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.
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.
Cobbler
Introduction I recently discovered Cobbler, an server that assists in the automated deployment of Linux distributions. A normal installation infrastructure is composed of several components: DHCP, DNS, PXE, TFTP, and the actual install media. Cobbler glues all of these components together very nicely. In addition, it provides dynamic configuration support by the way of kickstart [...]
Surviving an HTTP DDOS Attack
Introduction I occasionally run into a cPanel server under a DDOS attack due to either the site itself being attacked or the site has had malicious files uploaded to it that are being used to launch an attack. This post will describe what I do to help mitigate the attack.
Automating an Ubuntu Server Install
Introduction Updated for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS While the installation procedure for Ubuntu Server is simple enough, I wanted to create a total hands-free solution. Doing so would allow me to simply boot a new PC or Virtual Machine and have a working Ubuntu Server in 10 minutes or so. The solution I came up with [...]