on the serial console with this option. You will need
to change it back, to run on the local console.
Configure the
serial port on the server as a secure port, so a login as
root
is possible on it without the need to log in as a regular user first.
Add lines
console
ttyS0
xvc0
to the file /etc/securetty
Ensure the
package screen
is installed on the server; this will be used later on to send
control sequences to it.
FSlint is a simple yet very easy to use utility to find and clean
various forms of lint on a filesystem. i.e., unwanted or problematic
cruft in your files or file names. For example, one form of lint it
finds is duplicate files. FSlint operates in both GUI and Command Line
mode and the GUI is very straight forward to use especially there isn’t
much of hidden menu options.
FSlint basically checks if sizes are same, files are not hardlinked
to each other, md5sums are the same, sha1sums are the same (in case
of md5 collisions).
"Novell just released the
first alpha
of SUSE Studio (screencast),
which provides an easy way to customize your own Linux distribution
with the software and configuration you want. Among other things, you
can spin a Live CD, a USB image, or create a VMware image. It builds
upon the already established
openSUSE Build Service
and KIWI imaging system."
In case of broken links
please try to use Google search. If you find the page please notify
us about new location
Novell
OpenSuse
News
Documentation, guides and tips
Help, forums, community
Software — official and unofficial repositories. Smart
Derivative works and LiveCD
Reviews
- 10.3: www.tuxmachines.org
- 10.2:
justanothertechblog.blogspot.com,
shiftbackspace.com,
All about Linux,
Software
in Review, Michael Dolan,
Friendly
Linux,
free-bees.co.uk,
element 14, tuxmachines.org,
tuxmachines.org
InformationWeek,
Linux
Forums, www.agt.id.au,
DesktopLinux,
Linux.com,
tuxmachines (alpha 3),
blogbeebe,
Projectsite 2007,
ReviewLinux,
eWeek,
Ruminations on
the Digital Realm,
BlogoWogo,
ArsGeek,
JonRob's blog,
Our Picks,
Linux and Open Source Blog,
CyberNet News,
LinuxLookup, SUSE Linux
Rants,
vnunet.com,
Linux Today,
Softpedia, tuxmachines.org
(rc 1)
- 10.1:
Linux Forums,
Linux Online,
Software
in Review,
Linux.com,
Software package resources,
Network World,
Computer World,
DesktopLinux
Interviews
Download
Screenshots
- 10.3: news.opensuse.org,
news.opensuse.org,
opensuse.org,
shots.osdir.com
- 10.2:
shiftbackspace.com,
opensuse.org,
OSDir.com,
Tuxmachines' Gallery,
Tuxmachines Gallery
(rc 1), Tuxmachines
Gallery (beta 2),
LinuxShots,
Softpedia,
LinuxQuestions,
Stefan Reisinger,
Phoronix
- 10.1:
Debian Admin,
UnixTutorials
Just released, this prescriptive guide shows IT Pros how to use Microsoft
Windows Server 2003 Active Directory for both authentication and identity
storage within heterogeneous Microsoft Windows and UNIX environments.
Planet SUSE
REDBOOK
Sg245863
[PDF]
SuSE Linux Integration Guide for IBM for xSeries and Netfinity
Download.openSUSE.org - downloads
from this site using HTTPD are unreliable.
FileMirrors for DVD
LQ
ISOs SUSE openSUSE 10.2
OpenSuse
Documentation
Official repository
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/oss/
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/non-oss/
Security and bug fixes
http://download.suse.com/update/10.2/
Midnight Commander
Snort
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Last modified:
November 05, 2009