IT Operations: Page

Organize Active Directory with these strategies

Administrators tasked with cleaning up the Active Directory user group structure need not search any further. Use these tips to avoid Active Directory maintenance headaches.

By Tim Warner • June 13, 2018

Manage Switch Embedded Teaming in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V

You can create and manage a Switch Embedded Team in Hyper-V using just a few PowerShell commands, but there are specific requirements and limitations you should be aware of.

By Brien Posey • June 13, 2018

Adobe zero-day fix precedes June Patch Tuesday

Adobe closed a zero-day vulnerability last week, which Microsoft added to its June Patch Tuesday updates. Administrators have a lighter workload, with about 50 exploits to address.

By Kristen Gloss • June 12, 2018

Splunk’s VictorOps acquisition extends alerts, but narrows lanes

Splunk's purchase of VictorOps, its fifth deal in the past year, adds DevOps incident management, on-call scheduling and alerting, and opens doors into adjacent markets.

By Ed Scannell • June 12, 2018

Use Sysprep to generalize Hyper-V VMs for rapid deployment

Microsoft's Sysprep tool enables rapid Hyper-V VM configuration and deployment through image generalization. Use commands to speed up configuration and disaster recovery.

By Nirmal Sharma • June 11, 2018

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.

By Beth Pariseau • June 8, 2018

Small-scale infrastructure testing requires transparency

Use small-scale tests for a cheaper alternative to expensive, duplicate test environments, but be wary of limitations, such as hardware functionality and performance.

By Brian Kirsch • June 8, 2018

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.

By Nirmal Sharma • June 8, 2018

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.

By Clive Longbottom • June 7, 2018

DevOps shops weigh risks of Microsoft-GitHub acquisition

An online outcry about Microsoft's GitHub acquisition seems overblown to enterprise DevOps pros, but that doesn't mean there's no cause for concerns.

By Beth Pariseau and Darryl K. Taft • June 6, 2018

What is the future for Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging?

As its cloud services have matured, Microsoft has adjusted the unified messaging features in Exchange Server. What will unified messaging look like on Exchange Server 2019?

By Nathan O'Bryan • June 6, 2018

Is your shop compliant? Take our DevOps audit quiz to find out

Compliance is hard, even in a Waterfall environment. Bring in the speed of DevOps, and it can feel overwhelming. Take our quiz to see if your DevOps team is ready.

By Ryan Dowd • June 6, 2018

Microsoft-GitHub acquisition shakes up DevOps market

Microsoft's $7.5 billion blockbuster deal for GitHub is a sea change for the IT market, as an enterprise software bellwether with legacy baggage snaps up an open source DevOps darling.

By Beth Pariseau and Ed Scannell • June 4, 2018

Kubernetes in Azure eases container deployment duties

Using containers in the cloud will require an orchestration tool. Azure Kubernetes Service helps create and manage the clusters when running containers on the Azure platform.

By Jonathan Hassell • June 4, 2018

Enable rapid provisioning of VMs with SCVMM SAN copy

Achieve VM rapid provisioning with SCVMM by creating a SAN copy template from either an existing or new VM. Then select the required options when deploying the template to the host.

By Nirmal Sharma • June 1, 2018

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?

By Meredith Courtemanche • June 1, 2018

Chef Habitat early adopters sing app automation praises

Chef Habitat can ease application deployments and updates, and ensure high availability, but there's still a lot of confusion among IT pros about precisely where it fits in the DevOps toolchain.

By Beth Pariseau • May 30, 2018

Zenoss ZenPacks plug-ins support hundreds of external resources

IT monitoring tools only monitor what they're built for. Zenoss fills in the inevitable gaps with ZenPacks to give admins exactly what they need -- without unnecessary extras.

By Stephen Bigelow • May 30, 2018

Mind the feature gaps in the PowerShell open source project

Administrators who switch to the cross-platform version of PowerShell might find it challenging to use, but there are several ways to cope with a transition from Windows PowerShell.

By Richard Siddaway • May 30, 2018

Build a virtualized development environment with these guidelines

Save time and stress by designing virtualized test environments that include migration preparation and sandbox testing, and that, in certain cases, mix test and production hardware.

By Nick Moore • May 29, 2018

Use load tests to balance IT capacity management and QoE

Simply throwing more resources at an application won't solve scaling issues. IT ops pros must take the time to chart the relationship between IT capacity and software performance.

By Tom Nolle • May 29, 2018

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.

By Stuart Burns • May 29, 2018

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.

By Stephen Bigelow • May 25, 2018

Mastering PowerShell commands for Exchange by the book

This book works through common scenarios administrators face when managing Exchange Server 2016 and explains how to tackle them with PowerShell scripts.

By Kristen Gloss • May 25, 2018

Appirio signs FinancialForce PSA software pact

Under a new agreement, cloud consultancy Appirio revealed it plans to build a FinancialForce PSA sales and implementation practice; other IT channel news from the week.

By John Moore and Spencer Smith • May 25, 2018