Redhat Linux Installation Groups: A complet list for RHEL5.4
Submitted by jmarki on 15 November 2009 - 10:31pmJust a quick post. If you are running kickstart, you may find yourself looking for the list of installation groups and their associated packages. I certainly did.
Following a tip from http://www.mail-archive.com/cobbler@lists.fedorahosted.org/msg04644.html, here's the entire comps.xml file for Redhat Enterprise Linux 5.4.
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Video: Transformers Dancing Nobody!
Submitted by jmarki on 14 November 2009 - 4:57amFirst found on Facebook.
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Blog Action Day '09
Submitted by jmarki on 16 October 2009 - 2:43am
Today (yesterday?) is Blog Action Day '09, and the topic is "Climate Change". What a depressing, yet uplifting topic to blog about!
When you were just small kiddos, did you ever imagined how Earth would look like from space? Guess it would look like this:
And we are absolutely dwarfed by the immerse size of Earth!
What a wonderful world we live in!
Yet, we thoughtlessly pollute the environment. We create things that last forever and throw them away in an instant.
We breed animals in inhumane conditions, stacked up high like packed boxes. We clear acres of forests to grow lots of crops, and feed these animals for months. Just to slaughter them for a single meal.
And scoff when someone remarks about the sheer waste of energy producing so much food for so little gain.
Sigh...
How egoistic can we be? Somewhere between all the debate about global warming, we lost sight of the forest for the trees. The key issue is not about whether global warming is a natural phenomenon. It is about sustainable development.
We want our next generations to have a decent quality of life. We want them to see how beautiful this world is. We want them to experience snow falling softly around them. We want them to see the beautiful corals in the deep blue sea. We want them to be able to see the stars, and imagine how small they are if they look down to Earth.
Eat less meat. Dispose less garbage. Waste less paper. Waste less electricity. Recycle, reuse, reduce. Just live in moderation. Is that really so difficult?
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Vegetarian Spider!
Submitted by jmarki on 13 October 2009 - 11:01pmI can't help but post this: ∃ vegetarian spiders!
Wired News: Kinder, Gentler Spider Eats Veggies, Cares for Kids
Each of the world’s 40,000 spider species survives by hunting and killing — except, that is, for Bagheera kiplingi, the world’s first vegetarian arachnid.
Found in Central America, the order-defying jumping spider eats nutrient-rich structures called Beltian bodies, which are found on the tips of Acacia trees. Trees produce the bodies to feed ants that defend them, which is a textbook example of what’s called co-evolutionary mutalism, and one that B. kiplingi has evolved to exploit.
In a paper published Monday in Current Biology, researchers describe the spider’s ant-evading habits and provide a molecular analysis of its body composition, proving that B. kiplingi is indeed what it eats: plants, with a few larval ants on the side. (After all, 400 million years of evolutionary habits die hard.)
A few other spiders have been documented consuming nectar, but only as a snack. No other spider is so predominantly vegetarian. And that’s not all: It looks like B. kiplingi males help care for eggs and young — something entirely unprecedented in the spider world.
The researchers are now studying whether there’s a link between B. kiplingi’s predilection for plants and parental concern. Maybe going veggie softened its heart.
Image: Current Biology
Citation: “Herbivory in a spider through exploitation of an ant-plant mutualism.” By Christopher J. Meehan, Eric J. Olson, Matthew W. Reudink, T. Kurt Kyser, and Robert L. Curry. Current Biology, Vol. 19, Issue 19, October 13, 2009.
See? I told you I'm kind. 
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Script: Yum Check Update
Submitted by jmarki on 8 October 2009 - 2:50amI have been using this script to check for updates on my Redhat systems for quite some time. Put this into your cron.daily, and you have a daily nag to update your system. 
