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Scripting Scheduling and IT Orchestration

• Prepare for the rise of the IT automation architect

  As IT infrastructures become more complex, and development cycles more rapid, organizations increasingly lean on automation -- and those with the skills to oversee it. Continue Reading

• 5 IT automation examples that ops teams should implement today

  IT automation use cases are plentiful and highly variegated -- but organizations should emphasize these five examples in their roadmaps. Continue Reading

• Walk through 5 common PowerShell uses for IT ops teams

  PowerShell use cases have expanded past Microsoft's original design -- but IT automation is still at the tool's core, whether it's to support an AIOps strategy or monitor server performance. Continue Reading

• 3 ways IT teams can use PowerShell in AI initiatives

  As they embark on AIOps strategies, IT admins -- particularly those in Windows shops -- can lean on a familiar tool for data gathering and issue remediation: PowerShell. Continue Reading

• Follow this Ansible Vault example for encryption best practices

  IT admins can choose between two types of encryption methods when they use Ansible Vault: file-level and variable-level. Walk through each model with this brief video. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • IT automation
  • MIS (management information systems)
  • DevOps
  • AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations)

  • HashiCorp
  • infrastructure as code
  • mission-critical application
  • continuous deployment

  View All Definitions

• Put these Terraform best practices into action

  Terraform enables IT teams to complete a range of tasks, from deployment to multi-cloud management. Apply this collection of best practices to get started with, or optimize your use of, the IaC tool.Continue Reading

• Visual Studio Code vs. the native console for PowerShell debugging

  Unsure whether to debug a PowerShell script in Visual Studio Code or the PowerShell console? Follow this tutorial to make the decision a little easier.Continue Reading

• A Jenkins video tutorial to set up a build job

  Jenkins can help IT operations admins perform a number of IT automation tasks -- but first, they have to be familiar with the tool. Learn how to create a Jenkins project, or job, with this video.Continue Reading

• IT automation

  IT automation is the use of instructions to create a repeated process that replaces an IT professional's manual work in data centers and cloud deployments.Continue Reading

• What is the Puppet configuration management tool, and how does it work?

  With Puppet, enterprises can manage configurations and simplify the DevOps process as a whole. Grasp how it works, and see if it's the right choice for your organization.Continue Reading

• How to create PowerShell modules with a Plaster template

  Follow along this tutorial to create templates in Plaster, an open source tool, and accelerate the development of PowerShell modules.Continue Reading

• Perform a Windows event log search with PowerShell

  Event log monitoring is vital to an IT environment's health and success, but finding a specific event in the flood is challenging. PowerShell enables admins to simplify this task.Continue Reading

• How do I manage ACL folder permissions with a PowerShell script?

  PowerShell scripts make short work of repetitive Windows tasks, saving admins time, effort and frustration. One simple area admins can manage with scripts is the access control list.Continue Reading

• MIS (management information systems)

  MIS, or management information systems, is the software and hardware to support critical business applications. MIS also refers to the staff who select and manage these systems.Continue Reading

• Follow this Terraform and AWS tutorial to create a VPC

  As an infrastructure-as-code tool, Terraform simplifies and streamlines resource deployments. Follow along with this example, which features Amazon VPCs, to get started.Continue Reading

• Use this Mesos and Marathon tutorial to try resource abstraction

  Marathon, the Mesos-based tool, eases large-scale container orchestration. Before you begin deployments, set up Zookeeper and Mesos with Marathon, and try a simple task.Continue Reading

• DevOps

  In its most broad meaning, DevOps is an operational philosophy that promotes better communication between development and operations as more elements of operations become programmable. In its most narrow interpretation, DevOps describes the part of ...Continue Reading

• Perform this infrastructure as code tutorial with Pulumi and AWS

  Learn the basics of an infrastructure as code deployment with this tutorial, which features the open source tool Pulumi, along with Python and AWS.Continue Reading

• AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations)

  AIOps is an umbrella term for the use of big data analytics, machine learning and other AI technologies to automate the identification and resolution of common IT issues. AIOps is generally used in companies that use DevOps and cloud computing.Continue Reading

• ICYMI: Advice for aspiring site reliability engineers

  IT ops pros looking to land an SRE job can use these four articles to absorb the key responsibilities and challenges that site reliability engineering entails.Continue Reading

• AIOps explained in 5 minutes

  There are many uses for AIOps in an IT organization, including advanced monitoring, reporting and analysis, and fault prevention. This video describes how AIOps works.Continue Reading

• Automate Windows configurations with Boxstarter and Chocolatey

  Follow this Boxstarter tutorial to install the open source tool, and use it alongside PowerShell, Chocolatey and GitHub gists for streamlined and repeatable Windows configurations.Continue Reading

• Build up a DevSecOps pipeline for fast and safe code delivery

  It's all well and good to automate the software build process, but without proper security practices in place, the DevOps pipeline can lead developers to deploy compromised code.Continue Reading

• Build Terraform modules to make IT components into code

  Modules enable reusability of infrastructure-as-code deployments with Terraform. Follow this example, which also features AWS for the hosting environment, to learn module structure.Continue Reading

