Open source cloud platform now has open source configuration options.
The latest release of Puppet goes beyond simple server and application configuration.
These 13 free network and DNS tools will go a long way toward helping you administer, troubleshoot, manage and secure your network.
As mobile devices in the enterprise grow by leaps and bounds, enterprises' ability to remotely manage them, including enforcing security policies and keeping data in sync, becomes ever more important. Here are four solutions to help resolve this growing data center dilemma.
OpenStack ecosystem continues to grow, but how do you move data across different OpenStack vendors?
Is your hardware inadequate for your site? Throwing more resources at it may not be the best answer. For WordPress sites, W3 Total Cache is an inexpensive way to wring the most out of what you already have.
SUSE exec explains how the company has changed since being spun out from Novell.
Tags:
open source software, Novell, Attachmate, Linux, SUSE
Startup formerly known as PHP Fog receives new funding as it expands into the PaaS server space.
Tags:
open source software, PHP, AppFog, PaaS, cloud computing
Renameutils is aptly named. The easy-to-use collection of utilities makes renaming files as easy as using your favorite text editor.
Tags:
text editor, utility, tip of the trade, open source tool, open source software
When it comes to collecting system status data, sar is a veritable workhorse. It is not, however, without its limitations. If you're in the market for a utility that also handles NFS, Slab data, and sub-second intervals, consider collectl.
Tags:
monitoring software, Data Center Management Software, tip of the trade, open source software
Dell set to offer commercial support for OpenStack Cloud solution and announces new open source Crowbar for installation.
Tags:
cloud computing, OpenStack, Dell, Ubuntu, open source software
For sys admins, running a process can feel like driving cross-country without a road map. Pipe Viewer is one way to answer the question, 'are we there yet?'
Tags:
system administration, Debian, Linux, open source software, Ubuntu
New virtualization release includes cloning and tunneling features, as Oracle pushes open source technology forward.
Tags:
Oracle, open source software, virtualbox, server virtualization, VDI
With GNU ddrescue you need never worry about the impact of optical media degradation on your data.
Tags:
data protection, open source software, data managment, GNU, disk storage
Open source Stratos 1.5 platform delivers Complex Event Processing as a service.
Tags:
cloud computing, WSO2, open source software, middleware
Understanding regular expressions is important for anyone who spends time doing
system administration or programming. If that describes you and regexes are
not your strong suit, txt2regex is an excellent tool to have handy.
Tags:
open source software, open source tool, tip of the trade
Ready to roll out a site, but not sure how it will perform in real-world use? Consider Siege, an open source load-testing and benchmarking utility that will help stress test your setup before exposing it to the world.
Tags:
open source software, Linux server, benchmark, tip of the trade, testing tool
Moving messages from .NET to Java platforms get easier with new middleware messaging engine.
Tags:
open source software, open source, middleware, WSO2, CEP
Fedora or RHEL users working with RPMs will find these 5 little-known features to be of great value.
Tags:
tip of the trade, RHEL, open source tool, open source software, Fedora
New release of open source proxy caching server promises a nearly threefold improvement in requests per second.
Tags:
Apache, traffic server, proxy, open source software, cache
Debian's package tools makes it easy to install and manage packages. For more complex tasks, however, tools are not as well-advertised. Here are five options worth checking out.
Tags:
Debian, tool, open source software
Have a long-running job you want to "detach" from the terminal? Don't use tmux or Screen? If you haven't started the job yet, nohup is an easy to use option, and if you must stop a job in the middle, there's disown.
Tags:
Linux, tip of the trade, screen, open source software
Apache updates the world's most popular web server with a security update and a beta for the next generation of HTTP.
Tags:
Apache, security, open source software, HTTP, web server
DenyHosts makes it easy to ward off unauthorized SSH connection attempts. The utility blocks attempts to connect to your server via SSH after too many failed attempts or from a blacklisted host.
Tags:
tip of the trade, SSH, open source software, security
Connect to this list of heavy hitters in your push toward KVM-based virtualization on any scale.
Tags:
HP, open source software, open source, Red Hat, open virtualization alliance
When your system is rooted, you can't trust most utilities to show processes from the rootkit. To identify the problem, check out unhide and unhide.rb.
Tags:
security, open source software, open source tool, tip of the trade, rootkit
The tail utility is one of the most useful admin tools, but it's limited and outdated. Bring your log-watching capabilities into the 21st century and view multiple logs at one time with MultiTail.
Tags:
open source tool, tip of the trade, open source software
Perl may not be glamorous, but its modules are often hard to avoid. Oftentimes, the standard CPAN shell makes using them more difficult than it needs to be. If that's the case for you, consider switching to CPAN Minus.
