The administration tag has no wiki summary.
0
votes
1answer
101 views
Should I use useradd or adduser?
I am trying to add a new user to the system. I am confused though which command to run: useradd or adduser?
4
votes
1answer
57 views
Distributing Updates to VirtualBox Images with (Bandwith) Efficency
I'm currently responsible for a lab of machines that all need to run the same virtual machines. I want to automate my current setup of distributing VirtualBox virtual machines via rsync (erasing any ...
0
votes
1answer
51 views
LPIC-1 for non-professional experienced user
I am interested in trying out the LPIC-1 certification however I am slightly worried that I may not have the needed professional experience to pass. I am still studying hard and running a lab with a ...
0
votes
3answers
55 views
How to limit administrative privileges to various config files?
I want one administrator to be able to edit the /etc/fstab file but one administrator to not be able to edit the fstab file.
Both administrators need access to all other administrative tasks.
Is ...
0
votes
1answer
80 views
Add a new user steps for Oracle Linux 5
It's been over 10 years since I last used RedHat (which I believe that Oracle Linux came from). So I cannot remember the steps to create a new user, add them to the appropriate groups, set up their ...
2
votes
3answers
155 views
How can I see which package manager is running?
I'm on Debian 6.0.5 (squeeze) and every now and then I see the following icon in the notifications area of the GNOME2 pannel: but black instead of red. It reads A package manager is working. Usually ...
2
votes
4answers
183 views
Hardware and software inventorying
Objective
Collect hardware and software information from lab computers, respecting students' privacy.
Type of information to collect
Examples:
System memory
Bash verion
JVM version
Operating ...
2
votes
2answers
489 views
SELinux: Can I disable copying of certain files?
Please excuse me if this is too basic and you're tempted to throw an RTFM at me.
I want to prevent users from copying certain files while granting them read access to the same files. I thought this ...
1
vote
1answer
271 views
Rehashing /etc/shadow. Can I force NIS users to change password?
I'm currently migrating a CentOS environment to a Debian one. The users log in over the network using NIS. I was hoping to copy /etc/shadow from my old server to my new one so that we can offer ...
0
votes
1answer
101 views
How do I safely perform the below changes to network parameters on Solaris 10?
I need to change and test some TCP/IP network parameters on a Oracle Solaris 10 as a possible workaround for a bug in 'Oracle Hyperion EPM 11.2.1.0' in the development environment.
I am not a ...
2
votes
2answers
36 views
Reassign users to a single group
Right now one of our server is setup such that all users are in their own group. Is it possible to reassign them to a single group and then allow each user READ only access to other user's ...
6
votes
6answers
362 views
How to prevent a mistaken rm -rf for specific folders?
I think pretty much people here mistakenly 'rm -rf'ed the wrong directory, and hopefully it did not cause a huge damage.. Is there any way to prevent users from doing a similar unix horror story?? ...
3
votes
1answer
138 views
How can I set a directory maximum size?
Is there an easy way to cap the size of a directory? I don't think there is but just wanted to make sure. I would like to set max directory sizes for some user home dirs as well as some other dirs, ...
2
votes
4answers
448 views
How can I assign an initial/default password to a user in Linux?
I found a guide that explains how to set a user's password. I'm trying to automate it and send an e-mail to the user like:
userid created with password XYZ.
request to change the initial password.
...
0
votes
1answer
136 views
How do I force a user to log out? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do you kick a benign user off your system?
I'm trying to remove a user account with the userdel -r command. However, it says that it is unable to remove the user ...
2
votes
2answers
88 views
How do I check active crons?
I'm trying to hunt down a cron job (or the equivalent) which I know is running, but I can't find it in the default cron files for my system (FreeBSD / Linux / BSD). How can I tell which ones are ...
1
vote
3answers
2k views
CentOS 6 - nameserver entry in resolve.conf resetting after restarting network services?
