Notes

For tidbits or little TIL (Today I Learned) articles. Notes from experience help me remember on those days where I can’t remember. The main reason for creating this blog was to write about things I learn. But, it also acts as a second brain for me in a way.

Managing Multiple Kubernetes Clusters

Fortinet: Set HA Active-Passive FortiGate Cluster Back to Primary

Show Routing Table On FortiOS

This is a space where I provide snipits of designs I develop or see used commonly throughout my career. I like to look back on the things I’ve built or maintained. I also like to have a point of reference available in case I need to explain something or reference different design concepts.

Fortinet: Troubleshooting Response Validation Failed. SAML Response Rejected Error

Cisco: TDR Cable Diagnostic On Cisco Switch Port

Troubleshooting Nautobot As A Docker Container Docker Compose Not Found

Fortinet: Negate Rules on ForiGate Policies.

Fortinet: Add An Address External Resource To FortiGate

Fortinet: Troubleshoot Certificate File is Duplicated for CA/Local/Remote/Crl cert

Checking Certificate Using OpenSSL

Fortinet: Reset & Restore Port Statistics On FortiSwitch

Fortinet: Check Port Statistics On FortiSwitch

GCP: VPC Network With Custom Subnets and Firewall Rules Using Gcloud Shell

Install And Setup swaylock-effects On Ubuntu

Generating A QR Code For Easy Access To Wireless

Randomize Wallpapers For Sway Using Python

FortiSwitch Cable Diagnostics

Juniper: Boot To Single-User Mode

Juniper: Root Password Recovery In Recovery Mode

Juniper: Configure U-Boot To Enable Singe-User Mode Boot

Show Configuration On Juniper

Show Current JunOS Version

Configure Hostname On Juniper

Revert To Factory Configuration On Juniper SRX220

You Lost Your Mouse Pointer In Windows 11

Troubleshooting DHCP Server On Linux With Tcpdump

MySQL: Showing Databases

Viewing A Users MySQL Permissions (GRANTS)

Automate Adding A VLAN To Multiple Cisco Switches

Ubuntu Linux Crisis & General Troubleshooting Tools

Using Netmiko To Automate VLAN Configuration On A Cisco Switch

Migrating Sticky Notes To Another Windows 10 Workstation

Deploying A MySQL 8.0 InnoDB Cluster

The following packages will need to be installed on all three servers.

Railway Management System - MK 1

Planning The Specs For A Small MySQL Database Administrator Lab

This is the first revision for the virtual machine specifications of a MySQL Database Admnistrator lab. A small group of servers that allows someone to learn things like single node managment, clustering, and a simple data warehouse on the MySQL platform.

Obtaining A Cisco Devices Hostname Using The Netmiko Python Library

Using A SQL Script For Initial MySQL Database Setup

Install & Setup PostgresSQL on Ubuntu Server

Moving PostgresSQL 15 To Custom Directory On Ubuntu Server

Install & Setup MySQL on Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS

FortiGate: Configuring Auto-Scripts

FortiGate: Configuring Fabric Automation For Service Restarts

Moving MySQL Server To A Custom Directory On Ubuntu Linux

Creating A VLAN Trunk Interface Using CLI On FortiGate

Simple Veeam Backup & Replication License Usage Reporting Using PowerShell

Converting VMware Disks From Thick Provisioning to Thin Provisioning

Installing Zabbix Agent 2 on Ubuntu 22.04

Backup & Restore MySQL Using MySQL Dump

Migrating VMware vSphere VMs To Another Cluster Using Veeam Backup & Replication

Fortinet: Some System Troubleshooting Tid-bits

Obtaining Support Data For HPE (Brocade) Fiber Channel Switches

Starting A New Jekyll Site Using The Jekyll Container Image

Deploying Your Hugo Blog Development Server Using Podman/Docker Compose

Using The IISRESET Command To Reset IIS & Obtain Its Status

Some brief notes on how to reset Internet Information Services (IIS) on Windows client/servers. Before executing the command(s). This operation will need to be performed with Administrator/elevated privileges.

