Get started

Get started

Bring yourself up to speed with our introductory content.

• Use Elasticsearch shard allocation to distribute workload demand

  Learn how to use Elasticsearch shards to distribute data storage and retrieval across physical resources, as workload demands grow. Continue Reading

• Automate Windows configurations with Boxstarter and Chocolatey

  Follow this Boxstarter tutorial to install the open source tool, and use it alongside PowerShell, Chocolatey and GitHub gists for streamlined and repeatable Windows configurations. Continue Reading

• Build up a DevSecOps pipeline for fast and safe code delivery

  It's all well and good to automate the software build process, but without proper security practices in place, the DevOps pipeline can lead developers to deploy compromised code. Continue Reading

• Bookmark this expansive guide to DevOps for Windows

  Native Windows DevOps tools and Azure DevOps services enable Microsoft shops to keep pace with Linux setups. Continue Reading

• Build Terraform modules to make IT components into code

  Modules enable reusability of infrastructure-as-code deployments with Terraform. Follow this example, which also features AWS for the hosting environment, to learn module structure. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • service virtualization
  • paravirtualization
  • platform engineering
  • platform

  • Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)
  • site reliability engineering (SRE)
  • Docker
  • Terraform

  View All Definitions

• Start using Terraform variables for IT resource deployment flexibility

  Infrastructure-as-code adopters should try Terraform input and output variables as a more flexible way to define and save values for deployment configurations.Continue Reading

• Can you accurately measure SLA expectations and results?

  Realistic SLA expectations rely on accurately defined criteria, properly set. Test your knowledge of SLA measurements and learn to tailor contracts that avoid costly consequences with this quiz.Continue Reading

• Server hardware to run ROBO virtual workloads

  Examine remote office/branch office technology trends, review server hardware options and ensure you can effectively manage virtual resources before implementation.Continue Reading

• Learn how to use Salt orchestration with an example

  Admins can use orchestration features in Salt to centrally control a group of minions and machines. Follow this example, which features Orchestrate Runner, to get started.Continue Reading

• How to configure Windows container networking

  The default network setting for Windows containers is Network Address Translation, but you can also set up a transparent Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or non-DHCP network.Continue Reading

• Grasp these basic Salt configuration management concepts

  Not sure how Salt conveys configuration instructions to systems? Wonder if your programming skills will carry over to the tool? Use these best practices and tips to assess Salt.Continue Reading

• Create Hyper-V containers in Windows Server 2016

  Once you enable the Hyper-V role and Windows container feature, install Docker Engine, container modules and a base OS image to prepare the host for Hyper-V container deployment.Continue Reading

• Words to go: Aspects of an IT monitoring strategy

  To establish an IT monitoring strategy can feel overwhelming, but guarantee efficiency in systems and application performances. Review the core methods and fundamental tools.Continue Reading

• Containers as a Service (CaaS)

  Containers as a service (CaaS) is a cloud service that allows software developers to upload, organize, run, scale, manage and stop containers by using a provider's API calls or a web portal interface.Continue Reading

• How NFV architecture works

  NFV enables organizations to virtualize operations and replace network equipment such as routers and switches. It's built on three components: VNFs, NFVI and the MANO framework.Continue Reading

• How to configure a gMSA for Windows containers

  You must start Windows containers with a CredentialSpec file and gMSA name to enable applications to use gMSA credentials in place of local system and network service accounts.Continue Reading

• Hone your skills to be an IT infrastructure architect

  IT architecture relies on most skills that sys admins have picked up already but also demands a few more. Learn the responsibilities and the requirements for this advancement.Continue Reading

• HashiCorp

  HashiCorp is a software company that provides a suite of modular DevOps infrastructure provisioning and management products.Continue Reading

• Use branch office servers to support infrastructure expansion

  A remote office setup requires infrastructure that meets performance, cost and space demands. Depending on the vendor, a microserver will likely provide the best compromise.Continue Reading

