Advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems.
One of the best ways to write scripts quickly and effectively is to never start from scratch.
When building bash scripts, a little consistency and care can pay off in the long run.
Traceroute is still a great tool, but mtr ("my traceroute") provides even more insights when you're looking into network routing problems.
The ethtool command can tell you a lot more about your ethernet interfaces than ifconfig ever will.
The /proc file system brings the processes on your Unix systems into view in some very useful ways, but only if you take the time to cd over to /proc and see all it can tell you.
Think you know what's happening on your network? Pull out tcpdump and you might be surprised how much it can tell you.
If you find your thrill delving into the networking side of Unix, you'll find that there are lots of commands to give you all the insights you might want.
One of the most important things you can do for security on a Unix system is restrict root access. But the issue is more complicated than who knows root's password.
Don't forget that tomorrow is Sysadmins Day -- a good day to show love to the folks who save your butt again and again when you mess up your computer. Here are some poems, tailored just for them.
Memory is one of the most important parts of your Unix system for performance. Let's look at some commands that will tell you what you need to know about the memory on the systems you manage is being used.
It's no longer just a matter of "Can you remember them?". Your passwords can serve as a form of catharsis or a way to remind yourself of where you want to be in life.
The top command is one of the most commonly used tools for getting a quick glimpse at performance, but it's rarely used to capture performance in the middle of the night. With just a little effort, however, it could become one of your favorite t....
The diff command can be your best friend when you’re troubleshooting problems on a Unix system, but are you using it effectively as you could?
Most everything you need to know to get started as a penetration tester in less than 500 pages? This book provides a very practical hands-on introduction to the art of hacking. But you will need to sit yourself down and let your fingers get a lot of ....
If you're going to be shooting out email messages as part of your job, you really ought to think about your recipients' reactions. Here are some of the least reader-friendly subject lines and why they likely won't work.
History repeats itself and so will system problems if you don't get to the root of what is causing them.
Discovering hosts and services isn't just something that hackers do. A good sysadmin needs to work with an up-to-date view of the systems they manage or those they want to keep an eye on.
Long before the Internet, the web, flat screen monitors, Google, Facebook, languages like Python and Ruby, interactive games, and wireless just about anything, some of us were fascinated by what we could do with large, clunky systems that today look ....
Before you try to try to get your Unix system collecting data from a database that someone else manages, you might want to run some simple tests from a Windows desktop. Yes, I said "Windows".
Keeping an up-to-date inventory of your Unix servers can be less painful if you throw a bunch of helpful Linux commands into a script that you run periodically.
If you've been managing Unix systems for any length of time, you've undoubtedly noticed that the systems you manage develop personalities and start to feel like family.
Get yourself a $35 computer, a copy of this book, and you will likely discover a side of computing that expands your view of what computing is all about.
Unix tools make it easy to find strings in files, but what if you want to find specific whole words, more complex text patterns, or every instance of a word or pattern?
The top command is one of the most useful commands for getting a quick glimpse into how your Unix server is performing, but stopping there might mean that you're missing out on a lot of interesting options.
You can spend 50-60 hours a week managing your Unix servers and responding to your users' problems and still feel as if you're not getting much done or you can adopt some good work habits that will both make you more successful and prepare ....
Want to give your small company's staff more ability to collaborate and communicate? Check out Bitrix24, now with free shared storage.
The ifconfig command doesn't suck; it's just not as cool or sophisticated as ip.
Need a jump start on Unix networking? Whether you're working on your home network or setting up systems at work, here are some basic Unix networking commands and insights that might prove helpful.
Unix systems administrators tend to be very serious about their responsibilities -- except when they're not. And, when they're not, the pranks that they play on each other and some of their more annoying users might surprise you.
The find command is one of the most basic Unix commands, but that doesn't mean you're making good use of its many features.
You might be the sole Unix geek at work or one among many, but there are things we can all do to develop and maintain better relationships with the people lucky enough to work with us.
Pushing and popping might not be your idea of a good time, but some Unix admins swear that these operations make working in multiple directories as easy as 1, 2, 3, 2, 1.
Leaving a job can be one of the hardest decisions you'll ever make. You know the routine, you've made many friends, you know what's expected of you ... but the last thing you want to do is wake up one day and realize that you're n....
Are you confident that all the accounts you manage are still required and still current? Or might some of them be ghost accounts that you should have blocked five years ago?
Do you find yourself rewriting scripts because it's easier than finding or modifying your old ones? Do you find yourself spending far too much time reworking scripts when you need to make what seems like a small change? Let's look at how yo....
Want to tune your shell scripts to run more efficiently? Let's check out a few changes that might help them run faster.
Secure connections can be even more secure or even less troublesome if you use a key pair and do it right.
It's a new year and a great time to review what you're doing right and not so right in your Unix career. Time to commit to an effective to do list!
Need a way to make connecting to lots of servers using different settings and usernames easier? Look no further than the ssh config file.
Whether your aware of it or now, copyrighted or pornographic material on your work or personal computer can land you in jail or in the poor house.
If you get a secret thrill out of a well crafted Perl one-liner, but only have a few that you can pull out of your mental pocket and use, this book may be just what Santa should be leaving under your tree!
Sometimes what seems like the simplest of questions can have you scrambling for answers. Today's seemingly simple question is "How can a bash script identify its own location?"
Sorting data numerically and alphanumerically isn't generally much of a challenge on Unix systems, but sometimes .5 is smaller than .11.
Last week's post provided some tips and tricks for debugging scripts. This week's provides some even better ones!
All kinds of things can go wrong with your shell scripts, but they don't have to. Let's look a some debugging tips that can help ensure your scripts run the way you intend.
The kill command provides a lot more functionality than just terminating processes. You can use it to send any of more than 60 signals to processes and what happens next depends on the signal, the process and maybe even your settings.
It's easy to find files on Unix systems. You can find them by almost any criteria that you can imagine. The bigger challenge is deciding how to describe what you're looking for and deciding what to do with the files once you find them.
One of the most endearing qualities of Unix devotees is how determined they are to be as efficient as possible. Why type three characters if you can do the same thing with two? And one of the best ways to cut down keystrokes is to turn common command....
Unlike federal shutdowns, Unix shutdowns (and reboots) are generally smooth and easy, don't cost $24B and leave the system in better shape.
Ever need to look into a Unix process to see exactly what it's doing? The ps and top commands only give you a bird's eye view of what's going on. But strace will let you peer into a process' inner workings.