Here is a quick script I have cobbled to generate nagios host configs it may need to be changed for template etc but you get the gist.

It includes support for padding of hostname numbers e.g. padding of 3 = web001, web002….web045…web999.

#!/bin/bash
# Nagios host config generater.
# Bruce Tonge
#
#If you need to gen a config for a large number of sequentialy numbered hosts
#just run:
#nagios.sh web example.com 1 50 3
#
#This will create host entries for machines 1-50 but named web001 - web050
#The output should be redirected to a file.

if [ "$#" -lt "4" ]
then
echo “usage: $0 <hostprefix> <fqdn> <first node number> <last node number> <host number padding>”
exit 0
fi

host_str=$1 #host prefix
fqdn_str=$2 #domain name
fnode_num=$3 #first node number
lnode_num=$4 #last node number
pad_num=$5 #charicters to pad

for hostnum in `seq -f”%0$5g” $3 $4`;
do
shorthostname=$host_str$hostnum
longhostname=$host_str$hostnum.$fqdn_str
printf “#Host Entry for Node $shorthostname.\n”
printf “define host{\n”
printf “\tuse\tbasic-host\n”
printf “\thost_name\t$shorthostname\n”
printf “\talias\t$shorthostname\n”
printf “\taddress\t$longhostname\n”
printf “\t}\n”
printf “\n”;
done
exit 0

I have just got a a new ipad 2. Noticed a witted thing if you put it on charge and then run your finger down the side or across the back you get a strange feeling in your finger like you can feel a magnetic field coming from the battery. Any one know what this is?

On reading through the FAQ of the PSN “outage” it seems that Sony are trying to skirt the difficult questions. Mainly well for me anyway over the disclosure of the incident . Question 12 demon straits there intersessions I fear:

Q.12     How serious is this?  Have the hackers broken the  security on PSN/Qriocity?  Are you taking necessary measures to prevent such outage happening in the future?

Since this is an overall security related issue, we will not comment further on this case but we are working to restore and maintain the services, including countermeasures against future intrusions.

This would lead me to believe that Sony doesn’t intend to outline the failing of the system and what they have done to put this right.

I have posted a question to Sony about this as well as asking for detail of the format of my password as stored on there system (ether hashed or plan). If I get an answer I will post it here.

I have herd rumours but that is all they are that the CVT codes for credit cards might have got out as well. These should never have been stored and so I am sceptical but will post more as I find out.

I have just tonight received the email I have been waiting for from Sony in regard to there PSN “Outage”. As you are all probably aware the PSN has been down for a week now and looks like it will be down for at least another week. It would appear that Sony have managed to loose there entire user database to an intruder. the only think they seem to have protected is the security code for credit cards though they are not finished investigating the breach so there is time yet…

The one thing that has struck me is that they have lost all the users passwords… Now this is quite alarming in a number of ways. Firstly let me note the two options I see there being for the loss of passwords as described by Sony (which is vague at best):

1. The passwords were stored in the clear (not protected by a hash) and were in the same databases that have been taken. Or.

2.The passwords were stored in a database that was compromised but they were hashed password.

Now if option 2 is the case I can only guess that there is some worry that the hashing method used is not very strong I.E. a known algorithm with no salt. This would be bad but excusable.

I fear however that Sony have kept the passwords in the clear. This is inexcusable. IF this turns out to be the case I dare say the protection of the credit card security codes will be as equally poor.

I will await the full disclosure of this incident before I decide weather to leave the PlayStation platform for good.

I have had a number of new regisers to my wp site in the last few days all with .pl domains the latest had the word spam in ther email address. I am a little worried a wp hack might be coming down the pipe. I think I am going to start dropping a few inactive and dubois users this week. If you want to stay post a comment.

Last year I joined the security knoladge transfer network (KTN). I attended there meeting in Manchester where they set out ther plans to help raise IT security knolage to uk companies and government. It would spear from looking at there site that there grand design has been raines in a lot. Bad news for everyone and no substitute in sight.

Here is a link to a how to on making a really big and cheep 4U storage server. I am hopping to make a similar system only I am planning on making a 1U solution obviously with less disk storage but as I don’t need quite that much and I pay for hosting per U 1U would be great. When I get round to it I ill post pics.

I have stumbled upon a great demolition game to be found here. Its really quite good as you can design your own building and then position explosives to raise it to the ground. It’s only 5 euro’s so give it a whirl there is a free demo.

I have been working on producing a method to update the kernel \drivers within the Altiris DS PXE image. Here is my how to for compiling a new kernel and integrating it into bootwiz.

Update: I have recently had problems with the latest HP DC 8200 elite desktops that are using the new Intel Q67 express chip sets. from what I have found you need to be using a quite modern kernel 2.6.38/39 ish. I personally have had success with the 2.6.39 kernel. This was not spported in the linux boot that was relaesed for DS SP 5.

If you only want to compile new drivers for your PXE image you still need to compile a kernel to the same version in use in your PXE image. You can find this in the Boot Disk Creator tool.

How to build a kernel

First of all I built a virtual machine on my desktop using VMware server. I then installed Debian 5 on it using the net install ISO to make a minimal install. I didn’t set it up with any roles i.e. desktop.
Once booted install SSH. Logging on as root and enter:

apt-get install ssh

After this point you can access the VM with putty and copy files to and from the VM with Winscp. You could install a samba server of ftp but I am not going to cover this here.

