Weekly Snap: UKUUG Spring Conference + Automation, MySQL & Puppet Camp Tips

21 -25 March was a busy week with tips galore on automation, MySQL authentication, OSDC last minute tickets and Puppet Camp discounts. On the side, there were impressions from the UKUUG Spring Conference and presentation slides alongside a NETWAYS colleague introduction.
Manuela recommended reading Kristian Köhntopp’s blog article on the ins and outs of automation and scaling. In two parts, he argues that the thorough consideration of work processes and best practices counts more than the correct tools in ensuring the success of automation projects. A good read in the lead up to the OSDC 2011 on 6 – 7 April which too focuses on automated systems management. Hurry with your registration as 5 spots (without accommodation) are all that’s left!
In registering for the OSDC you can score yourself a 10% discount on Puppet Camp Europe just 3 weeks later, on 28 -29 April. Organised by Puppet Labs, to be held in Amsterdam, the camp offers an ideal setting to learn and share the latest on the configuration management system.
Following on, Thomas Gelf introduced himself and his role as Senior Consultant on the NETWAYS team. Currently working on a project at a TV news broadcaster, he reflected on his highly varied work bouncing between the NETWAYS’ development team and customers to bring their projects into fruition. A fan of LXC, NoSQL and BTRFS in the open source world, Thomas has written for ADMIN magazine on configuration management with Puppet. When he’s not at the desk, we hope to find him snowboarding through the Alps.
Not long after, Bernd checked in from the Spring Conference in Leeds, organised by the UK Unix and Open Systems User Group. He offered his first impressions from the event which covered administration, development, network management and security from the open source arena. He then shared his presentation slides from the event on ‘Scale-Out Data Center Architecture’, and mused on the unexpected interest in Icinga and replication monitoring  With just 8 days to go, Bernd toasted to MogileFS and OpenStack which will now appear at the OSDC.
Once back home, Bernd posted article 3 of his MySQL New Features series – Pluggable Authentication. Moving on from Semisynchronous Replication and Background I/O Threads, he looked at the new plugin interface for authentication. Previously only possible through user table evaluations, password validation can now be done via plugin. He offered an example with net_openldap_plugin, both with its static entry into the database configuration (my.cmf) and a dynamic activation at runtime. His tip her was to ensure that the given module can be loaded from the given path, by checking the plugin_dir variable.