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View page history... {panel:borderStyle=solid|borderColor=white|bgColor=white|} {panel} {anchor:habits} h1. Habits of the Highly Effective System Administrator: Hints, Tricks, Techniques, and Tools of the Trade \\ h2. Lee Damon h2. Monday 10th August - 9:00am to 5pm Who should attend: Junior system administrators with anywhere from little to 3\+ years of experience in computer system administration. We will focus on enabling the junior system administrator to "do it right the first time." Some topics will use UNIX-specific tools as examples, but the class is applicable to any sysadmin and any OS. Most of the material covered is "the other 90%" of system administration - things every sysadmin needs to do and to know, but which aren't details of specific technical implementation. We aim to accelerate the experience curve for junior system administrators by teaching them the time honored tricks (and effective coping strategies) that experienced administrators take for granted and which are necessary for successful growth of both the administrator and the site. The class covers many of the best practices that senior administrators have long incorporated in their work. We will touch on tools you should use, as well as tools you should try to avoid. We will touch on things that come up frequently, as well as those which happen only once or twice a year. Take back to work: Ideas about how to improve and to streamline your worklife & workload, and, just as important, where to look to find more answers. Topics include: * Why your computers should all agree on what time it is * Why root passwords should not be the same on every computer * Why backing up every file system on every computer is not always a good idea * Policies---where you want them and where you might want to avoid them * Ethical issues * Growth and success as a solo-sysadmin as well as in small, medium, and large teams * Training * Mentoring * Personal growth planning * Site planning * Budgeting * Logistics * Books that can help you and your users ---- {anchor:SOHO} h1. Building a SOHO Asterisk System \\ h2. Avi Miller h2. Monday 10th August - 9:00am to 5pm We enjoy the benefits of using Open Source tools and technologies for home and work. But for many of us telephony services like Voice over IP remain a dark unconquered space. In this tutorial, I will take you through the installation of one of the more popular Asterisk distributions (Elastix), including the configuration of various types of telephony hardware including PSTN and ISDN adapters. We will also configure and provision various IP telephones (models to be determined later) as well as configuring softphones on the major desktop operating systems. As most ISPs now include IP telephony services in many of their deals, we will look at setting up a connection between Asterisk and your ISP's VOIP system. We will also implement dialplans and configure what used to be expensive telephony solutions, such as Interactive Voice Responses (IVRs), queues, voicemail (including locator services) and other features of Asterisk. ---- {anchor:M101} h1. Management 101 - Effective Communication Tools For SysAdmins \\ h2. Geoff Halprin h2. Monday 10th August - 9:00am to 12.30pm You may have noticed that being technically adept is not sufficient. You have to be able to deal with people: your fellow team members, your boss, your customers, the finance people, the legal department, and even upper management. You need them to do things for you (even if only by leaving you alone). System administrators, on the whole, find talking to people much more stressful and less productive than talking to computers. People do not operate by the same rules that computers do, and the process often seems random, irrational or incomprehensible. This tutorial is about becoming a more effective system administrator through improved communication skills. We will help you understand how communication works, so that it becomes a tool you can use instead of a source of frustration. In this tutorial, we examine the many facets of communication and introduce various systems, tools and techniques that you can employ to ease your stress and improve your ability to attain the outcomes you desire. Topics include: Oral communication (effective listening, effective talking, presentations); Written communication (progress reporting, technical documentation, writing proposals, buy-vs-build evaluations, cost-risk evaluations, audit reports); Understanding others (understanding various communities, conflict resolution, personality types); Time management; Risk management; Project management. h3. Who Should Attend: System administrators who wish to become more proactive in managing their duties and learn tools and tips which will assist them to communicate more effectively with their managers, users and other important constituents and users of their services. ---- {anchor:M201} h1. Effective Team Management of System Administrators \\ h2. Geoff Halprin h2. Monday 10th August - 1:30pm to 5:00pm As you grow in seniority a funny thing happens; you are expected to pass that wisdom onto others. You are given projects to run, teams to lead, apprentices to mentor, and ever larger budgets to manage effectively. The one thing, however, that