• Start using Terraform variables for IT resource deployment flexibility

  Infrastructure-as-code adopters should try Terraform input and output variables as a more flexible way to define and save values for deployment configurations.Continue Reading

• HashiCorp

  HashiCorp is a software company that provides a suite of modular DevOps infrastructure provisioning and management products.Continue Reading

• infrastructure as code

  Infrastructure as code (IaC) is an approach to software development that treats physical compute, storage and network fabric resources as web services and allows apps to run where they are best suited, based on cost and performance data.Continue Reading

• Top 10 IT tutorials of 2018 for professional development in 2019

  Most IT admins take control of their education via home labs and tutorials. Refresh skills in PowerShell or Python -- or learn new ones like Kubernetes -- with these popular walkthroughs.Continue Reading

• IT automation tops list of best uses of AI, survey shows

  Early adopters of AI say they see promise in the technology, and most plan to boost their AI investment. Still, they have concerns about security risks and data availability.Continue Reading

• Use Puppet for Windows ops automation with dsc_lite

  With DSC and dsc_lite, as well as a native option, users operate in Puppet within the familiarity of PowerShell settings. Here's how each approach works.Continue Reading

• mission-critical application

  A mission-critical application is a software program or service that must function for the success of a business or segment of a business.Continue Reading

• Rev up IT with continuous delivery and DevOps

  IT operations is on the software team with continuous delivery, continuous deployment and DevOps. Done right, the collaboration in tools and culture produces better software faster than previous methodologies.Continue Reading

• Identify mutable and immutable infrastructures in action

  Change is constant in app code, server configuration and VM security policies alike. IT orgs enforce consistency while embracing change with immutable infrastructure. So what does it look like?Continue Reading

• Modern service management, DevOps streamline app administration

  DevOps and service management are synonymous in modern IT, insofar as their guidelines match. Regardless of the term, ensure organizational practices are built for today's reqs.Continue Reading

• What is the best DevOps tool for my career?

  I have no prior knowledge on DevOps. I'm doing an online course and understand Unix. I get the concepts, so what tool should I concentrate on learning to advance my DevOps career?Continue Reading

• continuous deployment

  Continuous deployment is a strategy for software releases wherein any code commit that passes the automated testing phase is automatically released into the production environment, making changes that are visible to the software's users.Continue Reading

• Learn Ruby language skills with these online resources

  Systems administrators spend more time programming than ever before. To excel in your current role or find a new, DevOps-heavy one, invest the time to learn a new language.Continue Reading

• Automation and orchestration elevate scripts from helpful to essential

  Did you automate a server update, only to realize another script for configuration compliance has to run first? Orchestration tidies up the messy piles of automation that grow out of IT scripting.Continue Reading

• Create a self-signed certificate to control PowerShell scripts

  Signing code ensures that every change is official and approved. This helps to prevent errors and security breaches. Write a PowerShell self-signed certificate for code testing.Continue Reading

• Ansible

  Ansible is an open source IT configuration management (CM) and automation platform, provided by Red Hat.Continue Reading

• Learn YAML through a personal example

  Some code languages take countless hours of formal training and practice. YAML strikes out in the opposite direction. To comprehend its hierarchical format, follow this coding example.Continue Reading

• Catch the IT automation technology wave

  IT automation is taking over in operations as tasks get bigger and more complex, handling distributed systems. Stay current with these five big trends.Continue Reading

• Kubernetes news, DevOps developments dominate 2017 for IT shops

  Containerization tools grow ever closer to an industry standard. The signs are saying 'Learn to code' and 'AI threatens IT jobs.' Make sure you didn't miss anything important in 2017.Continue Reading

• A good IT orchestration system saves time for users and admins

  Rather than fight with business workers about runaway IT resource consumption and complex demands on tight deadlines, let an orchestration platform control the process.Continue Reading

• Centralize Ubuntu server management on Landscape

  Canonical Landscape brings centralized server management to Ubuntu on physical and virtual machines, as well as cloud systems. See how it works, and explore features such as tagging.Continue Reading

• cloud orchestration (cloud orchestrator)

  Cloud orchestration is the use of programming technology to manage the interconnections and interactions among workloads on public and private cloud infrastructure.Continue Reading

• Kubernetes volume

  A Kubernetes volume is a directory that contains data accessible to containers in a given Pod in the orchestration and scheduling platform.Continue Reading

• Work with the Kubernetes configuration to deploy containers

  Kubernetes deploys containers in scalable, logical and highly available configurations, which makes it a valuable addition to IT operations.Continue Reading

• Windows PowerShell programming empowers IT ops toolmakers

  Scripting with Windows PowerShell gives developer skills to ops admins -- they can improve the flow of DevOps app build and deployment, as well as support cloud use.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

• Come to grips with immutable infrastructure in production

  Immutable infrastructure is a developer approach to application hosting that's made its way into the IT ops lexicon. It's time to understand the changes it brings to application support.Continue Reading

• YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language)

  YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a data-oriented language structure used as the input format for diverse software applications.Continue Reading

