Basics for SUSE Linux

[idmismatch]

"FTP, which if you read, I use PureFTPd, which SUSE chroots by default, and I have mine set up where you need a log in name and password that I alone have to give you. I don't think I'm exactly opening the door to hackers there."

Okay, butthe password's sent cleartext. The chroot jail _is_ a good thing, but you'll still be left with files possibly being dumped on your machine that don't belong there. Not critical, perhaps, but I sure wouldn't want it!

The biggest problem you can have with all the logs being sent to you is do you have time to read them? I sure as hell don't for my own PC, but for work... well, it's my job, and I make time. This is the point I made about "USE" and "MONITOR". All the detection systems in the world won't help you if you don't read the warning they produce ;-)

Regarding root logging in.... here's a wee tip which I'm sure you (gore) know, but maybe others don't. In /etc/ssh/sshd_configmake sure you have a line reading:
PermitRootLogin no

I have a feeling that this might be the default in SuSE Pro 9.2, but it wasn't in SLES 8!

[gore]

If there is a dude who can get passed two routers with hardware firewall, SUSEFirewall2, and the 4 other firewalled and updated boxes on this LAN, they deserve the account for FTP. It's not accessible onless you are in my house, on my LAN.

[jm459]

Originally posted here by gore
If there is a dude who can get passed two routers with hardware firewall, SUSEFirewall2, and the 4 other firewalled and updated boxes on this LAN, they deserve the account for FTP. It's not accessible onless you are in my house, on my LAN.

Boo, I'm behind you gore stop feeding me all this ****, I'm an old man, these drugs will kill me. Well maybe not

[idmismatch]

Why the hell are you using FTP on your own lan?

[ZomBieMann77]

does it matter? maybe he likes the way it feels between his toes.

[gore]

Because backing up 70 gigs of porn and.... 100 gigs of "Completely legal movies and MP3s" not to mention system files, takes a REALLY long time, and a lot of CD-Rs which I don't always have. So I uplpad everything to my FTP server, which can handle 12 gigs in a couple of minutes, and then when I get CD-Rs, I burn them to media.

[idmismatch]

Fair enough, you like FTP.

If you ever decide to work as a sysadmin you'll find that scp will be the preferred option for most file transfers on your machines, and rsync is a really good way of keping directory structures up to date/mirrored. Future reading:
* man scp (note the PPK authorisation and the filecompression)
* man rsync (note you'll now stop uploading files that hven't changed)

One way of ensuring a number of servers have identical configs, and a way of being able to roll back should you screw up is to use CVS or Subversion. I wish I'd found that out earlier!

I've been told that unison (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/) is a good file synchronisation tool is anyone here finds that rsync's not enoug, or if they have windows hosts. I've never used it, so you'll have to see for yourself.

Enjoy!