The Firefox web browser is capable of (for lack of a better word) extending its abilities through the use of various plugins, or (as they are known in the Firefox community) extensions. In this article, I’d like to introduce you to my top 5 most useful Firefox extensions:
Posts by Patrick M.
3 Great Apps for your Security Toolkit
Any admin worth his/her salt has a common set of tools and applications they use on a regular basis for managing whatever environment for which they are responsible. Managing the security of the environment is no exception. While this meager blog post makes no claims to aid you in performing a full scale security analysis or penetration test, there are some basic tools you can use to ensure that the most glaring problems are found and mitigated.
- NMap – This is one of the most popular port scanners found on the Internet, and the reason for this is because it’s, well, a great tool. With configuration options a mile long and a great development community behind it, it really does exactly what it says it will and not much more.
- Nessus – Nessus is a network vulnerability scanner that constantly updates a list of plugins and “checks” which it uses to evaluate a server for given vulnerabilities. While they did recently change their licensing model, replaced their free registered plugin feed with a feature-sparse “home” feed, and also changed from open to closed source, Nessus is still one of the premier vulnerability scanning tools available.
Self-Service Portals Let Your Users Manage Virtual Machines
SCVMM 2008 (or “System Center Virtual Machine Manager”) is Microsoft’s answer to a “unified, multi-vendor management solution for the virtual datacenter.” SCVMM R2 was released recently, and along with it came the ability to set up a Self-Service Portal. Using a Self-Service Portal, IT professionals can easily allow others to create, manage, and maintain virtual machines through a web-based interface.
Before setting up the Self-Service Portal, you’ll need a fully-configured SCVMM infrastructure. Luckily, that can be done with a single server or a whole server farm.
The primary constituents to setting up the Self Service Portal are:
Hosts and/or Host Groups
Hosts or Host Groups are servers that support running virtual machines within your infrastructure. Its primary requirement is that Hyper-V must be installed, and Self-Service Portals will need Hyper-V R2 installed.
Library Servers
The library servers are servers or file share locations that hold the required pieces for creating and managing virtual machines. Those bits and pieces consist of installation media (such as CD/DVD Images of operating systems), virtual hard drives, or VHDs, and potentially templates.
Templates
Templates are generic, off-line virtual machines that you can configure and redeploy as fully functional virtual machines. One could have a series of templates residing on the Library servers with a different specialization for each (web server, database, etc.).
Self Service Users
Self Service Users are users who are allowed to log into and use the Self-Service Portal. The administrator can define tasks users are allowed to perform, and can range anywhere from simply starting or stopping virtual machines to full control of creating and deleting them.
Windows Server 2008 R2 – Top 3 Things the Sys Admin and Web Developer Should Know About
Microsoft recently released their newest version in the Windows Server series. This new OS, Windows Server 2008 R2, isn’t simply a feature pack release for the current Windows Server 2008 OS, but is actually an entirely new version which that uses the same codebase as Windows 7. There are a number of new features included in this new release, and many of them are making the IT community very interested in how they can leverage them in their business. Here’s a brief run-down of some of the enhancements you can expect to see.
#1 – Hyper-V R2
The newest iteration of Microsoft’s virtualization offering includes a host of new features. The most intriguing feature we’ve seen so far is the added support for Live Migration Support through the use of Cluster Shared Volumes. This basically means that you can transfer live (read: running, powered on) virtual machines between cluster nodes without any perceived downtime. This feature, combined with improved support for up to 32 logical CPUs and dynamic memory allocation, shape up to make Hyper-V ready for prime-time. If you were considering getting your hands dirty with virtualization, now would probably be a good time to start.
What this means to you: You could run your web applications on virtual machines and be able to perform hardware maintenance without ever letting your users know. (HINT HINT, TWITTER)
#2 – Desktop Virtualization with Terminal Services…er…Remote Desktop Services?
In addition to a name change from Terminal Services to Remote Desktop Services (RDS), several real improvements have been made to Microsoft’s remote server management tools. New capabilities in the Remote Desktop Protocol suite aim to make a remote user’s experience nearly identical to that of a local user. Among these capabilities are:
Overlooked Uses for Virtualization – Is That a VM in Your Pocket?
Virtualization is a huge buzzword heard in technical discussions and social news networks, and has recently become a hot topic in the hosting industry. But oftentimes there are many uses of virtualization which go overlooked. Additionally, virtualization does not have to automatically inspire thoughts of expensive arrays of disks and huge banks of RAM and processors. Most modern desktop PCs can be used for some degree of virtualization for personal uses. I would like to introduce you to some of the less thought of uses of virtualization.
1. Carry a personal operating system on a thumb drive
One use of virtualization that I have used extensively in the past is for a personal OS that you can carry with you and use anywhere there’s an available USB port. There is a Linux operating system called Damn Small Linux, or DSL for short, which has a specific version for running in a virtualized environment from a thumb drive. It uses QEMU, a lightweight basic open-source virtualization project, for its virtualization platform. Once you copy the folders to the thumb drive, you simply double click an icon, and it essentially boots up into a fully functional Linux desktop operating system completely isolated from the host operating system! So the next time you’re at your friends house and don’t feel like checking your email on his questionably safe computer, you can feel safe in logging into Gmail from your thumb drive.
