[Quick Tips]: Linux Basics: How To Find Maximum Supported RAM By Your System

Linux Basics: How To Find Maximum Supported RAM By Your System

 

Mostly, you will find maximum supported RAM by your system from the BIOS, Product catalog, or manuals. Here is the simple, yet useful trick, to find out maximum supported RAM using Dmidecode without opening the system chassis or referring the BIOS, product catalogs.

What is Dmidecode?

As you may know, Dmidecode is a tool for dumping a computer’s DMI (some say SMBIOS) table contents in a human-readable format. This table contains a description of the system’s hardware components, as well as other useful pieces of information such as serial numbers and BIOS revision. Using Dmidecode, you can retrieve this information without having to probe for the actual hardware.

Find out the maximum RAM supported by your system

Make sure you have installed dmidecode on your system. I think it will be automatically installed while installing your OS, but I am not sure though.

On Deb based system:

sudo apt-get install dmidecode

On RPM based system:

sudo yum install dmidecode

On SUSE/openSUSE:

sudo zypper in dmidecode

Well, we installed dmidecode. Let us find out the maximum RAM supported. To do that, enter the following command:

sudo dmidecode -t 16

Sample output:

# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0014, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
    Location: System Board Or Motherboard
    Use: System Memory
    Error Correction Type: None
    Maximum Capacity: 16 GB
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Number Of Devices: 2

As you see in the above output, my system will support RAM upto 16GB, and it has two RAM slots. Pretty easy, isn’t it?

Well, let us find out the currently installed RAM details.

sudo dmidecode -t 17

Sample output:

# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0017, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0014
    Error Information Handle: 0x0000
    Total Width: Unknown
    Data Width: Unknown
    Size: No Module Installed
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM_B
    Bank Locator: BANK 2
    Type: Unknown
    Type Detail: None
    Speed: Unknown
    Manufacturer: Not Specified
    Serial Number: Not Specified
    Asset Tag: Not Specified
    Part Number: Not Specified
    Rank: Unknown

Handle 0x0015, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0014
    Error Information Handle: 0x0000
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 4096 MB
    Form Factor: SODIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM_A
    Bank Locator: BANK 0
    Type: DDR3
    Type Detail: Synchronous
    Speed: 1067 MHz
    Manufacturer: 014F
    Serial Number: 00092AF2
    Asset Tag: 54114000     
    Part Number: JM1066KSN-4G      
    Rank: Unknown

As per the above output, I have installed one RAM in DIMM slot 1. The RAM size is 4GB, and it’s type and speed is DDR3 and 1067 MHz respectively.

Also, we can have the complete RAM details using the following commands.

sudo dmidecode -t memory
sudo dmidecode -t memory | less
sudo dmidecode -t memory | more

Sample output:

# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0014, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
    Location: System Board Or Motherboard
    Use: System Memory
    Error Correction Type: None
    Maximum Capacity: 16 GB
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x0017, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0014
    Error Information Handle: 0x0000
    Total Width: Unknown
    Data Width: Unknown
    Size: No Module Installed
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM_B
    Bank Locator: BANK 2
    Type: Unknown
    Type Detail: None
    Speed: Unknown
    Manufacturer: Not Specified
    Serial Number: Not Specified
    Asset Tag: Not Specified
    Part Number: Not Specified
    Rank: Unknown

Handle 0x0015, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0014
    Error Information Handle: 0x0000
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 4096 MB
    Form Factor: SODIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM_A
    Bank Locator: BANK 0
    Type: DDR3
    Type Detail: Synchronous
    Speed: 1067 MHz
    Manufacturer: 014F
    Serial Number: 00092AF2
    Asset Tag: 54114000     
    Part Number: JM1066KSN-4G      
    Rank: Unknown

Curious to know the complete system details such as Motherboard, Memory, Bios etc? Well, enter the following command to get all details.

sudo dmidecode

Sample output:

# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.6 present.
48 structures occupying 2173 bytes.
Table at 0x000EB840.

Handle 0xDA00, DMI type 218, 251 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        DA FB 00 DA B2 00 0D 5F 0F 37 40 7D 00 00 00 00
        00 7E 00 01 00 00 00 DC 01 00 80 02 00 DD 01 00
        80 03 00 75 01 01 80 01 00 76 01 02 80 01 00 2D
        01 03 80 01 00 2E 01 03 80 00 00 81 01 07 80 00
        00 82 01 07 80 01 00 83 01 08 80 00 00 84 01 08
        80 01 00 85 01 06 80 00 00 86 01 06 80 01 00 58
        02 05 80 00 00 57 02 05 80 01 00 9C 00 02 00 01
        00 9B 00 02 00 00 00 8A 01 03 00 01 00 89 01 03
        00 00 00 7F 01 04 00 00 00 80 01 04 00 01 00 53
        01 05 00 00 00 52 01 05 00 01 00 7B 01 06 00 00
        00 7C 01 06 00 01 00 94 01 07 00 00 00 93 01 07
        00 01 00 7D 00 08 00 00 00 2D 00 09 00 01 00 2E
        00 09 00 00 00 6E 00 0A 00 00 00 95 00 0B 00 01
        00 96 00 0B 00 00 00 2F 02 0C 00 01 00 30 02 0C
        00 00 00 50 02 0D 00 00 00 51 02 0D 00 01 00 52
        02 0D 00 02 00 FF FF 00 00 00 00

