I have been using MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org) for several years, and recently realized I should better monitor the health of the system. Nagios (http://www.nagios.org) is currently deployed to monitor most of the components (i.e. memory, cpu, disk usage, processes, etc). However, it is not uncommon for issues to arise, which may…
Avaya SoftConsole Crashes on Incoming Call
Today was a day filled with phone calls to Avaya Support regarding their SoftConsole application. The SoftConsole application is intended for a switchboard style view for a receptionist/attendant. The receptionist was given a new computer with a fresh install of SoftConsole. Avaya Support was contacted, because the SoftConsole would crash…
Samba Lost Connection with Active Directory Domain Controller
A legacy Samba server recently stopped allowing users to connect to its shares. This was very odd, that this began happening, since this machine has been in service for years. One thing that had recently changed, was that there were some Active Directory Domain Controllers demoted to be decommissioned. I…
Calculate Subnet Information with ipcalc
When doing any moderate to advanced networking, you are likely to have to deal with subnetting. While some people have an ability to do the binary math in their head to figure out the correct subnet-mask, I prefer to use a tool to give me the answer. I have used…
Create Random Passwords with Linux
When creating user accounts on servers and devices, it is important to use strong passwords that will be difficult to guess or crack. It is often preferred to at least create accounts with a random password, and allow the user to change it to something they can remember. A great…
Backup MySQL Databases Automatically on a Linux Server
Dumping a MySQL database to a file is not a difficult task, but it is nice to be able to automate the process and have several versions archived. There is a project called “AutoMySQLBackup” available at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/automysqlbackup/. First you should download the script to your Linux host using wget: host#>…