Backup and Restore Ubuntu System using Sbackup

March 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Backups, as always, are an important part of any sysadmin’s job. If you’ve been following this blog for some time, we’ve taken a look at doing automated backups on Linux, Solaris, Windows, and the MacOS, but each of these assumed a sysadmin would be setting up the backups (or at least someone with knowledge of cron, rsync, etc). As many first-time Linux users are getting started using Ubuntu, this article gives a step-by-step to users who may not be ready to setup an rsync system for themselves.

SBackup is a simple backup solution intended for desktop use. It can backup any subset of files and directories. Exclusions can be defined by regular expressions. A maximum individual file size limit can be defined. Backups may be saved to any local and remote directories that are supported by gnome-vfs. There is a Gnome GUI interface for configuration and restore.

If you’re looking for an easy way to backup your Ubuntu desktop machine, sbackup may be the way to go.

Filed Under: System Administration

Zero In on Disk Hogs With ncdu

March 20, 2007 By 2 Comments

NCDU ScreenshotI came across this tool recently, which I have been very impressed with. Though not really for every-day use, ncdu can be very helpful when tuning up your boxen, as you can quickly scan through multiple hard drives to find where all your disk space is going.

To use it, simply enter / in the prompt (start it up with no arguments), and make sure the “One filesystem” option is not checked (pressing X checks or unchecks it). Note that the backspace key actually did a forward-backspace for me (it deletes items in front of the cursor, rather than behind, as I’m accustomed). This may just be that my terminal isn’t set up properly (Mac Terminal connecting to a Ubuntu box as xterm-color), so YMMV. Let it run for it a bit (a progress window appears showing it going through all of your disks and folders). On my Ubuntu machine with a pair of SATA drives (software RAID 1), it took less than 30 seconds to go through everything.

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Filed Under: System Administration

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Released

March 14, 2007 By Leave a Comment

RHEL 5 has just been released today, and has a number of interesting new features (here’s the announcement). The main focus of the release has been around virtualization and security, as well as doing away with the ES, WS, and AS monikers, replacing them with more generic (and less confusing) terms such as RHEL Advanced, Desktop, etc. Coming 2 years off the last release, I think RHEL is due for an upgrade.

Check it out. Though we don’t use RHEL on our production machines, a number of large IT departments do. Be sure to post your reactions here.

Filed Under: News, Operating Systems

The Easiest Way To Do Enterprise 2.0

March 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Thought I’d follow up to yesterday’s note about organizations shifting to Web 2.0 technologies (often called Enterprise 2.0). As this note so elegantly puts it, it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Eventually, Enterprise 2.0 will be a reality in your organization, and it’s better to start thinking and planning for that than sticking your head in the sand.

I think the biggest obstacle, as I pointed out yesterday, is getting over the fear of wasting time and resources on potentially low-return projects. But on the other hand, it’s possible these projects turn into a major boon for an organization. You never know till you try, and you might as well start trying.

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Filed Under: Emerging IT, Web 2.0

More organizations shift to Web 2.0 while IT departments remain wary

March 9, 2007 By 1 Comment

There’s an interesting post at ZDNet today about how many traditional companies are quickly adopting Web 2.0 concepts on their customer-facing web services, while at the same time, internal services aren’t utilizing these as quickly (if at all):

More organizations shift to Web 2.0 while IT departments remain wary by ZDNet‘s Dion Hinchcliffe — A couple of recent announcements from two large, very well-known organizations provides some interesting data points on how Web 2.0 is affecting the product designs and business processes of otherwise very traditional institutions. Both USA Today and the U.S. Patent and Trademark office have recently unveiled strategies for letting their users use two-way Web capabilities to contribute directly to the products and services they offer. And many other mainstream companies, such as Pepsi as well as GM and XM Radio have been exploring externally-facing Web 2.0 concepts in their products for a while now.

Perhaps the biggest issue most IT departments have (and really, the managers who juggle worker productivity concerns), is the worry users will spend too much time contributing to these social services than otherwise being productive. “Thus, the best that Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 applications like blogs and wikis can do it increase the productivity of existing business processes by improving efficiency as well as allowing them to self-improve through emergent structure and behavior.”

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Filed Under: Emerging IT, Web 2.0

The Great Free WiFi Debate

March 7, 2007 By Leave a Comment

There’s been an interesting debate going on about free vs. pay-per-use WiFi that I’ve found intriguing: the idea is to draw customers into shops at times that normally wouldn’t see much action, but at issue is whether too many people are mooching off the free service and hurting the business. A number of people have likened it to the air conditioning incentive offered by movie theaters a number of years ago. Of course, I and most other customers would probably rather have it free, but I can certainly understand shop owner’s oppositions.

Every so often, I like to head out to a Starbucks (which costs a couple bucks for the TMobile service they provide, plus a Venti cup of whatever’s brewing) or a FreshCity (where it’s free), take my MacBook, and get some work done. I find it’s often good motivation when I pick up and move to some other place – different environs give me a nice motivational push. What’s your take? Do you think offering WiFi for free at Starbucks, Panera, FreshCity, McDonald’s, and other places would be harming or helpful?

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Filed Under: Networking, News

Upgraded WordPress

March 1, 2007 By 1 Comment

Wordpress LogoWe’ve finally upgraded WordPress (the engine powering this blog) to the latest version (2.1 from 2.0). We’ve been very happy with how it works thus far, though we’ve noticed that our trackbacks never seemed to be going out. It’s been a nagging problem for some time now, and finally it’s been fixed.

Part of the problem, really, is that we could receive trackbacks from other sites without problem, but sending them out never seemed to work. Adding the URLs to the Write Post page would never show them as being successfully sent, for some reason. And, to make matters worse, tracking down what the problem actually was didn’t seem possible: WordPress doesn’t keep good logs, for some reason.

The lesson here is: when in doubt, upgrade. And perhaps have better logs. And never forget to back everything up.

Filed Under: Blogging