Handle 0xDA01, DMI type 218, 59 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        DA 3B 01 DA B2 00 0D 5F 0F 37 40 53 02 0D 00 03
        00 54 02 0D 00 04 00 56 02 0D 00 05 00 4B 01 0E
        00 01 00 4A 01 0E 00 00 00 EA 00 0F 00 01 00 EB
        00 0F 00 00 00 FF FF 00 00 00 00

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 42 bytes
Processor Information
    Socket Designation: CPU 1
    Type: Central Processor
    Family: Core i3
    Manufacturer: Intel            
    ID: A7 06 03 01 FF FB AB BE
    Signature: Type 0, Family 6, Model 42, Stepping 7
    Flags:
        FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
        VME (Virtual mode extension)
        DE (Debugging extension)
        PSE (Page size extension)
        TSC (Time stamp counter)
        MSR (Model specific registers)
        PAE (Physical address extension)
        MCE (Machine check exception)
        CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
        APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
        SEP (Fast system call)
        MTRR (Memory type range registers)
        PGE (Page global enable)
        MCA (Machine check architecture)
        CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
        PAT (Page attribute table)
        PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
        CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
        DS (Debug store)
        ACPI (ACPI supported)
        MMX (MMX technology supported)
        FXSR (FXSAVE and FXSTOR instructions supported)
        SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
        SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
        SS (Self-snoop)
        HTT (Multi-threading)
        TM (Thermal monitor supported)
        PBE (Pending break enabled)
    Version: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz       
    Voltage: 1.1 V
    External Clock: 100 MHz
    Max Speed: 2300 MHz
    Current Speed: 2300 MHz
    Status: Populated, Enabled
    Upgrade: Other
    L1 Cache Handle: 0x0005
    L2 Cache Handle: 0x0006
    L3 Cache Handle: 0x0007
    Serial Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
    Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
    Part Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
    Core Count: 2
    Core Enabled: 1
    Thread Count: 2
    Characteristics:
        64-bit capable

Handle 0x0005, DMI type 7, 19 bytes
Cache Information
    Socket Designation: L1-Cache
    Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 1
    Operational Mode: Write Back
    Location: Internal
    Installed Size: 64 kB
    Maximum Size: 64 kB
    Supported SRAM Types:
        Other
    Installed SRAM Type: Other
    Speed: Unknown
    Error Correction Type: None
    System Type: Unified
    Associativity: 8-way Set-associative

Handle 0x0006, DMI type 7, 19 bytes
Cache Information
    Socket Designation: L2-Cache
    Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 2
    Operational Mode: Varies With Memory Address
    Location: Internal
    Installed Size: 512 kB
    Maximum Size: 512 kB
    Supported SRAM Types:
        Other
    Installed SRAM Type: Other
    Speed: Unknown
    Error Correction Type: None
    System Type: Unified
    Associativity: 8-way Set-associative

Handle 0x0007, DMI type 7, 19 bytes
Cache Information
    Socket Designation: L3-Cache
    Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 3
    Operational Mode: Varies With Memory Address
    Location: Internal
    Installed Size: 3072 kB
    Maximum Size: 3072 kB
    Supported SRAM Types:
        Other
    Installed SRAM Type: Other
    Speed: Unknown
    Error Correction Type: None
    System Type: Unified
    Associativity: Other

Handle 0x0008, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
    Internal Reference Designator: J1A1
    Internal Connector Type: None
    External Reference Designator: PS2Mouse
    External Connector Type: PS/2
    Port Type: Mouse Port

Handle 0x0009, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
    Internal Reference Designator: J1A1
    Internal Connector Type: None
    External Reference Designator: Keyboard
    External Connector Type: PS/2
    Port Type: Keyboard Port

Handle 0x000A, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
    Internal Reference Designator: J2A2B
    Internal Connector Type: None
    External Reference Designator: Video
    External Connector Type: DB-15 female
    Port Type: Video Port

Handle 0x000B, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
    Internal Reference Designator: J3A1
    Internal Connector Type: None
    External Reference Designator: USB1
    External Connector Type: Access Bus (USB)
    Port Type: USB

Handle 0x000C, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
    Internal Reference Designator: J3A1
    Internal Connector Type: None
    External Reference Designator: USB2
    External Connector Type: Access Bus (USB)
    Port Type: USB

Handle 0x000D, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
    Internal Reference Designator: J3A1
    Internal Connector Type: None
    External Reference Designator: USB3
    External Connector Type: Access Bus (USB)
    Port Type: USB

Handle 0x000E, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
    Internal Reference Designator: J5A1
    Internal Connector Type: None
    External Reference Designator: LAN
    External Connector Type: RJ-45
    Port Type: Network Port

Handle 0x000F, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
    Designation: J6B2
    Type: x16 PCI Express
    Current Usage: In Use
    Length: Long
    ID: 0
    Characteristics:
        3.3 V is provided
        Opening is shared
        PME signal is supported
    Bus Address: 0000:00:01.0

