IT Operations: Page

Create VM templates without encountering errors

Creating a VM template is a fairly straightforward process. Even so, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with Microsoft's documentation to avoid common mistakes.

By Brien Posey • Sept. 17, 2018

The journey to DevOps starts with solving problems

If you want to do DevOps, don't just follow the prescribed strategies and roadmaps that other companies lay out. Assess your own process, and start addressing your own problems.

By Rob Lambert • Sept. 17, 2018

Explore the Cubic congestion control provider for Windows

Microsoft made Cubic the default congestion control provider for Windows 10 and plans to do the same for Windows Server 2019. Learn what this means for your organization.

By Brien Posey • Sept. 14, 2018

IT experts exchange container security tips and caveats

Real-world container security requires users to dig in to the finer points of container, host, Kubernetes and application configurations.

By Beth Pariseau • Sept. 13, 2018

Mix test and production environments with hyper-convergence

Despite the enhanced separation that hyper-converged infrastructure can offer, it's better to mix environments and use rules to create a hardware-independent workload balance.

By Brian Kirsch • Sept. 12, 2018

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.

By Stuart Burns • Sept. 12, 2018

Microsoft shuts down zero-day exploit on September Patch Tuesday

Administrators should prioritize patching systems affected by four public disclosures resolved by the Patch Tuesday updates.

By Kristen Gloss • Sept. 12, 2018

PagerDuty incident response tools loop in business stakeholders

PagerDuty follows Atlassian with incident response tracking for corporate management, while IT pros on the front lines of incident triage also seek enhancements to low-level alerting configurations.

By Beth Pariseau • Sept. 11, 2018

Anomaly detection methods unleash microservices performance

When distributed applications run in containers, admins suddenly have a whirlwind of metrics to track instead of just a short list. These methods reach into the heart of the task.

By Kurt Marko • Sept. 10, 2018

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.

By Robert Sheldon • Sept. 10, 2018

Create and configure a shielded VM in Hyper-V

In just a few easy steps, including installing a Host Guardian Service server and creating certificates, you can shield a Hyper-V VM to protect it against access or tampering.

By Brien Posey • Sept. 7, 2018

Windows troubleshooting tools to improve VM performance

Fine-tune virtualized workloads and diagnose performance issues with help from these Windows troubleshooting tools every server administrator should know.

By Brian Kirsch • Sept. 6, 2018

How does AD DS differ from Microsoft Azure Active Directory?

On-premises Active Directory or Azure AD? It doesn't have to be an either/or situation, as more cloud services are making their way into traditional data center environments.

By Stephen Bigelow • Sept. 6, 2018

Atlassian shops size up OpsGenie buy, Jira for incident management

Atlassian snapped up OpsGenie and rolled out Jira Ops as part of a shift in focus to IT incident management. Users will follow the strategy cautiously.

By Beth Pariseau • Sept. 5, 2018

Build a secure Docker host environment on Linux systems

In the cutting-edge technology world of containers, don't lose sight of the fundamental security best practices that protect workloads and minimize attack surfaces.

By Stuart Burns • Sept. 4, 2018

Learn the tricks for using Microsoft Teams with Exchange

As Microsoft Teams gains prominence for business collaboration, administrators should investigate the integration options with their Exchange Online or on-premises Exchange setup.

By Neil Hobson • Aug. 31, 2018

Third-party Kubernetes tools hone performance for database containerization

Kubernetes tools look to carve out a market niche in database containerization with performance monitoring and quality-of-service management features.

By Beth Pariseau • Aug. 30, 2018

Kubernetes community takes over massive Google test bed

Google will donate $9 million in GCP resources and undergo a three-year handoff process to put a massive Kubernetes test bed under CNCF control. Users wonder, what happens next.

By Beth Pariseau • Aug. 29, 2018

Application performance metrics and tools fit for modern architectures

Distributed applications and cloud hosting have led to new application interactions and KPI categories -- and different performance concerns need different metrics.

By Alan Earls • Aug. 29, 2018

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.

By Aymen El Amri • Aug. 28, 2018

Open source hypervisor technical support, update considerations

Even though open source software itself is completely free to obtain and use, effective hypervisor technical support options for production environments might cost money.

By Stephen Bigelow • Aug. 28, 2018

Build an IT maintenance plan around infrastructure needs

Don't delay maintenance reboots. It's easy to forget to reboot hosts, tools and drivers, so use a reboot schedule to ensure your infrastructure remains functional.

By Brian Kirsch • Aug. 28, 2018

Free Kubernetes security tools broaden enterprise choices

Kubernetes security tools give enterprise IT shops strategic approaches to container security that go beyond shoring up individual container instances.

By Beth Pariseau • Aug. 27, 2018

VMware vSphere update tweaks HTML5 client, bundles AppDefense

Hoping to keep its broad base of vSphere users engaged, VMware debuted an updated version of the virtualization offering and a version bundled with AppDefense.

By Ed Scannell • Aug. 27, 2018

Is the XenServer hypervisor worth the cost?

There is a free, easy-to-obtain version of Citrix XenServer, but additional features and commercial support from Citrix -- which some shops might need -- require a license.

By Stephen Bigelow • Aug. 27, 2018