• sysctl settings to reduce buffers and caches in Linux


    vm.swappiness = 1 vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 800 vm.dirty_ratio = 5 vm.dirty_background_ratio = 2 vm.min_free_kbytes = 65536 # Reserve 64MB for emergencies This is mainly useful for smaller systems/VMs/dev test/Raspberry Pi etc.. but even servers with huge amounts of RAM can start putting a ton of things into buffers and cache especially if you open large files constantly.........
  • Flash LSI MegaRAID 2208 to IT mode in Linux Mint/Debian/Ubuntu


    03:00.0 RAID bus controller: Broadcom / LSI MegaRAID SAS 2208 [Thunderbolt] (rev 05) This is risky but if you have an extra RAID/SAS card to replace it then you can try this to get IT mode. https://docs.broadcom.com/docs-and-downloads/host-bus-adapters/host-bus-adapters-common-files/sas_sata_6g_p14/9207_8e_Package_P14_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/12350477 Get the sas2flash for Linux: https://doc........
  • LSI MegaRAID in Linux Ubuntu / Centos Tutorial Setup Guide megacli


    Usually when I come across a system like this, Ijust flash the firmware to an IT mode so we get just an AHCI system with JBOD, but sometimes it is not practical for remote systems or if we fear that flashing is too risky if something goes wrong. In this case, we unfortunately have to use LSI/Broadcom proprietary CLI tools (megacli) to even make the drives visible. Step 1 - Download MegaCLI The official broadcom packages lack .deb packages and only have .rpm for........
  • CDN Cloudflare how to set and preserve the real IP of the client without modifying application code on Apache


    Your frontend CDN (eg. Cloudflare or even your own load balancer/proxy) must be sending the X-Forwarded-For and you must be running Apache on the backend. This solves the problem where your logs and services will only see the proxy/CDN IP and not the real client IP. modremoteip is the most modern and current working solution Step 1.) Enable remoteip a2enmod remoteip Step 2.) Edit/Enable the correct config Edit t........
  • MP3s Won't Play / ID3 Version 2.4 Issues in Cars and Other MP3 Players/CDs/DVDs Solution


    ID3 2.4 can cause various MP3 players, especially on vehicles or even computers, not to play or at least not to display the ID3 tags. In many cases though, since ID3 2.4 is much different than version 2.3, it will cause some players, especially in cars like Lexus not to play. Even on the computer, you may notice if you check the properties of the MP3 that it won't open or show any details (eg. frequency, bitrate and ID3 tags). One symptom of this in a vehicle (eg. Leuxs,........
  • dd how to backup and restore disk images including compression with gzip


    dd is a very handy tool and there are some more practical things we can do. For example if we want to dump a 3TB drive and want to preserve it and only 200GB are being used on the 3TB we can save a lot of space with gzip. Backing Stuff up with dd How to Use dd to backup a raw hard drive and tar gzip at once Change /dev/sda to the drive you want to backup Change /mnt/extras........
  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager 12 Install Errors on Proxmox/KVM


    The strange thing is that usually the first install or two will work on any new machine but then it suddenly won't. I had this experience on QEMU 2.13 on a different machine. There is something finicky or buggy about the CUCM installer even when choosing the same virtual hardware specs. qemu-kvm command: /usr/libexec/qemu-kvm -version QEMU PC emulator version 0.12.1 (qemu-kvm-0.12.1.2-2.506.el6_10.1), Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard ........
  • Linux Mint XWindows Ubuntu MATE or Cinnamon How To Restart The GUI / Graphics / Session if it freezes without losing current windows or programs


    Uh oh, so you're working on some super l33t code or other stuff that is super important and Linux Mint's MATE or Cinnamon window manager freezes. This means maybe you can move your mouse but you can't click anything, you can't Alt + Tab to another program but everything appears to be working other than that. The first thing you would do is Ctrl + Alt + F1 (or whatever virtual terminal you want) and get into the Linux bash prompt (the black screen where things really happen :))........
  • /etc/iproute2/rt_tables default settings file in Linux Centos 6,7 and most other NIX's


    This should apply to most Linux distributions just incase you get into trouble or wipe out the defaults by accident. /etc/iproute2/rt_tables # # reserved values # 255 local 254 main 253 default 0 unspec # # local # #1 inr.ruhep........
  • genisoimage errors with long filenames and deep directory structures