Handle 0x0010, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
    Designation: J6B1
    Type: x1 PCI Express
    Current Usage: In Use
    Length: Short
    ID: 1
    Characteristics:
        3.3 V is provided
        Opening is shared
        PME signal is supported
    Bus Address: 0000:00:1c.3

Handle 0x0012, DMI type 11, 5 bytes
OEM Strings
    String 1: Dell System
    String 2: 5[0003]
    String 3: 13[P18F]

Handle 0x0013, DMI type 12, 5 bytes
System Configuration Options
    Option 1: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

Handle 0x001C, DMI type 21, 7 bytes
Built-in Pointing Device
    Type: Touch Pad
    Interface: Bus Mouse
    Buttons: 2

Handle 0x001D, DMI type 22, 26 bytes
Portable Battery
    Location: Sys. Battery Bay
    Manufacturer: Sanyo              
    Serial Number: 5390     
    Name: DELL 4YRJH22
    Chemistry: Lithium Ion
    Design Capacity: 45000 mWh
    Design Voltage: 10800 mV
    SBDS Version: 1.0                
    Maximum Error: 2%
    SBDS Manufacture Date: 2012-02-28
    OEM-specific Information: 0x00000001

Handle 0x001E, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
System Boot Information
    Status: No errors detected

Handle 0x0020, DMI type 27, 12 bytes
Cooling Device
    Type: Fan
    Status: OK
    OEM-specific Information: 0x00000000

Handle 0x0021, DMI type 28, 20 bytes
Temperature Probe
    Description: CPU Internal Temperature
    Location: Processor
    Status: OK
    Maximum Value: 127.0 deg C
    Minimum Value: 0.0 deg C
    Resolution: 1.000 deg C
    Tolerance: 0.5 deg C
    Accuracy: Unknown
    OEM-specific Information: 0x00000000

Handle 0xB000, DMI type 176, 5 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        B0 05 00 B0 00

Handle 0xB100, DMI type 177, 12 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        B1 0C 00 B1 1A 0E 00 00 00 00 00 00

Handle 0x0025, DMI type 209, 12 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        D1 0C 25 00 00 00 00 03 05 01 00 03

Handle 0x0026, DMI type 210, 12 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        D2 0C 26 00 00 00 00 03 05 20 01 03

Handle 0x0027, DMI type 211, 13 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        D3 0D 27 00 01 00 00 00 00 02 03 04 04
    Strings:
        Front               

Handle 0x0028, DMI type 212, 57 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        D4 39 28 00 70 00 71 00 01 49 50 48 9C 00 49 FC
        01 9B 00 49 FC 00 7F 01 4A FB 04 80 01 4A FB 00
        53 01 4A F7 08 52 01 4A F7 08 7B 01 4A EF 10 7C
        01 4A EF 10 FF FF 00 00 00

Handle 0x002A, DMI type 217, 8 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        D9 08 2A 00 01 02 00 00
    Strings:                                       

Handle 0x002B, DMI type 219, 11 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        DB 0B 2B 00 00 01 02 03 00 04 05
    Strings:                                                                                                    

Handle 0x002C, DMI type 220, 22 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        DC 16 2C 00 01 F0 00 00 02 F0 00 00 00 00 03 F0
        04 F0 00 00 00 00

Handle 0x002D, DMI type 221, 19 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        DD 13 2D 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00
        00 00 00

Handle 0x002E, DMI type 222, 16 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        DE 10 2E 00 01 08 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Handle 0x0014, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
    Location: System Board Or Motherboard
    Use: System Memory
    Error Correction Type: None
    Maximum Capacity: 16 GB
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x0016, DMI type 20, 19 bytes
Memory Device Mapped Address
    Starting Address: 0x00000000000
    Ending Address: 0x000FFFFFFFF
    Range Size: 4 GB
    Physical Device Handle: 0x0015
    Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x0018
    Partition Row Position: 1
    Interleave Position: 1
    Interleaved Data Depth: 1

Handle 0x0017, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0014
    Error Information Handle: 0x0000
    Total Width: Unknown
    Data Width: Unknown
    Size: No Module Installed
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM_B
    Bank Locator: BANK 2
    Type: Unknown
    Type Detail: None
    Speed: Unknown
    Manufacturer: Not Specified
    Serial Number: Not Specified
    Asset Tag: Not Specified
    Part Number: Not Specified
    Rank: Unknown

Handle 0x0018, DMI type 19, 15 bytes
Memory Array Mapped Address
    Starting Address: 0x00000000000
    Ending Address: 0x000FFFFFFFF
    Range Size: 4 GB
    Physical Array Handle: 0x0014
    Partition Width: 2

Handle 0x002F, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
BIOS Language Information
    Language Description Format: Abbreviated
    Installable Languages: 1
        eng
    Currently Installed Language: eng

Handle 0x0030, DMI type 131, 64 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        83 40 30 00 31 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
        F8 00 4B 1C FF FF FF FF 01 00 00 00 00 00 07 00
        AD 04 04 00 00 00 00 00 C8 00 FF FF 00 00 00 00
        00 00 00 00 32 00 00 00 76 50 72 6F 00 00 00 00

Handle 0x0029, DMI type 216, 9 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        D8 09 29 00 01 02 01 00 00
    Strings:
        INTEL
        0000

