Category Archives: Linux & Solaris

Centos6.4 64-bit – No networking after clean install

Posted on August 5, 2013 by hedscratchers

I was recently running up a new CentOS6.4 64-bit minimal install on VMware vCenter v5  & vSphere client v5, and during the install of CentOS you can configure the networking manually, which I usually do for servers.  This VM server … Continue reading →

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How to blow away a Solaris zone

Posted on June 18, 2013 by hedscratchers

You’ve been monkeying around with Solaris zones, and now you want to blow away your screwed up test zone, here’s how you do it. To completely delete/remove a Solaris zone you essentially have 4 step process. Shutdown the zone Halt … Continue reading →

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pam_tally & pam_tally2

Posted on March 26, 2013 by hedscratchers

There a few minor differences between pam_tally & pam_tally2, just enough to trip you over and end up in another head scratching moment! pam_tally,  seems to have fallen out of favour for RHL6 & >= CentOS 6, they  seemed to … Continue reading →

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Splunk – howto configure a RHEL6 host to send data to Spunk and to use the Splunk TA for Unix and Linux

Posted on September 26, 2012 by hedscratchers

I did this. On Splunk server (receiver) Download/install Splunk TA for Unix and Linux to the Splunk server (receiver) and enabled it by going to Manager|Apps|Enable On host you want to collect data from (sender) Download and install the Splunk … Continue reading →

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How to exclude a directory from Linux audit

Posted on September 18, 2012 by hedscratchers

Using audit to track system changes, with rules from the CIS security guidelines. This server also has Splunk running on it, this created a crap load of changes that are reflected in the audit log files, so much so that … Continue reading →

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CentOS – configuring nightly automatic updates

Posted on June 6, 2012 by hedscratchers

I believe that yum-cron now comes package with, but if it doesn’t this do the trick. Upgrade yum first # yum upgrade yum Reboot Check to see if you already have yum-cron – the cron job for updating # rpm … Continue reading →

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Converting Xen guest VM to ESX

Posted on June 4, 2012 by hedscratchers

Guest prep For this guide the guest Xen VM is named “foo” Check current kernel version (XEN) $uname -a  2.6.18-194.11.4.el5xen Install kernel $yum install kernel Downloading Packages: Kernel-2.6.18-308.16.1.el5.x86_64.rpm The new kernel will now show up in /boot $lst -ltr /boot … Continue reading →

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Linux – sending log files to a remote server

Posted on June 1, 2012 by hedscratchers

This worked fine on version: Sending host CentOS 6.2 final 64-bit to receiving host CentOS 5.6 final 64-bit Sending To send logs to remote server (central log server et-al) add the following to the end of the /etc/syslog.conf/rsyslog.conf, best to … Continue reading →

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Securing Samba

Posted on June 1, 2012 by hedscratchers

Changing some of the options may break compatibility with Windows XP and older versions of Samba may not support some of the above options.  Optimal settings overview a) lanman auth = No (prevents use of weak password hashes, breaks compatibility … Continue reading →

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vsftpd – my ever so slightly more secure conf file than the default

Posted on May 4, 2012 by hedscratchers

May not work in your particular environment, use at your own risk, and read the man pages. Things to note, I had slightly different requirements and this is reflected in the vsftd.conf file. I configured to be not anonymous, for … Continue reading →

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