IT Operations

Become an infrastructure developer to get code to production faster

Wondering where to take your IT career in a future that is increasingly software-defined? Learn the role of an infrastructure developer from one expert with experience in the field. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

AWS' managed Kubernetes service faces tough competition in GKE

Amazon's native integration of Kubernetes puts all the major cloud providers on the same playing field, but it's not an even match. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Microsoft Project Honolulu shows promise but needs work

Microsoft Project Honolulu is still in the technical preview stage, but it needs to resolve a number of issues before it's a viable alternative to manage production machines. Continue Reading

By

• Richard Siddaway, Independent consultant

Hunt zombie VMs and control virtualization sprawl

VM tagging is an effective tactic for discovering and eliminating zombie VMs. Cut useless VMs, redundant data and confusing configurations to enable efficient resource consumption and limit VM sprawl. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Select the best container monitoring tools for your environment

Organizations that run containers should monitor them, too. Choose container monitoring that integrates into other systems monitoring tools, or take a different route. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

What types of VHD files does Hyper-V support?

Fixed VHD files, dynamic VHD files, and differential or differencing VHD files are all supported by Hyper-V. Learn more about these file types and the best use cases for each. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Cloud-based email security tools barricade entry to Exchange

The pressure is on Exchange administrators to avoid a ransomware outbreak that cripples the on-premises email system. Cloud-based security tools can help blunt trending attacks. Continue Reading

By

• Reda Chouffani, Biz Technology Solutions

Seven steps to move a DevOps team into the ML and AI world

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can bring a lot to the software development and deployment table. But patience and experimentation will be key to make it work in an enterprise. Continue Reading

By

• Torsten Volk, Principal Analyst

512e disks attempt to bridge the gap between 512n and 4Kn

It's important to ensure that your OS and hypervisor support 512e and 4Kn disks, but there are always alternatives to work around any incompatibilities. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

IT's application support model depends on everyone outside IT

IT wants to reduce application outages, boost performance and make users more productive. The best way to achieve these goals is to welcome outsiders onto the app support team. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

Migrating public folders requires extensive planning

Do your homework to find the right option for public folders when making a move to Exchange Online. Here are guidelines to help you navigate the requirements and limitations. Continue Reading

By

• Neil Hobson

What are the best log consolidation and storage methods?

Storing log data is an important part of the log management process. Maintain performance, security and backup policies with careful log consolidation. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

SaltStack Enterprise GUI features outreach Salt Open territory

For enterprise IT shops that require a mix of reports on systems, and audit compliance, SaltStack Enterprise offers more than the pure open source version of Salt. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

Azure AD B2B offers a secure way to grant external access

Organizations that open up their resources to external users can restrict access using the Azure AD B2B service with minimal effort on the part of the administrators. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

What logging best practices can help with log management?

Logs can produce immense amounts of data, but logging standards, such as standardized formats and security procedures, can help IT professionals minimize information overload. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

PowerShell 6 expands reach but lags behind Windows version

Cross-platform PowerShell arrived without all the functionality that's available in Windows PowerShell -- but it brings the ability to manage Linux and macOS systems. Continue Reading

By

• Richard Siddaway, Independent consultant

Microservices management tools harmonize polyglot chaos

IT ops must replenish its toolkit to standardize infrastructure management and let developers experiment with the latest programming languages and application designs. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

Monoliths-to-microservices move refactors IT ops skills

As enterprises seek speed and efficiency with microservices, IT ops pros must learn skills and consolidate tools to deal with increased infrastructure and application complexity. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

How do you analyze log data for relevant information?

Log files can contain enormous amounts of potentially useful information, but without log data analysis and log filtering, it can be difficult to sort, prioritize and read. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Salary snapshot: Which city has the highest DevOps pay scale?

Salary data from Glassdoor shows DevOps experience continues to give paychecks a substantial advantage over other developer roles. If you want to make the most money, move to San Francisco. Continue Reading

By

• Valerie Silverthorne

How does an effective logging strategy improve data analysis?