Listing, Reading, & Decompressing GZip (GNU zip) Files

Verifying Nagios Configuration Using CLI

Creating Policy Address Objects Using CLI For FortiGate

FortiGate: Appending An Address To An Address Group CLI

FortiGate: Creating Address Groups

A useful object category that FortiOS has available for policies are Address Groups. An IPv4 Address Group is an array/list of addresses that can be applied to firewall policies. This is useful if you have multiple servers that need the same filtering. But, limiting the administrator overhead is needed to manage policies.

FortiGate: Creating Static Routes Using CLI

Some notes for the creation of Static Routes on FortiGate firewalls in FortiOS CLI.

Creating QCOW2 Disk Images With qemu-img(1)

This is will be a short entry that contains notes for creating qcow2 disk images using qemu-img(1). For now I’m not going to focus entirely on their use and just creating them. This can be useful for scaffolding the disks you need for a KVM VM before its creation.

FortiGate: Adding Policy Address Objects On FortiGate

Updating & Upgrading OpenBSD

These are some notes for updating and upgrading OpenBSD machines just in case I need them. I will make sure to update this as often as possible and provide the reference articles. Along with man pages.

Fortinet: Add DHCP Server To VLAN Interface With DMZ Role On FortiGate

FortiGate: Showing DHCP Server Leases On FortiGates

FortiGate: Adding A DHCP Server To A VLAN Interface With The DMZ Role

Updating NTP Servers on Cisco Switches

Wanted to briefly write a note for updating the NTP server on a Cisco switch. This is generally good if moving to on premise NTP servers is something I’d like to do someday.

Rolling Back Microsoft 365 Office Using Click2Run

This applies mostly towards Microsoft 365 or Office 365 installs.

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Console Serial Connections To Cisco Devices On Nix

Summary

This is just some notes for connecting to the console port on Linux. This is a running post where I will be adding new methods for connecting to the console port on Cisco devices or any device that supports a serial console.

Skipping fsck Manually Upon Boot to Speed Up Ubuntu Server Install

Summary

A friend of mine pointed something my way for speeding up the process for installs. So I remember it in the future. I’m notating it.

Disable & Remove Cloud-Init On Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Summary

Cloud Init is configured and installed on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS by default. In fact. It’s been available since 18.04. It can be used to configure things like authorized keys for SSH, generate private keys, etc. For my preferences. It’s annoying because I never use it. So I generally disable the service.

OpenBSD Initial Virtual Private Server Baseline

Summary

These are just some notes for common steps I perform after adding a server to a Virtual Private Server provider. Intended to act as a baseline. Documented so I have the steps for future use.

Personal VPN Setup Using Wireguard, OpenBSD, and Vultr VPS

Troubleshooting MongoDB: My Failure to Read Documentation

I recently experienced an issue with MongoDB where I failed to read documentation. This also provides some of the notes related to troubleshooting what was actually wrong. So, I decided to include the things needed to help troubleshoot it.

Updating & Upgrading Ubuntu

Summary

This post provides a brief overview on how to apply updates on Ubuntu.

Request Tracker (RT): Installing on Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS

Summary

Note that these are notes from walking through a basic deployment. There will be quite a bit of jumping around and troubleshooting. Along with troubleshooting with no discussion. No worries. I’ll update it.

Linux & BSD: Configuring & Using OpenSSH Client on Cisco Devices Using Legacy Key Algorithms

Summary

This is an old thing I came across. But, useful to know all the same. This post discusses some issues with devices such as Cisco routers, switches, etc. where the key exchange algorithms and host key algorithm types are weaker and/or riskier key algorithms. These algorithms are considered legacy options that may need to be specified when connecting to the host.

Cisco: Switching to New DNS Server(s)

Summary

This post contains some notes for switching a Cisco switch over to a different DNS server. Specifically, I will be adding, removing, and testing within the process of moving over to new DNS server infrastructure.

Cisco: Configure DNS Server(s) & Search Domains For Name Resolution

Summary

Notes for configuring DNS servers and search domains for name resolution on Cisco switches.

VMware ESXi 6.7: Configuring NTP Client from CLI

Summary

This post contains notes for configuring NTP on ESXi 6.7.

Cisco: Saving Running Config to Startup Config

Summary

This is just a some notes on how to copy the running configuration to the startup configuration on a Cisco device. This could bean anything from a Cisco Router, switch, etc.

