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  • Generalized strategy for file server virtualization in Xenserver

    - by Jamie
    I'm not shopping as much as I'm looking for some guidance on good idea / bad idea strategies. I'm sure I'm not in the "best practices" budget range. Currently, I have 3 dell poweredges running xenserver in a pool. Each node has a ubuntu file server, serving about 6TB. One is the primary, the other two are rsync targets for backup. The 6TB is stored on their respective local storage disks as an LVM of 3x2tb virtual disks. The fileserver VM disks are also stored on the node local disks. Each node also runs a smattering of light-weight VMs for web, development, windows VMs, and stuff like that. Several of those VM's disks reside on a QNAP NAS to play with live migration. These VM's are often clients of the primary file server (like all the mail, web content, user files are stored on the file server, not on the mail, web, and samba VMs). This all works fine, and is a major step up for us. The downside is that the QNAP is a single point of failure. And the only thing the QNAP is doing is serving migratable VM images, not client data. Someday the poweredge local arrays will be full, and we will have to reinvent ourselves again. Is it wise to have heavywieght vms (like the fileserver, with its 6+ TB disks) on a SAN or NAS? Would it be better to keep the VMs lightweight, have the VM images on a SAN or NAS, and use 2 or more NAS act as NFS-serving file appliances? A hybrid SAN/NAS that can serve iscsi for images and NFS for the client vms? It seems like live-magration would be a misnomer if you have to migrate a fileserver with its entire 6+ TB disk. I recognize there are plenty of ways to skin the cat. We've already skinned it a few ways. What makes sense?

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  • Incredble low disk performance on HP DL385 G7

    - by 3molo
    Hi, As a test of the Opteron processor family, I bought a HP DL385 G7 6128 with HP Smart Array P410i Controller - no memory. The machine has 20GB ram 2x146GB 15k rpm SAS + 2x250GB SATA2, both in Raid 1 configurations. I run Vmware ESXi 4.1. Problem: Even with one virtual machine only, tried Linux 2.6/Windows server 2008/Windows 7, the VMs' feel really sluggish. With windows 7, the vmware converter installation even timed out. Tried both SATA and SAS disks and SATA disks are nearly unsusable, while SAS disks feels extremely slow.I can't see a lot of disk activity in the infrastructure client, but I haven't been looking for causes or even tried diagnostics because I have a feeling that it's either because of the cheap raid controller - or simply because of the lack of memory for it. Despite the problems, I continued and installed a virtual machine that serves a key function, so it's not easy to take it down and run diagnostics. Would very much like to know what you guys have to say of it, is it more likely to be a problem with the controller/disks or is it low performance because of budget components? Thanks in advance,

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  • How to implement a virtual server running Ubuntu inside a fileserver in windows?

    - by user541445
    I work in a company that has some limitations regarding their budget. They need client/server aplication. I can code the aplication, I've made mini tests on primordial applications that work. The thing is that they only have fileservers, and the application they need must be concurrent compliant, so the database must be in their local network (Fileserver is the only choice). So far, I have explored almost any option available, starting with: Desktop databases. Access (We have a license)(But concurreny is just not effective, besides it's a windows software, yuck). Sqlite (Nice, but since the information they manage is a lot, I've performed some concurrency tests with INSERTs and doing SELECTS at the same time). It fails, somehow it just stops inserting. Open office Base (I dismember a base office only to see that it was a file mode HSQLDB). I've tried, not concurrent at all. Etc (You name the Open source Desktop Database manager, and yes, I've tried that one.) Server databases Call me a stubborn person, but reading some server databases documentation say that their databases will work in a file mode. I've tried a lot of products. Postgres, MySQL, FireBird, H2, Derby, Oracle Express, IBM DB2 Express, etc. So, I really need a hand here, I've been doing this install/delete/depression thing with a lot of databases for 3 weeks, until I got with a crazy idea and I just came here to express it. So, my question comes down to this: Installing a light virtual OS software like Virtual PC and then installing in there a Server OS like an Ubuntu server inside that virtual software will work? Will it work 24/7 or when I close the virtual pc software? Will this work in a fileserver? Any suggestion, answer, critic to the place I work, crazy new concurrent database that will work in fileserver will be most than welcome.

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  • LDAP groups not applying to filesystem permissions

    - by BeepDog
    System is ArchLinux, and I'm using nss-pam-ldapd (0.8.13-4) to connect myself to ldap. I've got my users and some groups in LDAP: [root@kain tmp]# getent group <localgroups snipped> dkowis:*:10000: mp3s:*:15000:rkowis,dkowis music:*:15002:rkowis,dkowis video:*:15003:transmission,rkowis,dkowis,sickbeard software:*:15004:rkowis,dkowis pictures:*:15005:rkowis,dkowis budget:*:15006:rkowis,dkowis rkowis:*:10001: And I have some directories that are setgid video so that the video group stays, and they're configured g=rwx so that members of the video group can write to them: [root@kain video]# ls -ld /srv/video drwxrwxr-x 8 root video 208 Oct 19 20:49 /srv/video However, members of that group, say dkowis cannot write into that directory: [root@kain video]# groups dkowis mp3s music video software pictures dkowis Total number of groups that dkowis is in is like 7, I redacted a few here. [dkowis@kain wat]$ cd /srv/video [dkowis@kain video]$ touch something touch: cannot touch 'something': Permission denied [dkowis@kain video]$ groups dkowis mp3s music video software pictures I'm at a loss as to why my groups show up in getent groups, but my filesystem permissions are not being respected. I've tried making a new directory in /tmp and setting it's group permissions to rwx, and then trying to write a file in there, it doesn't work. The only time it does work is if I open it wide up allowing o=rwx. That's obviously not what I want, and I'm not able to figure out what my missing piece is. Thanks in advance.

