TECHNICAL SESSIONS
All events held at the Hyatt Regency, New Brunswick, NJ
Talks/Papers
Ganeti: Virtual Clusters made easy
Thomas Limomcelli – Google, Inc
Ganeti is a cluster virtual server management software tool built on top of existing virtualization technologies such as Xen or KVM and other Open Source software. Ganeti takes care of disk creation, migration, OS installation, shutdown, startup, and can be used to preemptively move a virtual machine off a physical machine that is starting to get sick. It doesn’t require a big expensive SAN, complicated networking, or a lot of money. The project is used around the world by many organizations; it is sponsored by Google and hosted at http://code.google.com/p/ganeti
Bio:
Tom is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and system administrator. His best known books include Time Management for System Administrators (O’Reilly) and The Practice of System and Network Administration (Addison-Wesley). He works at Google in NYC on the Ganeti project (http://code.google.com/p/ganeti). http://EverythingSysadmin.com is his blog. Tom is a member of LOPSA, Usenix and is on the planning committee for PICC.
Emulating Routers with Dynamips, Dynagen, and GNS3
Willard Dennis
There was a time when studying for a Cisco certification meant ponyingup for real Cisco equipment to practice on. For advanced certifications, this could ofttimes mean purchasing thousands of dollars of routing equipment, along with the attendant noise and power consumption when running it. But thanks to the coding skills of a few folks, a free open-source router hardware virtualization platform (Dyanmips/Dynagen) became a reality. This has since been extended into a full-blown network simulation environment (GNS3) where real Cisco and Juniper device operating systems can be run, along with virtual Linux and Windows clients. We’ll take a look at what this can do for those who wish to learn (or extend their knowledge) of Cisco and Juniper OS’s, and create labs to learn, practice or test out routing protocols, IPv6, packet sniffing, etc.
Bio:
Will Dennis has been a systems and network administrator since 1989, and is currently the Network Administrator for NEC Laboratories America, located in Princeton NJ. He enjoys the constant learning it takes to keep up with the field of network and systems administration, and is currently pursuing the Cisco CCNP-R/S certification. He is also an active member of LOPSA-NJ, and a volunteer for the PICC ’11 and ’12 conferences.
Google’s Backup System: Solidifying the Cloud
Raymond Blum
Systems like GMail and Picasa keep massive amounts of data in the cloud, all of which has to be constantly backed up to prepare for the inevitable. Typical backup and recovery techniques don’t scale, so Google has devised new methods for securing unprecedented volumes of data against every type of failure
Bio:
Raymond Blum leads a team of Site Reliability Engineers whose job is to keep Google’s storage infrastructure secure and recoverable. In his meager spare time he indulges his interests in developing robotics and home automation systems.
Getting started with a Podcast
Sheeri K. Carbral
This session will discuss how to get started podcasting. Tips and tricks to make your podcast run smoothly will be revealed, as well as how to get the word out there that your podcast exists. There will also be technical information on using audio software and hardware.
Topics will include:
- Preparation Recording – hardware, software, and more
- Editing (with examples)
- Production
- Publishing
- Show notes
- Reaching your audience
- Avoiding burnout
- Keeping your audience happy
- Using social media
Bio:
Sheeri K. Cabral has a master’s degree in computer science specializing in databases from Brandeis University and a background in systems administration. Unstoppable as a volunteer and activist since age 14, Cabral founded and organizes the Boston, Massachusetts, USA, MySQL User Group, is the creator and co-host of OurSQLCast: The MySQL Database Community Podcast, and wrote the MySQL Administrator’s Bible.
DevOps Management: Herding Cats at Etsy
Mike Rembetsy
Devops Management is a topic discussed in the halls of conferences and few managers. This talk will focus on the topic of management in a highly collaborative and cooperative environment, specifically one that is rapidly growing with a focus on continuous development/deployment
Bio:
Michael has worked in system operations for over ten years in healthcare, online media and financial. He started out in the help desk but moved to operations shortly after building and running data center operations. In previous Job he worked for NBC Universal, iVillage, and McDonalds. Currently, Michael the Operations Engineering Director for Etsy.
