http://www.itworld.com/taxonomy/term/1113/all xx http://www.itworld.com/offbeat/63716/myths-gods-and-titanic-disasters-how-servers-really-get-their-names Last month we looked into the practice of naming servers, half expecting to discover it was a quirky, geeky thing to do -- and nothing more. To our surprise, readers flooded the story with comments, chiming in about their own naming schemes. Want a server to last forever? Name it Belgarath. Feel like tempting fate? Name it Hindenberg or Titanic. Looking for a suitable name for a mail server? Try Pegasus, Newman, or Norman Mailer. http://www.itworld.com/offbeat/63716/myths-gods-and-titanic-disasters-how-servers-really-get-their-names#comments Offbeat Feature Linux systems administration Unix Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:19:29 -0500 abennett 63716 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/offbeat/61750/would-server-any-other-name-be-functional If you name your main file server after a depressive alcoholic playwright can you really expect it to be anything other than problematic? http://www.itworld.com/offbeat/61750/would-server-any-other-name-be-functional#comments Offbeat Opinion servers systems administration Unix Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:19:00 -0500 jfruh 61750 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/operating-systems/54117/long-listings-ps-command If you've ever been frustrated by ps output that is truncated at the edge of your 80-column terminal window, let's take a look at the options that various Unix systems provide for showing you what you really want to see. http://www.itworld.com/operating-systems/54117/long-listings-ps-command#comments Operating systems How-to long listing ps -ef ps aux ps output Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:15:33 -0400 Sandra Henry-Stocker 54117 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/development/53949/unix-and-long-usernames Working around problems caused by usernames with more than eight characters is generally easy, but isn't it time we stop having to abide by limitations created 40 years ago? http://www.itworld.com/development/53949/unix-and-long-usernames#comments Development Operating systems How-to 8-character limits passwd ps Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:20:45 -0400 Sandra Henry-Stocker 53949 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/open-source/53789/setting-proxy-web-server-apache Setting up a forward web proxy with Apache involves a very simple and quick procedure. From start to finish, it should take you roughly half an hour. Let's examine the process step by step. http://www.itworld.com/open-source/53789/setting-proxy-web-server-apache#comments Internet Open Source How-to Apache installation proxy Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:59:56 -0400 Sandra Henry-Stocker 53789 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/bc-utility-unix-command-nlsunix-080319 The bc utility is not just acommand line tool. You can also write numerically intensive scripts in bc. The tool incorporates enough syntax to assign values to variables, write and call functions, collect responses from users and print annotated results. http://www.itworld.com/bc-utility-unix-command-nlsunix-080319#comments Hardware How-to bc Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:25:27 -0400 jnaze 741 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/unix-bc-nlsunix-080312 For sysadmins who want to perform simple calculations on the command line, there's a considerably more useful tool than expr. Try bc. Like expr, the bc command allows you to do simple math. http://www.itworld.com/unix-bc-nlsunix-080312#comments Hardware Operating systems How-to bc Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:44:39 -0400 jnaze 815 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/burning-bootable-dvds-nlsunix-080305 One of the messages that you don't want to see when getting ready to upgrade a system to Solaris 10 is "can't open boot device". The problems this kind of error suggests, such as bad CD/DVD reader or improper device alias, can be troublesome. So, when I ran into this problem on a Friday afternoon, I was not amused. I had tried various boot commands, but got the same basic response each time... http://www.itworld.com/burning-bootable-dvds-nlsunix-080305#comments Open Source Operating systems How-to bootable DVD Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:43:58 -0500 jnaze 891 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/nlsunix071108 Often referred to as a "chroot jail" or a "padded cell" because users cannot escape from the directories into which they are put when they log in, the basic concept of a "chroot" (change root) configuration is that a user's working view of the system's file system is dramatically modified so that only some particular directory and its contents is visible. However, in order to be useful, each chrooted environment should contain many of the same directories you would expect to find in the root file system on a typical Unix system. Here's what you need to know. http://www.itworld.com/nlsunix071108#comments Open Source Software How-to Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Tue, 06 Nov 2007 11:33:32 -0500 jnaze 2220 at http://www.itworld.com http://www.itworld.com/nlsunix070403 Many systems administrators have run into errors in their syslog files that complain that mail is looping back, suggesting a possible MX problem. The common cause of this problem is that a server is receiving email for a domain that it doesn't recognize as its own. Then, when the server looks up the MX address for the intended target (in order to send the mail on its way), it notices that the MX record is one that identifies the mail exchanger as the system itself. http://www.itworld.com/nlsunix070403#comments Open Source Operating systems How-to Sandra Henry-Stocker systems administration Unix Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:14:41 -0400 jnaze 4700 at http://www.itworld.com