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  • Offloading backups to secondary network

    - by user1467163
    I'm trying to solve a problem- Currently, we are constantly backing up and have no budget for additional servers. Our production network is still a 10/100 and handles voip, SQL plus our backup traffic, and I'd like to offload the backup traffic onto a secondary network- all of our servers have secondary NIC's that are not in use, and all support gigabit (Our switching hardware does not- a topic for another day). I'd like to move my backups off the production network, but I am having a hard time getting the computers to communicate. I am using a Netgear GS724T switch for the backup network- Chosen for cost and because I have used them extensively on networks saturated with ghosting traffic, so I know it's up to the task. I have defined a VLAN, with ports that are not members of any other VLAN. All traffic is untagged on the VLAN. I have set the servers with 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.11 addresses, 255.255.255.0 netmask and I have tried a blank GW, using the local IP of the server 192.168.1.whatever address, and I have tried using the switch's production-side IP as the GW. The machines cannot find each other. DNS addresses are blank because I am going purely by IP for now... Any ideas how to get these machines to talk? they are Windows machines, running Server 2008R2 and 2003R2. Thanks!

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  • Revamping an old and unstable office IT-solution using Windows Server and OpenVPN

    - by cmbrnt
    I've been given the cumbersome task to totally redo the IT-infrastructure for a customer's office. They are currently running Windows XP all over, with one computer acting as a file server with no control over which users have access to which files, and so on. To top it off, this file server also functions as a workstation, which means it gets rebooted every time the user notices some sluggish behavior or experiences problems with flash games. To say the least, this isn't working for them. Now - I've got a very slim budget, but I need to set up a new server, and I wish to run Windows Server 2008 on it. I also need the ability to access the network remotely via VPN. Would it be a good idea to install VMware ESXi 4.1 onto the new server, and then run Windows Server 2008 as well as a separate Debian install for openvpn on it? I don't like the Domain Controller for the future AD to also run a VPN-server, because of stability issues when something goes to hell with either of them. There will be no redundancy though. However, I'm not sure if there is something to gain by installing a VPN solution on the Windows Server itself, when it comes to accessing file shares on the network via VPN. I don't know how to enable users logging in via the VPN to access the remote files, since they will be accessing the network from their own home computers (which is indeed a really bad idea, but this is what I've got to work with). They won't be logged in to the windows Domain, but rather their home workgroups. I need to be able to grant access to files in certain directories based on the logged in AD-user, but every computer won't necessarily be configured to log into the domain. I'm not sure how to explain this in a good way, but I'd be happy to clarify if somethings not clear. Any help would be great, because I've got a feeling that I can't do this without introducing a bunch of costly new rules when it comes to their IT-solution. I'd rather leave that untouched and go on my merry way to the next assignment.

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  • Does anyone know where I could find a 2 input USB voltage meter?

    - by John O
    What we really need is a tiny UPS, of sorts. We'll be hooking up a solar cell and a battery to a single board computer. Currently, that SBC is a custom Pic32 device, and it does it's own UPS and voltage monitoring duties. I've been tasked with trying to replicate all of its features with off the shelf products... and for the most part I've succeeded. But I don't currently have any way to switch between two sources of juice, or monitor when they're getting low. These guys have something: http://www.mini-box.com/picoUPS-100-12V-DC-micro-UPS-system-battery-backup-system I really like it, the price is well within the budget. We might even work it in though it does 12V and I'll probably be using 5V... there are enough engineers on hand to figure out something. But I'd still have no idea what the voltage was for the PV or battery. I was hoping that there was some simple little USB multimeter thing that I could use to monitor this with, but I can't seem to come up with anything. I've found all sorts of cool hardware, but nothing that will help us. Does anyone know of anything?

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  • Installing a new Motherboard in a HP xw6200 case

    - by thing2k
    I have a HP xw6200 Workstation, that is rather long in the tooth, and with 2 physical CPUs, it is quite inefficient. So, the plan was to upgrade the internals. Nothing special: AMD Athlon II X4 640 ASUS M4A78KT-M LE (mATX) 2x 2GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM. 3p under my £150 budget The issues: The pin connector for the front panel isn't a good fit, but I can trim it to size. The PSU has a 8-Pin Power connector, unsurprisingly, the new board has a 4 pin socket. The pins do line up, but I would have to cut it in half to fit. Finally, due to the weight of heat-sinks, they are screwed directly into the case. It turns out that these screws also lock the motherboard in place. As to remove it, you remove the heat-sinks, slide the motherboard across and lift it out. I tested the new board for fit, and while it slots in fine, it's not secure. There is nowhere to screw the board down, it is just held in place with plastic standoffs. The only idea I had, was to wedging something between the side of the motherboard and part of the case. Any suggestions?

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  • Suggestion regarding pointing domains to a dedicated server.

    - by Bizz
    I recently got a dedicated server and I am still at a learning stage. So please bear with me. I wanted to have 3 domains pointed to my server, but initially I asked them the process to point me one and they responded with: Hello, I can set that rDNS for you. Please make sure the domain is pointed to our name servers at godaddy. They are: ns1.xxxxx.net ns2.xxxxx.net After this is done, please allow up to 24 hours for global propagation. Alternatively, we can host your DNS for you if you prefer. What is the domain you would like xx.xxx.xx.xx to resolve to? I then asked him to point one of my domains. They responded, Did you want us to host your dns for that domain or just an rDNS record? They also said, Hosting your DNS is a free service here. We can only do 1 domain per IP. IF you would like to purchase additional IPs, they are $1/IP per month. I personally dont want to host DNS myself. Neither mail server. I have a single IP so far. It will then start to get expensive if I want to host 25 from these guys. I am still in the trial period. Does this seem reasonable as far as pricing goes? If I want to have some one host DNS and mail server, this is getting super expensive. Email hosting from rackspace starts at $2 per mail address, but from then on, its the same if you want added features such as archiving etc; What would you suggest I do if I am on a shoe string budget but I also want to avoid hassle of doing it myself and I only have 3 domains so far and I would need few mail addresses for each of them.

