The grep command is a command that most Linux users learn early on, and many times they learn to use it via pipes (stdin). Because of this some Linux users just assume that grep can only be used with stdin; it's ok, I was one of those too! Before I continue with some grep tricks I want to clarify the basic grep usage. Stop Doing This: $ cat file.log | grep "something" something Do This More:...
In the office I use Red Hat quite often and one of the quicker ways to provision a Red Hat server is via kickstart. There are many ways to reach a kickstart file during initial install (NFS, HTTP, FTP) but one of the ways I commonly use is to put the file on the installation DVD itself. The below steps are what I use to add a custom directory to the installation iso file....
One of the most basic tasks for any Sysadmin is packing and unpacking files for various reasons. While there are many ways to perform this task GNU Tar is probably one of the most recognized and commonly used tools by Linux/Unix users. A little history on tar The tar command is a command that appeared in the early days of Unix and has had several changes made over time. Originally the command was used to take files, combine them into one file and write them to a tape archive (tar)....
Backups are important, whether you are backing up your databases or your wedding pictures. The loss of data can ruin your day. While there is a huge list of backup software to choose from; some good, some not so good. One of the tools that I have used for years is rdiff-backup. rdiff-backup is a rsync delta based backup tool that both stores a full mirror and incremental changes. It determines changes based on the rsync method of creating small delta files, which allows for rdiff-backup to restore files to any point in time (within the specified retention period)....
Normally on this blog I tend to write about more complicated tasks or fancy Linux tricks and completely overlook some of the most basic tasks that a SysAdmin needs to know. Today I have decided that I will make my blog a little more comprehensive and add some posts with some of the basics. Along with this I will be starting a new category, called Sysadmin Basics and I will try to post an additional article each week that covers some of the more basic concepts and commands used by Linux and Unix Sysadmins....