We recently had an IT audit at one of my clients’ locations. One of the issues raised by the auditor was that our DHCP server was a security risk because it would allow anyone to plug in to the LAN, get an IP address, and start browsing or scanning the network for vulnerabilities.? Continue reading “Question for InfoSec Types: Is DHCP a Security Risk?”
RT 3.8.0 – Stable Again Thanks To InnoDB
Thanks to a couple of helpful folks on the rt-users mailing list, we were able to track down the cause of our problems. We experienced some corruption in our MySQL databases. I found out that you should “never” run RT on MyISAM tables and always use InnoDB. Oddly enough, we’ve run on MyISAM for years and never had this problem. However, we did have issues with slownes, for years, and it’s something we’ve been struggling with constantly.
for t in $(mysql -unotreal -pdontbother --batch --column-names=false -e "show tables" rt3);
do
mysql -e "alter table $t type=InnoDB" rt3;
done
Running this script revealed an error with the “Tickets” table.?Fortunately, the data itself in our tables was not corrupt, just the indexes were. ?myisamchk was able to repair these and allow us to convert all tables to InnoDB format. Once I fixed that error, I was able to convert everything over to InnoDB.
I was thrilled to see that, once the conversion was finished, RT popped right back up into place, with all of the tickets in their usual spots. And, as a bonus, the thing’s a lot faster than it ever was before.
Lesson learned. Next time, read the instructions more carefully.
WordPress 2.6.1 Upgrate
I just ugpraded to WordPress 2.6.1, following my usual procedure (backup, download, extract over existing blog). I got some errors when I clicked to update the database:
WordPress database error: [Duplicate key name 'comment_approved']
ALTER TABLE nikolaidis_wp_comments ADD KEY comment_approved (comment_approved)
WordPress database error: [Duplicate key name 'type_status_date']
ALTER TABLE nikolaidis_wp_posts ADD KEY type_status_date (post_type,post_status,post_date,ID)
Upgrade Complete
Your WordPress database has been successfully upgraded!
Given the last line, I’m inclined to think that these database upgrades may have been done in the 2.6 upgrade I did a while back.
At least, that’s my hope…
RT 3.8.0 Server is Hosed After Corrupt Sessions Table, myisamchk
To all of my regular readers, apologies if this post seems a bit out of the ordinary, but if you read on, you’ll see why I’m documenting this here, as opposed to in my ticketing system.
On Friday afternoon, for no apparent reason, while I was the only user on my RT 3.8.0 system, after clicking a link, I was presented with the logon prompt.
Puzzled, I entered my username and password and logged back in. Everything seemed normal, and the ticket I was trying to edit was there. I continued my edits, and clicked to update the ticket.
Login prompt again. Continue reading “RT 3.8.0 Server is Hosed After Corrupt Sessions Table, myisamchk”
Medifast – 2 months, ~25 pounds
Two months ago, I started on the Medifast plan. I was 208# then, and I’ve been as low as 183.4# a couple of days ago. Weight fluctuates, so I’m up a bit today, but I’ve lost nearly 25 pounds in two months. It doesn’t sound quite as impressive as when I lost 18 pounds in the first month, but I knew that the rate would slow as I got nearer to my goal, so I’m not worried.
Today was the first time that people commented, unprompted, at how I was losing weight. The were folks whom I hadn’t seen in over a month, so they had the “old me” (read “fat me”) in mind and could really see the difference. Also, today I wore a pair of dress pants which I hadn’t worn in well over a year because I outgrew them – something which really bothered me at the time, because my wife picked them out with me after a time when I had gained weight. So basically, I couldn’t fit into my “fat pants.” That did not feel good, but wearing them today sure did.
Now I need to replace the four new pairs of jeans I bought back in May. Maybe I can take them in…
Fairpoint (FKA Verizon), You #$@#$^&* @#$(* !@#@#@ !!@(()*&!!!!
Ever get the feeling that maybe you spoke too soon?
Yeah, me too.
So remember the Fairpoint tech, who showed up unannounced, and told me our lines were crossed with someone else’s? He told me that they were getting our calls, and we were getting theirs. I gave him a list of other problems we were having.
Note that the problem of us getting their calls and them getting ours was not something that I had personally experienced…
Until he left.
After saying the problem had been fixed.
So, after everything was all set, every call placed to our business went to some family across town. Wonderful.
Now I know how my clients feel when I tell them they have had a RAID failure, and they are going to lose data, and they say “but we haven’t had any problems,” and then their server dies for real. *sigh*
Thank you, Fairpoint (FKA Verizon)
Today, unprompted by me, a technician from Fairpoint Communications (formerly known in these parts as Verizon) showed up, saying we had a “crossed pair” on our line.
I asked him if this could have anything to do with some issues we’ve been having on our line for quite some time, including
- Incoming calls not being answered (because we never heard them ring)
- Dropped calls
- Outgoing calls hanging up after one ring
- Noise on the line
- Incoming calls not rolling over to our second line on busy/no answer
He looked, nodded sagely, and said that all of those things could be caused by the crossed pair, which did not surprise me.
I’m glad to know that this was a) not our fault, b) not a problem with my Asterisk box, and c) something that he was able to fix. As he was leaving, he commented that he hadn’t worked in Bethel in many years, and that everything is “all messed up.” Again, this did not surprise me.
Now, the only remaining question I have is what have the other parties who’ve been getting my calls been doing with them? Thank goodness it wasn’t a competitor. 🙂