I have had the Atomic Supergeek website on Weebly for several years now. I have liked the site for the most part because Weebly is pretty easy to navigate and maintain. However, I have also been frustrated with some of the limitations of the platform too. So I have decided to migrate the site to a WordPress site. The biggest thing that I am excited about is that this allows me to put a proper knowledgebase together for the information I want out there, like the LDAP tutorials. It will also give me more flexibility for YouTube video galleries eventually too.

I am currently working on the new site layout and design. I hope to roll it out soon. Of course that means that you will also find some things moved to new locations. If you have bookmarked resources you will have to update those. One of the sad side effects of migrating a site to a new platform. Progress never comes without a few road bumps. Hopefully you will like the new site when it debuts. 

Well back to building the new site. In the meantime Geek On!

It is now 2018. Maybe you want to build or improve your Linux skills. But you don't have access to a Linux computer and your desktop is not powerful enough to really run virtual systems. Or you might even want to create multiple computers at the same time easily. Well in the age of cloud computing this is very easy. You can build out Amazon AWS Linux servers very easily and inexpensively. And you have the additional advantage of learning cloud computing skills, which are highly in demand. If you are new to AWS you can build out a number of systems for free for the first year too. 

When I first thought about looking at AWS I thought it would be prohibitively expensive. However I found that it is surprisingly very inexpensive. You might even find that if you are hosting systems on traditional platforms that moving to the AWS cloud will be much more cost effective, and give you more options and control. I created a video that shows the basics of creating a simple Linux instance on AWS. It will get you started with the basics of Linux on AWS. 

Installing Nagios monitoring can sometimes be quite daunting. The best way to install Nagios is from source. But that means it is not quite as simple as installing a package. There are several steps in the install process. But once you know the steps it is actually quite easy. So I have worked through ironing out the steps for installing the base Nagios server. In this video we install on Centos 7. The same process will work on Red Hat Enterprise, Amazon AWS Linux, and Oracle Linux (I have tested on all those). It should work the same on other rpm based Linux distros. The process is slightly different on Ubuntu and other Debian based systems. 

Once you get this install done you still will have to install NRPE and configure remote servers for connectivity to monitor your environment. I have a course on Udemy that covers all the steps to set up a basic monitoring system that covers all the steps for setting up basic monitoring on Linux and Windows. You can sign up for the course between now and December 31st 2017 for only $10 by following the link ​https://www.udemy.com/setting-up-nagios-4/?couponCode=ASG-BLOG to get to the course. 

So you will most likely set up Nagios on a Linux server. Well most people do anyway. But most networks also have Windows servers that need monitoring. It is very easy to connect Windows servers to the Linux Nagios monitoring server. In this video I take you through the whole process for connecting a Windows server. This is one lesson in a complete course I offer on Udemy. The course covers setting up the Nagios server on both Red Hat and Ubuntu based Linux systems, and how to connect Linux and Windows servers to be monitored. 

https://www.udemy.com/setting-up-nagios-4/?couponCode=ASG-BLOG

The coupon is good until December 31st 2017 and gets the course for you for $10. 

When you are setting up Nagios to monitor remote servers you need to create a new cfg file for each remote server. If you are monitoring a remote Linux server there are a listing of 7 services that are very typically set up to monitor by default. These are the same as what is the default set for the localhost list on your Nagios monitoring server. Here is a sample of what you would put into a file for a Linux server. In this case my server is named Kittyhawk and I would call the configuration file kittyhawk.cfg. Typically you would put this file in /etc/nagios/servers or you might find you need to put it in /usr/local/nagios/etc/servers.