Logs and log analytics can produce vast amounts of information. Save time and use resources efficiently with an effective logging strategy that prioritizes relevant data. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

How to list the Hyper-V virtual processors configured for VMs

To see virtual processors configured for VMs on the local host, execute a simple PowerShell command. For vCPUs configured for VMs on remote servers, a script is needed. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

Build the Kubernetes home lab that's right for your job

Kubernetes and the growing number of commercial container management tools based on it require specialized skills and experience from the application to the infrastructure. Continue Reading

Follow this Minikube tutorial to brew up a Kubernetes home lab

Set up a Minikube home lab, and begin exploring Kubernetes container orchestration before the coffee in your mug turns cold. Continue Reading

By

• Alastair Cooke

Learn Kubernetes infrastructure in a personal lab

Live servers are not the place to build up Kubernetes skills. Instead, set up a Kubernetes cluster, and start experimenting with it on a laptop in a lab. Continue Reading

By

• Alastair Cooke

Windows Server 2019 preview draws Azure closer

Windows Server 2019 will come with a number of enhancements to cater to administrators who want a tighter connection to the Azure cloud platform, Microsoft said. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Walat, Editor

Use the Hyper-V QoS feature to manage storage IOPS

Quality of service addresses storage IOPS limitations by enabling administrators to stipulate a minimum and maximum IOPS value for a virtual hard disk. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

'Accelerate' with the DevOps Research and Assessment team

DevOps success will require a focus on learning and an expectation of high-performance. The DORA team explains in its new book, 'Accelerate: The Science of DevOps.' Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Dowd, Associate Site Editor

Kubernetes 1.10 release hits mature enterprise container market

Kubernetes 1.10 adds incremental feature updates, but enterprises will look to third-party products to integrate upstream code before they embrace it. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

Using Microsoft Exchange certificates requires planning

Exchange certificates typically require minimal management effort after they have been set up, and they offer a secure means of communication between different organizations. Continue Reading

By

• Nathan O'Bryan, Planet Technologies

Enable and disable vTPM on Hyper-V VMs with PowerShell cmdlets

If you don't have Guarded Fabric or Shielded VMs, which have the Trusted Platform Module feature built-in, you need to manually enable virtual TPM for your Hyper-V VMs using PowerShell. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

CloudBees Jenkins Enterprise snags raise roadmap questions

CloudBees' Jenkins software is slated for major updates after strong revenue growth in 2017, but customers and partners report struggles with upgrades, pricing and support. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

Hyper-V Manager update in Windows Server 2016 replete with features

Microsoft developed several improvements to Hyper-V Manager in Windows Server 2016. These new Hyper-V features improve VM management with added security and flexibility options. Continue Reading

By

• Luciano Patrão, Elits Global Group

Automated continuous deployment tools produce successful code

Continuous deployment skips the operations oversight step in software production. So, automated tools must ensure code success in administrators' stead -- before mistakes go live. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Predictive IT analytics improves distributed application monitoring

Data analysis on app performance isn't an instantaneous process, but it's worth the wait given the time it will save IT admins in problem-solving in the future. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Manually initiate the Hyper-V replication failover process

Hyper-V replication failover only requires two steps. But before you initiate failover, perform some tests to ensure the recovery point has consistent data. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

DevOps Research and Assessment team dispels maturity model myths

'Accelerate: The Science of DevOps' examines the hard data to see how current development methodology is really performing. In this excerpt, the focus is on capabilities, not maturity. Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Dowd, Associate Site Editor

Windows Defender Credential Guard secures login data

Windows Defender Credential Guard uses virtualization to isolate access to domain credentials and diminish the threat of attacks based inside the data center. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Three steps to plan a self-service IT portal that actually works

There's no point to a self-service IT portal if the offerings are out of touch with how its users conduct business or the instant builds are on hold while additional capacity spins up. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Use the right DevSecOps tools for more secure development

Making applications safer requires more than just new tools; it also requires a cultural shift. DevSecOps is an effort to shift security left. Here's how to get started. Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Dowd, Associate Site Editor

Plan ahead: Build a container network for scalability

Container connectivity is no small problem for enterprises with large Docker and Kubernetes deployments. Bring in tools designed to support the workload. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Intel microcode updates complicate admin patching duties