#!/bin/bash
#########
## Yum Check Update Script
##
## This script checks for system updates and sends email
## to sysmin team if there are any updates.
##
## Changelog
## ---------
## 24 Oct 2008 (Junhao)
## - Initial commit
##
#########
_CAT="/bin/cat"
_DATE="/bin/date"
_HOSTNAME="/bin/hostname"
_MAILX="/bin/mailx"
_RM="/bin/rm"
_TOUCH="/bin/touch"
_YUM="/usr/bin/yum"
HOSTNAME=`${_HOSTNAME}`
DATESTAMP=`${_DATE} +%Y%b%d-%H:%M:%S`
EMAIL=root
MAILSUB="RHEL Update Available for ${HOSTNAME} on ${DATESTAMP}"
TEMPLOG=/tmp/yum-check-update.tmp
${_TOUCH} ${TEMPLOG}
${_YUM} check-update 1> ${TEMPLOG} 2>&1
if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
${_CAT} ${TEMPLOG} | ${_MAILX} -s "${MAILSUB}" ${EMAIL}
fi
${_RM} ${TEMPLOG}
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Howto Wake Up and Goto Work in 5 mins!
Submitted by jmarki on 4 October 2009 - 10:08pmThis is so cool! And looks more traumatising than $WORK!
Hmm, where's the coffee though...
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Vacation: Stress VS Time
Submitted by jmarki on 1 October 2009 - 12:52amThis should be very familiar to everyone. I wonder if I will experience this too. Taiwan in Decemeber!
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Script: Check No Missing Files After Reorganisation of Directory Trees
Submitted by jmarki on 1 August 2009 - 4:43pmHere's another script I did when I had to reorganised a folder hierarchy of years of data. Basically to ensure files are not missing, or corrupted.
#!/bin/bash
#########################
#
# checkNoMissingFiles
# ===================
#
# This script checks that no files are missing after folders are reorganised.
# Basic algorithm is to checksum all files in both old and new folders, then
# checking through both lists of checksums to ensure all checksums are present
# in both lists.
#
# Changelog
# =========
#
# 18 Oct 2007 - Junhao
# * Initial commit
#
# 11 Dec 2007 - Junhao
# * Tidied style
# * Fixed bug with spaces in filenames
# * added option to save generated checksums
# * changed md5sum to sha1sum
# * changed checksum to general algorithm
#########################
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin
export PATH
## Program Locations
awk=/bin/awk
cat=/bin/cat
echo=/bin/echo
find=/usr/bin/find
grep=/bin/grep
checksum=/usr/bin/sha1sum
mktemp=/bin/mktemp
rm=/bin/rm
tee="/usr/bin/tee -a"
touch=/bin/touch
## End Program Locations
## Start Script
## Script parameters
f_logFile=/dev/null
d_orgLoc=/dev/null
d_newLoc=/dev/null
v_oldFileName=
v_oldFileChksum=
f_oldChksumLog=
f_newChksumLog=
v_missingFilesCount=0
v_missingFiles=""
v_output=
v_f1flag=1
v_f2flag=1
## End Script parameters
function print_usage () {
${echo} "
$0
Usage: $0 [-L logfile] [-f1 filename] [-f2 filename] [oldDir] [newDir]
or $0 -h
Description: Checks that there are no missing files after reorganising a directory.
Options:
-L logfile (Optional) Path to log file
-h (Optional) This help text
-1 (Optional) Filename to save checksum for old directory
-2 (Optional) Filename to save checksum for new directory
oldDir Location of old directory
newDir Location of new directory
"
}
if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
print_usage
exit 1
else
while getopts hL:1:2: options; do
case "${options}" in
h) print_usage
exit 1
;;
L) f_logFile=${OPTARG}
;;
1) f_oldChksumLog=${OPTARG}
v_f1flag=0
;;
2) f_newChksumLog=${OPTARG}
v_f2flag=0
;;
*) f_logFile=/dev/null
;;
esac
done
shift $((${OPTIND} - 1))
if [ -d "$1" ]; then
d_orgLoc="$1"
else
${echo} "Error: Original directory does not exist!"
print_usage
exit 1
fi
if [ -d "$2" ]; then
d_newLoc="$2"
else
${echo} "Error: New directory does not exist!"
