On Wed, 3 Feb 1999, Isaacson, Scott D. wrote:
> Are there things that linux newbies can unwittingly do to bog down their
> machines?
>
Yes. Plenty - if you have root access to a linux box it is completely
trivial to crash it. If you don't, it "shouldn't" be possible.
> I mean you always read in Windows magazines about making your PC run faster
> by "following these tips". IMHO those articles just tell you about the
> basic care and maintenance of a windows PC. I'm wondering if there are
> things I should be doing for care and maintenance of some of my linux
> machines. I guess I don't have a specific question, but a curiosity as to
> what people do to maintain their systems. I have 11 machines now running
> linux at work. Each machine has a designated use like a web server, ftp
> server, file server, etc. They're all up and running without any crashes.
> Since everything is in such good shape I want to keep it that way. So what
> do you Linux MIS folks do when you're not telling the sales people in your
> company how to use Outlook?
>
Basically, if you do nothing at all to a linux box it will continue to
perform in exactly the same way it always did. At least, at kernel level.
If you keep logs (if you don't, you should be) then make sure that old
logs are deleted or the filesystem will eventually fill up. Similarly if
you have anything else running that writes regularly to the filesystem
then you should check that you are not in danger of filling up the hard
drive. Apart from this, you shouldn't run into any probelms in this
respect.
The other very important thing that you need to think about when
maintaining a linux box is security. New security problems *are* found
fairly often, and you should always make sure that you keep things up to
date. Security matters if there is anybody that you don't completely
trust that could possibly access the box locally or remotely.
--
Mike <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I'm pretending that we're all watching PHIL SILVERS instead of RICARDO
MONTALBAN!
