Linux Journal | System Administration Special Issue | 2009
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Cfengine VNC Billix Zenoss Thin Clients MySQL Heartbeat ™ SPECIAL SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION ISSUE Since 1994: The Original Magazine of the Linux Community 2009 | Supplement Issue | www.linuxjournal.com MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU Billix: the Sysadmin Toolkit for Your Pocket Authentication with Fedora Directory Server Remote Desktop Administration with OpenSSH or VNC Manage Configuration Files with Cfengine Setting Up a PXE Boot Server Network Monitoring with Zenoss SPECIAL SYSTEM CONTENTS ADMINISTRATION ISSUE 5 SPECIAL_ISSUE.TAR.GZ 26 PXE MAGIC: FLEXIBLE System Administration: Instant NETWORK BOOTING WITH Gratification Edition MENUS Shawn Powers What if you never had to carry around an install or rescue CD 6 CFENGINE FOR again? Set up a PXE boot server ENTERPRISE with menus and put them all on CONFIGURATION the network. MANAGEMENT Kyle Rankin How to use cfengine to manage configuration files across large 30 CREATING VPNS WITH 17 ZENOSS numbers of machines. IPSEC AND SSL/TLS Scott Lackey The two most common and current techniques for creating VPNs. 10 SECURED REMOTE Rami Rosen Linux Journal DESKTOP/APPLICATION SESSIONS 34 MYSQL 5 STORED 2009 Lineup Different ways to control a Linux PROCEDURES: RELIC OR system over a network. REVOLUTION? JANUARY Mick Bauer Do MySQL 5 Stored Procedures Security produce tiers of joy or sorrow? FEBRUARY Guy Harrison Web Development 38 GETTING STARTED WITH MARCH Desktop HEARTBEAT Availability in a heartbeat. APRIL Daniel Bartholomew System Administration 14 BILLIX: A SYSADMIN’S MAY SWISS ARMY KNIFE 42 FEDORA DIRECTORY Cool Projects SERVER: THE EVOLUTION Build a toolbox in your pocket by JUNE installing Billix on that spare USB key. OF LINUX Readers' Choice Awards Bill Childers AUTHENTICATION Want an alternative to OpenLDAP? JULY Mobile Linux 17 ZENOSS AND THE ART OF Jeramiah Bowling NETWORK MONITORING AUGUST Stay on top of your network with Kernel Capers an enterprise-class monitoring tool. SEPTEMBER Jeramiah Bowling Cross-Platform Development 22 THIN CLIENTS BOOTING OCTOBER OVER A WIRELESS Hack This BRIDGE Setting up a thin-client NOVEMBER Infrastructure network, and some useful operation/administration tools. DECEMBER Ronan Skehill, Alan Dunne Embedded and John Nelson USPS LINUX JOURNAL (ISSN 1075-3583) (USPS 12854) is published monthly by Belltown Media, Inc., 2211 Norfolk, Ste 514, Houston, TX 77098 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Houston, Texas and at additional mail- ing offices. Cover price is $5.99 US. Sub scrip tion rate is $29.50/year in the United States, $39.50 in Canada and Mexico, $69.50 elsewhere. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Linux Journal, PO Box 16476, North Hollywood, CA 91615. Subscriptions start with the next issue. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #41549519. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. 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PHONE: +1 818-487-2089 FAX: +1 818-487-4550 TOLL-FREE: 1-888-66-LINUX FREE e-NEWSLETTERS: Each week, Linux MAIL: PO Box 16476, North Hollywood, CA 91615-9911 USA Journal editors will tell you what's hot in the world Please allow 4–6 weeks for processing address changes and orders of Linux. Receive late-breaking news, technical tips PRINTED IN USA and tricks, and links to in-depth stories featured LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. on www.linuxjournal.com. Subscribe for free today, www.linuxjournal.com/enewsletters. Special_Issue.tar.gz System Administration: Instant Gratification Edition SHAWN POWERS elcome to the Linux Journal family! (again, covered here), you probably can The issue you currently hold in your manage most of your network without even Whands, or more precisely, the issue leaving home. If you haven’t reconfigured a you’re reading on your screen, was created server from a coffee shop across the country, specifically for you. It’s so frustrating to subscribe you haven’t lived. to a magazine, and then wait a month or two I do understand, however, that lots of before you ever get to read your first issue. You sysadmins enjoy going in to work. That’s decided to subscribe, so we decided to give you great; we like office coffee too. Keep reading some instant gratification. Because really, isn’t to find many hands-on tools that will make that the best kind? your work day more efficient, more productive This entire issue is dedicated to system and even more fun. Billix, for example, is a USB- administration. As a Linux professional or an booting Linux distribution that has tons of great everyday penguin fan, you’re most likely already features ready to use. It can install operating a sysadmin of some sort. Sure, some of us are in systems, rescue broken computers, and if you charge of administering thousands of computers, want to do something it doesn’t do by default, and some of us just keep our single desktop that’s okay, the article explains how to include running. With Linux though, it doesn’t matter any custom tools you might want. how big or small your infrastructure might be. If Whether it’s booting thin clients over a you want to run a MySQL server on your laptop, wireless bridge or creating custom PXE boot that’s not a problem. In fact, in this issue we menus, the life of a system administrator is even talk about stored procedures on MySQL 5, never boring. At Linux Journal, we try to so we’ll show you how to get the most out of make your job easier month after month with that laptop server. product reviews, tech tips, games (you know, If you do manage lots of machines, however, for your lunch break) and in-depth articles like there are some tools that can make your job much you’ll read here.