I manage about 300 and I'd have to say that function + number (ie: www132) is definately the easiest to remember. Beyond that we've written a php web based inventory application to keep track of which serers are assigned to which services. If I weren't concerned with my sanity; however, I'd love to use the names of lame ass former employees. Given the current economic downturn, there should be no shortage of material either. I could name most of ours twice.
Let me start by saying: I've been Sr. UNIX (mostly Linux) / network admin for a medium sized, still in business dot com for about 2.5 yrs. Couple of hundred servers, about a dozen web sites and all the related hardware. Like alot of others in this field that I know I'm on the 7-10 year college graduation plan and currently have no degree. Diverse and qualified experience were more important, atleast to my employer, than a diploma.
Now to answer your question, How do I get started?: In my opinion, the best way is through a small/medium sized ISP. Unfortunatly there aren't alot of those around anymore, but its a great way to get started. Since money/resources are usually tight there's alot of creative thinking and solutions. Also, because there usually aren't alot of employees, but still a need to support many services (smtp, pop, imap, nntp, radius, dns, etc...) you'll get alot of exposure to a variety of hardware and software. They'll almost always have a tech support department and without alot of prior experience thats a great way to get your foot in the door. 5-6 years ago, while just beginning to dabble in linux and without any relevant experience to speak of, I sent a resume to a local mom and pop outfit. I got hired as first level tech support in a company of about 15 people. I left three years later as a sys-admin with not only OS (Solaris, Linux, M$) and software specific experience, but also alot of LAN/WAN (Cisco, 3Com, HP, Alteon, Bay, etc...) experience to boot. Lots of learning under fire and if you're looking for a decent paycheck find another alternative, but I can honestly say that there's not a chance in hell I'd have the job I do now without having been there. Just my two bits...
Suddenly, I realized, everything had gone terribly wrong.
- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in LV
I think it would be cool if every geek who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered sent their silly $300 IRS refund to NASA. If GWB can't figure out a good way to spend it, maybe we can.
Gemini was never fully included in a MySQL release. They've added some rudimentary documentation and a few inoperative configure options to their recent 3.23.3x releases, but you still have to get it from NuSphere. Having hundreds of MySQL servers ourselves, the company I work for participated in the NuSphere Gemini beta and I was less than impressed. It should also be noted, having met Monty (Mr. MySQL himself) on numerous occasions myself, that he can be and often is, overly dramatic. Hell, I'd be pissed to. Keep in mind that MySQL, although a GPL'd open source product, does make much needed money for continued development by selling support contracts and the like. Dilution of their trademark doesn't help them any in that department.
I made something similar to what you want for an automation project. I got ahold of a half size SBC (Single Board Computer): http://www.aristaipc.com/image/h7200vl_h7200p-vl.h tml and fabricated a small plexi-glass enclosure around it. There are U-shaped PCI riser cards available that allowed me to stack a PCI Voodoo3 on top of it too. Complete with a an 20GB Laptop IDE HD and micro 180 watt PS, and a 1GHz Coppermine, the whole thing measures about 6x8x8".
--
Suddenly, I realized, everything had gone terribly wrong. - Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in LV
I thought other slashdot readers might be interested to know what is being done to prevent this sort of attack from a network standpoint. I work as a system administrator for a linux powered web company hosted at Frontier Global Center (they also host most of Yahoo, portions of Amazon, etc...). In the wake of recent attacks affecting many of their large clients, the following e-mail was sent to all of their customers, your truly included:
Due to recent, well-publicized attacks on major web sites that resulted in prolonged service outages, GlobalCenter has initiated a program to help protect our customers from similar attacks. This program is designed to detect and minimize "denial of service" types of attacks that can quickly impair even large, highly secure sites. Based on current denial of service attacks and our interest in insuring that all our customers' sites are up and operational, we are adding rate-limiting thresholds to certain connections on our networks, especially on peering connections to other ISPs.
These rate-limiting thresholds will allow normal traffic to traverse the network, but will limit specific types of traffic from reaching abnormally high levels.
Our studies show that this threshold is far above normal usage, but should serve to minimize most negative effects of an attack.
Due to this filtering mechanism, when an attack starts, certain ping and monitoring data may show adverse connectivity. For example, if pings are used to monitor site performance, they may be filtered and rate-limited as well.
Due to the nature of these attacks, certain pipes or boxes within the global Internet may be congested or lagged. Therefore, certain users or portions of the global Internet may experience poor connectivity.
Under normal circumstances, traffic will not be affected.
For further questions please contact the GlobalCenter Customer Care Center. Please call the number that is most appropriate to your geographic location.
Sincerely,
Laurie Priddy Executive Vice President Systems and Applications GlobalCenter Inc.
GlobalCenter Customer Care Center, regional numbers:
You fool. Social Security is dead already. Space exploration is one of the most worth while endeavors this country has ever engaged in. Think about that while typing your next message on your computer that very likely wouldn't have ever existed without the space program.
