Tag Archives: sysadmin

FLOSS Analytics

Piwik is a downloadable, open source (GPL licensed) real time web analytics software program.

It provides you with detailed reports on your website visitors: the search engines and keywords they used, the language they speak, your popular pages etc etc


VMware W2K3 Guest Network Cards

When creating a VMware Windoz 2003 Server guest its probably a good idea to switch all its virtual network cards from VMXNET to E1000 as soon as possible and certainly before installing any Service Packs !

w2k3.vmx

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"

DELL Open Manage and older systems

Before you get carried away installing the latest (6.4) version of DELL Open Manage Server Administrator on an older system its worth checking the OMSA docs and OMSA RAID compatibility list so you dont actually lose any functionality !

For example the highest version of OM that works with

  • a DELL PE 1800 with PERC 4/SC raid controller or
  • a DELL PE 2900 with PERC 6/i raid controller

is OM 6.1 with SMS 3.1

So instead of installing the latest OM you’ll need to chose the best version for your hardware from

http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/

Intel Core i5 2500K and Intel Core i7 2600K review

Intel Core i5 2500K and Intel Core i7 2600K benchmarks and reviews

FLOSS Performance Benchmark & Testing

Just started using the FLOSS PHP5 Phoronix Test Suite and its associated Phoronix Live CD (for 64-bit CPUs only) for  performance benchmarking & performance testing PCs.

Now you can find out if the Intel T2390 or the Intel T9300 is the fastest ? And by how much ? Go to http://global.phoronix-test-suite.com/?k=search and enter T2390 and T9300 into the processor search box and find a testset that has been run on all/both the CPUs you want to compare.

For example here’s the BYTE UNIX benchmark for a Intel PII v AMD Athlon v Intel Core i7.

See also http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/?k=documentation

Phoronix Test Suite Distro

Phoronix Test Suite is a comprehensive testing and benchmarking platform available that provides an extensible framework for which new tests can be easily added. The software is designed to effectively carry out both qualitative and quantitative benchmarks in a clean, reproducible, and easy-to-use manner.

And PTS is even available on an Ubuntu based Live-CD PTS Desktop Live 2010.1

Refs

http://lifehacker.com/5409658/pst-desktop-live-makes-performance-benchmarking-simple

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/benchmark-your-system-with-pts-desktop-live-linux/

netadmin, sysadmin & webadmin tools

some netadmin, sysadmin & webadmin sites & tools

WebMin 1.520 tempdelete bug

WebMin 1.520 sometimes creates a cron job for “/etc/webmin/cron/tempdelete.pl” that will keep sending you error emails saying “Failed to run /usr/libexec/webmin/cron/tempdelete.pl”

Apparently its safe just to delete this webmin cronjob via WebMin | System | Scheduled Cron Jobs

DELL OMSA BIOS & firmware installer

http://linux.dell.com/repo/hardware/OMSA_6.2/

DELL OMSA 6.2 can now be used to install BIOS & firmware updates on DELL PowerEdge servers running CentOS, OracL or RHEL 5. With OMSA 6.2 you’ll get the extra commands

  • bootstrap_firmware –inventory
  • inventory_firmware
  • update_firware

However if your PowerEdge has any LSI Logic / Symbios Logic MegaRAID SAS 1078 (rev 04)  disk controllers do not be tempted to try OMSA 6.4 or you will lose all RAID SAS mgmt access ! Solution downgrade back to OMSA 6.2.

Server Administrator: Storage Service EventID: 2131 The current firmware version  6.0.2-0002 is older than the required firmware version 6.2.0-0012 for a controller of model 0x1F0C:  Controller 0 (PERC 6/i Integrated)