Recently, I stumbled upon the following issue while installing a Python utility on an older CentOS system:

 1# python setup.py install
 2Traceback (most recent call last):
 3  File "setup.py", line 102, in
 4    'katprep_snapshot=katprep.snapshot:cli',
 5  File …

Doing a recent Puppet agent upgrade from version 3.x to 4.x I stumbled upon the following errors:

1Puppet (warning): Unable to fetch my node definition, but the agent run will continue:
2Puppet (warning): Could not find terminus rest for indirection node
3/File[/var/lib/puppet/lib] (err): Failed to generate additional …

VirtualBox enjoys great popularity where it is required to virtualize common operating systems for conventional use-cases at no cost. In comparison with other hypervisors such as VMware Workstation, VirtualBox only offers basic graphics acceleration - which is sufficient for classic desktop applications.

During a …

Leveraging SNMP is often a pain when appropriate MIB files (Management Information Base) are missing - e.g. because the manufacturer did not document them or only offer them at fee. When utilizing a Perl program recently, I stumbled upon the following issue:

Cannot find module (SNMPv2-SMI):

After ensuring that missing …

Recently I needed access to a HP Management Processor (MP) without knowing the appropriate IP address.

A possibility is to utilize a serial connection to the MP - but this is kinda complicated if you don't have any physical system access.

A smarter approach is to find out the IP address using the running operating …

Recently I had the problem that my homelab's Linux machines managed by Puppet were generating dozens of error messages when updating the catalog:

1# puppet agent --test
2Error: /File[/var/lib/puppet/lib/puppet/parser/functions/load_module_metadata.rb]/ensure: change from absent to file failed: Could not set …

It is a common procedure to use templates ("golden images") when deploying virtual machines. Recently I had an issue when deploying SLES machines - newly registered systems within SUSE Manager replaced older one. The management agent was installed within the template.

For classic systems (registered via RHNSD …

With FirewallD, some Linux distributions introduce a new default firewall differing heavily from previous interfaces. This post focusses the basic concept and some practical examples.

A major difference is that the firewall now supports changes in realtime without dropping active connections. FirewallD integrates …

Recently I had some issues with a Linux cluster running Corosync, Pacemaker and Apache. I was unable to run the redskin as ressource - starting always failed with "invalid parameter":

 1# crm resource start apache
 2# crm status
 3...
 42 nodes configured
 55 resources configured
 6
 7Online: [ deb9-node2 …