Diary of a Network Geek

Two great tastes that taste great together.

I only wish I was going to get to taste them. I was reading the article in this month’s Novell Connection Magazine about all the cool new things that Novell is rolling out for Netware and Linux in a mixed envrionment. It really makes me sad that my current company is phasing out Novell. Especially now that Novell has bought SUSE! Yow! I can only imagine the things that will be coming down the pike! I mean, things like Linux-only Groupwise just really makes me drool. And, with all the web-based administration tools, managing servers from home on the weekend would be a dream with Linux. *sigh* Well, maybe one day I’ll get the chance to be in a Linux/Novell shop. Until then, I have to content myself with running Linux servers and nursing the old Novell servers through end-of-life.
At least it pays the mortgage.

A bootable Linux security “suite”.

Cool. I saw this on the ScreenSavers, but it’s still cool and probably new to most of us. It’s a a tool called PHLAK. PHLAK stands for Professional Hacker’s Linux Assault Kit. But, what it is is a bootable Linux distro that’s loaded with security tools and information. Oh, it’s also free. I have to admit that I haven’t actually played with it. Yet. But, on the surface, it looks pretty cool.
Frankly, I like the idea of bootable distros. You can crank them up and try them out without reformating your hard drive. That’s pretty cool. And, for some applications, like security auditing, it’s nice to not leave too many footprints. A bootable distro is pretty good for that. Not perfect, of course, but it does limit certain kinds of trails and fingerprints.
Anyway, it’s Linux, new and fun. Go check it out!

Jack Messman opens LinuxWorld.

Well, based on this story from WiredNews, Novell is really serious about their commitment to Linux. Jack Messman, who is the CEO of Novell, said that we need more OpenSource projects and applications. I really think his opening the biggest Linux show in the country show just how much Novell has committed to Linux. They’re really betting on the fact that enterprise computing is looking for a more robust, more stable, system than we’ve gotten used to recently. Certainly, I’d like a system that has fewer crashes and more uptime than most of the Windows servers I’ve worked on! And, Unix, which is still what runs the Internet, no matter what Micro$oft would like you to believe, is the most stable OS that I’ve ever worked on, Netware included. So, it seems like a good match for Novell. A series of products that integrate Novell’s easy-to-use tools and Linux’s stability seems like a good idea. At least, I think it’s the right move, obviously since I got my Linux+ certification. I just hope the rest of the IT world sees it our way!

I know why the PERL developer cries…

Sometime ago, I wrote an entry about PERL on Netware. At the time, I wondered why no one used PERL for Novell System administration. Now, I know. Novell has virtually no documentation on how PERL interacts with Netware. There are a few, simple example scripts and a couple of suggestions for things to do with it, but that’s about it. How frustrating! Here I am, having actually gotten a little bit of PERL savy and to what end? My favorite server OS supports it, technically, but they offer virtually no information about how to actually make use of it! Argh!

Ah, well, now that they’re getting into the Linux arena maybe we’ll start to see more support for Open Source and “hackerish” tools, like PERL. I sure hope so…

Wow, I’m becoming a Unix admin!

Now, this might not be a big deal for old-time Unix geeks, or anyone who prefers to work with Micro$oft products, but I think it’s cool. Last week, I was wrestling with a little problem that I solved with a judicious application of XWindows.
We run Oracle 9ias at my office and to get it to print graphics we have to do a kludge work-around. Not that we’re special, everyone who runs Oracle 9ias has to do it. What we’ve been doing is using a pair of Windows workstations running a Windows-base X terminal. Well, over the weekend those workstaions locked up and the DBA couldn’t get them restarted without physically rebooting them. So, Wednesday he came to me and told me he wanted a Linux solution to the problem.
After a bit of Googling, I found what I hoped would be the answer, but I didn’t have time until Thursday to try it out. Here’s what I did, in a nutshell:
1. On my Red Hat 9 workstation, I opened a terminal and ran “xhost +”
2. On the Solaris 8 test server running Oracle 9ias, I telnetted in and ran “display=my RedHat 9 workstation IP address:1.0″ and then “export display”
3. Then, still on the 9ias server, I ran”Xterm” and it popped up on my XWindows session on my RedHat workstation!