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  • Oracle: 1 Large Server vs. 2 Smaller Servers?

    - by nvahalik
    We are in the planning stages of setting up our production Oracle 10gR2 environment. Our budget gives us the ability to buy 2 processor licenses of Oracle DB Standard Edition. We have minimal experience with Oracle so I'll defer to anyone who has used it. We are trying to decide if we should set up a single dual quad-core box or 2 individual quad-core boxes in a RAC configuration. Our DB right now is about 60 GB, and at our peak, we'll have up to 150 concurrent users. Most of the big stuff is done via batch processing at night. My gut tells me that having 2 boxes in a RAC configuration can't be a bad thing because it provides a true hardware failover solution. DB stored in a shared LUN on a SAN via iSCSI. Plus if we ever need to add capacity, we already have boxes in place that can be upgraded with extra procs (I assume with zero downtime, since it's set up in a RAC config) if we add extra licenses, or RAM. Does RAC have any performance penalties? Will it add extra latency? Is there any true advantage for having dual processor boxes running these systems? If we build out the Oracle boxes with special hardware: hardware iSCSI cards, TOE NICs, will these boxes be solid? We are deploying on 64-bit Windows. So what would you do? One box or two?

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  • Concurrent users with Quickbooks?

    - by airietis
    I work in a company with 3 people who regularly use the same Quickbooks file. However, they work remotely on different networks. I need to implement a solution that allows all three of us to access Quickbooks at the same time remotely (and each make changes at the same time). We have a spare desktop PC that can be utilized as a server. So, my question is: what is the cheapest and most hassle-free solution to solving this problem? I've considered using application cloud hosting, however, it is very expensive ($40 per user a month) and we are on a tight budget. Is it possible to install Quickbooks on my own server, and have them connect to it remotely? If so, what is the best way to accomplish this? Remote desktop protocol? Or is there a built in feature for this with Quickbooks Premier 2013? EDIT: As MDMarra mentioned, I am looking for a solution that offers true simultaneous access. Will using a dedicated server and having users connect to a VPN be a viable solution?

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  • Revamping an old and unstable IT-solution for a customer?

    - by cmbrnt
    I've been given the cumbersome task to totally redo the IT-infrastructure for a customer's office. They are currently running Windows XP all over, with one computer acting as a file server with no control over which users have access to which files, and so on. To top it off, this file server also functions as a workstation, which means it gets rebooted every time the user notices some sluggish behavior or experiences problems with flash games. To say the least, this isn't working for them. Now - I've got a very slim budget, but I need to set up a new server, and I wish to run Windows Server 2008 on it. I also need the ability to access the network remotely via VPN. Would it be a good idea to install VMware ESXi 4.1 onto the new server, and then run Windows Server 2008 as well as a separate Debian install for openvpn on it? I don't like the Domain Controller for the future AD to also run a VPN-server, because of stability issues when something goes to hell with either of them. There will be no redundancy though. However, I'm not sure if there is something to gain by installing a VPN solution on the Windows Server itself, when it comes to accessing file shares on the network via VPN. I don't know how to enable users logging in via the VPN to access the remote files, since they will be accessing the network from their own home computers (which is indeed a really bad idea, but this is what I've got to work with). They won't be logged in to the windows Domain, but rather their home workgroups. I need to be able to grant access to files in certain directories based on the logged in AD-user, but every computer won't necessarily be configured to log into the domain. I'm not sure how to explain this in a good way, but I'd be happy to clarify if somethings not clear. Any help would be great, because I've got a feeling that I can't do this without introducing a bunch of costly new rules when it comes to their IT-solution. I'd rather leave that untouched and go on my merry way to the next assignment.

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  • Are these hardwares compatible?

    - by Tom Kaufmann
    I am trying to upgrade my new machine but I want to do it myself. This is my 1st attempt at building system. After carefully reading reviewing feedback and my budget I have decided to select the below listed components. Can anybody let me know are they compatible or not? Transcend 64 GB 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive Asus GeForce GTX550 1GB DDR5 ENGTX550 TI DI/1GD5 Graphics Card Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD Internal Hard Drive Cooler Master eXtreme Power Pro 600 Power Supply Intel Core i5 2500K Sandy Bridge 3.30 GHz 95 W 4 Core Desktop Processor Intel DX79TO Motherboard Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Sony AD-7260S-ZS Internal DVD Writer - Black Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO Intel CPU Cooler Cooler Master Elite 335U Cabinet LG E2051T 20.1 Inch SuperSlim Monitor Is any of these hardware components incompatible with I5 2500K? If you have any other suggestions for selecting any other harwdware that can boost up my performance or lower my cost while having the same performance, please suggest. But my primary questions is whether they are compatible or not! Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

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  • Server specification recommendation

    - by foo
    To cut the story short, I can't buy an item (server/cpu/motherboard/ram) that costs more than USD 330. However, I can combine them, meaning, I can buy a CPU that costs USD 330 and motherboard that costs USD 330. With this limitation, I can't buy a powerful 1U server which will definitely costs me more USD 330. With that in mind, I was hoping to build a powerful desktop PC which will be used as a database server. However, through my experience, desktop PC doesn't last very long, usually the motherboard will just die by itself after 1 or 2 years. So, what would you guys recommend me to buy with this kind of budget? Every item must be <= USD 330. Will be used as a MySQL server. RAID would be nice. 1TB is pretty big for my data. I do not need external graphic card (onboard would do just fine), mouse, keyboard, monitor. Linux friendly. One ethernet port is good enough. It's important that those hardware is made of components that will last long (at least 3 years or something). The server will be placed in an air conditioned room, but a good ventilation for the server is always preferred. I won't overclock it. Intel processor is preferred. Thanks in advance.