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
    Vendor: Dell Inc.
    Version: A05
    Release Date: 08/03/2012
    Address: 0xF0000
    Runtime Size: 64 kB
    ROM Size: 2048 kB
    Characteristics:
        MCA is supported
        PCI is supported
        BIOS is upgradeable
        BIOS shadowing is allowed
        ESCD support is available
        Boot from CD is supported
        Selectable boot is supported
        BIOS ROM is socketed
        EDD is supported
        5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
        Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
        8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
        Serial services are supported (int 14h)
        Printer services are supported (int 17h)
        CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
        ACPI is supported
        USB legacy is supported
        ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported
        BIOS boot specification is supported
        Targeted content distribution is supported
    BIOS Revision: 0.5
    Firmware Revision: 0.5

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Product Name: 01HXXJ
    Version: A05
    Serial Number: .JSQ7PA1.CN7117623M00J2.
    Asset Tag: Not Specified
    Features:
        Board is a hosting board
        Board is replaceable
    Location In Chassis: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
    Chassis Handle: 0x0003
    Type: Motherboard
    Contained Object Handles: 0

Handle 0x0003, DMI type 3, 21 bytes
Chassis Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Type: Portable
    Lock: Not Present
    Version: Not Specified
    Serial Number: JSR1
    Asset Tag: Not Specified
    Boot-up State: Safe
    Power Supply State: Safe
    Thermal State: Safe
    Security Status: None
    OEM Information: 0x00000000
    Height: Unspecified
    Number Of Power Cords: 1
    Contained Elements: 0

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Product Name: Inspiron N5050
    Version: Not Specified
    Serial Number: JSR1
    UUID: 4C4C4544-0053-5110-8029-CAC05241
    Wake-up Type: Power Switch
    SKU Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
    Family:                       

Handle 0x0024, DMI type 208, 12 bytes
OEM-specific Type
    Header and Data:
        D0 0C 24 00 02 05 FE 00 04 05 01 02
    Strings:
        20120323
        20120323

Handle 0x0011, DMI type 10, 6 bytes
On Board Device Information
    Type: Video
    Status: Enabled
    Description: Mobile Intel SandyBridge HD Graphics

Handle 0x0015, DMI type 17, 28 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0014
    Error Information Handle: 0x0000
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 4096 MB
    Form Factor: SODIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM_A
    Bank Locator: BANK 0
    Type: DDR3
    Type Detail: Synchronous
    Speed: 1067 MHz
    Manufacturer: 014F
    Serial Number: 0009F2
    Asset Tag: 54114000     
    Part Number: JM1066-4G      
    Rank: Unknown

Handle 0x0031, DMI type 127, 4 bytes
End Of Table

That’s it. Happy weekend. Stay happy!

 

[Quick Tips]: List of Free And Open Source Monitoring System

List of Free And Open Source Monitoring System

The Linux monitoring systems are often used to follow system resources, such as CPU load, the amount of free RAM, network traffic statics or memory consumption. Which are ones from the most important tasks for every administrators. Furthermore, those tools notify the network administrator (via email, SMS or other alarms) when something interrupts or goes down which makes their life easier.

From those monitoring tools we will list the 7 most important in this article which will be described and identified by giving their features and mentioning their current version.

Nagios:

One from the most known, open source, powerful monitoring systems nowadays is Nagios. It enables organizations to identify and resolve IT infrastructure problems before affecting critical business processes.

Nagios is licensed under GNU General Public License which gives you permission to copy, broadcast and/or change it under certain conditions obviously. For more details, you can check the license as either as by using the LICENSE file of the Nagios distribution or by reading the online version of license.

Concerning its features we can list the following:

• Monitor network services (SMTP, POP3, HTTP, NNTP, and PING), applications, operating systems, network protocols and system metrics with the same tool.
• Detect infrastructure outages rapidly and send e-mail, SMS or call phone notifications to the right people when a problem is detected.
• Define network host hierarchy
• Users can easily develop their own services due to the simple plugin design of Nagios.
• Ability to check the current network status, notifications and problem history
• Open source software, full access to source code, licensed under GPL.

Seriously, Nagios is one awesome IT infrastructure monitoring tool which I strongly recommend it for every administrator wishes to make his work easier and organized but it is good also to use it with other monitoring tools since Nagios doesn’t show any graphs such as the network interface.

Cacti:

Cacti is another monitoring system licensed also under GPL but unlike Nagios, Cacti is a network graphing solution designed to exploit the power of RRDTool in storing data and building graphs.

It enables users to view CPU load graphs, RAM usage and other information collected from different hosts. Like Nagios, Cacti supports SNMP that makes it possible to monitor: Linux’s, BSD’s and windows hosts.

We can list the following features of Cacti:

• Unlimited number of graph items.
• Graph data can be manipulated using the CDEF math functions built in RRDTools.
• Support all RRDTool’s graph items including AREA, STACK, LINE, COMMENT, VRULE, and HRULE.
• Data sources can be created by utilizing RDDTool’s functions.
• Permissions can be specified per-graph for each user.

But unlike Nagios, Cacti doesn’t notify users while problems appear so it is recommended to use other flexible tools supporting alerts.