define host {
       use             linux-server
       host_name         kittyhawk
       alias             My second server
       hostgroups         linux-servers
       address             xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
       max_check_attempts     5
       check_period         24x7
       notification_interval     30
       notification_period     24x7
}

define service {
       use             generic-service
       host_name                       kittyhawk
       service_description     SSH
       check_command     check_ssh
       notifications_enabled     0
}

define service{
   use                 generic-service
   host_name             kittyhawk
   service_description     CPU Load
   check_command         check_nrpe!check_load
}

define service{
   use                 generic-service
   host_name             kittyhawk
   service_description     Current Users
   check_command         check_nrpe!check_users
}

define service{
   use                 generic-service
   host_name             kittyhawk
   service_description     Boot disk space
   check_command         check_nrpe!check_boot_disk
}


define service{
   use                 generic-service
   host_name             kittyhawk
   service_description     Root disk space
   check_command         check_nrpe!check_root_disk
}

define service{
   use                 generic-service
   host_name             kittyhawk
   service_description     Total Processes
   check_command         check_nrpe!check_total_procs
}

define service{
   use                 generic-service
   host_name             kittyhawk
   service_description     Zombie Processes
   check_command         check_nrpe!check_zombie_procs
}


​

You can add more services to monitor for the remote server depending on what it does and what you need to monitor. This one also assumes you are using nrpe to connect to the remote server. 

If you want to try out Linux then the first step is to download an ISO image. Then you can either attach a virtual machine to that ISO image to install, or you can create a bootable USB stick to boot a physical computer with to install. Of course you can also burn a bootable CD. Creating a CD is easy and common knowledge. In this video I show you how to find a distro, locate a place to download the ISO image, then make the bootable USB stick from it using a great utility on Windows. The process is actually quite easy once you see it. 

A lot of people get started in a computer career using only Windows workstations and servers. But in short order they will find that they need to have at least some knowledge and experience with Linux. Linux is a huge subject area, and often people try to dive right into the deep end first thing. Then they get all frustrated and decide it is too hard to learn. In doing so they also turn their back on a lot of higher paying IT positions. But it is not really all that hard to learn the basics of Linux. My recommendation is to always start with using it as a basic workstation. You can do this by either setting up your computer for dual boot, or by installing Linux into a virtual machine on your desktop using something like VirtualBox, HyperV, or VMWare. I am a huge fan of using virtual computers for learning. It takes a lot of that fear factor away. And if you mess up the computer it is so easy to start over. Or if you know you are trying something risky you can set a snapshot that you can easily roll back to also. 

I recently launched an Intro to Linux course on Udemy. I have created a coupon to get the class for $10 for the first 100 people that click on this link between now and November 30th. After that you can go to https://www.udemy.com/introduction-to-linux/ to sign up. To entice you a bit here is the lecture for installing Linux. 
​

So I am called a grey beard in the industry because I am older. Well in my case it is literally true, I have a beard and it is grey. So when I graduated high school along with luggage another big graduation present would be a typewriter. Yes I said typewriter. And actually once I got to college it was surprising how many others did not have one and would regularly want to borrow mine for typing papers. Well times have definitely changed. Kids no longer use typewriters, and many probably have never even seen one (other than maybe in a movie). They all use computers now. Maybe they currently use a family computer, and you are looking to get them a computer for college. But the question then becomes what computer to get. Well the first thing you need to consider is what they will need to do with it. This links with the age old question of "what are you studying". The reason this is important is that it will make a huge impact on what is the best choice, and how much you need to spend. 

So obviously the two biggest uses of the computer will be research and typing papers. All the computer options will handle this. If they are going into social sciences, history, or some other discipline where they will not be doing computer programming then they very well could get by with a Chromebook. They can then use Google Docs to type all their papers, and Google Sheets for spreadsheet work. The Chromebook will set you back $150 to $300, with the bulk of them running about $190. So the computer is very inexpensive. It is not going to be a huge target for theft. And all their data is in the Google cloud. So you don't have to worry about losing that important paper if the computer crashes. They will be able to still do research, waste time (I mean keep in touch) with Facebook. They can video conference with family with Google Hangouts. In short for probably 70% of all students this will do everything they need. It is also a great choice for that graduate that is not heading off to college too. 

