Diary of a Network Geek

Linux Distro, that is.
What else would I have meant, you children of the “Summer of Love”? Yeah, like anyone besides me reading this has any idea what the “Summer of Love” was.
Anyway, for those of you who are geeks and not flower-children, or, at least, those who are both, if you’ve ever dreamed of having your very own Linux distribution floating around out there, now you have help. From Big Blue, ironically. No, really! IBM has a page called How to Build Your Own Linux Distribution.
This is a little better than the infamous Linux From Scratch, and, in fact, includes links to that very site. But, it also has some thoughts about what to put into a distro and why. It’s a starting point at most, but I think the article presents a fairly good first look at what you need to consider before trying to “roll your own”.

Now, put the “doobie” down and spark up your mind instead of melting it. Go forth and spread the the word: Linux!
Hey, if you’re a network geek like me, this is your idea of Friday Fun! (Man, I need to get out more…)

Today is the birthday of UNIVAC.
According to Writer’s Almanac, it was on this day in 1951 the world’s first commercially produced computer was unveiled. UNIVAC, as it was known, weighed eight tons, used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and cost a quarter million dollars. But it could perform a thousand calculations per second, the fastest rate in the world at the time. The first one was bought by the U.S. Census Bureau. Not a big surprise, I guess, considering that no one else at the time had any idea what to use a computer for, besides quickly tabulating large numbers.
I remember a Troop Leader in Boy Scouts who worked on computers like this. He talked about the first “portable” calulators which were the size of laptops today, were filled with vacuum tubes, and could only add, subtract, multipy and divide. We’ve come a long way, baby! Now, we’ve got pretty graphics, free operating systems, and giant multi-national corporations all focused on selling us the next machine and suite of applications to go with it. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry and has almost generated a whole new economy. Heck, it’s what makes it possible for you to even read this.
I wonder what the next fifty years will bring in the computer world?

Just a random collection of thoughts.
Earlier this week, Frank Gorshin, the original “Riddler” died. He was always my favorite character. So wild, so creative, and always the mad genius who seemed one step ahead of the Batman. Yet, somehow, the writers always managed to make him trip up in the end. Never did figure that part out. And, interestingly enough, the Batman cartoon, which is the only reason I wake up before noon on Saturdays, featured a new villian today. You guessed it, the Riddler. He was good, but, he was no Frank Gorshin.

Thanks to a faithful reader, BleuCube, I took a quiz this morning. (My apologies, incidentally, for not spelling your site’s name correctly all this time! My very English oriented mind simply “corrected” the exotic French spelling on the fly.)

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 94% Idealist 75% Romanticist 56% Postmodernist 56% Existentialist 50% Fundamentalist 38% Materialist 31% Modernist 6%

What is Your World View? (corrected…again)
created with QuizFarm.com

And, finally, in security geek news, there’s a new version of nmap. The new version is not only faster, but uses a less invasive technique for scanning networks that leaves no trace. In other words, for you WinDoze admins who leave IIS out on the network, exposed, this bad boy can do a port scan on your network and you wouldn’t know it by reading the logs. Oh, but good news for you, there is a WinDoze version, so you can test your own network and try to plug the holes. If you can manage it between applying patchs, fixes and anti-virus updates. I’m so glad we’ll be moving to Linux soon at my office!

Well, it’s time to go play with my dog. It’s a nice sunny day here in Houston, and the grass seed I planted is starting to grow, so I’m off to water, feed the fish, and play some fetch with Hilda. Maybe I can finally get her to drop the ball when she brings it back…

Well, I survived the daytrip to New Orleans.
Barely. Not that the flight was bad, because my boss is actually an excellent pilot and the weather was good. In fact, it was better than most commercial flights I’ve taken, except for the fact that I felt like I couldn’t take a nap. I learned a long time ago to work hard while I was on-site and sleep on the plane.
No, the problem was the “little” problem I thought I was going to fix. See, what I thought was a little problem with some spam e-mail turned into virus hell. Of course, I prepared for that and I brought a copy of our Symantec Corporate Anti-Virus to install. No problem, right? Wrong. When I installed it an old version of Norton Anti-Virus was still installed and the resulting conflict led to the dreaded Blue Screen of Death on the server. Not good. So, I finally get that worked out and discover that the machines are all in a workgroup. None of them sign into the Domain on the server. That meant going from machine to machine and installing the anti-virus program by hand on each one, which, of course, I did. All day long, until about 6:00pm when a break in the weather sent us scooting home.
We got in about 8:30pm, which got me to my door at about 9:15pm, or so to find a puppy with her little legs crossed! I sent a friend who has a key, in case of emergencies, over to let her out, but she was afraid of him and wouldn’t do anything. Silly dog. Just like always, she’s daddy’s girl and wouldn’t do anything for anyone but him. Gotta’ admire that loyalty, even if it’s a little co-dependant.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"There are three ways to get something done: do it yourself, employ someone, or forbid your children to do it."
   --Monta Crane