Tags:
perl, tip of the trade, open source software
If you use git to collaborate, you probably also know about Gist, a Pastebin-type service from Github. But did you also know, that if you're a Vim user you can get even more out of it with the script Gist.vim?
Tags:
vim, collaboration, open source software, git
OpenStack expands with new API to create extensions.
Tags:
cloud computing, OpenStack, Rackspace, open source software
New open source efforts from VMware aims to open up a platform-as-a-service offering enabling multi-cloud deployments.
Tags:
VMware, cloud computing, Apache, open source software
Data aficionados constantly on the lookout for better ways to display charts and graphs will appreciate CairoPlot, Python-based plotting software pretty enough to impress even the most jaded Mac user.
Tags:
open source, Python, open source software
Linux adoption in the scientific community is very high. For the many organizations that want Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 but don't want to pay for it or wait for the next release of CentOS, Scientific Linux is worth a look.
Tags:
Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Python, open source software
There are many options for online collaboration, but WebDAV remains a useful and straightforward way to share files. Software support at both the server and client ends sweetens the deal further.
Tags:
Linux, open source software, Apache, Debian, Ubuntu
If you need to manage multiple sessions in the same terminal, consider Tmux, a handy "terminal multiplexer." This week, we take a look at its basic usage and configuration.
Tags:
open source software, screen
Need to run multiple sessions in the same terminal but aren't fond of screen? Consider tmux, open source software that offers Emacs and vi-style keybindings.
Tags:
open source software, screen, GNU, tip of the trade, open source tool
These days, open source software is not just about peace, love and digital freedom; it's also about turning a profit. Red Hat, clearly tired of the other Linux vendors using its Linux server OS as a foundation for their services, is changing its rules with the latest release of RHEL.
Tags:
open source software, Red Hat, server os, RHEL
Mutts can be lovable companions, but they still must be trained. The same is true of the Mutt mail client. Out of the proverbial box it's a powerful mail client, but that's nothing compared to what you can do with a well-trained Mutt.
Tags:
mutt, Linux, tip of the trade, mail server, open source software
If Sudo is part of your toolkit, and it should be, it's time to upgrade and start taking advantage of the new features in this latest version.
Tags:
open source software, sudo, policy management, tip of the trade
Not everyone is comfortable with a command-line interface. If you're writing
scripts for users who prefer to work from a GUI, check out Zenity, a GNOME utility
that provides simple GUI dialogs from a shell script.
Tags:
script, open source tool, open source software, GUI, command line
Making a break from Microsoft Exchange? The groupware suite Open-Xchange looks good from a licensing and cost perspective, but how does it stack up from an end-user perspective?
Tags:
Open-Xchange, Exchange server, mail server, Linux, open source software
Want a quick and easy way to write to system logs? Check out logger, an shell utility that works with syslog. Don't let its ease of use cause you to overlook its value.
Tags:
Linux, log management, open source software, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, open source
The first release of the open source Zimbra email collaboration software since leaving Yahoo debuts. What's new and what's different about VMware's spin on the popular open source software?
Tags:
open source software, Zimbra, VMware, virtualization, mail server
Initially developed to limit resource usage in the Linux kernel, cgroups can do much more than that. Unfortunately, as handy as they are, cgroups are neither straightforward nor user friendly. Scaling the learning curve to set up and manage them is well worth it, however. These basic tips will get you started.
Tags:
server os, open source tool, tip of the trade, Linux, open source software
Cgrpoups is a feature initially developed to limit resource usage in the Linux kernel. But it can do much more, including tweak memory, bandwidth and CPU usage of system processes as well as deny access to system resources.
Tags:
Linux, Ubuntu Server, Linux kernel, open source software
The OODT (Object-Oriented Data Technology) project hits top-level status -- could it usher in a new era of open source semantic middleware?
Tags:
NASA, open source software, Apache, Apache Software Foundation
What do Cisco, the cloud and open source software have in common? Much more than you might think.
Tags:
open source software, Cisco, Rackspace Cloud, cloud computing, UCS
As part of the sale of Novell to Attachmate, Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and EMC have done the unlikely: They've joined together under the CPTN banner to acquire more than 800 patents. Is the OSI right to be concerned that this could be the beginning of the end?
Tags:
open source software, Microsoft, Attachmate, OSI, Unix
Yum Plugins make it easy to extend the open source tool's functionality. The security plugin and the priorities plugins are a great place to start.
Tags:
open source tool, security, tip of the trade, open source, open source software
Yum is one of the most widely used package management tools, but many users don't know that Yum has a plugin system to extend its capabilities. Learn how to add some very useful features by extending this open source tool.