Securing MySQL: More than just ACLs
Sheeri K. Carbral
Securing MySQL includes proper use of ACL’s, but that is only part of MySQL security. Learn from a leading MySQL expert about the other parts of MySQL security – from operating system files and permissions, how to run MySQL as a secure daemon, how to fight against cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection, and how to perform white-hat Google hacking of MySQL.
Bio:
Sheeri K. Cabral has a master’s degree in computer science specializing in databases from Brandeis University and a background in systems administration. Unstoppable as a volunteer and activist since age 14, Cabral founded and organizes the Boston, Massachusetts, USA, MySQL User Group, is the creator and co-host of OurSQLCast: The MySQL Database Community Podcast, and wrote the MySQL Administrator’s Bible.
CFEngine and why the future of configuration management is knowledge
Mark Burgess
The 21st century is increasingly about the transformation from an industrial society to an information based society. This transformation is also referred to as the “Third Wave”. Demand for agility and diversity is accelerating in commerce, and the ability to manage variability in IT infrastructure has become critical. This goes far beyond current ideas about the Cloud. CFEngine 3 is a Third Wave technology for IT infrastructure that employs techniques of knowledge management to support diversity cheaply. In this talk, Mark Burgess, the creator of CFEngine, explains the challenge of knowledge in the Third Wave and what CFEngine is doing to tackle it.
Bio:
Mark Burgess is the founder, chairman, CTO, and principal author of CFEngine. In 2011 he resigned as Professor of Network and System Administration at Oslo University College, where for twenty years he led the way in theory and practice of automation and policy-based management. In the 1990s he underlined the importance of idempotent, autonomous desired state management (“convergence”) and formalized cooperative systems in the 2000s (“promise theory”). He is the author of numerous books and papers on network and system administration, including the USENIX Short Topics books A System Engineer’s Guide to Host Configuration and Maintenance Using Cfengine, co-authored with Æleen Frisch, and A Sysadmin’s Guide to Navigating the Business World, co-authored with Carolyn Rowland. He has won several prizes for his work.
Free Open Ghost (FOG) What it is/isn’t
Daniel O’Boyle & Todd MacDonald
Free Open Source Ghost (http://www.fogproject.org/) is an image deployment system, scalable to enterprise grade networks. Use FOG to reduce imaging software costs to $0, and to empower your users to quickly perform tasks previously reserved for level 1 technicians.
Bio:
Daniel O’Boyle is a systems integrator and part time programmer, currently employed as Senior Systems Administrator for HIllsborough Township Public Schools
Todd MacDonald is a database specialist with a background in web design and GIS, currently specializing in Technology Integration for Education
Windows Fleet Deployment with MDT2010 – Experiences at Montclair State
Joseph Youn & Mike Stoppay
What happens when a UNIX system administrator and a Mac system administrator look at Microsoft Deployment Toolkit? To our surprise, we found a powerful, flexible and easy to use system that allows us to deploy hundreds of systems with minimal effort. We will describe how we deploy our Windows fleet using MDT2010, thin images, Active Directory, Group Policy and scripted software installs.
Bio:
Joseph Youn and Mike Stoppay run the systems for the College of Science and Mathematics at Montclair State University
StackExchange.com: Scaling the Most popular Q&A sites using the Microsoft Stack!
George Beech
This talk will be covering the tools, technologies, and methods that Stack > Exchange uses to scale our WISC (Windows, IIS, SQL Server, C#) based websites to handle the approximately 14 million page views a day we receive. The amazing part – we run all of our core services on 10 IIS servers and 2 primary SQL servers.
Bio:
George Beech is an IT Generalist, who focuses mostly on Windows and Linux Platforms. Currently I work for Stack Exchange running the infrastructure to support the second largest Windows stack based Website.
Mass Provisioning for a Heterogeneous Co-located Environment
R. Marshall Webber
When your hardware is out of reach, has multiple MACs, and must be purpose-built for performance in place while being racked by minimum-wage staff, how can a SysAdmin deliver on time and within budget?