 Centreon:

Centreon is our third type of free monitoring systems. Mostly called CES referencing to the Centreon Enterprise Server, is the choice of some world’s largest company. It lets company supervise all their infrastructure and applications comprising their information system.

Centreon has many advantages, we can list the following:

• Enable to monitor the user’s servers, active elements and applications.
• Real-time operating and component management console.
• Ability to maintain and support the whole platform using the publisher solution.
• Unlimited number of uses and extensions via open software mechanisms.

Currently there are 4 different solutions available to suit different organizations with evolving business needs.

• The CES Standard is the only open and unlimited trial version. Unless it has a free access, a powerful industry-standard monitoring solution is offered.
• CES Essentials is CES Standards including access to new software products and services such as Platinum level supports and various software extensions which allow users to automate the daily tasks of administration and monitoring.
• CES Advanced is CES Essentials adding also the Centreon’s complementary plugin pack and different templates comprising databases, applications and infrastructure services.
• The last one is CES Complete which is the mix of all the centreon software products and modules, including BI, BAM and Map. It is also delivered with Platinum level support.

Zabbix :

Zabbix is our fourth free monitoring system which is licensed as Nagios and Cacti under GPL and it is written in PHP. We can say that Zabbix is the mix of Nagios and Cacti functions: it is characterized by its simple way of monitoring data with graphs and its alerts sending to user in case of any problem.

Personally, I like the way how Zabbix can check and make report about every authorized or not change happen at one of the user’s servers.  This free monitoring tool, can from remote hosts where Zabbix is used. It offers different types of graphs such as network statistics, CPU load and others.

It is a little bit complicate for beginners and some additional time to be familiar with this monitoring system is recommended.

Zabbix as I mentioned offers the functions of Nagios and Cacti at same time, we can list the following features of this tool:

• It is fully open source, free for commercial and non-commercial use.
• It enables users to easily monitor their servers, network devices and applications, collecting appropriate statistics and performance data.
• It is designed to scale from small environments with a few devices to large ones with thousands of monitored devices.
• Like Nagios, it can send notification messages via e-mail, SMS for each notable event.

OpenNMS:

OpenNMS is another free network monitoring system and it is the world’s first enterprise grade monitoring tool which can be used a big number of unlimited devices. It enables users to discover and monitor services or nodes automatically in their network.

OpenNMS has many advantages make it a very beneficial free network monitoring tool when we can list the following:

• Automatic Service Discovery and Provisioning
• Performance Data Collection Protocols (such as HTTP, JDBC, JMX, SNMP, XML etc)
• Multi-Resource Performance Reports
• Best Practical Solutions RT (Request Tracker)
• Import of nodes, interfaces, and services from external provisioning system
• Performance Data Export via simple XML Schema
• Possibility to send e-mail or SMS notifications to the administrators

Icinga:

Icinga is another enterprise grade free monitoring system which enables users to follow network and its resources and also notifies them when any problem appear. This tool can monitor as either as complex or large environments across various locations.

Some of its various features include:

• Its capability to monitor different network services (SMTP, POP3, HTTP, NNTP, PING…)
• Also monitor host resources (CPU load, disk usage…)
• It allows users to easily develop their own services checks due to its simple plugin design.
• It has support for monitoring redundant monitoring hosts.
• It notifies users when service or host problems occur and when they also get resolved.

MRTG:

MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) is our last type of free monitoring system. It is simpler than Nagios, Cacti and Zabbix which can be more beneficial to use it with small projects. Mostly, it is used for monitoring network interfaces, CPU, memory and network interfaces statistics.

Regarding its features, we can list the following:

• It works on most UNIX platforms and Windows NT.
• It is written with Perl and delivered with full source.
• No need to install any external SNMP package since MRTG uses a highly portable SNMP implementation written fully in Perl.
• It creates visual representations of the traffic seen during the last week, month and year.
• It is possible to monitor 200 or more network links from any halfway decent UNIX box.
• It is also possible to monitor any SNMP and to assemble to data sources in one graph.

The description of our selected free monitoring systems in this article now is finished. Of course, there are other tools we don’t mention, if you want to include them in our article please feel free to leave a comment here with a brief description of the suggested tools. Thank you for reviewing our article and please don’t forget to share it.

[Quick Tips]: How to Run ASP.Net on Linux

How to Run ASP.Net on Linux

 

Recently, we have heard many important announcements from Microsoft. As an initiative towards openness and the open source community Microsoft made the .NET Core open source, including the runtime as well as the framework libraries.

vNext can run in a non-Microsoft environment. Let us discuss how to install and run ASP.NET vNext (Alpha 3) on Ubuntu Linux.

First of all we need a Linux environment installed on a physical or virtual box. I am using an Oracle VM virtualbox for demo purposes. I have installed Ubuntu using it.

Let us start

 



We are ready with the basic installation of Linux. We need to set up a network related connection.





Let us start with the Mono installation as in the following:

sudo apt-get install build-essential wget: mono-3.8.0.

            tar -xvf mono-3.8.0.tar.bz2 cd mono-3.8.0/
            ./configure --prefix=/usr/local

make sudo make install



The .NET Framework on Windows uses the Windows Certificates store to check whether to accept an SSL certificate from a remote site. In Mono, there is no Windows Certificate store. It has its own store. By default, it is empty and we need to manage the entries ourselves.

