SysAdmin Blog, TechTips and Reviews
This is sort of like a follow up on my DST patch post
How do I change the timezone on my Solaris server/workstation?
Solution
a) Edit /etc/TIMEZONE
NOTE: the man page incorrectly states this file is called /etc/timezone
b) Reboot your server with shutdown or init.
Examples
——–
US/Eastern
US/Central
US/Mountain
US/Pacific
For the full list, look in:
/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/
Will be doing a DST patch tonight around 9:00pm tonight for Sydney servers.
Basically, what needs to be done is to donwload the timezone data patch (109809-09), unzip and install.
Installing patch:
Installing the patch is as simple as executing ‘patchadd’. Since this will be on a Solaris 5.8, I’ll just be doing
#patchadd /path/to/patch/dir/109809-09
README says:
Got a request to reset a password of one of the development server’s account today. Apparently, one of the batch operators, mistyped the password one to many… It was locked.
It was an LDAP environment and the SOP is to change the password to a pre-defined default password and then the user will be the one he wants (Anyway, the user has no choice, once he puts the initial password he will be prompted to change it)
The problem is, the server wont allow him to use his old password. He wants to use it again since, he’s not the only one who uses that (group) account and changing it to his own, well, he have to tell it to everyone else who’s using the account.. and from what I’ve heard they are more than a handful.
Anyway, to help him, I checked the /etc/default/passwd and took a peek at HISTORY’s value. The number here shows how many password the system will remembers (root not included of course). It was set to 10.
Set it temporary to ‘0′ and changed the password. After confirming that all is good, changed the HISTORY parameters of /etc/default/passwd back to ‘10′ , which is apparently our SOP on password history.
(Machine was a solaris sparc with Solaris 8.10)
Yep, this is a dummy’s reference… I keep on forgetting the syntax so I might as well put it here for my own reference… 
vi is the one, if not the most popular text editor available for a System Administrator on a UNIX and UNIX-like machines.
It has two modes, command and editor mode.
Here are some syntax in using the Search and Replace in ‘vi’.
Search:
The most basic and most easily remembered command for searching is vi is slash or ‘/’ followed by the character being searched. That’s for forward searching. For backward, vi use ‘?’ followed by the string being searched.
To go to the next occurrance of the string being searched, vi use ‘n’ command. Doesn’t matter if your searching forward (from up, down) or backward, from down to top.
Example:
(you have to be in command mode… press ESC first)
/search_string
?search_string
Search and Replace
For search and replace, use the syntax
:%s/original/replaced/g
Make sense?
Any command that begins with a “:” is called a line mode command and performs its duty on the line the cursor is currently on.
The above syntax serves my purpose now… If I want to replace text in certain ranges.. syntax can be found here
I bought my very first laptop last week which comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Basic.
My original plan was to erase the whole thing and put Ubuntu on it. Tried it couple of days ago but didn’t work out.
After the boot up from the CD (requested a copy of Ubuntu 7.10) it displayed the little cross hair, then nothing…
I thought it’s probably the Vista… So I put in XP.. coz I tried installing Ubuntu over XP before, but the same thing happened!
So I wonder if this is a hardware issue on my laptop? It’s a NEO Empriva 540SVBe.
Will do a search later.
If you’re a System Administrator, have you ever wonder what really is you’re market value? I mean, have you ever stop and think about your salary and comparing it with other people on other fields of work… or from your fellow Sysads?
I have.
Here’s a link to the Salary Report for professional who are working in the Philippines. Note that the figures shown there are taken from those who participated to the survey.
The specific ‘SysAd’ job description was nowhere to be found, so I took the next most probably job function.. Since my job title is a Systems Engineer, I took:
Engineers:
| Assistant Manager / Manager | 20,000.00 | 30,000.00 | 37,000.00 |
| Supervisor / 5 Years & Up Experienced Employee | 15,000.00 | 20,000.00 | 25,000.00 |
| Fresh Grad / < 1 Year Experienced Employee | 8,500.00 | 10,000.00 | 12,000.00 |
Although I can say which salary range my salary is, you can see that the digits are quite small given consideration to the present living condition here.
What a SysAd to do? He can either work triple hard, do overtime, ask a friend for a loan or he could take a payday loan from company that offers one or even a website such as Easy Online Payda.
They have a fast and simple form that will be beneficial for anyone who needs to have a loan instantly. The only requirements are you have to be at least 18 years of age, maintain a regular source of income, and have a direct deposit system set up with your local bank.
Thanks for these kinds of services! This is a great aid for hard working sysadminstrators!