mdpc's questions

I'm involved with a project to plan for equipment over a 5-10 year period. One daunting issue is display technology. I'm being pressed for a decision but am unsure. So the question is: What display technology would you be proposing that would exist over a 5-10 year horizon?

I work in a situation where a network involving Windows 7 is used in an environment that is not connected to their own internal network and not the internet at all. However, after a period of time, Windows complains (WGA) about this and in this situation this is a problem.

Is there any workaround to disable these messages and run Windows 7 without having these nags and possible inhibited capabilities? Afterall these ARE legit copies of Windows 7 and internet access is NOT needed nor wanted.

I'd like to use the same scripting for cron and interactive, just wondering if there was a universal way over UNIX/Linux systems to easily make this determination.

According to instructions, I have configured multiple LDAP sources for redundancy. I have found some problems with the configuration.

1. If an ldap service is not working on the designated ldap server instead of going to the next server in the list, work does not progress through the other entries in the list things just hang.

2. If an ldap server is down and not working, it throws a 5xx internal server error does not progress through the other entries in the list.

Are these apache bugs or should I be including more directives to properly configure the redundancy?

Section of http.conf in question:

 <AuthnProviderAlias ldap ldap1>     
     AuthBasicProvider ldap
     AuthLDAPURL "ldap://ldap1.server.com:389/dc=server,dc=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=*)"
     AuthLDAPBindDN "CN=matcher,OU=Application Accounts,dc=server,dc=com"
     AuthLDAPBindPassword "SECRET"
 </AuthnProviderAlias>

 <AuthnProviderAlias ldap ldap2>
     AuthBasicProvider ldap
     AuthLDAPURL "ldap://ldap2.server.com:389/dc=server,dc=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=*)"
     AuthLDAPBindDN "CN=matcher,OU=Application Accounts,dc=server,dc=com"
     AuthLDAPBindPassword "SECRET"
 </AuthnProviderAlias>

 <AuthnProviderAlias ldap ldap3>
     AuthBasicProvider ldap
     AuthLDAPURL "ldap://ldap3.server.com:389/dc=server,dc=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=*)"
     AuthLDAPBindDN "CN=matcher,OU=Application Accounts,dc=server,dc=com"
     AuthLDAPBindPassword "SECRET"
 </AuthnProviderAlias>


 <AuthnProviderAlias file file1>
         AuthUserFile /etc/mdpctest/htpasswd.users
 </AuthnProviderAlias>

 <Directory /srv/www/htdocs/mdptest>
 Order deny,allow
 Deny from All
 AuthName "Request Access"
 AuthType Basic
 AuthBasicProvider file1 ldap1 ldap2 ldap3
 AuthzLDAPAuthoritative on
 require valid-user
 Satisfy any
 </Directory>

The Apache Versioning information is:

 Server version: Apache/2.2.12 (Linux/SUSE)
 Server built:   Nov 30 2011 17:54:13
 Server's Module Magic Number: 20051115:23
 Server loaded:  APR 1.3.3, APR-Util 1.3.4
 Compiled using: APR 1.3.3, APR-Util 1.3.4
 Architecture:   64-bit
 Server MPM:     Prefork
   threaded:     no
     forked:     yes (variable process count)
 Server compiled with....
  -D APACHE_MPM_DIR="server/mpm/prefork"
  -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
  -D APR_HAS_MMAP
  -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
  -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
  -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
  -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
  -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
  -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
  -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=128
  -D HTTPD_ROOT="/srv/www"
  -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/sbin/suexec2"
  -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/var/run/httpd2.pid"
  -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
  -D DEFAULT_LOCKFILE="/var/run/accept.lock"
  -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="/var/log/apache2/error_log"
  -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="/etc/apache2/mime.types"
  -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/etc/apache2/httpd.conf"

We are running the lmgrd license server on a bare metal linux system. From my understanding, a Linux-based lmgrd uses the MAC address of the primary ethernet board as the parameter from which the keys are generated against (as indicated by lmhostid). BTW, on a SunOS machine there is the hostid that is derived from the eeprom on the motherboard.

