MariaDB is a derivative from the world-famous enterprise class MySQL database. The MySQL founder is Michael Widenius, also known as Monty. He created the project, it worked out for some time, it caught Sun’s attention and they bought it. Then Oracle bought Sun and knowing Larry everyone left running without looking what was left behind. […]
How to install MariaDB in FreeBSD
How to install WordPress on Debian 9 (LAMP stack)
In this guide we’ll see how to install a simple, clean, new WordPress site. In order to run this site we’ll have to have a LAMP (or FAMP if you prefer FreeBSD over Linux) stack in place. Read the correspondent guides in order to get the necessary software layers all together, rightly configured. If you […]
How to work with Nessus scan results
Working with Nessus scan results is easy. How do I know that? Because I’ve worked with this tool for some time and although I do not know every corner of the things I’ve been doing some scans and solving quite a few deffects on systems that were labeled as ‘production ready’ when they clearly weren’t. […]
How to secure the ELK stack on CentOS 8
This is a follow up of the ‘how to install the ELK stack on CentOS 8’. That is a basic setup with no security at all. There is no encryption, no username and password setup, nothing. Not even firewall rules to filter ports. And as it’s known security can’t only rely on one factor but […]
Live monitoring with Netdata
Netdata is a real time monitoring software that allows administrators, developers and architects have a visual representation of a system’s performance live. In short, porn for system’s tuners and other masochists but also a great tool to check system’s behaviour under load giving all members of a team to look at their part while the […]
What is Expect?
Expect is a handy scripting tool for task automation. You may have never heard of it. I heard about many scripting things before. But one day I needed something simple but didn’t know how to proceed, what would be a good tool for my purpose. The task was simple. Exporting a website content from a […]
SSH keys
SSH or how to remotely control a UNIX system in a secure manner. The SSH keys is a secure method to interact with a UNIX system remotely. They are also used to transfer data between different systems. Using clever cryptography anyone can use them. As their name state it is a pair of keys, one […]
How to install Docker on Ubuntu 18.04
Operating System level virtualization is hitting hard now, as much as VM’s did just a few years ago. Docker is the popular framework for this matter, the new kid on the block so to speak. This is the hot spot now and if anyone wants to appear knowledgeable about system administration knowing this technology is […]
A word on Spectre and Meltdown
As professionals and many aficionados know, early this year some widespread vulnerabilities were found on Intel CPU’s as well as on AMD’s. It was a bit later discovered the flaws also affected some RISC architectures such as Power and ARM. Everybody went nuts and the world seemed to be tumbling because of two CPU vulnerabilities […]
Nmap cheatsheet
Nmap is a discovery tool used in security circles but very useful for network administrators or sysadmins. One can get information about operating systems, open ports, running apps with quite good accuracy. It can even be used in substitution to vulnerability scanners such as Nessus or OpenVAS for not very large environments, or quick audits. […]