SCALE 8x - 2010 Southern California Linux Expo - Program Track C

Introduction to Puppet

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

An introduction to the open source puppet configuration language.

Puppet is an open source model-driven configuration language that can be used to automate and scale sysadmin operations. This session is targeted towards system administrators who would like to learn more about configuration management with Puppet. This session will cover: * How the Resource Abstraction Layer provides a consistent model across supported platforms. * Syntax and parameters for commonly used resources. * Puppet language syntax overview. * Encapsulation, organization, and re-use with classes and modules. * Managing nodes with the Puppet Dashboard.

Puppet is an open source model-driven configuration language that can be used to automate and scale sysadmin operations.

This session is targeted towards system administrators who would like to learn more about configuration management with Puppet.

This session will cover:

* How the Resource Abstraction Layer provides a consistent model across supported platforms.
* Syntax and parameters for commonly used resources.
* Puppet language syntax overview.
* Encapsulation, organization, and re-use with classes and modules.
* Managing nodes with the Puppet Dashboard.

Speaker: Dan Bode

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PANEL: Git Tips and Tricks

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

Users of the git revision control system discuss tips, configuration and tools for using it effectively.

Major free software projects including Linux, Samba, and X are relying on git, and software collaboration sites including GitHub, Gitorious, and Sourceforge support it. But more than any other revision control system, git has spawned a bewildering array of hacks, hooks, and alternate workflows. This panel discussion will bring together a variety of git users--who use it for tasks such as open-source and in-house software projects, a public web site, system administration, a wiki, and small-scale individual projects. As panel moderator, I'll coordinate the panelists to discuss deploying and managing software with git, how to implement policy and workflow (including how to use git as a centralized revision control system), and the ultimate git hook: a git-backed wiki. The panel should inform Linux users who just want to follow the latest version of their favorite software or track down a bug with "git bisect," help webmasters and sysadmins who want something more than rsync, and of course give software developers some ideas about productive ways to work together.

This panel discussion will bring together a variety of
git users--who use it for tasks such as open-source
and in-house software projects, a public web site,
system administration, a wiki, and small-scale
individual projects. As panel moderator, I'll
coordinate the panelists to discuss deploying
and managing software with git, how to implement
policy and workflow (including how to use git as a
centralized revision control system), and the ultimate
git hook: a git-backed wiki.

The panel should inform Linux users who just want to
follow the latest version of their favorite software
or track down a bug with "git bisect," help webmasters
and sysadmins who want something more than rsync,
and of course give software developers some ideas
about productive ways to work together.

Speaker: Don Marti
Speaker: Jason Haslup
Speaker: Shawn Pearce
Speaker: Doug Judd

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Five Stages of Benchmark Loss: PTS and You

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

Covers Phoronix Test Suite's development background and some guidance for how Benchmarking and Testing can improve the Linux ecosystem.

Phoronix Test Suite is a benchmarking and validation test suite that has been under development by Phoronix Media for the last few years. During it's development we have discovered many performance issues across the industry. This presentation provides an brief overview of Phoronix Test Suite, it's capabilities and features. Some brief history of the critical triggers and light bulb moments for improvement of the test suite which apply equally to any testing infrastructure. The presentation then moves on to the typical response that the community has to benchmark results (typically when they lose). A rough survival guide will be covered showing the behaviors that we have seen and how the community use this information to improve Linux's performance and stability in the industry.

Will be delivered on acceptance of the submission. Likewise for the presentation.

Speaker: Matthew Tippett
Speaker: Michael Larabel

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The Engine Of Revolution

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

In this new talk by Jono Bacon, Ubuntu Community Manager and author of The Art of Community by O'Reilly, he explores the evolution of Open Source, Free Culture and social media and explores the mechanics behind the revolution that is changing the way people learn, create and interact with each other.

Using his trademark British humor, pumped full of stories, anecdotes and thought-provoking conclusions, Bacon deconstructs the web of innovations that started with one man getting angry with a printer and have led to a world-changing movement, complete with the opportunities, risks, internal struggles and growth that has come along for the ride. The Engine Of Revolution provides a intriguing yet entertaining assessment of the story so far; the ideal start to a weekend of diverse and wide ranging content at SCALE.

Speaker: Jono Bacon

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Linux Virtual Server

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

Load Balancing on the Cheap

Hardware Load Balancers can run into the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of dollars, but did you know you have a Load Balancer right in your very own Linux box? LVS (Linux Virtual Server) is a free, easy way to Load Balance across web-servers or any other mass-scalable read-only services on your network, while taking up a very small footprint. In this lecture, you will learn how to enable and configure the Load Balancer that has been hiding inside your 2.6 kernel all this time...

