Brain's Workbench
make rec_control be more user friendly
make wipe-cache accept non-dot terminated domain names
make wipe-cache return count of wiped ('wopen'?) domains
document best current practice when wiping (wipe more than www.domain, wipe domain as well)
REC_CONTROL(1)
==============
NAME
—-
rec_control – control pdns_recursor
SYNOPSIS
——–
'rec_control' [–help] [–socket-dir] [–socket-pid] command ..
Here are a couple of graph templates for the PowerDNS recursor. They need a shell script to be installed on the DNS server, and an net-snmp config change.
Add the following to the snmpd.conf
extend pdns-rec /usr/local/bin/pdns_stats.sh
Put pdns_stats in /usr/local/bin, so that snmpd can find it (rename from pdns_stats.txt). Make it executable.
Then import the templates.
You end up with two graphs – one showing queries/sec + cache efficiency, and another one showing "exceptions" – slow queries, resource limits hit, spoof detection, etc.
Update
You can use the existing templates with the new script, but the new version also allows you to use a couple more templates, which I've attached below. These are 'Performance' which shows the proportion of queries answered in particular time bands, and 'Concurrency' which shows the number of threads running.
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A Newer version of this document is available at-
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The following programs are needed to run cacti:
– apache2 for the web server
– mysql-server for the database
– php5 for the server-based script
– php5-common
– php5-cgi
– php5-cli
– php5-mysql
– snmp – snmp tools used to collect data to the remote hosts
– rrdtool – a perl script to format collected data to rrdtool files
facultative:
php5-gd – the graphical library used by a Cacti plugin named php weathermap
CPU Usage
/etc/mrtg/cpu.cfg
WorkDir: /var/www/mrtg
LoadMIBs: /usr/share/snmp/mibs/UCD-SNMP-MIB.txt
Target[localhost.cpu]:ssCpuRawUser.0&ssCpuRawUser.0:public@127.0.0.1+ ssCpuRawSystem.0&ssCpuRawSystem.0:public@127.0.0.1+
ssCpuRawNice.0&ssCpuRawNice.0:public@127.0.0.1
RouterUptime[localhost.cpu]: public@127.0.0.1
MaxBytes[localhost.cpu]: 100
Title[localhost.cpu]: CPU Load
PageTop[localhost.cpu]: Active CPU Load %
Unscaled[localhost.cpu]: ymwd
ShortLegend[localhost.cpu]: %
YLegend[localhost.cpu]: CPU Utilization
Legend1[localhost.cpu]: Active CPU in % (Load)
Legend2[localhost.cpu]:
Legend3[localhost.cpu]:
Legend4[localhost.cpu]:
LegendI[localhost.cpu]: Active
LegendO[localhost.cpu]:
Options[localhost.cpu]: growright,nopercent
Memory Usage
/etc/mrtg/mem.cfg
LoadMIBs: /usr/share/snmp/mibs/HOST-RESOURCES-MIB.txt
Target[localhost.mem]: .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.6.0&.1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.4.6.0:public@localhost
PageTop[localhost.mem]:Free Memory
WorkDir: /var/www/mrtg
Options[localhost.mem]: nopercent,growright,gauge,noinfo
Title[localhost.mem]: Free Memory
MaxBytes[localhost.mem]: 1000000
kMG[localhost.mem]: k,M,G,T,P,X
YLegend[localhost.mem]: bytes
ShortLegend[localhost.mem]: bytes
LegendI[localhost.mem]: Free Memory:
LegendO[localhost.mem]:
Legend1[localhost.mem]: Free memory, not including swap, in bytes
Memory Monitoring (Total Versus Available Memory)
/etc/mrtg/memfree.cfg
LoadMIBs: /usr/share/snmp/mibs/HOST-RESOURCES-MIB.txt
Target[server.memory]: memAvailReal.0&memTotalReal.0:public@localhost
Title[server.memory]: Free Memory
PageTop[server.memory]: < H1 >Free Memory< /H1 >
MaxBytes[server.memory]: 100000000000
ShortLegend[server.memory]: B
YLegend[server.memory]: Bytes
LegendI[server.memory]: Free
LegendO[server.memory]: Total
Legend1[server.memory]: Free memory, not including swap, in bytes
Legend2[server.memory]: Total memory