• Top 10 IT tutorials of 2018 for professional development in 2019

  Most IT admins take control of their education via home labs and tutorials. Refresh skills in PowerShell or Python -- or learn new ones like Kubernetes -- with these popular walkthroughs.Continue Reading

• Troubleshoot Host Guardian Service with guarded fabric diagnostics

  Take advantage of the built-in guarded fabric diagnostic tool to discover and resolve common issues that can afflict Host Guardian Service and guarded fabric deployments.Continue Reading

• IT automation tops list of best uses of AI, survey shows

  Early adopters of AI say they see promise in the technology, and most plan to boost their AI investment. Still, they have concerns about security risks and data availability.Continue Reading

• Without DevOps metrics, forget about DevOps glory

  DevOps doesn't provide easy comparison points to quantify improvements. So how do you know if you're on the path to success or just spinning your wheels?Continue Reading

• Manage SCVMM logical networks with PowerShell

  Use System Center Virtual Machine Manager and PowerShell to make logical network management easy. Execute a script to display network virtualization information in a simple chart.Continue Reading

• 5 skills every Hyper-V administrator needs to succeed

  Windows Server skills aren't complete without these five Hyper-V skills, which range from failover clustering to storage, and remain essential for virtualization administration.Continue Reading

• Review the top 9 virtualization techniques of the year

  IT administrators always have room to improve their virtualization skills. Read our top articles of the year to perfect PowerShell management, Hyper-V customization and more.Continue Reading

• Use Puppet for Windows ops automation with dsc_lite

  With DSC and dsc_lite, as well as a native option, users operate in Puppet within the familiarity of PowerShell settings. Here's how each approach works.Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery procedures deserve daily attention

  An occasional disaster recovery test sounds like a good idea. But routine work on DR readiness might be the difference between a minor bump and a major disruption.Continue Reading

• Create an IT support process to take on any outage

  Every IT incident must be met with a streamlined resolution procedure, all the way from critical to trivial. Ensure those plans are in place before it's do or die.Continue Reading

• Prepare for VM-to-cloud workload migration

  Migrating VMs to the cloud can be relatively straightforward if you lay the groundwork to meet workload and vendor requirements. Follow these steps to prepare for the migration.Continue Reading

• Meet Hyper-V cluster requirements to maintain high availability

  Hyper-V high availability is important for failover, so check that Hyper-V clusters meet the proper requirements, which range from hardware management to network configuration.Continue Reading

• What's the best way to achieve Hyper-V security for hosts?

  Hyper-V security is complicated, but you can set the foundation of your security strategies by following a few best practices, such as simplification and encryption.Continue Reading

• Hyper-V 2016 security comes down to VM considerations

  Secure guest VMs and OSes to ensure Hyper-V securityContinue Reading

• Use shielded VMs, guarded fabric to enable Hyper-V encryption

  Enable Hyper-V encryption using guarded fabric, the Host Guardian Service and shielded VM technologies. Host systems must be proven trustworthy before operating protected VMs.Continue Reading

• How does Linux Secure Boot affect Hyper-V 2016 VMs?

  Linux Secure Boot can help ensure you're booting trusted OSes, but navigating different distributions and digital signatures can be challenging without these considerations.Continue Reading

• What does an IT person do? Answers from around the globe

  The holiday season is fast approaching, when IT and DevOps professionals around the world answer a perennial question at the family dinner table: What does an IT person do? While you might only ...Continue Reading

• Setting up Hyper-V replication requires preplanning

  Hyper-V replication is easy to use, but there are a number of steps you should take during Hyper-V replication setup to ensure you stay abreast of potential failures and data loss.Continue Reading

• Get started with your first Docker container build

  Many admins have a purely theoretical understanding of containers -- despite the technology's seeming ubiquity. This tutorial offers container newbies the opportunity to get hands-on.Continue Reading

• Hyper-V VM template creation made easy

  Creating Hyper-V VM templates is a straightforward process, but there are a few things you should consider, such as template creation source and administrative password assignment.Continue Reading

• How do you find Hyper-V nodes with PowerShell?

