VxJasonxV's questions

I have two RedHat 4 Servers. The client is 4.6, the server is 4.5. I'm attempting to mount a share from the server, onto the client via NFS.

The /etc/exports configuration is as follows:

/opt/data/config bkup(rw,no_root_squash,async)
/opt/data/db bkup(rw,no_root_squash,async)

exportfs returns these (among other) shares, nfs is running according to ps output.

I've been attempting to use autofs on the client, but have opted to just mount the share manually considering the issues I'm having.

So, I issue the mount request:
mount dist:/opt/data/config /mnt/config

mount: dist:/opt/data/config failed, reason given by server: Permission denied

Ok, so let's see what the server has to say for itself.

May 6 23:17:55 dist mountd[3782]: authenticated mount request from bkup:662 for /opt/data/config (/opt/data/config)

It says it allowed the mount to take place.

How can I diagnose why the client and server are disagreeing on the result?

I have a server that Kernel Panics every once in a while, and I'm trying to get all of the output in order to debug it further.

It is running RedHat 4, so the kernel version is only 2.6.9, too old for kexec or kdump. Thus, I have a serial cable between servers, running screen on each server to connect to /dev/ttyS0.

Whenever the problematic server kernel panics, the output is completely garbled. It appears that something else is being written out, and the ascii values are being added (or subtracted?) to come up with some other value. Example follows;

invAlidoperanD: 0000 [1]SMP
odqles liNked in8 nfs nfsd expoppfshocKd nFs_acl Arport_pc lp parpopp aupofs0 i0c_dEv i0c_cOre sunppc ds yEnta_soCketpcmCia_corE dm_mipror Dm_modqttOn bAptery aCmd5 ipv4 joydetehcI_hC` uhci_Hcd hw_rAndoi bLx2 ext3jbd Ata_piix liBatacciss mptsCsihiptsas Mptspi mptsCsi MptbAse sd_Mod scsi_moD
PId: 6839 cottaInteD 2.6.9-15.smp
RIP: 0010:[]{unmap_hugepAge_ranGe+32}
RSP:0018:00000102067d9c38 EFLAGS: 00210006
AX: 086d344780c22Ef1 RX:0000010001079360 RCX: 086d304780a22ecf
RDX: 086d304780c22ef1 RSI: 0000000000200022DI8 000001018d919068
RBP8 086d344780c2"Ef1 R08:0000000000000000 B09: 00000000fffDfffA

As a result, this information is nearly worthless to me, especially considering addresses and values could be tainted as a result.

I sent 10 paragraphs of Lorem Ipsum sentences into /dev/ttyS0, and it came out exactly as it went in. I've also tried reversing the Serial Cable just out of curiosity, nothing seems to have changed.

I'm at a loss for what else I could do, both to diagnose the kernel panic's, and to clean up the output so that we can ensure we're looking at correct information.

We run a mailserver on OSX server, and a few mailing lists. The password/subscription reminds USED to come out at 8AM (local), but in the past months it's moved to 5AM, a nuisance to all involved.

It would appear that mailman has been modified by Apple because there is no cronjob entry I can find that controls when these reminder notices come out, and I haven't found any launch agent/daemon plists that would control this ether. Nor have I found anything in the mailman configuration web pages.

So... where are they?! Due to the specific-announcement style of use, they're a fairly worthless message to be originated, and they are a huge bother when announcing to support phones.

I do some technical work for an Internet Radio Show/Podcast, and need to fix something that has been broken for a while. The hosts have a Skype-In number to take listener calls, and for convenience sake, I bought and paid for a toll free number for a period of time.

I used to use Asterlink for routing calls, but they folded and sent my number to OneBox, but they're ridiculously expensive by comparison. I'm looking for a cheap solution for this one simple task. Forward toll free calls to a skype-in number.

The Skype-In number has a local California Area Code, and the Toll Free number prefix is 866. Our targeted users is the whole world, but given that the radio show uses Skype, the toll free number is more convenience for our US listeners, technically international users could use it, just as well as they could use the dial by username.

The definition of cheap is as cheap or cheaper than Asterlink was. I paid something like $2 a month, and then the termination/call rate, which was a fraction of a cent for termination, and only whole cents after some serious time on the call. A $20 preload lasted me months at a time.

I don't want to be upsold too, I want a simple web based management screen (CDR/stats are fun!), and obviously, it needs to be reliable. What vendors out there are you a fan of that solves this need?

We run a webapp via an unprivileged user, on unprivileged ports. A startup script is executed as root solely to set iptables REDIRECT rules, then drop privileges and start up the app.

I'm trying to monitor this webapp with NAGIOS, but the default "check_http" plugin shipped in nagios-plugins is failing to connect to the web server on port 80. NAGIOS runs on the same host as the webapp.

I want to monitor on port 80, because that's how users will be connecting, so I want to ensure it's being forwarded adequately, etc.