Options[server.memory]: gauge,growright,nopercent
kMG[server.memory]: k,M,G,T,P,X
#indexmaker /etc/mrtg.cfg > /var/www/mrtg/index.html
Now you need to reboot your system wait for five minutes or so and then take a look at your summary home page. If your Debian,ubuntu,kubuntu system’s IP address is 192.168.0.1 then you’d type in the following in the address bar of a browser running on a system on the same network:
#/usr/bin/indexmaker –output=/var/www/mrtg/index.html \
–title=”Memory and CPU Usage ” \
–sort=name \
–enumerate \
/etc/mrtg/cpu.cfg \
/etc/mrtg/mem.cfg \
/etc/cron.mrtg/memfree \
/etc/cron.mrtg/mempercent \
/etc/cron.mrtg/disk
As mentioned before, the init.d commands dump, show and mrtg fetch data from a running PDNS process. Especially mrtg is powerful – it outputs data in a format that is ready for processing by the MRTG graphing tool.
MRTG can make insightful graphics on the performance of your nameserver, enabling the operator to easily spot trends. MRTG can be found on http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/mrtg.html
A sample mrtg.conf:
Interval: 5
WorkDir: /var/www/mrtg
WriteExpires: yes
Options[_]: growright,nopercent
XSize[_]: 600
#—————————————————————
Target[udp-queries]: `/etc/init.d/pdns mrtg udp-queries udp-answers`
Options[udp-queries]: growright,nopercent,perminute
MaxBytes[udp-queries]: 600000
AbsMax[udp-queries]: 600000
Title[udp-queries]: Queries per minute
PageTop[udp-queries]: <H2>Queries per minute</H2>
WithPeak[udp-queries]: ymwd
YLegend[udp-queries]: queries/minute
ShortLegend[udp-queries]: q/m
LegendI[udp-queries]: udp-questions
LegendO[udp-queries]: udp-answers
Target[perc-failed]: `/etc/init.d/pdns mrtg udp-queries udp-answers`
Options[perc-failed]: growright,dorelpercent,perminute
MaxBytes[perc-failed]: 600000
AbsMax[perc-failed]: 600000
Title[perc-failed]: Queries per minute, with percentage success
PageTop[perc-failed]: <H2>Queries per minute, with percentage success</H2>
WithPeak[perc-failed]: ymwd
YLegend[perc-failed]: queries/minute
ShortLegend[perc-failed]: q/m
LegendI[perc-failed]: udp-questions
LegendO[perc-failed]: udp-answers
Target[packetcache-rate]: `/etc/init.d/pdns mrtg packetcache-hit udp-queries`
Options[packetcache-rate]: growright,dorelpercent,perminute
Title[packetcache-rate]: packetcache hitrate
MaxBytes[packetcache-rate]: 600000
AbsMax[packetcache-rate]: 600000
PageTop[packetcache-rate]: <H2>packetcache hitrate</H2>
WithPeak[packetcache-rate]: ymwd
YLegend[packetcache-rate]: queries/minute
ShortLegend[packetcache-rate]: q/m
LegendO[packetcache-rate]: total
LegendI[packetcache-rate]: hit
Target[packetcache-missrate]: `/etc/init.d/pdns mrtg packetcache-miss udp-queries`
Options[packetcache-missrate]: growright,dorelpercent,perminute
Title[packetcache-missrate]: packetcache MISSrate
MaxBytes[packetcache-missrate]: 600000
AbsMax[packetcache-missrate]: 600000
PageTop[packetcache-missrate]: <H2>packetcache MISSrate</H2>
WithPeak[packetcache-missrate]: ymwd
YLegend[packetcache-missrate]: queries/minute
ShortLegend[packetcache-missrate]: q/m
LegendO[packetcache-missrate]: total
LegendI[packetcache-missrate]: MISS
Target[latency]: `/etc/init.d/pdns mrtg latency`
Options[latency]: growright,nopercent,gauge
MaxBytes[latency]: 600000
AbsMax[latency]: 600000
Title[latency]: Query/answer latency
PageTop[latency]: <H2>Query/answer latency</H2>
WithPeak[latency]: ymwd
YLegend[latency]: usec
ShortLegend[latency]: usec
LegendO[latency]: latency
LegendI[latency]: latency
Target[recursing]: `/etc/init.d/pdns mrtg recursing-questions recursing-answers`
Options[recursing]: growright,nopercent,gauge
MaxBytes[recursing]: 600000
AbsMax[recursing]: 600000
Title[recursing]: Recursive questions/answers
PageTop[recursing]: <H2>Recursing questions/answers</H2>