VMware ESXi 6.7: Configuring DNS Using esxcli

Summary

Needed to add some DNS configuration to some ESXi 6.7 servers in a lab. I’ve never done this. Nor did I have access directly to the console at the time. So, I decided to SSH into the console and use the esxcli command to do the work.

VMware ESXi 6.7: Changing DNS Servers Using esxcli

Summary

Needed to change DNS servers from one to the other within my lab on ESXi 6.7. Needed to do this because I’ve been isolating network resolution to my local network as opposed to pushing that traffic to the Internet itself.

Windows: Release/Renew DHCP and Flush DNS Using CLI/PowerShell

Summary

Just some notes. I have my days where I do this a lot. But, just in case I don’t and forget down the road. Might as well have this available.

Exchange 2013: Configuring Calendar Permissions

Overview

This article will provide a brief overview on how to Get, Add, and Set Calendar permissions in Microsoft Exchange 2013. If you would like a reference to an overview of what the permissions do, I have referenced a cheat sheet below for you.

Play Station 4 Troubleshooting: Error Saving to USB Storage

This article discusses some troubleshooting fun I had with a Play Station 4 a couple of days ago. Turns out for some reason it didn’t want to save to the external USB 3.0 Seagate 1 TB HDD that I decided to use for a backup. It was on my TODO list for a while because I plan on replacing the disk with something larger. Yes, I plan on providing notes for that as well. I sure don’t want to spend the extra coin and upload all of that data to the cloud using Play Station Plus.

Cisco Switches: Configuring An Access VLAN On A Port

Summary

This article goes through configuring a VLAN on a switch port on a Cisco switch. These are just notes intended for future use in case I forget how to configure this.

Sysadmin Pain: When Percona and MySQL Community Repos aren't Synced

Just thought I’d talk a little bit about some Sysadmin pain that I’ve come across. Might prove beneficial in the future. Not complaining. This is more of a “don’t do what I did” article. I’ll probably provide more of these as I run into issues.

Percona MySQL: Installing on Oracle Linux 8.6

Summary

Notes for installing Percona MySQL on Oracle Linux 8.6.

Bash FTW: Scripting For Blog Draft Templating

This will be a short post. I wrote a little Bash script to assist with creating new drafts for this site. Nothing special. But, it will save me some typing.

SELinux: BookStack v22.04

Summary

This article discusses the SELinux; involving security contexts, and file permissions that allow BookStack to function as expected and securely. Primarily in a way that doesn’t require disabling SELinux.

SELinux: APPLICATION NAME

Consider this to be a series on how to “properly” configure SELinux and possibly file permissions for various applications. Mostly web applications. This series of posts is intended to provide a reference for those who would rather utilize SELinux as opposed to just putting it into permissive mode or disable it completely.

CAN-Bus Protocol Notes: ISO 15765-2 (ISO-TP)

These are just some notes from reading about the ISO 15765-2 or ISO Transport Layer (ISO-TP) CAN-Bus protocol. May want to check on this post often if it’s useful. I plan on updating it frequently with what new information I find out about it. But, for now. I will provide what notes regarding the protocol that I have now.

Install BookStack v22.04 on Oracle Linux 8.5

Note: There are improvements coming to this article soon.

Resetting the TCP/IP and WinSock Stacks on Windows Systems

Summary

This post contains notes for resetting the TCP/IP and WinSock stacks on Windows Systems. Doing so can generally be a good troubleshooting step when you’re having issues with network connectivity and network interfaces.

PowerShell: Basic USB Media Operations (Clearing, Partitioning, and Formatting)

Summary

Full notes are unfinished. Though, the information will be useful in the future. I’m posting and will update as I see fit.

Convert From CentOS 7.9 to Oracle Linux Server 7 With centos2ol.sh

Overview

This post is more or less notes for moving from CentOS 7.9 to Oracle Linux 7.9 using a script that Oracle kindly provides for the very low low cost of free.

OpenBSD on BLANK

This is another one of those discussions regarding content ideas.

PowerShell: Notes on Execution Policy Bypass Methods

Overview

This will be updated as time goes on. But, this is a collection of notes I’ve accumulated for bypassing the execution policy in powershell I could certainly go through the process of making the exectution policy more permissive. But, sometimes when you run scripts. Bypassing the execution policy is the way to go.