print_usage
exit 1
fi
if [ -z ${f_oldChksumLog} ]; then
f_oldChksumLog=`${mktemp}`
elif [ -f ${f_oldChksumLog} ]; then
${echo} "Error: File ${f_oldChksumLog} exists! Please give another filename."
exit 2
else
${touch} ${f_oldChksumLog}
if [ ! -f ${f_oldChksumLog} ]; then
${echo} "Error: ${f_oldChksumLog} cannot be created!"
exit 4
fi
fi
if [ -z ${f_newChksumLog} ]; then
f_newChksumLog=`${mktemp}`
elif [ -f ${f_newChksumLog} ]; then
${echo} "Error: File ${f_newChksumLog} exists! Please give another filename."
exit 3
else
${touch} ${f_newChksumLog}
if [ ! -f ${f_newChksumLog} ]; then
${echo} "Error: File ${f_newChksumLog} cannot be created!"
exit 5
fi
fi
fi
${echo} "${find} \"${d_orgLoc}\" -type f -exec ${checksum} \"\\{\\}\" \\;" | ${tee} ${f_logFile}
${find} "${d_orgLoc}" -type f -exec ${checksum} "{}" \; | ${tee} ${f_oldChksumLog}
${echo} "${find} \"${d_newLoc}\" -type f -exec ${checksum} \"\\{\\}\" \\;" | ${tee} ${f_logFile}
${find} "${d_newLoc}" -type f -exec ${checksum} "{}" \; | ${tee} ${f_newChksumLog}
while read -r v_oldFileChksum v_oldFileName; do
if [[ `${grep} ${v_oldFileChksum} ${f_newChksumLog}` ]]; then
v_output="Okay: ${v_oldFileName} -> "
v_output="${v_output} `${grep} \"${v_oldFileChksum}\" \"${f_newChksumLog}\" | ${awk} '{print $2}'`"
else
v_output="ERROR: ${v_oldFileName} is missing"
v_missingFiles="${v_missingFiles} ${v_oldFileName}"
v_missingFilesCount=$((v_missingFilesCount+1))
fi
${echo} "${v_output}" | ${tee} ${f_logFile}
done < ${f_oldChksumLog}
#### cleanup ####
if [ "1" == ${v_f1flag} ]; then
${rm} ${f_oldChksumLog}
fi
if [ "1" == ${v_f2flag} ]; then
${rm} ${f_newChksumLog}
fi
if [ ${v_missingFilesCount} -gt 0 ]; then
${echo} "ERROR: ${v_missingFilesCount} files are missing:" | ${tee} ${f_logFile}
${echo} "ERROR: ${v_missingFiles}" | ${tee} ${f_logFile}
exit 99
else
${echo} "Success: ${v_missingFilesCount} files are missing" | ${tee} ${f_logFile}
exit 0
fi
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Script: Zimbra Backup Script
Submitted by jmarki on 1 August 2009 - 4:29pmI am currently migrating out of Zimbra to a 3rd-party host. Just for archival, here's my Zimbra backup script. Just run this script using a cronjob every day. There will be a short downtime where Zimbra is shutdown to synchronise the last bit of emails, but that should be okay if you have a backup MX server.
This script creates a working live copy of the Zimbra directory, then shutdown Zimbra to sync the directory. The directory is then passed through star, into a small(er) file.
