Also this release features many bug fixes and security updates, and should be an easy upgrade for users running centos5.x:
yum update

For the full list of packages changed/added please see the centos5.4 release notes: http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.4

* Double Extra Large: 34.2 GB memory, 13 ECU (4 virtual cores with 3.25 ECU each), 850 GB storage, 64-bit platform ($1.20 per hour)
* Quadruple Extra Large: 68.4 GB memory, 26 ECU (8 virtual cores with 3.25 ECU each), 1690 GB storage, 64-bit platform ($2.40 per hour)

Also Amazon entered it’s Relational Database Service into public beta. This new service makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale MySQL relational databases in the cloud via simple API calls.

* Simple to Deploy – Quickly create a new production-ready relational database with a simple API call.
* Managed – Amazon RDS handles generic, time-consuming database management tasks, such as patch management and backup.
* Compatible – All of your existing MySQL database tools, applications, and drivers will still work.
* Scalable – With a simple API call you can scale the compute and storage resources available to your database to meet your business needs and application load.
* Reliable – Amazon RDS runs on the same highly reliable infrastructure used by other Amazon Web Services. Amazon RDS also gives you additional peace of mind by providing an automated database backup facility.
* Inexpensive – You pay very low rates and only for the resources you actually consume. There are no long-term contracts or up-front commitments to use Amazon RDS.

# Boot up Linux by default.
default=Linux

image=/vmlinuz
label=Linux
read-only
# restricted
# alias=1
initrd=/initrd.img

image=/vmlinuz.old
label=LinuxOLD
read-only
optional
# restricted
# alias=2
initrd=/initrd.img.old

From this config I don’t see the details of which kernel is the old one and the bigmem. I also tried to set the default to kernel with “LinuxOLD” label but it points to the same kernel (not the bigmem). I solved my problem by modifying the /etc/lilo.conf config as follows:

# image=/vmlinuz
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-686-bigmem
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-2-686-bigmem
label=Linux
read-only
# restricted
# alias=1
#initrd=/initrd.img


NOTE: Don’t forget to test first your changes on the /etc/lilo.conf by running ‘lilo’ command – this will verify your changes.

WhiteHouse.gov has gone Drupal. After months of planning, says an Obama Administration source, the White House has ditched the proprietary content management system that had been in place since the days of the Bush Administration in favor of the latest version of the open-source Drupal software, as the AP alluded to in its reporting several minutes ago.

This week the devices have been available to the public for a year.  So we can celebrate the one year anniversary of the Android.  So what has happened in a year?  Well, actually that much.  The Android has been noticed, but has NOT made earth shattering impact in its first year.  It doesn’t matter, I believe that the momentum for it to become the dominant OS on mobile devices has been put in motion.

Here is why you will be seeing a lot of linux on the mobile devices:

• Android is an Open OS – TRANSLATION:  Free to the OMG and carriers
• Android is being adapted by many device manufacturers, HTC, Samsung, Motorla, plush many more
• Android has a growing developer base and a healthy app growth rate

Here is some more google kool aid – enjoy

Original Android Announcement:

More Android propaganda:

For our Sysadmin Tool of the Week it is Update Scout. This site notifies you for updates or new version of software. It contain hundreds (and increasing) of applications – linux, windows, mac, website apps and tools. Like in my case I monitor Wordpress, Drupal, Apache, MySQL, KeePass, Nagios and many other, so it’s very helpful to just wait for an email to arrive rather than thinking about them, checking manually, or sign up to each of them.

Get Started:
- signup: just add your email and password
- select applications you want to monitor for updates
- add your own application if it’s not on the list

Site Features:
- Latest Updates, Latest Additions, Most Popular and Most Active sections
- Browse list of monitored applications from A-Z or using tags
- MyUpdate-Scout for list of your monitored applications

Do you have similar or better tool than this?