Getting the Default Execution Policy In PowerShell

Overview

My notes for obtaining the Execution Policy for PowerShell.

Deleting User Using PowerShell On Microsoft 365

Deleting Microsoft 365 User

Notating some commands I use for deleting a user in Microsoft 365. This is generally done by connecting to it using Connect-MSOnline first.

Creating New User Using PowerShell On Microsoft 365

Overview

This post provides my notes on how to add a new user to the Microsoft 365 portal using PowerShell.

Jekyll Requires Webrick Gem on Ruby 3.0

Overview

Jekyll on Ruby 3.0 requires the webrick gem to be added to the Gemfile. If the site doesn’t, Jekyll will fail to generate and serve the site. Below is the error that I’m discussing.

Creating, Migrating, and Resetting Migrations on Laravel Framework

Overview

Something that I tend do is forget how to crate migrations in the Laravel PHP Framework.

My Setup For Swaywm on Fedora

Overview

Decided to give Sway another try. It’s certainly been a while. Sway is intended to be a replacement for the X11 window manager i3wm. It’s just the Wayland version.

Showing Wireless Profile Keys In Plain Text Through CLI/PowerShell

Summary

Just remembered something that I had to do a while back where I needed to access a wireless network and I didn’t know the Key for it. I didn’t know the wireless key and the person I was requesting access from didn’t know either or forgot.

Cisco: Configure A Range Of Interfaces On A Switch

MySQL Server Connection Refusal

Overview

Sigh… It’s always DNS…

Install and Configure Jekyll on OpenBSD

Overview

These are some notes from some fun I had while installing and configuring Jekyll on OpenBSD 7.0-current. The installation wasn’t bad. I just want to document for future use.

Ruby 3.0 Installation On OpenBSD

Overview

This post goes through installing Ruby 3.0 on OpenBSD 7.0-current. This is here for reference so it’s easier in the future. Should there be changes to the ruby30 package, I will create another post for it.

Remove All AD User Group Memberships Except One Using PowerShell

Overview

Decided to post another fun one that I found on the Internet somewhere. I don’t remember the source. But, this has helped a lot. Some companies decide to keep users around. It’s the way it is. Managers need to see who is or was sending them email at the time they were terminated.

Exchange: Troubleshooting Mailbox with BadItemsLimit Errors (Unrecommended)

Overview

Sometimes when you export a mailbox they fail due to corrupted items in the mailbox. Although this method isn’t consider a best practice, it can get the job done. Ideally you would want to remove the bad/corrupted items in the mailbox and proceed with exporting. For whatever reason you can increase the BadItemLimit for the export request to get the job done. You can generally fix these items using a MailboxRepairRequest.

Exporting Mailbox to PST File In Microsoft Exchange

Overview

This article provides a Cmdlets for exporting a mailbox for an Exchange server. It also provides Cmdlets for viewing export requests. This can be useful in a number of ways. Say that you want to keep/archive mail of a user that has left the company. This is a good way to keep the data just in case there’s a need for it.

Deleting User Accounts In Windows

Overview

This article will go over deleting user accounts properly in Windows. That means deleting the user accounts home directory and the accounts user account in the registry.

Some Fun With Date and Get-Date For File Generation

Overview

Just going through an overview of how posts are named on this site. Meaning the file name. This is mostly for my own benefit. But, if it helps others organize their own sites, cool beans.

How I Setup vim-plug

Overview

Here I will be discussing my favorite Vim pluggin manager, vim-plug. I’ve been using it for years and I forget how to install it every time. So, I’m going to document how I set it up. Only distro that I install Vim on is Linux/BSD. I don’t really use it on Windows. So, that isn’t going to be included. The author of the Vim plugin will provide a method for it though. I will only do so if I decide to use it in Windows some day.

qBittorrent: Log Files Reference

Playing With The Windows 10 Sticky Keys Bypass

When Printing Freezes Google Chrome

Microsoft Outlook: Adding Shared Calendars

Uninstall Headaches With Webroot Secure Anywhere

Windows: NTFS & Share Permission Reference

Install & Watch Binary Defense's Artillery Work In A Azure Ubuntu VM