Linux Server Hacks

Description

A competent system administrator knows that a Linux server is a high performance system for routing large amounts of information through a network connection. Setting up and maintaining a Linux server requires understanding not only the hardware, but the ins and outs of the Linux operating system along with its supporting cast of utilities as well as layers of applications software. There's basic documentation online but there's a lot beyond the basics you have to know, and this only comes from people with hands-on, real-world experience. This kind of "know how" is what we sought to capture in Linux Server Hacks.

Linux Server Hacks is a collection of 100 industrial-strength hacks, providing tips and tools that solve practical problems for Linux system administrators. Every hack can be read in just a few minutes but will save hours of searching for the right answer. Some of the hacks are subtle, many of them are non-obvious, and all of them demonstrate the power and flexibility of a Linux system. You'll find hacks devoted to tuning the Linux kernel to make your system run more efficiently, as well as using CVS or RCS to track the revision to system files. You'll learn alternative ways to do backups, how to use system monitoring tools to track system performance and a variety of secure networking solutions. Linux Server Hacks also helps you manage large-scale Web installations running Apache, MySQL, and other open source tools that are typically part of a Linux system.

O'Reilly's new Hacks Series proudly reclaims the term "hacking" for the good guys. Hackers use their ingenuity to solve interesting problems. Rob Flickenger is an experienced system administrator, having managed the systems for O'Reilly Network for several years. (He's also into community wireless networking and he's written a book on that subject for O'Reilly.) Rob has also collected the best ideas and tools from a number of other highly skilled contributors.

Written for users who already understand the basics, Linux Server Hacks is built upon the expertise of people who really know what they're doing.

Table of Contents:

How to Become a Hacker

Preface

Server Basics
       1. Removing Unnecessary Services
       2. Forgoing the Console Login
       3. Common Boot Parameters
       4. Creating a Persistent Daemon with init
       5. n>&m: Swap Standard Output and Standard Error
       6. Building Complex Command Lines
       7. Working with Tricky Files in xargs
       8. Immutable Files in ext2/ext3
       9. Speeding Up Compiles
       10. At Home in Your Shell Environment
       11. Finding and Eliminating setuid/setgid Binaries
       12. Make sudo Work Harder
       13. Using a Makefile to Automate Admin Tasks
       14. Brute Forcing Your New Domain Name
       15. Playing Hunt the Disk Hog
       16. Fun with /proc
       17. Manipulating Processes Symbolically with procps
       18. Managing System Resources per Process
       19. Cleaning Up after Ex-Users
       20. Eliminating Unnecessary Drivers from the Kernel
       21. Using Large Amounts of RAM
       22. hdparm: Fine Tune IDE Drive Parameters

Revision Control
       23. Getting Started with RCS
       24. Checking Out a Previous Revision in RCS
       25. Tracking Changes with rcs2log
       26. Getting Started with CVS
       27. CVS: Checking Out a Module
       28. CVS: Updating Your Working Copy
       29. CVS: Using Tags
       30. CVS: Making Changes to a Module
       31. CVS: Merging Files
       32. CVS: Adding and Removing Files and Directories
       33. CVS: Branching Development
       34. CVS: Watching and Locking Files
       35. CVS: Keeping CVS Secure
       36. CVS: Anonymous Repositories

Backups
       37. Backing Up with tar over ssh
       38. Using rsync over ssh
       39. Archiving with Pax
       40. Backing Up Your Boot Sector
       41. Keeping Parts of Filesystems in sync with rsync
       42. Automated Snapshot-Style Incremental Backups with rsync
       43. Working with ISOs and CDR/CDRWs
       44. Burning a CD Without Creating an ISO File

Networking
       45. Creating a Firewall from the Command Line of any Server
       46. Simple IP Masquerading
       47. iptables Tips & Tricks
       48. Forwarding TCP Ports to Arbitrary Machines
       49. Using Custom Chains in iptables
       50. Tunneling: IPIP Encapsulation
       51. Tunneling: GRE Encapsulation
       52. Using vtun over ssh to Circumvent NAT
       53. Automatic vtund.conf Generator

Monitoring
       54. Steering syslog
       55. Watching Jobs with watch
       56. What's Holding That Port Open?
       57. Checking On Open Files and Sockets with lsof
       58. Monitor System Resources with top
       59. Constant Load Average Display in the Titlebar
       60. Network Monitoring with ngrep
       61. Scanning Your Own Machines with nmap
       62. Disk Age Analysis
       63. Cheap IP Takeover
       64. Running ntop for Real-Time Network Stats
       65. Monitoring Web Traffic in Real Time with httptop

SSH
       66. Quick Logins with ssh Client Keys
       67. Turbo-mode ssh Logins
       68. Using ssh-Agent Effectively
       69. Running the ssh-Agent in a GUI
       70. X over ssh
       71. Forwarding Ports over ssh

Scripting
       72. Get Settled in Quickly with movein.sh
       73. Global Search and Replace with Perl
       74. Mincing Your Data into Arbitrary Chunks (in bash)
       75. Colorized Log Analysis in Your Terminal

Information Servers
       76. Running BIND in a chroot Jail
       77. Views in BIND 9
       78. Setting Up Caching DNS with Authority for Local Domains
       79. Distributing Server Load with Round-Robin DNS
       80. Running Your Own Top-Level Domain
       81. Monitoring MySQL Health with mtop
       82. Setting Up Replication in MySQL
       83. Restoring a Single Table from a Large MySQL Dump
       84. MySQL Server Tuning
       85. Using proftpd with a mysql Authentication Source
       86. Optimizing glibc, linuxthreads, and the Kernel for a Super MySQL Server
       87. Apache Toolbox
       88. Display the Full Filename in Indexes
       89. Quick Configuration Changes with IfDefine
       90. Simplistic Ad Referral Tracking
       91. Mimicking FTP Servers with Apache
       92. Rotate and compress Apache Server Logs
       93. Generating an SSL cert and Certificate Signing Request
       94. Creating Your Own CA
       95. Distributing Your CA to Client Browsers
       96. Serving multiple sites with the same DocumentRoot
       97. Delivering Content Based on the Query String Using mod_rewrite
       98. Using mod_proxy on Apache for Speed
       99. Distributing Load with Apache RewriteMap
       100. Ultrahosting: Mass Web Site Hosting with Wildcards, Proxy, and Rewrite

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