What is an edge server / router / device?

What is an edge server? We see some references to them, but we never see a definition.

From serverfault $pageUsers[$entry.posts[0].author].name

• It's usually a caching proxy server, located near the user accessing the data, used to improve bandwidth and latency to far away users while lessening the load on central servers.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network

  From David

• By EDGE do you mean Enhanced Data GSM Environment? It pretty much stores data files on remote servers with the specific purpose of streaming them over the internet.

  Edge Server – (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) Storage of data files on remote servers specifically designed for streaming over the Internet. EDGE is a faster version of GSM wireless service. EDGE enables data to be delivered at rates up to 384 Kbps on a broadband. The standard is based on the GSM standard and uses TDMA multiplexing technology. Source

  From Brandon

• An edge server, in a system administration context, is any server that resides on the "edge" between two networks, typically a private network and the Internet. Edge servers can serve different purposes depending on the context of the functionality in question.

  Some examples:

  • Security Context: usually a firewall, router or similar device
  • Application Context: a web load balancing server
  • Mail Context: some kind of hub server that forwards mail on to internal servers

  Usually an edge server has some kind of gateway responsibility for the internal/private network.

  From squillman

• There's also the Microsoft Exchange 2007-specific "Edge Transport" server, which usually sits in your organisation's DMZ and routes mail between the Internet and your Mailbox/Hub Transport server. Certain other MS products (SharePoint Services, for one) will want to send mail through an Edge Transport rather than a mailbox server.

  From RainyRat

• You may also treat EDGE Servers with respect to the devices and Sensor abstraction Layers in a RFID network. RFID EDGE Server products from BEA and IBM are very famous.

  From Vinod

• A Edge server can also be a element in live streaming topology. It's a server that has the role of a relay, it get the stream from the "core" server, and transmit it to the clients, this allow to bypass de bandwidth limit of the core, the clients won't use directly the core server :

  [CORE] ----------> [EDGE] ----------> [Clients]
          |                  '--------> [Clients]
          |
          '--------> [EDGE] ----------> [Clients]
                             '--------> [Clients]
  

  From Kedare

ScreenShare: command line and observe only.

Hi,

I have a wide TV screen that is attached to a Mac Mini. I am able to use this screen as a second screen using an application like ScreenRecycler. However, Sometimes I want to demonstrate what I am doing on my box on this TV screen. As this TV is attached to a Mac Mini, I want to have a screen sharing done reversed. As I know screen share can be done in observe mode and full screen, this would be more than sufficient. Because it would be pretty useless to run it continuously, I want it on demand. For this, I want to use SSH.

So the only thing I would like to know is, how do I start screen sharing in from a Terminal Session. On Windows, I could start an application by using "start notepad.exe", I am looking for something similar. Eventually, I want to make this work on other boxes too.

Thanks for your help!

From serverfault Shyam

• Opening a script can be done by using "open". As Screen Share does not really have a suitable manual around to play with, I can't find a default setting that makes it go full-screen.

  I use open vnc://remote-ip to make this work.

  Shyam : the easier way is to use iChat auto-accept scripts.
  From Shyam

Domain Forwarding | A Magento Store

I have installed Magento inside a folder called magento. The URL of the site currently looks like this:
http://gios.azamdevelopment.co.uk/magento/
We want our domain forwarded to the above URL and moreover, any links relative should work as well. e.g. http://gios.azamdevelopment.co.uk/magento/customer/account/login/
should ideally
be www.giosconcept.com/customer/account/login and so forth.

Thanks very much.

From serverfault WaZ

• There's no easy way to do this on the domain level, as domains don't handle protocol-specific information.

  One way you can accomplish this: If you have apache running on www.giosconcept.com, add Redirect / http://gios.azamdevelopment.co.uk/magento/ to the configuration which is responsible for serving the www.giosconcept.com domain. This is simplest, but won't preserve the URL in the user's address bar.

  If both domains are hosted on the same server, you can probably use apache's Alias directive to make the website behave exactly as you wish, including showing the proper URL in the user's address bar. In fact, if this is the case, you should be able to set the same directory to the root of the www.giosconcept.com domain (using the Directory directive)

  WaZ : Hi Darth thanks for your reply. this is what I did: I created a new folder called gioslive and copied the magento installation here. Then forwarded the domain to this directory. However, now if you surf http://www.giosconcept.com/ it throws a PHP error. I dont know what I am doing wrong here?

  Darth Android : @WaZ Many php packages need to know both the path to the installation directory and the url to reach the root of the package. Double check that these are accurate after moving the files. Otherwise I can't help any more without more detailed information on the error.
  From Darth Android

Picking a degree path...

I'll be going to University of South Florida soon, and have to choose between two degrees, I want to head into general Server (IT) administration for a small / medium business. Setting up computers, imaging, managing file servers / logon servers /etc.

I have two degrees I'm currently choosing between:

• BSAS http://www.poly.usf.edu/Academics/AppliedAS/BSAS-IT/Program_of_Study.html
  
• BSIT http://www.poly.usf.edu/IT/
  
  

I like the idea of a BSAS because it'll get me out sooner, and then I can work on a few certifications to "match" the BSIT... I'm just worried companies will look at that as a "lesser" degree to a BSIT (or even a CS degree.)

What are your guys' thoughts on these two degrees? The BSIT has more math, which I still have about 2 more classes to go through (I'll be heading to USF this August.) while the BSIT doesn't require those 2 extra math classes.

I keep on hearing from people that when they hire you for your first job, they don't care which degree you have, as long as it's relevant and it's a 4-year degree, is this true?

From serverfault Chris

• If there was a case where two people where applying for the job and they had identical experience, certifications, and the thing different was which of those two degree they had, then it may matter. But it is pretty rare to have candidates that are nearly identical.