you almost never given is management training. Management, like any system, can be learned. There are tools, techniques and tips that you can call on to be effective in your "organisation facing" duties. This tutorial examines many of the diverse areas of team management and provides you with a large set of insights, tools and tips in how to conquer this brave new world. Topics covered include: SysAdmin workflow; Personal and workgroup productivity; Progress reporting and journals; Meeting management; Project management; Financial management; Team management (Delegation; Mentoring/coaching); and People management (The HR cycle); h3. Who Should Attend: System administrators who have found themselves (or are hoping, or anticipating with apprehension) being given responsibilities for "wetware systems" (i.e. other people). ---- {anchor:shell} h1. Shell Programming \\ h2. Michael Ciavarella h2. Tuesday 11th August - 9:00am to 12.30pm Even with the availability of alternatives such as Python, Perl and Ruby, the humble Bourne shell still plays a prominent part in UNIX System Administration. Bourne shell scripts can be found in many places, from the boot process on most UNIX systems, though to backup scripts, and build processes. Despite its relative ubiquity and simplicity, the Bourne shell is often misused/abused in the rush to "just make it work". This has consequences for robustness, portability, and System Administrator sanity. This class covers shell scripting practises intended to minimise problems with maintenance, security and performance. Some basic scripting experience is assumed. ---- {anchor:ECM} h1. Effective Change Management - Making System Integrity Easy \\ h2. Geoff Halprin h2. Tuesday 11th August - 9am - 5pm As a system administrator, you perform change management every day. Every time your finger hovers over the return key -- that's risk management. Every time you apply a patch to your desktop before you apply it to production -- that's change qualification. Every time you stay late to apply a patch out of hours -- that's change scheduling. Whilst you may do it now, you have probably never considered the deeper aspects of what you do, and how you might do it better. Of the many disciplines that contribute to mature system administration, one of the most important is Change Management. Change Management is the process of controlling change to a computing environment. It is a core meta-process, sitting above the domain tasks that comprise the actual change. Mastering effective Change Management, and making it second nature, is the difference between a novice and a mature system administration professional. This tutorial examines the many aspects of effective change management; the process, the tactics, the tools and tips. Topics covered include: the basic change management process; building a change plan; regression planning and risk management strategies; change execution tools and techniques; managing an organisation's change pipeline; emergency changes and downtime conferences; and quality assurance across the change life cycle. h3. Who should attend: System administrators who wish to learn how to better manage change and risk, and become more professional in their system management practices. System administrators who are responsible for developing or managing their organisation's Change Management process; those who are frustrated by, and hoping to influence and improve their organisation's process. ---- {anchor:Documentation} h1. Documentation Techniques for System Administrators \\ h2. Michael Ciavarella h2. Tuesday 11th August - 1:30pm to 5pm Target audience: System administrators (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) With an ever-increasing degree of complexity in the systems we manage, documentation and the ability to produce useful documentation are critical to system administration. This class includes topics: * Why system administrators need to document * The document life cycle * Targeting your audience * An adaptable document framework * Common mistakes Particular emphasis is placed on documentation as a time-saving tool rather than a workload imposition. ---- {anchor:UNIXInfrastructure} h1. Issues in UNIX Infrastructure Design \\ h2. Lee Damon h2. Wednesday 12th August - 9:00am to 5pm Who should attend: Anyone who is designing, implementing, or maintaining a UNIX environment with 2 to 20,000\+ hosts; system administrators, architects, and managers who need to maintain multiple hosts with few admins. This intermediate class will examine many of the background issues that need to be considered during the design and implementation of a mixed-architecture or single-architecture UNIX environment. It will cover issues from authentication (single sign-on) to the Holy Grail of single system images. This class won't implement a "perfect solution," as each site has different needs. We will look at some freeware and some commercial solutions, as well as many of the tools that exist to make a workable environment possible. Take back to work: Answers to the questions you should ask while designing and implementing the mixed-architecture or single-architecture UNIX environment that will meet your needs. Topics include: * Administrative domains: Who is responsible for what, and what can users do for