Server monitoring is something server admins put off until, well, it's too late. Server admins have all experienced clients calling in to let them know that a service on their server is not working. This can be unfortunate and embarrassing at the very least. I thought I'd document a number of utilities I use to monitor Linux servers. Snort. Snort is a NIDS and NIPS, and one of the most famous network security tools.

OpenVPN is a great project. It's a shame that their Windows compilation is this painful. After spending hours trying to compile OpenVPN 2.1_rc7 on Windows using Visual C++, I thought I'd document the process for the benefit of others, and for my own future reference. Prerequisites: OpenVPN 2.1_rc7 source package OpenSSL 0.9.8g source package LZO 2.03 source package A working Visual C++ 2008 installation (Express/older editions should work, although I haven't tested them) ActivePerl (for compiling OpenSSL) Build steps: Extract all of the source packages somewhere in their own directories.