Install rpm-build package.
sudo yum install rpm-build

Create build env in your home directory (mine is called ‘max’), do NOT build as root user. I used ‘rpm’ directory as the build location.
mkdir -p rpm/{SOURCES,SRPMS,SPECS,BUILD,RPMS}

Create .rpmmacros file which will identify the build location.
echo "%_topdir /home/max/rpm" > .rpmmacros

Download php5.2.9 rpm source file, i used FC9 version as it is closest to RHEL5.
wget http://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org/packages/php/5.2.9/1.fc9/src/php-5.2.9-1.fc9.src.rpm

To rebuild php5.2.9 FC9 source RPM for RHEL5.x into binary RPM’s we need to make sure build dependences have been satisfied. I created a file called “php-deps” which contains the build dependencies to be installed via YUM.

bzip2-devel
curl-devel
db4-devel
gmp-devel
httpd-devel
pam-devel
libstdc++-devel
openssl-devel
sqlite-devel
zlib-devel
pcre-devel
readline-devel
libtool
gcc-c++
krb5-devel
libc-client-devel
cyrus-sasl-devel
openldap-devel
mysql-devel
postgresql-devel
unixODBC-devel
libxml2-devel
net-snmp-devel
libxslt-devel
libxml2-devel
mhash-devel
ncurses-devel
libXpm-devel
libjpeg-devel


Install build dependencies via yum
sudo yum install -y `cat php-deps`

Finally perform the build, this could take some time depending on speed of your machine. If everything goes well many php*.rpm files will be created in rpm/RPMS/”arch-type”/ folder. “arch-type” is the hardware-platform of your machine which will match “uname -i” command (mine is i386)
rpmbuild --rebuild php-5.2.9-1.fc9.src.rpm

Now you can install the resulting RPM’s manually but a better way is to create a local YUM repository.
Install createrepo application via YUM.
sudo yum info createrepo

Create a repository location directory and copy your newly generated php5.2.9 RPM files into it.
sudo mkdir /opt/local-repository && cp /home/max/rpm/RPMS/i386/* /opt/local-repository

Initialize the local repository and catalog the files copied there. (run this command anytime you add/remove files from your local repository directory)
sudo createrepo /opt/local-repository/

Configure your local repository with yum by creating a file in /etc/yum.repos.d called “local-repository.repo”
containing:
[local-repository]
name=RHEL5 $releasever - Local Repo
baseurl=file:///opt/local-repository/
enabled=0
gpgcheck=0
#gpgkey=file:///path/to/you/RPM-GPG-KEY


Update yum to register local repository
sudo yum update

Update php using your new rpm files via the local repository
sudo yum --enablerepo=local-repository update php

Restart apache
sudo /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Verify PHP version
php -v

Why 10%?  According to our analytics here is our visitors operating system breakdown is as follows:

linux system admin blog google analytics operatin system breakdown

Our top three visitors OS:

1) Windows 63%

2) Linux 26

3) Macintosh 10%

We’re drawing a different audience than the typical install base according to wikipedia.

Wikipedia os distribution September 2009

DynDNS
- comprehensive services offerings
- no downtimes since inception (2001)
- worldwide DNS cluster
- multiplatform dynamic update clients with excellent documentation
- 29.95 per zone per year
- web interface
- SLA offerings options
- Bind based architecture

easyDNS
- unknown reliability
- worldwide DNS cluster
- multiplatform dynamic update clients
- priced at $19.99 per zone per year
- web interface
- no SLA offering
- Bind based architecture

Nettica
- unknown reliability
- mostly US based DNS cluster (1 location in UK)
- priced at $10 per zone per year
- 100$ SLA offering
- no linux update client, however dynamic ip updates can be done with curl call to their website
- web interface
- windows only API’s

Zoneedit
- Pioneer of hosted DNS
- Bad recent reliability
- Bind based architecture
- mostly US based DNS cluster (1 location in Germany)
- multiplatform dynamic update clients
- wide range of dynamic update clients (java, python, perl, direct calls to their website with wget), clients hosted on sourceforge with limited documentation
- host 5 domains for free, limited to 200meg query limit per domain(approx 1 million queries), additional options cost “zone credits @ $10.95 each” for services like additional domains, load balancing, monitoring, additional queries.

UltraDNS
- Very comprehensive list of offerings
- 15 worldwide nodes on 5 continents
- Protection against DNS based DDOS
- cross platform XML based API
- web portal
- 100% uptime SLA
- directory based architecture, using Oracle database replication technology. Not based on BIND
- $15 per month for 1 domain with 5 records and 5000 queries, overage costs are $1 per 1000 queries and 0.50 cents for per additional record.