ldap search function

First you will need the ldap search utility. The client for ldap search comes in openldap-clients, so you need to install that first:

sudo yum install openldap-clients

Now, that you have installed it, try to find something in some open ldap server, example:

ldapsearch -LLL -h  db.debian.org   -x  -b "dc=debian,dc=org" "cn=Joao*"

This should list couple of entries for you. Now, that you have ldapsearch working, lets define a function in .bashrc file:

Apache server-status – better looking

Apache provides a module to see the server-status. However the page is not too good looking. So, if you want to see a better looking information page, then you can download :

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pimpapachestat/

More details from the readme file of the project:

 

REQUIREMENTS

• On the system you want to install the pimped Apache status:
  – any webserver with php 5 (with curl; no database is needed)
• On all webservers you want to monitor:
  – apache 2.x
  – installed module mod_status and ExtendedStatus On
  – permission for the monitoring server to request the the
  alias /server-status (see below)

And tehn for installation:

CACert.org – get free ssl certificates.

From CACert website :

CAcert.org is a community-driven Certificate Authority that issues certificates to the public at large for free.

CAcert’s goal is to promote awareness and education on computer security through the use of encryption, specifically by providing cryptographic certificates. These certificates can be used to digitally sign and encrypt email, authenticate and authorize users connecting to websites and secure data transmission over the internet. Any application that supports the Secure Socket Layer Protocol (SSL or TLS) can make use of certificates signed by CAcert, as can any application that uses X.509 certificates, e.g. for encryption or code signing and document signatures.

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rfc2html – php script to view rfc with index and links.

If you have to keep viewing RFC’s and you miss index and links in RFC while viewing rfc, then you should check-out rfc2html. It is scrtip that takes plain text rfc and converts it to html.

You can get the original code from sourceforge.

However, I found some small issues with the script and have sent a mail to the authour about the same. In the meantime, you can use the diff below to fix the issue’s or download this diff file rfc2html.diff and apply the diff:

Get status of your servers with perl script.

Monitoring the servers could be well – “not difficult” but boring and monotonous. And since this is something that you should ideally do on daily basis, so why not have a script for the same.

You can’t possibly copy your ssh-keys to all the servers that you are monitoring, better if you can, then you need to do ssh to server with password. So, here is link to my github repo for monitoring servers with perl script. Preety straight forward script and you can schedule this in cron to get a daily mail.

tlp – optimize and maximize your battery power.

If you are concerned about the battery life on your Linux laptop, then you should consider using tlp. tlp customizes your Linux distribution for maximum battery life and thus helps improving battery longevity when on Linux.

TLP brings you the benefits of advanced power management for Linux
without the need to understand every technical detail. TLP comes
with a default configuration already optimized for battery life.
Also an optional install of the smartmontools package enables hard
disk SMART data in tlp-stat (smartctl).

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Backup – simple and intelligent

However much you stress on the importance of backupm people will forget about keeping it. So, if you do need a completely automated and simple backup then consider using “Back In Time“.

Description:

BackInTime is a simple backup system for Linux inspired from
“flyback project” and “TimeVault”. The backup is done by taking
snapshots of a specified set of directories.
This package contains the GNOME frontend of BackInTime.

For installation: