Linux Troubleshooting Bible

Switching between MTAs with the Alternatives SystemBefore you look at Sendmail or PostFix, you should know about a subsystem of Fedora Core and Red Hat Linux that controls which MTA the system uses. It is critical that you understand this M...

Sendmail ConfigurationSetting up a new installation of Sendmail used to be a daunting task. While it is an intricate and challenging program and most people don't want to devote their lives to mining its depths, it has become much more user...

Sendmail Tips and Tricks While it's possible to administer Sendmail using nothing but guidance from the official program documentation, most administrators have collected shortcuts and ideas to help automate or streamline routine tasks. Si...

Diagnosing Sendmail ProblemsYou may find yourself in a messy spot if you know there's a Sendmail problem but you can't figure out what it is. Since you need to know the problem before you can solve it, it's important to know how to diagnose...

Sendmail TroubleshootingThough Sendmail servers can produce the same wide range of problems that any Unix server can generate, most daily Sendmail issues fall into just a few categories. Administrators spend a great deal of time resolving i...

Top Sendmail Problems (And Solutions) As with most client/server setups, mail experts see the same problems on a regular basis. With over 10,000 servers on line, Rackspace Managed Hosting sees a lot of Sendmail issues, and as a result has ...

PostFix OverviewFor some administrators, PostFix is an excellent alternative to Sendmail. PostFix is installed by default on Fedora Core and Red Hat Linux systems, but not enabled by the alternatives system. It was developed as a more secur...

Sendmail and PostFix ResourcesBecause software problems and solutions evolve far more rapidly than the publication schedules of books or magazines, the best place to find the most up-to-date MTA assistance is on the web. Table 19-2 shows so...

SummaryE-mail and MTA management is a core network administrative function. Under Fedora Core/Red Hat Linux, you can choose between two powerful mail transfer agents: Sendmail and PostFix. Though PostFix is gaining ground, Sendmail is still...

Licenses and Maintenance SUSE distinguishes between the products that are regarded as being for business customers and those categorized as for the home user. This distinction is seen in the way the products are presented in SUSE publicity...

The sysconfig DirectoryOne of the things people either love or hate about SUSE is the fact that all standard services can be configured via a central flat file repository of configuration settings. The old way (previous to SUSE 8) was to us...

YaSTAs noted above, the feature of SUSE Linux that is most distinctive is YaST. YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) is both the installer and a complete configuration tool for all the most important features of the system. YaST is designed in a m...

Installing Non-SUSE Packages If you are looking for packages that are not included in a SUSE distribution, you may find packages that have been prepared for Red Hat or Fedora rather than for SUSE. In some cases this will not be an issue: t...

Finding More InformationThere is plenty of information specific to SUSE Linux out there. SUSE's official websites include basic product information and links to other sources of help. www.suse.com, www.suse.co.uk, and www.suse.de/en/ a...

The Debian CD-ROMsAnother aspect of Debian confusing to those unfamiliar with it is which CD images they need to download or which pre-pressed CDs they need to purchase to complete an installation. You can install Debian in a number of ways...

Installation NotesThis section is not intended to document the Debian installation procedure. It's meant to point out some common difficulties that arise when somebody more familiar with Fedora or Red Hat attempts to install Debian. The fu...

Debian BasicsIn this section you'll get a crash course in finding and managing packages, as well as a few other systems administration topics. These areas are where differences between RPM-based distributions (like Fedora and Red Hat) and D...

Troubleshooting Tips and ToolsThis section provides an overview of some of the most common troubleshooting packages used in Debian. Since one of the biggest parts of an administrator's job is knowing the right tool to use for the job, you m...

Getting Help As mentioned in the last section, one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is a community of people who have had the same problems you're having. However, like any tool, you need to be sure to use it properly and carefu...

SummaryDebian is a complex topic and this appendix can't do it justice, but I hope that after reading it you'll have grasped a basic understanding of the concepts most important to Debian systems administration. We like to say that the vari...