Ok, what we want to do is put the lmgrd licensing server on a VM. Afterall, its a heck of a waste for a single bare metal server system just to support a license server. However, it seems that the support person for the software vendor using the lmgrd licensing model says that it is not possible to operate in this manner. As there is a MAC address for the installed ethernet board, the support person would seem to be in error. To what I see, there should be no differences between the VM and the bare metal linux server.

The license keys are floating/count licenses NOT node locked license keys.

Has anybody put lmgrd on a linux VM? Has any software manufacturer providing lmgrd as their licensing model provided pushback concerning operations on a linux VM?

Thanks for your help

ADDITION: I am told that Synopsis, Ansys, Mentor are the vendors of the packages using lmgrd.

ADDITION: lmhostid returns the MAC address from only eth0! If the interface in the VM is not named eth0, then it returns nothing! It is easy to rename the interface in SuSe linux ...so no problem there.

ADDITION: We will be proceeding with getting a rekey for the VM host.

Possible Duplicate:
Querying DNS for CNAMEs for a server

I have an interesting problem, given a FQDN, how do you find all its alias names WITHOUT having access to the DNS files or being able to list the domain (zone)?

The issue is restricted to all aliases within a single domain.

I've seen a lot of information on btrfs lately. I have been considering ext4 for my next filesystem, but am tempted by btrfs instead. How widely used is btrfs? What are the pro's and con's?

I am considering what NFS mounting options should be used in a large collection of automount maps being used over a large number of hosts (>500). Of note, there is a collection of machines, both Linux (RH, Suse) and UNIX (Sun, AIX, HP/UX). Also, there is automount support provided for hosts outside the US. What I have been considering is the following options in the maps:

 intr,bg,soft,retry=10,timeo=600,retrans=10

I have not specified rsize or wsize as I understand that the largest size between the host and the server is negotiated.

What do you all use or recommend?

My company is looking for outside assistance in (re)putting together our BC and DR plans.

How do you judge companies from one another in this arena?

I have an existing infrastructure where accounts are maintained under NIS (yp) with no local unix accounts. Also, all the standard maps including hosts, mail aliases, netgroups, etc...are maintained in this form. Extensive use of the UNIX/Linux automounter with items scattered over the network on NFS servers. There are NO ACLs on any local or shared files. All mail needs to use basically the nullclient sendmail configuration feeding into a different system.

I now have a requirement to integrate an Apple OSX 10.6 system into this environment and make it run seamlessly.

My initial reading and second-hand information seems to indicate that this may not be possible on the native OSX 10.6 system. I'm concerned.

Any ideas as to how to accomplish this task and make everybody happy?

Thanks

PS: I have never used an Apple OSX system.

The company that I am working for is embarking on replacing the current locally developed NIS/YP structure with LDAP.

We already have AD in house for the Windows stuff and would like to consider using an AD system. The AD people are quite restrictive and would not support extensive modifications.

We have needs to have the replacement include the support the full capabilities of the NIS/YP suite include netgroups, login restrictions to specific servers for specific users or groups of users, consistent passwords between the *nix and Windows environment,etc. Our environment is a mixture of Linux (suse, RH, Debian), Sun, IBM, HP and MPRAS as well as a NETAPP. So whatever we use must be totally inclusive to all environment.

We have looked at Likewise, but our management wants other alternatives to compare with.

What other things should I be looking at and what is you assessment of the alternative?

Thanks

In the SuSE /etc/crontab the entry to run the cron.{hourly,daily,monthly,weekly} scripts is coded as:

-*/15 * * * *   root  test -x /usr/lib/cron/run-crons && /usr/lib/cron/run-crons >/dev/null 2>&1

Notice that the very first character of the specification is a dash character (-), and this is NOT a typo.