March Patch Tuesday adds several more mitigations for the Spectre and Meltdown exploits, this time for 32-bit server and client operating systems. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Walat, Editor

Assess Salt configuration management's capabilities and limitations

Salt's benefits for IT operations include fast configuration and flexible, responsive functioning. Get a handle on the basics of Salt, then install it to explore the tool's capabilities. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

Want to be the best at DevOps? You need a DevOps bot

A DevOps bot with access to all business, technical and customer profile information would make software development and deployment a breeze. Expert Torsten Volk introduces DOBO. Continue Reading

By

• Torsten Volk, Principal Analyst

Considerations for creating a VM for a development environment

Just because admins are working in a test/dev environment doesn't mean they can be lax about creating VMs. There are several items to consider, including licensing and compliance. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

EBay's Elasticsearch hack consolidates Kubernetes monitoring

EBay made Kubernetes monitoring more flexible for developers and consistent for ops through modifications that are now part of Elastic's Beats software. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

Ten lessons for enterprises deploying containers

The majority of medium to large enterprises surveyed by EMA foresee containers replacing VMs in two to five years. Unsurprisingly, container management and shadow containers are pressing concerns. Continue Reading

By

• Torsten Volk, Principal Analyst

Six simple cloud security policies you need to know

Data protection takes center stage in modern IT. Step through this cloud security checklist to ensure your organization is covering all its bases. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Aqua Security 3.0 architecture supports AWS Fargate

Aqua Security's MicroEnforcer deployed without a sidecar container supports containers on public cloud services such as AWS Fargate and Azure Container Instances. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

How do you fix Outlook display issues?

Outlook crashes and rendering issues might require an upgrade -- or a downgrade -- for administrators who want to avoid a Band-Aid approach and want a permanent solution. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

CLI vs. GUI: Find the right admin tool for various scenarios

Standard Windows and Linux command-line utilities oftentimes have niche, yet important functionality not available in GUI tools that require IT workers to make custom workflows. Continue Reading

By

• Richard Siddaway, Independent consultant

In Google Hangouts Chat, DevOps pros see ChatOps latecomer

Google Hangouts Chat could lead to interesting AI chatbot technology eventually, but G Suite users are already loyal to competitors, such as Slack. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

These PowerShell script examples help tidy up code

Even the most grizzled scripting veterans might learn some new PowerShell tips and tricks to tighten their automation code or produce clearer error messages. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Use tried-and-true DevOps practices to beat analysis paralysis

If your company feels stuck, the principles behind DevOps can help. Expert David Savage explains why companies need to roll out DevOps ideas everywhere. Continue Reading

By

• David Savage, Harvey Nash Group

IT shops find their reasons to upgrade to Windows Server 2016

Selected technical features and technical support twilight inspires more Windows Server 2008 and 2012 IT shops to upgrade to Windows Server 2016. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Scannell, Freelancer

Why operations metrics and telemetry matter in DevOps too

The earlier developers think about what operations pros need, the tighter the feedback loop will become. Expert Theresa Neate explains how metrics are key to shifting ops left. Continue Reading

By

• Theresa Neate

Azure Container Instances provide an opt-out option for cluster ops

Containers-as-a-service platform Azure Container Instances doesn't support clustering on its own, but features an open source connector tool for increased scalability. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Add virt-manager to your set of KVM management tools

KVM virt-manager provides a useful and simple VM management GUI. The console enables VM creation, deletion and troubleshooting. Learn the basics of its management and installation. Continue Reading

By

• Larry E. Smith, Jr., Business Technology Architects

Datadog log monitoring software branches out as DevOps spreads

Datadog joins competitors such as SignalFx and Splunk in the quest to create Swiss army knife-style tools that track logs, events and metrics in one place for DevOps teams. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

The role of container management software in IT ops

Containers are a useful technology, but give some thought to how you'll manage them. Here's what to know about what's available and how to find the right fit. Continue Reading

By

• Alan R. Earls

Keep DevOps operations relevant in the age of code

The operations role isn't going away in DevOps, but it is going to change -- in some cases, dramatically. Expert Matthew Heusser explains what you need to do to be prepared. Continue Reading