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  • Which free RDBMS is best for small in-house development?

    - by Nic Waller
    I am the sole sysadmin for a small firm of about 50 people, and I have been asked to develop an in-house application for tracking job completion and providing reports based on that data. I'm planning on building it as a web application. I have roughly equal experience developing for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MSSQL. We are primarily a Windows-based shop, but I'm fairly comfortable with both Windows and Linux system administration. These are my two biggest concerns: Ease of managability. I don't expect to be maintaining this database forever. For the sake of the person that eventually has to take over for me, which database has the lowest barrier to entry? Data integrity. This means transaction-safe, robust storage, and easy backup/recovery. Even better if the database can be easily replicated. There is not a lot of budget for this project, so I am restricted to working with one of the free database systems mentioned above. What would you choose?

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  • Book Review: Middleware Management with Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g R5

    - by olaf.heimburger
    When you are familar with the Oracle Database and Middleware stack, chances are that you came across the Enterprise Manager. It comes in many versions for the database or the middleware and differs in its features. If meet someone who talks about Enterprise Manager, it might be possible that this person is talking about something completely different - Enterprise Manager Grid Control. Enterprise Manager Grid Control is the Oracle product for the data center that monitors all databases - and middleware components as well as operating systems. Since the database part is taken for granted, is needs some additional steps to get into the world of centralized middleware management. That's what this book is for - bringing you in the world of middleware management. The Authors This book is written by Debu Panda, former Product Management Director of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Management development team, and Arvind Maheshwari, Senior Software Development Manager of the Oracle Enterprise Manager development team. The Book Oracle Enterprise Manager conceptionally works for many different management areas. As a user you often think of managing databases with it. This is a wide area and deserves another book. The least known area is the middleware management and that's what the booked aimes for. The first 3 chapters cover the key features of Enterprise Manager Grid Control, Installing Enterprise Manager Grid Control, and Enterprise Manager Key Concepts and Subsystems. The foundation you need to understand the whole software and the following chapters. Read them in order and you are well prepared for the next 10 chapters on managing the various bits and pieces in your data center. The list of bits and pieces is always a surprise, no matter how often you open the book. You can manage Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Application Server, Oracle Forms and Reports Services, SOA Suite 10g, Oracle Service Bus 10g, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Identity Federation, Oracle Coherence Cluster, Non-Oracle Middleware like Apache, Tomcat, JBoss, OBM WebSphere and much much more. The chapters for these components can be read in any order you like, you only need the foundation chapters and continue with the parts in your data center. Once you are done with them, don't forget to read the last chapter, Best Practices for Managing Middleware Components using Enterprise Manager. Read it, understand it, and implement it in your organization. This will save you valueable time and budget. Recommendation This book is mainly written for the Enterprise Manager newbies and saves you a lot of time while going through the standard product documentation. All chapters are considerable short and tell exactly what need to know to get started with. Nothing more and nothing less. That's the beauty of it and why I love it. Due to its limitation it will cover everything you'd like to know, but it gets you started and interested for more insights. But that is the job of the product documentation. The Details Title Middleware Management with Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g R5 Authors Debu Panda and Arvind Maheshwari Paperback 310 pages ISBN 13 978-1-847198-34-1

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  • Is Agile the new micromanagement?

    - by Smith James
    Hi, This question has been cooking in my head for a while so I wanted to ask those who are following agile/scrum practices in their development environments. My company has finally ventured into incorporating agile practices and has started out with a team of 4 developers in an agile group on a trial basis. It has been 4 months with 3 iterations and they continue to do it without going fully agile for the rest of us. This is due to the fact that management's trust to meet business requirements with a quite a bit of ad hoc type request from high above. Recently, I talked to the developers who are part of this initiative; they tell me that it's not fun. They are not allowed to talk to other developers by their Scrum master and are not allowed to take any phone calls in the work area (which maybe fine to an extent). For example, if I want to talk to my friend for kicks who is in the agile team, I am not allowed without the approval of the Scrum master; who is sitting right next to the agile team. The idea of all this or the agile is to provide a complete vacuum for agile developers from any interruptions and to have them put in good 6+ productive hours. Well, guys, I am no agile guru but what I have read Yahoo agile rollout document and similar for other organizations, it gives me a feeling that agile is not cheap. It require resources and budget to instill agile into the teams and correct issue as they arrive to put them back on track. For starters, it requires training for developers and coaching for managers and etc, etc... The current Scrum master was a manager who took a couple days agile training class paid by the management is now leading this agile team. I have also heard in the meeting that agile manifesto doesn't dictate that agile is not set in stones and is customized differently for each company. Well, it all sounds good and reason. In conclusion, I always thought the agile was supposed to bring harmony in the development teams which results in happy developers. However, I am getting a very opposite feeling when talking to the developers in the agile team. They are unhappy that they cannot talk anything but work, sitting quietly all day just working, and they feel it's just another way for management to make them work more. Tell me please, if this is one of the examples of good practices used for the purpose of selfish advantage for more dollars? Or maybe, it's just us the developers like me and this agile team feels that they don't like to work in an environment where they only breathe work because they are at work. Thanks. Edit: It's a company in healthcare domain that has offices across US, but we're in Texas. It definitely feels like a cowboy style agile which makes me really not wanting to go for agile at all, esp at my current company. All of it has to do with the management being completely cheap. Cutting out expensive coffee for cheaper version, emphasis on savings and being productive while staying as lean as possible. My feeling is that someone in the management behind the door threw out this idea, that agile makes you produce more so we can show our bosses we're producing more with the same headcount. Or, maybe, it will allow us to reduce headcount if that's the case. EDITED: They are having their 5 min daily meeting. But not allowed to chat or talk with someone outside of their team. All focus is on work.

