Configuration Management and DevOps

Hammerspace adds Kubernetes CSI driver for containers

Startup Hammerspace updates product with Kubernetes Container Storage Interface driver and multisite global namespace to facilitate data access in container environments. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

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

By

• Kristin Knapp, TechTarget

Use Packer for Windows to enhance machine image automation

Packer can curtail time sinks for administrators, especially those dealing with rapid OS releases. But the DevOps tool can require additional effort to work for Windows. Continue Reading

By

• Dan Franciscus

Determine the cost of app customization in the cloud

Cloud applications are like icebergs: There's a lot users don't see below the surface. One apparently small change could have a massive ripple effect on operations. Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Non-IT software vendors stir up IT tool selection process

Many non-IT vendors now offer homegrown software -- a model that carries benefits and risks. Weigh the pros and cons around support, availability and other factors before making a decision. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

Cisco earnings, revenue show strength of product roadmap

Cisco earnings and revenue show customers are putting aside global uncertainties and buying into the company's shift toward a more software-centric form of networking. Continue Reading

By

• Antone Gonsalves, Editor at Large

What is intent-based networking and how does it work?

Intent-based networking might be the future of networking, but it needs to be more than just another networking strategy that offers advanced automation and simplified provisioning. Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer English, Editorial Director

Evaluate the Mesos architecture for massive container deployments

In addition to supporting large-scale IT deployments, Mesos takes a unique approach to data center and cloud resource pools that can benefit both containerized and noncontainerized apps. Continue Reading

By

• Tom Nolle, Andover Intel

New Commvault CEO Mirchandani: We're ready for the next wave

The new Commvault boss says it's time for well-funded data management upstarts to 'take the training wheels off' if they want to compete in the enterprise. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Network configuration basics: Focus on users and software tools

When configuring a network, keep a detailed and updated document to track user needs and network changes. And, of course, take advantage of network configuration software. Continue Reading

By

• David Jacobs, The Jacobs Group

How the SaltStack architecture enables config management at scale

SaltStack's one-to-many communication model enables it to manage configurations in massive IT deployments without network strain. To get the most out of SaltStack, understand ZeroMQ. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Cisco launches AppDynamics integration with ACI

Cisco has provided AppDynamics integration with ACI, the company's software-defined networking architecture. Cisco expects the integration to help DevOps teams. Continue Reading

By

• Antone Gonsalves, Editor at Large

How to update configurations via the Salt state file

Salt users must grasp the concepts around state files for configuration changes and updates. Follow along with this tutorial, which also features Cassandra, to get started. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

Pop quiz: Can you identify these top IT trends of 2019?

From serverless and AIOps to a widening tech skills gap, numerous IT trends bring momentum into 2019. See how ready you are for new opportunities and hurdles in IT with this quiz. Continue Reading

By

• Emily Mell, Former Site Editor

HashiCorp

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

By

• Alexander S. Gillis, Technical Writer and Editor

Bookmark 10 popular tips on containers and Kubernetes

Should we go with an open source or commercial option? What about DevOps? These 10 essential tips explain how containers fit into complex modern IT environments. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

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

By

• Emily Mell, Former Site Editor

Establish a configuration management strategy to guide transition

Humans are notoriously averse to change in routine -- even when it makes their jobs easier. Encourage innovation and be flexible: Strategy is a journey, not a destination. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche and Jan Stafford

Establish a configuration management strategy to guide transition

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A configuration management plan can unite tools and teams

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Manage Salt minions in large environments in symphony

IT organizations must create, enforce and update configurations in a standardized manner. Learn how to direct Salt minions to install software without repetitive manual work. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

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

By

• Dan Franciscus

As-a-service at your service: Cloud tools simplify DevOps automation

AWS offers the widest range of cloud-integrated DevOps tools. But Google Cloud has a strategy with more focus on integration, and Azure closely ties in with other Microsoft products. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Try this Chocolatey tutorial to pick up Vagrant provisioning for Windows

To install a Linux-based tool on a non-Linux machine, at least one intermediary tool is necessary. On Windows, use the Chocolatey package manager for a smooth process. Continue Reading

