Linux Server Hacks

by Flickenger, Rob

• ISBN13: 9780596004613
• ISBN10: 0596004613
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

This handy new book's collection of tips, tools and scripts reflect the real-world experience of expert system administrators who managed Linux servers the hard way, through years of tedious trial and error. Each hack in this book can be read easily in a few minutes, saving countless hours of searching for the right answer. Linux Server Hacks includes tips for Apache, MySQL and other open source tools that are typically part of a Linux server installation, and covers system monitoring tools for performance tracking and tuning.

Author Biography

Rob Flickenger has been a professional systems administrator for more than 10 years, and all around hacker for as long as he can remember. Rob enjoys spreading the good word of open networks, open standards, and ubiquitous wireless networking. His current professional project is Metrix Communication LLC, which provides wireless hardware and software that embodies the same open source principles he rants about in his books. Rob also works with the U.N. and various international organizations to bring these ideas to places where communications infrastructure is badly needed. He hopes that all of this effort is contributing toward the ultimate goal of infinite bandwidth everywhere for free. He is the author of Linux Server Hacks, Wireless Hacks, and Building Wireless Community Networks (which is in its second edition).

Table of Contents

How to Become a Hacker	vii
Preface	xi
Server Basics	1	(2)
Removing Unnecessary Services	3	(3)
Forgoing the Console Login	6	(1)
Common Boot Parameters	7	(1)
Creating a Persistent Daemon with init	8	(2)
n>&m: Swap Standard Output and Standard Error	10	(2)
Building Complex Command Lines	12	(3)
Working with Tricky Files in xargs	15	(2)
Immutable Files in ext2/ext3	17	(1)
Speeding Up Compiles	18	(1)
At Home in Your Shell Environment	19	(3)
Finding and Eliminating setuid/setgid Binaries	22	(3)
Make sudo Work Harder	25	(2)
Using a Makefile to Automate Admin Tasks	27	(2)
Brute Forcing Your New Domain Name	29	(1)
Playing Hunt the Disk Hog	29	(2)
Fun with /proc	31	(3)
Manipulating Processes Symbolically with procps	34	(1)
Managing System Resources per Process	35	(2)
Cleaning Up after Ex-Users	37	(2)
Eliminating Unnecessary Drivers from the Kernel	39	(3)
Using Large Amounts of RAM	42	(1)
hdparm: Fine Tune IDE Drive Parameters	43	(3)
Revision Control	46	(17)
Getting Started with RCS	47	(1)
Checking Out a Previous Revision in RCS	48	(1)
Tracking Changes with rcs2log	49	(2)
Getting Started with CVS	51	(3)
CVS: Checking Out a Module	54	(1)
CVS: Updating Your Working Copy	54	(1)
CVS: Using Tags	55	(1)
CVS: Making Changes to a Module	56	(1)
CVS: Merging Files	57	(1)
CVS: Adding and Removing Files and Directories	57	(1)
CVS: Branching Development	58	(1)
CVS: Watching and Locking Files	59	(1)
CVS: Keeping CVS Secure	60	(1)
CVS: Anonymous Repositories	61	(2)
Backups	63	(24)
Backing Up with tar over ssh	64	(1)
Using rsync over ssh	65	(1)
Archiving with Pax	66	(6)
Backing Up Your Boot Sector	72	(1)
Keeping Parts of Filesystems in sync with rsync	73	(5)
Automated Snapshot-Style Incremental Backups with rsync	78	(6)
Working with ISOs and CDR/CDRWs	84	(1)
Burning a CD Without Creating an ISO File	85	(2)
Networking	87	(23)
Creating a Firewall from the Command Line of any Server	87	(3)
Simple IP Masquerading	90	(1)
iptables Tips & Tricks	91	(2)
Forwarding TCP Ports to Arbitrary Machines	93	(1)
Using Custom Chains in iptables	94	(2)
Tunneling: IPIP Encapsulation	96	(2)
Tunneling: GRE Encapsulation	98	(1)
Using vtun over ssh to Circumvent NAT	99	(6)
Automatic vtund.conf Generator	105	(5)
Monitoring	110	(29)
Steering syslog	110	(3)
Watching Jobs with watch	113	(1)
What's Holding That Port Open?	114	(1)
Checking On Open Files and Sockets with lsof	115	(3)
Monitor System Resources with top	118	(1)
Constant Load Average Display in the Titlebar	119	(2)
Network Monitoring with ngrep	121	(2)
Scanning Your Own Machines with nmap	123	(1)
Disk Age Analysis	124	(2)
Cheap IP Takeover	126	(3)
Running ntop for Real-Time Network Stats	129	(2)
Monitoring Web Traffic in Real Time with httptop	131	(8)
SSH	139	(10)
Quick Logins with ssh Client Keys	139	(2)
Turbo-mode ssh Logins	141	(1)
Using ssh-Agent Effectively	142	(2)
Running the ssh-Agent in a GUI	144	(1)
X over ssh	145	(1)
Forwarding Ports over ssh	146	(3)
Scripting	149	(8)
Get Settled in Quickly with movein.sh	149	(2)
Global Search and Replace with Perl	151	(2)
Mincing Your Data into Arbitrary Chunks (in bash)	153	(2)
Colorized Log Analysis in Your Terminal	155	(2)
Information Servers	157	(56)
Running BIND in a chroot Jail	158	(2)
Views in BIND 9	160	(5)
Setting Up Caching DNS with Authority for Local Domains	165	(2)
Distributing Server Load with Round-Robin DNS	167	(1)
Running Your Own Top-Level Domain	168	(1)
Monitoring MySQL Health with mtop	169	(3)
Setting Up Replication in MySQL	172	(3)
Restoring a Single Table from a Large MySQL Dump	175	(1)
MySQL Server Tuning	175	(3)
Using proftpd with a mysql Authentication Source	178	(2)
Optimizing glibc, linuxthreads, and the Kernel for a Super MySQL Server	180	(2)
Apache Toolbox	182	(3)
Display the Full Filename in Indexes	185	(1)
Quick Configuration Changes with IfDefine	186	(2)
Simplistic Ad Referral Tracking	188	(3)
Mimicking FTP Servers with Apache	191	(2)
Rotate and compress Apache Server Logs	193	(1)
Generating an SSL cert and Certificate Signing Request	194	(2)
Creating Your Own CA	196	(2)
Distributing Your CA to Client Browsers	198	(3)
Serving multiple sites with the same DocumentRoot	201	(2)
Delivering Content Based on the Query String Using mod_rewrite	203	(1)
Using mod_proxy on Apache for Speed	204	(2)
Distributing Load with Apache RewriteMap	206	(2)
Ultrahosting: Mass Web Site Hosting with Wildcards, Proxy, and Rewrite	208	(5)
Index	213