CentOS - Feb 2012 - Ways To Practice Breaking My System?

Hi All

I've been looking into some ways to break a CentOS system so I can 
perform some simulated disaster recovery and get some hands-on practice 
with rescue mode and other system recovery tools. I'm thinking to start 
off with things like corrupting the password file with random 
characters, breaking grub.conf.

I've been doing some research on the net, but would welcome any input 
from list members. Does anybody have any creative suggestions for ways 
to break the CentOS boot process?

Thanks in advance :)


Alex.

On 21/02/2012, Alex Walker <tech at alexwalker.org.uk>
wrote:
> Does anybody have any creative suggestions for ways
> to break the CentOS boot process?
I have *not* actually tried it myself, but this might help you:
  http://trouble-maker.sourceforge.net/

On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 3:45 AM, Alex Walker <tech at alexwalker.org.uk>
wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I've been looking into some ways to break a CentOS system so I can
> perform some simulated disaster recovery and get some hands-on practice
> with rescue mode and other system recovery tools. I'm thinking to start
> off with things like corrupting the password file with random
> characters, breaking grub.conf.
>
> I've been doing some research on the net, but would welcome any input
> from list members. Does anybody have any creative suggestions for ways
> to break the CentOS boot process?
>
> Thanks in advance :)
>
>
> Alex.
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

Things like boot process rarely break. Try something like filling up your
root or tmp partition. That just seems to be a bit more common as far as
problem scenarios go.

Good luck:)

Boris.

On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 2:45 AM, Alex Walker <tech at alexwalker.org.uk>
wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I've been looking into some ways to break a CentOS system so I can
> perform some simulated disaster recovery and get some hands-on practice
> with rescue mode and other system recovery tools. I'm thinking to start
> off with things like corrupting the password file with random
> characters, breaking grub.conf.
>
> I've been doing some research on the net, but would welcome any input
> from list members. Does anybody have any creative suggestions for ways
> to break the CentOS boot process?
>
>
If you want a real workout, try restoring your backups on a different
machine - where more hardware differences or raid layout changes can make
it harder.  It is also a realistic thing to need to do.  Grub isn't nearly
as likely to fail as a disk drive, motherboard, or power supply.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com

Pull out one of the hard drives while it's still running and see if
RAID keeps up. For more fun, see how the latencies increase!

On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 3:45 AM, Alex Walker <tech at alexwalker.org.uk>
wrote:
> Hi All
>
> I've been looking into some ways to break a CentOS system so I can
> perform some simulated disaster recovery and get some hands-on practice
> with rescue mode and other system recovery tools. I'm thinking to start
> off with things like corrupting the password file with random
> characters, breaking grub.conf.
>
> I've been doing some research on the net, but would welcome any input
> from list members. Does anybody have any creative suggestions for ways
> to break the CentOS boot process?
>
> Thanks in advance :)
>
>
> Alex.
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

On 2/21/2012 1:45 AM, Alex Walker wrote:
>
> I've been looking into some ways to break a CentOS system so I can
> perform some simulated disaster recovery
Bring up a fresh CentOS 6.0 system.  Disable automatic updates.  Add a 
bunch of third-party software.  Install at least one bit of hardware so 
nonstandard you're forced to install a driver from source.  Then do all 
the system updates, and immediately reboot.

Ideally, nothing should break, because all the upgrades will have 
proceeded cleanly and migrated everything forward nicely.  Doesn't 
always happen.  The more third-party software and nonstandard hardware 
you throw into the mix, the more likely you will run across one of these 
corner cases.

on 2/21/2012 12:45 AM Alex Walker spake the following:
> Hi All
>
> I've been looking into some ways to break a CentOS system so I can
> perform some simulated disaster recovery and get some hands-on practice
> with rescue mode and other system recovery tools. I'm thinking to start
> off with things like corrupting the password file with random
> characters, breaking grub.conf.
>
> I've been doing some research on the net, but would welcome any input
> from list members. Does anybody have any creative suggestions for ways
> to break the CentOS boot process?
>
> Thanks in advance :)
>
>
> Alex.
You can always turn off the firewall and point it to the internet... Some 
kiddy will break it for you!  ;)