Continuing the series of how-not-to-be-a-sysadmin, I offer this vignette (even though I hate the word/context vignette. It’s too hoity toity. Couldn’t one just say scene? or scenario? It seems like when people use vignette they’re putting too much emphasis on how they’re describing something when that time is better spent on what they’re actually describing. Damn, I think that’s happening here. But it’s so much fun to be meta.)

Remote syslogging requires pointing the remote host to the logging server. This I always remember to do. It also requires setting up syslog.conf to “catch” the logs and put them in the proper place. This I remember to do. When I migrate/upgrade systems, I usually remember to put the log files and /etc config files back.

I forget that modern distributions disable (or don’t by default enable) accepting remote logging. And you have to edit the startup scripts (or their associated configs) to put the -r flag in (and maybe the -h flag, for good measure.) Maybe it’s because syslog didn’t always used to require this.

It’s more annoying when I discover this four months after a transition, when I finally want to mine those logs, and the file is empty. Then I spent 20 or so minutes checking things, restarting syslogd to make sure there’s not a locked file or something. Then I fix the command line settings, restart syslogd, and watch the log file start up again.

Why didn’t I do that four months ago?

Tags: sysadmin

This post is short for Eric’s birthday.

Given the perennial complaints about availability (and price) of employee parking on campus, and knowing that a grad school friend just got her summer assistantship pulled, I’m worried about the “popularity of a university”

(I couldn’t find a way to easily hot link it in, so I’ll just copy it here. From rulesofthumb.org:

Popularity of a University
A university popular with its internal community ensures that undergraduates have opportunities for sex, graduate students have opportunities for assistantships, and faculty have opportunities for parking.

Some of you will enjoy this. “WTFs per minute”

See the comic at www.osnews.com/story/19266/WTFs_m

After class this morning, I did my usual library stacks visit - trading in old books for new ones. While digging for books, I found a U of I Board of Trustees charter mis-shelved (it was in the 350s when it’s call number was a C IL something… So I brought it back to the desk. I also reshelved another book in the 350s that was misshelved (it was stuck in an end shelf when it actually went a few rows in.) To do this, I needed to adjust the PITA bookends for said shelf. I also moved another bookend around on another shelf to stand the books upright better than they were.

(I’ve also decided the new sprinkler system in the stacks makes it even harder to navigate around. If some of those spaces were tight before, imagine a pipe sticking down through most of the hallways 6″ or so. It’s worse than Rossinnos in there.)

Then, considering I didn’t have lunch plans, and I remembered the email from earlier in the week, I decided to give blood. The Red Cross is collecting today and Friday upstairs in the Union. This time, I did what’s called a “double red” donation. I’ve seen it before, but never had the time to try it. It uses apheresis to take out twice the red blood cells as traditional whole blood donations. It pumps some blood out, does its thing to suck out the red blood cells, and pumps the rest back in. It does this through the same needle, and takes about 20 minutes longer than a normal donation. It was a pretty good experience, and I’d probably do this again. It actually takes less volume than a whole blood donation, and doesn’t have so much of the side effects since it can put the rest of the platelets and white blood cells back. For my troubles, I had a nice chat with the red cross ladies. They gave me lunch, a card for free music downloads, dessert, and a t-shirt.

(I also ran into Yi Ding in the union shoppe. He’s home for spring break, and will be starting a job in Chicagoland soon. I didn’t have the heart to tell him we’re still using his userhelp code.)

As far as cleaning up the stacks, and giving blood: I didn’t *have* to do these things, but I was right there, and I knew I could do them, so why not? I believe in Ghandi’s “be the change you want to see in the world.” Can you imagine what our world would be like if everyone gave a little back?

FIVE SIGNS THAT YOU ARE HEADED FOR A BACKUP DISASTER
go.techtarget.com/r/3343855/2184514
John Merryman, SearchDataBackup Contributor

In spite of the latest wave of backup technology advances, data backup is still the outsider in terms of enterprise IT. But when the backup environment suffers a catastrophic outage, everyone (especially the CIO) wants to know who fell asleep at the switch. In the interest of preserving of your data — and potentially your job — this tip offers five signs that your backup environment is going to get everyone’s attention in the near future.

Of the five, only the first (throwing hardware at the problem) doesn’t apply to me. We’re fully vulnerable to the metrics and linchpin scenario, and maybe half vulnerable to the other two (incomplete vaulting and the philosophy of backup.)

I need to work these social engineering questions for CITES’ new password management tools into my normal, getting to know you, flirting questions. (Sorry, Beth, they didn’t ask “What’s your name? What’s your major? What are you drinking?”)

What is your favorite Olympic event?
What was the name of your favorite childhood pet?
What is your grandmother’s maiden name?
Who was your favorite childhood celebrity?
What was your favorite TV show when you were in high school?
What is your favorite zoo animal?
What was your favorite subject in high school?
What was your favorite movie in high school?
Of the cars that you’ve owned, which one is your favorite?
What was the name of your best friend in high school?
What was the name of your first date?
What was the name of your favorite grade school teacher?
What was your first car?
What was the name of your first best friend?
What was your most memorable holiday present in grade school?
What was the name of your childhood physician?
What was your favorite organized extracurricular activity while in school?
What was your parent or legal guardian’s occupation while you were in grade school?
What was your favorite book when you were in high school?
In grade school, what did you want to be when you grew up?
What is your favorite musical instrument?
What was your favorite band when you were in high school?

This list might be a little out of date. I think I snarfed this about a year ago and stored it unpublished in Wordpress until today. When I went to update the list, I was told “The Set and Manage Security Questions application is experiencing technical difficulties.”

Even so, can’t you picture me, a few sheets to the wind, stumbling up to you at Murphy’s or the Office and slurring, “Sthoooo, what was your parent or legal guardian’s occupation while you were in *hic* grade school?”

All these questions remind me of R&GAD:
R: What’s your name?
G: When I’m at home?
R: Is it different when you’re at home?

Getting new passwords is like switching keyboard layouts… it really slows you down until you type it like 100 times. But at least there’s no more post-bluestem nag page.

Also, there’s new page for NetID password management. I didn’t set any reset questions, because I feel the questions they ask are too socially engineerable. (See the next post.) But check out the page itself… I don’t like how there’s no top or bottom margin. It’s like the page just starts and stops whenever. Given the extra bars hanging down on the bottom, I thought the page had failed to load or something. Weird.

Because I watched CSI:Miami tonight, and I’m not sure they are back… For a show that I watch with low expectations, tonight’s episode was all over the place, and not in a good way.

www.dailywireless.org/2006/10/23/cuwin-meraki-client/

It is similar to CUWiN, the mesh software which was developed out of Chicago’s Champaign-Urbana campus

Apparently, UIUC is part of U of Chicago? Or UIC-UC?

It could be worse, I guess…

Which OS are You?