I love Dr. Suess, but all he did was inspire the title.
I have two concerns this week: Linux servers and security. I’ve installed a test RedHat server and configured Samba on it, so now I can start testing how the accounting system will run from a mapped Linux drive. And, I’ll be testing the custom, in-house app that gives us our competitive edge. I’ve got server spec to get to the boss, when he’s in the office again, but I’m still waiting on pricing for a Linux-based backup system. It was actually much easier to get setup than I thought it would be. Though security may be an issue, since, essentially, Samba emulates Windows sharing on a Linux platform.
Security is my second issue. There’s a basic firewall in place on the router, but I don’t think that’s enough, especially if we want to block “adult” sites. And, since we do actually have a policy against that sort of thing, we do. So, eventually, I need to get that all spec-ed out and installed, too. And tested. Yeah, a little scan against our outside link would be interesting to look at, especially if I do it before and after. Ah, well, that’s down the line. First, I have to get the server upgraded.
Oh, and I still need to evaluate Novell’s Open Server on Linux before I decide which way to go for an OS on the new server. I know I want to avoid a Microsoft product, if at all possible. Frankly, it looks like it should be a real possibility. It all depends on how testing goes this week, so we’ll see. That and getting a CD burner at the office so I can burn the demo ISOs and install them.
Then, there are all the “little” projects that everyone keeps bringing me, not to mention all the nice G4s and assorted Macintrash… Ah, the work of a one-person IT department is never done. But, somehow, having easily defined goals makes the work more fulfilling. I know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there, so it’s all okay.
(The Suess book, by the way, was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and a childhood favorite.)

Looks like I’m going to be a Unix admin!
Yeah, it definately looks like we’ll be using some form of Linux at the new place. If not Novell’s Open Enterprise Server on Linux, then Red Hat Advanced Server. Of course, I’ll end up running SMB as a Windows PDC, for the login scripts, but, hey, at least I can do it! And, it almost sounded like the boss was actually leaning toward Novell’s solution. It actually worked out to be about the same, cost-wise, as Red Hat. Though, the Novell pricing doesn’t include any support if anything went wrong. But, I suppose we could pay by incident. I mean, I hardly ever call Novell anyway these days. Their online knowlegebase has most of the answers I need.
And, of course, there’s all the Mac and OS X stuff, too. That’s BSD, essentially, with a Mac X Windows front end. Funny, it all comes around to that GUI, doesn’t it? All point and click. Oh, for the good, old days when all we had was a command prompt and we were darn lucky when we got that! These kids today don’t have any appreciation for what a good command prompt can do. Why, I remember, back in the “before time”, messing around on an old HP-UX system and figuring out how to read mail from reading the man file! So, here I am, again, back where I started, about to become a Unix admin again.

Cool.

No, I don’t have a girlfriend.
No, I met the “Senior Partner” from Louisiana today. Apparently, he’s done some checking up on me with former employers. He mentioned Kirby by name and talked about people in management there. Not sure who he talked to, but they seemed to have liked me okay because he said they had nice things to say. Sort of interesting, considering the somewhat dubious circumstances under which I left that job. Well, I guess I did better at not burning bridges there than I thought! Yea for me!
I’ve been doing a lot of research into moving from Windows NT to some version of Linux this week. It actually might be easier than I thought. For one thing, I’ve been looking at Novell’s Linux solutions and they have several options, all of which use a migration tool that seems workable. It’s actually a Windows server “consolidation” utility which they meant for admins to use as a way of merging several Windows servers into fewer Novell servers. It sounded a little clunky, but it was free with the software. The other option was something called LSP from DAS Technology. LSP Pro, which showed on the site as costing $500 per instance, would migrate everything for me, automatically, and also add management tools for the long term. Not a bad option and it would be an easy upgrade to RedHat. I think I could make that work, if I can convince them to spend the money.

