5 Reasons for not Customizing Appliance Devices

5 Reasons for not Customizing Appliance Devices

As an IT Support Specialist I have seen many things that other support professionals do things on their environments that is not advised or suggested from support perspective. Appliance servers are servers however with a key different they are supposed to run only one software. Example would be like the google appliance or networking devices like the router switches from Cisco. This devices run on an OS that is customized for this purpose only so they do not run standard settings. Some System Administrator might want to run other software to save cost or play around or simply need to for what ever legitimate or illegitimate reason.

Here are 5 reason for not customizing appliance servers

Reason 1 : Break something that is critical for appliance Software

Appliance software is created for a purpose to be hosted on that appliance. So the software and hardware is designed for that in mind. So before trying to installing something or configuring something always check with vendors Support. Do not go to consultants only. There are some fantastic consultants out there but you want to make sure you know your options. Examples are like upgrading java to the latest version on an appliance that requires to have particular version or the appliance software will not work.

Reason 2 : unable to fix problems/upgrade the appliance software due to custom configuration

Sometimes the upgrade path breaks on the appliance because someone decided that they needed to customize the configuration to allow other things to run. Well you might just block the upgrade path to the latest version. Sometimes it is the vendors fault here but most of the time when you customize the software too much you will not able to upgrade you will have to migrate instead so you will have to spend more money to get a new appliance with newer software. So you will not get the same support from vendors for technical issues.

Reason 3 : Utilizing resources that are needed for appliance software

As previously stated the hardware and software on an appliance are created for a specific task and configuration. If you add more services to run outside of the box you run into the problem like lack of hard-drive or over utilizing RAM or over utilizing the network card. You are dealing with finite resources and the device is tested with thousands and sometimes even millions of dollars to do just what it was designed to do. Hacking it out to run multiple services will slow everything down including what the appliance was designed for. Performance is one reason you want a separate appliance if you start hacking to add more services that that was not intended for the device you just threw out an advantage that you had with the appliance.

Reason 4 : Warranty issues with vendors

Most vendors will only give best effort in some cases will void the warranty outright so when you need help when you call the vendor, they will not give the full support that you need. You have hacked and customized things that they are not trained or even experienced in so now good luck trying to get that quick fix you were hoping for since the Support tech first needs to learn what you did then learn how he can do it then see if that is supported. and If it is out of the warranty or paid support agreement well you are out of luck and you might even have to pay more for assistance now.

Reason 5 : Security loophole

What happens when you install software it can open ports that now increase the risk for a security breach. If you know someone in security they will explain this with more services running means more chances of security breach as you increase risk. It is simple if the device what security tested, only allows some services to use those don't add more. for example don't install ftp server on a network device because ftp is weak. You need SFTP or SCP instead however if the device does not support it, don't add any of that since you will be opening ports that are a risk to the network now, and not just the device.

Don't get me wrong sometimes the default configuration can have a security risk or have something that does not work for your enterprise network so It is a good idea to customize and hack out the appliance. Just know what you are getting into talk to your consultants and your vendor Support. You want to talk to Support specifically because they know what can go wrong with a custom configuration or can get the information what the risks are by adding a customization.

Search Large files on Linux

Ever wonder how to find large files in Linux but you have well there is the find command you can use here some examples I found really helpful.

To find files larger than 100MB:

find . -type f -size +100M

If you want the current dir only:

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -size +100M

If you wish to see all files over 100M and to see where they are and what is their size try this:

find . -type f -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \;

If you wish to check all the files in the system then run the command from the system root (/) directory with sudo.

cd \
sudo find . -type f -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \;

"Linux Sucks" - 2014

Found this video recently that talks about what sucks on Linux. Bryan Lunduke states the problems with linux and what really is the problem. I really like how he ended the video stating the main objective of Linux being free is because simply it is used by people for their own use. Does not matter what or how it is used. what matters it is used for what you need it for. the Keyword is YOU.

Lab Ubuntu 9.04 Experiment #N1

LAB Ubuntu 9.04 Experiment #N1: Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope on Toshiba Satellite M40 So I was going through Ubuntu based Linux Distro and I found and I just loved the look and what it was offering so I decided

My Toshiba M40 configuration:

• Intel Centrino 1.6GHZ Processor
• 1512MB RAM
• 60GB HDD
  
• 128MB Nvidia Geforce 6600 Graphic Adapter
• DVD RAM
• Intel Wireless 50Mbps Adapter
  
• Ethernet and 56Kbps Modem
• USB 2.0 Ports
  
• Firewire Port
• S-Video Port

Currently I have Ubuntu 8.10 which works let me tell you amazingly awesome. I have virtually reducing windows XP usage to 0% at home but office I have no choise but windows since that is what they run on.

