So, as a part of my working to retire an ancient (20 year old) server which I have been using as a NFS server, among other things, I had one major task before me... fix things so that my NAS server could be used for the what I intended. But I was having some issues around 8 years ago when I first tried this, and I don't remember all the issues, since work kept me from attacking this problem at the time.

I just posted a video which briefly goes into SELinux, how it relates to cobbler, and how to tell if an error is related to SELinux.

https://youtu.be/8c7MKGNYxqA

A brief update on the ongoing process of getting a new, up-to-date cobbler server running with the associated DNS and DHCP services. We discuss some of the issues encountered so far, including briefly discussing SELinux issues, and touch upon next steps which will hopefully have us successfully complete the installation.

It has been awhile since I have posted anything here, mainly due to work, and more recently the lack of it. One of the things I have been doing while pursuing a new job is upgrading one of my core servers, where my DNS, DHCP and cobbler servers run. It is an older, home-built 4U server with an Athlon 2500 processor, and has functioned remarkably well for more than 15 years (as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

Well, earlier today, I got a reminder that I had not upgraded PHP. Indeed, unlike most of my installs, the virtual host running my WordPress sites was installed from a Live CD, and was running the dated PHP 5.4 version which CentOS/RHEL 7 comes with as a part of their base. It is a joy of running an operating system which comes with "long term support", aka LTS.

While the title may indicate that this is a core dump post, I won't quite say that it clears that hurdle... quite... But it is definitely a frustration which has raised its head a few times, and over the past 24 hours, went from a minor nuisance to a major frustration.

For over a decade, I have had a rack of servers which I have used for both personal and work related tasks. Indeed, here is a picture of my server rack from back in 2007 (with 6U of rack space containing what was at the time around $140K worth of high-end network switches).

Common Table Expressions, or CTEs as they are often called, are an area of SQL which can by some be considered to be no different than magic. This is because few of us use them, and even fewer of us use them regularly enough to make them like the familiar of some powerful wizard in some book. And just like those familiars sometimes do in the books, they can give us great frustration or even turn upon us like some demon or Djinn who has escaped the bounds we thought would control them.

A few weeks ago, I posted an entry about why I use windows. Here is part of why I hate it, and why I do so less than willingly (to put it mildly).

I have been using Chrome for many years now, having become a convert from Firefox when it first came out. But it has been getting to be a persistent pain on a number of fronts, and I have almost reached my Popeye moment, where "I have had all I can stands, and I can stands no more..."