In /etc/resolv.conf, I've changed the nameserver line to a new IP address. After saving and exiting, I run service network restart. I then go open /etc/resolve.conf again and see that the IP address ...
1
vote
1answer
75 views
Package managers for local installations under home directory [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Non-Root Package Managers
I work extensively on a remote system where I do not have admin rights. However, I am allowed to install my own binaries and programs under my ...
0
votes
2answers
38 views
How do I get a list of all enabled media in Mageia via CLI?
I have read URPMI from Mageia wiki but there seems to be no mention of how I can check the currently enabled media using urpmi command. There is urpmi.addmedia and urmpi.removemedia. So I tried doing ...
1
vote
1answer
55 views
Embedding a cmap in moinmoin
I'd like to embed a cmap in a moinmoin wiki page. I generated the cmap using dia.
I then copy pasted the generated html code, modified it to point to the png image I attached to the wiki. However ...
5
votes
5answers
323 views
Which tasks to learn and which books to read to become more skilled at Unix/Linux internals? [closed]
I recently interviewed at a major company and did well on programming questions such as:
"What is the time complexity of quicksort?
What is the opposite in C of malloc?
What is the opposite in ...
6
votes
5answers
430 views
What are the recommended ways of defending a remote *nix install from a hamfisted admin?
Once in a while (often a long while), I have a difficulty where I execute a command that completely screws up a Linux machine.
Most recently, I accidentally mounted-again the root partition (thinking ...
7
votes
3answers
406 views
Linux Bulk/Remote Administration
Beside our internal IT infrastructure, we've got around 500 Linux machines hosting our services for the on-line world. They are grouped in a bunch of clusters like Database A-n, Product A-n, NFS, ...
6
votes
5answers
2k views
How to know if /dev/sdX is a connected USB or HDD?
How can I know if /dev/sdX is a local HDD or usb key ? best doing this without root privileges.
OK , udevadm helped a lot:
For local HDD:
udevadm info --query=all --name=sdb | grep ID_BUS
E: ...
1
vote
2answers
807 views
mounting to non-empty directory, then later deleting original files
I have some unused space on my disk, and decided to use a little of it to create a separate /var partition. There might be an easier way to do this, but my idea is to
copy the existing /var ...
0
votes
1answer
447 views
The TIME field in ps -ef
When I do ps -ef, I see "TIME" field. What does this field mean? From what I understand, this tells the actual CPU time, that the process got (amidst all the context switching). Does the TIME field ...
3
votes
2answers
2k views
How to see complete list of processes in top
When I do 'top', I learn that there are many processes running out of which many are in sleep state. I need to see complete snapshot of all processes at that point. the 'top' is able to show listing ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
How to know reason of a process going to sleep state and wake it up?
When I do 'top' , I see my perl script process in 'S' state. Is there a way to know, what is making this perl process go in sleep state and ways to wake it up? Any way to debug to give more insights ...
0
votes
1answer
315 views
Need help with understanding output of ps -ef on linux
When I do ps -ef on my Linux box, I get:
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
Please help me with meaning of C,TIME.
is the TIME , the actual cpu time allocated to the process?
1
vote
2answers
894 views
How to expire a password? (For inital account creation)
I've often created temporary passwords for users for my own development machine for initial id creation.
For other environments, I've seen admins have the ability to have a password show as expired ...
0
votes
2answers
415 views
Automated SSH Login [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Shell Script for logging into a ssh server
Autentification on SSH connection in OneLine
How could I make a SSH Login programmatically on a unix server, I don't have ...
3
votes
1answer
316 views
How do I add a local user to a box that uses LDAP authenticaiton?
I'm working with a box that uses LDAP for user authentication. However, I need to add a local user to run some services and I don't want non-person users junking up the LDAP directory. Does anyone ...
5
votes
5answers
429 views
Why is it recommended to create a group and user for some applications?
Most of the time, when installing a program from source it is recommended to create a new user and a new group and give /usr/local/<myapp> the recently created user and group ownership.