Woot! So, I know it might not be a big deal to an old Unix hand, but to this old Novell geek, it was pretty cool. Oh, and it works, too. Now, I just have to figure out how to script all that so it runs automagically……

I’ve been thinking about it…

I had a really busy weekend and, of course, missed a couple of shows that I tend to like to watch. So, that got me thinking about TiVo…. But, I don’t like the idea of having to pay for a subscription. (Because I’m perpetually under-paid and, as a result, a tight-wad.) In any case, that made me think about a way to get around the fee. Naturally, I turned to the Internet for a solution. And, I may just have one: Knoppmyth.

In a nutshell, Knoppmyth is a Linux install that also installs something called MythTV, which is, you guessed it, a TiVo replacement. So, now, all I need is a machine to run it on and the hardware to decode the signal and ….. Hmmm, maybe it’s cheaper to just pay the fee for TiVo. I’ll get back to you on that one….

Does that mean, Novell servers?

When I read this news story on Forbes.com about how Gateway is going to be selling servers with SUSE Linux on them, it struck me as odd. First of all, Novell just announced that they were going to buy SUSE just a couple of weeks ago. Second, Gateway selling servers? Well, okay. I don’t think I’ve ever run one, but their PCs are okay. Third, just as everyone else seems to be dropping Linux support, SUSE and Gateway are just starting to push it.
Okay, so, I’m no pundit, but this seems a little strange to me. I mean, these guys aren’t neccessarily “top of the line” in the industry, but they’re not light-weights, either! I can’t put my finger on it, but there has to be something going on here that I’m missing. Is there some kind of behind-the-scenes deal going on? Did Novell know about this deal before they made their move? Did Novell orchestrate this deal? And, what the devil will it all mean to the industry? Will it mean anything? I don’t know, but I’ll be watching this as it develops!!

When are there going to be too many Linux distributions?

Not yet, apparently. According to this article on Wired News, Bruce Perens, an open-source “guru”, is backing a new Linux distro, called, UserLinux. Apparently, with Red Hat getting out of the user desktop business, Mr. Perens thinks there’s a real need for a good desktop distro. He, along with a number of Linux zealots, have been saying that Linux is making in-roads on the desktop for quite some time. But, so far, they have a dismally small percentage of the market.
Personally, I don’t think Linux will get anywhere with the general public until someone starts making real, consumer-grade applications for Linux. I thought we were getting somewhere when Corel released WordPerfect for Linux, but that was a dismal failure. Of course, it seems like just about everything Corel has done turns into a dismal failure. Except for, maybe, their drawing programs. In any case, until people can run Quicken and TurboTax and Print Shop and other programs like them on Linux, and get support for all of it, Linux will stay a server and geek tool. Now, I like Linux, but even I don’t run it as a desktop at home. I’m one of those people that need Quicken and TurboTax, though I can do with out PrintShop. And, I have other applications that only seem to be developed for Windows. So, I play with Linux and use it at work, but not for a desktop. Still I wish them luck. I’d sure like to see something compete with Windows!

Hey, did you know you can run PERL on Netware?

Yeah, it’s been there since Netware 4, actually, though no one really mentioned it at all until Netware 5. I started paying attention to that fact about two years ago when I started getting into PERL for my websites. But, now, it’s a default component in the standard install! So, why don’t I hear about anyone leveraging this? Well, I’m not sure about anyone else, but I intend to get some use out of PERL on my Netware servers.
Two weeks ago, I bought PERL for System Administration with the idea that I would use it, and code from the PERL Cookbook, to make my life easier. Why not, I thought, make a set of scripts that I can use or adapt for Linux, Netware and Windows? Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, we’ll see. I hope it’s a great idea, anyway. At the very least, I should be able learn a bunch more about PERL!
And, while I’m working on it, here’s a German site(in English) that has all kinds of scripts for PERL on Netware. Enjoy!

With subpoenas this time, not just FUD.

(That’s Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, by the way.) Well, according to this article on ZDNet, SCO has filed subpoenas with the U.S. District Court in Utah, targeting Novell; Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel; Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation; Stuart Cohen, chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs; and John Horsley, general counsel of Transmeta.
The article said that IBM responded to the Linux-related lawsuit by asking a federal judge to order SCO to identify illegal source code and serving four other companies with subpoenas of its own. Though it wasn’t clear if they filed before or after SCO. In either case, I hope this gets resolved soon. I’m tired of hearing about it and anyone who knows Linux knows that they have no leg to stand on. Oh, well, at least it gets Linux in the news….