1. CERTMGR=/usr/local/bin/certmgr sudo $CERTMGR -ssl -m https://go.microsoft.com sudo $CERTMGR -ssl -m https://nugetgallery.blob.core.windows.net sudo $CERTMGR -ssl -m https://nuget.org sudo $CERTMGR -ssl -m https://www.myget.org/F/aspnetvnext/  mozroots --import --sync  

Project “K”
This K is a pack of tools / assemblies and command line utilities that help to compile and host / run the new ASP.NET 5 (and console application). K creates an abstraction between the new ASP.NET framework and the .NET framework, with which ASP.NET 5 can be developed, compiled and hosted on Windows, Linux and Mac (using the .NET framework on Windows and Mono runtime on Mac / Linux).

Project K is a pack of the following 4 main components: 

• KRE: K Runtime Environment
• KVM: K Version Manager
• KPM: K Package Manager
• K / KLR: K runtime / K language runtime

The following are the commands to install project “K” in a Linux environment.

sudo apt-get install curl:

            curl -ssl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aspnet/Home/master/kvminstall.sh | sh && source ~/.kre/kvm/kvm.sh

            kvm upgrade (To download the full dot net CLR)

Currently we need a couple of dependencies to run the .Net framework. 

To install libuv we need to resolve one more dependency using:

sudo apt-get install gyp

To download libuv wget.

            tar -xvf libuv-v1.0.0-rc1.tar.gz
            cd libuv-v1.0.0-rc1/
            ./gyp_uv.py -f make -Duv_library=shared_library

            make -C out

            sudo cp out/Debug/lib.target/libuv.so /usr/lib/libuv.so.1.0.0-rc1

            cd ..

            sudo ln -s libuv.so.1.0.0-rc1 /usr/lib/libuv.so.1 

To download sample files from github wget:

            unzime master.zip

To run console application

            cd Home-master/samples/ConsoleApp

            kpm restore

            k run



To run MVC.NET application
            cd Home-master/samples/HelloMvc
            kpm restore
            k kestrel

Kestrel is a new cross-platform OWIN web server for ASP.NET. By default, Kestrel runs on port 5004, thus opening our browser of choice with http://localhost:5004 gives us the desired result:



Reference Link:

• Installing & Running ASP.NET vNext (Alpha 3) on Ubuntu Linux with Mono 3.8–for real
• github
• lodejard / go.sh

 

[CentOS 7]: How To Install Hiawatha Webserver On CentOS 7

How To Install Hiawatha Webserver On CentOS 7

 

In this tutorial I will teach you guys how to install Hiawatha on your CentOS 7 machine. But, what is it?

About Hiawatha

Hiawatha is a lightweight webserver which is built with security in mind both in code and features, preventing common web application attacks such as sql injection, cross-site scripting(xss) and CSRF. According to the official page you don’t need to be an expert on http or cgi to use this webserver as it is very easy to use.

This fully functional webserver started back in January 2002 as an opensource project in order to provide a very secure webserver to the user and also easy configuration syntax. Special techniques are used on the webserver to make it run even on old hardware, the fact that someone managed to run it on a raspberry pi means alot, doesn’t it?

Some Features Of Hiawatha

There are many features present in the Hiawatha webserver. It supports IPV6 which makes a very prepared webserver for the future, control the access to your websites via Basic or Digest HTTP authentication or by IP address, execution of CGI scripts and SSL.

Security is the key feature of this webserver, offering great protection from dangerous malicious attacks such as sql injections, xss attacks and csrf.

Hiawatha allows you to keep track of all your webservers via a PHP application called Hiawatha Monitor. There is also a CommandChannel which can be used to get detailed information on a single webserver or even control it.

“The Hiawatha Monitor is a monitoring tool for the Hiawatha webserver. It can be used to keep track of the performance and security of all your Hiawatha webservers via one single interface. It’s not a replacement for analytics software or the local logfiles, but it gives you a quick and easy overview of how your webservers are performing and which ones require some attention. The Hiawatha Monitor is a PHP5 web application with a MySQL database backend. It requires the cron daemon for periodic downloading of statistical information from the web servers it monitors.”, reads the official documentation.

Other features include:

• Speed
• URL rewriting
• Reverse Proxy

Installation On CentOS 7

The installation of Hiawatha on CentOS 7 is very easy, easier than any installation you have done with another webserver. Open a new terminal tab and run the following command to download a repo we need before going any further.

wget http://anku.ecualinux.com/7/x86_64/anku-release-8-1.noarch.rpm

The following screenshot will help you to understand what is going on.

Once the download is finished, clear your screen and run the following command to become root.

su root

The rpm command will help us to install the rpm file we downloaded.

rpm -ivh anku-release-8-1.noarch.rpm

If the installation succeeds you will see the following output.

Run the following command to clear the screen.

clear

The yum program is used to maintain systems using rpm. Now it is time to enable the repo we just added and proceed with the installation.

yum --enablerepo=anku install hiawatha -y

When the installation starts you will see the following.

If the installation of the Hiawatha webserver succeeds you will see the following on your screen.

Once the installation is finished start the server by using the command service hiawatha start like shown below.

service hiawatha start

Then open a new tab on your web browser and visit http://www.127.0.0.1.

