4 ms·

One key thing missing imo. "history" can be a huge help. Even more so if there are multiple admins on call.

by w0ts0n 14y ago

balou 14y ago
This indeed a huge help, this is now updated. I'm pretty sure there is also a whole bunch of other (less famous) commands that would and should be added.
subway 14y ago
In a well configured environment, "history" isn't going to be terribly useful -- admins should be using their own accounts and using sudo to execute commands as root. In this sort of environment you want to look at your pam logs (/var/log/auth.log on debian-like distros, and iirc, /var/log/secure on RH-like). This gives you not only a list of what was run, but who ran it and when.
gbog 14y ago
And the infamous reboot?
- richardkeller 14y ago
  A reboot is the last thing you should be doing on a problematic box. A reboot should only be attempted if you're 100% sure that the problem can actually be solved by a reboot (for example in extreme cases a buggy kernel module might require a reboot, but even that's a very rare occurrence). I've seen inexperienced sysadmins remotely rebooting a server only to discover that it won't boot up anymore because the original problem was that the server had run out of disk space.
  - gbog 14y ago
    Yes, that's why I think the article should mention reboot.
    - balou 14y ago
      That's a valid point; mention that one should not reboot until proven otherwise. Same idea for services restart; don't do it unless absolutely needed. While it may be doing the trick in some cases it can also generate its own set of new false symptoms. Take the example of : - mysql is "slow" - let's restart ! ... - mysql init script has been puking dots (.) for the last 30 minutes on shutdown - let's kill -9 it ! ... - mysql db is corrupted ! Hurray!
drinchev 14y ago
LOL! My `history` says I use only `cd`, `ls` and `git`. Shame for me ... http://imgur.com/CBTrdJw http://imgur.com/CBTrdJw [server linux box] http://imgur.com/tEjBtNY http://imgur.com/tEjBtNY [development os x box]

One key thing missing imo. "history" can be a huge help. Even more so if there are multiple admins on call.

by w0ts0n 14y ago

One key thing missing imo. "history" can be a huge help. Even more so if there are multiple admins on call.

balou 14y ago

This indeed a huge help, this is now updated. I'm pretty sure there is also a whole bunch of other (less famous) commands that would and should be added.

subway 14y ago

In a well configured environment, "history" isn't going to be terribly useful -- admins should be using their own accounts and using sudo to execute commands as root. In this sort of environment you want to look at your pam logs (/var/log/auth.log on debian-like distros, and iirc, /var/log/secure on RH-like). This gives you not only a list of what was run, but who ran it and when.

gbog 14y ago

And the infamous reboot?

richardkeller 14y ago
A reboot is the last thing you should be doing on a problematic box. A reboot should only be attempted if you're 100% sure that the problem can actually be solved by a reboot (for example in extreme cases a buggy kernel module might require a reboot, but even that's a very rare occurrence). I've seen inexperienced sysadmins remotely rebooting a server only to discover that it won't boot up anymore because the original problem was that the server had run out of disk space.
- gbog 14y ago
  Yes, that's why I think the article should mention reboot.
  - balou 14y ago
    That's a valid point; mention that one should not reboot until proven otherwise. Same idea for services restart; don't do it unless absolutely needed. While it may be doing the trick in some cases it can also generate its own set of new false symptoms. Take the example of : - mysql is "slow" - let's restart ! ... - mysql init script has been puking dots (.) for the last 30 minutes on shutdown - let's kill -9 it ! ... - mysql db is corrupted ! Hurray!

drinchev 14y ago

LOL! My `history` says I use only `cd`, `ls` and `git`. Shame for me ... http://imgur.com/CBTrdJw http://imgur.com/CBTrdJw [server linux box] http://imgur.com/tEjBtNY http://imgur.com/tEjBtNY [development os x box]