  Manage Hyper-V clusters more easily with PowerShell cmdlets and scripts that automate the retrieval and display of node information, including node statuses.Continue Reading

• An introduction to containers and orchestration for IT admins

  Given containers' radical effect on provisioning, resource planning and portability, an IT team's container education should begin well before the first one spins up on a host OS.Continue Reading

• Does DevOps for operations mean learning how to code?

  What do operations folks need to know before they dive into DevOps? Automation is the key to a responsive environment, and users are your guiding light.Continue Reading

• What VM automation tools are available?

  There are many different VM automation tools available -- some of them part of much wider product and feature suites. Determine which features you need and find the tool that works.Continue Reading

• What are the most common virtualization automation mistakes?

  Avoid automation issues by coordinating with the wider organization to ensure employees know how to provision resources and remain aware of evolving business needs and policies.Continue Reading

• What organizations are best-suited for VM automation?

  Automating VMs isn't universally beneficial. Determine whether your organization needs mass production of VMs before deploying automation tools or platforms.Continue Reading

• What are the primary use cases for VM deployment automation?

  Automate the deployment of VMs to meet the demand for resources while ensuring each VM remains properly configured and follows lifecycle and governance policies.Continue Reading

• How do you optimize a virtual database server?

  Avoid virtual database performance hiccups by incorporating monitoring and alerting tools. Stay abreast of any issues and head them off before users encounter them.Continue Reading

• How do you virtualize database servers?

  Virtualizing database servers has consolidation and efficiency benefits, but you must carefully choose which databases to virtualize and which tools to virtualize with.Continue Reading

• Understand how Docker works in the VM-based IT world

  With advantages for microservices architectures, disaster recovery and utilization density, among other areas, containers should step out from virtual machines' shadow.Continue Reading

• Grasp container basics to plan enterprise adoption

  To transition from virtualization that mimics hardware to a new level of portable, isolated workloads, absorb key tenets of containers and where container deployment differs from VMs and cloud instances.Continue Reading

• How to drive an effective DevOps for business approach

  Don't adopt DevOps for the sake of operational and development efficiency. Do DevOps because it yields business gains. In fact, what you should be doing is BizDevOps.Continue Reading

• Use nested virtualization to run a container in a VM

  IT administrators should familiarize themselves with the benefits and limitations of using nested virtualization to run containers in VMs before implementation.Continue Reading

• Use VMware vSphere templates to manage VMs at scale

  VM templates in vSphere enable IT administrators to manage large environments by rapidly deploying fully configured VMs using the content library interface.Continue Reading

• Adopt the Git version control system for configuration as code

  Configuration files define infrastructure as code, which enables IT admins to control updates and enforce standardization. Start using a version control system to codify configurations with just a handful of commands.Continue Reading

• The future of composable infrastructure and virtualization

  Composable infrastructures -- frameworks of compute, storage and network resource services -- will still make use of virtualization to run applications.Continue Reading

• Rev up IT with continuous delivery and DevOps

  IT operations is on the software team with continuous delivery, continuous deployment and DevOps. Done right, the collaboration in tools and culture produces better software faster than previous methodologies.Continue Reading

• Get into DevOps with cross-functional skills and culture

  There's no well-traveled path to a DevOps career. But it's not rocket science. Learn how to explain DevOps and master skills, such as CI/CD, and you'll be on your way.Continue Reading

• Big data processing could be the way all data is processed

  Some organizations take their time with new technologies to let first adopters suffer the growing pains. But there's no treading water in the big data stream; the current won't wait.Continue Reading

• Benefits of infrastructure as code range from speed to scaling

  Provisioning large numbers of servers takes time. One of infrastructure as code's benefits is that once you declare a desired state, code maintains that environment with ease.Continue Reading

• Microservices challenges fluster even the sharpest IT shops

  Freed from the needs of a large and traditionally structured application, a development team working in the microservices architecture builds apps via services that can be more easily isolated, manipulated, updated and fixed. Still, developers and ...Continue Reading

• Identify mutable and immutable infrastructures in action

  Change is constant in app code, server configuration and VM security policies alike. IT orgs enforce consistency while embracing change with immutable infrastructure. So what does it look like?Continue Reading

• Adopt these continuous delivery principles organization-wide

  Follow these principles to advocate for, adopt and adapt continuous delivery. The work won't always be easy, but well-conceived continuous delivery pays off for everyone involved.Continue Reading

• Should you virtualize an edge computing server?

