Tag Archives: System Tools

FreeBSD

How To Manage Packages on FreeBSD 10.1 with Pkg

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Introduction

FreeBSD’s binary package manager, pkg, can be used to easily manage the installation of pre-compiled applications, the FreeBSD equivalent Debian and RPM packages. When compared with the other prevalent method of software installation on FreeBSD, compiling ports with the Ports Collection, using packages provides a simpler and faster alternative that works in many situations. Packages, however, are not as flexible as ports because package installations cannot be customized—if you have the need to customize the compilation options of your software installations, use ports instead of packages.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to manage packages on FreeBSD 10.1. This includes installing and deleting packages, among other related tasks.

Prerequisites

To use the commands in this tutorial, you must have root access to a FreeBSD server. That is, you must be able to log in to the server as root or another user that has superuser privileges via the sudo command. If you are planning on using root, you may omit the sudo portion of the example commands. Continue reading How To Manage Packages on FreeBSD 10.1 with Pkg →

FreeBSD

An Introduction to Basic FreeBSD Maintenance

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Introduction

When administering FreeBSD servers, it is important to understand the basic maintenance procedures that will help you keep your systems in good shape.

In this guide, we will be covering the basic processes needed to keep your server up-to-date and functioning properly. We will be covering how to update the base operating system that the FreeBSD team maintains. We will also discuss how to update and maintain optional software installed through the ports or packages systems.

If you need help getting started with FreeBSD, follow our guide here.

Updating the Base FreeBSD Operating System

One important thing to realize when working with FreeBSD is that the base operating system is built and managed separate from the other software on the system. This provides a number of benefits and allows the FreeBSD team to carefully test and develop the core functionality of the system.

Note: Read the note at the bottom of this section regarding a bug in the current update procedure before proceeding.

When you start using your server, there is a good chance that security updates have been published to the base system. To query the FreeBSD project’s servers for these updates, download any new files, and install them on your system, type the following command: Continue reading An Introduction to Basic FreeBSD Maintenance →

Linux

Install Graylog2 And Centralize Logs On Ubuntu 14.04

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Introduction

In this tutorial, we will cover the installation of Graylog2 (v0.20.2), and configure it to gather the syslogs of our systems in a centralized location. Graylog2 is a powerful log management and analysis tool that has many use cases, from monitoring SSH logins and unusual activity to debugging applications. It is based on Elasticsearch, Java, MongoDB, and Scala.

It is possible to use Graylog2 to gather and monitor a large variety of logs, but we will limit the scope of this tutorial to syslog gathering. Also, because we are demonstrating the basics of Graylog2, we will be installing all of the components on a single server.

About Graylog2 Components

Graylog2 has four main components:

  • Graylog2 Server nodes: Serves as a worker that receives and processes messages, and communicates with all other non-server components. Its performance is CPU dependent
  • Elasticsearch nodes: Stores all of the logs/messages. Its performance is RAM and disk I/O dependent
  • MongoDB: Stores metadata and does not experience much load
  • Web Interface: The user interface

Here is a diagram of the Graylog2 components (note that the messages are sent from your other servers):

Basic Graylog2 Setup

For a very basic setup, all of the components can be installed on the same server. For a larger, production setup, it would be wise to set up some high-availability features because if the server, Elasticsearch, or MongoDB components experiences an outage, Graylog2 will not gather the messages generated during the outage. Continue reading Install Graylog2 And Centralize Logs On Ubuntu 14.04 →