The NAGIOS configuration specifies the host's address as it's eth0 private IP address. Running the check_http script against that IP address yields:

# libexec/check_http -H 192.168.20.15
Connection refused
HTTP CRITICAL - Unable to open TCP socket

However, if I specify the loopback address locally, it works.

# libexec/check_http -H localhost
HTTP OK: HTTP/1.1 200 OK - 8007 bytes in 0.035 second response time|time=0.034517s;;;0.000000 size=8007B;;;0

Connections from other hosts to port 80 on this webapp server work ok. But I want to understand why I can't locally monitor it on port 80 via eth0 as opposed to lo.

Our iptables rules are empty except for the nat table:

*nat
:PREROUTING ACCEPT [2036:252802]
:POSTROUTING ACCEPT [478669:34376409]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [475605:34192517]
-A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 7999
-A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 7998
-A OUTPUT -d 127.0.0.1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 7999
-A OUTPUT -d 127.0.0.1 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 7998
COMMIT

This has been bugging me for some time, because I haven't bothered to sit down and write down what exactly is going on.

Our RedHat server network configuration is all over the map. Across a fleet of servers installed RH4 and RH5, sometimes we manage networking information in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices, sometimes in /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default and sometimes /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts.

I understand when the "profiles" come into play, the redhat-config-network application (aka. system-config-network for CentOS and other offshoots) writes files there when used, and otherwise I believe the defaults are set up initially in networking/devices.

Assuming configuration files resided in all three of these key directories, in which order are they evaluated for use, and are they on an atomic directory level, or does order take place for every individual file?

Meaning, if I have an ifcfg-eth1 in whatever is the highest ordered directory, and nothing else, and an ifcfg-eth0 in the second order directory, will the eth0 configuration be considered, or will it be skipped and eth1 the only configured device?

Are there any crontab interface "shortcuts" in any (compatible/compliant) version of cron? We run some scripts with a regular interval, but offset.

I dislike lines like this;

3,8,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,53,58 * * * * command

I believe I have tried something like;

3/5 * * * * command
and
*/5+3 * * * * command before to no avail.

Is there any way to normalize/shrink cron entries with offset schedules such as the above?

The company I work for produces software that takes in Gigabytes of data a day, and outputs (lesser amounts of) Gigs a day. We have a significant infrastructure for managing data flow, and by significant I mean significantly bad. When we require a new type of data in our software, we develop a script for pulling data from an HTTP or FTP source, drop it on a server, and go. There are often complaints of over/under-utilization across most of our servers, but we have no good way for managing the balance of resources spent retrieving / writing out data.

Is there a software package that is designed to manage data transfer externally (retrieval) as well as passing it around from server-to-server inside our network?

I'm looking for something that offers;

• A common base for simplifying the design of download scripts.
• A logging/monitoring framework for knowing what's going on, what may have not been retrieved, etc. (Bonus points if the monitoring aspect can integrate into NAGIOS.)
• A single location for viewing the status of download tasks, etc. (i.e. A Dashboard)
• An implementation meant to be run across multiple servers, with ultimately what amounts to multiple server download slaves.
• Simplicity (relatively speaking). Again, we're trying to get off of a nightmare infrastructure.

My boss refuses to allow private IP addresses into a public DNS definition. So I am unable to put the private SVN box IP (svn.ourcompany.com) into a .com DNS record. It exists only at svn.ourcompany.local

I don't mind this, ultimately, except when it comes to SSL.

Is there a popular (root CA cert pre-installed in all OSes) CA that signs .local certificate requests? It doesn't need to have any bells and whistles, no wild card, it can even cost a nominal fee.

I really don't want to go around and install a self-rolled root CA in every user's computer, and have to redo it when something changes. It's just annoying.

At work, I have a few legacy servers that I log into as root, and then su down to a user. I continue to run into an issue where after doing so, I am unable to run screen as this user.

I don't want to open screen as root, because then I have to consciously su down the user every new shell, and I often forget.

The question is, is there an easier resolution to this than I'm currently aware of? My current solution is to find my terminal pts number, then set it chmod 666.

I'm looking for something akin to X11's xhost ACL management, if such a thing exists for this situation.

We've started a small debate in the office, and I've hit the point where I no longer have the technical knowledge to continue.

Is there such a thing as having too many IP addresses? I'm not suggesting we use the entire private 10.* Class A, but I don't see why we couldn't if we wanted too.

I honestly think "subnet fragmentation" is an outdated way of thinking, but I'm want to continue the technical discussion.

Currently, our primary subnet mask is configured to use 4 class B's, which is way overkill in terms of the sheer number of available IP addresses, for our small business.

But the question is, what problems (if any) does having a wide private IP space create?

I'm looking to bind to a port for SSH tunnelling via a simple shell script (likely: BASH), and I'd like a more ... "sane" manner of testing whether or not the port is already bound to another process, and I'd rather not like to grok (read: grep) the output of netstat.

Is there some command or utility that makes doing this sane? I either have terrible google-fu and a terrible vocabulary, or most people don't try to iterate over ports programmatically via a shell, but instead via a programming language.