themselves? * Desktop services vs. farming: Do you do serious computation on the desktop, or do you build a compute farm? * Disk layout: How do you plan for an upgrade? Where do things go? * Free vs. purchased solutions: Should you write your own, or hire a consultant or company? * Homogeneous vs. heterogeneous: Homogeneous is easier, but will it do what your users need? * The essential master database: How can you keep track of what you have? * Policies to make life easier * Push vs. pull * Getting the user back online in 5 minutes * Remote administration: Lights-out operation; remote user sites; keeping up with vendor patches, etc. * Scaling and sizing: How do you plan on scaling? * Security vs. sharing: Your users want access to everything. So do the crackers... * Single sign-on: How can you do it securely? * Single system images: Can users see just one environment, no matter how many OSes there are? * Tools: The free, the purchased, the homegrown ---- {anchor:Employability} h1. Preparing for Promotion: Employability Skills \\ h2. Kristy Ann Bennett h2. Wednesday 12th August - 9:00am to 5pm Whether by choice, accident or by a pushed hand, we all at times come to the decision to look for alternate employment either through seeking internal positions or approaching other organisations. This workshop set has been established to cover off all aspects of the job application process for those seeking system administrator or like roles as well as those seeking supervisory and management positions over such roles. With the theme of confidentiality, integrity and availability in mind this workshop will cover off all aspects of employability. This includes examining your current situation, going through the process of making career decisions, and writing application documentation. The complementing content then addresses the issues of presentation everything from giving a hand shake, how you wear your clothes, dealing with profiling tools, answering questions and facing public speaking. Overall, this presentation is targeted at those who are considering employment options as well as those who are seeking to be more self aware in respect to their employability or are seeking to further develop their written and interpersonal communication skills. The second three-hour session has an expectation that attendees dress as they would for interview and be prepared to expand their skill set. ---- {anchor:Scaling} h1. Scaling your Systems Administrators \\ h2. Julien Goodwin h2. Wednesday 12th August - 9:00am to 12.30pm In these times of "financial uncertanty" with budgets & headcounts slashed every operations team needs to be able to do more with less time to do it in. If you're a Systems Administrator who dreads that 2am phone call for something that isn't urgent, from someone who shouldn't even have your (unlisted) home phone number this tutorial is for you. This tutorial covers tips and techniques that help systems administrators to scale themselves and their teams from managing a few servers to several thousand, all with minimal extra staff and expenses, all while improving quality and uptime. Managing requests from other departments, self-justification to management and internal team dynamics are just some of the social/people elements this tutorial will cover. Some of the additional social elements: * Overtime * Rosters / On-Call * Team roles * Customer / inter-departmental relations * Negotiation with management * Office layout * Teleworking * Mistakes * "Who gets root" * Budgeting * Vendor relations * Developer relations The technical side deals with automation both in deployment (config management) & operations (scripting), proper monitoring & fault handling techniques. In addition some "best practices" will be presented on related areas such as virtualisation. Some of the other technical alreas: * (Trouble) Ticket systems * Documentation * Inventories * Labelling * Package mangement * Security management * OS Upgrades * Writing specs * Telco's * Desktops * Remote Access * Dangers of the upgrade treadmill ---- {anchor:Inkscape} h1. Inkscape: Network Diagrams, Charts and Graphs \\ h2. Donna Benjamin and Peter Lieverdink h2. Wednesday 12th August - 1:30pm to 5pm Inkscape is fantastic Free and Open Source Graphic Software that is easy to learn. It is also a powerful tool for creating and modifying icons, web graphics and diagrams as well as for enhancing charts and graphs generated by spreadsheets. Using the W3C SVG standard as its native file format Inkscape is also useful for dynamically generating diagrams and reports on the fly with information direct from a database. This is an introductory level Inkscape tutorial. You will be introduced to the major tools, and practice key techniques for generating graphics. You will enhance graphs generated from open source spreadsheet applications such as Impress or Gnumeric. You will also be shown how to transform data with PHP and XSLT for PDF reports via Inkscape's SVG format. \[Participants will need a computer with Inkscape installed and a mouse. A computer lab would be great, or BYO laptop should be mandated. Inkscape is Free Open Source Software available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. [http://www.inkscape.org/] This will be an interactive, hands on learning experience.\] ---- |