MySQLTuner

The grades came back last Friday and I've passed the last exam in the requirements to become a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA). I was fortunate enough to be part of Rackspace's RHCA pilot program and we took our first exam back at the end of 2010. ... [More] It's definitely a good feeling to be finished [...]Looking back at the long road to becoming a Red Hat Certified Architect is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

Getting Fedora 16 working in XenServer isn't the easiest thing to do, but I've put together a repository on GitHub that should help. The repository contains a kickstart file along with some brief instructions to help with the installation. If you're ... [More] ready to get started right now, just clone the repository: git clone git://github.com/rackerhacker/kickstarts.git kickstarts [...]Installing Fedora 16 in XenServer is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

One of the handiest tools in the OpenSSL toolbox is s_client. You can quickly view lots of details about the SSL certificates installed on a particular server and diagnose problems. For example, use this command to look at Google's SSL certificates: ... [More] openssl s_client -connect encrypted.google.com:443 You'll see the chain of certificates back to the original [...]Using OpenSSL's s_client command with web servers using Server Name Indication (SNI) is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

As promised in my earlier post entitled Kerberos for haters, I've assembled the simplest possible guide to get Kerberos up an running on two CentOS 5 servers. Also, I don't really hate Kerberos. It's a bit of an inside joke with my coworkers who are ... [More] studying for some of the RHCA exams at Rackspace. The [...]The Kerberos-hater's guide to installing Kerberos is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

Scientific Linux installations have a package called yum-autoupdate by default and the package contains two files: # rpm -ql yum-autoupdate /etc/cron.daily/yum-autoupdate /etc/sysconfig/yum-autoupdate The cron job contains the entire script to run ... [More] automatic updates once a day and the configuration file controls its behavior. However, you can't get the same functionality as Fedora's yum-updatesd package where [...]Get notifications instead of automatic updates in Scientific Linux is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

I'll be the first one to admit that Kerberos drives me a little insane. It's a requirement for two of the exams in Red Hat's RHCA certification track and I've been forced to learn it. It provides some pretty nice security features for large server ... [More] environments. You get central single sign ons, encrypted authentication, and [...]Kerberos for haters is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

I sometimes enjoy living on the edge occasionally and that sometimes means I keep up with OpenStack changes commit by commit. If you're in the same boat as I am, you may save some time by using my repository of bleeding-edge Python packages from the ... [More] OpenStack projects: pypi.mhtx.net Python packages are updated moments after the [...]OpenStack bleeding-edge Python packages are now available is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

Regular users of Python's package tools like pip or easy_install are probably familiar with the PyPi repository. It's a one-stop-shop to learn more about available Python packages and get them installed on your server. However, certain folks may find ... [More] the need to host a local PyPi repository for their own packages. You may need it [...]Create a local PyPi repository using only mod_rewrite is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

I used to be one of those folks who would install Fedora, CentOS, Scientific Linux, or Red Hat and disable SELinux during the installation. It always seemed like SELinux would get in my way and keep me from getting work done. Later on, I found that ... [More] one of my servers (which I'd previously secured quite [...]Getting started with SELinux is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]

Although Citrix recommends against using software RAID with XenServer due to performance issues, I've had some pretty awful experiences with hardware RAID cards over the last few years. In addition, the price of software RAID makes it a very ... [More] desirable solution. Before you get started, go through the steps to disable GPT. That post also [...]XenServer 6: Storage repository on software RAID is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog. Thanks for following the blog via the RSS feed. Please don't copy my posts or quote portions of them without attribution. [Less]