Recently I explained how to easily set up communication between a Puppet client and master. In this follow up post I’ll outline the steps involved in configuring the Puppet master to control the client machine. Starting out with Puppet does not have to be a...
Now it's time to look at some of the server side configurations. The first step is to configure reverse proxy for the HTTP services. These services live on hosts that sit in the DMZ. A proxy is very simple to configure and allows a lot of flexibility to grow over time...
These days, everything is moving to virtual. Virtual reality, virtual machines, and with Docker, virtual filesystems. Actually, Docker is not virtual, it's very real and is a very convenient way to package an entire filesystem and run it on any supported system. Why...
This week we take up the topic of creating IBM Rational patch install areas for pre-7.1 versions. As we have discussed in previous weeks, there are a number of tools in Rational 7.1 and beyond that introduce much automation into patch management. However, there are...
This week we continue on the topic of installing using IBM Installation Manager. But with a bit of a difference. Instead of bringing up the IM install GUI and using it to conduct the installation, we will take a step toward greater installation automation and create...
In this week’s blog entry, we want to have a look at how Unix and Windows groups work together in a mixed Unix/Windows environment. This topic can sometimes be a bit confusing, and here we hope to contribute to clarifying the subject. Many companies and development...
(Originally published in 2012, updated January 2022.) One of the common tasks for any system administrator is managing disk space on a server. A common question is how to increase disk space on a linux system. I won't go into a boring lecture on why managing disk...
In the three previous rounds of this Metrics, Metrics, Metrics series, I discussed gathering metrics, and building Reports and Charts in PTC Integrity Lifecycle Manager. In this article, we will discuss how you can take various charts, reports and queries and...
In my last post, I introduced Clonezilla as an easy way to deploy Windows-based workstations into a corporate environment. But once a workstation enters the corporate network, what sort of policy applies to it? What sort of actions can a user take on their...
Last time, we looked at a basic website design. Now it’s time to start digging into the details around what’s really being used behind the scenes. This time, we’ll focus on security aspects. When a user starts their browser and connects...
As Senior Systems Integrator for SPK and Associates, a California based IT services company specializing in infrastructure management services, I recently completed an interesting project. The goal was to create an ESX cluster for a small engineering group...
Over the past year, I have been doing a lot of work with clients who use high-end CAD and/or EE software tools from respected vendors like Cadence, Synopsys, and Mentor Graphics. The majority of these software tools require a license server to be setup on your local...