Hi you all  Sys Admins,

First of all, I really do appreciate for your help (Y dai).

For all the sys admins working out there if you want please share you blogs and your experiences .
Lets create  System  Admin community  ( Windows, Unix , Linux, VM ESX, Storage  all).

http://opensource4us.wordpress.com
 Just started

If you would like to contribute to this blog send me your mailing address in

zfspool@gmail.com

I shall invite you as a contributor for this blog

"opensource4us" and "sysadmins" - don't quite tally, do they?
It seems like you are leaned toward forming an open source community than  sysadmins';  remember system administration  does  not see the boundaries of source code being free or commercial. And personally, I use commercial tools for most of my administration tasks (simply because they are easy to use, and tech support is included), despite being a strong supporter of open source and freebies.

So, is this a sysadmins' blog, or merely a freeware discussion forum? If it's a LINUX/UNIX focused, why not join an already existing community initiated and maintained by the Nepalese - and enhance it better (Just a thought)!

http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal

I don't know anyone of them; all I can say is - they've done an excellent job by bringing together opensource Nepalese supporters worldwide.

~@~

Infact Sajha,
http://groups.google.com/group/foss-nepal
that links seems to go no where,
Actually, I want the common blog of the Unix/Linux/SAN admins.
The reason of keeping the Opensource was of Unix/Linux.
And i don't believe you that Opensource and Sysadmins don't quite tally??????? what was that???

Most of the big companies use Opensource softwares than they does with the commerial ones  as for your example
Apache Webserver . Openssh (what you use?) , Redhat , SUSE, Solaris ???? common man
 Opensource is beyond your Windows...... By the way we use Nagios too.
Those were just some...
I'm using Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS........

I'm trying to contribute something for the System Administrators ( I know there are lots of Nepalese Unix/linux/SAN admins out there working in the well know companies).
 
Why not to share your practical experiences..... who knows when it might come handy for someone.
Right now i will really appreciate if you can share an experience with PowerPath 5.0 . I need someone to help me. This is just me ..... There can be many more

Saajha what kind of commercial tools you work on??????

thanks for your thread

I think the idea of creating a blog for system admin is a good idea and I don't mind having it names opensource or anything for that matter.

However, san4u saying that s/he does not believe that OpenSource and Sysadmins don't tally together is a negative statement, in my honest opinion.

I definitely understand that Apache is one of the most popular (may be best) web servers in use (ditto for many other open source projects). However, I have seen many commercial application that are very useful and efficient with excellent support.

Saying OpenSource tally with Sysadmin because the market of SysAdmin is dominated by opensource is similar to saying Computer Users tally with Windows Users ( more than 90% of computers in the world have windows operating system)
http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox46-operating-systems-market-share.html

san4u, I appreciate you appreciating open source projects ( so do I), but trying to advocate a misleading statement is not the right thing to do.

RSA for Authentication Management
Symantec for Antivirus
Counterspy for Anti-Spyware
WhatsUpGold for Network Monitoring Mgmt
PassLogix for SingleSignOn
LANDesk for Patch Managment

Just to name a few ------
@sun4u, give me some replacements to the above needs, I will save hundreds of thousands of $$ every year off my company's budget, and get a fat bonus for myself. Help me out ---- I'll turn into a blind opensource advocate starting today!

~@~

ClamAV , OpenAV, Spamassasin

For the Network Monitoring tool

Nagios, Munin , Wireshark, Tcpdump, Ettercap, Nmap, Big Brother
SNMP tools like
MRTG
For the single sign on OPENLdap ( and I bet you there can not be any better than that)
We generate free RSA authentication for Openssh
Apache , Mysql , PostgreSQL , Sendmail , Postfixmail ,
And there are many more tools that our company is using  and saving ton's of $$ . I wish you get your fat bonus next year or Never if you don't.

I'm not here to discuss about the free or commercial products.

Xantu "opensource4us" and "sysadmins" - don't quite tally, do they?" is not my statement
Let's get this straight. You help me out figuring how to operate any commercial products out there and I'll help you with the Opensource one.

It's all about sharing the information . If you don't like it , its ok.
I know everyone is here to make some fat $$$$$ ( Like all the commercial Products)
and there are some who happy for those who cannot afford  to pay.

Dude , understand this. I know some really good admins working here and are really wonderful people.

No hard feelings Saajha , you took this thing other way...

san4u
I know "'opensource4us' and 'sysadmins' - don't quite tally, do they?" is not your statement. Thats why I said:


san4u saying that s/he does not believe that OpenSource and Sysadmins don't tally together is a negative statement, in my honest opinion.

I'm saying that you should believe that OpenSource and SysAdmins don't tally together.

@sun4u,
We are simply brainstorming here --- nothing personal!

Who wouldn't want freebies? I am a freeware fanatic as well, as I mentioned earlier. We heavily use Sun Solaris OS at the firm; in fact some of our home grown apps are made to run exclusively on Solaris Platform. While that is the sweet truth, there's a layer of horribly bitter truth as well ---- UPTIME in production environment is what a company primarily cares for, not necessarily refraining from investing on a handful of commercial tools.

One might argue, there is no better uptime on tools and OSes than the GNU licensed products -- I agree, but applications fail no matter how carefully they might have been written. I'm not a developer, and don't look into the 'open source' code to modify it as my preliminary incident response action. Even a group of a dozen developers cannot go through 70 thousand lines of codes to have system up and running in short time, trying to identify what caused the failure and how to fix it.

 There are priorities that take precedence, and priorities vary along with the nature of the firm. That's when you seek for support and expertise. It's beyond the reach of sysadmins when the burden goes beyond operating tools. If you are talking about a research firm or a lab environment of any given company, it makes complete sense to fully rely on the open source; otherwise what am I to do with the source being open?
 
There is a reason why companies set aside a substantial portion of their budget to spend on state-of-the art applications.

Now, getting back to your suggestions on the tools. Thank You for listing them; but here's some additional info:

Wireshark and TCPDump are Packet analysis tools
NMap is merely a port scanner
OPENLDAP is the free version of LDAP -- nowhere close to SSO (Single Sign On allows a user to consolidate all credentials into one, such that one time sign on opens the 'Golden Door'. It's an absolute must for thousands of employees who aren't tech savvy)
RSA Authentication: RSA is no longer limited to being an algorithm; it's a copyright product owned by EMC; RSA Authentication = Two Factor Authentication.

Once again, it's simply a brainstorm.

I use SNORT everyday as my IDS --- I love it, I worship it, I back it -- BUT the reason behind using it besides being free is, IT IS COMPLETELY OPTIONAL; the firm runs equally well even if my IDS fails.

However, not letting your zeal go down & sticking to the topic: Hope your blog/forum site starts and stays well, and would bring interesting topics such as DTRACE    :)

cheers!

~@~