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We've created, appointed, or otherwise identified certain question/answer pairs that are the canonical answer for certain problems. A list of these problems is given in the accepted answer below.

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I don't think there is one yet, but someone should come up with a good one for hairpin NAT... – Zoredache Sep 8 '11 at 7:05
@Zoredache I found this one: serverfault.com/questions/252521/… But since I wrote the answer to it, don't feel like I should just add it to the list w/o feedback. – sysadmin1138♦ Sep 20 '11 at 11:59
Anyone know of a good one for [this question][1]? It keeps cropping up. [1]: serverfault.com/q/326631/9278 – John Gardeniers Nov 2 '11 at 1:57
What is the threshold for a canonical answer? I wrote a long post about remote desktop performance a few days ago, is that sufficiently general? – Nic Nov 23 '11 at 22:01
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@Nic It's kind of nebulous. It's a combination of a topic we run into somewhat regularly and an answer that really covers all of the general bases. – sysadmin1138♦ Nov 23 '11 at 22:13
@JohnGardeniers - I'll have a go at the DHCP question and answer when I get the time, if you like. – DJ Pon3 Dec 11 '11 at 12:04
I edited the question (and the answer) to wording that I think makes more sense for when it's linked to from the FAQ. I have no problem with the changes being rolled back if they don't seem suitable. Either way, I think all the comments on the question and answer should be stripped if this is going to be a link target from the FAQ. – Ward Jan 13 at 8:12
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7 Answers

up vote 39 down vote

These are the questions we have identified as Canonical:

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It'd be nice to get something under the "Career" section for "When does my small business need a SA" and perhaps "How many users/servers/whatever should a SA be responsible for". – Chris S♦ Aug 30 '11 at 12:50
@ChrisS Good idea. I recommend this indirect question and its answers. – Nils Mar 10 at 22:26
Actually, for the less experienced admins, the answer to "Server OS: (a.k.a. 'Best OS/Distro for [optional type] Server" is usually along the lines of "Whatever the most accessible to you guru is comfortable with. – dyasny May 12 at 17:26
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up vote 7 down vote

Maybe it would keep the canonical list cleaner if:

  • keep the canonical list as the top-voted answer
  • suggestions for questions/answers that should be on the list can either be separate answers, or maybe just comments on this answer
  • people delete comments or other answers when they've been included or rejected for the canonical list
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Good ideas all around. – sysadmin1138♦ Sep 9 '11 at 11:17
+1 for keep the canonical list as the top-voted answer :) – Bryan Jan 26 at 15:40
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up vote 3 down vote

I accidentally the whole chmod -R 777 /

Seems a valid candidate: Why is "chmod -R 777 /" destructive?

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up vote 2 down vote

I notice that we have a lot of "My cronjob is not working" questions, and the answers are often the same (Check your environment (PATH), look in the logs, remember that output is sent to the MAILTO address (root by default), optionally send your errors to syslog instead of via email).

The following questions are similar:

I am looking for Canonical answers to these common questions. If one cannot be found, I may write one myself if I have time.

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up vote 2 down vote

My promised attempt at a canonical "Two DHCP Servers, one network" answer

Can I have multiple DHCP servers on one network?

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This doesn't work. There's no canonical question. Two DHCP servers would be an answer, not a question. The first thing you'd say to someone who wanted to run two DHCP servers is, "What's your actual problem?" The answers will depend on the specifics of the question. "Tell me about multiple DHCP servers" may be a canonical question, but it's not a good SF question. If there are reasons for multiple DHCP servers or problems solved by multiple DHCP servers that occur repeatedly, any of those might be candidates for canonical questions. – David Schwartz Mar 11 at 14:57
@DavidSchwartz So you're saying that "I want to provide redundancy" and "I want load balancing" are two separate problems. I totally agree with that (and would be happy to edit both the question and the answer to reflect that). Where I think we disagree is that while they are separate problems, they are close enough (imho anyway) that they can be pointed at the same question and answer, because 90% of the chat about how such a thing would work, etc. will be identical. (continued...) – DJ Pon3 Mar 11 at 15:09
(Continued...) As such, I think it would be confusing to seperate the two subjects out in totally seperate questions, because they're 'close enough' that someone searching for a problem with 'redundancy' might read the 'load balancing' question and be confused. Far better to confront them with both scenarios and make them think about what they're trying to do (especially as most of the questions I read on the subject have a vague requirement to do both). It might be worth creating two answers under the one question to answer each scenario in detail. – DJ Pon3 Mar 11 at 15:12
Not just that. But "My DHCP servers run on Windows" is different from "My DHCP servers run on a router with factory firmware" which is different from "My DHCP servers run on a router with firmware I can customize". There is no canonical question here, as far as I can tell. "What are some issues involving running multiple DHCP servers?" is a bad SF question. Two answers under one question that answer two different questions is bad too, IMO. If there are two different scenarios or problems, they should get their own questions. – David Schwartz Mar 11 at 15:12
If the first thing you want to say to someone who asks a question is "Tell me more about why you want to do that, what you hope to accomplish, and what equipment you are using", it's just not a canonical question. – David Schwartz Mar 11 at 15:14
I'm sorry, but just repeating "there's no canonical question here" when I've pointed you at the types of question I'm hoping to address (serverfault.com/search?q=two+dhcp+servers) isn't moving the conversation forward. I'm happy to agree that the question and answer need improving, the point of this exercise is to produce one good question we can refer others to, after all. And bringing up "my DHCP server runs on windows.." vs. "my DHCP server runs on a router" seems unhelpfu to me; while I illustrated my answer with Windows screenshots, this isn't really a question about the platform. – DJ Pon3 Mar 11 at 15:16
It seems like these are many different questions about different scenarios. If there's one canonical question, I have no idea what it is. But it would be of the form, "I have problem X, how can I solve it?" And the answer would be either "Use two DHCP servers like this..." or "Don't use two DHCP servers, do this ...". (The difference it makes what your DHCP servers run on is that what you can control differs depending on it. For example, most SoHo routers have no way to control whether their DHCP server is authoritative nor can they relay. That will influence the solutions.) – David Schwartz Mar 11 at 15:29
There are many different scenarios, yes. I accept that my question and answer could be better worded, but in a large part your complaint almost seems to be that I chose not to answer the questions you wanted to see answered, more than anything else. My question and answer were not generally discussing how DHCP works (other than a quick primer to explain some concepts used in the answer), they were addressing a specific set of questions "Can I have more than one DHCP server on my network". While I would agree with anyone who said improvement was needed, I still think they stand up on their own. – DJ Pon3 Mar 11 at 15:51
@sysadmin1138 - would you consider adding this back to the list? I think it needs to go somewhere and (with all respect to David) there's only been one dissenting voice on the suitability of this one. – DJ Pon3 May 16 at 18:54
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up vote 1 down vote
  • Apache/.htacess and virtual hosts
    • A good answer would be helpful, as there's a deluge of these each day.
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up vote 0 down vote

It seems to me that one or both of these could go on the list:

What's your favorite ticketing system?

Good free Helpdesk software?

Or maybe they should be merged?

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Personally, I feel that both of those should be closed, not made canonical. – MDMarra Dec 8 '11 at 22:19
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@MarkM Or, alternatively, create something from them that can be used as a Close-As-Target [CAT, for short, as you've recently acquired one CAT yourself :) ] for ticketing questions -- See also the One True Licensing Question. – jscott Dec 8 '11 at 23:46
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+1 Agree with @MDMarra, as they fall under the category of Product or Service Recommendation which according to the FAQ.... you know the rest. – Bryan Jan 26 at 15:46
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