Using a vendor neutral approach, and advocating Open tools, we will unpack the challenges of large scale, rapid deployment, and discuss design, technique and practical experiences, rather than fixating on a single tool or product. Successful strategies will be discussed that emphasize concurrent development of process management and critical path thinking in your staff. The presentation is both technical and strategic in nature.
Bio:
R. Marshall Webber is a Technologist for one of the largest privately held financial institutions in the world. He has previously supported Big Iron UNIX for Burlington Coat Factory and The Boeing Company, as well as having performed contract support for other companies including Microsoft and FirstUSA Bank.
Configuration Manager for Windows and more
Prashanth Sundaram
Do you find managing Windows Servers and Desktops using AD and Group Policy at times painful? Have you been in situations where you have to upgrade from XP to Windows 7, set system configuration baselines, install new/custom applications, deploy updates in a hierarchy, get real-time hardware and software inventory reports for upgrades and license management, run remote commands, replicate configurations to different sites over a WAN and basically be able to see all your infrastructure in one single console? Though most of the above can be accomplished using a combination of tools, wouldn’t this be easier to use just one? Well then, say “hello” to ‘System Center Configuration Manager’ (aka SCCM).
- Windows 7 OS deployment and migration.
- Package and distribute software without needing to create GPOs and groups.
- Set approved update lists and templates for deploying windows updates.
- Allow users to install approved applications whenever they want
Bio:
Prashanth Sundaram is a Technologist for a tiny financial firm in New York City where he manages Windows, Linux, Storage, IP Networks and interacts with multiple vendors on projects. He started his career 4 years ago at a software development company where he worked in a larger team that almost doubled in a short time. He likes to keep up with the latest tech news and test new sysadmin tools along with attending meetups in the tri-state area. This is his first presentation outside the company boundaries
Building consistent and maintainable RPMs with the mock build system
Thomas Uphill
RPMs are the core of any RHEL/Fedora based system. Ensuring that any RPMs you distribute are consistent and install cleanly on every system you support is the job of mock. Mock ensures your RPM specifies every requirement when either building or installing. Mock allows you to maintain several different repositories and architectures from a single build host without fear of having unresolved dependencies or conflicts.
Bio:
Thomas Uphill (http://ramblings.narrabilis.com/): Thomas has been a System Administrator for 16 years. He currently works at the Institute for Advanced Study where he is one of the main contributors to the PUIAS Linux distribution. Thomas has several Red Hat Certifications and currently holds an RHCA. Thomas enjoys building packages, fixing spec files and maintaining repositories. He’s spent the last year migrating all his perl and bash scripts to python.
Migrating from Exchange 2003 to Google Apps Premiere
Jake Mohnkern
One year ago, CCS completed a zero downtime migration from Microsoft Exchange 2003 to Google Apps Premiere. This talk briefly addresses the entire process from evaluation, to full scale deployment and cutover-along with lessons learned a year later.
Bio:
Jake Mohnkern is the IT Manager and Sr. Systems Administrator for Cambridge Computer Services in Waltham, MA. Jake joined CCS in 2003, previously working as a systems administrator in the medical and financial industries
Migrating from MS Small Business Server 2003 to 2011
Scott Seltzer
This talk will cover my experiences with the migration process from MS Small Business Server 2003 to 2011. The goal will be to provide administrators planning a migration with a clearer roadmap than the current MS documentation provides. I will provide an overview of the process, discuss problems that occur and common resolutions, and show how I schedule a migration to maximize the effectiveness of my time and minimize interruptions for the users.
Bio:
Scott Seltzer works as an IT consultant for the Swarthmore, PA company TechGuides. He has been providing IT consulting services in the Philadelphia area since 2001.
Intro to Chef
Mandi Wells
“Intro to Chef” is a brief introduction to the main goals and features of Opscode’s Chef. We’ll cover Chef’s basic resources, how Chef’s cookbooks and recipes layer together to provide comprehensive configuration, and getting started with Chef. No prior knowledge of Chef or other CM tools is necessary.
