Tag Archives: linux

Using VDO on CentOS/RHEL7 for Storage Efficiency

Besides Btrfs, native Linux-based storage solutions have lagged behind the robustness and features of ZFS and the BSDs.  Recently Red Hat acquired Permabit which provides an Open Source device-mapper Linux kernel driver and layer that sits between block devices and … Continue reading

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Block Advertising on your Network with Pi-hole and Raspberry Pi

I recently setup Pi-hole on an existing Raspberry Pi running CentOS on my home network to serve as my DNS server and block advertising and unwanted domains for all internet-connected devices.  I’m still using an ASUS router with Shibby Tomato … Continue reading

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Backup and Restore using SpiderOak on Linux

Recently the SSD Operating System disk on my primary work desktop failed without warning and no manner of arcane xfsrepair or xfsdump/xfsrestore chicanery would bring it back.  Luckily I had SpiderOak backups as my employer offers this as a service … Continue reading

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Distributed Remote Backups with Git and Etckeeper

Git is a powerful tool for lots of tasks, it makes a wonderful VCS that can drive easy utility and automation.  Recently I used git and remote repositories to deploy code & data fanned out to multiple locations.  Here are … Continue reading

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Shell One-liners and Quick and Dirty Loops

Sometimes you just need to get stuff done quickly and there’s nary a replacement better than a quick shell one-liner.  Recently I’ve needed to feed some large, multi-variable commands into an external program for processing.  Here’s some simple shell one-liners … Continue reading

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Let’s Encrypt Everything – Setting up the Free, Automated CA

Let’s Encrypt is a free, public SSL certificate authority (CA) you can use to generate and automate SSL certificate renewal.  I co-manage Trystack.org, a free OpenStack sandbox for the general public and our Horizon SSL certificate came up for expiration … Continue reading

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Back to the Future: Converting a Server VM to Bare Metal

It might seem like stepping back in time, but sometimes you start something with a VM and the desire for resources and usage skyrockets and you need to transplant it onto a bare metal server.  This was my situation with … Continue reading

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Fun and Automation with Git Hooks

Git is more than just an awesome, decentralized version control system (VCS) – it can also drive lots of useful automation by triggering actions to deploy infrastructure and services based on event and commit-based hooks.  You can drive a lot … Continue reading

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Automate SuperMicro Server Provisioning or Die Trying

We use Foreman for systems provisioning and recently received a large shipment of Supermicro for Ceph.  Out of the box they were a lot of trouble to get integrated/automated at the same level of our Dell gear but we managed, … Continue reading

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Tmux for GNU Screen Refugees and Vim Users

I use GNU Screen on servers to manage working sessions and perform long-running or persistent tasks. Lately I’ve been using tmux locally on my work desktop/laptop, finding it better suited for most terminal activity.  Here’s how I set it up … Continue reading

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Create an HD Gaming Capture/Streaming Setup with Linux

I recently created a dedicated game recording/streaming setup using OBS Studio on Fedora Linux.  This lets me capture and stream real-time full 1080p video and audio from another machine playing video games.  Read on for the hardware and setup details, … Continue reading

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Automate Nagios Monitoring with Ansible

Infrastructure monitoring is important and there’s lots of tools for it.  I’m fond of Nagios – it’s very mature and customizable but it’s also a giant pain in the ass to setup.  Here’s how to save time deploying and managing … Continue reading

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Fun and Profit with Reverse SSH Tunnels and AutoSSH

Sometimes you just need to get to things remotely.  Those things might be behind an unbudging firewall with no way to forward proper ports for remote access, or perhaps you just want it setup access to resources this way.  I … Continue reading

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Secure, Distributed Password Resources with GPG, Git and Vim

There are many tools to manage passwords and sensitive resources, some cost money or are closed commercial products.  I’m going to show you how to create a secure, distributed and encrypted remote password repository using Open Source tools like GPG … Continue reading

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Quick and Dirty Remote Execution with Ansible

Ansible is a wonderful tool for orchestration, configuration management and automating a lot of tasks you’d never want to do by hand.  Sometimes you just need to get in there and run a few commands across a bunch of different … Continue reading

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