Category Archives: FreeBSD Administration

MySQL ZFS snapshot restoration

Since yesterdays test on ZFS snapshots, we now have 25 snapshots in the snapshot archive which can be seen below. # cd /DATA/mysql/.zfs/snapshot/ # ls -lah total 36 dr-xr-xr-x 21 root wheel 21B Oct 16 21:00 . dr-xr-xr-x 4 root … Continue reading

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Using ZFS snapshots to keep MySQL backups

Whilst at a customer site the other day the question was raised over how they could keep a fair volume of backups of a MySQL database off site, while minimising bandwidth and disk space. So the usual ‘moon on a … Continue reading

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Using MTM ITK for Apache

I needed to secure websites on a FreeBSD server to stop ‘cross site contamination’, i.e. stopping virtualhost #1 modifying/reading data within virtualhost #2. In FreeBSD the solution (or at least one solution) appears to be apache22-itk-mpm. Step 1. Install the port … Continue reading

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RT – starting from a ticket number larger than 1

Ok, so not a request you would get every day, but when setting up our new RT (Request Tracker) server, we had a requirement to start at ticket number 200,000. This requirement was to ensure the new RT server’s tickets … Continue reading

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Updating FreeBSD – The modern way!

The time has finally come for me to update my update method. For years I have been a ‘dyed-in-the-wool’ cvsup guy, but the last server I installed (FreeBSD 9.1) started bleating about the ports tree not being updated any more, … Continue reading

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Setting up Syslog on FreeBSD 9.1 for Cisco

Just a quick note on how to make a syslog server to collect Cisco logging messages. From a fresh installation of FreeBSD 9.1 1. Allow syslogd to accept connections from anywhere (I use an external firewall to limit access) echo … Continue reading

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Nagios jitter testing

As part of our new SLA we are required to test and repost on jitter across the core of our network on a per MPLS VPN basis. That seemed ok to start with, but a Nagios does not have an … Continue reading

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Moving to IPv6 web hosting

I decided to move this blog to an IPv6 web server because, well because I thought I ought to. We’re in the middle of the dual stacking project at Gconnect and the idea of using a new 30:30 server to … Continue reading

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FreeBSD and RIP – solving MPLS VPN routing issue

Working on a network consultancy project with a customer to monitor remote sites in a part MPLS VPN/ part IPSec VPN was presenting problems for the Nagios server in our data centre.  below is a basic overview of the network. … Continue reading

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Cacti on FreeBSD – the setup

I’m going to make a new cacti server using the latest, greatest FreeBSD, Apache, PHP, MySQL and Cacti. My old server was migrated in using the dump and restore into vmware method documented earlier. Now its time to move on, … Continue reading

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