IT Operations

Unikernels vs. containers: See the lightweight championship fight

The drive to minimize app hosting resources yielded unikernels and containers, the IT equivalent of a tiny house and apartment. Containing only the barest essentials, unikernels pose unique benefits and challenges. Continue Reading

By

• Alan R. Earls

Kubernetes storage projects dominate CNCF docket

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation will host the Rook distributed container storage project -- the first move in a pivotal year for Kubernetes stateful app support. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Want a DevOps success story? Try employee net promoter score

The more likely an employee is to recommend an employer to a friend, the more likely the company is healthy and successful. Here's how to apply that practice to DevOps. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

CoreOS acquisition burnishes Red Hat containers profile

Most IT shops don't deploy containers in production, but more might be enticed by the addition of CoreOS tools to Red Hat's OpenShift. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Laws to guide the IT career growth of a virtualization admin

Attendees at a Virtualization Technology User Group event learned about five laws for IT career growth that are particularly useful for the virtualization admin in a changing industry. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Moore, Assistant Site Editor

Sharpen IT effectiveness to go from cost center to business nexus

IT departments must work to keep user experience positive to avoid a perception as a resource vacuum. If users can't manipulate the app effectively, what does uptime matter? Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

Chef (software)

Chef is an open source systems management and cloud infrastructure automation platform. Continue Reading

By

• David Carty, Site Editor

IT monitoring strategy, org discipline polish Nasdaq DevOps incident response

At Nasdaq, IT monitoring unified different teams' views of infrastructure, but cultural blocking and tackling are equally important to improve incident response. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Expand KVM storage with virsh commands

With a few steps -- the creation of files, the addition of XML code and the execution of commands -- you can use the virsh command-line interface to add storage to existing VMs. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

ServiceNow Kingston troubleshoots IT tasks with AI, machine learning

ServiceNow delivers AI and machine learning capabilities to its core platform to eliminate time-consuming manual help desk tasks. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Scannell, Freelancer

OpenShift on OpenStack aims to ease VM, container management

In this Q&A, Red Hat's Brian Gracely discusses managing a virtual environment that has both VMs and containers and how OpenShift on OpenStack can help. Continue Reading

By

• Ryann Burnett, Executive Managing Editor

An IT automation strategy wilts under cloud's shadow

Organizations have been striving to keep abreast of IT automation trends, but with the ongoing cloud takeover, operations must consider new skill requirements instead. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Office 365 labels help keep content under control

Labels in Office 365 take data governance tasks out of the users' hands through the automatic designation of policies to meet regulations or internal procedures. Continue Reading

By

• Steve Goodman, Content and Code

Learn YAML through a personal example

Some code languages take countless hours of formal training and practice. YAML strikes out in the opposite direction. To comprehend its hierarchical format, follow this coding example. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Container orchestration tools ease distributed system complexity

Containers simplify some aspects of enterprise apps, but the deployment process is no walk in the park. Orchestration tools bring standardization and automation to complex hosting scenarios. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

How to choose the best hardware for virtualization

Selecting the best hardware for virtualization is the foundation of maintaining or designing a robust, reliable and scalable data center. Continue Reading

AI apps demand DevOps infrastructure automation

Businesses look to AI apps to gain a competitive edge, but IT teams must make rapid application changes through a DevOps process and embrace infrastructure automation. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Catch the IT automation technology wave

IT automation is taking over in operations as tasks get bigger and more complex, handling distributed systems. Stay current with these five big trends. Continue Reading

By

• Emily Mell, Former Site Editor

Are DevOps responsibilities in production unfair to developers?

When Nike.com gave developers live production support responsibilities, the shakeup unearthed fundamental questions about app design and support processes. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Bulk manage a Hyper-V server group with PowerShell

With only a few steps, you can use SCVMM to bring a Hyper-V server under management. This is limited, however, so use the SCVMM Command Shell to bulk manage Hyper-V servers. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Curb stress from Exchange Server updates with these pointers

Some administrators let the memories of a bad patch linger and put off Exchange updates. Here are some tips to make this necessary chore less of a traumatic experience. Continue Reading

By

• Nathan O'Bryan, Planet Technologies

Hyper-V cmdlets for daily operational tasks

With simple scripts, enable or disable VM Integration Services and Live Migration on Hyper-V hosts, reset VM replication stats, grant or revoke VM access, and optimize VHD files. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

