My main purpose for the blog at the beginning was to create a place where I could write quick articles about problems I found and how to fix them. Most of the people around me were using their own handy systems to store notes (Stickies on the Mac, Tomboy notes on Linux, or just simple text files), but they weren't able to share them easily. I wanted a way to write up a solution and instantly share it with someone. I also wanted that person to be able to pass along the fix to someone else if they wanted.

Needless to say, it took off from there.

It's important to note that I couldn't have done this by myself. I've learned some efficient strategies for managing large systems and troubleshooting complex issues from my peers, my managers, and colleagues outside of Rackspace. There have been many triumphs and there have been quite a few failures.

The failures have taught me the most. I've made some pretty large mistakes and here are a few:

• inserted data into a MySQL slave in an active replication pair
• run a fsck on an online ext3 partition
• marked a failed drive online in a hardware RAID array
• mangled Plesk installations in ways that you can't comprehend
• typed 'reboot' into a terminal and pressed enter, only to realize I was in the wrong terminal
• ran UPDATE statements without a WHERE clause in MySQL (well, I only did this one twice)

Even after all that, people occasionally tell me that I'm very good at what I do. I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm glad some people think so! Many of those folks end up asking me this question:

How do I learn how to be a successful Linux systems administrator?

My answer is this: Be humble. Always be thirsty for knowledge. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Love what you do and the people you serve.

400th post: Looking back at where this blog started is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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Movember 2010

The Movember Foundation currently passes along the proceeds to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG.

If you'd like to make a donation, you can do that on my member page.

Raising money for prostate cancer research and survivor support is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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After the post went up, I received as much feedback from people outside of Rackspace as I received from Rackers.  The negative feedback I received was centered around the assertion that the post's content was "fluffed" to make the Rackspace experience seem better than it actually is.  That couldn't be further from the truth.

If you want to make comments on the post, or if you want to know more about working at Rackspace, let me know.  Although I'm not in sales and I'm not in recruiting, I always enjoy talking to people about using Rackspace's services or working for Rackspace.

Here's a link to the post: Rackspace Talent - Why I'm a Racker

Why I'm a Racker is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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Call to undefined method wpdb::has_cap() in schema.php on line 22

Even though I followed the instructions on the WordPress site, and I disabled all of my plugins, the error kept appearing. The only parts of the site that remained unchanged after the upgrade were the wp-config.php page and the wp-content directory. I merged the changes in wp-config.php, but the error was still present.

In frustration, I renamed the wp-content directory to a temporary name and uploaded the wp-content provided from the WordPress tarball. The upgrade completed without a problem! I deleted the new wp-content directory, put the old wp-content directory back in place, and WordPress sprang to life!

It's certainly possible that a WordPress plugin blocked the upgrade process even though it was disabled in the database.

Upgraded to WordPress 2.7 is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the changes. Have a great weekend!

New look is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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Here's the exact numbers as of tonight:

2008 Year to Date:

• Sessions: 501,166
• Pageviews: 2,506,011
• Hits: 7,414,333
• Bytes Transferred: 65.19GB

2007 Totals:

• Sessions: 65,849
• Pageviews: 427,923
• Hits: 1,199,403
• Bytes Transferred: 36.22GB

Thanks to everyone for making this blog so popular! It started as a simple place to stash knowledge that I've gained during my work as a Linux systems administrator, but it's turned into something that helps people around the world with their daily work.

Thank you!

Thanks for making RackerHacker so popular! is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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