Can somebody explain what the time spec -*/15 means?

BTW, the stuff seems to be running fine.

I'm not an AIX guru.....I've been assigned to patch my systems up to the latest patch level.

First, where do I get the patches for AIX 5.1 and 5.3?

Second, how are they generally installed (i.e. commands and procedures).

Thanks for your help.

An interesting question. I have logged into a Linux (most likely SuSE) host. Is there some way that I can tell programmatically that I am a VM host or not?

Also assume that the vmtools are not installed.

I have just started a gig and have inherited a large collection of heterogeneous UNIX systems of the following flavors all running: hpux (11.11, 11.31), aix, mpras, sun solaris (sun 8 9 10), redhat (as3, as4, as5) , and suse (9 10 11). What would be the ideal from management's point of view is to have all of these systems configuration controlled and managed from hopefully one program. It is understood that each of these operating systems will have different base configurations. The items to be managed include patches, packages, and configuration files.

I have just started looking at cfengine, and looking at some type of do-it-yourself hybrid using subversion.

Management would prefer to use a commercial package if possible and was wondering if you all had any ideas of this type of application or vendors?

Thanks for your ideas, pointers, experiences, etc.

Since the beginning the standard UNIX/Linux systems support sparse files, this is a file which contains unused space that is unallocated until needed. To review, to generate via a C program: create a file, position to 2G, write ONE byte, close file. Doing an ls -l shows the size to be 2G....however ls -ls shows the size in blocks to be closer to a one byte file. If you logically access the file (i.e. cp sparse_file xxx) the resulting file xxx will indeed contain a fully allocated 2Gbytes.

I have created sparse files in the past as a testing vehicle for some of applications. However, their existence has caused a few problems.

The important problem is that outside of the 'dump' program, backup programs and general procedures access these type of files logically and thus for a 1 byte sparse file one gets a backup w/ 2G of 0'd data. This has caused some upset backup folks when I do this.

Any good solutions for this type of situation?

I'm new to the FreeBSD release, but am very familiar with many Linux releases. I'm attempting to (1) keep my system updated, and (2) install new packages under FreeBSD 7.2. So is there an equivalent to the yum/yast/apt-get on the other Linux systems on FreeBSD? If so, what is it and how do I use it?

Thanks!

I seem to recall over the years moves to try to stop the requirement of having a WINS nameservice as part of a Windows environment.

My question is whether sites are still utilizing WINS or have switched over to something else and no longer need WINS. If so, anybody want to share their experiences?

Thanks.

Based on what you all see out there what is a recommended configuration of /tmp on a server system and why. I've had discussions on these points over the years sometimes with basic disagreements.

The following are basically the questions I see. Some might suggest that these questeions be asked with several questions, however, I think it might be easier for administrators if this information was under one heading. I'm sure this will be informative.

Specifically for /tmp:

1. Should ln -s /var/tmp /tmp?

2. Should /tmp be preserved between reboots or not?

3. Should /tmp be on a real disk area or allowed to be implemented basically on the SWAP area (or tmpfs)?

4. Should /tmp be on a different disk from the / (root) disk?

5. Would you place /tmp on a different disk controller from the / (root) disk?

6. Any rules of thumb for the size of /tmp?

7. How would you manage /tmp space while the system is up? Delete all files > certain age? Leave area alone until it reaches a %age of max?

8. Should any procedural items be placed into effect to govern this area?

Just how much IP V6 addressing is really in typical use out there?

I see that Linux/UNIX seems to be ready for this. But I don't see the readiness as much as the Windows side. Especially not for desktop user systems.

In my wanderings I have not seen IPV6 widely implemented or used.

Personally, I'm not quite thrilled with the addresses syntax as it is longer, and reminds me of MAC addresses with all the :'s.

Secondary question: Are we all ready to use IPV6 in our daily lives?

Thanks.