Juliet Kemp

Dragonfly BSD v2.0 has recently been released. It’s a fork from FreeBSD, and it’s ultimate goal is to provide native clustering support in the kernel. Having spent the past five years rewriting various kernel subsystems to set things up for this aim, the team is now onto the second project phase. The current aims are […]

Clusters and distributed computing can operate in a number of ways. At one end of the spectrum are full-time dedicated clusters. Alternatively, you can get distributed power on the cheap if you set up a part-time cluster using spare cycles on networked desktops. Condor makes clustering and distributed computing possible for budget-conscious enterprises. Condor is […]

Admins use ps all the time to look at processes running on a system. But do you make the best use of the multitude of options this very useful tool has, or do you stick to a tiny, tested handful? Here are some ps options to check out that you may not have encountered before. […]

The excellent open-source monitoring software Nagios is set up to use plugins to do the actual work of checking services. Here are some useful plugins from the official plugin site and an unofficial plugin collection. Nagios is set up to use plugins to do the actual work of checking services. From cron-apt to check_jabber and […]

Enforcing password security with a multiple-user system can be a hassle — users all too often use inadequate passwords. john-the-ripper (also available via most distros) is a password-cracking tool that enables the identification of vulnerable passwords before someone with nefarious intentions finds the weakness. Tip of the Trade: Find password weaknesses before it’s too late. […]

Aliases are great for saving typing time, and you probably already have a handful set up. But you may not be aware that it’s possible to set up aliases that take command line variables as an argument. Read on for an example. Tip of the Trade: To save on keystrokes, set up aliases that take […]

Last week I talked about testing the strength of users’ passwords. Another way to ensure security is to set a good password policy. Tip of the Trade: Establishing a good password policy from the start is just as critical to security as testing the strength of passwords already in use. The PAM module pam_cracklib can […]

IPTraf is a very useful ncurses-based application that shows the traffic passing through your machine. Tip of the Trade: Check out the traffic passing through your machine with this useful and easy-to-use ncurses-based app. On startup, you can immediately see all network traffic on your machine by choosing “IP traffic monitor.” The configuration menu enables […]

LDAP allows you to have a master+slave server setup, with automatic failover in case of problems or just to spread the load. This has obvious advantages, but it can hide problems with the master server. Tip of the Trade: Finding and fixing master server issues isn’t always easy, especially when the slave servers seem to […]

I am of course sure that everyone reading this is well aware of scripting best practices and always writes beautifully neat and well-set-out scripts that will still have meaning when you return to them in six months time. You might not then need perltidy for your own scripts. Tip of the Trade: Even if it’s […]

I’ve been using bash for years, and I still haven’t come anywhere close to mastering the full range of available command line keyboard shortcuts. I’ve found the best way to get more under my fingers is to note a few on a Post-It stuck to the monitor, and then swap it for another one at […]

Memopal recently released a version of its software for Linux, offering an online backup service for either personal or business users. The business service allows multiuser access, so it can act as a filesharing as well as a backup service. You can get a free trial access for 7 days, but after that it’s (unsurprisingly!) […]