services

How to change the Postfix maximum email size

The configuration option is “message_size_limit” and by default is set to 10240000 bytes which is roughly 10MB. You can see what setting your postfix install is currently using by issuing the following command: postconf | grep message_size_limit Just doing “postconf” on its own will show all the options so using grep on “message_size_limit” filters the [...]

How DNS Works

Domain name Servers (DNS) are an important but invisible part of the internet, and form one of the largest databases on it. Each machine on an internet is assigned a unique address, called an IP address, which is 32 bit number and is expressed as 4 octets. The method user to represent these IP addresses [...]

How to install ISA Server 2006 Standard Edition

Insert the ISA Server CD into the CD drive, or run ISAAutorun.exe from the shared network drive. In Microsoft ISA Server Setup, click Install ISA Server 2006 and use the wizard to install ISA Server 2006 as outlined in the following table. Page Field or property Setting Welcome None Click Next. License Agreement License Agreement Select I [...]

How to enable IP Forwarding in Linux

By default any modern Linux distributions will have IP Forwarding disabled. This is normally a good idea, as most peoples will not need IP Forwarding, but if we are setting up a Linux router/gateway or maybe a VPN server (pptp or ipsec) or just a plain dial-in server then we will need to enable forwarding. [...]

How to Identify MySQL slow queries

Normally from my experience if we take the most ‘expensive’ 10 queries and we optimize them properly (maybe running them more efficiently, or maybe they are just missing a simple index to perform properly), then we will immediately see the result on the overall mysql performance. Then we can iterate this process and optimize the [...]

How to quickly bind a range of IPs on RedHat based systems

Normally when you add a new IP to a network interface in a RedHat based system you create a file ifcfg-eth0:x in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/. For example: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:0 DEVICE=eth0:0 ONBOOT=yes BOOTPROTO=static IPADDR=192.168.0.100 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=192.168.0.0 BROADCAST=192.168.0.255 TYPE=Ethernet Similar to the above example you can create several aliases. But what if you have to add a lot of IPs [...]

10 Nagios Web Frontends

Here is a list of 10 nagios 2.x web frontends that you might find useful if you are looking for a web interface to administer your nagios configuration. 1. Centreon / Oreon – http://www.centreon.com/ Centreon is a network, system, applicative supervision and monitoring tool, it is based upon the most effective Open Source monitoring engine [...]

How To Install phpBB Forum in 5 Steps

Introduction to phpBB phpBB is a stable, open-source, bulletin board script available as a free download from phpbb.com [2]. It allows you to set up an unlimited number of forums and categories. Users, moderators and user groups with varying permissions can be created. In short, it provides everything you’d expect of a bulletin board service. [...]

How to Tune Nagios For Maximum Performance

Optimization Tips: 1. Graph performance statistics with MRTG. In order to keep track of how well your Nagios installation handles load over time and how your configuration changes affect it, you should be graphing several important statistics with MRTG. This is really, really, really useful when it comes to tuning the performance of a Nagios [...]

How to Secure Nagios – Best Practices

Best Practices Use a Dedicated Monitoring Box. I would recommend that you install Nagios on a server that is dedicated to monitoring (and possibly other admin tasks). Protect your monitoring server as if it were one of the most important servers on your network. Keep running services to a minimum and lock down access to [...]

How to Configure a Cisco Router

Configuring your Cisco Router If you have just turned on the router, it will be completely unconfigured. If it is already configured, you may want to view its current configuration. Even if it has not been previously configured, you should familiarize yourself with the show commands before beginning to configure the router. Enter privileged mode [...]

How to remotely administer IIS by using the Remote Administration (HTML) Tool

ith the Remote Administration (HTML) tool, you can manage IIS from a Web browser. With this tool, you can perform most of the administrative tasks that you can perform with the Internet Information Services Manager. NOTE: You can only use the Remote Administration (HTML) tool to administer servers that are running IIS 6.0. You cannot [...]

How to remotely administer IIS by using the Internet Information Services Manager

To remotely administer IIS over an intranet, use the Internet Information Services Manager. IIS 6.0 supports down-level remote administration with this tool. This means that you can use the Internet Information Services Manager on your server running IIS 6.0 to remotely connect to and administer an IIS 5.1-based server or an IIS 5.0-based server. To [...]

How to Set Permissions for Web Content

To set permissions for Web content: 1. Start IIS, or open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that contains the IIS snap-in. 2. Expand ServerName, where ServerName is the name of the server, and then expand Web Sites. 3. Right-click the Web site, virtual directory, directory, or file that you want to set permissions for, and [...]

How To Use the Netdom.exe Utility to Rename a Computer in Windows Server 2003

How to Rename a Computer 1. Install Windows Server 2003 Support Tools from the Support\Tools folder on the Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM. (To do this, right-click the Suptools.msi file in the Support\Tools folder, and then click Install.) 2. At a command prompt, type the following command.NOTE: The following command line has been wrapped to multiple [...]