In other, totally unrelated news, I took my dog for a walk just a few minutes ago. She was so scardey of the little, tiny dog that we met I thought she was going to wet herself. Some fierce watchdog I’ve got. Ah, well, at least she’s lovable and always happy to see me when I get home. It’s the best unconditional love I’ve gotten since I left my parent’s house. I miss my mommy sometimes. I really ought to investigate those dog parks I wrote about some time ago. I just haven’t had the time with all the chaos in my life. Ah, well, one day soon it will all calm down. I hope.

No, that is not what I’m doing these days.
But, as you regular readers know, I do love computer security. So, when I saw this article on WiredNews about the U.S. Military’s l33t hacking unit, I had to blog it. There was a time when I thought I’d love to do this kind of work. Who knows, maybe I still have a chance to get in, though I think I’m a little too old for that now. And, I have to admit, I’m no where near being the kind of computer geek that they’d most likely be looking for anyway. I certainly haven’t done anything even close to illegal in years. In fact, lately, I haven’t even done much normal security work around the office! Though, that may be changing soon.
You know, this article got my juices flowing so much about hacking and security that I might just build myself a Linux security box. You know, something with NMap on it and some other tools for scanning and testing network security. I could run it against my own, personal home network and, if I can get permission, I can test the security at the office, too. It would be fun, and it might just show a little bit of initiative on my part. These days, everyone is worried about data security, or they should be, so having a methodology for testing security where I work could be a Good Thing, as Martha Stewart would say.
Well, a neat article and something to think about. Enjoy!

Well, I survived my first day at the new job.
Oh, what’s that? New job? Oh, didn’t I mention it before?
Yeah, okay, there’s a funny story behind that. Well, there’s a story behind that which involves things like lawyers and teenagers and medical insurance and divorce. Come to think of it, it’s not a very funny story at all. But, I hope that it will be one day.

Anyway, I’m the IT Manager at a new company called SeaTrax now. We make cranes. Big cranes that are based on big platforms in the ocean. It’s actually pretty cool. It’s a Windows shop, but, well, nothing’s perfect. With any luck at all, I’ll be able to convert them to either a Linux shop or a Novell shop, or both!
It was a long, hard day trying to set priorities, so when I got home, I microwaved some chicken-fried steak and gravy followed by a dessert of Krispy Kreme mini-crullers. And, I washed it all down with a Sam Adams. Yes, even the Krispy Kreme! (Hey, back off! It was a long day!) And, my sweet doggie was so happy to see me when I got home, I let her lick off my dinner plate. She loves gravy!
Anyway, all I managed to do was get a rudimentary “To Do” list put together. Actually, I even stole that idea from a faithful reader, BlueCube. But, here it is anyway. Feel free to make suggestions!

Jim’s Great Big, Enormous To Do List of Doom

Short Term
* Get specs for hardware for server upgrade
* Figure out solution for PeachTree for server upgrade
* Figure out OS for server upgrade
* Document security layout for new server
* Order enought Backup tapes for Full GFS at for every backup server
* Tape Inventory & sign out
* Tape backup courier or a whole new scheme for backupadmins
* Clean up Edirectory
* Clean up data junk on servers
* Clean up active directory

Long Term:
* Address Windows Server Updates
* Work out Tape Cleaning procedure for all backups
* Upgrade Anti-virus software and automate
* Figure out Name Changes and write up procedures
* Figure out to do with multi-user accounts
* Create New user/change form
* Write backup procedures guidelines
* Write anti-virus procedures
* Write workstation software and hardware policies and procedures
* Evaluate T1/WAN connection, price and reliability
* Come up with plan for “roaming” staff
* Create Firewall maintenance/monitoring guidelines
* Create montly network maintenance procedures
* Create shutdown scripts for server

Blue Sky:
* create monthly newsletter
* Build wishlist for end of budget
* Formulate server percentage uptime
* Clean computer room
* Clean tech room
* Setup IDS system
* Implement PDA synchornization system and standards

It might not be the smallest, but it’s close!
Thanks to my recovered Bloglines feed to Gizmodo, I bring you Picotux! The site claims that it’s the smallest device actually running a Linux kernel in existance and, frankly, I can believe it. It’s not any bigger than a freaking ethernet jack! Man, that is cool.

Hey, if you’re reading this, you’re either a stalker or a geek like me, or both, so, click the link. You know you want to. Even if you’re just the stalker. After all, what else are you going to do on a Friday? Work?