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  • Is Agile the new micromanagement?

    - by Smith James
    This question has been cooking in my head for a while so I wanted to ask those who are following agile/scrum practices in their development environments. My company has finally ventured into incorporating agile practices and has started out with a team of 4 developers in an agile group on a trial basis. It has been 4 months with 3 iterations and they continue to do it without going fully agile for the rest of us. This is due to the fact that management's trust to meet business requirements with a quite a bit of ad hoc type request from high above. Recently, I talked to the developers who are part of this initiative; they tell me that it's not fun. They are not allowed to talk to other developers by their Scrum master and are not allowed to take any phone calls in the work area (which maybe fine to an extent). For example, if I want to talk to my friend for kicks who is in the agile team, I am not allowed without the approval of the Scrum master; who is sitting right next to the agile team. The idea of all this or the agile is to provide a complete vacuum for agile developers from any interruptions and to have them put in good 6+ productive hours. Well, guys, I am no agile guru but what I have read Yahoo agile rollout document and similar for other organizations, it gives me a feeling that agile is not cheap. It require resources and budget to instill agile into the teams and correct issue as they arrive to put them back on track. For starters, it requires training for developers and coaching for managers and etc, etc... The current Scrum master was a manager who took a couple days agile training class paid by the management is now leading this agile team. I have also heard in the meeting that agile manifesto doesn't dictate that agile is not set in stones and is customized differently for each company. Well, it all sounds good and reason. In conclusion, I always thought the agile was supposed to bring harmony in the development teams which results in happy developers. However, I am getting a very opposite feeling when talking to the developers in the agile team. They are unhappy that they cannot talk anything but work, sitting quietly all day just working, and they feel it's just another way for management to make them work more. Tell me please, if this is one of the examples of good practices used for the purpose of selfish advantage for more dollars? Or maybe, it's just us the developers like me and this agile team feels that they don't like to work in an environment where they only breathe work because they are at work. Thanks. Edit: It's a company in healthcare domain that has offices across US. It definitely feels like a cowboy style agile which makes me really not wanting to go for agile at all, esp at my current company. All of it has to do with the management being completely cheap. Cutting out expensive coffee for cheaper version, emphasis on savings and being productive while staying as lean as possible. My feeling is that someone in the management behind the door threw out this idea, that agile makes you produce more so we can show our bosses we're producing more with the same headcount. Or, maybe, it will allow us to reduce headcount if that's the case. EDITED: They are having their 5 min daily meeting. But not allowed to chat or talk with someone outside of their team. All focus is on work.

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  • Windows Azure Use Case: Agility

    - by BuckWoody
    This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx  Description: Agility in this context is defined as the ability to quickly develop and deploy an application. In theory, the speed at which your organization can develop and deploy an application on available hardware is identical to what you could deploy in a distributed environment. But in practice, this is not always the case. Having an option to use a distributed environment can be much faster for the deployment and even the development process. Implementation: When an organization designs code, they are essentially becoming a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider to their own organization. To do that, the IT operations team becomes the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to the development teams. From there, the software is developed and deployed using an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) process. A simplified view of an ALM process is as follows: Requirements Analysis Design and Development Implementation Testing Deployment to Production Maintenance In an on-premise environment, this often equates to the following process map: Requirements Business requirements formed by Business Analysts, Developers and Data Professionals. Analysis Feasibility studies, including physical plant, security, manpower and other resources. Request is placed on the work task list if approved. Design and Development Code written according to organization’s chosen methodology, either on-premise or to multiple development teams on and off premise. Implementation Code checked into main branch. Code forked as needed. Testing Code deployed to on-premise Testing servers. If no server capacity available, more resources procured through standard budgeting and ordering processes. Manual and automated functional, load, security, etc. performed. Deployment to Production Server team involved to select platform and environments with available capacity. If no server capacity available, standard budgeting and procurement process followed. If no server capacity available, systems built, configured and put under standard organizational IT control. Systems configured for proper operating systems, patches, security and virus scans. System maintenance, HA/DR, backups and recovery plans configured and put into place. Maintenance Code changes evaluated and altered according to need. In a distributed computing environment like Windows Azure, the process maps a bit differently: Requirements Business requirements formed by Business Analysts, Developers and Data Professionals. Analysis Feasibility studies, including budget, security, manpower and other resources. Request is placed on the work task list if approved. Design and Development Code written according to organization’s chosen methodology, either on-premise or to multiple development teams on and off premise. Implementation Code checked into main branch. Code forked as needed. Testing Code deployed to Azure. Manual and automated functional, load, security, etc. performed. Deployment to Production Code deployed to Azure. Point in time backup and recovery plans configured and put into place.(HA/DR and automated backups already present in Azure fabric) Maintenance Code changes evaluated and altered according to need. This means that several steps can be removed or expedited. It also means that the business function requesting the application can be held directly responsible for the funding of that request, speeding the process further since the IT budgeting process may not be involved in the Azure scenario. An additional benefit is the “Azure Marketplace”, In effect this becomes an app store for Enterprises to select pre-defined code and data applications to mesh or bolt-in to their current code, possibly saving development time. Resources: Whitepaper download- What is ALM?  http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9743693  Whitepaper download - ALM and Business Strategy: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9743690  LiveMeeting Recording on ALM and Windows Azure (registration required, but free): http://www.microsoft.com/uk/msdn/visualstudio/contact-us.aspx?sbj=Developing with Windows Azure (ALM perspective) - 10:00-11:00 - 19th Jan 2011

