Archive for Administration
CentOS 6 Cobbler Server
Introduction This article will be a step-by-step guide of how to set up a Cobbler server on CentOS 6. Once the server is complete, you will be able to have CentOS 6 automatically installed onto client computers when they are PXE booted on a private network.
Caching RPMs with automirror
Introduction In a previous article, I wrote about how to use pkg-cacher to cache requested RPM files. Since then, the website for pkg-cacher has become unavailable and coincidentally I wrote my own tool that provides the same functionality called automirror. This article describes how to use it.
Cobbler, ESXi, CentOS, and VMWare Tools
Introduction This short article will detail a Cobbler snippet for automatically installing the ESXi VMWare Tools. Table of Contents Method VMWare Repo Cobbler Snippet Snippet Inclusion Conclusion Method This method was inspired by this blog post. It imports the VMWare RPM key and then creates a Yum repository to download the VMWare RPMs. I simply [...]
Adding a Calendar Widget to BIRT
Introduction BIRT does a very well job at asking users for input parameters — except in one area: dates. This article will explain how to add a graphical calendar widget so users can visually choose a date rather than typing one in.
Deploying BIRT on Tomcat
Introduction As an alternative to my article on Deploying BIRT on JBoss, this article will cover BIRT and Tomcat. Background information on BIRT and the usefulness of hosting BIRT reports on a central server is covered in that prior article.
Deploying BIRT on JBoss
Introduction BIRT is one of the best projects I have found in the past few years. In a nutshell, it’s a reporting framework that allows you to easily create visual reports (that include graphs, charts, and tables) from any Java-compatible data source (JDBC, for example). BIRT reports are created and viewed with Eclipse. The only [...]
From LPD to PDF
Introduction I recently ran into a situation where a legacy billing server needed to redirect its daily print jobs. The current print destination was a network-enabled HP LaserJet printer. The new destination was still in the process of being installed. I wasn’t sure if the new destination would support LPD like the old destination or [...]
It’s All Just Files and Folders
Introduction I ran into a situation today where a virtual machine had outgrown its environment and needed moved to a dedicated server. This article describes the migration.
Caching RPMs with pkg-cacher
Introduction apt-cacher is an excellent proxy server for caching .deb packages. It integrates into apt so that when a package is requested, apt-cacher checks to see if there is a cached copy. If there is, it sends the cached copy. If there isn’t, it downloads the package from the Internet, caches it, and sends it [...]
Cobbler and SSH Keys
Introduction Utilizing SSH keys for server access, whether password-less or with a passphrase, is a staple of system administration and automation. However, configuring this type of access is usually done manually: an admin will manually log in to the server, manually create the /root/.ssh directory, and then manually paste the source server’s public SSH key [...]