SaltStack

SaltStack, often referred to as simply "Salt," is an open source configuration management and orchestration tool for automating repeated system administrative and code deployment tasks. Continue Reading

By

• TechTarget Contributor

Roll your own Windows patching tool with PowerShell

This tutorial based on PowerShell helps administrators build an automated routine that audits Windows machines, then applies missing patches to lighten this management task. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Copy files from the host to a Hyper-V machine

There are many ways to copy files from the host to a Hyper-V machine, including Enhanced Session Mode and the Copy-VMFile PowerShell cmdlet. Follow these steps for each method. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

Jenkins pipeline as code example demonstrates DevOps coordination

Ellucian, which makes software for colleges and universities, offers a pipeline as code example that unifies the release process for multiple generations of apps and brings IT security into the DevOps fold. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Ensure container monitoring and control via smart tooling

Don't try to stick with traditional monitoring tools when your organization matures to containers; they won't do enough. Seek out monitoring and management tools with targeted capabilities. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

It's tough to explain DevOps, that nebulous IT concept

DevOps is more about goals and aspirations than any set of practices or tools. Right? Or is it just about collaboration and culture? Either way, it's tough to define DevOps. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Tozzi

Docker Enterprise Edition prospects mull vendor strategy

Uncertain about Docker's future business growth, some enterprise IT pros are on the fence about whether to invest in its container orchestration tools. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Server Core management remains a challenge for some

Server Core, the minimal Windows Server deployment, removes some admins from their GUI comfort zone, but its benefits reduce some chores associated with the full server OS. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Compliance Manager tool aims to ease security audit process

Administrators who wrestle with compliance tasks in Office 365 and Azure workloads might find some relief with Microsoft's dashboard platform, which automates part of the process. Continue Reading

By

• Reda Chouffani, Biz Technology Solutions

Use virt-install to install VMs from the command line

Learn the basics of virt-install, including standard use cases, executing it on CentOS 7, different command-line options and the creation of kickstart files. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

Container infrastructure a silver lining amid Intel CPU flaw fixes

Containers aren't immune to Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, but they could lighten the operational burden of fixes for IT pros. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

It's critical to create the correct DevOps team structure

With new-to-DevOps enthusiasm, some companies go too far when it comes to creating teams or dividing responsibilities. Chris Tozzi outlines the warning signs of too much DevOps. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Tozzi

Quiz yourself on Red Hat virtualization pricing and updates

The Red Hat Virtualization platform can be a powerful tool in your arsenal. Take this quiz on RHV pricing, updates and functionality to see if you know your stuff. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Moore, Assistant Site Editor

The ITIL 2018 update better catch up to modern IT

When ITIL last updated, DevOps was in its infancy. In the face of rapidly evolving IT practices and technologies, ITIL 2018 must be powerful and usable for diverse IT organizations. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Address bulk VMM agent updates with PowerShell automation

The SCVMM agent upgrade process is a regular, but sometimes laborious, part of VM management. Use PowerShell to make light work of bulk updates through commands and loops. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

IT ops pros predict routes to DevOps efficiency in 2018

Operations admins have a lot on their plates already, and they'll pile on more in 2018. These IT pros and analysts share what's coming and how to handle it. Continue Reading

By

• Emily Mell, Former Site Editor

Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities dominate January Patch Tuesday

Complications surrounding the fix for the Meltdown and Spectre microprocessor architecture flaws will make the patching process more difficult for administrators. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Walat, Editor

Application support best practices involve all teams

There's more to app support than making sure the bits and bytes are in order; the user's experience is vital to uphold. Creating a smooth process takes more than just operations. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Master the seven key DevOps engineer skills for 2018

We all know DevOps is hard, but complex new technologies are going to make the development methodology even more challenging. Expert Bob Reselman outlines the skills you'll need. Continue Reading

By

• Bob Reselman, CogArtTech

How does Data Protection Manager 2016 save and restore data?

