RootPrompt -- Nothing but Unix

News and information for Unix Sysadmins

Holy smokes! A holey file! (24 Mar 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

I like ZFS. Lots of cools stuff. Even though if we upgraded to Solaris 1 at work we would probably not implement it. SANs take away a lot of the reasons for it, least that is how it looks to me."First, let's review a little bit about how ZFS works. By default, when ZFS writes anything, it generates a checksum which is recorded someplace else, presumably safe. Actually, the checksum is recorded at least twice, just to be doubly sure it is correct. And that record is also checksummed. Back
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11590

Monitory Mainframe Sessions Remotely (24 Mar 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

Users access zOS mainframes using a 327 terminal emulator such as IBM Personal Communications. In this article, learn how to build a simple shell script for Linux or UNIX that gives you a second terminal emulator to view everything a mainframe user is doing in real time.
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11589

Using Python to create UNIX command line tools (21 Mar 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

Do you fully understand the OSI model Are you comfortable with subnetting Do you understand UNIX permissions By the end of this article, anyone involved in IT at any capacity should be able to create at least a simple command line tool.
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11587

Happy 15th birthday NetBSD! (21 Mar 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

The NetBSD Project celebrates its 15th anniversary: The first commits were made to the NetBSD source code repository on March 21, 1993, and the first release of the NetBSD Operating System, NetBSD .8, was announced on USENET shortly thereafter. Throughout the past fifteen years, NetBSD has increased the portability and security of the 4.4BSD operating system on which NetBSD was based, and added support for new processor and system families, while enhancing the system's performance to s
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11586

Prepare a Self-Installing Drive for Blade Servers (21 Mar 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

Build a bootable, self-installing hard disk drive for an IBM BladeCenter HS2 blade server running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 1 following these nine easy steps. When the system boots from this drive for the first time, it automatically begins to install Linux on the disk, which eases the task of preloading the operating system and lightens user workload.
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11585

DTraceToolkit in MacOS X (18 Mar 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

Dtrace looks like a great tool. Perhaps the best thing to come out in a while for troubleshooting."Apple included DTrace in MacOS X 1.5 (Leopard), released in October 27. It's great to have DTrace available in MacOS X for its powerful application and kernel performance analysis. To think that there is now another kernel we can examine using DTrace is exciting - it's like discovering a new planet in the solar system." The Wall: DTraceToolkit in MacOS X
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11582

A look into Solaris, by Derek Crudgington (18 Mar 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

"Solaris x86 jumpstart on ISC DHCP If you are using the Solaris dhcp server, stop now. Save yourself hours of time of trying to figure out pntadm, dhtadm, and just use ISC DHCP on Solaris. It's very simple, painless, and you will be glad you did." A look into Solaris, by Derek Crudgington
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11583

Unattended Fedora 8 Installation (8 Apr 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

This document describes how to set up an installation environment with kickstart and NFS on Fedora 8. With the resulting system you will be able run unattended Fedora 8 installations on the client systems in your LAN - additionally, you will save lots of Internet bandwidth. The whole client configuration can be included into the kickstart file (especially the post-installation script) so you, the admin, will also save a vast amount of time.
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11598

Visually Impaired Flash Usability Tool (21 Apr 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

aDesigner is a disability simulator that helps designers ensure that their content and applications are accessible and usable by the visually impaired. The new version adds support for OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Flash content; presentation simulation function for ODF documents.
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11600

Redundant Array Of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) (29 May 2008) - (Found July 8, 2008 )

The storage capacity and data retrieval speeds of Hard Disks have increased multiple folds in last few years. However for large business organizations, which not only need to store terabytes of invaluable data but access them frequently as well. These organizations cannot afford to let their systems go offline even for a short duration of time. Moreover they cannot even think of losing even small amount of data due to disk failure or for that matter any other reason.
http://rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=11616