WithPeak[recursing]: ymwd
YLegend[recursing]: queries/minute
ShortLegend[recursing]: q/m
LegendO[recursing]: recursing-questions
LegendI[recursing]: recursing-answers
Src: http://doc.powerdns.com/init-d-commands.html
I decided to install another caching dns server , after some research I found PowerDNS. it uses MySQL for storing its zones , but hopefully its caching component doesnt need mysql , so great , lets go and install it.
My favourite OS is debian lenny , so I ran the following command :
1 |
apt-get install pdns-recursor |
WOW , it was very simple ! it is already working on localhost , but I needed it to listen on all IPs on my box and accept queries from everyone 
I wanted to serve public :p so I went to /etc/powerdns and opened “recursor.conf” file and made the following changes :
1 |
allow-from= |
2 |
local-address=0.0.0.0 |
and restarted the service by :
1 |
/etc/init.d/pdns-recursor restart |
it’s done now it is working as a public caching name server.
Backup the old Cacti database.
shell> mysqldump -l --add-drop-table cacti > mysql.cacti
Note: You will probably have to specify the -u and -p flags for the MySQL username and password. This user must have permission to read from Cacti's database or you will end up with an empty backup.
Backup the old Cacti directory.
shell> mv cacti cacti_old
First you nee to make sure you have enabled Universe and multiverse repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list file once you have enable you need to use the following command to install GUI
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
The above command will install GNOME desktop
If you wan to install a graphical desktop manager without some of the desktop addons like Evolution and OpenOffice, but continue to use the server flavor kernel use the following command
sudo aptitude install –without-recommends ubuntu-desktop
If you want to install light weight desktop install xfce using the following command
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
If you want to install KDE desktop use the following command
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
In Unix, you can use the scp command to copy files and directories securely between remote hosts without starting an FTP session or logging into the remote systems explicitly. The scp command uses SSH to transfer data, so it requires a password or passphrase for authentication. Unlike rcp or FTP, scp encrypts both the file and any passwords exchanged so that anyone snooping on the network can't view them.
Warning: Be careful when copying between hosts files that have the same names; you may accidently overwrite them.
The syntax for the scp command is:
scp [options] [[user@]host1:]filename1 … [[user@]host2:]filename2
For example, if user dvader is on a computer called empire.gov, and wants to copy a file called file1.txt to a directory called somedir in his account on a computer called deathstar.com, he would enter:
scp file1.txt dvader@deathstar.com:somedir
Likewise, if he wanted to copy the entire contents of the somedir directory on deathstar.com back to his empire.gov account, he would enter:
scp -r dvader@deathstar.com:somedir somedir
Similarly, if he is working on another computer, but wanted to copy a file called file1.txt from his home directory on empire.gov to a directory called somedir in his account on deathstar.com, he would enter:
scp dvader@empire.gov:file1.txt dvader@deathstar.com:somedir
When using wildcards (e.g., * and ? ) to copy multiple files from a remote system, be sure to enclose the filenames in quotes. This is because the Unix shell, not the scp command, expands unquoted wildcards.
For more information about scp, consult its man page. At the Unix prompt, enter:
man scp