Done!

 

[Quick Install]: OwnCloud 8 Released – Create Personal/Private Cloud Storage in Linux

OwnCloud 8 Released – Create Personal/Private Cloud Storage in Linux

Cloud storage stands for virtualised pool of network storage most commonly hosted by third parties. Cloud storage is a network-based service which physically do not exist but remains somewhere in the cloud. To be more clear, cloud storage means sharing data over network, rather than having local servers or personal device.

Cloud storage is all around us in our smart phones, on desktops and servers etc. The Dropboxapplication which is now available on smart phone is nothing but cloud storage application. Google Drive is another cloud storage application which lets you store and access your stored data from anywhere and anytime.

This article aims at – Building your personal cloud storage using ownCloud application. But what is the need of building personal cloud when there are third party hosting. Well all the third party hosting limits you to work with the given configuration and storage limit. With the ever expanding list of photos,videos, mp3’s of storage is not sufficient, moreover cloud storage is a relatively new concept and there are not many third party cloud storage host and the available one is too much costly.

ownCloud community has recently released their special release ownCloud 8. They have come up with incredible changes in terms of quality, performance and innovations to provide excellent cloud experience with “ownCloud“. If you are already working with its older version, you’ll definitely experience significant improvements in Document handling.

What is ownCloud

ownCloud is a free, open-source and powerful web application for data synchronization, file sharing, and remote storage of files. ownCloud is written in PHP/JavaScript languages. It is designed to work with several database management systems, including MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite, Oracle Database, andPostgreSQL. Moreover owncloud can be deployed on all known platforms viz., Linux, Macintosh,Windows and Android. In short it’s a robust, platform Independent, flexible in terms of configuration and usability, easy-to-use open source Application.

Install Owncloud in Linux

Features of owncloud

1. Store files, folders, contacts, photo galleries, calendar, etc on the server of your choice, Later you can access it from mobile, desktop, or web browser.
2. In the world of gadgets, a normal person have tablet, smart phone, laptop, etc. Own cloud lets you sync all your files, contacts, photo, calendar, etc synced among the devices.
3. In the era of sharing aka Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc, owncloud lets you share your data with others and share them publicly or privately as per your needs.
4. Easy user interface lets you manage, upload, create user, etc in a very easy fashion.
5. A special feature is that, even user can undelete the accidentally deleted data from Trash, is not it easy to handle and maintain.
6. The search feature in owncloud is very responsive which is done in background and lets user search by name as well as file type.
7. Contacts are organised in categories/group hence easy to access contacts on the basis of friends, co-worker, Family, etc.
8. You can now access external storage be it Dropbox, FTP or anything else by mounting.
9. Easy to migrate to/from other owncloud server.

What’s New in ownCloud 8

1. Accessibility Improvement for app’s management page, updater app and search.
2. Additional notification and direct download supported.
3. Storage configuration file can be tuned to a higher level in this release.
4. Apps management is now intelligent enough to store App’s dependency in XML file from where Apps container can solve the dependencies automatically.
5. Documentation improved to next level, PDF viewer improved with the implementation of new version of PDF.js.
6. Improved user management and structured settings and admin page improved.
7. Link sharing has now gone better by shortening.
8. Overall performance improved as compared to previous version.
9. Contacts importing improved.
10. Federated (United) cloud sharing which means setting up of shared folder across server is a cake walk. This feature makes it possible to collaborate organizations with the control at local owncloud deployment server.
11. Apps now features rating and are category based.
12. Set favorite icon to files and folder so that it is easy to sort and edit.
13. Add files to favorites so that it is easy to find them later.
14. Admin can edit email address of users, sort and select user as well as rename group.
15. Basic feature includes – connecting to owncloud over HTTP(s), browse for files/folder in explorer, automatic sync, sharing files with other users, sync folders from PC, Pause and resume downloads and uploads and configure proxy.

Step 1: Install ownCloud Storage in Linux

In order to setup your own personal cloud storage (ownCloud), you must have LAMP (Linux, Apache,MySQL, PHP) stack installed. Other than LAMP stack you might need Perl and Python based upon your use.

On Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint

# apt-get install apache2 apache2-doc apache2-utils mysql-server mysql-client php5 php5-mysql php5-curl

On RedHat/CentOS/Fedora

# yum install httpd mysql-server mysql-client php php-mysql php-curl

Step 2: Create Cloud Database

Once you setup LAMP stack on your personal box, just login to your database (MySQL, here).

# mysql -u root -p

Enter mysql root password. Now we will be creating a database (say cloud).

mysql> create database cloud ; 
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

It is not a good idea to access your database from root, hence grant all the permission to a normal user (say tecmint).

mysql> grant all on cloud.* to tecmint@localhost identified by 'my_password'; 
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Step 3: Download and Install ownCloud Application

Now its time to Download latest ownCloud (i.e version 8.0.0) application using below link.

1. http://owncloud.org/install/

Alternatively, you may use wget command to download the source tar-ball package.

# wget https://download.owncloud.org/community/owncloud-8.0.0.tar.bz2

You may alternatively install from source package using APT or YUM. The installation instruction can be found at:

1. Install ownCloud using APT or YUM

However we choose the TAR package which is universally accepted and works on most of the known system.