    You'll have to violate the iso9660 standards but it is necessary if you want to preserve your filesystem and filenames and shouldn't be an issue as long as you are using a modern OS like Linux. genisoimage -o Backup-Myfiles.iso -r -J -joliet-long /some/path/ You will get errors like below (even enabling joliet-long didn't help) genisoimage: Error: /some/filename.pdf have the same Joliet name Joliet tree sort failed. The -joliet-lo........
  • Mozilla Firefox Address Bar History Not Working places.sqlite corruption solution database repair


    Here is the only solution Ifound that works in Firefox: *Note you could basically just copy all of the commands in bold (the rest just shows the output) Install sqlite3 sqlite3 places.sqlite sqlite> .clone places.sqlite-fixed moz_places... done moz_historyvisits... done moz_inputhistory..........
  • How to change reserved blocks in Linux partition


    user@box:~$ sudo tune2fs -l /dev/md99 [sudo] password for user: tune2fs 1.42.9 (4-Feb-2014) Filesystem volume name: Last mounted on: /mnt/md50 Filesystem UUID: 976a8655-2619-4587-878c-dab07f7b7652 Filesystem magic number: 0xEF53 Filesystem revision #: 1 (dynamic) Fi........
  • check if Apache uses worker MPM or prefork MPM


    apachectl -l Compiled in modules: core.c prefork.c http_core.c mod_so.c It is "prefork.c" so in httpd.conf these settings are what you would use (if you use worker.c it won't have any impact): StartServers 2 MinSpareServers 5 MaxSpareServers&nb........
  • ADATA SU800 256GB 3D NAND Flash SSD Test & Review


    I keep reading these drives are slower, but they are cheap and still SSDand work very fast for my needs. As you can see the sequential read is 481-491MB/s, if I put them in MDADM RAID10 mode (normal RAID1) they should give me well over 900MB/s and with redundancy and being very cheap for what they offer. [1232206.315622] scsi 8:0:1:0: Direct-Access ATA ADATA SU800&........
  • blocked for more than 120 seconds issues with iowait and timeout on Live Linux distribution while writing to physical disk


    This happened while an mdadm array was syncing, all access from writing a new blank file to opening a small .txt file was very slow: [222117.312078] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds [222117.685060] EXT3-fs (md0): using internal journal [222117.685096] EXT3-fs (md0): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode [222122.376847] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds [222122.602825] EXT3-fs (md2): using internal jour........
  • cp copy all contents of directory to another one including hidden files and folders howto


    cp -a /your/source/. /your/dest/ -a preserves all file atributes and symlinks the "." at the end of /source/ includes all hidden files such as .htacess, .bash_history, .ssh etc.. The / in /dest/ makes sure the contents go into it instead of replacing /dest itself (eg. if you did not have the / at the end).........
  • SAS2008 LSI 9200-E Linux Upgrade Flash Firmware with sas2flash


    Download from here http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9200-8e#downloads sudo Installer_P20_for_Linux/sas2flash_linux_i686_x86-64_rel/sas2flash -listall LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18) Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved &nbs........
  • Apache Vhost HowTo Serve Same Content using a different domain and IP


    There are a few ways of doing this and all basically involve using the reverse proxy or "ProxyPass" feature of Apache to accomplish it. 1.) Create a normal vhost and simply symlink the root directory of the site you want to mirror. Eg. originalsite.com and newsite.com /vhosts/originalsite.com/httpdocs You would symlink like this: ln -s /vhosts/originalsite.com/httpdocs vhosts/originalsite.com/........
  • Centos 6 how to guide convert LVM non-RAID into mdadm 1/10 RAID array live without reinstalling


    Here is the scenario you or a client have a remote machine that was installed as a standard/default minimal Centos 6.x machine on a single disk with LVM for whatever reason. Often many people do not know how to install it to a RAID array so it is common to have this problem and why reinstall if you don't need to? In some cases on a remote system you can't easily reinstall without physical or KVM access. So in this case you add a second physical or disk or already ha........
  • HP Procurve Switch 2824 CLI Telnet Experience , Guide and Tutorial


    ------------------------------------- ProCurve J4903A Switch 2824 Software revision I.10.77 Copyright (C) 1991-2009 Hewlett-Packard Co. All Rights Reserved. RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions........
  • Dell CS24SC Server Info


    Dell CS24SC Info 0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5100 Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 90) 0000:00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5100 Chipset PCI Express x8 Port 2-3 (rev 90) 0000:00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5100 Chipset PCI Express x4 Port 3 (rev 90) 0000:00:04.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5100 Chipset PCI Express x16 Port 4-7 (rev 90) 0000:00:05.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5100 Chipset PCI Express x4 Port 5 (rev 90)........
  • Dell CS10-F1D Server Info lspci Linux specs