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  • Know Your Audience, And/Or Your Customer

    - by steve.diamond
    Yesterday I gave an internal presentation to about 20 Oracle employees on "messaging," not messaging technology, but embarking on the process of building messages. One of the elements I covered was the importance of really knowing and understanding your audience. As a humorous reference I included two side-by-side photos of Oakland A's fans and Oakland Raiders fans. The Oakland A's fans looked like happy-go-lucky drunk types. The Oakland Raiders fans looked like angry extras from a low budget horror flick. I then asked my presentation attendees what these two groups had in common. Here's what I heard. --They're human (at least I THINK they're human). --They're from Oakland. --They're sports fans. After that, it was anyone's guess. A few days earlier we were putting the finishing touches on a sales presentation for one of our product lines. We had included an upfront "lead in" addressing how the economy is improving, yet that doesn't mean sales executives will have any more resources to add to their teams, invest in technology, etc. This "lead in" included miscellaneous news article headlines and statistics validating the slowly improving economy. When we subjected this presentation to internal review two days ago, this upfront section in particular was scrutinized. "Is the economy really getting better? I (exclamation point) don't think it's really getting better. Haven't you seen the headlines coming out of Greece and Europe?" Then the question TO ME became, "Who will actually be in the audience that sees and hears this presentation? Will s/he be someone like me? Or will s/he be someone like the critic who didn't like our lead-in?" We took the safe route and removed that lead in. After all, why start a "pitch" with a component that is arguably subjective? What if many of our audience members are individuals at organizations still facing a strong headwind? For reasons I won't go into here, it was the right decision to make. The moral of the story: Make sure you really know your audience. Harness the wisdom of the information your organization's CRM systems collect to get that fully informed "customer view." Conduct formal research. Conduct INFORMAL research. Ask lots of questions. Study industries and scenarios that have nothing to do with yours to see "how they do it." Stop strangers in coffee shops and on the street...seriously. Last week I caught up with an old friend from high school who recently retired from a 25 year career with the USMC. He said, "I can learn something from every single person I come into contact with." What a great way of approaching the world. Then, think about and write down what YOU like and dislike as a customer. But also remember that when it comes to your company's products, you are most likely NOT the customer, so don't go overboard in superimposing your own world view. Approaching the study of customers this way adds rhyme, reason and CONTEXT to lengthy blog posts like this one. Know your audience.

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  • Top Tier, A-Game Talent - How to Land em'

    - by GeekAgilistMercenary
    Recently the question came up from a close friend of mine, "will my PhD help me attain a higher income in the north west?"  I had to tell him, that it might get him a little more, but it won't get him in the top income brackets for the occupation.  Another time, a few days later, someone else asked this too.  Then again, I see a job posting that requires a Bachelors Degree and some other nonsense.  The job posting even states they want "A-Game" talent. I am almost shocked at how poorly part of this industry doesn't realize how unimportant a degree is to getting real top tier, a-game talent.  (and yes, I get a little riled up about this matter) You Can't Make Good Software Developers.  No college out there is going to train someone to be in the top 10%, and absolutely not to be in the top 5% of skill levels.  Colleges can NOT do this.  It is up to the individual, and the individual alone.  If top tier talent seems to come from a college, one should check their premise and look at the motivations the individuals have to go to that school.  There is most likely a reason that top tier talent appears to be made there.  The college however, can only guide or assist, but I repeat that "top tier talent is a very individualistic endeavor". Some might say, well a group is needed, support is needed, this and that are needed.  True, an individual needs a support system and a college can provide that, but it generally ends there.  The support group helps, provides a sounding wall, and provides correlation to good ideas for the a-game top tier geek.  But again, the endeavor is the individuals desire. top tier talent is a very individualistic endeavor - Me Hiring Top Tier, A-Game Talent There are a few things when trying to hire this level of game player. The first thing is to not require a degree of any sort.  Sure, it looks good, but it won't dictate anything other than the individual was able to go through the regimented steps of college. List the skills and ideas that you would like to find in an individual.  Think of two people meeting for the first time, what do you want to know about the other individual.  Team fit is absolutely fundamental for top tier talent.  That support group that I mentioned above, top tier talent works best with a solid group of players. Keep your technology up to date, moving forward, and don't bore your top talent if you manage to get it.  If the company slows down, they will leave.  The more valuable they find out they are, the lower tolerance they'll have for this.  For managers, directors, and leaders in an organization this is THE challenge for them. Provide opportunities not just for advancement, but ways for them to advance their knowledge such as training, a book budget, or other means.  Even if some software they want to use isn't used ton the project, get it for them (within reason of course ? couple $100 or even a few $1000 for a good software license to MSDN, Tellerik, or other suite of software is ideal). Don't push them to, and don't let them overwork themselves into burnout.  This, as a leader in an organization is easy to do if one finds themselves actually hiring top talent.  Because top talent just provides results and more results.  But they are human, they will break, don't be the cause of that or you'll lose your talent. For now, that is it from me on this topic, back to the revenue, code, projects, and pushing forward. For the original entry, check out my personal blog with other juicy tech tidbits, rants, raves, and the like. Agilist Mercenary

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  • The new Auto Scaling Service in Windows Azure