Tags:
open source tool, tip of the trade, Linux, Fedora, open source software
Looking to avoid Cron? Hcron and the at utility are two tools that make it easy
to bypass Cron in favor of other open source software alternatives.
Tags:
tip of the trade, Linux, open source tool, open source software, cron
What do you get when you cross web services and web applications? A new web services integrated app serving platform.
Tags:
open source software, Tomcat, Apache server, application server, apache web server
If you've been wondering what's sucking the life out of your Linux laptop's battery or driving those higher electric bills in the server room, be sure to check out Powertop. The popular Linux tool profiles systems to help determine which programs are using the most power.
Tags:
power management, open source tools, tip of the trade, open source, open source software
When it comes to remote system administration, all roads lead to Vim. While Vim's capabilities are vast -- entire books have been written about it, and they still fail to capture all of its functionality -- knowing a handful of commands will enable you to do much of what you need to do.
Tags:
tip of the trade, open source servers, command line, open source software, vim
If you're having trouble figuring out why a program keeps crashing and burning, consider Strace, an easy-to-use diagnostic tool. More experienced users will find Strace handy for performance testing and more.
Tags:
utility, open source software, tip of the trade, OS, open source tools
An effort originally started by NASA and Rackspace three months ago is now releasing production-ready code as outside contributions pour in.
Tags:
open source, Rackspace, open source software, NASA, cloud computing
New Linux Foundation Enterprise User Survey data reveals that enterprises are set to add more Linux at the expense of Windows during next five years, though users are not heading to the cloud.
Tags:
Linux server, open source software, cloud computing, Windows, open source servers
Need both mailing list and forum software but don't want to chose one over the other? Consider this open source server hybrid.
Tags:
mail server, messaging server, open source software, forums, tip of the trade
Apache Tomcat is open source software that implements Java Servlet and JavaServer
Pages, enabling sites to run Java servlets and Java-based dynamic content. Version 7.0.2 is in a mature beta, but is it data center ready?
Tags:
Apache Software Foundation, Tomcat, open source software, open source tools, Apache
Enhance Screen on your screen with Byobu, open source software that makes Screen more user friendly and functional.
Tags:
Debian, tip of the trade, screen, open source software, Ubuntu Server
SSH's escape character may be one of its best kept secrets. Using '~' can suspend
a session as well as a host of other escape sequences. Learn how to get the most out of these open source software shortcuts.
Tags:
OS, escape characters, open source, SSH, open source software
Mutt and PuTTY are a great open source combo for managing mail, but they're not without their failings. Here's a quick tip for using PuTTY to fix problems with line-drawn characters in Mutt.
Tags:
OS, open source software, mail server, open source
The Windows SSH client, PuTTY, is incredibly useful and becomes even more so when set up with a private/public keypair.
Tags:
tip of the trade, SSH, open source software, Windows, security
Gnome-do is an open source software solution to getting things done. The Gnome
application launcher enables users to specify particular actions to take on whatever
file or application they wish.
Tags:
tip of the trade, OS, Linux desktop, Gnome, open source software
When disks fill up, strange errors occur. Determine if and where you have a disk space shortage, and learn how to resolve it.
Tags:
disk space, tip of the trade, disk, open source software
When using Bash, the decision to use single quotes or double quotes depends on exactly what you want to do. Find out what each does and when to use them.
Tags:
open source, bash, tip of the trade, open source software, OS
Shuttleworth says Ubuntu’s implementation is more sophisticated than what Apple uses on the iPhone.
Tags:
Ubuntu, open source software
A new feature of the open source software project lets you spread a large data set across many servers.
Tags:
open source software, MongoDB
A recent Accenture survey finds almost 40 percent of respondents planning to
migrate mission-critical workloads to open source software within the next year.
Will open source software overtake proprietary apps, and is there room for both in the marketplace?
Tags:
Microsoft, open source software, Accenture, commercial software, software development
The survey also indicated that most had a satisfaction level between 7 and 8 out of ten with open source software.
Tags:
Enterprise, open source servers, open source software
From open source software to projects there have been a number of releases that literally have changed the world.
Tags:
open source server, open source, open source servers, open source software
Get even more out of the open source software editor, Vim, by taking advantage of its scripting capabilities.
Tags:
tip of the trade, vim, open source software, scripting
Untangling the many tentacles of this popular proxy server is well worth the effort.
Tags:
squid, proxy server, proxy, open source software, open source servers
The GoGrid platform lets open source companies deliver offerings as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
Tags:
open source software
Anyone paying attention to Oracle's acquisition of Sun had a keen sense that a culture clash was inevitable for the open source software OpenSolaris. This week's launch of Illumos reveals the time might be now.
Tags:
open source server, Oracle, OpenSolaris, open source software, Sun