By

• Matt Heusser, Excelon Development

Use an IT incident management system to enable automation

IT admins and gurus can't tackle every issue every hour of the day -- let alone predict them first. A dynamic combination of monitoring and incident management makes for better admins. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

Integrate DevOps and containers with simple tool adjustments

Organizations with an established DevOps pipeline can migrate from VMs to containers without tossing out the entire toolstack. Focus on these steps to enable containers in production. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

DevOps incident management turns sys admins into SREs

DevOps practices begin with collaboration on application releases, but it's not until something goes wrong with those apps in production that true transformation takes place. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

IBM roadmap of cloud, AI-enabled IT drives Think conference

IT operations must absorb automation, AI, machine learning and cloud trends, which result in a more data-driven, predictive and responsive department -- if everything goes right. Continue Reading

What DPM monitoring options are there?

Administrators tasked with checking the status of System Center Data Protection Manager have a few choices, some of which are better suited for larger DPM deployments. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Office 365 email encryption options grow for enterprise needs

Each enterprise has different needs when it comes to preventing data leakage. Admins should be aware of the Office 365 mailbox and encryption features that help the organization meet its requirements. Continue Reading

By

• Steve Goodman, Content and Code

How DevOps operations teams can prepare for the next stage

A move to DevOps has implications for everyone on the team, but especially for operations professionals. Get ready to learn new skills and be flexible. Continue Reading

By

• Cameron McKenzie, TechTarget

Get cloud computing certified, but don't abandon virtualization

Cloud certification training can help an IT administrator's career, but it's only practical if it aligns with your company and you don't forgo virtualization upkeep. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Want a true DevOps culture change? Start with innovation

The more you fail, the more you learn. That's the secret of really innovative companies and it's the secret to DevOps, too. Expert David Savage explains. Continue Reading

By

• David Savage, Harvey Nash Group

End of general support for vSphere 5.5 forces IT shops' hands

To position themselves for future needs and technologies, many vSphere 5.5 customers may have to move out of their comfort zones and upgrade to version 6.5. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Scannell, Freelancer

Create SCVMM user roles to define management, tighten security

Using SCVMM user roles provides granular control in a virtual infrastructure. By defining a delegation model, admins also ensure that the infrastructure is more secure. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

Can container tools box out configuration management?

What will happen to your infrastructure programming skills when containers take over? Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

No roadmap? Become your team's DevOps specialist

DevOps should boost delivery and stability. Without a clear roadmap and strategic deployment of DevOps tools though, your organization won't enable continuous delivery. Continue Reading

By

• Matt Heusser, Excelon Development

Mount an ISO file to a virtual DVD drive with PowerShell

It's easy to manage external media from PowerShell. It's worth noting, however, that the command syntax varies depending on whether you're referencing an IDE or SCSI drive. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Help ops to begin a DevOps implementation the right way

DevOps can be difficult to get right, even with lots of experience. For those forging ahead for the first time, however, the hurdles can seem enormous. Stephen Bigelow explains. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Retrieve a Hyper-V event log with the Get-EventLog cmdlet

Use the Get-EventLog PowerShell cmdlet with the desired parameters to retrieve a Hyper-V event log. This command gets errors and warnings and exports them as a CSV file. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

Are you using the right DevOps metrics in your organization?

It's tempting to think it's all about how fast you can deploy in DevOps, but the reality is, it's just one of the factors to consider. Mainline branch stability matters the most. Continue Reading

By

• Valerie Silverthorne

IT turns to VMware encryption for added VM security

Encryption features in recent vSphere and vSAN updates aim to balance security with simplicity and performance. For VMware shops, there is little standing in the way of adoption. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Moore, Assistant Site Editor

Impact Awards honor the best cloud and data center tools

Each year, the Modern Infrastructure Impact Awards program salutes the data center tools and cloud management technologies that stand out from the crowd. The winners are the products that prove particularly useful and draw raves from users. These technologies act as catalysts for innovation in the cloud environments and data centers that modern businesses rely on to keep moving forward.