  The need to pack a lot of compute power into a small package leaves many wondering whether containers and serverless frameworks could replace virtualization at the edge.Continue Reading

• Support a guest security policy with endpoint hardening

  Guest security relies not only on a series of tools and best practices, but also on a security mindset that starts with endpoint hardening and follows the deployment of every VM.Continue Reading

• Words to go: Incident management KPI categories

  Because incident management is a vital task for IT operations departments, admins need a way to measure its success. This list of KPIs offers a good place to start.Continue Reading

• Top continuous delivery benefits and how to get them

  Continuous delivery doesn't come without challenges -- like getting every disparate IT team on board -- but its list of perks makes the entire process worthwhile.Continue Reading

• How do you decide to scale up or scale out a workload?

  Scaling up or scaling out is not a decision to be made lightly. Use monitoring data to determine the strategy that fits your use case and to inform future decisions.Continue Reading

• How do you analyze the costs of virtualization scalability?

  It's easy to allocate more resources to a VM, but scaling decisions require careful deliberation. Without retrospective analysis, scaling can quickly become costly.Continue Reading

• How do you improve storage scalability?

  Storage can limit virtualization scalability if IT administrators don't plan properly. Examine how storage scalability problems can arise and strategies for addressing it.Continue Reading

• Fail at scale: Build failure into virtual infrastructure design

  It's better to be over-prepared than surprised. Design virtual infrastructure around the possibility that it might fail and have a plan in mind for when it does.Continue Reading

• Why is Docker's container approach so important?

  The name has become synonymous with containers, but there are other container management tools available.Continue Reading

• Create a shielded VM template in SCVMM in four easy steps

  SCVMM templates simplify the process of deploying shielded VMs. Prepare the disk to use shielded VM technology before creating the template.Continue Reading

• Modern service management, DevOps streamline app administration

  DevOps and service management are synonymous in modern IT, insofar as their guidelines match. Regardless of the term, ensure organizational practices are built for today's reqs.Continue Reading

• Set up Hyper-V nested virtualization for production

  There are several considerations for using nested virtualization in Hyper-V production environments, including system requirements, networking, storage and memory considerations.Continue Reading

• Configuration as code specifies and simplifies IT deployment

  Infrastructure as code means not having to worry about those tedious and complicated duties typically involved in provisioning IT services.Continue Reading

• How infrastructure as code benefits and eases provisioning

  Being able to provision services with code means a simplification to sometimes complicated processes. Plus, you won't need to worry about the platform that service will run on.Continue Reading

• Zabbix monitoring requires experience for best results

  Not every IT tool is as easy to learn as it is potentially useful. Zabbix offers several views into an environment, but that flexibility comes at the price of admin experience.Continue Reading

• Use HashiCorp's Terraform tool and companions for production IaC

  Developers want isolated systems for prototyping. Testers want mimicry of production. And IT operations wants to configure this infrastructure for them without reinventing the wheel.Continue Reading

• Simplify the production deployment process with these tips

  DevOps shops emphasize production-ready code, which doesn't cause a stir when it moves from dev to test to prod. Experts share how to deploy top-notch code swiftly and accurately.Continue Reading

• Cloud applications demand a new IT operations strategy

  Business and software development trends are putting more pressure on IT operations staff and changing the way teams deploy applications.Continue Reading

• Kubernetes books put container deployments on the right track

  Whether you're tasked to set up and manage or deploy applications with Kubernetes, these books offer guidance and support. Co-author Brendan Burns shares insights from the texts.Continue Reading

• Zabbix

  Zabbix is an open source monitoring software tool for diverse IT components, including networks, servers, virtual machines (VMs) and cloud services.Continue Reading

• What is the Hyper-V VHD Set format and how is it optimized?