Now if your prodigy wants to go into say computer science, math, or is pre-med then maybe a full computer is a better choice. They might need to be able to load and run special programs. At this point the best choice is probably a Windows 10 laptop. Go with a laptop and not  a desktop here because they will want to/need to take it around campus to work on it. Desktops are so last decade unless it is a high powered gaming machine. Along with Windows 10 laptop make sure to get them a subscription to Crashplan to back up the hard drive into the cloud. Don't even think about relying on them using an external hard drive to do backups on their own. You don't want to be that parent with a kid crying on the phone three days before the end of the semester because their hard drive crashed, they have not backed up since Halloween, and they just lost the research paper that is due in two days. With Crashplan they can login and get to the backups from anywhere. Of course if they are smart they will have used Google Docs and will be able to get to their stuff from anywhere. But if it is a really complicated paper that they needed to use a local copy of Word then at least the document is safe in Crashplan. Or if they have a fancy stats program all the data is in the cloud and they can load the program on a new computer (or the now fixed computer) and download the data and they are good to go. 

If they are planning on being a film student, art, photography, or graphic design it used to be a given they would run a Mac. But that is not as true as it used to be. Mac is still run by most people in film and art. But pretty much all apps are available on Windows as well. So you could go either way. The big thing here is don't go cheap. They will need a fair amount of memory and processing power to run those programs. If you are going with Windows you might want to look at a gaming laptop. The specs you will need in a good video or graphic design laptop are the same as what a gamer will want. You need a really fast processor, a dedicated video card with plenty of video memory, lots of RAM, and good cooling for it. My Windows 10 computer is an ASUS Republic of Gaming laptop that I got for $1,200. It is a beast. I can render video so well on it. And Photoshop works really well too.

If your student will be doing graphic design or other art work then a Windows Surface is a solid choice. Something with a stylus will be really good for doing that art work. You can do it with a laptop and a digitizing pad, but that is so last decade. And it is much less intuitive than the touchscreen on the tablet/laptop convertible device. You want to make sure that the stylus is pressure sensitive. 

A higher end Macbook Pro will do really well for the film or art student also. Or if they are wanting to do like graphic design you could get the larger iPads and then get a keyboard to go with them to do writing and such. Again, make sure to get Crashplan. 

So the big news for May of 2017 in the computer world so far has to be the Wannacry worm/ransomware. I will be surprised if we see something more dramatic than this, at least in the security realm. To start with what is Wannacry? Well Wannacry and it's variants are code that is called ransomware. This is a program that gets into your computer, encrypts all your files, and then flashes a message on the screen for you to give money through something like Bitcoin to get the unlock code to decrypt the files. Surprisingly the people that do these hacks almost always will send you the decrypt code once you pay. It is in their best interest to have good customer service for this. Then you put the code in and you get your files back. Often the cost is small, between $100 and $500 are very typical costs. They want it easy enough and cheap enough that you are very willing to pay. In the case of Wannacry it looks like it was also attached to a worm, which is code that can jump between computers too (at least in some variants). 

​The thing with ransomware is it is not discovered by antivirus or anti-malware programs. This is why it can so often get into people's systems. And once it encrypts your files you are pretty well done for if you had not taken precautions ahead of time. The thing is that if you are impacted by ransomware that means you are not doing what you should to protect yourself from a number of other potential issues either. I have worked in computers now for over 30 years. Yeah I started in the dark ages. I remember playing text based computer games. And I also played the very first FPS game when it first came out. But I digress. So over the years I have seen people repeatedly lose precious data simply because they did not back it up. I have seen companies lose thousands of dollars when systems went down because of a lack of simple protections. And every time they wish after the fact they would have had the backups and such. So what do you do to protect your system? 

The first and most important thing is to back up all your data. The easiest way to do this is to get a couple of external hard drives (yes I said a couple) that are at least 1.5 times the size of your computer hard drive. Then you backup to a drive. Then you take the first drive to trusted friends or family members house. Or you can put it in a safe deposit box. Next you back up to the second drive. Then you swap the drives on a weekly basis. That way you have one drive that is not even at the house in case something like a fire happens. This also protects you from ransomware because it might encrypt the drive connected to your computer. But it cannot get to the other computer. Any drive on your computer that is showing up with a drive letter is susceptible to encryption by ransomware. You also want a drive that is not plugged into electricity in case of a lightning strike on your house. I know a person that had their external drives and computer all toasted from a strike. Sure they used a surge protector. And yes the surge protector company paid for all new equipment. But the company could not get their data back. 

