Kickstart is an automatic installation method natively available on those distributions which uses the Anaconda installer: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and its clones) and Fedora. It can also be used to install Ubuntu, actually, but in that context it acts as a layer of compatibility to the debian-native preseeding method. With Kickstart we can perform unattended, customizable and reproducible installations.
System Administration
How to restart NGINX on Linux
NGINX is popular web hosting and reverse proxy software for Linux systems. Like many other applications and services, it occasionally needs restarted. Restarting is especially common when making updates to configuration files. You’ll always need to restart or reload NGINX for the changes to take effect.
In this article, we’ll go over a couple different command line options for restarting and reloading an NGINX server. In addition, you’ll learn how to check the NGINX configuration file for mistakes before restarting NGINX. After all, you wouldn’t want to load up a configuration that contains errors.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to reload NGINX (no effect on client connections)
- How to completely restart NGINX
How to backup and restore an xfs filesystem using xfsdump and xfsrestore
XFS is a journaled filesystem originally developed by Silicon Graphics in 1993; it was released under the GPL license in the year 2000 and ported to the Linux kernel in 2001. Due to its high scalability and performances, XFS became the default filesystem in recent versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its clones.
QEMU vs VirtualBox: What’s the difference?
Virtualization is a helpful technology that has exploded in popularity and accessibility in the last decade. There are many great reasons to use virtual machines, such as having a test environment separate from your host operating system. It also allows you to run multiple operating systems or Linux distros simultaneously – all inside of their own sandboxed environment, with optional network interconnectivity among your machines.
QEMU vs KVM hypervisor: What’s the difference?
Users have a lot of choices when it comes to virtualization on a Linux system. There are many use cases for virtualization, whether you want to have a test system that is isolated from your host system, test out a different Linux distribution, or even run a completely different operating system. Whatever the case may be, you will need to have a hypervisor. A hypervisor is what manages and allows you to interact with your virtual machines.
Share your desktop screen with VNC on Linux
VNC is a system that allows you to remotely control another computer. It allows you to relay your mouse and keyboard inputs as if you were physically sitting in front of the system, when in fact you could be on the other side of the world. It works well for sharing your desktop screen with another user, whether you want to grant them the ability to control your computer or just be able to see what you are doing on it (with mouse and keyboard input blocked).
How to obtain Linux’s system load average report
Obtaining the load average of your server(s) will shed some light on the system’s CPU usage over time. As a Linux system administrator, it is essential to obtain the load average occasionally, as to determine whether or not your systems are overwhelmed by trying to handle the current work load. Because of the way load averages are reported, it is also easy to determine if the server is being overloaded, which may mean it is time to divide up the work load across load balancing servers, or upgrade your current hardware.
How to clone a Linux system
Making a clone of your Linux system is a great way to make a complete backup. This type of backup would preserve all your system and personal files, as well as any customizations and settings that you have applied to your operating system over time (assuming everything is on one hard drive). Cloning and restoring a Linux system is relatively easy, since Linux will not encounter errors if you clone it onto different hardware – at worst, you may have a few hiccups, such as the need to uninstall and install necessary drivers.
How to add new disk to existing Linux system
When you are adding a new disk to an existing Linux system, you will need to format and partition it, add a file system to it, and then mount the disk to some path where you plan to access it from. This might sound complex or like a lot of steps, but it really only takes a few minutes. The following tutorial will make it very easy.
How to keep configuration files under version control with Etckeeper
On Linux-based operating system the /etc directory is used to hold global configuration files for applications and services. A good set of configurations is really important for a good working system, so being able to keep track of changes and quickly revert them, in case something go wrong, is crucial. Etckeeper helps us achieve this goal keeping configuration files under version control.
Clone / Burn Encrypted DVD using Linux
Hollywood movies that have been released on DVD or Blu Ray will usually come with encryption on the disk to help hinder pirated copies from making it online or for sale on the street. Much to Hollywood’s dismay, this encryption is easily foiled by any Linux system user with even a rudimentary knowledge of technology. By default, applications like Brasero will refuse to read these encrypted disks, but you will see how to overcome that obstacle shortly. In this tutorial, we will show you how to clone or burn an encrypted DVD using Linux.
How to list and manage files attributes on Linux
When using Linux we have many ways to manage access to resources: the most basic one is by setting the appropriate UGO/RWX permissions on files and directories. In some occasions we may also want to make use of the setuid, the setgid and the sticky bit. Furthermore, we can use ACLs (Access Control List) in order to achieve an higher level of granularity or implement Mandatory Access Control security such those based SELinux or AppArmor.
In addition to the strategies mentioned above, on most filesystems we can manipulate a set of “attributes” in order, for example, to make a file immutable.