Network administration topics are supposed to be intermixed here with other systems administration,
but some of it may have found a better (?) home in Networking. Similar
statements could probably be made about other topics, such as Backup.
General Subject:
Misc Topics:
-
Communicating with users (excluding email):
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mesg - Controls access to your "terminal" by others using write-type programs.
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write - Send a message to another user on a "terminal" (VC or xterm).
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wall - Send a message to everybody's "terminal".
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talk - Engage in two-way talk with another "terminal" user.
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xmessage -display host:display.screen "message" - to pop up a window with a message.
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Protocol: A "-o" line or at end of line means "over - your turn".
A "oo" line or at end of line means "over and out".
(?? "roger" means "I understand"; "wilco" means "Will Comply or Co-operate" ??)
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shutdown - This also can send a message to "terminals", warning of
an impending shutdown or shutdown cancellation.
Installation of SW:
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Also see Packaging
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Keeping Scripts for SW Installs  Ext2 emag article.
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SmartInst  A wrapper of the "install" program. Keeps track of what most "make install"
commands install, for later querying, etc.
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instmon - Run this before and after an install to keep track of what changed. Keeps database files.
Configuration (also see specific topics):
Misc Tools:
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Projects to ease SA in a global way:
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ACAP -- Application Configuration Access Protocol  RFC 2244;
"designed to support remote storage and access of program option, configuration and preference information"
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ACUA  "designed to facilitate the administration of user accounts and the enforcement
of access restrictions on a Linux system. ACUA is most often used on systems that host modem pools"
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AGX-UserProfile  A control-panel-driven set of scripts for sys.admin.
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Autoconf:
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cfengine  "configuration engine"; "a very high level language for building expert systems which
administrate and configure large computer networks"
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COAS - Caldera Open Administration System  Project.
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The Dotfile Generator:
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Ganymede  "portable and customizable directory management system"
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Linuxconf:
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Other lists:
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Freshmeat: Batch Processing
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Binstats: Finding Unusable Binaries  Finds programs with missing libraries and unused libraries. Sep'96 LG
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BuildKernel  Automates the building of a Linux kernel.
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gpasman  Stores passwords (encrypted) for those with too many to remember.
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Graphical System Management  Section about tools at linas.org; with links.
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gtkfind  GUI version of "find" command.
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Log files:
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Freshmeat: Log Analyzers
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Log Scanner  Scans log files.
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Xlogmaster  Log file (incl. /proc/*) monitoring and control.
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Logging with Inittab  Nov'95 LG
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Programs:
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faillog - Examine faillog and set login failure limits.
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lastlog - Examine lastlog file.
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logger - Make entries in the system log.
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logrotate - Rotates, compresses, and mails system logs.
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syslogd - The logging daemon. Has a man page.
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tmpwatch - Removes files which haven't been accessed for a period of time (by Red Hat)
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Others: klogd, sysklogd, updwtmp, logwtmp
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Files:
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/etc/syslog.conf - Controls logging by syslogd. Has a man page.
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/var/log/utmp, wtmp - Login logging info. Not for humans.
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Others too numerous to mention.
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Mounting "devices":
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SFI Director  "tool for managing distributed, hetergeneous UNIX
Systems. Its functionality includes System Configuration, Application
Distribution, NIS & NIS+ Management, and User Management and Dynamic System
Documentation." In use at several sites of 50-200 computers.
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System Monitoring:
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Also see Network monitoring.
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Freshmeat: Monitoring (text)
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Freshmeat: Monitoring (X11)
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Gathering Usage Stats  Feb'98 LG
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bgcheck  process monitor; can limit number of BG process per user.
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Big Brother  "Systems and Network Monitor"; web browser UI.
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LoadMeter
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MAT - Monitoring and Administration Tool (FTP dir) 
"an enterprise monitoring and administration tool"; (file is mat-*).
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MON  "resource monitoring system, which can be used to monitor network service availability,
server problems, environmental conditions such as the temperature in a room, or any number of things"
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Gmemusage: A Distinctive Memory Monitor   Feb'98 LG
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ProcMeter:
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QPS, A New Qt-Based Monitor  Jul'97 LG
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top: Shows list of processes sorted by CPU usage; with lots of other info. You have it. See the man page.
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whowatch 
"a ncurses who-like utility which displays informations about the users currently on the machine in real time"
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Xosview  "displays many system related stats such as
cpu usage, memory usage, swap usage, network usage,
interrupt activity, serial activity, and load average
inside of an X Window."
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Xmemuse review  Aug'96 LG
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xps  "display the Unix processes as a tree or forest"; Minimizes CPU usage when not visable.
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yamm  "system monitor/tool" similar in purpose to top
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xload - Comes with most Linuxes.
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XLoadtime  New-and-improved "xload".
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Disk Usage:
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KIM  "interactive (ncurses) user friendly process manager"
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psntools  "a set of utilities specifically designed for easily
administering large numbers of user accounts"
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PIKT - Problem Informant/Killer Tool  "a set of programs, scripts, data and configuration
files for administering networked workstations"
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Webmin  Allows much sys admin via web browser; mostly free; looks good.
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which  Home of the classic "which" program.
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Misc Misc (stuff to be moved):
-
usernetctl: Allow a user to manipulate a network interface, if permitted.
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traceroute: Show the route packets take to a remote host.
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newgrp: Temporarily switch to new user group.
Optimization and Tuning of the OS:
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Also see "High-Performance" for "Load Balancing".
-
Benchmarks
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irqtune  IRQ Tuning; claimed to fix slower-than-expected modem transfers.
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Practical Performance Prediction  "performance analysis and planning of your UNIX systems"
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Network parameters  Info on some of the configurable network parameters.
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Memory Tuning
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Fix for "File Table Overflow" error message, errno 23 (ENFILE): (NOTE: I don't know if one can
simply change this one thing. I just copied part of a question off Usenet.) NR_FILE = 1024 in
/usr/src/linux/include/linux/fs.h; increasing it and rebuildin the kernel might fix the problem.
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Stuff that COULD be tuned in kernel
-
There are many psuedo-files under /proc (mostly under /proc/sys) that can be written to (by root) to change
kernel parameters. These have been known to change and I'm not sure where, if anywhere, they are documented.
(The kernel change documents would be a good place to start looking.) Many of the files under /proc are
bound to be useful only when read and are not meant to be written to. Judging from some of the names, it's not
clear that the R/W permissions are a good guide as to which files may be written to and which may not.
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Other:
cytune program for tuning Cyclades driver parameters.
tune2fs program for tuning the filesystems.
tunelp program for tuning the "lp" (printer) ports.
xvidtune program for tuning the X server.
Last Modified 07-Apr-1999
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