#!/bin/bash
########
## Zimbra backup script
##
## See
##
## Requires star, rsync, bash, gzip
## Does full backups of /opt/zimbra only. Tries to
## minimise zimbra shutdown time with a live rsync,
## then a offline rsync
##
## Changelog
## ---------
## 15 Feb 2009 (Junhao)
## - BUGFIX: deletes leftover archive.tgz tarball before
## creating new tar
## 21 Oct 2008 (Junhao)
## - added disk size to log
## - added tarball -t test
## 19 Oct 2008 (Junhao)
## - Initial commit
##
########
## config
_AWK=`which awk`
_CAT=`which cat`
_CD=cd #bash builtin
_CHECKSUM=`which sha1sum`
_DATE=`which date`
_DF=`which df`
_DU=`which du`
_ECHO=`which echo`
_MV=`which mv`
_MAIL=`which mail`
_RSYNC=`which rsync`
_RM=`which rm`
_SLEEP=`which sleep`
_SU=`which su`
_TAR=`which star`
_TOUCH=`which touch`
DATESTAMP=`date +%Y%b%d-%T`
RELEASE=`${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmcontrol -v"`
RELEASE=`${_ECHO} ${RELEASE} | ${_AWK} '{ print $2"-"$3"-"$4 }'`
TARBALL=zimbra-${RELEASE}-backup-full-${DATESTAMP}.tgz
LOGFILE=zimbra-${RELEASE}-backup-full-${DATESTAMP}.log
EMAIL=user@domain.co.m
MAILSUB="ZCS Backup Report on ${DATESTAMP}"
BKUPRETRIES=5
RESTARTRETRIES=100
ZIMBRADIR=/opt/zimbra
BASEDIR=/opt/zimbra-backups
WORKDIR=${BASEDIR}/working
LOGDIR=${BASEDIR}/logs
SAVEDIR=${BASEDIR}/saved
LOG=${LOGDIR}/${LOGFILE}
CHKSUMLOG=${SAVEDIR}/checksum
TARLOG=${WORKDIR}/tar.log
LOCK=${BASEDIR}/zimbra-backup.lock
TEMPARCHIVE=archive.tgz
function calc_downtime() {
if [ -z "${STARTTIME3}" ]; then
STARTTIME3=`date +%s`
fi
if [ -z "${ENDTIME}" ]; then
ENDTIME=`date +%s`
fi
TOTAL=$((${ENDTIME} - ${STARTTIME1}))
OFFLINE=$((${STARTTIME3} - ${STARTTIME2}))
${_ECHO} "Time taken: $((${TOTAL} / 3600)) hours $((${TOTAL} % 3600 / 60)) minutes $((${TOTAL} % 3600 % 60)) seconds" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Zimbra Offline: $((${OFFLINE} / 3600)) hours $((${OFFLINE} % 3600 / 60)) minutes $((${OFFLINE} % 3600 % 60)) seconds" >> ${LOG}
return 0
}
function force_restart() {
for (( i=0; i<=${RESTARTRETRIES} ; i=$(($i+1)) )); do
${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmcontrol stop"
${_SLEEP} 10
${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmcontrol start"
${_SLEEP} 10
${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmcontrol status"
if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
${_ECHO} "Sucessfully restarted zimbra after $((${i}+1)) tries" >> ${LOG}
return 0
else
${_SLEEP} 10
fi
done
${_ECHO} "Could not restart zimbra after ${RESTARTRETRIES} tries" >> ${LOG}
return 254
}
function lock_set() {
${_TOUCH} ${LOCK}
}
function lock_remove() {
${_RM} ${LOCK}
}
function synchronise() {
for (( i=0; i<=${BKUPRETRIES} ; i=$(($i+1)) )); do
${_RSYNC} -avHK --delete --exclude=*.pid ${ZIMBRADIR} ${WORKDIR}
if [[ $? == 0 || $? == 24 ]]; then
return $?
