Using minicom for remote console access

For those that don't have a serial console server, this may be an alternative you'd want to use, instead of hauling your laptop around to get console access to devices.

I have a switch in the lab that I needed console access to. I really didn't feel like taking my laptop over and connect the blue Cisco console cable to it. Instead, I decided to connect the blue cable to a serial port on a Linux server in the lab. From there, I SSH'd into the Linux server and set up minicom.

I ran from my prompt "minicom -s" to run the setup and performed the following configuration steps.

• Select "Serial port setup"
• A - Serial device : /dev/ttyS0
• E - Bps/Par/Bits : 9600 8N1
• F - Hardware Flow Control : No
• G - Software Flow Control : No
• Save setup as dfl
  

Your network device console may need different settings, but that should work in most cases.

After going through the initial setup and save it, you should be able to connect to your device by just making sure the console cable is connected and typing "minicom".

Quote of the Day

In the AIM Blast today, this came across the wire. One of our old co-workers in a separate IM window was discussing the debacle of coming in to this new company as the senior sysadmin.

"Coming into an IT shop that is a mess is like moving into a stranger's house, and trying to live there wearing their clothes, eating their food, rummaging around in the basement for a new lightbulb and running across something and saying... 'What the hell is that??!??'"

I can't think of a better way to describe that kind of situation. Sometimes you wonder if you should just burn it all down, take the insurance money, and start all over again. Unfortunately, in most cases, there's no insurance money in IT and you're stuck wearing the previous sysadmin's muumuu.

Tequila makes her clothes fall off

The other half of this blog is clearly labeled 'drunken' therefore 'drunken posts' to add to the 'sysadmin' part, thus enabling 'the magic'.

I was going to start my technical post this morning, but alas... Last night I'm at the local grocery store. Due to a recent binge of Belgian beers, I'm faced with the tough decision: carlsberg or carlsberg 'elephant'. So I choose 'elephant'. Having no idea what I'm getting myself in to. This morning I wake up and realize the 'elephant' label most likely implies 'this beer is intended for elephants' or 'this beer will make you feel like a herd of elephants ran over you while you were sleeping. So, instead of making a nice technical post, I just kind of blindly stared at it this morning hoping it would post itself. That shit never happened.

So tonight my boy Jameson posted his beergaritas recipe, which I can attest to is money, even though it sounds like Slurpee barf. Inspired, I figured I'd post my $ margarita recipe.

- a container large enough to hold several cups of margarita mix
- one cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
(don't be a Wang and skimp on the freshly squeezed shit.)
- one cup freshly squeezed lime juice
(see Wang disclaimer above)
- some non-shitty tequila
- some grand marnier
- one 'unit' simple syrup (recipe follows after fucked up story of how NOT to macguyver simple syrup).

-- skip this if you suck.
-- one night Jameson is drunk and decides, since he doesn't have sugar in the house, that it's a good idea to substitute splenda for sugar in the simple syrup. The result: Radioactive liquid shitty cotton candy. DONT DO THIS.

- simple syrup
- add one cup 'real' sugar to one cup boiling water.
- let the mixture boil for like 7 minutes till it thickens slightly.
- combine lime juice, lemon juice, and real simple syrup.

- fill a shaker with ice, half tequila, half margarita mix above. Shake, pour, and splash GM in each drink.

I've found the result to be pretty money. As Jameson mentioned.. Have a happy and safe 4th.

PS Posting from an iPhone sucks.

What to drink for the holiday weekend while on call?

It's July 4th weekend, folks. That means you're probably away from the office, even though you still have the wireless leash (a.k.a. The Pager). You're probably wondering "what should be the beverage of choice to celebrate the USA's independence?" My suggestion? Beergaritas!

Ingredients/Supplies

• 1 - 64 oz pitcher
• 4 - 12oz cans of light beer (my preference is Coors Light)
• 1 - Pint of Tequila
• 1 - Can of frozen limeade

Preparation

1. Dump the frozen can of limeade into the pitcher
2. Dump the pint of tequila into the pitcher
3. Dump four cans of beer into the pitcher
4. Stir until mixed and limeade is dissolved
5. Pour into pint glasses filled with ice
6. Enjoy!
   

Have a happy and safe 4th!!!!

Whiskey for my sysadmins, Zima for my developers

Everybody blogs, so why not me.

My rules pretty much follow Bartles'. My other promises are

• I won't use anyone's real name, unless specifically asked to by that person
  
• I won't use my employer's name, unless specifically asked to by someone that can legally represent the organization
  
• I won't pull any punches

I hope some of this stuff is either entertaining, useful, or both. If not, maybe at least I'll get a laugh at it... or keep my beer money from being spent on a shrink.

A beer bong for the lady?

My friends and I have an IM blast (a static chat room) that we share. There's a lot of funny shit on there that should be shared with the rest of the world. There's also a lot of funny shit on there, that should not be shared. Additionally, everyone in that group also happens to be in the 'tech' industry.

I've always thought about blogging stuff in the past. It's my intention to use this blog as the initial dumping ground for lots of random thoughts, but primarily, some technical solutions broken down into redneck speak that everyone can understand, and some rantings about stuff in the tech world that I find ridiculous/funny.

Here's my up front disclaimer:
- I'm going to curse a lot, and say lots of fucked up shit.
- I am by far... not even close to being a good sysadmin. I realize that. I do some really dumb shit that I look back on and say.. 'holy crap, that was some really dumb shit'.
- I'm most likely NOT going to post the most eloquent solutions or ideas for technical shit. There's a lot of technical people out there who lack adequate social skills to know that engaging in some kind of nerd fight to show how technically badass you might be, actually makes you look like an unfuckable monkeytard. If you have good suggestions, post them, but don't try to act like some kind of cock-jedi that spent the weekend writing your own custom kernel to improve the accuracy of NTP. I don't fuckin care about that shit.
- I'm not racist. I don't hate gay people. I don't hate the handicapped. I'm an equal opportunity cut-on-everyone-including-myself kind of person. If I don't explicitly say I'm hating on someone or something or some group, I'm not. Don't read into my cynicism that much.
- If you don't like the blog. Don't fucking read it.

I'm hoping my first 'technical' post will be about some work I'm doing using the open source sphinx indexing stuff, to essentially build a redneck splunk.