Speaker: Solomon Chang

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Server Control via Instant Messaging

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

We examine the use of XMPP to manage hundreds of servers in various environments.

Cloud infrastructures have provided a great deal of power and versatility, but come at a cost of management overhead. In many cases, a node in a cloud infrastructure has no guarantee of being there at any given moment, has an indeterminable spin up time, and has no way of determining apriori where it will be. These make it hard to coordinate work across the nodes. The typical approach for these setups is to provide an HTTP based registrar. While that works in many cases, the lack of bidirectional communication introduces a bit of ambiguity. What is happening between checkins? Does a node need to unregister itself? What happens when a node goes down? Botnet shepherds have long been dealing with similar problems as cloud shepherds are dealing with now. A botnet node can go down at any time, there is no way to determine when a node will come into the botnet, and botnet nodes come from all over the place. Currently, the primary mechanism that botnet shepherds use to control their networks is over IRC channels. While the primary appeals have been the low barrier to entry, the always on messaging infrastructure, and the inability to lock down the channel, this approach provides an efficient way to coordinate activity in an environment with the above issue with little overhead. Given the similarities between managing a botnet herd and managing a cloud herd, why not use the same management mechanisms that botnets use for more above the board purposes? How well do instant messaging infrastructures work for cloud infrastructures? In this talk, we examine how we can use the botnet herding techniques to manage a large host of servers in a couple of scenarios. We will look at using XMPP as a transport mechanism for a traditional hosting environment as well as a cloud environment.

The typical approach for these setups is to provide an HTTP based registrar. While that works in many cases, the lack of bidirectional communication introduces a bit of ambiguity. What is happening between checkins? Does a node need to unregister itself? What happens when a node goes down?

Botnet shepherds have long been dealing with similar problems as cloud shepherds are dealing with now. A botnet node can go down at any time, there is no way to determine when a node will come into the botnet, and botnet nodes come from all over the place. Currently, the primary mechanism that botnet shepherds use to control their networks is over IRC channels. While the primary appeals have been the low barrier to entry, the always on messaging infrastructure, and the inability to lock down the channel, this approach provides an efficient way to coordinate activity in an environment with the above issue with little overhead.

Given the similarities between managing a botnet herd and managing a cloud herd, why not use the same management mechanisms that botnets use for more above the board purposes? How well do instant messaging infrastructures work for cloud infrastructures?

In this talk, we examine how we can use the botnet herding techniques to manage a large host of servers in a couple of scenarios. We will look at using XMPP as a transport mechanism for a traditional hosting environment as well as a cloud environment.

Speaker: Chris McEniry

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Open Source Virtualization the Xen Way!

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

The Xen.org community develops the leading open source virtualization solution; the Xen Hypervisor. This session will present an overview of the community, its products and future directions.

The Xen.org community develops the leading open source virtualization solution; the Xen Hypervisor. This session will present an overview of the community, its products and future directions. Learn how you can become an active participant in Xen.org as a developer, tester, or user and see demonstrations of state of the art virtualization products based on Xen.

Speaker: Stephen Spector

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Introduction to Forensics

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

In this talk Kyle Rankin will cover basic concepts for a forensics investigation using Sleuthkit and Autopsy. The talk will feature a demo with a real compromised system.

In this talk Kyle Rankin will provide an introduction to performing forensics analysis on Linux machines using the popular Sleuthkit tools with their easy-to-use Autopsy web-based front-end. The talk will cover initial installation and configuration of Sleuthkit and Autopsy, basic concepts and considerations for a forensics investigation, and at the end there will be a demo with a real, compromised Linux image.

Speaker: Kyle Rankin

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Getting the word out: free software project promotion

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:53 +0000

How to promote free software projects to attract users, developers, translators, content creators, and more.

While some developers are happy working alone on a project for their own use, many others would rather build a community of developers, users, content creators, translators, and so on. In order for that to happen, the word needs to get out -- people need to know about the project and what it is trying to accomplish. There are lots of ways to do that, but many projects make it unnecessarily hard for interested folks to find out what they are up to. Because of that, good work languishes, opportunities for cross-pollination between projects are lost, and free software is not as good as it could be. This talk will give some guidelines and ideas for projects that want to do a better job of presenting what they do to the greater free software world. We'll cover things like interfacing with the press, using blogs and mailing lists, web site organization, and more. Participants should leave with a much better idea of how to make a bigger splash with their projects.

This talk will give some guidelines and ideas for projects that want to do a better job of presenting what they do to the greater free software
world. We'll cover things like interfacing with the press, using blogs and mailing lists, web site organization, and more. Participants should leave
with a much better idea of how to make a bigger splash with their projects.

Speaker: Jake Edge

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