  So the answer is, that which IT degree you get probably doesn't matter unless you are in one of those rare cases where it does.

  Either degree should be able to prepare you to work in IT if you put in the effort to learn.

  Chris S : I largely agree, though I would add that certain programs will push you into intercurricular activities more than others. These are the programs you want, a degree by itself isn't as much as degree with plenty of degree-relevant outside activities.
  From Zoredache

• A 4-year degree seems excessive for an IT administration job. Best to stick your nose into a series of vendor (like Cisco, Windows Server, Oracle, etc) course books and memorise them cover to cover.

  If you want to do development or advanced networking then a degree may offer some help. Regardless of what you learn at university it is a generally acknowledged fact that you will be of no practical use in the workplace until you've had a bit of a experience.

  Trade qualifications and vendor courses offer skills more immediately useful to an employer - so if you're in a hurry to start administration this may be your best bet.

  For the record I have a 4-year electrical engineering degree.

  From PP

• From my experience on both sides of the interview table your college degree matters less than your practical skills. That said, if you're going to be doing more than just simple grunt-work administration the "harder" degree with the extra math may be worth pursuing.

  It's a bit of an inside joke in my circle that the best way to pick a *NIX administrator is to select the one who has been to bartending school.

  From voretaq7

Apache VirtualHost, multiple sites. 1 ssl with redirect and 1 regular http

I've got a server with one site which I am redirecting to https via

<VirtualHost *:80>
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/secure
     ServerName secure.com
     Redirect / https://secure.com
</VirtualHost>

That works no problem.

Now I'm trying to add another non-secure site

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/notsecure
    ServerName notsecure.com
</VirtualHost>

of course, because the redirect is on '/', all sites are getting redicted. I've tried changing the Redirect to the full document root, but no luck.

From serverfault

• If you have NameVirtualHost on, you have to use the IP. NameVirtualHost is needed if you are running SSL, or running VirtualHosts on different IP addresses.

  <VirtualHost 172.16.4.1:80>
       DocumentRoot /var/www/html/secure
       ServerName secure.com
       Redirect / https://secure.com
  </VirtualHost>
  
  <VirtualHost 17.16.4.1:80>
      DocumentRoot /var/www/html/notsecure
      ServerName notsecure.com
  </VirtualHost>
  

  From djdicbob

• Use mod_rewrite:

  Your conf should look like this:

   <VirtualHost *:80> 
   DocumentRoot /var/www/html/secure
   ServerName secure.com
  
   RewriteEngine On  
   RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off  
   RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}`
  
  </VirtualHost>
  

  joschi : `Redirect` is fine. mod_rewrite is not the hammer matching the nail this time.
  From w00t

• Try the following configuration:

  NameVirtualHost *:80
  NameVirtualHost *:443
  
  # default virtual host
  <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName _default_
      DocumentRoot /var/www/html/default
  </VirtualHost>
  
  <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName secure.com
      DocumentRoot /var/www/html/secure
      RedirectPermanent / https://secure.com
  </VirtualHost>
  
  <VirtualHost *:443>
      ServerName secure.com
      DocumentRoot /var/www/html/secure
      SSLEngine on
      # other SSL related directives
  </VirtualHost>
  
  <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName notsecure.com
      DocumentRoot /var/www/html/notsecure
  </VirtualHost>
  

  You should also take a look at the VirtualHost Examples in the Apache httpd documentation.

  From joschi

Port-forwarding on livebox to router

Hello,

At home, I have two routers, one Livebox and a Netgear. The reason why I need the Livebox is that the phone line cannot be connected to the Netgear router.

So I have the Livebox connected to the phone line, the Netgear connected to the Livebox, and all PCs connected to the Netgear.

My issue is that for every application or port that I want to give external access, I have to create entry in both the Livebox and the Netgear routers; so I would like to know if there's a way to automatically forward all requests to the Netgear router, from which I will then forward to the required IP:port.

Thanks in advance.

From serverfault Yusuf

• Why use two routers? You can just use the netgear as a switch and only the livebox as the router for all pcs, then manage your Port Fwd from the livebox.

  Anyway, to answer your question, it should be achievable. Unfortunately I am not familiar with the Livebox / Netgear interface, but on other routers I have seen Port Forwarding by range. You specify a range of ports and where you want them forwarded and that's it.

  Yusuf : Ah, it's true that I did not think of that!! But I'm using one of the computers on the network as server (with Win 2008 R2), would that cause any problem? And then, there seems to be a limit to the number of entries for port-forwarding...

  w00t : There shouldn't be any problem with the Windows server. Suppose you forward port 80 to the Server and you want the first 2000 ports forwarded to Netgear, just specify 1-79 as the first range and 81-2000 as the second range. These are two separate entries.
  From w00t

• You need to put the livebox (only Inventel models i think) in bridge mode and then you'll be able to manage all your routing from your Netgear router. If you can't put the livebox in bridge mode then you'll have to redirect a wide port range to the Netgear router.

  Yusuf : How do I achieve the bridge mode? Is there any general description you can give me please? Or is it specific to the router?
  From Maxwell

rdiff-backup command restore with date

If a backup was made using rdiff-backup command for some particular date what is the format that should be given to restore the files for that particular date.

        rdiff-bakup -r "dateformat" backup/a.txt /destination-dir

Thanks..

From serverfault Hulk

• From the rdiff-backup(1) manual:

     5.     A date format of the form YYYY/MM/DD, YYYY-MM-DD, MM/DD/YYYY, or
            MM-DD-YYYY,  which  indicates  midnight  on the day in question,
            relative  to  the  current  timezone  settings.   For  instance,
            "2002/3/5",  "03-05-2002",  and  "2002-3-05" all mean March 5th,
            2002.
  

  From PowerSp00n