More than ever, the right technologies can make the difference between a business strategy that succeeds and one that disappoints. It's one thing for cloud services or data center tools to make it easier for IT professionals to carry out their day-to-day duties, but it takes something special for a product or service to help drive real organizational success. We're pleased to honor that excellence with this special edition of Modern Infrastructure.

Also, be sure to check this issue for articles and columns that delve into the complications that accompany the benefits of using multiple cloud providers, the applicability of serverless computing and the scenarios that might give pause to even the biggest IoT proponents.

 Continue Reading

What's our future if we don't secure IoT devices?

When everything from the coffee maker to the manufacturing plant's robots to the electric grid is connected, shouldn't security be IT's primary concern? Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Rely on the DevOps methodology to avoid disaster

DevOps concepts rely on both developers and operations to uphold the stability of applications in production. One side can't do it alone. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Future of Windows might involve significant weight loss

The influence of containerized applications could sway Microsoft to introduce more far-reaching refinements to Windows Server and reduce the OS to the bare necessities. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Walat, Editor

Container security tools abound, but IT pros await big vendors

Container security startups peddle unique approaches, but while some early adopters jump on board with fledgling vendors, a majority will watch for industry consolidation first. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

Data center and cloud computing products that make an impact

The Modern Infrastructure Impact Awards recognize the best IT infrastructure and cloud computing products in seven categories, from cloud to DevOps to converged infrastructure. Continue Reading

By

• Modern Infrastructure staff

Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor components and capabilities

Nutanix hypervisor components, including controller VMs, and Prism, its management control plane, help simplify management. Learn more about how these components work together. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Chef InSpec widens the compliance-as-code possibilities with v2.0

Chef InSpec 2.0 adds infrastructure tests for compliance policy enforcement, and the tool's expansion into more areas of the DevOps workflow won't stop there. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

SaaS support challenges IT ops admins to shift gears

SaaS means no more app support, right? In practice, IT ops teams enter a new realm of upgrade management and capacity planning when their user base migrates to a SaaS offering. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Could the DevOps process work better under a different name?

Intent-based DevOps is a small name change designed to bring development and deployment back to basics. Two industry experts offer their interpretations and suggestions. Continue Reading

By

• Valerie Silverthorne

What's our future if we don't secure IoT devices?

 Continue Reading

Rely on the DevOps methodology to avoid disaster

 Continue Reading

Five system administrator skills Windows admins should hone

IT workers need to learn how to ride the wave of innovation and master these five technologies related to Windows Server that can ease their workload and help the business. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Learn Ruby language skills with these online resources

Systems administrators spend more time programming than ever before. To excel in your current role or find a new, DevOps-heavy one, invest the time to learn a new language. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

Be ready if Microsoft Exchange updates go wrong

Everyone wants a smooth patching process, but things can fall apart despite everyone's best efforts. Develop a solid recovery plan and test it before trouble strikes. Continue Reading

By

• Nathan O'Bryan, Planet Technologies

Why not every DevOps strategy is worthy of your attention

DevOps advice is plentiful today. Some, like Cameron McKenzie, would say it is too plentiful. Here's his advice for weeding out the unworkable from the sensible. Continue Reading

By

• Cameron McKenzie, TechTarget

Enterprises identify 10 essential DevOps tools

Products branded with DevOps are everywhere, and the list of options grows every day, but the best DevOps tools are already well-known among enterprise IT pros. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau

Hype for future of container development gets dose of reality

Realistic timelines have replaced the big promises of container disruption. Virtualization administrators should expect security and microservices features as the market matures. Continue Reading

By

• Jim O'Reilly

Meet these SCVMM 2016 requirements before upgrading

Before upgrading to SCVMM 2016, ensure that you meet its hardware requirements, including SCVMM 2012 R2 and Update Rollup 9 or later, and have a supported version of SQL Server. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

VMware NSX integration push ramps up to reinforce IT ties

With tighter integration between its NSX and its cloud and virtualization offerings, VMware aims to reinforce its networking chops with enterprise IT. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Scannell, Freelancer

Cloud ops doesn't solve your problems, it creates new ones

There are many reasons to consider a cloud migration, but if you expect to cut costs or dramatically ease management, you'll be disappointed. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College