Advice for everyday Unix systems administration and some clever ways to approach more challenging problems.
Basic use of the history command is part of any good introduction to Unix, but there's a lot more to this basic feature than repeating your most recent commands. In fact, some of the more useful applications of command history are typically over....
Have you been putting off setting up an Intranet site because you can't afford the guy who could set it up and manage it for you? Here's an option that you might want to consider.
Are you still living in the world of 755; of user, group and other; and of chmod? If you haven't put Unix ACLs into use, maybe it's time to reconsider how they might compliment your system security process.
Coming soon to a Linux near you? The dramatic improvements in Linux booting are slowly taking over and traditional start scripts are fading fast.
Anyone too comfortable with the idea of run states on Unix systems might not be ready to hear this, but the process of going from a cold piece of hardware to multi-user mode has taken a couple very sharp turns in the last six years or so. Maybe you j....
The sudo command can give you fine-grained security on your Unix servers, but only if you avoid giving too many people the right to run any command as root, especially any command as root without proper logging.
Q: Why don´t you see Penguins in Britain? A: Because they´re afraid of Wales But, if you did, they'd probably be reading this fun new book -- Ubuntu Made Easy: A Project-Based Introduction to Linux, no starch press, 2012 is the most ....
sed is the command of choice for changing this to that between a set of pipes, but there are a lot more tasks you can use it for -- some that it handles much better than the more obvious choices.
Want a script that sends you (up to) monthly sar reports without you having to think about the process? Today's script is way smarter than what I showed you a few weeks ago. It just works with the data it finds.
Some Unix/Linux systems require that a username and password be entered for login. Some can be set up to log you in automatically. For Lubuntu -- a lightweight version of the popular Ubuntu distribution, you can move between these two login options w....
The best way to learn Linux is to use it. A good introductory book will help, but you won't really learn Linux or become confident in your skills unless you park yourself in front of a Linux system and start typing (and popping windows open, cre....
If you don't have sar already installed and running on your Solaris or Linux server, setting it up to monitor performance is so easy, there's no good reason to wait. Follow these simple steps and you'll be monitoring performance on you....
The best trick for understanding performance problems on a Unix system is to understand performance when it ISN'T a problem. If you know what acceptable performance looks like, you'll quickly spot what's out of whack when a system is h....
A key element in the ISO 27001 certification process is to identify and assess risks. While this idea may seem obvious, you may be surprised at how much you can learn about your systems, processes and security threats by pushing them through this ver....
The first step is justifying the first step. Why are you willing to go through an arduous certification process? How it will help your company? The next is getting a whole lot closer to exactly what that means.
A relatively new international standard sets expectations for information security, but is it any better than what you're already doing to protect your systems and your company's intellectual property? Let's examine what it means to be....
If you have need to balance traffic among a set of servers and can't afford a load balancer, you can get fairly effective relief using what is often referred to as "poor man's load balancing" -- an easy trick that you implement on....
Adding swap space to a hurting Linux server is not only easy, but it works. With a few strokes of your hand, you can add swap space and get the system using it. Run another command and see how much difference the change has made.
There are several useful commands for looking at memory use on Linux systems, but if you don't know what the numbers mean, you may think your systems are in bad shape when they're really OK.
Need to move files between Unix and Windows? No problem. There are several different ways of doing just that. One will surely meet your need.
Save yourself some time by taking advantage of Perl's easy ability to manipulate text. When it comes to Perl, if you can describe it, you can do it.
You may be a Unix devotee, but if your organization uses both Windows and Unix systems, you need to understand how password complexity is configured on both platforms.
Solaris 10 is the first version of Solaris to provide a complex set of variables for controlling password strength. The /etc/default/passwd file contains a series of parameters -- most commented out when a system is first installed -- that allow you ....
Sound advice against the use of bad passwords has been around for decades. Yet I still find people electing to use passwords like pa55w0rd and login123 as if they'd never heard about password cracking programs. Even technical professionals -- pr....
If you are still learning Unix or have any involvement in helping others master the command line, here's the book you have been waiting for. The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction (no starch press, 2012) will take you from 0 to 100 in 3....
Access governance is more than just the coolest concept since virtualization and cloud computing. It's likely to change the way you manage accounts on your servers. Designed to add clarity and control to questions like "Who has access to th....
How many special shell $ arguments do you use in your daily work? There may be a lot more of them than you think. Let's look over a bunch of them and examine how they can streamline your scripts.
If you haven't made the mistake of accidentally removed important files, you probably haven't worked with Unix very long. Here are some creative ways of keeping you from making that mistake.
Sandra Henry-Stocker's long-standing and largely happy relationship with Unix has been an interesting and rewarding trek. If she hasn't helped you to love Unix, let her try just once more.