fi
${_SLEEP} 10
done
return 254
}
function send_mail() {
calc_downtime
${_ECHO} "" >> ${LOG}
${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmcontrol status" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "" >> ${LOG}
${_CAT} ${TARLOG} >> ${LOG}
${_RM} ${TARLOG}
${_CAT} ${LOG} | ${_MAIL} -s "${MAILSUB}" ${EMAIL}
}
function send_error() {
MAILSUB="[Failed] ${MAILSUB}"
send_mail
}
function send_success() {
MAILSUB="[Success] ${MAILSUB}"
send_mail
}
${_TOUCH} ${LOG}
lock_set
${_ECHO} "Server: `${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmhostname"`" >>${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Tarball: ${TARBALL}" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Logfile: ${LOG}" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Backup started at ${DATESTAMP}" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "" >> ${LOG}
## Outputs time backup started for logging
STARTTIME1=`${_DATE} +%s`
## Online sync to working directory
${_ECHO} "Starting online rsync" >> ${LOG}
synchronise
if [[ $? == 254 ]]; then
${_ECHO} "Error in creating live copy" >> ${LOG}
send_error
lock_remove
exit 1
fi
STARTTIME2=`${_DATE} +%s`
## Shut down zimbra
${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmcontrol stop"
if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
${_ECHO} "Error stopping zimbra" >> ${LOG}
${_SU} - zimbra -c"zmcontrol status" >>${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Aborting backup, force restarting zimbra" >> ${LOG}
force_restart
if [[ $? == 255 ]]; then
${_ECHO} "Trying again" >> ${LOG}
force_restart
fi
send_error
lock_remove
exit 2
fi
${_SLEEP} 10
## Offline sync to working directory
${_ECHO} "Starting offline rsync" >>${LOG}
synchronise
if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
${_ECHO} "Offline rsync completed successfully" >> ${LOG}
elif [[ $? == 24 ]]; then
## some files disappeared, meaning some open process running
## wait a while, rerun rsync, and assume okay
${_SLEEP} 60
synchronise
else
${_ECHO} "Error in creating offline copy" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Aborting backup, force restarting zimbra" >> ${LOG}
force_restart
send_error
lock_remove
exit 3
fi
## Start zimbra
force_restart
if [[ $? == 254 ]]; then
${_ECHO} "Trying again" >> ${LOG}
force_restart
send_error
lock_remove
exit 4
fi
STARTTIME3=`date +%s`
## Synchronization sucessful, create archive
${_CD} ${WORKDIR}
if [ -f ${TARLOG} ]; then
${_RM} ${TARLOG}
else
${_TOUCH} ${TARLOG}
fi
if [ -f ${TEMPARCHIVE} ]; then
${_RM} ${TEMPARCHIVE}
fi
${_TAR} czf ${TEMPARCHIVE} ./ 1>> ${TARLOG} 2>&1
if [[ $? != 0 && $? != 254 ]]; then
${_ECHO} "Error creating tarball. Error Code: $?" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Aborting backup" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Tarball location: ${WORKDIR}/${TEMPARCHIVE}" >> ${LOG}
send_error
lock_remove
exit 5
fi
${_TAR} ztf ${TEMPARCHIVE}
if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
${_MV} ${TEMPARCHIVE} ${SAVEDIR}/${TARBALL}
${_ECHO} "" >> ${LOG}
${_DU} -sh ${SAVEDIR}/${TARBALL} >> ${LOG}
${_DF} -h ${SAVEDIR}/${TARBALL} >> ${LOG}
else
${_ECHO} "Error validating tarball. Error Code: $?" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Aborting backup" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Tarball location: ${WORKDIR}/${TEMPARCHIVE}" >> ${LOG}
send_error
lock_remove
exit 6
fi
## Creating checksum
${_CD} ${SAVEDIR}
CHKSUM=`${_CHECKSUM} ${TARBALL}`
${_ECHO} "${CHKSUM}" >> ${CHKSUMLOG}
${_ECHO} "" >> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "Checksum using ${_CHECKSUM}">> ${LOG}
${_ECHO} "${CHKSUM}" >> ${LOG}
## Backup done!
ENDTIME=`date +%s`
send_success
lock_remove
exit 0
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Puppet - Centralised Configuration Management
Submitted by jmarki on 28 April 2009 - 8:21amRecently, I have started to migrate my scripts to use Puppet. Everything from initial system provisioning to manual failover systems had been converted. Wee~
The idea behind Puppet is to consolidate and standardise configuration across multiple servers. By centralising configuration, a standard security and provisioning baseline is maintained. Configuration for each service can be standardised and reused across an entire infrastructure. Even better, puppet ensures the system remains as configured. Locally configured files are reverted, services are restarted, etc. The end result? Less headache and easier knowledge sharing.
Someone once commented about me using a "commandline webmin". I don't think Puppet is like webmin at all. Webmin pre-defines the fields for configuration. Puppet is, well, blank. It simply provides an API for defining my systems, and then helps me push/maintain it across the infrastructure.
Who says system administrators can't code? 
Okay, back to coding...
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