If you are running a MacBook Pro, you know they run hot. I solved this issue on the cheap by recycling an iWork Retail Eddition box to allow for more airflow under the the MacBook. All you need is to allow a bit of air to flow on the bottom surface and this box happens to be just the right hight to accomplish with ease.
I recently performed a clean install of OS X Snow Leopard on my PowerMac Pro and ran into issues when trying to connect to my companies SSL VPN. While there are numerous posts found on the web, none seem to pertain to a clean install of Snow Leopard. After debugging the issue furtherI found that Network Connect was still having permission issues when trying to connect via the Network Connect client.
Here is what I did to resolve the problem:
Install NetworkConnect.dmg with the version that your Juniper SSL VPN device supports. In my case, it was 6.1
Open up Terminal and type the following commands followed by enter after each line. As you will be using sudo, you may be prompted for your password as well:
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/juniper/nc/6.1.0/ sudo mkdir '/Applications/Network Connect.app/Contents/Frameworks'
I original found the above steps at various sites including the Juniper support forums but I was still running into permission issues. After digging further into the log files I found this and determined that there must be some sort of elevated root permission that needs to update some network settings that can only be done as a super user.
ncproxyd[19016] ncproxyd.info ncproxyd exiting status 1 (ncproxyd.cpp:92) ncproxyd[19054] ncproxyd.error Failed to gain root privileges: Operation not permitted
To fix this you must modify the permissions of ncproxyd
chmod 4711 /usr/local/juniper/nc/6.3.0/ncproxyd
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