By

• Dan Franciscus

Why teams create DevOps platforms to match projects

Prebuilt platforms offer a wealth of capabilities without the hassle to integrate everything. But cherry-picking for exact needs yields tighter resource management. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

Boost DevOps cred with script management in Git version control

DevOps teams use configuration management to automate patches and provisioning. They use version control to increase collaboration and change control. Learn how to combine the two. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

Use Active Directory for testing environments in DevOps shops

AD enables admins to create testing environments almost identical to production environments through duplicated trees, interconnected forests and authentication best practices. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Bertram

Compliance automation prevents regulation audit snafus

Many IT organizations address compliance issues manually, even though Puppet, Fugue and other tools can enforce configurations that comply with regulations and even provide an audit trail. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

Chef InSpec 3.0 horns in on Terraform territory

Chef InSpec 3.0 can scan Terraform infrastructure-as-code files for security and compliance gaps, which knocked HashiCorp Sentinel off the evaluation list at Chef customer Pacific Life. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Puppet Enterprise updates give IT ops pros a leg up on DevOps

Puppet Enterprise 2019, Puppet Bolt 1.0 and Puppet Insights broaden enterprise IT ops pros' options for DevOps support and infrastructure automation tools. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Tap the Chocolatey package manager to usher in Windows DevOps

Create a Chocolatey package with this tutorial on DevOps for Windows. Simplify package management and installation, and swap the GUI for a CLI client. Continue Reading

By

• Dan Franciscus

Make IT infrastructure documentation a regular task

Even though documenting IT processes might not be at the top of an admin's to-do list, they should not let it fall by the wayside. Learn documentation best practices here. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

Users mull Ansible Tower features' config management controls

Ansible users know their way around a CLI, but some envision an all-inclusive IT automation platform based on the Ansible Tower management console UI and features. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Ansible roadmap steers toward network, security via integrations

Through simply written automation and granular access control, Ansible will attempt to put networking and security teams in step with IT infrastructure and DevOps counterparts. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Compare Go vs. Python for infrastructure programming

Both code languages get the infrastructure-as-code job done, but each from a different angle. This comparison tutorial puts their similarities and differences center stage. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

A fine-tuned change request template minimizes user discontent

Change management is an essential ITSM practice, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of end users. Use templates to clarify expectations and set changes in motion without disruption. Continue Reading

By

• Adam Fowler

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

By

• Robert Sheldon

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

By

• Alan R. Earls

How a domain-specific language affects configuration management

Learn a domain-specific language -- it's easier than French! A DSL's programming style enables administrators to operate with more precision and flexibility, but don't write off YAML yet. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

Write cloud-config automation scripts into the configuration file

Bypass the need for excess infrastructure, and put off the automation languages seminar -- you need to configure the cloud now. Fortunately, you can still do that. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Follow a Kubernetes and Go tutorial in your home lab

Learn how to use the Kubernetes Go client, dep for dependency management and other capabilities for Kubernetes and Go in this home lab exercise on Minikube. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

Heuristic automation prevents unmitigated IT disasters

IT automation isn't about doing everything faster -- although that's how it started. Heuristics make automation smarter and responsive to changes in the IT environment. Continue Reading

By

• Clive Longbottom

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

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

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

By

• Adam Bertram

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

By

• Stuart Burns

Docker pledges Kubernetes for Windows support in Docker EE

Docker Enterprise Edition will add Kubernetes for Windows features in the coming months, but Microsoft shops haven't decided on a container orchestration strategy. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Reflect adds color to Puppet DevOps tools

Puppet plans to add data visualization and analysis to spruce up its DevOps tools now that it has acquired Reflect, but it's still playing catch-up in a crowded, noisy market. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

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

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Chef InSpec users wrestle with compliance as code

Learning the ins and outs of the Chef InSpec product is only half the battle for compliance as code. The thornier task for some enterprises is to bridge the gap between compliance expertise and DevOps execution. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

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

By

• Muddu Sudhakar, Startup companies

Is IT workload management easier on software-defined infrastructure?

Our IT organization uses deployment automation, monitoring tools and virtualized resources. What do we need to do to manage IT workloads? Continue Reading

By

• Brian Kirsch, Milwaukee Area Technical College

Who put the AI in software?

