How To Resize LVM Software RAID1 Partitions (Shrink & Grow)

This article describes how you can shrink and grow existing software RAID1 partitions with LVM on top. I have tested this with logical volumes that use ext3 as the file system. I will describe this procedure for an intact RAID array and also a degraded RAID array.

How To Configure Software RAID To Send An Email When Something's Wrong With RAID

This short guide explains how you can configure software RAID to send you an email when something's wrong with RAID, for example if a hard drive fails. I've tested this on Debian Etch, but it should apply to all other distributions with minor adjustments to paths, etc.

Quick And Easy Setup For DomainKeys Using Ubuntu, Postfix And Dkim-Filter

This is a quick tutorial for setting up DomainKeys on Ubuntu (I used 6.06LTS - but should work the same on others) using dkim-filter with Postfix so emails from your domain will not constantly end up in Yahoo's spam filter.

Setting Up A High-Availability Load Balancer (With Failover and Session Support) With HAProxy/Wackamole/Spread On Debian Etch

This article explains how to set up a two-node load balancer in an active/passive configuration with HAProxy, Wackamole, and Spread on Debian Etch. The load balancer sits between the user and two (or more) backend Apache web servers that hold the same content. Not only does the load balancer distribute the requests to the two backend Apache servers, it also checks the health of the backend servers. If one of them is down, all requests will automatically be redirected to the remaining backend server. In addition to that, the two load balancer nodes monitor each other using Wackamole and Spread, and if the master fails, the slave becomes the master, which means the users will not notice any disruption of the service. HAProxy is session-aware, which means you can use it with any web application that makes use of sessions (such as forums, shopping carts, etc.).

How To Set Up A Caching Reverse Proxy With Squid 2.6 On Debian Etch

This article explains how you can set up a caching reverse proxy with Squid 2.6 in front of your web server on Debian Etch. If you have a high-traffic dynamic web site that generates lots of database queries on each request, you can decrease the server load dramatically by caching your content for a few minutes or more (that depends on how often you update your content).

Creating A Dual-Boot System On RAID10 (Ubuntu/Windows)

I just bought a new computer and I want to run Ubuntu 8.10 and Vista. I'm really afraid to loose some of my data when a harddrive dies, so I decided to go for a RAID10-setup. Most modern motherboards support RAID0,1,5 and 10. After assembling my new computer, I discovered that the motherboard didn't have a true hardware-RAID-controller. Instead it's just software-RAID, sometimes called fakeraid. If I was installing a Linux-only-system, I wouldn't care and just use the Linux software-Raid options. But this time, my system has to be dual-boot.

How To Back Up MySQL Databases With mylvmbackup On Ubuntu 8.10

mylvmbackup is a Perl script for quickly creating MySQL backups. It uses LVM's snapshot feature to do so. To perform a backup, mylvmbackup obtains a read lock on all tables and flushes all server caches to disk, creates a snapshot of the volume containing the MySQL data directory, and unlocks the tables again. This article shows how to use it on an Ubuntu 8.10 server.

Installing Nginx With PHP5 And MySQL Support On Fedora 10

Nginx (pronounced "engine x") is a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server. Nginx is known for its stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption. This tutorial shows how you can install Nginx on a Fedora 10 server with PHP5 support (through FastCGI) and MySQL support.

The Perfect Desktop - OpenSUSE 11.1 (GNOME)

This tutorial shows how you can set up an OpenSUSE 11.1 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

The Perfect Server - OpenSUSE 11.1

This is a detailed description about how to set up an OpenSUSE 11.1 server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Dovecot POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc. This tutorial is written for the 32-bit version of OpenSUSE 11.1, but should apply to the 64-bit version with very little modifications as well.

Using memcached With Your vBulletin Forum To Reduce Server Load (Debian Etch)

In this article I will explain how you can reduce server load by using memcached together with your vBulletin forum software (I'm assuming you are running vBulletin on Apache2 with mod_php5). memcached is a daemon that can store objects in the system's memory (e.g. results of database queries) which can speed up your web site tremendously. You can use memcached over a network (i.e., install your web application on one server and memcached on another server), but usually you install both on one server to avoid the networking overhead.

ZRM 2.1: Backing Up MySQL Partitioned Tables

MySQL 5.1 is generally available for production use. One of the key features of MySQL 5.1 is partitioning. This how to shows how to install and configure Zmanda Recovery Manager for MySQL (ZRM) 2.1 to perform backup and recovery of MySQL partitioned tables.

The Perfect Desktop - Linux Mint 6 (Felicia)

This tutorial shows how you can set up a Linux Mint 6 (Felicia) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge. Linux Mint 6 is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 8.10 that has lots of packages in its repositories (like multimedia codecs, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Skype, Google Earth, etc.) that are relatively hard to install on other distributions; it therefore provides a user-friendly desktop experience even for Linux newbies.

Reducing Disk IO By Mounting Partitions With noatime

Linux has a special mount option for file systems called noatime. If this option is set for a file system in /etc/fstab, then reading accesses will no longer cause the atime information (last access time - don't mix this up with the last modified time - if a file is changed, the modification date will still be set) that is associated with a file to be updated (in reverse this means that if noatime is not set, each read access will also result in a write operation). Therefore, using noatime can lead to significant performance gains.

How To Rebuild The Squid 2.6 Debian Package with Support For X-Forwarded-For Headers

This article describes how you can rebuild the Squid 2.6 package for Debian Etch with support for X-Forwarded-For headers - this feature is not enabled in the default Debian Etch Squid package. This feature is useful if you are using Squid as a reverse proxy for your web site and are using a load balancer (such as HAProxy) in front of Squid - it allows us to track the client's original IP address instead of the load balancer's IP address (which to Squid appears as the client).

Creating Virtual Machines For Xen, KVM, VMware Workstation 6, and VMware Server With vmbuilder On Ubuntu 8.10

vmbuilder is a tool (introduced on Ubuntu 8.10) that allows you to build virtual machines (with Ubuntu as the OS) for multiple virtualization techniques. Currently it supports Xen, KVM, VMware Workstation 6, and VMware Server. You can afterwards copy the virtual machines to another system (a Xen, KVM, VMware Workstation 6, or VMware Server host) and run them there.

Postfix SMTP Authentication - On The Secure Port Only

So let's say your users are going away for holidays but need to use your mailserver to relay mail from outside the organisation... Let's set up SMTP authentication for the secure port only and allow access to this from outside your network.

Virtualization With KVM On Ubuntu 8.10

This guide explains how you can install and use KVM for creating and running virtual machines on an Ubuntu 8.10 server. I will show how to create image-based virtual machines and also virtual machines that use a logical volume (LVM). KVM is short for Kernel-based Virtual Machine and makes use of hardware virtualization, i.e., you need a CPU that supports hardware virtualization, e.g. Intel VT or AMD-V.

How To Create A FreeRADIUS 2.1.1-6 RPM Package On CentOS 5.2

This is just a short tutorial showing how to create an RPM version of FreeRADIUS 2.1.1-6 on CentOS 5.2. This version of FreeRADIUS is not yet included in the CentOS 5 repositories.

How To Resize RAID Partitions (Shrink & Grow) (Software RAID)

This article describes how you can shrink and grow existing software RAID partitions. I have tested this with non-LVM RAID1 partitions that use ext3 as the file system. I will describe this procedure for an intact RAID array and also a degraded RAID array.