vzfree utility to check memory usage in OpenVZ VPS

How to, Linux, OpenSource, Resources, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials, Ubuntu, Virtual Private Server
From the official blog post Gee. It has been a while since I’ve last written here, and it will be a while again for my next post as I will be on holidays from next Monday (visiting families in Hong Kong and Taiwan). Let me share one small utility program that I wrote quite a while ago. We all know that the Linux command free(1) is pretty useless inside an OpenVZ VE, even those with meminfo virtualised. So I basically wrote this little util to grab the data from the dreadful user_beancounters and format them into something useful. It’s written in C and only depends on libc so it’s pretty light weight. It also does a little bit of analysis instead of just dumping the data, which I will explain…
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Find memory consumed by currently running processes on Linux?

CentOS, How to, Linux, OpenSource, Resources, Reviews, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials, Ubuntu, Virtual Private Server
I always had the question (when I am running plenty of scripts on a linux box as to what is eating up all the memory? Finding memory consumed by current running processes in your favorite linux distro. Luckily, I found a great Python utility (scriplet to be exact). (more…)
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NAGIOS 3 with notifications on twitter

Experiments, How to, Linux, OpenSource, Resources, Social Networking, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials, Virtual Private Server
I have been experimenting with NAGIOS3 on Ubuntu (I will write a how-to-install on NAGIOS later) and it has served me very good in monitoring my 7 VPS from different providers in different part of the world. I have already recorded 3 hours of downtime from ThrustVPS which is a great deal for me. I now know which VPS has the best time and which ones have hiccups (e.g. my 2Host VPS gave me two unreachable notifications but the VPS was running and still reports the uptime as 4 days). Since I use twitter more, even when Im on the road, notifications via email is a bit slow for me. Luckily I found a great tutorial online to do that. (more…)
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Not getting a package on Ubuntu?

How to, Resources, Reviews, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials, Ubuntu, Virtual Private Server
If you are not getting a package on Ubunu using apt-get then chances are that it has not been updated in the /etc/apt/sources.list file For example, the following should be there in the sources.list file if you are running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (codename lucid) [code] ## main & restricted repositories deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-updates main restricted deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-updates main restricted deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security main restricted deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security main restricted ## universe repositories - uncomment to enable deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid universe deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid universe deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates universe deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates universe deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security universe deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security universe [/code]
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How to install byte-unixBench on Ubuntu

How to, Resources, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials, Ubuntu
From UnixBench project homepage: UnixBench is the original BYTE UNIX benchmark suite, updated and revised by many people over the years. The purpose of UnixBench is to provide a basic indicator of the performance of a Unix-like system; hence, multiple tests are used to test various aspects of the system's performance. These test results are then compared to the scores from a baseline system to produce an index value, which is generally easier to handle than the raw scores. The entire set of index values is then combined to make an overall index for the system. Some very simple graphics tests are included to measure the 2D and 3D graphics performance of the system. Multi-CPU systems are handled. If your system has multiple CPUs, the default behaviour is to run…
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$1.99 Domain Names from GoDaddy

Promotions and Offers, Resources, Reviews
Yes, its true. GoDaddy is now selling domain names for just $1.99 ($2.19 after adding 20 cent ICANN fee). All you need to do is use the coupon 199BUYCOM before checkout. You dont need to buy additional services to avail this offer. This offer has the following limitations Only valid for one new domain name or domain name transfer per account Valid for 7,500 orders or 07-July-2009, whichever comes first. Enjoy! Updates: Working as of 05th July 2009. I just registered a domain name using this coupon.
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