Stupid Unix Tricks: 2010

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

APC Network Management Card AP9630/AP9631 Installation Manual is Wrong!

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has suffered through this.

The manual says that "by default, the Network Managemnt Card ignores DHCP offers that do not encapsulate the APC cookie in DHCP option 43" and then proceeds to explain how to disable that requirement in the web interface. Then it gives several examples of alternate ways to configure an IP without the web interface.

I tried them all but they didn't work. Yeah, so, turns out they didn't work because the system had grabbed a DHCP no problem, without the cookie.

So, the APC NIC does NOT actually require option 43 to be set on your DHCP server.

You're welcome!

Friday, November 12, 2010

LTO Barcodes, for free!

Seriously, $100 for *barcode labels*?

Instead, pick up some sheets of 8"x11" Avery label stock, and print your own.

This site generates an appropriate PDF to print right on label stock:
http://tapelabels.librelogiciel.com/

Monday, October 11, 2010

Automated reboot of Netgear FVG318

I'm having trouble with some Netgear FVG318 wireless VPN routers. They can't seem to release their DHCP leases without a reboot, and there's no way to schedule a reboot on them.

Other than that, these are really great, reasonably priced little devices.

Hopefully my contacts with Netgear Support will yield a fix so that they don't run out of DHCP leases *for no reason*, but until then I need a workaround.

So, I used some wget magic to script logging in, saving the necessary cookies, and executing the reboot function.

Just replace your.fvg318.ip with your FVG318's IP, replace youradminpassword with your admin password. I doubt the line breaks will come out proper in blogspot, so I'll tell you that there is only one line of command between each comment line -- if it line wraps on here, you will need to make sure your copy that you run does not wrap those lines.

Then just set this up in a cron job to run every night at midnight and voila! No more unhappy uesrs, no more manual reboots.

#!/bin/sh

# Load login page
/usr/bin/wget --no-check-certificate -q -O - --save-cookies /tmp/netgear-cookies.txt --keep-session-cookies 'https://your.fvg318.ip/' > /dev/null

# Log in
/usr/bin/wget --no-check-certificate -q -O - --save-cookies /tmp/netgear-cookies.txt --load-cookies /tmp/netgear-cookies.txt --keep-session-cookies --referer='https://your.fvg318.ip/platform.cgi' --post-data='web0x120010=admin&web0x120011=youradminpassword&umi.loginAuth=Login' 'https://your.fvg318.ip/platform.cgi' > /dev/null

# Reboot
/usr/bin/wget --no-check-certificate -q -O - --save-cookies /tmp/netgear-cookies.txt --load-cookies /tmp/netgear-cookies.txt --keep-session-cookies --referer='https://your.fvg318.ip/diagnostics.htm' --post-data='umi.restartWrap.x=69&umi.restartWrap.y=14' 'https://your.fvg318.ip/platform.cgi' > /dev/null

Big, Big List of Tools

AIX

topas -- Top for AIX systems. It's already there if you need it...you just have to know its name.
Tivoli Storage Manager for Backup and Recovery (formerly sysback) -- Simple, reliable backup and restore for your standalone AIX system
suma -- Downloads your updates for you automatically and notifies you via email. It doesn't install them automatically.

Making your life easier

Nagios -- Incredibly extensible monitoring system. Can monitor anything you can write a script to check, and page you if things go awry. Makes you look like you're very on top of things, and has a very pretty VRML page that's not useful really, but it looks sexy when you show it to the suits. (VRML plugin available here)
OCS Inventory -- never have to go to a user's desk with your screwdriver again to find out how many free RAM slots their computer has. Never wonder just how many of those old Pentium III's are still lurking in the shadows.
OTRS -- Helpdesk package. To install on Debian 'apt-get install otrs2'. Yes, that easy. And an IT department without a ticket system is like...well....it's just bad. BAD
Adeona -- Free Lojack-style laptop tracking software.
NTOP -- Detailed network traffic collecting and reporting tool, taking network sniffing to the next level. Great for finding weird traffic anomalies that are causing you headaches.
MRTG -- Graph any statistic you can get via SNMP. Great for tracking traffic through routers, room temperatures (with a device such as this, or for tracking disk usage on servers.

Instructional Technology

Wink -- for creating Flash-based computer tutorials. Tired of running through the same steps with all your users? Just make a Wink tutorial and plop it on your intranet or website, and email them the link! Or create a whole page of tutorials and point all your new users there!
Moodle -- open-source Course Management System. Featureful, and a dream to administer.

Windows tools

moveuser.exe -- change the ownership of a profile from one account to another. Does not move the files, only changes the ownership and makes that the new user's home.
Microsoft's User State Migration Tool (USMT) -- Actually copy and restore user profiles, files, settings, etc. from one computer to another or from one account to another.
Microsoft's Business Desktop Deployment Server 2007 (BDD 2007) -- Investigating this as a replacement for Ghost in deploying new systems and reimaging existing systems.

Stupid Unix Tricks