Web Site Server Response Script
In: Linux| Maintenance| Scripts| Security| apache| pci compliance
5 Dec 2009Here’s a quick little script to test what your web server is telling the world:
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- Tags: apache, Linux, pci compliance, Security
Audio Clip Editing for Dave…
28 Nov 2009So, I’m a fan of the Sick and Wrong Podcast. I often enjoy spreading the word about said program as I’ve found that many of the people I interact with have a similar passion for this planet’s oddities. Dave, however, has been especially resistant to my requests to audit this fine program. His typical response is a cynical jab: “Do you watch Fringe”. This makes sense because I have been opposed to spending 30 minutes of my time on this rock to view this program ( Fringe )… Which leads me to my next point.
Opening a single episode and finding that you are 1.5 hours from completion can be daunting. I’ve closed many a youtube video as soon as I realize it’s going to last more than 20 or 30 seconds. Thus I can understand Dave’s apprehension. It’s difficult to invest 1+ hours of your internet time in a single location. And assuming you like it, you’re immediately 201 episodes behind. At an average run time of 1.5 hours you’re talking 12.5 earth days of catching up.
At any rate, my task today is to grab a short clip from the most recent podcast to pass along to Dave in hopes that he will climb aboard with the rest of us. Of course, I’m a audio/video idiot which makes it a bit of a challenge. Sure, people do this all the time, I however do not.
** Dave, please skip to the end of this article for your clip **
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- Tags: application, audacity, Audio, Linux, mp3, podcast, sound, ubuntu
There’s lots of reasons to steer away from a nicely packaged version of apache. Most recently I needed to do this for a custom build of curl and cAres, but whatever your reason, you’ll find yourself with an apachectrl that’s not quite ready to be used with chkconfig.
The fix is really simple, chkconfig wants to see 2 lines in your apachectrl that tell it what it is and what to do with it. At that point, chkconfig will recognize the service as your script name. So here it is:
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- Tags: apache, apachectrl, chkconfig, customization, httpd, Linux, script, Software, web server, webserver
How To Make Sendmail Relay Everything
In: Education| Linux| Scripts| Workaround
10 Jul 2009I knew I had done this before, but all the explanations I found today were amazingly long and convoluted, which is not what I remembered from the first go around.
Basically, I wanted sendmail to take all inbound email and immediately relay it to another host. In my situation it makes sense because my servers have no direct access to the outside world (security thing). But in reality with the complexities involved in sending email these days, why bother setting up every host or every NAT to be capable of dependably delivering email.
So the solution is, setup one host that you know is a good mail host, and one host that you can monitor for throughput, then point all your other hosts at it for delivery. Piece of cake right? Odd that it took me 30 minutes and then a final trip to the sendmail documentation to find it.
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- Tags: directive, email, email relay, inbound email, Linux, mail, relay, relay email, script, sendmail, smtp
Strip MP3s from YouTube with ffmpeg.
9 Jul 2009Here’s a nifty little script that will take a YouTube URL as an argument, pull down the associated flv and convert it into mp3 format. It’s basically all shell but I wrapped it with php.
First:
Take the YouTube URL as an argument
$url = $argv[1];
Dell Switches, Digi Console Servers and Linux Serial Ports
In: Hardware| Network| Workaround
4 Jul 2009What a day… So we have a fancy new(new to us) Dell 6000 series switch, a 6224 actually. As it turns out, our typical remote serial solution won’t work with this switch. Normally we’ll connect the console port of these switches to a Digi Passport Server. The network has 2 entry points, so if we need to work on any device that may cause an outage at either entry point, we have options to maintain connectivity.
Getting Rid Of MySQL Binary Logs
In: Database| Maintenance| MySQL
25 Jun 2009If you’re in charge of a mysql database that does any sort of volume, you might find yourself in the peculiar situation where your binary logs have piled up to an unmanageble level. Typically you’ll use the binary logs for replication from a master server to a slave. This may not always be the case though. The bottom line is, if you have binary logging enabled in your my.cnf you’ll be producing and stockpiling binlogs.
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- Tags: binary, binary logs, logs, master, MySQL, mysql master, MySql Slave, slave
The Beauty of mysqlcheck
In: Database| Maintenance| MySQL| Repair
22 Jun 2009I manage a ton of mysql databases, from single wordpress instances, to clusters, to systems that have a core data structure that selectively replicates out to as many as 50 systems. Fortunately, or maybe not, they seldom have issues and after setup, other than disk space issues, I seldom have to touch them.
Recently, as I was migrating a set of DBs from an aquired company onto new hardware in a new location, I ran across a DB that seemed to consistently become corrupt. It was usually the larger tables and typically on the slave system. At first, it was bad enough that I blamed the hardware. So the box was replaced and things went well for a while. Recently the head developer for this system came to me with corrupted tables. He was seeing the output in his code and was feeding me the tables so that I could repair them. We did them one by one and it became clear that I really needed to check the whole DB.
Connect to Ustream.tv Chat With An IRC Client
In: Workaround
21 Jun 2009If you have a favorite room on ustream.tv and you can’t stand the web based chat client, you can easily attach to their IRC server and take control of your experience.
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- Tags: 3rd party website, chat, IRC, pidgin, ustream
Disk Imaging with Partimage
31 May 2009I’ve been looking for an easy way to do some imaging so I can swap back to a clean Ubuntu load that has a certain amount of prep done in a relatively quick fashion. What I think I’m going to use is partimage . Here’s the breakdown of how I’m doing it:
I have 2 machines. My main Ubuntu box which has a ton of storage on it, and a crappy old gateway thats got about a 20GB disk.
I do a clean load of whichever Ubuntu version I want to image on the gateway.
Next, I add any custom packages, network keys, etc etc, to the newly loaded box.
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