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Nice install to your bare metal config...
via MLN -- Taking Virtual Machines to the Next Level
MLN - Manage Large Networks of Xen and UML virtual machines

The purpose of this CD is to provide a fast entry into virtualization. It assumes that you have a machine you want to re-install into a dedicated virtual machine server. The installation corresponds closely to the usual "ubuntu server" install with the following additional features:

* A Xen 3.0.2 kernel
* User-Mode Linux
* MLN

Note, that allthough you can use LVM for filesystem images here, it is not set up automatically during the install. You can follow this quick and easy tutorial to set up LVM at a later point.

VMware Player with your own Ubuntu installation

Ubuntu in a virtual machine. A few people asked me if this was possible, and if so, how to do it. So I decided to give it a try, also because I have my development machine in a dual boot set up, using Kubuntu. besides Windows XP Professional, and I want to give the virtual set up a try because then I can run Linux next to Windows XP.

This is really really good, and note the free downloads of the pdf's too! If you are interested in dabbling in the linux kernel, this is all you need to start!

Linux Kernel in a Nutshell

Linux Kernel in a Nutshell covers the entire range of kernel tasks, starting with downloading the source and making sure that the kernel is in sync with the versions of the tools you need. In addition to configuration and installation steps, the book offers reference material and discussions of related topics such as control of kernel options at runtime.

Here are some handy on monitoring troublesome queries in your MySQL db.

With the info identified here you will setup slowquery logging and be able to generate short reports of the top ten slowest queries.

Slow is defined as any query that is longer than 1 second in duration.

Identifying MySQL slow queries | MDLog:/sysadmin

One of the most important steps in optimizing and tuning mysql is to identify the queries that are causing problems. How can we find out what queries are taking a long time to complete? How can we see what queries are slowing down the mysql server? Mysql has the answer for us and we only need to know where to look for it…

I almost bought one of these... The sweet spot though has to be $75 bucks.

Debian on NSLU2

The NSLU2 from Linksys is a small, sub $100 device (see gallery) that can be used for a variety of tasks. NSLU2 stands for Network Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives, a description which pretty much summarizes the original purpose of this device. However, the NSLU2 (or Slug, as it's often referred to) can be used for other tasks thanks to the alternative firmware provided by the NSLU2-Linux project. Since the device offers two USB ports, one can also connect a USB disk and run a full Debian system on it. As of beta2 of the Etch (the current testing distribution) installer of Debian, the NSLU2 is fully supported (altough there are missing features which are still being worked on).

Update:

Current NSLU2 Debian Image

I subscribed to the RSS feed of this blog, he is very good, and has been putting about three examples a week up. Take a look!

Linux by Examples

Linux by Examples

We explain every GNU/Linux command by examples

Based off of slackware, looks like it's had four point releases since I looked at it last...

Austrum Latvijas Linukss

What is AUSTRUMI?
AUSTRUMI is a business card size (50MB) bootable Live CD Linux distribution. Imagine the ability to boot your favorite Linux distribution whether you are at home, at school or at work.

So far up to four parts. Here is a step by step guide to configuring and installing an enterprise capable messaging server on a GNU/Linux platform.

Adminspotting.net Building a Messaging Server - Part One

This series will explain how to build your own Messaging Server. Services will include hosting email, sending and receiving email, and instant messaging with Jabber.

The server will also support virtual domains. This means that several different domain names will be able to send and receive mail from this server. There are a couple different methods to hosting virtual domains. The method used in this series will create virtual users that are completely separate from the system and used only for email.

Says you need LPI under your belt already to pass, I recommend LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell by Steven Pritchard

Unix Review > Certification: Exploring the Ubuntu Professional Certification

To become certified as a Ubuntu Professional, it is necessary to first become Level I certified by LPI (LPIC-1), which requires passing two exams on vendor-neutral Linux topics. Following that, you must pass one more exam ($150) specific to Ubuntu. At this time, the exact number of questions that will be on that exam, and the length of time allotted for it, are unknown but it is expected it will mirror the two Level 1 LPI exams (~60 questions in 90 minutes).

If you are backing up a computer, or transferring data from one drive toa new one, check out this neat LiveCD.

GParted -- Welcome

GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).

Nice howto on modifying a Knoppix Livecd for a specific task.

How to create a custom thin client Knoppix boot CD with the Citrix ICA client

Our Citrix applications are delivered through our Web Portal, so all the bootable CD really needed was a web browser and the Citrix ICA client, although a few productivity packages wouldn't hurt! For this project I decided to use Knoppix. Knoppix is probably the most popular Live Linux CD at this time and rightly so; Knoppix works on all sorts of hardware, it includes everything you need to get going (in most cases), and is freely distributed. Of course due to licensing restrictions, the Citrix ICA client cannot be included with the default Knoppix distribution. However, through a process known as remastering, you can create your own custom Knoppix CD that includes the Citrix ICA client.

My experience is that ext3 is good enough, and with drivers available for windows 2000 and XP you can use it for a multi OS backup system. If you need to.

Debian Administration :: Filesystems (ext3, reiser, xfs, jfs) comparison on Debian Etch

Conclusion : For quick operations on large file tree, choose Ext3 or XFS. Benchmarks from other authors have supported the use of ReiserFS for operations on large number of small files. However, the present results on a tree comprising thousands of files of various size (10kb to 5Mb) suggest than Ext3 or XFS may be more appropriate for real-world file server operations. Even if JFS minimize CPU usage, it should be noted that this FS comes with significantly higher latency for large file tree operations.