Data Protection Manager 2016 works with a wide range of enterprise applications, but administrators need to be aware that some backup types do not work with every program. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Time-series monitoring tools give high-resolution view of IT

DevOps monitoring tools based on time-series databases create a steeper learning curve than traditional monitoring software, but arm IT pros with richer data for troubleshooting. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Error budget instills reckless IT project management mindset

Just how many errors is the IT operations team allowed to make? Trendy organizations are answering this question with a budget, but it possesses some admins to push the envelope. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

The future of DevOps in 2018? More people, more integration

From DataOps to function as a service, DevOps adoption is going to mean acquiring some new skills in 2018. Contributor George Lawton asks the experts. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

Make the case to follow a container strategy at your company

Sorting through container management software can be overwhelming. Determine what your organization actually needs in terms of security and cloud capabilities before leaping in. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Unleash application dependency mapping tools to combat outages

Create a detailed map of application dependencies from the CMDB and cloud resources and help prevent unexpected outages. Continue Reading

By

• Tim Warner

Be wary of DevOps evangelists preaching a culture change

There are many reasons to adopt DevOps, and there are many challenges involved in getting it right. But don't buy into the culture myth that many DevOps evangelists are selling. Continue Reading

By

• Cameron McKenzie, TechTarget

PowerShell commands for Hyper-V update bulk VM configuration

Admins who don't have access to SCVMM can make configuration changes to multiple Hyper-V VMs at once with a few PowerShell scripts and the ForEach loop approach. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

Embark upon ITSM asset management with systematic tagging

The journey to an organized data center begins with a single tag. Start using IT tags today to apply updates, control access and help automate management. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Want to understand DevOps? Look to open source's history

Studying the past in order to not repeat it is something that can be applied to DevOps, too. Expert Chris Tozzi outlines how to understand DevOps by studying open source. Continue Reading

By

• Chris Tozzi

Evaluate ChatOps tools and bots for the right fit

ChatOps is still a niche in IT operations and DevOps shops, but organizations that have set it up love it. That means you should join the fun and give it a try. Here's what you need to know about ChatOps tools. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Microsoft Windows Server OS (operating system)

Microsoft Windows Server OS (operating system) is a series of enterprise-class server operating systems designed to share services with multiple users and provide extensive administrative control of data storage, applications and corporate networks. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Walat, Editor

Know when to implement serverless vs. containers

Containers save resources and reduce deploy times. So does serverless. Containers are a great host for microservices. So is serverless. But the deployment options are more different than they are alike. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Set Office 365 group limits to avoid administrative hassles

With help from PowerShell, administrators can tailor Office 365 Groups to develop common-sense restrictions on the tools and other components in the collaboration service. Continue Reading

By

• Steve Goodman, Content and Code

A good IT orchestration system saves time for users and admins

Rather than fight with business workers about runaway IT resource consumption and complex demands on tight deadlines, let an orchestration platform control the process. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Use virsh commands to manage KVM networking

Virsh commands enable you to manage network properties and can be used alongside brctl commands to help you create additional virtual bridges in your KVM environment. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

Why you need to think carefully about DevOps certification training

A certificate can be a career blessing, but the wrong one can be a curse. Expert Bob Reselman explains how to make the right choices for DevOps and other areas. Continue Reading

By

• Bob Reselman, CogArtTech

Monitor Active Directory replication via PowerShell

Most enterprises rely on Active Directory to control access to resources on the network. Here's how admins can use PowerShell to check the health of the replication process. Continue Reading

By

• Nirmal Sharma

Two Ansible playbook examples illustrate config management

Configuration management enables automation for many operations tasks. Ansible uses a simple structure and a dynamic language to enable admins to easily complete jobs, once they get the hang of a playbook. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

Centralize Ubuntu server management on Landscape

Canonical Landscape brings centralized server management to Ubuntu on physical and virtual machines, as well as cloud systems. See how it works, and explore features such as tagging. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Abstract thinkers have the most vital nontechnical DevOps skill

Take a close look at a Picasso, and explore how those abstract shapes form a complete picture. You'll be flexing an important DevOps skill: abstract thinking. Continue Reading

By

• Bob Reselman, CogArtTech

Get serious about patch validation and deployment -- fast

Zero-day exploits are more dangerous than ever, but so is applying an untested patch to live systems. Without a strategy to quickly validate patches -- outside of production -- you're playing with fire. Continue Reading

By

• Tim Warner

Set up remote domains to control Exchange messaging

Administrators can configure a remote domain to perform particular tasks, such as converting certain email formats and stopping users from forwarding messages to another domain. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Microsoft roadmap covers practical and wishful technology