    - by shiju
    One of the key features of the Cloud is the on-demand scalability, which lets the cloud application developers to scale up or scale down the number of compute resources hosted on the Cloud. Auto Scaling provides the capability to dynamically scale up and scale down your compute resources based on user-defined policies, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), health status checks, and schedules, without any manual intervention. Auto Scaling is an important feature to consider when designing and architecting cloud based solutions, which can unleash the real power of Cloud to the apps for providing truly on-demand scalability and can also guard the organizational budget for cloud based application deployment. In the past, you have had to leverage the the Microsoft Enterprise Library Autoscaling Application Block (WASABi) or a services like  MetricsHub for implementing Automatic Scaling for your cloud apps hosted on the Windows Azure. The WASABi required to host your auto scaling block in a Windows Azure Worker Role for effectively implementing the auto scaling behaviour to your Windows Azure apps. The newly announced Auto Scaling service in Windows Azure lets you add automatic scaling capability to your Windows Azure Compute Services such as Cloud Services, Web Sites and Virtual Machine. Unlike WASABi hosted on a Worker Role, you don’t need to host any monitoring service for using the new Auto Scaling service and the Auto Scaling service will be available to individual Windows Azure Compute Services as part of the Scaling. Configure Auto Scaling for a Windows Azure Cloud Service Currently the Auto Scaling service supports Cloud Services, Web Sites and Virtual Machine. In this demo, I will be used a Cloud Services app with a Web Role and a Worker Role. To enable the Auto Scaling, select t your Windows Azure app in the Windows Azure management portal, and choose “SCLALE” tab. The Scale tab will show the all information regards with Auto Scaling. The below image shows that we have currently disabled the AutoScale service. To enable Auto Scaling, you need to choose either CPU or QUEUE. The QUEUE option is not available for Web Sites. The image below demonstrates how to configure Auto Scaling for a Web Role based on the utilization of CPU. We have configured the web role app for running with 1 to 5 Virtual Machine instances based on the CPU utilization with a range of 50 to 80%. If the aggregate utilization is becoming above above 80%, it will scale up instances and it will scale down instances when utilization is becoming below 50%. The image below demonstrates how to configure Auto Scaling for a Worker Role app based on the messages added into the Windows Azure storage Queue. We configured the worker role app for running with 1 to 3 Virtual Machine instances based on the Queue messages added into the Windows Azure storage Queue. Here we have specified the number of messages target per machine is 2000. The image below shows the summary of the Auto Scaling for the Cloud Service after configuring auto scaling service. Summary Auto Scaling is an extremely important behaviour of the Cloud applications for providing on-demand scalability without any manual intervention. Windows Azure provides greater support for enabling Auto Scaling for the apps deployed on the Windows Azure cloud platform. The new Auto Scaling service in Windows Azure lets you add automatic scaling capability to your Windows Azure Compute Services such as Cloud Services, Web Sites and Virtual Machine. In the new Auto Scaling service, you don’t have to host any monitor service like you have had in WASABi block. The Auto Scaling service is an excellent alternative to the manually hosting WASABi block in a Worker Role app.

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  • Code is not the best way to draw

    - by Bertrand Le Roy
    It should be quite obvious: drawing requires constant visual feedback. Why is it then that we still draw with code in so many situations? Of course it’s because the low-level APIs always come first, and design tools are built after and on top of those. Existing design tools also don’t typically include complex UI elements such as buttons. When we launched our Touch Display module for Netduino Go!, we naturally built APIs that made it easy to draw on the screen from code, but very soon, we felt the limitations and tedium of drawing in code. In particular, any modification requires a modification of the code, followed by compilation and deployment. When trying to set-up buttons at pixel precision, the process is not optimal. On the other hand, code is irreplaceable as a way to automate repetitive tasks. While tools like Illustrator have ways to repeat graphical elements, they do so in a way that is a little alien and counter-intuitive to my developer mind. From these reflections, I knew that I wanted a design tool that would be structurally code-centric but that would still enable immediate feedback and mouse adjustments. While thinking about the best way to achieve this goal, I saw this fantastic video by Bret Victor: The key to the magic in all these demos is permanent execution of the code being edited. Whenever a parameter is being modified, everything is re-executed immediately so that the impact of the modification is instantaneously visible. If you do this all the time, the code and the result of its execution fuse in the mind of the user into dual representations of a single object. All mental barriers disappear. It’s like magic. The tool I built, Nutshell, is just another implementation of this principle. It manipulates a list of graphical operations on the screen. Each operation has a nice editor, and translates into a bit of code. Any modification to the parameters of the operation will modify the bit of generated code and trigger a re-execution of the whole program. This happens so fast that it feels like the drawing reacts instantaneously to all changes. The order of the operations is also the order in which the code gets executed. So if you want to bring objects to the front, move them down in the list, and up if you want to move them to the back: But where it gets really fun is when you start applying code constructs such as loops to the design tool. The elements that you put inside of a loop can use the loop counter in expressions, enabling crazy scenarios while retaining the real-time edition features. When you’re done building, you can just deploy the code to the device and see it run in its native environment: This works thanks to two code generators. The first code generator is building JavaScript that is executed in the browser to build the canvas view in the web page hosting the tool. The second code generator is building the C# code that will run on the Netduino Go! microcontroller and that will drive the display module. The possibilities are fascinating, even if you don’t care about driving small touch screens from microcontrollers: it is now possible, within a reasonable budget, to build specialized design tools for very vertical applications. Direct feedback is a powerful ally in many domains. Code generation driven by visual designers has become more approachable than ever thanks to extraordinary JavaScript libraries and to the powerful development platform that modern browsers provide. I encourage you to tinker with Nutshell and let it open your eyes to new possibilities that you may not have considered before. It’s open source. And of course, my company, Nwazet, can help you develop your own custom browser-based direct feedback design tools. This is real visual programming…

