Roundtable

roundtable@muug.ca

2555 discussions

Re: [RndTbl] firewall/router in a VM
by Adam Thompson 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

The potential intrusion vector is, as you've guessed, through the hypervisor. (Or the host OS, where applicable.) The fact that no-one can even articulate a coherent attack plan hasn't prevented the entire security industry from generating Microsoftish amounts of FUD. You'll have to evaluate for yourself - how much do you trust your VM vendor to write bug-free code to handle incoming packets and pass them on? This does touch on almost every facet of a hypervisor, so it's not an academic question. Logically, you aren't exposing any new vulnerabilities. In fact, though, you are opening up a new potential intrusion vector. As far as I can tell, everyone in the argument seems to derive their authority from one comment by Schneier; if anyone has any sources with actual data (empirical, theoretical or experimental) please let me know. Personally, I trust VM programmers to get patches out quickly, and I trust the paranoiacs to blatt about news of any new compromise, enough to be willing to do the sort of thing you're talking about. (Having said that, although I'm *willing* to, I will note that I *don't* do so in real life.) The one aspect to it, though, is that compromise of the hypervisor essentially means instant, complete, utter, irreversible compromise of *all* the VMs (including non-running disk images!) that server has direct access to. That is a little bit worrisome. -Adam

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News: TPM chip hacked
by Adam Thompson 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j-OodvoFRhEcpfvnK5C7YL6JW… *cough* Yeah, that's good timing after the rant I posted yesterday :-) -Adam

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Anyone want a SunBlade 100?
by Sean Walberg 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

I have a SunBlade 100 I don't use. Just the chassis, about the size of a regular desktop machine. Not sure of the specs, but I'm pretty sure it has Solaris 8 on it. I'll even throw in a "Solaris 8 essential reference" guide :) Anyone want it? Sean -- Sean Walberg <sean(a)ertw.com> http://ertw.com/

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Manage resources
by Montana Quiring 16 Feb '10

16 Feb '10

Hello, Right now I'm doing the spreadsheet things so, I need to set myself up with managing my resources better. (i.e. things like IP's, computers, servers, switches, software etc) I like the idea of managing my resources using LDAP objects with a web front end to share with my colleagues. Is anyone doing that and could share what they use? Is there any other OSS product that that may not be LDAP based but you would highly recommend? -Montana Blog and Aggregation Site: http://montanaquiring.info iPhone/Touch Apps I have bought: http://appshopper.com/feed/user/antikx/myapps

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RAID on Ubuntu
by Kevin McGregor 09 Feb '10

09 Feb '10

Here's my current hardware: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4 GB RAM 120 GB IDE 3 x 750 SATA What I'd like to do (please don't ask why) is install Ubuntu 9.10 on the 120 GB IDE, then set up a RAID 10 array with the remaining drives. Stop right there! Yes, I know I'd need four drives for that. So, I want to know if I can either set up two drives as RAID 0 or RAID 1, then later add a fourth drive and without data loss, migrate over to RAID 10. Or set it up as RAID 10 initially with a "failed" (missing) fourth drive, then add the drive later and "repair" the RAID 10 array. Any hope? Kevin

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Re: [RndTbl] Shaw dropping on greylist?
by Gilbert E. Detillieux 08 Feb '10

08 Feb '10

On 2010-02-06 18:59, roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca wrote: > On 2010-01-29 Gilbert E. Detillieux wrote: >> In any case, there are a lot of "legit" mail servers out there that >> don't seem to handle greylisting well, which is why the default >> configuration with milter-greylist comes with a whole list of "broken >> mta" address ranges to whitelist. > > Right, using that broken list, but there is no self-updating. Anyone > care to share their broken mta list? What's the range you're using for > gmail? This is the only "broken mta" range we've had to add to date... 209.85.208.0/20 \ # google.com (gmail.com MTA range?) -- Gilbert E. Detillieux E-mail: <gedetil(a)muug.mb.ca> Manitoba UNIX User Group Web: http://www.muug.mb.ca/ PO Box 130 St-Boniface Phone: (204)474-8161 Winnipeg MB CANADA R2H 3B4 Fax: (204)474-7609

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[OT] looking for recommendation
by Adam Thompson 04 Feb '10

04 Feb '10

Yes, this is off-topic and has nothing to do with UNIX... you've been warned and can stop reading now if that bothers you. I'm looking for recommendations for a bookkeeper, or something like that: someone who can keep track of all the bits of paper I generate (esp. in the course of self-employment) and do something more meaningful with them than just shoving them into a (metaphorical) shoebox. It'd be nice if they had a clue about taxes, CPP deductions, that sort of thing, but not necessary - that's what an accountant is for, ultimately. So... if you know anyone who might fit the bill, either pass their name on to me, or pass my name on to them. Thank you for your patience, we now resume our regular programming. -Adam Thompson <athompso(a)athompso.net> (204) 291-7950

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MUUG Meeting, February 9, 7:30pm -- Disk Imaging
by gedetil＠cs.umanitoba.ca 02 Feb '10