The latest innovations on the Microsoft roadmap include familiar enterprise products, but its wager on an ambitious technology could one day alter the face of computing. Continue Reading

By

• Dan Cagen, Associate Site Editor

With continuous security, SecDevOps deconstructs CI/CD

Nothing is set in stone when an organization follows a DevOps methodology -- a DevOps security model pushes developers and ops to constantly retune, slow down and speed up. Continue Reading

By

• Alan R. Earls

What you'll build with software-defined architecture

It's been two years since Gartner declared that the future of the data center was software-defined. And while we're still a ways from that reality, there's plenty of reason to think IT is indeed moving toward the software-defined architecture.

The ability to compose your infrastructure puts components where they're needed -- but only for as long as they're needed there. Then those resources become available again for another task. IT professionals aren't crazy to look at the speed and efficiency advantages of that type of software-defined architecture and think, "We need that."

To reap those rewards, however, means orienting the data center around software. That's a big shift both in strategy and execution. And it's not easily achievable.

The cover story of this issue of Modern Infrastructure digs into these possibilities and challenges. TechTarget's Erica Mixon talks with experts about the software-defined architecture, what it can achieve and what an organization will want to take into account before heading down that road.

With a truly composable infrastructure and products with cloud-like capabilities, an organization can pool its data center resources and put them to work with utmost efficiency. If that's the future, maybe it's time to start figuring out how you'll get there.

 Continue Reading

Enterprise shops look to AIOps for IT root cause analysis

IT ops pros look to AIOps tools to help find the smoking gun in failing IT stacks, but some call automated root cause analysis more dream than reality. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Follow a PXE boot tutorial to increase OS configuration automation

PXE boot servers are simple to set up and can aid in IT operations' goals toward high-level efficiency and automation. This tutorial runs through setup and optimal settings. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Use eseutil for Exchange database repair with care

If Exchange crashes and you lack valid backups, just stay cool. The eseutil tool can be powerful, but if used improperly, it can do more harm than good. Continue Reading

By

• Nathan O'Bryan, Planet Technologies

IT capacity planning takes new shape in the cloud

Migrating applications off premises to the cloud requires a new capacity planning approach: Develop a detailed cloud strategy, and carefully track upgrade schedules. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Systems thinking principles: Building a DevOps support model

It's time to embrace a DevOps support model. Everything we do has consequences, good or bad. We're interdependent. That's why no team should work in isolation. Continue Reading

By

• Theresa Neate

Infrastructure as code benefits range from audits to ops

When an auditor asks to see how the entire application stack is configured, you'll recognize the benefits of an infrastructure-as-code implementation. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

The application runtime environment is as important as the app

To avoid cascading failures and never-ending troubleshooting, take the time to understand the software and hardware -- the runtime environment -- that keeps an app ticking. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

To build or to buy? That is the DevOps toolchain question

An organization should assess its strengths and weaknesses before choosing a DevOps toolchain. A pre-made pipeline is simpler than individually collected tools, but it sacrifices flexibility. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Container OS options abound: Make the right selection

There is an assortment of OSes that support containerized applications, so go into the decision with a set of wants, needs and must-avoids. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service (MRS)

The Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) is a feature that handles mailbox import, export, migration and restoration requests on Exchange Server. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

A Red Hat Satellite tutorial to install an update server

With Red Hat Satellite, IT ops can deploy an update server to simplify patching. Follow this step-by-step tutorial to install the server, attach subscriptions and devise a sync plan. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Windows Server containers and Hyper-V containers explained

It's important to not only understand the differences between these two container types but also the specific requirements, deployment considerations and management practices. Continue Reading

By

• Ryann Burnett, Executive Managing Editor

Use Azure availability sets for patching to achieve the best uptime

Ops' responsibility doesn't end once in a public cloud; in fact, it can get more confounding. Learn the best route to update Azure cloud instances and what mistakes to avoid. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Paravirtualization advantages, disadvantages and use cases

Despite a promising start, paravirtualization comes with significant disadvantages that limit the number of use cases that make sense for enterprise IT, but it still has its place. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

ITSM processes must take this chance to help the business

ITSM implementations still have value in today's DevOps world, but only if admins can get their processes aligned with the grander business goals. Continue Reading