    0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5000P Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev b1) 0000:00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset PCI Express x8 Port 2-3 (rev b1) 0000:00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset PCI Express x4 Port 3 (rev b1) 0000:00:04.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset PCI Express x8 Port 4-5 (rev b1) 0000:00:05.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5000 Series Chipset PCI Express x4........
  • .htaccess mod_rewrite preserve access to custom query string solution


    I struggled with this for awhile because sometimes you have rewritten URLs that you want to pass a query string but most of the info and examples do not support this. Take a typical example like this: RewriteRule ^(.*)-(.*)-(.*) /?module=$3&id=$2 You need to add the QSA flag to make it work like below: RewriteRule ^(.*)-(.*)-(.*) /?module=$3&id=$2 [QSA] The QSA preserves the original query string but also appends it wit........
  • MySQL Allows blank user with no password to login


    I just realized I have some blank users which I deleted butI can still login to this dummy account without a password for some reason. mysql -u -p Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or g. Your MySQL connection id is 5 Server version: 5.1.69 Source distribution Copyright (c) 2000, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation an........
  • bash script howto use heredocand assign to a variable and write to a file


    zonetemplate=$(cat ........
  • Bad Hard Drive Slows Down Computer


    Here's a proven example of what a bad hard drive can do, it was technically functioning OKin a RAID array but the system became extremely low and the load become high and IOWAIT was even higher and I always thought it was a bad application. The truth is that this failing 1TBHitachi has slowly gotten worse and caused huge slowdowns, (eg. 100% load on Thunderbird waiting for e-mails to load etc..). After swapping it out, tabs change instantly, emails are not lagged, and........
  • badblocks in Linux to check/verify if a hard drive/HDD is good or bad


    I like badblocks and don't know a better more reliable way of checking the drive. If there are no errors from badblocks and dmesg doesn't produce any SATA related errors, the drive should be good (for now at least). I also prefer to do read and write mode, yes it takes ages but it is really the best way of doing it. This gives me the most confidence in knowing that a drive, especially a new one is at least OK at the moment. To test in read only mode........
  • How to view an EFI GPT partition in Linux


    Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes 256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38761 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16128 * 512 = 8257536 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 38........
  • mdadm/Debian problem


    This is one in a series of weird things whichIthought was motherboard related (I RMA'd the motherboard), the RAM tests fine with memtest86 and I used badblocks on both RAID 1 members with no errors and smartctl is happy with them. Basically the array crashes the kernel a lot and has issues when writing. [112322.723465] md0: rw=0, want=14958668696, limit=1887460480 [112322.731077] attempt to access beyond end of device [112322.731087] md........
  • Linux Out of Memory OOM Object Killer Solution "Out of memory: kill process 1955 (sshd) score 81 or a child"


    I had a system running a 128MB live CD image with 2.8 gigs of available RAM and the OOM kernel killer went crazy when using dd for more than 8 minutes and kept killing everything. I've read that this is due to a low-memory issue and paging in the kernel and 32-bit systems with lots of RAM. I even enabled swapspace on my LiveCD and the issue happened 25 minutes into dd rather than 8 minutes, so what gives? Also no swap space was ever used! cat /proc/s........
  • Apache MPM worker vs prefork


    find what MPM Apache is using, it will either be using "worker" or "prefork" apachectl -l Compiled in modules: core.c prefork.c http_core.c mod_so.c In my case it is "prefork" vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf Find the section that looks like this (by default one will normally exist for prefork and for worker, but in my case I only care a........
  • rsync and cp doesn't/won't include .hidden files


    I was shocked that options like preserve and archive made no difference! This is a big deal and will catch people off guard. Rsync include hidden files Solution: You need to use something like: rsync -Pha /source/dir/. /dest/dir *Notice the "." at the end of the source directory. cp -a still ignores them too, the solution is the same: cp -a /source/directory/. /destination........
  • Cygwin and crontab backups via ssh/scp/rsync


    Install the "Editors" and "Net" groups that will give you rsync, ssh, ssh-keygen and cron. The trickiest thing that I keep forgetting about each time is you have to run "cron-config" which adds the cron service to Windows, and without doing that obviously no cron jobs will be run thus making automatic backups impossible. Warning about rsync/cygwin and using the -a archive switch. It's a good thing I caught this because it doesn't work ri........
  • rsync preserve attributes, permissions/ownership and times without being root non-root user


