If you ever need to copy files across a network and wanted a quick and easy way to do it without FTP, NFS, SAMBA or an other remote directory access solutions. RSYNC is usually part of most Unix or Linux distributions and can be easily installed.
The most basic of options is below:
rsync -avz -e ssh user@remotehost:/path/to/dir /local/dir/
Ever needed to shutdown or restart windows from a remote desktop session? I was wondering this very thing today as my monitor locked up on my Dell E6500 laptop. Since the shutdown or restart feature are not enabled on the start menu in an RDP session, you need to do the following:
CTRL-ALT-END
You will then have the option to restart or shutdown the remote computer.
BIND (Berkley Internet Name Domain) is the most common of all DNS servers and generally a standard on most Linux and UNIX distributions.
For a more detailed look at Bind and its technical history take a look at the Wikipedia article on Bind.
CHROOT is commonly referred to as JAIL and is often used to change the root of an application to another location for the reasons of security. Often times CHROOT is used for services that run under root user and can be insecure so it is a way of protecting the root operating system in the event of an application compromise.
In this HowTo, we will be installing BIND9 and CHROOTing bind to live in an restricted portion of the Linux file system. For the purposes of this HowTo we will be using a running installation of Debian Etch.
Assumptions
1. Bind will be configured as an authoritative DNS master resolving for specific domain names
2. You have limited knowledge of Linux editors such as vi
3. Utilization of Sudo. If you do not use sudo, simply eliminate sudo from any commands however you will need to be logged in as a root user
Install Bind 9
sudo apt-get install bind9
CHROOT Bind 9
sudo /etc/init.d/bind9 stop
Edit /etc/default/bind9 and configure bind to run as an unprivileged user and chrooted to /var/lib/named as follows:
OPTIONS=”-u bind -t /var/lib/named”
# Set RESOLVCONF=no to not run resolvconf
RESOLVCONF=yes
Create the necessary directories /var/lib
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/named/etc
sudo mkdir /var/lib/named/dev
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/cache/bind
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/named/var/run/bind/run
Move the default bind config directory from /etc to /var/lib/named/etc
sudo mv /etc/bind /var/lib/named/etc
Create a symbolic link to the new config directory form the old location to the new locations
sudo ln -s /var/lib/named/etc/bind /etc/bind
Make null and random devices and set the correct file permissions
sudo mknod /var/lib/named/dev/null c 1 3
sudo mknod /var/lib/named/dev/random c 1 8
sudo chmod 666 /var/lib/named/dev/null /var/lib/named/dev/random
sudo chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/var/*
sudo chown -R bind:bind /var/lib/named/etc/bind
Modify syslogd to log to the right location
sudo vi /etc/default/syslogd
Modify the line SYSLOGD=”” so it reads SYSLOGD=”-a /var/lib/named/dev/log”
#
# Top configuration file for syslogd
#
#
# Full documentation of possible arguments are found in the manpage
# syslogd(8).
#
#
# For remote UDP logging use SYSLOGD=”-r”
#
SYSLOGD=”-a /var/lib/named/dev/log”
Restart syslogd and start bind
sudo /etc/init.d/sysklogd restart
sudo /etc/init.d/bind9 start
Check for logs by tailing /var/log/syslog for any error messages
sudo cat /var/log/syslog
or
sudo tail –f /var/log/syslog
Testing
Now that Bind 9 is installed, you will want to test and this can be done with the following command:
dig @localhost www.yahoo.com
Configure Bind 9
The next step is to create a master zone directory followed by a zone template. It is extremely important to be cognizant of file permissions. If you get these wrongs, Bind will not resolve for your domains. Each zone file needs to be owned by the user and group bind. So if you create a new zone make sure to assign the right permissions to the new zone file
sudo mkdir -p /etc/bind/zones
sudo chown bind:bind /etc/bind/zones
sudo chmod 700 /etc/bind/zones
Create a template zone file
sudo vi /etc/bind/zones/template
;
; SOA
;
$TTL 1h
@ IN SOA dns1.example.com. hostmaster.example.com. (
2007010101 ; Serial number
1h ; Slave refresh
15m ; Slave retry
2w ; Slave expire
1h ; Negative Cache TTL
)
;
; NS RECORDS
;
@ IN NS dns1.example.com.
