Ansible is a powerful automation tool that allows you to manage and configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates. One of the key components of Ansible is the inventory file, which describes the hosts and groups of hosts upon which commands, modules, and tasks in a playbook operate. In this article, we'll explore how to use both static and dynamic inventories in Ansible, complete with examples and their outputs. Static Inventories Static inventories are the simplest way to manage and organize your servers. They are defined in INI ... Read More

The shred command in Linux is a powerful tool that allows users to permanently delete files and make them unrecoverable. This command is particularly useful when you want to ensure that sensitive data is completely removed from a system. In this article, we will explore how to use the shred command, complete with examples and outputs. Understanding the shred Command Before we delve into the examples, it's important to understand what the shred command does. When you delete a file in Linux using the rm command, the file is not actually removed from the disk. Instead, the space that the ... Read More

The IP command is a powerful tool for network configuration in Linux. It is used to show, manipulate routing, devices, policy routing, and tunnels. The IP command is part of the iproute2 package, which is installed by default in most Linux distributions. This article will guide you through the basics of the IP command and provide examples to help you understand its usage. Displaying IP Addresses To display the IP address of all network interfaces, use the following command− Example ip addr show Output 1: lo: mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000 ... Read More

YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) and Aptitude are two popular package managers for managing software packages on the Linux operating system. YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) is a Linux package management application that is mainly used on the Red Hat, CentOS, and Fedora distributions. Aptitude is package management software for the Linux systems Debian and Ubuntu. Read this article to find out more about YUM and Aptitude and how they are different from each other. What is YUM? YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified) is a Linux package management application that is mainly used on the Red Hat, CentOS, and Fedora distributions. It is ... Read More

Xfce and GNOME are two popular desktop environments for Linux and other open-source operating systems. While both provide a graphical user interface (GUI) to interact with the system, there are numerous variations between Xfce and GNOME in terms of design philosophy, user interface, resource utilization, and customization choices. Read this article to find out more about Xfce and GNOME and how they are different from each other. What is Xfce? Xfce is a small, open-source desktop environment popular on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It is designed to be fast, effective, and simple to use, making it a good ... Read More

Introduction Proxy servers are intermediary servers that act as a gateway between a user's device and the internet. When connected to the internet through a proxy server, all data requests from the user's device are first sent to the proxy server which then forwards them to the internet. Similarly, when data is received from the internet, it first goes through the proxy server before reaching the user's device. There are several types of proxies including HTTP proxies, HTTPS proxies and SOCKS proxies. Each type of proxy serves different purposes with varying degrees of security and privacy. Understanding Proxy Settings on ... Read More

Introduction Configuring Postfix and Dovecot with virtual domain users is an essential process for anyone running a Linux-based email server. These two software applications are the backbone of email servers, and they work together to handle incoming and outgoing emails. Postfix is the mail transfer agent responsible for accepting incoming emails. On the other hand, Dovecot is the email delivery agent responsible for delivering incoming emails to users' mailboxes. In this article, we will provide a detailed guide on how to configure Postfix and Dovecot with virtual domain users in Linux. Explanation of Postfix and Dovecot Postfix is ... Read More

Introduction In today's digital age, security is of utmost importance. The rise of cyber threats and data breaches has shown that no system is completely safe. System administrators and IT professionals must take proactive measures to protect their systems and data. One such measure is the use of Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) for user authentication. PAM is a powerful tool that allows system administrators to customize the authentication process for their systems. It enables the use of multiple authentication methods, such as passwords, tokens, and biometrics, among others. This flexibility makes it easier for administrators to manage access ... Read More

Introduction Configuring a static IP address is essential for maintaining network stability and security on RHEL/CentOS 8. Unlike dynamic IP addresses, static IP addresses remain constant, ensuring that devices can be easily identified and located on the network. This is particularly important in enterprise environments where multiple servers, virtual machines, or other devices may be running at the same time. Static IP addressing also offers several benefits over dynamic addressing. For example, it reduces the risk of conflicts that can occur when multiple devices attempt to use the same IP address. Additionally, it provides more control over network ... Read More

Introduction The Internet Protocol (IP) address is a crucial component of computer networking as it uniquely identifies each device connected to a network. By default, most network interfaces are configured to obtain an IP address dynamically from a router or DHCP server. However, in some cases, it is necessary to configure a static IP address. A static IP address is an IP address that is manually assigned to a device and does not change over time unless manually reconfigured. In this article, we will discuss how to configure a static IP address on Ubuntu 18.04 and why it's important ... Read More