    One of the purposes of rsync is to backup whole filesystems and archive them but how can you do that properly and restore things to normal if all permissions and ownerships are not preserved from your root filesystem? It's not desirable to have everything running as root, especially not just for an rsync. The Easy rsync preserve permission solution for non-root users sudo is the answer and all you have to do is edit /etc/sudoers At the end o........
  • VirtualBox Error Failed to start the virtual machine Centos 5.5 Mirror. Medium '/home/testuser/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/Centos 5.5 Mirror.vdi' is not accessible. UUID {a1a9fad7-0402-4867-b8f3-39fb49454bc5} of the medium '/home/testuser/.VirtualBox/HardD


    Virtualbox Error I tried to copy a .vdi of one container to use in another one, basically to clone instead of having to install the OS again. Failed to start the virtual machine Centos 5.5 Mirror. Medium '/home/testuser/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/Centos 5.5 Mirror.vdi' is not accessible. UUID {a1a9fad7-0402-4867-b8f3-39fb49454bc5} of the medium '/home/testuser/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/Centos 5.5 Mirror.vdi' does not match the value {4945a0e8-0ed5-4736-9088-bcaf........
  • rsync halted froze Out of memory: kill process 7559 (rsync) score 635 or a child Killed process 7559 (rsync)


    Out of memory: kill process 7559 (rsync) score 635 or a child Killed process 7559 (rsync) I was surprised to see this in my dmesg whenmy rsync backup suddenly stalled/stopped. This system has 3 gigs of RAM and lots of free memory so I don't understand what is happening. rsync invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0x200d2, order=0, oomkilladj=0 Pid: 7600, comm: rsync Not tainted 2.6.24.2 #83 [] oom_kill_pr........
  • rsync my favorite/best/optimal default switches and options


    Not sure what rsync switches/options to use? rsync -PDrphogtl The short version would be: rsync -Pha I think these are really common sense options to use and probaby should be the default. Explanation of rsync switches P = display the progress D = hybrid of --specials and --devices so all special and device files will be copied as well. r = recursive (otherwise rsync won't copy files deeper than........
  • Convert HDD/Hard Drive Partition(s) into non-RAID into RAID 1 using existing data without data loss and without reformatting.


    Before we start I take no responsibility for this, you should have a backup and if you make a mistake during this process you could wipe out all of your data. So backup somewhere else before starting this as a precaution, or make sure it's data you could afford to lose. The RAID 1 Setup (Hardware Wise) I've already setup my 2 x 1TB (Seagate) drives with identical partitions, make sure your new hard drive (the empty one) is setup like your curr........
  • Linux EXT3 16GB-17GB maximum filesize issue solved/how to fix


    I have no idea why but mkfs.ext3 defaults to a patheticlly small blocksize of 1024 bytes/1KB (kilobyte). That means the maximum filesize is ONLY 16GB! With 2KB/2048 bytes you get a 256 GB maximum filesize, and with 4KB/4096 bytes you get 2TB! I finally noticed/paid attention to this after realizing that with rsync and scp that no file larger than 17GB could be transferred. I then realized it must be a file size limit on the partition. Here is what tune2fs tol........
  • MySQL Reserved Words


    MySQL Reserved Wordshttp://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/reserved-words.html You should familiarize yourself with these because you will have unexpected results if you use any of them. Eg. try creating a table with what you think is valid syntax like this: CREATE Table Order( .......); The word 'Order' is a reserved word and used to ORDER the results so you will get a syntax error from this one and you would think everything is........
  • Create Table with structure of another existing table


    Create Table with structure of another existing tableOk, this has many valid uses such as if you need to create backups or the ability to undo changes, you would want to create new tables with the same structure as another. Here is how you do it. [i:7ed9581493] Also remember Indexes such as PRIMARY KEYS [b:7ed9581493]will not be preserved[/b:7ed9581493] so you will have to readd them manually.[/i:7ed9581493] [code:1:7ed9581493]CREATE TABLE NewName AS SEL........
  • How To Save iptables firewall rules Centos/Redhat/Fedora Linux


    This is something that annoys a lot of people, fortunately the Redhat style OS's are the most simple in this respect. I disagree that Debian's way makes sense, it is more of a hackish approach in how they implement iptables. Anyway, for those who are using Redhat/Centos style OS's it is very simple. Set your rules from the shell/command prompt and to save the iptables firewall rules so they are remember/loaded on boot just run this command: service iptables........
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