Category Archives: SysAdmin

OpenVZ DIsk Monitors on OpenNMS

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Kevin Sonney

At work, we run a lot of Parallels Virtuozzo, which is a commercially supported version of OpenVZ. There are a couple of challenges monitoring OpenVZ, since it abstracts out a lot of the OS and snmpd can’t get the data. … Continue reading →

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[Sysadmin 101] Keeping Config Files Synced

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Kevin Sonney

One of the things I go REALLY tired of when I was setting up new machines without shared home directories was copying over ALL my personalized configurations over and over and over again. So I wrote a script to copy … Continue reading →

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Listen to your gut

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Kevin Sonney

Over the course of my career, I’ve been through several re-organizational “events.” I’ve also come to the point, now, where my gut can tell me roughly where things stand. Basically, at this point in my career, if I can’t see … Continue reading →

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[SysAdmin 101] The Scotty vs. LaForge SysAdmins

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Kevin Sonney

I found myself summarizing this concept AGAIN on IRC, and figured it was time I actually wrote it down. Over the years, I’ve found that there are primarily two kinds of Systems administrators[1] : the Scottys and the La Forges. … Continue reading →

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SysAdmin Wonkery

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Kevin Sonney

So when I took this job, back in May of last year, I knew there would be some challenges. I was taking over after they were without a Linux admin for close to 8 months, the prior systems philosophy had … Continue reading →

Posted in SysAdmin, Work | 1 Comment

OpenNMS Remote Polling – How I’m doing it

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Kevin Sonney

[Disclaimer: This particular post is really for the technical readers of this blog. I’m just warning you. It’s a long one, and not for the faint of heart, or the people who are here for the witty things Ursula and … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, SysAdmin, Work | 1 Comment

Why your SysAdmin SHOULD be goofing off

Posted on July 27, 2009 by Kevin Sonney

There is a myth out there that Systems Administrators should be busy, frantic, and overworked. But in truth, SysAdmins should be “goofing off” at work. And that is a good thing. Continue reading →

Posted in SysAdmin, writing | 1 Comment