02 Feb '10

The Manitoba UNIX User Group (MUUG) will be holding its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 9. The meeting topic for this month is as follows: Disk Imaging Adam Thompson will be covering disk imaging: who, what, why, where, when. Maybe even "how" if there's time! The presentation is expected to focus on the use of Partimage and related tools. Before the break, as this month's RTFM topic, Sean Cody will deliver a remote, live presentation on a topic yet to be determined. The group holds its general meetings at 7:30pm on the second Tuesday of every month from September to June. (There are no meetings in July and August.) Meetings are open to the general public; you don't have to be a MUUG member to attend. ********************************************************************** Please note our meeting location: The IBM offices, at 400 Ellice Ave. (between Edmonton and Kennedy). When you arrive, you will have to sign in at the reception desk, and then wait for someone to take you (in groups) to the meeting room. Please try to arrive by about 7:15pm, so the meeting can start promptly at 7:30pm. Don't be late, or you may not get in. (But don't come too early either, since security may not be there to let you in before 7:15 or so.) Non-members may be required to show photo ID at the security desk. Limited parking is available for free on the street, either on Ellice Ave. or on some of the intersecting streets. Indoor parking is also available nearby, at Portage Place, for $5.00 for the evening. Bicycle parking is available in a bike rack under video surveillance located behind the building on Webb Place. ********************************************************************** For more information about MUUG, and its monthly meetings, check out their Web server: http://www.muug.mb.ca/ Help us promote this month's meeting, by putting this poster up on your workplace bulletin board or other suitable public message board: http://www.muug.mb.ca/meetings/MUUGmeeting.pdf -- Gilbert E. Detillieux E-mail: <gedetil(a)muug.mb.ca> Manitoba UNIX User Group Web: http://www.muug.mb.ca/ PO Box 130 St-Boniface Phone: (204)474-8161 Winnipeg MB CANADA R2H 3B4 Fax: (204)474-7609

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Re: [RndTbl] Debian Memory on a VM
by Sean Cody 02 Feb '10

02 Feb '10

Can you send me the VMX file for the VM? I would try setting VM to 512 and go to 4GB and see where the upper limit is meaning there is some kind resource pooling limit in ESX... The idea came from here: http://www.van-lieshout.com/2009/04/esx-memory-management-part-1/ On 2010-02-02, at 7:46 AM, Doob,Brian [Wpg] wrote: > I don't have access to my home email at work, so I'm bypassing the MUUG Roundtable for the moment.... My server is a Dell R710 with 24GB RAM running VMware ESXi 4.0. The guest VM has 2GB RAM, and the guest BIOS sees the full 2GB. Debian Sarge only sees 927129600 bytes. This is /proc/meminfo: > > total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached: > Mem: 927129600 281206784 645922816 0 63918080 109105152 > Swap: 2780102656 0 2780102656 > MemTotal: 905400 kB > MemFree: 630784 kB > MemShared: 0 kB > Buffers: 62420 kB > Cached: 106548 kB > SwapCached: 0 kB > Active: 103484 kB > Inactive: 102972 kB > HighTotal: 0 kB > HighFree: 0 kB > LowTotal: 905400 kB > LowFree: 630784 kB > SwapTotal: 2714944 kB > SwapFree: 2714944 kB > > I'm attaching output from dmesg and dmidecode (no "-t" option was available). I think the "905MB" was from top, but I was quoting from memory. The system is running kernel 2.4.27-3-386. I really appreciate your willingness to look into this. Thanks! > > Brian Doob > MSC Regional Operations Division | MSC opérations régionales > Infrastructure Operations Directorate | Direction générale des opérations de l'infrastructure > Chief Information Officer Branch | Direction générale du dirigeant principal de l'information > Environment Canada | Environnement Canada > 123 Main Street, Suite 150 | 123, rue Main, pièce 150 > Winnipeg (Manitoba) R3C 4W2 > brian.doob(a)ec.gc.ca > Telephone | Téléphone 204-983-8495 > Facsimile | Télécopieur 204-983-0109 > Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada > Website | Site Web www.ec.gc.ca > <dmidecode_out.txt><dmesg_out.txt> -- Sean

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Re: [RndTbl] Debian doesn't see all RAM in a VM
by Adam Thompson 02 Feb '10

02 Feb '10

Good idea, but that doesn't fly in an ESX VM. I think the default emulation is of an S3-type PCI video card, and video memory is allocated from the host and presented discontiguously to the guest - just like a real S3 card. I don't think ESXi (this is v3 or v3.1, right???) supports memory "ballooning", or that could have explained it. Hmm. Eagerly awaiting more details... ------Original Message------ From: Cody, Sean Sender: roundtable-bounces(a)muug.mb.ca To: Roundtable, MUUG Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Debian doesn't see all RAM in a VM Sent: Feb 2, 2010 00:23 Shared video memory off alignment could make sense here but it is a radically weird number. Video memory is the only hardware I've seen that would share RAM. Everything else I've seen in my limited experience has been using memory via memory mapped address space for DMA, nothing explicitly communicating via RAM itself. On 2010-02-01, at 9:17 PM, Adam Thompson wrote: > Agreeing completely with Sean here - and 900Mb is just plain a very strange number that makes even less sense than 1024Mb. -- Sean _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable

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