NIC Replacement in Linux

In the past, I've found it slightly annoying that if I needed to swap
out a network interface card (NIC), Red Hat distros of Linux would kindly
backup the interface configuration for that interface and generate a stub
DHCP configuration in its place.  This leaves the host potentially with

VLAN Tagging and Vanity Naming in Solaris 11

While awaiting Solaris 11 to be released, I've recently been poking
around in Solaris 11 Express for a preview of what to expect.  In setting
up a test box, I needed to set up VLAN tagging (802.1q trunking) on
an interface.  Due to some of the new Solaris 11 networking features,

Converting inet_aton and inet_ntoa

At some point or another, you've probably stumbled upon the 'inet_aton'
and 'inet_ntoa' functions.  Perhaps you have used them in programming,
or maybe for a MySQL statement, etc.  Briefly, for those not familiar
with either function, 'inet_aton' takes an IP address (10.234.18.76) and

Static Routes in Linux

Nearly every UNIX sysadmin at some point will need to know how to manage
a host's routing table.  With that in mind, here's how to manage static
routes on a Red Hat Linux clone.  Our details for this are:

Static Routes in FreeBSD

A friend of mine recently told me that while he appreciated the detail
and content of my writings, a good deal of the subject matter was a
little beyond him.  In support of the fresh-faced sysadmins and those
that might be new to FreeBSD (we were all there once), this write up is

Local Port Forwarding In SSH

Anyone familiar with UNIX administration is almost assuredly familiar
with SSH.  As a de facto standard of remote access, it can be used as
a replacement to telnet, ftp, rcp, and rlogin.  Additionally, it can
be used to provide a secure channel for other needs such encrypting

Using Logical Network Interfaces

Logical interfaces (logints, vips) are sometimes overlooked though can be
quite handy.  For instance, they can be used for IP based hosting (think
webservers), failover of clustered services, testing, providing network
connectivity for zones, etc.  Additionally, they are relatively trivial

VLAN Tagged Interfaces (Linux)

A while back, I wrote on how to setup VLAN tagged interfaces on Solaris
and FreeBSD.  Though I've also needed to set them up under Linux, I
never seemed to get around to writing up how to do so.  To remedy this,
the following are our setup details:

Solaris HWADDRs from OBP

Occasionally, it's useful to know the hwaddr or MAC addr of an interface
without actually booting a box, such as when you are setting up a
jumpstart config for said box.  On Sun Sparc based machines, this
information can be obtained within the OpenBoot (OB) environment.

Static Routes in Solaris

This tip may seem somewhat trivial as we all know that to retain static
routes in Solaris, you simply create an init script such as the following:

        adler [0] ls -l /etc/rc2.d/S76route

IPMP and 802.1q on Linux

Described herein is the practice of using IPMP (IP MultiPathing) and VLAN
tagged (802.1q trunking) interfaces layered together for the purpose of
port considerations (read: consolidation) and HA (high availability).
The following points should be noted relevant to the host used in the

VLAN Tagged Interfaces (FreeBSD)

In order to make use of VLAN tagged interfaces in FreeBSD, kernel support
must be added, thus requiring a rebuild of the kernel.  Also, you must
have an interface capable of handling VLAN tagging (can be determined
by the man page of the interface driver, ex: man bge).  Kernel support

VLAN Tagged Interfaces (Solaris)

In order to use VLAN tagged interfaces in Solaris, one simply needs to
have an interface capable of handling VLAN tagging (can be determined by
the man page of the interface driver, ex: man bge, as well as man dladm).
Providing an interface supportive of VLAN tagging, one may configure the