Re: Linux in the Olivet Community Schools

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>>links to pages on the LINUX server at OCS.  The problem is that regularly 
>>>users have no access to the Olivet Middle School (& other linked pages from 
>>>the olivet page) AND their attempts to use mail.olivetschools.org from outside 
>>>the local network fail.  Similarly, I cannot use FTP into the server
>>>to update the middle school pages when this problem holds.  You can see
>>>the problem if it persists by looking at the URL:  olivetschools.org.
>Unfortunately, I cannot 'look at' that URL since DNSs don't recognize it
>at this point.

Right, but you said the problem was intermittant.  Keep the IPs around so you can test with ping when it stops working again.
 
>>It should be very easy to test.  Document the IP address of the mentioned
>>hosts with "nslookup" (DOS or Win??/2000).  
>nslookup did indeed give me the IP adadress of server.remc12.k12.mi.us but 
>my attempts to get more information on the site from nslookup always led
>to the error message: 
>*** can't list domain 204.38.209.124: Unspecified error

~ $ dig olivetschools.org
; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> olivetschools.org 
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;	olivetschools.org, type = A, class = IN
;; ANSWER SECTION:
olivetschools.org.	11h59m56s IN A	198.108.181.2
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
olivetschools.org.	11h59m56s IN NS  willow-dmz.olivetschools.org.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
willow-dmz.olivetschools.org.  11h59m56s IN A  198.108.181.2

>The IP address for "olivetschools.org" when it was working was 
>198.108.181.2, but now I can't check it ...
>NOW that is a legitimate IP address.  Must have just fixed it.
>I can now use ftp to get to the site by either IP address or name.
>This is quite frustrating!  Since there is now no problem apparently,
>I may have trouble tracing the earlier fault.  Presumably some did
>something at one end or the other.  It cleared close to 5PM.  Could it
>have been some equipment being shut down or the load going down?

Possible.

>>Then when you can't connect
>>simply do a "ping {address}" (for example: ping 192.168.1.2), starting with
>>what you think is the closeset host (the Linux box?) involved in the 
>>connection.... when the ping stops working you've found the broken link.
>>If you can ping all the hosts (BY ADDRESS NOT NAME) then it is a DNS
>>problem (which it doesn't sound like,  why whould a DNS problem by
>>intermittant?).  Try typing the IP of the host in as your URL instead of
>>the name and see if you get a page.
>Since I can now ping both the remc site and the olivetschools"site", I
>have nothing to learn from pinging, right?

Not till it stops working again.

>>>problem is in a local DNS address but I doubt that.   Because of the
>>>peculiar hardware intermediate access to the internet, the problem could be 
>>>at either end of that hardware line (REMC12 or OCS).
>>What type of line is it?  Analog, Frame, T1, 64k leased, ISDN.....  
>Don't know and can't find out now but shall enquire.
>>ALL TYPES OF SYSTEMS NEED THEIR MESSAGE LOGS REVIEWED ON A FREQUENT
>>BASIS.
>I'll discuss that with the current system managers.
>>>Now:  How can I keep this LINUX server functioning smoothly so that it
>>>is not dumped for some expensive proprietary software?  Does the LINUX 
>>>server manager need to check the system for message regularly?  
>>YES, just like the Novell and NT admin has to.  You could easily set it up
>>to mail you the message logs, etc...
>Great idea.  I'll ask.
>>>Is there a way I can be given permission to access the server remotely 
>>>regularly to check for problems?  
>>If you can politically, the technology is not a problem.  You can use
>>telnet, rlogin, ssh, etc.... to access the box remotely.  Which is
>>easiest depends on the boxes vintage.
>It runs of RH 6.2 I believe.

Probably telnet then initially,  remeber to use tcpwrappers so the whole world can't connect.

Like they can now:

Trying 198.108.181.2...
Connected to 198.108.181.2.
Escape character is '^]'.

Red Hat Linux release 6.0 (Hedwig)
Kernel 2.2.5-15 on an i686
login: 

No comment... (which is very hard for me)