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You can also cache the database queries if you're happy to mess with code.

This introduction to memcached shows an overview; using memcached - used by /., Livejournal, etc.

The cool part is the hardware, for an example of how easy it is to install linux bootable and fully encrypted, checkout this howto:

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/179

Pretty much, yes.

Here's an introduction to memcached I wrote which might explain it for you.

In short you modify all the parts of your code that fetch from the database to first check from the memory cache - and when storing invalidate the cache. In general most sites read data more than they write it so most of your accesses come from the cache - thus reducing the load upon your DB.

If you don't want to modify your code you could look at optimizing the setup of the database server, moving it, setting up replication, etc.

Still without more details it is hard to know what to suggest.

Qemu is simple to use, and something I've fallen in love with since discovering.

(Although I admit I have never tried VMWare)

No Xen cannot virtualize/host any OS.

Instead the OS must be modified to support it. If you look at the Xen homepage you'll see more details.

Whilst this doesn't diminish the usefulness of the project it does mean you cannot host an XP installation - like you can with Qemu , or the commerical software VMWare.

I have used Qemu extensively in the past to host installations of Windows upon my Debian machine - whilst it is not as fast as Xen promises to be it is the best around at the moment (short of spending cash!)

"Try installing from source" is also not an ideal solution, as it will (correct me if I'm wrong) take said application out from under the watchful eye of package management.

I think that there are enough Debian admins that finding assistance isn't difficult.

What you appear to be saying is that nobody will switch to Debian/Linux because they don't know it - yet this isn't what is actually happening.

New users and admins are experimenting and switching constantly, and as their experience grows they'll be more happy with doing their jobs, adding new services etc.

A system administrator who isn't willing or capable of learning to use something new isn't one worth employing in my eyes. God knows there's enough variation between Unixs like HP-UX, Solaris, etc, that minor changes to Debian/Linux shouldn't be completely new territory.

Perhaps you have a point if you've got an Admin who only knows Windows, but even so the same concepts occur frequently; testing things, stopping and starting services, installing software, and learning how to use new packages.

This might even be a good time to plug my debian administration website which attempts to explain how to do common tasks and the like for people who are new to Debian.

I concur.

• Greylisting for Exim4 + introduction to greylisting
• Greylisting for postfix

Greylisting has its drawbacks, and can cause problems in some cases, but it's singlehandedly reduced my incoming SPAM by at least a third.

The attraction is that it's 100% automatic, and requires no retraining, etc.

I concur.

• Greylisting for Exim4 + introduction to greylisting
• Greylisting for postfix

Greylisting has its drawbacks, and can cause problems in some cases, but it's singlehandedly reduced my incoming SPAM by at least a third.

The attraction is that it's 100% automatic, and requires no retraining, etc.

I also reviewed The Book Of Postfix this week.

I also enjoyed it, and recommended it.

You haven't tried to get Java running on Ubuntu, have you?

No, mainly because I use Debian.

I have, however, got Java running _perfectly_ on Debian, and am currently playing Puzzle Pirates. I do feel unclean for using it, though.

21:36 <resiak> install java
21:36 <dpkg> First, read <java licensing>. Still here? If you're in sarge or sid, ask me about <java-package>. If you're in woody, grab java-package manually from http://packages.debian.org/java-package and then ask me about <java-package> for instructions on how to use it. Also, ask me about <java-package howto>
21:36 <resiak> java-package 21:36 <dpkg> somebody said java-package was the new name for mpkg-j2se... err, I mean j2se-package... DAMN IT, CAN'T THEY PICK A NAME?! Anyway, it lets you build a .deb file from Sun's non-free upstream Java distributions. See "man make-jpkg". Cf. "make-kpkg" (from kernel-package).only in sarge and sid currently, but it's a -all package, so it's safe to use it in woody. This packages lives in 'contrib', so make sure you have that in your sources.list.
21:38 <resiak> java-package howto
21:38 <dpkg> http://www.debian-administration.org/?article=142

Go speak to dpkg on freenode. You'll need to /j #debian.

Run Windows 2000 under Qemu - it rocks.

The only downside is you dont' get access to the host's USB ports - but I'm not sure if VMWare allows that anyway.

In my house I have five Linux machines, and one rarely used Windows 2000 installation. I think it's the best of their operating systems to date.

The stability of NT4, with fewer mandatory reboots after changing settings, and the benefit of USB support for all the toys you can buy nowadays.

Having said that I've noticed newer hardware doesn't always support it, so it's probably dying even if Microsoft keep supplying updates.

I wrote some articles on practising upgrades with Qemu.

I find that Qemu is nicer to use than UML, and available in Sarge too!

One of the big advantages for me, over other distributions, is that Debian just works. Upgrades are almost always completely painless.

I wrote some articles on practising upgrades with Qemu.

I find that Qemu is nicer to use than UML, and available in Sarge too!

One of the big advantages for me, over other distributions, is that Debian just works. Upgrades are almost always completely painless.

Or better yet have an entirely virtual environment - and install a distribution in an isolated manner using Qemu.

It's a great way of testing upgrading from Woody -> Sarge, or other things.

