Ever try to setup iptables in a redundant configuration? That’s exactly what I recently set out to accomplish and after a few bumps, figured out a nice clean way to accomplish it. Granted, I don’t yet have a way to do state failover but for my environment that wasn’t a concern. That being said, this was accomplished using iptables and keepalived. I did not use ipvs. I just built two iptables systems and installed keepalived. vrrp is done on the…
Thought I’d share this little script. Basically what I needed to do was build a way to track what hard drives were connected to my linux raid arrays along with their serial numbers and temperatures. This script requires hdparm and hddtemp which are both readily available on most distros. #!/bin/bash # set LANG for encoding celcius symbol, UTF-8 screws it up LANG=en_US IFS=$’\n’ for file in /dev/md[0-9]*; do VAL=`mdadm -D $file`; for line in $VAL; do if [[ $line =~…
As a long running advocate of Linux, I know I’m stepping out of my usual terrain but I think it has to be said by a competent computer user: Yes, you can run Vista. Don’t get me wrong, I still have both desktop and server installations of Linux and love it dearly. I also have a desktop that runs Vista. In fact I took it a step further and run 64-bit Vista and other than Quicken 2008 which gets shut…
The latest addition to the ManGeek’s computing power is a new PC. The old laptop, while quite capable, was just not satisfactory for geekdom. Anyone who’s seen a ham radio operator today knows what happens when geeks get out of touch with the times. Thus I decided to push the limits on a reasonable budget and build a liquid cooled system. Picture a radiator on your car and you have the same concept for a PC. The radiator mounts on…
If there’s ever been a touchy subject to deal with parents, it’s the raising of their children. Unfortunately in some cases it can be even worse if the parents know their own deficiencies but choose instead of facing them to let poor behaviors continue. (It’s not hard to be an Ostrich with your head in the sand.) …on that note, has anyone ever seen an Ostrich with its head in the sand? But I digress. I’m going to do my…
Some day a brilliant geneticist will discover a gene present in all masculine people that makes us want to do things bigger than before. That very gene drives us to the verge of insanity for goals that may not ever actually make our lives better. I think it also has something to do with why most redneck deaths begin with the words “Hey man, check this out!” Still, in my quest to satisfy this genetic craving (oh yes, it’s all…
CNN has published two competing commentaries regarding “Net Neutrality”. The first one argues that this debate comes from telecom companies wanting to squeeze companies for more money. The second commentary argues that the Internet is in need of upgrades and that this bill should be footed by the companies that use it. It should be no surprise that I agree with the first commentary. The Internet is a scientific creation. Science is built on fact and not speculation. Here are…
There’s so much huff and puff lately about “government wire-taps”. So many people are freaking out about the erosion of civil liberties or discussing how it’s simply “illegal”. Well the facts remain: Any evidence found in a tapped call where there was no warrant is not admissible as evidence in a court of law. This means if someone does admit to committing a crime, they can’t be charged with that being used as evidence. People are losing their minds worrying…
Recently the CEO of BellSouth made some rather strong comments regarding data flowing over the Internet. To summarize, he said that companies are using their data lines to send people information and they aren’t paying for it. (For more details, look at this article.) I know many people don’t think about the money that funds Internet operations but lets put it together, shall we? 1) The end user (or company) pays an ISP for a data line. You do NOT…
All the rage has lately centered around the recent escalation of a “Denial of Service” Internet Explorer vulnerability that has suddenly without warning become a “remote-code execution” vulnerability. Ok, patch your systems, lock your windows and post a dog at the front door. All that aside, this raises again the issue of software patching response times and best-practice software coding. There are a number of people who are very upset at this, not because it’s yet another browser-directed exploit or…
