My Techie-Thoughts

Your intentions are good, rotating your fail2ban log file. You are rotating your fail2ban log file, right? I mean, it’s not done by default for some weird reason so I’d forgive you if you aren’t. They get big and they should be trimmed and archived. If you’re already rotating your fail2ban log file or you’ve tried doing it in the past, did you ever notice that fail2ban stops using those rotated files? How rude! Let’s fix that.

Need to update a user’s UID/GID for whatever reason? Sometimes it’s just something you need to do when conforming with a new management scheme or when you’re moving to a new LDAP server, for example. This doesn’t have to be as difficult an undertaking as you might think.

If you’re running a Linux system, you need SSH access. It’s just a fact for any administrator. More over, you need quick, secure access with a minimum of security prompts. It’s not hard to get that set up and use the latest elliptical-curve security to boot!

If you’ve been using Linux for any amount of time or even just getting your feet wet in the world of administering a Linux system, you’ve definitely seen references to ‘sudo’ or been told to use ‘sudo’ when executing certain commands. But, what is ‘sudo’, why should you use it and how do you install and set it up?

Most every program you install and run, especially services, generate some form of log file and nearly everyone only checks those logs when something bad happens.  Why? Because there are so many logs to check!  Well, that’s where a log parsing program can be a lifesaver.  I like using Logwatch on my Debian/Ubuntu systems. Logwatch is a nice, lightweight, easy-to-use program that generates a summary report that can be emailed nightly or on whatever schedule you choose.