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• 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

• 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

• Definitions to Get Started

  • What is compliance automation?
  • What is automation bias?
  • What is DevOps as a service?
  • What is an automated script?

  • What is AI in networking?
  • What is Docker?
  • What is real user monitoring (RUM)?
  • What is infrastructure automation?

  View All Definitions

• 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

• 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

• Get started with this Nutanix Community Edition installation guide

  Install Nutanix Community Edition to test its features in your infrastructure for free. Learn about the download, installation, configuration and VM creation processes.Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• '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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• What to know about container management tools

  Containerization isn't simple. Implementing a management tool that fits your strategy can make the difference between success and failure.Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Container adoption stats reveal a ramp up in production

  There's a 50/50 chance your IT organization will provision and support container-based applications by 2020. See how organizations approach container deployment, including how much they need to spend.Continue Reading

• Automation and orchestration elevate scripts from helpful to essential

  Did you automate a server update, only to realize another script for configuration compliance has to run first? Orchestration tidies up the messy piles of automation that grow out of IT scripting.Continue Reading

• Follow these VM network configuration best practices

  Set up and operate a VM network using proven strategies to ensure security and performance. With a little planning, virtualization admins can avoid potential issues down the road.Continue Reading

• Explore Ansible for DevOps configuration management

  The configuration management tool is adept at managing workloads across different infrastructure environments. This Ansible overview preps admins to automate apps and infrastructure.Continue Reading

• Three ChatOps examples demonstrate DevOps efficiency

  IT collaboration tools are taking center stage in DevOps shops, where they create an environment of connection -- to applications, to peer knowledge and to automation tools.Continue Reading

• Create a self-signed certificate to control PowerShell scripts

  Signing code ensures that every change is official and approved. This helps to prevent errors and security breaches. Write a PowerShell self-signed certificate for code testing.Continue Reading

• Navigate different network ports, from physical to virtual

  Physical network ports, virtual network ports, uplink ports and group ports all have different functions in virtual infrastructures. Learn more with this in-depth breakdown.Continue Reading

• VM networking: Physical and virtual switches explained

  In order for VMs to communicate, they must utilize VM networking technologies that enable them to emulate and access the existing physical network and provide additional features.Continue Reading

• Make smart container hosting decisions for enterprise IT

  Containers promise enticing benefits, so when they hit real-world production IT, they must land on a hosting infrastructure built for new challenges and capabilities.Continue Reading

• Chef (software)

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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 ...Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Agentless Ansible structure opens up configuration management potential

  Ansible is easy to use for IT ops pros, and it supports multicloud functionality within its automation structure. This simple walkthrough gets sys admins started with the tool.Continue Reading

• The art of managing IT risk is never quite mastered

  Risks abound, and no amount of preparation or caution will eliminate them entirely from our lives. This is as true now as it was in the past, and it likely will remain true in the future.

  While technology enables us all to work more effectively ...Continue Reading

• IT asset tracking informs better capacity, management decisions

  Detailed IT asset inventories are a result of granular asset tracking and lead to better server and storage management -- among other benefits.Continue Reading

• Learn shell scripts: A sys admin's guide to automation

  Shell scripts and sys admins should be best friends. A day rarely goes by without using some form of shell script or another. Learn how those scripts work and start writing them.Continue Reading

• Deep dive into Hyper-V files and folders

  Understanding all aspects of a Hyper-V installation now makes it easier to troubleshoot problems later. Look under the hood of Hyper-V files and folders to prep for the worst.Continue Reading

• Draw a DevOps adoption roadmap by learning from current users

  The DevOps methodology is rapidly on the rise, with one estimate that three-fourths of businesses are using it. There are some best practices to make the transition less rocky.Continue Reading

• Staring down the security issues in cloud computing

  Adoption of cloud computing has no doubt been slowed by worries about the security of those out-of-sight servers and resources. While reasonable, those worries have given way over time to acceptance and even optimism.

  In this month's Modern ...Continue Reading

• Shipyard floats a Docker GUI for easier container management

  Deploying new Docker images is the easy part; managing and reporting on those instances is tricky. IT teams can use the Shipyard GUI to stop, start, orchestrate and manage Docker.Continue Reading

• Application support and maintenance add up to operational ALM

  An application isn't fully grown when it moves from development to production -- it still needs nurturing to meet its full potential.Continue Reading

• How the Puppet architecture manipulates configurations

  Puppet is intrinsically scalable, enabling IT teams to manage one machine or hundreds. Its architecture makes the configuration management tool compatible with a range of IT setups.Continue Reading

• Real-life change management examples prove it's harder than it looks

  Whether your IT shop rigorously follows a service management framework or takes a laissez-faire approach to changes, these examples help hone change management procedures.Continue Reading

• Idempotent configuration management sets things right -- no matter what

  Idempotency ensures a system won't stray from its designated desired state, sending alerts to systems administrators if a requested change would cause a disruption.Continue Reading