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                   The Sys Admin Newsletter
                          News for the
            September 2002 issue of Sys Admin Magazine

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                            CONTENTS

1. Note from the Editor
2. Highlights of the September issue 
3. Call for Papers
4. Links
5. Subscription Information
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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:
The 19th Top 500 Supercomputer list was released at the International 
Supercomputer Conference (ISC2002 in Heidelberg) this past June. Since 
the previous list came out 6 months prior, there've been quite a few 
changes in the supercomputing world, and the number one spot on the 
list 
is now occupied by the Japanese Earth Simulator. Performance of 
machines 
on the Top 500 list is measured with the Linpack benchmark, which 
involves 
solving a system of linear equations. According to the Web site, 
the Earth Simulator leads number two on the list (IBM-built ASCI White 
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) by a factor of almost 5 in 
Linpack performance. You can find a detailed definition of the Linpack 
benchmark as well as the entire June 2002 Top 500 list at: 
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaatRIaaS9Fga2sokSb/

Sincerely,
Amber Ankerholz
Editor in Chief

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	The September issue contains:

Providing Network Services Using LVS by Malcolm Cowe  
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaatRIaaS9Fia2sokSb/
The Linux Virtual Server (LVS) project provides a scalable server 
solution built upon a loosely coupled collection of individual 
computers organized into a cluster. Cowe describes the installation 
and configuration of an LVS system to provide a centralized server 
for HP-UX X11 applications.

A ping Utility for Fibre Channel SANs by Bill Pierce 
Pierce describes fcping, a ping utility he wrote for Fibre Channel 
SANs, so systems administrators around the world could use an old 
friend in a new environment.

IP Space Monitoring System by ChokSheak Lau  
Most existing network monitoring software just periodically polls 
IP addresses to see whether theyÕre up. LauÕs system, however, also 
tracks the history of activity of each node in the network as well as 
the history of changes in the hostnames for each IP address.

The Ol' Switcharoo by David Sweet  
Sweet describes a utility for switching system states. 'Switcharoo' was 
written in Bourne shell for Solaris but should work on any UNIX 
operating 
system. It's a ready-made solution for situations where a client needs 
a custom script to switch between system states.

Another Way of Centralizing and  Customizing Crontabs by YiHua Philip 
Sheng 
This article builds on a previous article by Richard Hellier (Sys 
Admin, 
November 2001) that described a way to centralize crontabs. Sheng 
introduces 
a simpler method to centralize management of crontabs without losing 
customization ability and provides case examples.

Recovering Linux Systems with mkcdrec by Kerry Thompson 
Thompson describes the use of mkcdrec -- a tool for recovering from 
intrusions. 
Because the media is read-only, it is impervious to alteration by 
attackers. 

mquota -- A Passive Disk Quota System by Michael Montero  
Quota systems are essential management tools when trying to preserve 
disk space and share resources among many users. Montero describes a 
system called mquota, which was developed out of a need for a quota 
system under reiserFS 3.5.26 (running Linux kernel 2.2.16).

     Web Exclusives
Solaris Companion by Peter Baer Galvin
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaatRIaaS9Fja2sokSb/

     Columns
Questions and Answers by Amy Rich 
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaatRIaaS9Fka2sokSb/

Finding Old Things by Randal L. Schwartz  
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaatRIaaS9Fla2sokSb/

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     Fall 2002 -- The Perl Journal

Localizing Open Source Software by Sean M. Burke 

Parsing RSS Files with XML::RSS by Derek Vadala  

Does SOAP Suck? (Web Services, Google, and the What-Sucks-O-Meter) 
by Dan Brian  

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     CALL FOR PAPERS  

     Open Source -- January 2003
Proposals Due: September 2, 2002
Manuscripts Due: October 1, 2002

* Open Source in the Enterprise
* New Tips for Securing Linux
* Tuning Apache
* Advanced Open Source Techniques for Network Installation
* Undocumented (or Rarely Documented) Solutions with BSD
* My Favorite Unknown Open Source Utility (and How to Use It)

     Web Admin -- February 2003
Proposals Due: October 1, 2002
Manuscripts Due: November 1, 2002

* An Apache Trick You Haven't Seen
* Useful (and Secure) Scripts for Web Administration
* A Problem I Solved Using PHP
* Studies in Low-Budget E-Commerce
* Web Optimization: Practical Solutions You Won't Find in the Books

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InterWorks 2002, The HP Technical Training Conference
Los Angeles Convention Center, September 23-27

A top priority for system administrators and technical professionals 
is to find systems efficiencies and performance enhancements.   
Attend InterWorks 2002 to stay ahead of the IT business curve!  
http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaatRIaaS9Fsa2sokSb/ to 
register!  
Priority code:  SAN01
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     Newsletter Subscription Information

Please feel free to share this newsletter with interested parties
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http://click.sysadmin.email-publisher.com/maaatRIaaS9Fta2sokSb/

Email comments to: aankerholz@cmp.com