Now we need to install all the software needed to allow us to compile kernel sources. This is done using the following command:

apt-get install gcc-4.3 make wget bzip2 build-essential

These tools are as follows:

• gcc-4.3 the GNU C Compiler
• make the tool that runs the compile script
• wget a tool to download files from http servers
• bzip2 a compression tool
• build-essentials tools and libraries used to compile

Once this is complete you have a system that is setup to compile kernels and driver modules.
We now need to get some files from the Altiris system.
First we need the config file from the Altiris Linux boot environment. The config file holds all the settings that were used to build the kernel that is used in the current build and is a good starting place for a new kernel.
To get it we need to send a job down to a machine to boot the Linux environment and run the following script:

cp /proc/config.gz /mnt/ds
gzip -d /mnt/ds/config.gz

This will copy the config file from the boot environment and put it into the root of your deployment share.

Now we also need the rootfs file. This file is like a virtual disk that holds the file system for the Linux been environment we may need to add some files to this or delete as needed. This file is located at \bootwiz\platforms\linux\x86\base\rootfs.

Now you have these files copy them over to the VM using Winscp and place them in the /root directory.

Now we need to get hold of the source code for the kernel that we want to use. If you just want to make new driver modules you need the same version as is used in your existing build (currently 2.6.18.8).
you can download the kernel from here you need a kernel that follows the name linux-2.6.**.*.tar.bz2 it should be about 40mb + in size. I have had good results with 2.6.24.7. Once you have selected the kernel you need right click on it and copy the link location. Then go to your putty and enter the following commands:

cd /usr/src
wget http://url to file

Instead of having to type “http://url to file” you can right click and the copied location will be pasted in saving your figures. Press enter and your kernel will be downloaded.
Once finished you need to extract the kernel from the archive as bellow:

tar -jxf linux-2.6.**.*.tar.bz2

This will extract the source to a folder of the same name.
To make life easier I would delete the archive now but its up to you.
Now we need to move the kernel source to a folder called linux this is for compatibility with making new drivers.

mv linux-2.6.**.*/ linux/

Now we copy the config file into the kernel source folder and make it hidden (this is how the compiler likes it).

cp /root/config /usr/src/linux/.config

Dont forget the ‘.’ in .config.

OK, you now have the same conditions that the Altiris developers had before they made there kernel. But we want more in our kernel so its time to make some changes.

cd linux
make menuconfig

Now you need to go to the bottom of the menu and select load config, it should already be filled with .config so select ok.
Now you can go through the menu making the changes you require. you probably want to add support for a new chip set or SATA controller so have a look in the drivers section for what you require.
When finished exit out and save your config.
Now you can compile your kernel enter the following:

make
make modules_install


That’s it, watch the screen go flying by for a while and eventually it will finish. If it ends with lines with “ERROR:” in them something has gone wrong. But hopefully this wont happen.
Your new kernel will be waiting for you in the folder /usr/src/linux/arch/x86/boot/ the kernel file is the one called bzImage.
Copy this out to a safe place and rename to “linux” all lower case.
Now we need to mount the rootfs file to make some changes.

mkdir /mnt/rootfs
mount -o loop /root/rootfs /mnt/rootfs
cd /mnt/rootfs

You are now inside the rootfs file. We now need to update the modules for the kernel:

cd lib/modules
rm -r 2.6.18.8  (or what ever folder is there)
cp -r /lib/modules/2.6.**.* /mnt/rootfs/lib/modules/2.6.**.*

You will probably also want to update your pci detection list. to do this enter:

update-pciids
cp /usr/share/misc/pci.ids /mnt/rootfs/usr/share/pci.ids
cp /usr/share/misc/pci.ids /mnt/rootfs/usr/local/share/pci.ids

You can make more changes if needed. When finished unmount the rootfs:

umount /mnt/rootfs

now copy your /root/rootfs file out to some ware safe.
That’s it a new kernel is compiled.
To use this kernel and rootfs over write the linux and rootfs files in \bootwiz\platforms\linux\x86\base\  with the ones you have just made.
Then make a new Linux PXE option or edit an existing one to force a rebuild. Using the regenerate images doesn’t work at least in 6.9 sp2 of the DS.
Now boot your kernel and see how it goes.
If you want to see your kernel boot and get a bit more debug info from it you can remove the quiet commend from the pxeconfig file located in \bootwiz\platforms\linux\x86\misc\ you also need to rebuild the image after this as above.

How to build a driver module

Now you have built a kernel you can build driver modules for that kernel. (important) when you have found your driver source files copy them and extract them to a folder I use /usr/scr/drivers/
then cd in to the driver directory you might find another folder in that named src if so cd into there as well. you should now be in a folder with files with extensions of .c and .h. enter the following commands:

make -C /usr/src/linux SUBDIRS=$(pwd) modules

This command compiles the driver against the kernel created above.

You will now have a .ko file that was not there before this is your driver and it needs to be copied to your bootwiz folder to the following directory string.
“.\Boozwiz\platforms\Linux\x86\Drivers\CUSTOM\lib\modules\_ver_\kernel\opt\bdc”
You will need to make all those folder if they are not already there. Then recreate your PXE image as before.

Update: Since writing this how to I have found the following article that might also help

Article

As well as everything else my power kite was in the car that got stolen. So today I bought a replacement. The original was a 2 line kite that I was hopping would lift a camera. The new kite is a 4 line kite with a bigger canopy.