Open source is as much a philosophy as it is a development methodology. Open source code is meant to be shared, improved, and used in whatever way the user wants, marking a departure from traditional software licensing agreements. Open source software is cost-effective and can improve technological agility and scalability. Using open source products also ...

As a Linux administrator, there are many tasks you’ll find yourself managing. And no matter how you try and avoid the command line, at some point it’s going to become quite evident that the terminal is a must-use. You’ll find yourself faced with working on a headless server, or remoting into your data center, at ...

Linux systems administrators have many tasks on their plate. One such task is user administration, which can range from creating users, modifying users, locking users out of their accounts and deleting users. Along the way, Linux systems admins will also find themselves having to troubleshoot user accounts when problems arise. Without the necessary skills to ...

If you’re an admin who’s been tasked with installing Ubuntu Server to your data center, you’ll quickly realize how easy it is to deploy this enterprise-ready platform. The operating system itself is incredibly easy to install and will take you maybe 10 minutes tops. After the initial deployment is complete, however, the real work begins. ...

If you’re a systems administrator, it doesn’t matter what platform you use, so long as it can get the job done. Part of that job is ensuring the safety and viability of the data housed on those servers. Unless you can protect that data, and efficiently and effectively restore it (should disaster strike), you’re facing ...

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is already one of the most user-friendly distributions available. Mint then opts for a default desktop environment, Cinnamon, that is much more familiar to the masses. Unlike Ubuntu’s GNOME GUI (which is a more modern take on the desktop), Cinnamon goes out of its way to retain a ...

Linux admins have a love affair with information. The more information they can gather the better. And that’s a good thing, as the more informed you are, the more apt you’ll be to make smart decisions. This applies to administration tasks, security, development and just about anything else you can imagine. Besides, why wouldn’t you ...

SELinux stands for Security-Enhanced Linux. It is a Linux kernel security model that provides a hardened set of access control security policies for the Linux operating system. SELinux tends to get a bad rap, because it often seems to go out of its way to prevent legitimate applications from working. This guide, created by Jack ...

From cloud tools, HRM software, content management systems or even collections of customer/client information — databases are the foundation for which so many platforms are dependent. If your company is either building in-house applications and services or simply deploying pre-built tools, either of which requires a database to function, you’re going to need to know ...

If you’re a Linux admin, you probably take care of any number of servers, all of which contain numerous users. Those users log in via various means or protocols, such as SSH, FTP and HTTP. In order to successfully log in, those users have to have — passwords. A single word that sends shivers through ...

If you’re a systems administrator, you know the importance of log files. Without those crucial bits of saved information, you might not know where to start troubleshooting issues on your servers. With that information on hand, you are empowered to not only troubleshoot but better optimize your servers for the task at hand. This guide, ...

Unless you’ve been using Linux distributions that intentionally replace systemd for another initialization system, you’ve worked with this tool. But have you really? If you haven’t spent time diving into how to properly use systemd on your Linux operating systems, you might be missing out on some very helpful features. This TechRepublic Premium guide, created ...

No matter your Linux system, be it desktop or server, there will be quite a large number of processes running at any given time. Hopefully those processes are all running as expected. But if not, this article, written by Jack Wallen for TechRepublic Premium, has some tips to get your processes running smoothly again including ...

If you’re an administrator of systems, no matter the platform, you know that it’s only a matter of time before you find yourself having to troubleshoot any given problem. Sometimes the problems are really simple, so the troubleshooting is quick and painless. On other occasions, however, the problems are considerably more challenging. When those troublesome ...

At some point in your Linux admin career, you will need to deploy a database server. This server might help power a content management system or a human resources platform. No matter what it’s used for, it’s important you know how to be prepared and know how to get the database server up and running. ...