  VHD File Set -- a file format new to Windows Server 2016 -- is helpful for IT administrators using guest clusters. Get up to speed on the basics and learn how to optimize it.Continue Reading

• What are containers and how do they work?

  Containerization is a new approach to application provisioning for many enterprises and requires a fundamental understanding of how containers operate, where they differ and the pros and cons.Continue Reading

• What is the best DevOps tool for my career?

  I have no prior knowledge on DevOps. I'm doing an online course and understand Unix. I get the concepts, so what tool should I concentrate on learning to advance my DevOps career?Continue Reading

• Set up BSD jails as a form of virtualization

  Using the ezjail tool, you can easily create and install a BSD jail. Execute these simple commands to get started and take advantage of key ezjail features.Continue Reading

• What cloud compatibility issues can arise with VM migration?

  Many compatibility issues can arise when moving VMs to the public cloud. Watch out for compatibility problems with partitions, OSes and image formats to ensure a smooth migration.Continue Reading

• Forget the DevOps mindset, and change habits and behaviors instead

  DevOps is not a state of mind, but rather a series of behaviors and practices. Expert Rob Lambert explains how a focus on habits can be a DevOps game-changer.Continue Reading

• How do you use forklift migration to move VMs to the cloud?

  To migrate a VM and its dependencies from a local data center to a public cloud, use the forklift method to prepare the VM for migration, deploy the right tools and import.Continue Reading

• Which VM migration techniques prepare VMs for the cloud?

  Prepare your VMs with cloud migration best practices that examine how suitable a VM is for migration, what groundwork needs to be prepared for it and the costs of migration.Continue Reading

• How do you prepare for a VM migration in cloud computing?

  Prepare for a VM migration by examining the requirements of your VMs and your cloud provider. Configure the VM for migration and match the settings to the cloud provider.Continue Reading

• Why personal alignment is the secret sauce in top DevOps teams

  It's not magic, exactly, but there is a little-known secret at the heart of successful DevOps teams. Try personal alignment to improve team performance.Continue Reading

• DevOps is a culture, but here's why it's actually not

  What DevOps needs today isn't more culture or more technology. It needs standards to help companies do a better job with implementation. Expert Aymen El Amri explains.Continue Reading

• A Go programming language tutorial for IT ops

  Go is a diversely applicable programming language that ops admins can use on distributed systems without the complications of traditional languages such as C or Java.Continue Reading

• Can you ace our DevOps quiz? Maybe, but beware SnackOps

  Do you know the difference between BizDevOps and DevOps 2.0? How about HumanOps and HugOps? What about SnackOps? Time to test your DevOps methodology knowledge.Continue Reading

• Get started with AIOps tools

  Instead of admins doing all the tedious work to resolve issues reactively, AIOps tools promise predictive analytics, health assessments and preventative action suggestions.Continue Reading

• Distributed tracing gives microservices monitoring more clarity

  When you have users interacting with multiple services with each action, finding the cause of a problem becomes a difficult hunt. Distributed tracing helps highlight the issues.Continue Reading

• Why DevOps? The simple answer is it creates safer processes

  Is it possible to take an old-fashioned organization actually hostile to technology and move it into the 21st-century DevOps world? Expert David Savage says it is.Continue Reading

• Bots know better: Maybe AIOps tools should drive your stack

  As more IT tool vendors add AI capabilities, organizations are speeding up delivery and cutting waste, but a lack of integration and trust is holding back the intelligent stack.Continue Reading

• Best practices for sizing a server

  Serving sizing requires a number of comparisons, especially between having a few large servers or many popcorn servers. Compare use cases to find what fits.Continue Reading