It is assumed that you already have VLANs configured on your switch and router. This post only describes how to configure the ports that your APs connect to. If you want to use VLANs on Ubiquiti’s UniFi line of access points, the switch ports they connect to must offer a native or untagged VLAN in… Continue reading Ubiquiti UniFi Access Points with VLANs on Juniper EX switches
Comparing Lists in Python
If you have two lists that have the same content in a different order (1, 2, 3, vs 3, 2, 1) are they they the same or different? Python considers them to be different. In some cases order may not matter to you, and you just want to know if the same items exist in… Continue reading Comparing Lists in Python
Shell scripting: Iterate over a list line-by-line instead of word-by-word
Let’s say a directory contains these files: My First File.txtMy Second File.txt If you wanted to take an action on each distinct file, you might try something like this: for file in `ls ~`; do echo $file; done The output will look like below, because the spaces and line breaks are both treated delineators of… Continue reading Shell scripting: Iterate over a list line-by-line instead of word-by-word
Munki nopkg to turn Bluetooth on and off
I’ve posted a Munki nopkg installer to control Bluetooth. Assigning it for install causes Bluetooth to be (re)enabled whenever Munki runs. Uninstallation turns Bluetooth off. https://github.com/davidmnelson/munki-nopkg/blob/master/BluetoothEnabled.plist
Restrict Access to WordPress with Nginx and GeoIP
The goal of this post is to harden your WordPress dashboard by preventing logins from countries where you know you will never be connecting. Since brute-force login attempts may still originate from an allowed country, it would be wise to combine this with other tools like fail2ban or one of the numerous plug-ins that add… Continue reading Restrict Access to WordPress with Nginx and GeoIP
Automatically update CentOS 7 with yum-cron
Install yum-cron: sudo yum -y install yum-cron Open /etc/yum/yum-cron.conf in your favorite editor and make sure each of the following values are set to ‘yes’. update_messages = yes download_updates = yes apply_updates = yes Other optional settings in yum-cron.conf # Change from ‘default’ to ‘security’ # if you only want security fixes. update_cmd = security… Continue reading Automatically update CentOS 7 with yum-cron
Automatically Update WordPress, Themes, and Plugins using WP-CLI
WordPress is a hugely popular blog/CMS platform, but with widespread adoption comes risk: It is a common target for hackers, exploits, etc. Accordingly, you should make sure it gets regular updates. WordPress has a built-in update mechanism but this also requires that its PHP files be writable by the web server, introducing a new set… Continue reading Automatically Update WordPress, Themes, and Plugins using WP-CLI
Monitoring Apple Caching Server Status via MunkiReport
Occasionally the Caching service on macOS will stop working due to a network outage or a glitch on Apple’s end. It’s a simple enough fix — all you have to do is turn the service off and on again. But how do you know that it’s offline? It’s easy if you use MunkiReport with the… Continue reading Monitoring Apple Caching Server Status via MunkiReport
Creating HFS+ disk images from folders in High Sierra
In macOS 10.13, if you use Disk Utility to create a new image from a folder, it will be APFS formatted. These images can only be read on 10.12 or newer, and there’s no option to pick a different format in the GUI. Instead you can use hdiutil in Terminal make a folder into an HFS+… Continue reading Creating HFS+ disk images from folders in High Sierra
Munki, Monolithic Imaging, and Microsoft Office 2016 Volume License Serializer
If you have Macs that were cloned from an already-activated system (either via monolithic imaging, or one-off machines that were migrated or experienced hardware failure) you will find that your Office 2016 activation is broken. You will also find that Munki doesn’t know it needs to re-run the Office 2016 serializer since a receipt already… Continue reading Munki, Monolithic Imaging, and Microsoft Office 2016 Volume License Serializer