Another option is to back up to the cloud. There are a number of good services. They include companies like BackBlaze, Acronis True Image, and Carbonite. My favorite is Crashplan. There are a number of reasons I like them. They are one of the more cost effective ones. They also work across multiple operating systems. And other good one is that you can get a login and install the software then you can connect a hard drive to the computer of a family or friend and then load Crashplan on there also. Then you can backup across the Internet to that hard drive and not have to shuttle hard drives. And it is totally free to do that. And yes it is completely encrypted. There are some other nice features to paying for the online cloud system from Crashplan, like being able to get to your files from anywhere by logging into your account on Crashplan. Go to their site for more information. If you decide you want to use one of the others then they are also rock solid options. You can google "cloud backup service" to get a listing of all the current offerings. Since the drive is not a mapped drive the ransomware cannot encrypt it. You could even use a cheap computer in your house as your backup server with Crashplan and back up all your computers to that. You don't have offsite backup. But it is way better than what most people have. 

Oh, if you are running a Mac then you have a wonderful tool called Timemachine! Use that with the external drives and you have an amazing backup solution. No there is nothing like it on Windows or Linux that I have ever found. Restoring a Mac from Timemachine is so easy. And you can restore older versions of files too. But incremental file backups is outside the scope of this article. 

So with Windows if you lose your primary hard drive it is a pain to get back to a usable system, even with data backups. You need to install Windows, then all your security patches, then all your drivers, then all your applications, and then configure things like your Wifi and printers. Then you restore your data and you are back to golden. But this can take days. BTW it is way easier on a Mac. And Linux is somewhere in-between. There is a good solution for this though. It is called disk imaging. So here is what you do. You get another external hard drive. You plug it into your system after you get your applications and such on it. Then you use software like Acronis True Image, Ghost, Clonezilla, etc. I have used several, and most of them are very easy. And this is not a software review. Sorry, your on your own to pick one. Anyway, if your hard drive crashes, or is totally encrypted, all you need to do is to (be a little careful here if it is ransomware so you don't muck up the other drive) boot to the drive imaging software, attach the hard drive with the hard drive disk image, and start the process. After a short time (this varies depending on the size of the drive) you will be able to reboot the computer and it will look exactly how it did when you made the disk image. 

Once you get the computer back up and running you simply restore your data from the backups (data is that stuff you make separate from applications and such - like photos and documents). Now you are back up and running and happy. The key here is that each time you install new drivers, or new applications you want to make a new image. And periodically you will redo your image also since security patches and updates come down once or twice a month. Oh, and keep the hard drive with the disk image off site when you are not using it. The safe deposit box is a good one for this too. That $35 a year to the bank is starting to sound better now eh? 

The final word of advice is to make sure your computer is getting regular patches. Usually the computer will automatically download patches in the middle of the night. If you usually turn the computer off you might want to pick one night a week to leave it on overnight. Make sure that it is also set up to automatically bring down patches. The other thing you can do is simply manually request updates. But we will almost always start to forget. Then bam you are infected. Oh, and patching also includes regularly upgrading to the newest versions of the OS. Wannacry is primarily affecting those still running Windows XP which has been out of support for over 2 years now. And it is 4 major versions of Windows back. Seriously, it is time to upgrade, and has been for several years now. Yeah you will need to learn the quirks of Windows 10. But it is better than running insecure software. So many issues are caused by running old operating systems and computers that have not been patched. 

Often servers are in a server room that is not convenient to get to. If you use PowerShell to administer your network and want to use PowerShell from your workstation to administer Active Directory (AD) then you need to install the Remote Administration tools on your workstation. The procedure is fairly straight forward. 

With Windows 7 or Windows 8 you need to download the Remote Server Administration Toolkit. Then for Windows 7 and Windows 10 you go to Control Panel to turn on that Windows feature. With Windows 8 installing the RSAT kit you also turn on the services automatically. Then you simply have to import the AD module in your PowerShell session and you have access to all the AD cmdlets, and the PSProvider for AD.