Crunch Tools

Background I manage the crunchtools lab and the infrastructure for this blog similar to a development data center. I have a rigorous weekly checklist, which includes optionally applying operating system patches as they are available. I do not perform the updates every week because of time constraints, but when I do, I patch all of [...]

Background Recently, I discovered how to use the openssl provided CA script to create a certificate authority and self signed certificates. Traditionally, I had ran all fo the commands manually. When using the CA script it is critical to understand the underlying security concepts. Certificate Authority Openssl has infrstructure to create a long lived Certificate [...]

Reading Ted Dziuba’s article Monitoring Theory article, I was reminded of several conventions that I have developed over the years to help with monitoring servers, network devices, software services, batch processes, etc. First, break down your data points into levels so that you can decide how to route them. Second avoid interrupt driven technology like email, it lowers your productivity and prohibits good analysis techniques.