@ IN NS dns2.example.com.
;
; MAIL RECORDS
;
IN MX 10 mx01.example.com.
IN MX 10 mx02.example.com.
;
; MAIL HOSTS
;
mx01 IN A 1.2.3.4
mx02 IN A 1.2.3.4
mail01 IN A 1.2.3.4
mail02 IN A 1.2.3.4
;
; WWW RECORDS
;
@ IN A 1.2.3.4
www IN A 1.2.3.4
blog IN A 1.2.3.4
;
; CUSTOM RECORDS
;
server-a IN A 1.2.3.4
server-b IN A 1.2.3.4
Again, ensure you have the right permissions for the zone file.
sudo chown bind:bind /etc/bind/zones/template
sudo chmod 600 /etc/bind/zones/template
Create a New Zone
Copy the zone file template from above and edit as needed.
sudo cp -p /etc/bind/zones/template db.example.com
At the very minimum the serial number and edit the file as needed.
Next, enable the zone file in /etc/bind/named.local
sudo /etc/bind/named.conf.local
zone “example.com” {
type master;
file “/etc/bind/zones/db.example.com”;
notify yes;
};
Reload Bind and test
sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog
sudo tail -f /var/log/daemon.log
dig @localhost example.com MX
Feel free to contact me with any questions or revisions.
Special thanks to the following sites for contrbuting information:
http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/serverguide/C/dns-configuration.html
http://www.howtoforge.org/perfect_setup_debian_etch_p4
http://www.besy.co.uk/debian/how_to_setup_a_bind_9_dns_server
You to can buy your own senate seat for only $1,999 with zero down. Compliments of Leather Creations Furniture.
I recently moved to a new Debian Server with Apache 2.x and installed WordPress 2.7. When I went to change my permalinks, it was not able to configure the permalink feature. I create the appropriate .htaccess file in the root of the WordPress directory but yet it still failed. What I failed to check the .htaccess was enabled. Verify that you have .htaccess enabled in apache (Mod Rewrite) and ensure that your server allows you to override the master Apache configuration directives.
To solve this issue, I simply editied at my Virtual Host configuration file and changed it from
<VirtualHost *>
DocumentRoot /var/www/SiteName/
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/SiteName/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
To
<VirtualHost *>
DocumentRoot /var/www/SiteName/
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/SiteName/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride FileInfo
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
Simply change None to FileInfo or All. I chose FileInfo as it is a bit more restrictive. I hope this helps you.
Lukas had his 3rd Birthday on December 24th. As you can tell, he is a big fan of Buzz Lightyear. I did a quick internet search and learned that he (the toy) actually went to space and spent some time onboard both the shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station.
Check out these postings that I came across:
Happy Birthday Lukas!
On October 12th, we went on a day trip Starved Rock, IL to do a little hiking and enjoy a warm fall day. Having been away from the west coast for a few years, we have not really done much in the likes of hiking and it was nice to come across this place. Check out our Flickr gallery from the trip.
Over the holiday break, I decided to go through some of my old photos and do some photo management. I came across this one from a camping trip Rada and I took in July of 2005. Convict Lake is one of the easiest accessible beauties of the Sierra Nevada’s. Its location is to the left on Highway 395 heading North towards Mammoth Lakes.
Wikipedia has the following to say about Convict Lake:
The lake was named after an incident in 1871, where a group of convicts escaped from prison in Carson City. A posse, led by Sheriff Robert Morrison, encountered the convicts near the head of what is now Convict Creek. Morrison was killed in the encounter, and Mount Morrison was named after him [1].
In 1951, a film titled The Secret of Convict Lake was released with the location as the film’s setting based on the events in (1871) starring Glenn Ford and Gene Tierney.According to the narrative included with the movie “How the West Was Won”, Convict Lake was in the opening scenes. It was also used in Star Trek Insurrection, and in an advertisement for Nature Valley granola bars in 2007.