Bio:
Mandi Walls is a consultant and technical evangelist with Opscode. Prior to joining Opscode in November, 2011, Mandi worked for over a decade in various system administration positions, including working at AOL in Operations for www.aol.com , and moviefone.com. Find her on twitter, freenode, and github as lnxchk.
Successfully Migrating From CFEngine 2 to CFEngine 3
Joe Netzel
For over a decade, CFEngine 2 has performed vital configuration management tasks on thousands of servers, with many instances remaining in service today. While CFEngine 2 is no longer officially supported, there are a number of administrators who are hesitant to upgrade due to the typical concerns associated with any large scale migration. In this presentation we will first discuss the benefits of upgrading, as well as demonstrate what’s new in CFEngine 3 from a theoretical and practical perspective. Once this foundation has been laid, we will address migration concerns and provide strategies to help you plan your migration, convert your policies and upgrade your systems to CFEngine 3.
Bio:
Joe Netzel has spent nearly 15 years in the trenches as a System Administrator for IBM, General Electric and Lockheed Martin before joining CFEngine in 2011 as a Systems Engineer. When he isn’t busy “getting his geek on”, he can be found performing music or absorbing blows at the local dojo.
Configuration Management From The Trenches
Noble Thomas
The state of configuration management is arguably still in its infancy, and detailed info on how to integrate a particular CM into an existing site is scarce. Our aim is to describe configuration management “from the trenches” — that is, all the real-world efforts involved in fitting a particular configuration management tool into an existing infrastructure, in the hopes that others would benefit from our design decisions and ultimately, advance the existing state of configuration management technology.
Bio:
N.J. Thomas is a Unix systems administrator for Wireless Generation. In his spare time he likes to play with BSD, command-line and curses-based tools, and configuration management systems.
CFengine Config Mgmt for Security
Diego Zamboni
Beyond controlling security-related configuration, configuration management systems can play a much more active part in security enforcement and monitoring. In this talk I will describe how CFEngine can be used to perform security-related tasks, including file-change monitoring and remediation, “neighborhood watch” inter-host monitoring, detection of behavioral deviations, and STIG (Security Technical Implementation Guide) compliance configuration.
Bio:
Diego Zamboni is Sr. Security Advisor at CFEngine AS. He has more than 20 years of experience in system administration and security, and has worked in both the applied and theoretical sides of the computer science field. He holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University, has worked as a sysadmin at a supercomputer center, as a researcher at the IBM Zurich Research Lab, and as a consultant at HP Enterprise Services.
Collabograte: Integrating the Software and Experience of Open Source Collaboration
Kartik Subbarao
Collabograte is a platform for integrating collaboration-related software components into an IT infrastructure. The project’s primary goal is to deliver value to the people who are bringing open, collaborative technologies into their workplaces. The presentation will include a walkthrough of integration points in the context of a Virtual Machine reference implementation with OpenLDAP, MediaWiki, WordPress, Sympa, Postfix, Cyrus IMAP, INN and ejabberd.
Bio:
Kartik Subbarao is an independent IT consultant with 20 years of industry experience including open source strategy, architecture, and implementation. He has a BSEE from Princeton University and an MSEE from Stanford University
Deep Application Monitoring using Statsd and more
Pete Fritchman
This talk discusses how to instrument and monitor application-specific metrics. Traditionally, sysadmins monitor applications with null transactions and synthetic checks — instead, it can be more effective to monitor and alert on the actual result of customer transactions. Using tools such as statsd, logstash, and graphite we can build a system that collects metrics for near real-time graphing and alerting.
Bio:
Pete Fritchman is an Operations Engineer for Mozilla, where one of his primary focuses is working on open source monitoring tools and enhancing application monitoring.
Creating Images for Macs using InstaDMG
Balmes Pavlov
This session will discuss how to create never booted images for Macs using a tool called InstaDMG. If you’re still making images based on each Mac model, then this presentation is for you. You will learn how InstaDMG can be used to create a fully updated OS X (10.5-10.7) image with applications included into it.
Bio:
Balmes Pavlov has been a Technical Support Specialist with Pace University for 2 years. At Pace University, he has worked in increasing the support for Macs as more staff and students bring Apple products to campus.