With artificial intelligence, anything seems possible. And that leaves a whole lot of room for the imagination to wonder about how the use of AI in software tools can change how the work gets done -- and who does it.

The anxiety is understandable. The hyperbole is harder to sort out because, well, when it comes to AI, no one knows quite where to put the line between rational and irrational worries. Will AI at some point control every aspect of your life? Probably not. Will AI push you out of a job? Quite possibly.

Using AI in software development is one way to make your IT resources more intelligent and more automated. If AI can test software faster and better, shouldn't you be doing it that way? That's a question we take up in this first issue of Modern Stack. Also included are articles and columns delving into multi-cloud management, serverless computing and how operations teams can hold up their end of the DevOps bargain.

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Try these Salt commands to master the config management tool

The command line is an IT administrator's best friend. Salt users should try these commands to understand how the configuration management tool works. Continue Reading

By

• Walker Rowe

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

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

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

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, Senior News Writer

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, Senior News Writer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chef Habitat offers a different take on configuration management

Chef Habitat's strategy focuses on the dynamic application environment instead of static servers, approaching configuration management with a new focus. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

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

By

• Sander van Vugt

Server OS patching doesn't have to be as painful as you fear

OS patching is like a mechanic's job -- you need different tools for different makes and models. SCCM, Satellite and Landscape provide upkeep for IT's sports cars and SUVs. Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

Three DevOps toolchain options refine IT automation

DevOps tools that don't interconnect form a bottleneck that teams can easily avoid -- or retroactively remedy -- if the CI/CD workflow merits the time commitment. Continue Reading

By

• Kurt Marko, MarkoInsights

ServiceNow roadmap extends ITSM technology with AI, machine learning

A leader in the IT systems management market, ServiceNow looks to expand into new applications markets. Farrell Hough, in charge of ServiceNow's product operations, lays out the roadmap. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Scannell, Freelancer

Justify CMDB ROI with these strategies

IT pros can easily list off CMDB benefits. But when it comes to convincing the business to pay for a CMDB implementation, you'll need to discuss ROI. Continue Reading

By

• Megan Santosus, TechTarget

DevOps lab: Build Vagrant VMs to learn immutable infrastructure

This article is part of a series to help IT ops professionals learn DevOps by building a home lab. In this first step, a cluster of Vagrant VMs represents immutable infrastructure. Continue Reading

By

• Alastair Cooke

Learn DevOps techniques and tools in this home lab setup

This DevOps lab uses Linux VMs and Docker containers to teach administrators the basics of immutable infrastructure, configuration automation and other modern IT concepts. Continue Reading

By

• Alastair Cooke

Set Salt configuration management free without a master

Salt configurations usually involve at least one minion controlled by a master, but that's not always necessary. See how to use Salt to run a single machine in masterless mode. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

Are there IT jobs in cloud capacity management?

If a company moves only 30% of workloads from its data center to the public cloud, that will reduce IT ops demand. Is there still a role for the ops engineer? Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

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

By

• Sander van Vugt

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

By

• Adam Fowler

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

By

• Clive Longbottom

A SaltStack tutorial to start mastering data center minions

With a basic understanding of SaltStack minions, modules, grains and other concepts, IT administrators have the power to scale up configurations. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

CMDB best practices remain out of reach for many IT shops: Free chapter

Most IT pros know what a CMDB is, but mastering the database and asset management is difficult -- though not impossible. Continue Reading

By

• Meredith Courtemanche, Director of Editorial Training

Salt minions and grains facilitate deployment at scale

A tiered management setup and finely grained monitoring capabilities make SaltStack's configuration management tool worth considering. Continue Reading

By

• Sander van Vugt

Use these DevOps examples to reimagine an IT organization

These before and after DevOps adoption stories from real IT organizations yield insights into processes and tools, metrics for success and mistakes made. Continue Reading

DevOps capabilities vary widely by industry vertical

DevOps isn't the same from one IT shop to another, let alone from healthcare to retail IT. Some verticals rise higher than others when it comes to agility and communication. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer