[olug] Need some help please

[Chad S. Lauritsen]

john williams wrote:
> 
> I am working on bringing a linux machin onto our LAN.  We are currently
> using an NT 4.0 server which is a BDC and a local file server.  I have
> Redhat 6.1 running on an Enterprise 450 and am setting it up to as an NT
> file server with a few other services running.  I have a few questions
> that I am sure someone can answer and appreciate any help I can get.
> 
> The first few questions deal with backup and recovery.
> 
> 1)  I am using tar to backup to the tape drive and it seems successful
> but I do not know how to look at the contents on the tape.  I have tried
> to mount it and that is obviously not the way.  How can I see what is on
> the tape?

hmmm...will this work? 
 tar tvf /dev/your-tape-device
see 'man tar' for more info. the tape probably needs to be rewound?

> 
> 2)  Should I be using tar or would dump be the better choice.
don't know anything about dump. tar has been around forever and still
does the job. can't speak for dump.

> 
> 3)  I currently have the backups being done as cron jobs.  Is this the
> way I should handle my backups, and if so would someone be willing to
> post their cron entries for backup so I can see how others are handeling
> this?

backups-schmackups. we don't need no stinking backups. i can say this
because my boss doesn't lurk here.
seriously, though, i have't implemented a solution for this myself. i'd
say if what you have works there probably isn't a great deal more
elaboration necessary.

> 
> I am going to be telnetting into this machine from windows quite often
> to monitor log files and such and was wondering if I should be using
> VT100?  I have noticed that when I use vi and other apps from a windows
> telnet session using VT100 it seems all screwed up.

i recommend teraterm. it's free. it works very well. the app even exits
when you ctl-d or logout! how about that! plus it has an ssh module
available. Here is the home page.
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html don't be freaked
out by the "blandness" of the page. It's a solid emulator. I've been
using it for several years. I use it because vi and elm don't give me
any grief when i use it. I've actually gone to the small trouble of
installing it on every windows box here in our office, because it is so
much better than windows' telnet client.

> 
> And the las question is the easiest.  When I want to start an
> application on boot that requires root permissions where should I add
> this entry?

Under UNIX, every process that ever gets started traces its ancestry to
the init process, which is configured in /etc/inittab. However, adding
entries to /etc/inittab is not the usual way to get the ball rolling
under modern distributions of linux. It sort of depends on your distro.
Redhat runs the shell scripts /etc/rc.d/rc /etc/rc.local
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysconfig and a series of other stuff, depending on your
config. The best way IMHO if you have a specific service you want
started upon reboot, is to see if you can get a startup script for it in
/etc/rc.d/init.d. Here's how under redhat. Assume you wish to add a
service named "bob"

 cd /etc/rc.d/init.d
 cp httpd bob
 vi bob

In the file bob, replace instances of "httpd" with "bob" or whatever. Of
course, you need to be a little more circumspect than just global
search-and-replace "httpd" with "bob". You may have to add/remove
command-line parameters, etc. Look for wherever httpd is mentioned and
see if that will make sense for your desired "bob" service.

Then, to make sure it gets started in runlevels 3, 4 and 5, I do

 chkconfig --level 345 bob on

BTW, 

runlevel 0 initiates a system shutdown. 
runlevel 1 is single-user mode. 
runlevel 3 is the normal runlevel you're in if you're not running X, 
runlevel 5 is the runlevel for X windows. 
runlevel 6 initiates a system reboot.
runlevels 2 and 4 aren't really used (i think)


Good luck,

Chad

-- 
* Chad S. Lauritsen, Systems Administrator                       *
* Perfection Learning Corporation                                *
* 1000 North Second Avenue, Logan, IA 51546 712.644.2831 x 223   *
"Smithers, release the robotic Richard Simmons!" --C.M. Burns

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