By

• Pam Erskine, Jay Stuart and Doug Tedder, ITSM experts

Standardize configuration management software for smoother DevOps

If your organization uses different configuration management software for development and operations, you're not alone. Even better, it's no engineering feat to migrate to one main tool. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Learn DevOps techniques in a home lab

Not allowed to put work projects on GitHub? Want to run containers even though your company is still virtualizing servers? Get ahead with techniques and tools in a DevOps home lab. Continue Reading

Microsoft Nano Server

Microsoft Nano Server is a lightweight version of the Windows Server operating system that was introduced with Windows Server 2016 for use as an OS layer for virtualized container instances. Continue Reading

By

• Katie Terrell Hanna
• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

PowerShell scripts enable automated cloud deployments

This step-by-step tutorial walks through the process to automate an Azure deployment; start with launching the virtual server, and finish with the deletion process. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

HashiCorp DevOps tools add Sentinel for IT policy management

As DevSecOps grows, policy as code will take over where infrastructure as code left off through new tools such as HashiCorp Sentinel. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

An IT operations job description written for the future

Forward-looking IT ops jobs require more Python and less cable management. To reach valued positions in the IT organization, align your skills with these popular job requirements. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Early adopters of technology belong in every organization

In today's rapidly changing tech environment, avoiding new opportunities means falling behind. Thorough research into newly available tools leads organizations to success. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Rethinking your place on the early adopter curve

The best-run organizations will have a technology infrastructure in place to thoroughly support the business and all its goals. While most companies fall short of that perfection, even an operation that's close to the ideal should feel good about its technological capabilities. The trick is to not feel too good for too long.

An IT environment won't continue to perform at a high level without some help, so it's worth thinking about where you are on the early adopter curve. IT decision-makers should be open to deploying new products and services.

The cover story for this issue of Modern Infrastructure explores the questions around how an IT team should approach new technologies and strategies. The accepted wisdom in most organizations has traditionally been to let the risk-takers chase the latest, coolest thing hitting the market. It was wise, went this way of thinking, to let others figure out if a new product works -- or doesn't. If that tempting new thing proves its value, then the smart money would step up and give the go-ahead for implementation.

But now, as the pace of change in both business and IT continues to accelerate, the greater risk might be to implement a technology too late rather than too early. An organization that is willing to take some risk stands to gain an advantage, possibly a significant one, if it figures out how to capitalize on a fresh technology before its competitors do. For this reason, it might be time to rethink your position on the early adopter curve.

So even if your infrastructure is as good as it can be now, don't get too comfortable. What's true today might not be true tomorrow.

 Continue Reading

Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection

Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is Microsoft's optional cloud-based service that scans and filters email to protect subscribers from malware in attachments and hyperlinks to malicious websites. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Early adopters of technology belong in every organization

 Continue Reading

Configuration management processes take down GRC challenges

Configuration management processes speed deployments, but tools that know effective licenses and data storage details aid in another area that businesses are keen to get right. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Server Core installation offers perks, challenges for IT

Server Core is a lighter Windows Server deployment that frees up server resources for additional workloads, but the management aspect will put some admins to the test. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Build a DevOps version control process for IT infrastructure

Infrastructure admins can turn to the DevOps version control process for all IaC updates. Learn the basics, then follow along with an example in Git. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Pfeiffer, CloudSkills.io

Ansible variables give structure to playbook execution

Ansible playbooks tell the IT automation system how to complete a task. Use variables in a playbook to tell Ansible how to interact with the available resources. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

Know how container host machine resources get used?

What's a container's resource limit? How do they scale? What OS does a host machine need? Answer 10 questions to prove your container deployment knowledge. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Microsoft Ignite 2017 conference coverage

Check all the developments from the Microsoft Ignite 2017 conference in Orlando and track the company's strategic moves in its hardware, software and services businesses. Continue Reading

A deployment pipeline keeps infrastructure ducks in their rows

IT infrastructure is difficult to get right. Whether to stand up a test/dev server or deploy a new app to production, infrastructure developers turn to a deployment pipeline to build IT. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Come to grips with immutable infrastructure in production

Immutable infrastructure is a developer approach to application hosting that's made its way into the IT ops lexicon. It's time to understand the changes it brings to application support. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor