News

Millennium Technology Consulting LLC Announces Advanced Linux Class

December 3, 2012
Announcements Millennium Technology Consulting LLC News Training

Millennium Technology Consulting LLC, http://www.millennium-technology.com, announces the availability of their latest Linux training class.

This deep technical course, entitled Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration, has been under development for over 18 months. It is intended for experienced Linux System Administrators who wish to learn advanced troubleshooting techniques and server installation and configuration.

It is how this class is structured as much as the specific subjects covered that makes it unique. Most classes that cover advanced subjects do not treat them as a part of an integrated system. The Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration class treats these as parts of a unified whole. By the end of the class each student will have a fully working integrated Linux server.

Students will learn advanced aspects of some of the system commands covered in the Millennium Technology Consulting LLC Theory and Practice of Linux System Administration course, as well as some interesting new commands that can be used for advanced system administration tasks and problem determination.

Registration for the test class is closed. Please check the Training page for future class schedules and seat availability. New classes start in January.

Please contact us to sign up for classes as soon as possible. Our classroom facility is limited so class sizes are very small.

Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration Class to be Held December 3 – 7

November 9, 2012
Announcements News Training

The advanced class I have been working on for over a year will be ready for a test class that will be held December 3 – 7. This unique class, entitled, Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration covers a wide range of advanced topics in a manner never seen in other courses.

The topics covered in this course (still subject to change) will be:

 Administrative Tools  WordPress and MySQL
 IPTables  MailMan
BIND DNS  VNC
DHCP  NFS
Network Configuration  SAMBA
SSH  NTP
SendMail  CUPS
SpamAssassin  SELinux
MIMEDefang  Building RPMs
Apache Web Server

But it is how the class is structured as much as the specific subjects covered that makes it unique. Most classes that cover these subjects do not cover all of them, and they do not treat them as a part of an integrated whole system. The Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration class treats these as parts of a unified whole

By the end of the class each student will have a fully working Linux system with a firewall; a name server with forward and reverse zones; a DHCP server; an email server with integrated anti-spam; two working web sites with one a static HTML site and the other a complete WordPress site with a MySQL back end; A MailMan mailing list server; A VNC server; NFS and Samba shares. The student will also learn to build RPM packages.

In addition, students will learn advanced aspects of some of the system commands covered in my Theory and Practice of Linux System Administration course, as well as some interesting new commands that can be used for advanced system administration tasks and problem determination.

This course will be held in my Raleigh, NC, training facility.

The class will normally cost $2995. There will be a discount of $700 available for only that session because it will be a test class. As always, the additional $500 discount for TriLUG members will apply. Please contact Millennium Technology Consulting LLC for details.

“Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration” Class Status

October 6, 2012
Linux Millennium Technology Consulting LLC News Training

The advanced class I have been working on for over a year is nearly ready. This unique class, entitled, Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration covers a wide range of advanced topics in a manner never seen in other courses.

The topics covered in this course (still subject to change) will be:

 Administrative Tools  WordPress and MySQL
 IPTables  MailMan
BIND DNS  VNC
DHCP  NFS
Network Configuration  SAMBA
SSH  NTP
SendMail  CUPS
SpamAssassin  SELinux
MIMEDefang  Building RPMs
Apache Web Server

But it is how the class is structured as much as the specific subjects covered that makes it unique. Most classes that cover these subjects do not cover all of them, and they do not treat them as a part of an integrated whole system. The Linux Servers and Advanced System Administration class treats these as parts of a unified whole

By the end of the class each student will have a fully working Linux system with a firewall; a name server with forward and reverse zones; a DHCP server; an email server with integrated anti-spam; two working web sites with one a static HTML site and the other a complete WordPress site with a MySQL back end; A MailMan mailing list server; A VNC server; NFS and Samba shares. The student will also learn to build RPM packages.

In addition, students will learn advanced aspects of some of the system commands covered in my Theory and Practice of Linux System Administration course, as well as some interesting new commands that can be used for advanced system administration tasks and problem determination.

I expect this course to be ready for a test class in December of 2012. It will be held in my Raleigh, NC, training facility. The exact date is still a bit uncertain but, at this time, I expect it to be the first week of December.

The class will normally cost $2995. There will be discounts available for that session because it will be a test class. As always, the additional $500 discount for TriLUG members will apply. Please contact Millennium Technology Consulting LLC for details.

Fedora 17 Released

May 30, 2012
Linux News

Fedora 17, the latest in a long series of Fedora Linux releases, was released on Tuesday, May 29. Code named “Beefy Miracle,” it offers many new features and upgrades.