Slashdot Mirror
I manage about 300 and I'd have to say that function + number (ie: www132) is definately the easiest to remember. Beyond that we've written a php web based inventory application to keep track of which serers are assigned to which services. If I weren't concerned with my sanity; however, I'd love to use the names of lame ass former employees. Given the current economic downturn, there should be no shortage of material either. I could name most of ours twice.
Let me start by saying: I've been Sr. UNIX (mostly Linux) / network admin for a medium sized, still in business dot com for about 2.5 yrs. Couple of hundred servers, about a dozen web sites and all the related hardware. Like alot of others in this field that I know I'm on the 7-10 year college graduation plan and currently have no degree. Diverse and qualified experience were more important, atleast to my employer, than a diploma.
Now to answer your question, How do I get started?: In my opinion, the best way is through a small/medium sized ISP. Unfortunatly there aren't alot of those around anymore, but its a great way to get started. Since money/resources are usually tight there's alot of creative thinking and solutions. Also, because there usually aren't alot of employees, but still a need to support many services (smtp, pop, imap, nntp, radius, dns, etc...) you'll get alot of exposure to a variety of hardware and software. They'll almost always have a tech support department and without alot of prior experience thats a great way to get your foot in the door. 5-6 years ago, while just beginning to dabble in linux and without any relevant experience to speak of, I sent a resume to a local mom and pop outfit. I got hired as first level tech support in a company of about 15 people. I left three years later as a sys-admin with not only OS (Solaris, Linux, M$) and software specific experience, but also alot of LAN/WAN (Cisco, 3Com, HP, Alteon, Bay, etc...) experience to boot. Lots of learning under fire and if you're looking for a decent paycheck find another alternative, but I can honestly say that there's not a chance in hell I'd have the job I do now without having been there. Just my two bits...
Suddenly, I realized, everything had gone terribly wrong.
- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in LV
I think it would be cool if every geek who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered sent their silly $300 IRS refund to NASA. If GWB can't figure out a good way to spend it, maybe we can.
Yeah, great idea! While they're at it why don't they also make it just as bloody slow as PostgreSql too.
Gemini was never fully included in a MySQL release. They've added some rudimentary documentation and a few inoperative configure options to their recent 3.23.3x releases, but you still have to get it from NuSphere. Having hundreds of MySQL servers ourselves, the company I work for participated in the NuSphere Gemini beta and I was less than impressed. It should also be noted, having met Monty (Mr. MySQL himself) on numerous occasions myself, that he can be and often is, overly dramatic. Hell, I'd be pissed to. Keep in mind that MySQL, although a GPL'd open source product, does make much needed money for continued development by selling support contracts and the like. Dilution of their trademark doesn't help them any in that department.
I made something similar to what you want for an automation project. I got ahold of a half size SBC (Single Board Computer): http://www.aristaipc.com/image/h7200vl_h7200p-vl.h tml and fabricated a small plexi-glass enclosure around it. There are U-shaped PCI riser cards available that allowed me to stack a PCI Voodoo3 on top of it too. Complete with a an 20GB Laptop IDE HD and micro 180 watt PS, and a 1GHz Coppermine, the whole thing measures about 6x8x8".
--
Suddenly, I realized, everything had gone terribly wrong. - Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in LV
I thought other slashdot readers might be interested to know what is being done to prevent this sort of attack from a network standpoint. I work as a system administrator for a linux powered web company hosted at Frontier Global Center (they also host most of Yahoo, portions of Amazon, etc...). In the wake of recent attacks affecting many of their large clients, the following e-mail was sent to all of their customers, your truly included:
Due to recent, well-publicized attacks on major web sites that resulted in
prolonged service outages, GlobalCenter has initiated a program to help
protect our customers from similar attacks. This program is designed to
detect and minimize "denial of service" types of attacks that can quickly
impair even large, highly secure sites. Based on current denial of service
attacks and our interest in insuring that all our customers' sites are up and
operational, we are adding rate-limiting thresholds to certain connections on
our networks, especially on peering connections to other ISPs.
These rate-limiting thresholds will allow normal traffic to traverse the
network, but will limit specific types of traffic from reaching abnormally
high levels.
Our studies show that this threshold is far above normal usage, but should
serve to minimize most negative effects of an attack.
Due to this filtering mechanism, when an attack starts, certain ping and
monitoring data may show adverse connectivity. For example, if pings are used
to monitor site performance, they may be filtered and rate-limited as well.
Due to the nature of these attacks, certain pipes or boxes within the global
Internet may be congested or lagged. Therefore, certain users or portions of
the global Internet may experience poor connectivity.
Under normal circumstances, traffic will not be affected.
For further questions please contact the GlobalCenter Customer Care Center.
Please call the number that is most appropriate to your geographic location.
Sincerely,
Laurie Priddy Executive Vice President Systems and Applications GlobalCenter
Inc.
GlobalCenter Customer Care Center, regional numbers:
New York, NY 888-***-****
Herndon, VA 888-***-****
Sunnyvale, CA 888-***-****
You fool. Social Security is dead already. Space exploration is one of the most worth while endeavors this country has ever engaged in. Think about that while typing your next message on your computer that very likely wouldn't have ever existed without the space program.