After Downloading the owncloud package, move it to your Apache working directory, which is/var/www (for Debian) and /var/www/html (for RedHat).

# cp owncloud-8.0.0.tar.bz2 /var/www/  [For Debian based Systems]
# cp owncloud-8.0.0.tar.bz2 /var/www/html/ [For RedHat based Systems]

Next, extract the package using tar command as shown below.

# tar -jxvf owncloud-8.0.0.tar.bz2

Since the TAR Archive is extracted you may remove the Archive.

# rm -rf owncloud-8.0.0.tar.bz2

We might need to change the file permission of owncloud, in our Apache working directory.

# chmod -R 777 owncloud/

Note: Remember we are giving read, write and execute permission to all, which is although risky but this time needed since several configuration file would be written automatically. We later need to change permission to 755, once the setup is finished.

Step 4: Configuring Apache for ownCloud

For security purpose ownCloud uses Apache‘s .htaccess files, in order to use them. We need to enable two Apache modules mod_rewrite and mod_headers for ownCloud to function properly. Type the following command to enable these modules under Debian based systems only, for RedHat systems they are enabled by default.

# a2enmod rewrite
# a2enmod headers

Additionally, we need to enable mod_rewrite rules to work properly under Apache‘s main configuration file. Open the Apache global configuation file.

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default [For Debian based Systems]
# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf   [For RedHat based Systems]

There, find “AllowOverride None” and change this to “AllowOverride All” as shown.

AllowOverride None

Change this to:

AllowOverride All

Now we need to restart Apache to reload new changes.

# service apache2 restart   [For Debian based Systems]
# service httpd restart    [For RedHat based Systems]

Step 5: Access ownCloud Application

Now you can acess your very personal cloud storage at:

http://localhost/owncloud
OR

http://your-ip-address/owncloud

Once you get the Owncloud page, you need to create an admin account and a Data folder location, where all files/folders will be stored (or leave default location i.e. /var/www/owncloud/data or/var/www/html/owncloud/data). Next, you need to enter mysql database username, password anddatabase name, refer the screenshot below.

ownCloud Configuration

Once all the correct values are entered, click Finish and your private cloud storage is ready, you are greeted with the working interface:

OwnCloud Admin Panel

Notice the Favorites, edit, share, download, upload and new file options available for a file.

OwnCloud Upload

Activities log of oneself and others.

Owncloud Activity Log

Pictures library.

Owncloud Picture Library

Apps enable and disable interface as well as recommendation with brief introduction.

Enabled Application

Inbuilt PDF reader.

PDF Reader

From this admin panel you can view security and setup warnings, Fedrated cloud sharing, Mail Templates,
Updater, Cron, sharing, Security, Email Server, Log, etc.

Security Setup Warning

User and Group information with quota.

User Group Quota

Note: You can add users or imports user account, change password, assign user role and allocate space by clicking the Gear icon on left bottom of the page.

You may now add folder, sync media files be it pictures, images and videos from the mobile application. Owncloud lets you add new user, and sync calendar, contacts, Media files, etc.

It also has a built in MP3 Player, PDF Viewer, Document Viewer, and a lot many which is worth a try and explore. So what are you waiting for? Become a proud owner of private cloud storage, give it a try!

Upgrading to Owncloud 8 from Older Versions

To update earlier version of your owncloud to 8, you need to first update the old owncloud to latest point release of the same version.

For example, if you’re using owncloud 6.0.xy (where ‘xy‘ is the version number), you need to first update to 6.0.x of the same series, and then you able to upgrade to owncloud 7 using the following instructions.

Update Owncloud 6.0.xx to 6.0.2

1. Making proper backup of everything is always suggested.

2. Enable the updater plugin (if it is disabled).

3. Go to Admin Panel and fire update.

4. Refresh page using ‘Ctrl+F5‘, you’re done.

If above procedure doesn’t worked, you can do a full upgrade to update to the newest point release (see ‘Upgrade‘ instructions below).

Else, if you’re already using Owncloud 7 and want to update to Owncloud 8, you can follow the below same ‘Upgrade’ instructions to get the latest version of Owncloud.

Upgrading OwnCloud to Latest Release

1. Update your owncloud version to latest point release of your version.

2. Not to Mention, Make a full backup before upgrading.

3. Download the latest tarball using wget command.

# wget http://download.owncloud.org/community/owncloud-latest.tar.bz2

4. Deactivate all native and third party Applications and plugins.

5. Delete Everything from the owncloud Directory except DATA and CONFIG directory.

NOTE: Don’t touch DATA and CONFIG directory.

6. Untar the tar-ball and copy everything to the root of your owncloud directory within your working directory.

7. Grant required permissions and run Upgrade from the Next page and its done!.

8. Don’t forget to install and enable Third party Application and plug-ins only after checking the compatibility with the current version.

So what are you waiting for? Install the latest owncloud project or upgrade your last version to latest and start using it.

Reference Links

1. ownCloud Homepage

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to provide us with your valuable feedback in comments. I’ll soon be here with another interesting article, you people will love to read. Till then Stay tuned, connected to tecmint and healthy. Like and share us, help us get spread.