Archive for the ‘System Administration’ Category

The Ten Commandments of Source Control

August 5th, 2012 – System Administration, Web Development () 5 Comments »
Victory

I was meditating yesterday, as I often do, when I was visited by a supernatural being who called himself Gitsvn Hgtfs. He said that he had brought the good news of version control and that I was to be his prophet. Needless to say, I was so surprised that I almost knocked my beer over.

When I asked what task he would have me to do, Gitsvn bestowed upon me two invisible golden tablets, with ten sacred commandments written in a strange script that only I can read. He instructed me to spread these glorious words among his chosen people.

And so I present the holy commandments of source control, with my understanding of their meanings.

Read more…

Setting up an Ubuntu LAMP server. Part 2: Apache

February 29th, 2012 – System Administration (, , , , , , ) 2 Comments »

This is part two in my Ubuntu LAMP server series. In this article I will guide you through the process of installing and setting up the Apache HTTP Server.

If you are setting up a web server then you are probably best off running Apache. There are other web servers that will serve your needs and maybe even serve them faster but Apache is the default, for good reason.

There are arguments to be made for the merits of nginx and lighthttpd, but I get everything I need out of Apache and enjoy using it. I really cannot say enough good things about Apache, I love it and it is my web server of choice. I recommend it as the starting point for all web servers.

Read more…

How to set up a Team Fortress 2 dedicated server on Ubuntu

November 26th, 2010 – System Administration (, , , ) 41 Comments »
Team Fortress 2 Logo

I recently decided that I wanted to set up a dedicated server running Team Fortress 2, the very entertaining multiplayer first-person shooter game by Valve.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install and configure a server that runs exactly the way I want.

All Valve multiplayer games run off of the same base server software, Source Dedicated Server (SRCDS). They build a version for Windows, Linux and Mac so you can run it on whatever system you happen to have available. In my case I had Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, which is a great operating system for any server.

This article will give you a walk though guide for installing and configuring srcds on Ubuntu. I am writing specifically about TF2 here, but much of this information will apply to other Source games such as Counter Strike: Source, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.

Read more…

Must have software for your Microsoft Windows computer

September 29th, 2010 – System Administration (, ) 31 Comments »
Windows Logo

Microsoft Windows is my operating system of choice, for many reasons. One of the best reasons is because of the wide array of software available for it. I’ve been a Windows user since Windows 3.1, before that I used MS DOS.

Despite the many criticisms levied against the Windows operating system (many completely unfounded, many are very true) it is an excellent OS for casual users, home users, business users, gamers, software developers, graphics artists, etcetera, etcetera. Unfortunately most of the point is lost if you don’t know what software to install.

This is my personal list of must have software for your Microsoft Windows computer. When I set up a new computer every item on this list gets installed, and I can do everything that I want to do. This list is valid for Windows XP, Vista or 7.

Read more…

Setting up an Ubuntu LAMP server. Part 1: Initial setup

June 27th, 2010 – System Administration (, , , , ) 6 Comments »
Ubuntu Logo

This will be the first part in a new series of articles about setting up your own Ubuntu LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server. If you are already proficient with Linux and/or Ubuntu then you can skip this first part because it is just about the basic post-install set up and configuration. For those of us who haven’t set up an Ubuntu system a hundred times over, here is the quick and dirty base Ubuntu set up guide.

Once you have your Ubuntu operating system installed there are still a few things you need to do to get it ready for prime time. A fresh install of Ubuntu will have a root account (you chose the password during installation) and the SSH server running. At the moment my recommendation for version is 10.04 LTS.

Without further ado, lets get this show on the road. Start by connecting to your system via SSH and logging in to the root account. (For Windows users I recommend PuTTY as an SSH client)

Read more…