System Administration Solution Vault

Securing Linux Server is essential to protect our data from the hackers. But securing a server doesn’t require to be complicated .We should adopt a method that will protect our server from the most frequent attacks along with efficient administration . However, don’t take things for granted. Even the most hardened servers can be hijacked by exploiting any vulnerable component running on that server. 1. Install what you need The first rule is to keep your server lean and mean. Install only those packages that you really need. If there are unwanted packages; purge. The fewer the packages the less chance of unpatched code. 2. Turn on SELinux Security-Enhanced Linux ( SELinux ) is an access control security mechanism provided in the kernel. SELinux provides 3 basic modes of operation : Enforcing : This is default mode which enable and enforce the SELinux security policy on the machine. Permissive : In this mode, SELinux will not enforce the security policy on t...

Question: On my DELL PowerEdge server, the front LCD displays “ E1810 HDD 1 fault ” error message. How do I fix this issue? Answer: The message itself is self explanatory as it says “HDD 1 fault” indicating that the hard drive #1 failed. Following are my recommendations on what you can do to fix this. Verify the Hard Drive Status If the failed hard drive is part of RAID-1, none of the application running on the server would’ve impacted. View the status of that hard drive to make sure it says “disk fault” or something similar from the PERC controller. If you have installed DELL OMSA or Dellmgr , you can verify the status of the hard disk without rebooting the server. If you don’t have OMSA or Dellmgr, you should restart the system to launch the PERC configuration utility . In this case, don’t bother with the reboot, as hard drive replacement is just a plug and play. Remove the faulty Hard Drive If you have support contract with DELL, call them and provide y...

Question: How do I find out the DELL service tag and express code of a PowerEdge server that is running VMWare ESXi (or VMWare Server)? Answer: Depending on what you are running (i.e VMWare ESXi or VMWare Server), use one of the methods shown below to identify the DELL service tag. Method 1: Identify DELL Service TAG on VMWare Server If you’ve installed VMWare server on a base OS, you can login to the base OS, and use dmidecode to get the service tag as shown below. This is just like how you identify service tag for DELL poweredge servers on a normal non-virtual server that is running a Linux OS. # dmidecode | more Handle 0x0100, DMI type 1, 25 bytes. System Information Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation Product Name: PowerEdge 2850 Serial Number: H234567     Refer to View DELL Service Tag and Express Service Code From Linux and Windows for more details. Method 2: Identify DELL Service TAG on VMWare ESXi If you’ve instal...

A Brief History of Linux Operating Systems fShare While 99% of us were going through the ordeal of trying to work with either the Microsoft horizontal monopoly or the Apple vertical monopoly, there has been a third option growing in the weeds. Free open source tools, such as Linux, began in the early 1990s when some very forward thinking computer programmers insisted on freedom from the rigid patent structure imposed by commercial outfits like Microsoft and Apple. The free software movement began in 1984 when Richard Stallman left MIT and founded GNU in order to create free software programs. GNU is an acronym for “Gnu is Not Unix.” Richard Stallman stated that GNU is a “technical means to a social end.” The social end was freeing knowledge from the clutches of private corporate monopolies – much like Thomas Jefferson advocated for our public schools as being an essential foundation of our Democracy. Richard was also following the example of Henry Ford, who challenged t...