http://www.debian-administration.org/ Tips for a Debian GNU/Linux System Administrator. http://www.debian-administration.org/favicon.ico http://www.debian-administration.org/ Wed, 3 Feb 2010 08:39:23 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Running_IPv6_in_practice Many articles tell us about about initial setup of IPv6 and are completely silent about what to do next. Thus, I wanted to share my own experience. Sat, 2 Jan 2010 14:34:47 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Securely_erasing_files_by_filling_your_disk With modern filesystems securely deleting files isn't always easy, but one approach which stands a good chance of working is to write random patterns over all unused areas of a disk - thus erasing the contents of files you've previously deleted. Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:46:28 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Creating_Bind_DNS-Entries_with_regular_dyndns-clients_in_routers Recently there was a message posted upon the debian-user-german mailing list asking if there is a way to create BIND-compliant DNS-Updates with regulars dyndns-clients from routers. The Idea behind this is to get rid of dyndns.org services and provide an independent way to maintain dynamic dns entries for boxes without a static ip-address without the need of dyndns providers. The goal was to create a text file which could be used as input for nsupdate with cron to run it frequently. Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:39:16 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Service_Failover_with_heartbeat I have got e.g. two servers with Apache and Postfix and a virtual IP (from heartbeat-1). Well, heartbeat is working well and it is simple to deal with complete server outages, but how can I configure heartbeat, so that it also switches the server, if one of the above services fail? Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:29:12 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Connect_to_Informix_using_PHP5_on_Lenny_x86_64 After much trial and error, I have a Debian Lenny x86_64 server with apache2, php5, and connectivity to an Informix database server. Here are the steps I went through. Much of this information I found at http://devzone.zend.com/article/4290 (http://devzone.zend.com/article/4290). Thu, 5 Nov 2009 06:43:49 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Handling_network_mounts_on_a_very_mobile_laptop I have a laptop that travels with me to work as well as being used at home. I have a number of network CIFS mounts that I like to have available when I am at home, so I have them set to &quot;auto&quot; in <tt>/etc/fstab</tt>. When I am at work, I use a Mobile Broadband card to connect to the Internet. When at home, I typically use Ethernet. Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:17:06 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Speeding_up_dynamic_websites_via_an_nginx_proxy Many of us are familiar with the use of Apache for hosting websites. It might not be the fastest webserver but it is extraordinarily popular, extremely flexible, and a great choice for most people. However there are times when it can struggle, and placing a proxy in front of it can be useful. Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:43:57 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Offline_Package_Management_for_APT This article is about Offline Package Management in Debian. Debian is a pretty well known project. One of the things that makes Debian very popular is APT (a.k.a Advanced Packaging Tool) which allows remote package downloads, upgrades and dependency resolution. Unfortunately it does require a network connection - unless you use <tt>apt-offline</tt>. Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:29:18 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Providing_a_website_search_facility_with_the_namazu_indexer Adding searching facilities to websites makes it a lot easier for finding content. When sites are dynamically constructed it is often simple to update the code to perform the searching in the application, but for sites constructed of static pages using an indexer such as <tt>namazu</tt> can give you a great interface in very short space of time. Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:08:12 GMT http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Raising_the_uid_and_gid_limits According to Debian policy, limits for both UID and GID numbers (User IDs and Group IDs) are a maximum of 65535. Is there a way of increasing this limit?