My parents, my brother and my sister they all use windows XP. and complain alot and alot more everyday about how their computer are slowing down.

I have problems with toshiba not being properly supported however works faster that it would when windows XP was on it.

So I am not going to do a clean install instead I am going to upgrade to Jaunty.

now I have just tried it and it is upgrading it disabled my personal sources

downloads have begun. This is what I am always impressed about on linux Distros is that the how fast the updates download and install. I wish they had a web portal to check the current update on my computer it just makes it much better.

ok it took 2 hours to download everything because I was doing it on wireless and it was a slow link something to do with the router.

installation finished and now I am up and running WTF the speed at which gnome is reponding is nice really nice :).

This just made my day ok let me testing things out more throughly I will report it out later

Experiment #1: Linux on Toshiba Satellite M40

My Toshiba Laptop was giving me issue with over heating since it was still in warranty I cannot open the hood to look in and I did not have time to take it to FutureShop. The Main Problem was that it has windows XP Home SP2 which works extremely slow and it was overheating so the laptop was going to be used Temporarily until I could get it fixed for about week for that I did not want a livecd but an installed OS because I did not have enough memory (512MB RAM).

So let look at 3 OS that I have been hearing from my friends and which I used as below

Ubuntu (I went with Ubuntu 7.10 i386 Livecd)

Fedora Core (I went with Fedora Core 8 i386 DVD and the Gnome based Livecd)

OpenSuse (I went with OpenSuse 10.2 i386 DVD)

My Toshiba M40 configuration:

Intel Centrino 1.6GHZ Processor
512MB RAM
128MB Nvidia Geforce 6600 Graphic Adapter
DVD RAM
Intel Wireless 50Mbps Adapter
Ethernet
USB 2.0 Ports
Firewire Port
S-Video Port

Ubuntu :

Installation was started and finished in no time but one problem I did not like the fact that I did not get a choice of application I wanted to install. After installation I was able to install all the application I wanted and the updates were also installed perfectly. I was able to install drivers for my Nvidia card without problems and get the Graphics acceleration fine. When I tried to run FireFox the flash plug-in was not installing but I managed to fix it after deleting the plug-in installed and reinstalling flash from add and remove applications and everything was working fine.

Fedora Core:

I got curious and decided to see how Fedora Core 8 install. The install was not much but I was able to select the applications I wanted from there but I had a problem installing from DVD due to some hardware issue which I did not know which may be the DVD drive. I went with the LiveCD with gnome on it and it was installed without any issues. After installation however I was not able to install the Nvidia Drivers properly and nor was I able to get some of the settings right and ended up screwing up the OS.

OpenSuse:

then I Decided to go with OpenSuse 10.2. Installation went well as usual no complaints there but again I was not able to get the Display drivers working and main issue was with the settings which I did not have time to waste on.


Conclusion:

So Considering everything All the distributions installation was fine both the OS and Application in Ubuntu it did not have the option to choose the packages but overall installation no complaints. The setup and drivers Ubuntu takes the prize there quick and few clicks only.

So if you are new to Linux and don't know what you want or need go for Ubuntu sort most of the issues for you on this laptop.

I think the main problem with most new users is that they want use an OS with minimum setup and support that can be followed easily on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.

Overall difficulties will always remain navigating on the terminal or Command line environment for all new users especially windows users who have never used command prompt. The Environment is different for me so trying to configure things and editing Configuration files needs more than a little work in Linux but at the end of it all it is worth it. The main reason why it is worth it is that with Linux you are customizing you OS with the Hardware you have so it works better and longer. On the other hand every time a new MS Windows OS comes out it looks good for a few months on your PC then slowly it becomes a CPU and RAM hog. The worst is that I find the Linux graphics are way better even without the XGL or compizfusion or any 3d Desktop stuff.

So overall I find Linux does well to revive my Laptop and make it look better than windows could without any extra Memory or CPU Power. There is no way Vista will ever go on my Laptop but now I am interested in having Dual Booting my Laptop with Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.10. so wait and see how we can do that one.