Multi-master SaltStack setup is quite easy to build out. There is no need for VIPs or DNS CNAMEs (though they can be implemented) and all of the functionality is handled by Salt.  This greatly simplifies everything and you don't have to rely on external tools.

To have working masters, you …

To setup remote logging to a central Syslog server, you need to add the following line:

*.* @loghost.foobar.com:514

This will set up remote logging using UDP.  Note the single @ sign.  To set up TCP, use double @@ signs:

*.* @@loghost.foobar.com:514

*.* stands for facility.severity.  Asterisks will pick …

This howto describes how to relay mail (such as system alerts) to email services such as gmail. First part describes doing so using sSMTP which only supports relaying local system mail and the second part shows how to do this using Postfix which is a fully featured MTA. Postfix might …

Finally restored the website on a new server.  It took me a while to retrieve and restore the hard drive but it's finally done.  Whoopie!

I'm writing this as a set of notes for future Arch Linux installations. I decided to revisit Arch Linux after hearing that their ncurses menu-based installer was long gone and how they have started using install scripts. I came upon this while reading the systemd vs SysV initialization method debate …

This is a quick note to help me understand STP with trunks.

Suppose you have two switches, switchA and switchB. They both have two trunks between each other. Say I connect nodeA and nodeB to switchA and switchB. I then send a packet from nodeA to nodeB on switchA. SwitchA …

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Started reading through some of my old posts and noticed how many times I've eaten a letter or something didn't sound grammatically correct. Fixing all mistakes ASAP.

EDIT: I even managed to make a mistake in this post. I've spent too much time on the Internet today.

Setting the Automounter daemon options has changed greatly in Solaris 11 (what hasn't?) and no longer requires editing /etc/default/autofs. It is all done in SMF, just like the network configuration.

Solaris 10:

Add the following:

Just a small, helpful tidbit:

If you ever see the following in your tcpdump while resolving SNMP issues (when isn't SNMP having issues?):

ICMP host HOSTNAME unreachable - admin prohibited, length 76

It basically means that your iptables is blocking SNMP. This one has bit me on multiple occasions on boxes …