Tag: sysadmin

The Operator’s KVM Bible

~ Tom's IT Cafe ~ Leave a comment

When the enterprise behind one of the widespread hypervisors was acquired:
many sysadmins decided to move on.

  • Most of them chose a Linux-based open-source alternative.
  • Many of them migrated to the Microsoft ecosystem.
  • They chased the same workflow, the same features they had before.

Only a very few operators dared to rework their processes and architecture.

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machines) is part of the Linux kernel.
It is a stable and fast hypervisor.

  • A carefully configured host OS for KVM can reduce the attack surface compared to feature-heavy hypervisors.
  • The libvirt API enables secure automation and configuration management.
  • KVM can host Linux, Windows and BSD virtual machines as well.
  • It ships an ecosystem of mature tools for the operators in charge.

KVM is not a downgrade. It’s a sideways step.

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The Forgotten Basics: Why ps, grep, and awk Still Beat Fancy Tools

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The Forgotten Basics

Modern dashboards look impressive. Yet, when systems fail, we return to the shell.
The basics – ps, grep, awk, ip, nmcli, sed, uniq, sort – never left.

They are still the quickest path between question and answer.

This post is not nostalgia. It’s about precision, control, and speed.
The old tools survive because they do exactly what we ask.

The UNIX philosophy is still alive: one task – one tool.

Continue reading “The Forgotten Basics: Why ps, grep, and awk Still Beat Fancy Tools” →