• Docker Engine

  Docker Engine is the underlying client-server technology that builds and runs containers using Docker's components and services.Continue Reading

• Bots infiltrate IT help desk software

  IT support requires a great deal of perfunctory tasks and communications. You'll soon be able to hand off the routine to bot-based IT help desk tools and integrations.Continue Reading

• Try this simple Chef configuration tutorial

  This tip provides a handy tutorial to get started with the Chef configuration management tool, along with a video to follow along.Continue Reading

• Learn shell scripts: A sys admin's guide to automation

  Shell scripts and sys admins should be best friends. A day rarely goes by without using some form of shell script or another. Learn how those scripts work and start writing them.Continue Reading

• Google's Go language seeks DevOps middle ground

  Google's contributions to DevOps culture -- the Go programming language and site reliability engineering title -- strike out in the right direction, though there's still a ways to go.Continue Reading

• Shipyard floats a Docker GUI for easier container management

  Deploying new Docker images is the easy part; managing and reporting on those instances is tricky. IT teams can use the Shipyard GUI to stop, start, orchestrate and manage Docker.Continue Reading

• Take a self-guided IT maturity assessment

  Compare the progressive stages of IT maturity against your organization's use of documentation, goal orientation and automation; then discover areas for improvement.Continue Reading

• Cloud, DevOps tips for an IT organization to reach its full potential

  IT teams everywhere are locking in budgets, laying plans for the new year, brewing strong pots of coffee and setting these 10 ideas into motion.Continue Reading

• How IT management tools change a data center for the better

  Organizations that choose to adopt IT management tools can gain the upper hand on reporting, troubleshooting, provisioning and other important data center functions.Continue Reading

• These IT automation scripts take little effort and save a lot of work

  Doing IT by hand is doing it wrong. Whether to provision components, research an issue or report on performance, IT automation scripts are powerful and easy to write.Continue Reading

• IT systems management

  Systems management is the administration of the information technology systems in an enterprise data center. An effective systems management plan facilitates the delivery of IT as a service (ITaaS) and allows the organization's employees to respond ...Continue Reading

• dependency hell

  Dependency hell is a negative situation that occurs when a software application is not able to access the additional programming it requires in order to work.Continue Reading

• Create a DevOps infrastructure with code -- it's easier than you think

  Infrastructure as code allows DevOps teams to control their infrastructure like devs do application development while maintaining robust virtual server and networks in the cloud.Continue Reading

• Apache Mesos

  Apache Mesos is a cluster manager that isolates and shares pooled resources from across clusters with applications and frameworks. Mesos is open source and uses schedulers and executors in a master-slave architecture.Continue Reading

• Hadoop workflow automation lets IT pros go with the flow

  Hadoop workflow managers are not just resource schedulers. They handle intricate tasks and service handoffs that are essential for managing big data services.Continue Reading

• Modern open source systems management

  The open source sector abounds with configuration management, monitoring and analytics, CI/CD tools and more to arm IT teams against failure in complex apps and infrastructure.Continue Reading

• The new wave of application load balancing

  Achieve balance and keep app teams happy with sophisticated application delivery control technologies.Continue Reading

• US 2016 IT conferences about modern operations

  We've compiled the top 2016 IT conferences for SysOps pros to attend in the U.S. Here is your one-stop shop for IT conferences this year.Continue Reading

• An initiation into infrastructure automation tools and methods

  IT infrastructure automation isn't always easy, but the right tools with the right implementation strategy will pay off with faster provisioning and fewer errors.Continue Reading

• Data center pros dabbling more with API systems, less with wires

  Systems are becoming less hardware-centric and more software-focused. IT pros should focus less on physical wiring and more on making software connections via APIs.Continue Reading

• OpenStack Heat template sets private IaaS in motion

  Understanding how the OpenStack Heat template works is key in the deployment of your private IaaS.Continue Reading

• Survive the server orchestration takeover

  The tenets of traditional IT -- well-tended data center hardware, owned software deployments -- are falling away in the cloud era of standardization and orchestration.Continue Reading

• IT pros get a handle on machine learning and big data

  Despite its benefits, machine learning can also go very wrong. Beginners need to understand their input data, project scope and purpose, and the machine learning algorithms at work.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

• distributed applications (distributed apps)

  Distributed applications (distributed apps) are applications or software that runs on multiple computers within a network at the same time and can be stored on servers or with cloud computing.Continue Reading

• How to pick data center infrastructure management tools

  The rash of ever-changing DCIM vendors, the IT/facilities rift and other roadblocks make implementing DCIM a challenge. These tips get DCIM working in a real data center.Continue Reading

• policy engine

  A policy engine is a software component that allows an organization to create, monitor and enforce rules about how network resources and the organization's data can be accessed.  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

• What do you know about workload management tools?

  Using workload management tools is a step toward an efficient data center. How well do you know your workload automation options?Continue Reading

• bare-metal provisioning

  Bare-metal provisioning is the process of installing an operating system (OS) or Type 1 hypervisor directly on a computer's hardware. Continue Reading