I have already installed it on my primary workstation which I don’t recommend for most people to do on day 1 of any release. I also installed Fedora 17 onto a VirtualBox VM where I will do my best to break it. Hopefully it will not break my primary workstation.

Here are a few of my first impressions.

In Brief

I have already noticed significant speed improvements over Fedora 16 and previous releases. KDE screen animations and effects are enabled by default, possibly as a result of the speed gains, and they make for a fun desktop. Perhaps the new 6.3.3 kernel is at least in part responsible for the speed gains.

The BTRFS filesystem is no longer an option during installation, but can be used on partitions formatted after installation. This is due to issues with the filesystem. I have also had problems in the recent past with installations using EXT4 so I personally do not use that for the main installation.

I had problems with the upgrade from DVD so had to do a complete installation. I was able to save my home filesystem and restored other critical data from backups so it was not a major issue. I always expect problems with upgrades and new installations, so no real surprise there. I think the issues may be due to the non-Fedora repositories I have configured, but I need to experiment more with that.

In general everything seems to be working well so I am happy.

I will write a more compete review as soon as I have more experience with this release.

 

SOPA Protest

January 17, 2012
Information News Opinion

This website will participate tomorrow, January 18, 2012, in protest of the SOPA law. That law would restrict the Internet freedoms of everyone for the somewhat questionable  financial benefit of a few media companies. In order to restrict alleged piracy, they would restrict the entire Internet. Web sites could be closed without any warning or even proof that they were in violation of any law—except the laws of greed.

Read about SOPA and the protest.

This bill will break the Internet as we know it.

Training Classes for Q1, 2012 Scheduled

January 8, 2012
Announcements Millennium Technology Consulting LLC News Training

My Company, Millennium Technology Consulting LLC, has set its Linux training schedule for the First Quarter of 2012. We will be presenting one session of our highly acclaimed “Theory and Practice of Linux System Administration” class each month.

Classes are set for the following dates:

  • January 23-27, 2012
  • February 13-17, 2012
  • March 12-16, 2012

Please refer to the Millennium Technology Consulting LLC Training Page for complete schedules and prices.

Fedora 15 on the Horizon

April 19, 2011
News

Fedora 15 is in Beta testing now and will be available—barring unforeseen complications—by the end of May. There are some interesting new features including desktops GNOME 3 and KDE 4.6.

The feature that will probably make the most difference to Linux Administrators and almost none to end users is the new systemd daemon. This “System Daemon” will replace the SystemV Init scripts which have been around forever; it also replaces the much newer Upstart which has barely gotten a toehold.

Fedora, being the sometimes bleeding edge distribution that it is, Fedora 15 will be the first distribution to include systemd.

The primary purpose of systemd is to launch and manage other needed daemons and processes, but it does it much more intelligently by only starting them as they are needed. Thus much of the systemd function can replace that of the Internet Superdaemon, xinetd or inetd, depending upon your distribution. The xinetd daemon simply hangs around waiting for an Internet connection attempt on one of its supported servers such as Telnet. It then starts the appropriate server and passes off the connection to that server and then waits for another connection attempt.

The systemd works much the same way, only not just with network-based services. It works together with UDEV and D-Bus to determine when a local daemon is needed and then starts it. Starting local daemons only when required saves system resources and can significantly improve boot time. This improved boot time is the only thing that most users will notice.

For a little closer look at Fedora 15 see 7.5 Reasons to Look Forward to Fedora 15 at Linux.com.

For all of the gory details of systemd, see http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html. This German web site also has an excellent multipart series, systemd for Administrators.

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Fedora 13 is Now Available

July 2, 2010
Information News

Fedora 13 has been available for a few weeks now. I have started installing it on some of my systems and it seems to work very well.

The Internet upgrade procedure works well but it does take a bit of time. You won’t want to use this method unless you have a fast Internet connection. A standard installation from DVD works well also. There are some differences in the installation procedure, but they are welcome ones including the restoration of the old “minimal” install option, which will be good for creating routers and other appliances.

The latest version of KDE is also very nice and provides a couple interesting new features as well as some new and improved widgets.

I will try to write a more complete critique as time permits.

Fedora Frog 1.0-12.0.0 Released

December 4, 2009
News Software

I have released version 1.0-12.0.0 of Fedora Frog.

This interactive, text mode, menu-driven Bash program provides the Linux administrator an easy way to install applications not installed by default during a Fedora Core installation procedure, and applications that are not part of the standard distribution. It also tweaks some configuration items. Additional repositories are required beyond the normal Fedora ones, and they are automatically added by Fedora Frog as well.