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  • New Release of Oracle EPM (Enterprise Performance Management)

    - by Theresa Hickman
    I'm a huge fan of Hyperion products and consider Hyperion to be one of the best acquisitions Oracle has made in terms of applications. So I am really excited to talk about their latest release, Release 11.1.2 of the Oracle EPM System. This is EPM's largest release in 2 years, and it's jam-packed with new modules and features. In terms of brand new products, there are three: 1. Public Sector Planning and Budgeting meets the needs of public sector agencies, higher education, governments, etc. that have complex budget requirements. It supports position or employee-based budgeting and integrates with MS Office and your ERP ledgers to perform commitment control. 2. Hyperion Financial Close Management is a complete financial close solution that orchestrates the entire close process from subledgers and general ledger to financial reporting and disclosure submissions. And of course, it is integrated with GL systems and consolidation systems. I saw a demo of this and it looked pretty slick. They have this unified close calendar that looks like a regular calendar that gives each person participating in the close process a task list. It comes with a Gantt chart that shows the relationships and dependencies among closing tasks. There are dashboards to allow you to track the close progress and completion of tasks as well as perform trend analysis and see how much time is being spent on different activities in the close process. This gives you visibility that you never had before to understand where the bottlenecks are and where improvements could be made. I think what I liked best about this product was that it provides a central place for all participants to communicate their progress. When I worked as an Accountant, we used ad hoc tools, such as spreadsheets, Word documents, emails, and phone calls during the close process. I like the idea of having a central system to track the overall progress as well as automate the entire financial close process. Who knows, maybe Accountants won't have to revolve their lives around the month end close anymore with a tool like this. Those periodic fire drills can become predictable, well managed processes. 3. Disclosure Management is an out-of-the-box, pre-packaged XBRL solution to meet statutory reporting requirements. This product is really going to help companies improve the timeliness of producing financial reports. Reports can be authored using MS Word and Excel and then XBRL instance documents can be produced with its embedded XBRL tags. It even supports footnotes and disclosures of non-financial information. With a product like this, companies no longer have to outsource their XBRL filing; they can bring it back in house to save costs and time. In terms of other enhancements, they have ERP Integrator that provides integration and drill downs from Hyperion products to source systems, such as Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, and SAP. No other vendor offers this level of integration. There's also a new product that links Oracle Essbase directly to Hyperion Financial Management for internal financial reporting, and new integrations between Hyperion Financial Management and Oracle's GRC products. They also improved the usability of Oracle Hyperion Planning. They made it much easier for end users to use the system via the web or via MS Excel when submitting plans and budgets. It is also integrated with intelligent approval workflows that are data-driven, user-configurable, and scenario-specific to efficiently streamline the budgeting process. Here's the press release from April 7, 2010. Here's the pre-recorded web cast where you can see the demos. Just register and watch the hour long presentation. And finally, here's the newsletter

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  • BizTalk 2009 - Architecture Decisions

    - by StuartBrierley
    In the first step towards implementing a BizTalk 2009 environment, from development through to live, I put forward a proposal that detailed the options available, as well as the costs and benefits associated with these options, to allow an informed discusion to take place with the business drivers and budget holders of the project.  This ultimately lead to a decision being made to implement an initial BizTalk Server 2009 environment using the Standard Edition of the product. It is my hope that in the long term, as projects require it and allow, we will be looking to implement my ideal recommendation of a multi-server enterprise level environment, but given the differences in cost and the likely initial work load for the environment this was not something that I could fully recommend at this time.  However, it must be noted that this decision was made in full awareness of the limits of the standard edition, and the business drivers of this project were made fully aware of the risks associated with running without the failover capabilities of the enterprise edition. When considering the creation of this new BizTalk Server 2009 environment, I have also recommended the creation of the following pre-production environments:   Usage Environment Development Development of solutions; Unit testing against technical specifications; Initial load testing; Testing of deployment packages;  Visual Studio; BizTalk; SQL; Client PCs/Laptops; Server environment similar to Live implementation; Test Testing of Solutions against business and technical requirements;  BizTalk; SQL; Server environment similar to Live implementation; Pseudo-Live As Live environment to allow testing against Live implementation; Acts as back-up hardware in case of failure of Live environment; BizTalk; SQL; Server environment identical to Live implementation; The creation of these differing environments allows for the separation of the various stages of the development cycle.  The development environment is for use when actively developing a solution, it is a potentially volatile environment whose state at any given time can not be guaranteed.  It allows developers to carry out initial tests in an environment that is similar to the live environment and also provides an area for the testing of deployment packages prior to any release to the test environment. The test environment is intended to be a semi-volatile environment that is similar to the live environment.  It will change periodically through the development of a solution (or solutions) but should be otherwise stable.  It allows for the continued testing of a solution against requirements without the worry that the environment is being actively changed by any ongoing development.  This separation of development and test is crucial in ensuring the quality and control of the tested solution. The pseudo-live environment should be considered to be an almost static environment.  It should mimic the live environment and can act as back up hardware in the case of live failure.  This environment acts as an area to allow for “as live” testing, where the performance and behaviour of the live solutions can be replicated.  There should be relatively few changes to this environment, with software releases limited to “release candidate” level releases prior to going live. Whereas the pseudo-live environment should always mimic the live environment, to save on costs the development and test servers could be implemented on lower specification hardware.  Consideration can also be given to the use of a virtual server environment to further reduce hardware costs in the development and test environments, indeed this virtual approach can also be extended to pseudo-live and live assuming the underlying technology is in place. Although there is no requirement for the development and test server environments to be identical to live, the overriding architecture implemented should be the same as in live and an understanding must be gained of the performance differences to be expected across the different environments.

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