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Learn to apply best practices and optimize your operations.

• PowerShell scripts enable automated cloud deployments

  This step-by-step tutorial walks through the process to automate an Azure deployment; start with launching the virtual server, and finish with the deletion process. Continue Reading

• Build a DevOps version control process for IT infrastructure

  Infrastructure admins can turn to the DevOps version control process for all IaC updates. Learn the basics, then follow along with an example in Git. Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Should you run MySQL on VMs or physical machines?

  Take stock of your current environment, including instance types, orchestration systems and storage devices, before deciding whether to deploy MySQL to VMs or physical machines.Continue Reading

• Configure NIC teaming with different modes in Hyper-V

  The switch independent mode uses different switches and can support both active/active and active/standby operation, while the dependent mode only uses one switch.Continue Reading

• Step up from ops on your IT career path

  IT operations professionals with accumulated skills in application management, cloud migration or security enforcement could make a forward move to one of these specialist roles.Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Lessons fall from the cloud, changing data center strategies

  The transformative power of cloud computing is long past the point of being news. The cloud model, after all, has irrevocably changed how IT functions. What's interesting to consider is how cloud technologies and methodologies are changing even how ...Continue Reading

• Deploy patches safely and sanely in a CI/CD workflow

  Enterprises engaged in a CI/CD workflow must patch systems and apps strategically. There are multiple technologies to consider, including immutable infrastructure and automation.Continue Reading

• Log management systems benefit greatly from AI

  Organizations with massive volumes of IT operational data need log management tools that can quickly and adeptly process it. AI embedded into tools might be the answer.Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Let's talk about IT infrastructure and emerging technologies

  Work closely with hardware specialists and engineers in the data center, as emerging compute, network and storage technologies have ramifications beyond the racks.Continue Reading

• 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

• Advanced shell scripting for IT ops professionals: Free chapter

  Shell scripts can improve speed and automation for sys admins beyond what's possible with graphical user interfaces. Dana French's books cover advanced shell scripting for experienced users.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

• Not playing games: The GPU vs. CPU question gets more interesting

  Putting thousands of cores to work makes perfect sense when you're powering a video game. But graphics processing units, or GPUs, can't serve much practical purpose in a corporate data center, can they?

  The GPU vs. CPU discussion isn't as odd as ...Continue Reading

• Set up Docker container networking for real production workloads

  A technology as old as data centers -- networking -- threatens to derail the next new thing. Smart networking choices make Docker container deployments functional and organized.Continue Reading

• Optimize PHP with finely tuned IT resources and settings

  Application ops should address the elephant in the room -- poorly optimized PHP -- to speed load and processing times.Continue Reading

• Top cloud and data center technologies win Impact Awards

  Plenty of data center technologies enter the market, aiming to solve this problem or that problem. (Or every problem, if the hype is to be believed.) But which products really hit the mark? Which ones stand out, coming along at just the right moment...Continue Reading

• Set up a virtual home lab to learn OpenStack and more on your own time

  There are many reasons to set up a virtual home lab, not least of all for career advancement and learning. Occasionally, it can be fun too.Continue Reading

• Release management best practices for every IT team

  No one likes an app that implodes once it reaches production. IT operations teams can save themselves some headaches by implementing release management from the initial design on.Continue Reading

• Simplify your platform with IT systems management tools

  So much effort goes into simply keeping an IT infrastructure up and running. Imagine what more could be accomplished once you automate some of those tasks with IT systems management tools.Continue Reading

• 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

• 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

• Should I allow SSH tunneling connections through the firewall?

  Allowing users to tunnel through a firewall to access any site creates a security risk. How big of a risk is it? It depends on how much you trust your users.Continue Reading

• Ways to make the application deployment process clear and flexible

  The application deployment manual must be flexible, and short enough to actually follow. A process that can't change with the evolving IT system isn't of much use to anyone.Continue Reading

• 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

• Know how to handle IT incident management to avoid chaos

  When an important application goes down, you'd better have the right IT incident management processes and procedures in place to fix it.Continue Reading

• Mimic production with the right staging environment

  With public or private cloud templates, it becomes easy to copy your production IT environment for staging new code as often as development needs it.Continue Reading

• Setting up and controlling resources on a Proxmox cluster

  You're learned how to create Proxmox hosts and group them into a cluster. Now it's time to add resources to your cluster and assign access rights to them.Continue Reading

• Secure Docker on Linux or Windows platforms

  With Docker appearing in businesses of all shapes and sizes, security is a concern for many IT admins. Here's how to secure Docker on the container or the host machine.Continue Reading

• Improve application rollout planning with advanced options

  Enterprise IT teams have several advanced options for deploying application updates. The right one depends on what makes the most sense for the business, available IT infrastructure and your confidence in the update.Continue Reading

• Script management technology adds safety to scripting's power

  Script management is a necessity to maintain an IT deployment. The canny organization will choose the right tools that give power to the sys admin, while protecting against accidents.Continue Reading

• Patch servers the right way without wasting time

  Apply these server patching best practices to save time, reduce complexity, and build an optimal schedule and toolkit.Continue Reading

• Pick up infrastructure as code tools and techniques

  Walk through an infrastructure as code template, using AWS CloudFormation as an example, to better understand defining and connecting resources.Continue Reading

• How do I size capacity for VMware oversubscription?