Frog installs media players such as RealPlayer, Mplayer, VLC, Kaffiene and Xine. It also installs Thunderbird, Firefox, GNUCash, Adobe Reader and Yumex, and some things specifically for System Admins such as chkrootkit.

Fedora Frog currently supports Fedora 10, 11 and 12. Support for all previous versions of Fedora has been removed.

New features in this release include:

  • Added support for Fedora 12.
  • Added more Admin programs such as ntop, powertop, iptraf, etc.
  • Added support for VirtualBox.
  • Added support for Skype.

Fedora Frog is distributed under the GPL2 license. Fedora Frog can be downloaded from SourceForge at https://sourceforge.net/projects/fedorafrog/.

Spammers Force End to Open Registration

November 5, 2009
News Notifications

Due to a significant increase in bogus registrations by spammers, I have ended the capability for open registration. If you wish to register for this web site send an email to dboth {at} millennium-technology {dot} com.

You must have a registration on this site to contribute comments, but all content is always open and free and you need not be registered just to view content.

I apologize for the inconvenience but it seems the only way to control the spam problem at this time.

Linux+ Training in Charleston

September 9, 2009
News Training

I will be teaching a 4.5 day Linux+ training class in Charleston, SC, the week of September 21.

CompTIA Linux+ is a vendor-neutral certification, generic across distributions, targeted to individuals with a minimum of six to 12 months of practical Linux experience. The CompTIA Linux+ exam covers fundamental management of Linux systems from the command line, user administration, file permissions, software configuration and management of Linux-based clients.

This class is preparation for that exam using Fedora Linux. Even if you do not take the exam this is an excellent training class for relatively new Linux administrators.

The class will be held at DTC Charleston, a local training center.

1064 Gardner Road
Suite 212
Charleston, SC 29407

Sales: 843-402-0983
Main: 843-225-3494
Toll-free: 866-705-4522
Fax: 775-370-0477

Email: martha_nye@dtccharleston.com

If you are interested in attending this class, please contact DTC.

DataBook® Navigation Improved

September 7, 2009
News

I have installed a new WordPress plugin which provides easier navigation for the DataBooks. At the top and bottom of the text portion of each page you will now find three new options:

  • Up one Level
  • Previous
  • Next

These options allow you to navigate through the Databooks more like you would a hard-copy book. You can now navigate to the next page of the previous page just by clicking on the respective link. You can also navigate to the next higher level by clicking on the Up One Level link.

Each link also has the name of the page to which you will turn when you click on it.

I hope this improves your experience of the DataBooks.

Fedora Frog Update

June 16, 2009
Information News

For those of you who are users of my Fedora Frog program, I am currently working on an update that will add support for Fedora 10 and 11 and remove support for all previous versions of Fedora. I am revising the list of packages that it installs because some of the older packages are no longer needed or in some cases have not been updated in a long time so are no longer relevant. In other cases I am adding packages that are now available through the new RPMFusion repositories. I hope to finish this major update within two weeks.

If you are not familiar with Fedora Frog, it provides the Linux administrator an easy way to install applications not installed by default during a Fedora installation procedure, and applications that are not part of the standard distribution. Additional repositories are required beyond the normal Fedora, and Updates. These additional repositories are automatically added using Fedora Frog as well.

When these updates are complete, Fedora Frog will be available for download from Sourceforge at https://sourceforge.net/projects/fedorafrog/. Previous versions of Fedora Frog are and will continue to be available there. Unfortunately some functions may not work because many of the repositories are no longer valid or the packages have been removed from the repositories. Use those old versions at your own risk.

Announcing the Formation of Millennium Technology Consulting LLC

April 11, 2009
Millennium Technology Consulting LLC News

I would like to announce that I have now started my own company, Millennium Technology Consulting LLC. We use Free Open Source Software (FOSS) to  save money, improve security and extend the life of existing computers for small to medium sized businesses. Open Source Software is high quality, and it is more secure and much better supported than most proprietary restricted software.

We provide Linux Consulting and Open Source Consulting services in the Raleigh Durham and RTP area of North Carolina.

Check us out and see how Millennium Technology Consulting LLC can help your business.

Software Patents Ruled Invalid by PTO

July 25, 2008
Comments News

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has basically ruled that software patents are invalid. This invalidates many patents by many companies, including those patents with which Microsoft sought to bludgeon the Linux ecosystem.

The ruling is particularly good news for the Open Source community. It makes it clear that Open Source software is, in general at least, free and clear of any issues having to do with software patents.

The Patent Law Blog, PatentlyO, has a long article bemoaning this ruling, but it is very interesting in that it discusses many of the issues that have concerned Open Source advocates for some time.

Read the text of the article, The Death of Google’s Patents?