I’d like one of these at work…
Dell OpenManage on CentOS 5.x
Dell OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) is a suite of tools provided by Dell for managing an individual server. Dell provides a Windows installation tool set on their support website but information pertaining to the installation on non-supported Dell operating systems (e.g. CentOS, Fedora) is a little hard to find.
If your running Dell branded servers with CentOS 5.x and need to install the current version of Dell OpenManage and OpenIPMI, the following script will automate the process.
1. Login to your server.
2. cd /usr/src Continue reading “Dell OpenManage on CentOS 5.x”
Horde Webmail Security
For those using Plesk 9.x, Horde naively allows webmail logins via HTTP (in-secure) or HTTPS (secure). HTTP log-ins are not recommended as username and password information is sent in clear text across the Internet.
In the following example we’ll configure access to http://webmail.yourdomain.com to automatically re-direct to http://webmail.yourdomain.com.
NOTE: These instructions are specific to Plesk’s implementation of Horde but should work on any Horde 3.1.7 installation. Simply locate Horde’s “conf.php” file and adjust the parameters shown below.
[[email protected] /]# nano -w /etc/psa/webmail/horde/horde/conf.php Continue reading “Horde Webmail Security”
APC PowerChute Agents on CentOS
This is a quick how to on installing APC PowerChute monitoring agents on CentOS. This has been tested on CentOS 5.x versions and will likely work on RedHat Enterprise as well.
APC provides a free “5 node” version of the PowerChute Business Edition Basic which includes the PowerChute server (used for real time monitoring), PowerChute Console (used for monitoring and managing agents/clients) and the PowerChute Agent (available for Windows, Linux etc. and used to monitor a specific machine). Whilst this version is limited to managing a maximum of 5 server agents at a time, for a small office or branch data centers, its more than adequate. The PowerChute console allows for monitoring and management of UPS units connected to production Windows and Linux servers via serial (RS-232). Status information including battery health, UPS and battery age, total run time available, city power conditions and remote shutdown are all available within the console.
The CentOS agents may be installed and configured as follows:
1. Install the PowerChute Server and Console on an existing Windows machine. Continue reading “APC PowerChute Agents on CentOS”
Windows Vista Service Pack 2
Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is now officially available for download. SP2 includes better Wi-Fi and BlueTooth connectivity, processor compatibility, native Blu-Ray support, and faster search services along with a barrage of security hotfixes and updates. A list of notable changes is available here.
One disappointment is that service pack 2 requires service pack 1 to be installed as a prerequisite which means native Vista slipstreams won’t work without SP1 being installed first. The work around is to install SP1 inclusive Vista media or build a ground up slipstream cd which includes SP1 and SP2. This can easily be accomplished with vLite.
One interesting fact is that Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 are included in the same update file meaning you only need to download a single executable to update both operating systems. This is the first time Microsoft has released a joint service pack.
Vista SP2 will be released to Windows Update on June 30th but in the mean time it can be downloaded from Microsoft Downloads or using the links below.
– Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) for x86 (348.3 MB)
– Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) for x64 (577.4 MB)
– Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) Stand-Alone ISO (1376.8 MB)