  What best practices and tools can I use to allocate the right resources in an oversubscribed virtualization deployment?Continue Reading

• Primer on DevOps roles and responsibilities

  DevOps planning in enterprises revolves around getting the right teams in place, the necessary skills spiffed up and the proper tools to make it all come together.Continue Reading

• Container orchestration for a new breed of IT

  PaaS offerings such as Heroku, RedHat OpenShift and Cloud Foundry have always used containers under the covers, but as containers move toward production use outside of PaaS in the cloud, they're being deployed in clusters of server infrastructure ...Continue Reading

• Mad about microsegmentation

  The tech industry seems fixated breaking things apart into ever-smaller units for greater levels of "granularity." Traditional standalone applications are maligned as "monoliths" that must be broken apart in to their component pieces, or "...Continue Reading

• How to blend on-premises IT with the cloud

  Most businesses have existing on-premises technologies up and running, and they aren't in a rush to move entirely to the cloud. This means data center teams are increasingly asked to manage IT resources that are located partly on premises and ...Continue Reading

• Windows workloads leap to cloud

  Regardless of hype, there are quite a few areas where cloud remains very much a work in progress. Take cloud bursting. This has long been IT's holy grail for cloud -- the ability to seamlessly expand capacity constrained workloads to outside of your...Continue Reading

• Use GitHub for open source data center automation ideas

  GitHub, a bastion of software developers, also offers automation scripts and open source collaboration for data center administrators.Continue Reading

• Server patch management for multi-OS data centers

  If you have a multi-OS data center, you know the struggle that is server patch management. Don't fret, the right combination of tools and human intuition can alleviate the pain.Continue Reading

• Container technology's role in storage

  Containers are somewhat limited in scope and scale so the next logical step for the technology is dealing with storage.Continue Reading

• Three steps to avoid server NIC teaming problems

  NIC teaming can help reduce resource contention and improve VM performance, but don't fall victim to common mistakes when setting it up.Continue Reading

• How CPU and memory affect application performance

  Application performance will change depending on if you want more cores, better clock speed or what you choose for memory.Continue Reading

• Lift and shift vs. re-platforming cloud apps

  When evaluating a new technology, some people like to go all in, with gusto, and adopt it hook line and sinker. Then there are folks whose MO is to take baby steps: Dip a toe in the water and do a lengthy proof of concept. What's right for any given...Continue Reading

• Container technology thrives for IT

  Just when you thought you had driven the last nail in the coffin of old-school IT, you find out it's back -- albeit with a twist.
  
  Remember operating system-level virtualization? This method of server virtualization is back with a vengeance ...Continue Reading

• How to integrate IT infrastructure monitoring tools

  When done successfully, performance monitoring tool integrations enhance administrative insight and productivity across a busy data center.Continue Reading

• Two ways to manage different server operating systems

  Several tools and techniques let data center systems administrators work with multiple server OSes on one host system, and manage it effectively.Continue Reading

• Big data workloads live on-premises

  Seven years after its birth, the frenzy around cloud is beginning to subside. IT organizations have embraced public cloud for some workloads, and built private clouds for others.

  IT is having productive discussions about which applications to ...Continue Reading

• The new face of scale-out storage

  There are plenty of new approaches to address ever-growing data needs, including scale-out vs. scale-up designs, the shift from hierarchical file systems to object storage, and the Hadoop Distributed File System. Pretty soon there will be absolutely...Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud command and control

  Expectations set by the public cloud around self-service and speed of deployment are beginning to creep into the enterprise. In the early days of cloud, developers were so wowed -- and the controls around accessing it were so loose -- that many ...Continue Reading

• Know your data center monitoring system

  You can't depend on a building system to run the data center. Implement a BMS and a DCIM tool to monitor and predict system changes, tighten security and more.Continue Reading

• How to implement a solid DevOps team structure

  DevOps collaboration can wipe development and operations teams of hostility and negativity. Dashboards and tiger teams turn wartime to peacetime.Continue Reading

• How to adopt a successful DevOps enterprise

  No two DevOps shops are alike, but there are common threads that run throughout. So what does it take for an IT shop to successfully implement the DevOps culture?Continue Reading

• What do you need to roll out application containerization?