Or better yet have an entirely virtual environment - and install a distribution in an isolated manner using Qemu.

It's a great way of testing upgrading from Woody -> Sarge, or other things.

You can also speed up dynamic websites with caching - with the memcached software.

Slashdot, Livejournal, and other sites use that tool.

Reading HTML Email with Mutt.

Using that technique I've never had a problem ..

I guess it just goes to show that traffic varies for particular sites.

I run a site focussing on Debian Administration - 20,300 hits this month.

Stats are :

• 59.55% Mozilla/5.0
• 5.33% MSIE 6.0
• 4.29% Konqueror/3.3
• 4.21% Konqueror/3.4

(Other hits from RSS readers, Opera etc aren't more than a single percent or two each).

So that puts the visitors at Mozilla, Konqueror, then IE.

shfs rocks!

I wrote an introduction to using shfs for Debian users which might be useful for people who've never used it before.

A lot of modules are able to be built outside the kernel tree nowadays, they will require the 'kernel-headers' installed which match the running kernel, but not the full source.

For example, mounting remote filesystems with ssh-fs shows how you can build this module easily on a Debian system.

Whilst the packages are different on other Linux distributions, the steps should be similar.

Neat tipe.

You can also avoid logging large Apache requests, which covers things like SEARCH overflow attempts.

nc is netcat, and it's a very useful tool. It does way more than telnet.

I wrote an introduction to netcat if you're interested in exploring it.

I'm not sure that's true. Using my Debian SID system, with it's precompiled packages the recent 2.6.x kernels are just over 1Mb.

This machine isn't fully up to date, but close enough:

skx@mystery:~$ ls -l /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1244346 2005-03-11 10:21 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1-k7
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1228326 2005-04-03 12:45 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11-1-k7

I used to compile my own kernels in the old Slackware 97 days, and indeed when I switched to Debian's woody release.

Since nowadays I don't have to worry about random patches to get full hardware support (like the old MS-PPTPD / poptop patches) I can rely upon my distribution to give me kernel images which increases their workload, but decreases mine.

The only non-standard things I need now are the nvidia modules, and a few bonuse patches which I can easily apply for mounting remote filesystems via ssh.

There are a lot of different sites around depending on what you want:

• Debian help
• Debian Planet note not Debian Planet (Unfortunate naming collision there ..)
• Debian Forums - German
• Debian Administration

More can be found with your favourite search engine - disclaimer I run the last one on the list.

I've just signed up for your website.

Very nice job on both the look-and-feel and the content!

Windows on Linux is here already thanks to Qemu.

I wrote a simple guide to Running Windows inside Debian a while back which seems fairly popular.

The big difference with Zen is that it requires the operating systems it runs to be modified, whereas Qemu will run any native operating system, Linux, Windows, *BSD, Knoppix, etc without change.

That to me makes it more useful.

I installed Win2k on a Debian installation without the accelerator - and wrote about it here Running Microsoft Windows inside Debian : Qemu.

I found the process of installation took a couple of hours, which didn't feel really excessive. Once installed it's pretty good to use, for small things.

Right now I'm using qemu to practise the upgrade of a busy server from Woody to Sarge (whenever its ready!). All I can say is that the program rocks, and many thanks to its authors.

You could have a wishlist over at the friendly one-click creating Amazon?

I've had one for a few years to support some of my work.

Occaisionally I receive something and it's a nice bonus to actually getting something done.

Of course it doesn't work out so well when your code gets added to Linux distributions and nobody gets it from your website directly anymore - that was the thing that I noticed which made the initial donations tail off.

Still I do earn a little bit every now and again doing remote support / remote sysadmin work always getting paid by DVDs etc. It's much easier to handle than having to worry about currency conversion etc.

It's also a good way of having a small payment in advance, or at particular milestones - something like "Six films from the list, one in advance then one a week until the job is complete".

Have you seen the Open Source Web Design site?

I've used a few of their templates on my sites and it helped me a lot, both in terms of getting a good design, and in letting me look at a lot of sites all together and view their source.

For example this Debian site was put together by combining elements from two designed I liked, whilst this one was pretty much a stock copy.

I wish I'd seen the archive before I put together my homepage ;)

Don't forget the :

And any tweaking of options beneath CVSROOT.

I mentioned this briefly in my secure CVS setup guide...

I come top when you search google for my name.

My website has images of my tattoos, graphic mentions of my body piercings, and a lot of free software.

I'm happy if people rule me out on the ground of piercings/tattoos whatever. At the end of the day the kind of environment where those things are unaceptable (no matter how discriminatory they are) I'm not going to want to work.

I think that my achievements stand on their own technical merits.

Hopefully somebody who's looking for a Debian Administrator would get in touch despite my piercings/tattoos/etc. If not no loss.

We've just saved me and them some time on each side.

I had a look at a lot of systems when I was setting up a Debian Administration site.

All I wanted was the ability for some users to post articles, which had to go through a moderator or two - and the ability for comments to be posted.

Slash was too heavy-weight and most of the other systems didn't fit.

I ended up hacking yawns to do the job for me.

I may revisit the choice later, but there's a big gap between slash and the less featureful systems which could be usefully filled.