Why is ...
1
vote
2answers
116 views
Browser-based front-end to linux
I'd like to ask if anything like this exists. A browser-based tool for looking at a Linux system, managing it, and helping newbies diagnose problems.
What I'm thinking of is something like this :
...
8
votes
2answers
14k views
How can I change a user's default group in Linux?
Being new to Linux administration, I'm a little confused about the following commands:
useradd
usermod
groupadd
groupmod
I've just finished reading the user administration book in the Linux/Unix ...
1
vote
1answer
250 views
How can I learn some advanced logrotate techniques?
The logrotate section in the Linux administrator's handbook is very brief. The man page is ok but lacks examples. Where can I find some more comprehensive information, examples, and best-practice ...
0
votes
0answers
273 views
What is the best Linux administration book? [closed]
So, what is the best Linux administration book?
Managing users, volumes, permissions, scripts, general administration tools and so on. You get the drill.
Thanks!
1
vote
3answers
113 views
How to clean up my desktop?
Now, I see that my desktop running rhel 5.6 has run out of space. Now I need to clean it up. There must be some unintentional files adding up. What I would like to be able to do is list the files in ...
4
votes
1answer
403 views
What is the routing behaviour when two or more default routes?
I have two ISP at the time, connected to the same machine. I added both of them in the routing table as default. However, only one connection is used.
$ route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination ...
0
votes
1answer
307 views
What unix certifications are available? Are there any self-taught?
I have a friend who is a Red Hat Certified Engineer. I also know there is the Linux Professionals Institute LPIC-1, 2, & 3. Are there other popular ones? How do I pick one to start with?
3
votes
1answer
704 views
How to disable root account on openSUSE?
Is there a way to disable the root account completely on openSUSE so you can administer your system like the way you would do in Ubuntu?
2
votes
3answers
5k views
How do I add an entry to my crontab?
I am using crontab for the first time. Want to write a few very simple test cron tasks, and run them.
$crontab * * * * * echo "Hi"
doesn't produce anything.
crontab */1 * * * * echo "hi"
says ...
6
votes
3answers
11k views
Alternatives for “lsof” command?
In many cases "lsof" is not installed on the machines that with I have to work, but the "function" of lsof would be needed very much (ex. on AIX). :\
Are there any "lsof" like applications in the ...
8
votes
4answers
366 views
What are your best practices and future plans for deploying unixoid desktops?
I have been setting up Linux desktops for a non-profit radio observatory. For me, this was the first time I had to think about "deploying" several identical machines, centralizing login, home ...
6
votes
3answers
670 views
How to tell when a computer is idle?
I have a computer that is only used some of the time, and I was was wondering if there was a way to have it turn itself off after a period of inactivity.
Here's the tricky part, if I was just ...
0
votes
1answer
467 views
Fun, tricky and hard questions for Unix/Linux Admin interview [closed]
I am now preparing process of recrutation for group of Unix/Linux Administrators and I was wondering if maybe you have idea for fun or tricky or hard questions to ask the candidates in order to test ...
0
votes
0answers
314 views
Training to be a sysadmin. Most valuable skills? [closed]
I'm working on learning OpenBSD and unix systems in order to get a job as a unix sysadmin. What would you say are the most valuable skills I can learn/work on now to be more attractive to employers?
...
0
votes
1answer
225 views
Smitty like solution under Linux or BSD?
Are there any solutions similar to AIX smit for Linux based OSes?
Basically this would be some kind of 'terminal menu-driver' script collection perhaps using ncurses for doing things that system ...
1
vote
1answer
171 views
Mass update of /etc/ldap.secret
I have a group of servers authenticating against an LDAP server. I would like to be able to periodically update the /etc/ldap.secret file with an updated secret. I've written a small script that reads ...
1
vote
1answer
64 views
Equivalent of newusers for groups
The newusers command is useful for adding or modifying users in bulk. Is there an equivalent command for managing groups?