  Containers have a significant following these days, thanks to Docker. Find out how containers can help and what you need to get started.Continue Reading

• How to write server documentation

  A data center should be prepared for the worst, but try to avoid that at all costs. Appropriate system documentation helps avoid critical errors.Continue Reading

• Database performance tuning: Five ways for IT to save the day

  IT teams can play heroes when database performance issues disrupt applications. Try these five tips for performance tuning before there's a problem.Continue Reading

• How to build an enterprise private cloud that looks better than AWS

  Clouds that enterprises build rarely stack up to AWS and its ilk in a public cloud. Follow these steps if you want a viable private cloud for users.Continue Reading

• IT asset management best practices for any data center

  Choosing a data center asset management tool depends on how the infrastructure functions, the mix of hardware and software in action and more factors.Continue Reading

• Scale up vs. scale out: Debate evolves over how to upgrade data centers

  Pick sides on whether to scale up vs. scale out servers. It will establish what method to enhance server performance makes sense for your data center.Continue Reading

• A look inside the DevOps movement

  DevOps is a culture, not a job or procedure for an IT team. That said, there are DevOps tools and organizational strategies to help you get there.Continue Reading

• Five tips for selecting system management tools

  Too much granularity? Not enough? Need alerts? Maybe not. There are five considerations for systems management tools -- and cost isn't one of them.Continue Reading

• Tips and tricks to improve memory paging on servers

  Memory paging helps virtual machines share a server's memory resources nicely, but can throttle performance. A few simple tricks will optimize paging.Continue Reading

• How and when to enable hardware-based TPM security on servers

  Most servers include a Trusted Platform Module, but you only want to turn it on and manage TPM when the server handles high-value encrypted workloads.Continue Reading

• How KVM over IP makes remote systems management easier

  Remote systems management using KVM over IP is helping businesses avoid the costs associated with travel while improving support response times.Continue Reading

• Tips for improving Active Directory performance on servers

  Striking the right balance of memory and disk performance can help optimize Active Directory performance.Continue Reading

• Tips for improving server reliability and available memory

  New memory modules and system capabilities can increase available memory and reliability on mission-critical servers.Continue Reading

• Common causes of a failed Hyper-V live migration

  Hyper-V live migration helps admins maintain infrastructures. But a few common configuration snafus can cause failures. Do you know what to look for?Continue Reading

• Managing and monitoring server log data

  See how proactive system administrators help themselves avoid a security breach by putting an effective log management policy in place.Continue Reading

• Five questions on systems management

  As reliance on systems management tools increases, administrators face varied challenges in deployment, skill sets, infrastructure support and other issues.Continue Reading

• The challenges of change and configuration management

  Due diligence, business alignment and proper deployment are key to mastering change and configuration management tools.Continue Reading

• Application performance tips: Workload optimization and software pathing

  IT pros looking to maximize application performance should look beyond basic software, tuning to products from vendors pathing software and hardware.Continue Reading

• Using OpenNMS and SNMP for open source systems management

  Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) can allow a deeper look into system information gathered from OpenNMS. This tip walks through network monitoring with OpenNMS and SNMP.Continue Reading

• Improve benchmark performance with simple optimizations

  While benchmarking is great for measuring system performance, benchmarking tools themselves are applications capable of overtaxing the CPU. However, simple optimizations can ensure benchmark performance by preventing these tools from overwhelming ...Continue Reading

• Selecting benchmarking tools for specific needs

  Narrowing down the best benchmarking tool requires testing and a careful evaluation of needs, including system compatibility, level of technical depth and scalability.Continue Reading

• Improve application performance with multithreaded applications

  Multi-core CPUs fuel a server's operating system performance and virtualization technologies. Can multithreaded applications and multi-core CPUs fuel application performance as well?Continue Reading

• Using HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) 5.2 for systems management and monitoring

  Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co.'s Systems Insight Manager (SIM) 5.2 offers systems management and monitoring for HP servers or WMI-, SNMP- or WBEM-enabled systems. SIM works with HP's Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) management modules to detect hardware ...Continue Reading

• Automating server management and IT processes

  Server automation can free up data center resources to focus on higher-value activities. This tip provides some suggestions for getting started by automating low level IT processes.Continue Reading

• Modern Stack

  covers the latest cloud-native application design trends and the evolving platforms on which they run. We provide IT operations professionals and software development teams with the information they need to build and support new business ...Continue Reading