24 – 28 January announced two new hardware monitoring plugin and firmware releases, introduced Becky and a SASSy solution for CSS topped off with a special 20% off OSDC tickets.
Jannis found a way to make working with CSS fun with SASS stylesheets. A simple colour change need not consume a day, because SASS uses variables that are much easier to alter. And with the help of a compiler the variables, definitions functions and more, turn magically into CSS. Best of all, if you know CSS there is not much more to learn – check out the homepage to test if for yourself.
Following on, Rebecca our events apprentice introduced herself and her impressions of her first few months on board. Working hard on the OSMC of 2010, helping Manuela with everything from invoicing and program planning to interviewing attendees for live testimonials and marketing presentations streamed live, Becky gladly took on responsibility. So much in fact, that she is now organising Nagios, Puppet and Jasper training courses. With 2 years to go in her apprenticeship, she looks to be on the right path with the right attitude – we look forward to more updates along the way.
Becky continued to forward news of the IPMI sensor monitoring plugin v2 release for Nagios/Icinga. The Thomas Krenn plugin monitors the status of hardware such as fan speed, temperature, voltage, power input and more. To these ends it combines with Nagios or Icinga, FreeIPMI (as of v.0.5.1) and Gawk. The plugin is available for free download, with more information on Thomas Krenn’s wiki and exchange.nagios.org or available through special announcement and user mailing lists.
On the topic of hardware monitoring, Martin announced Multi-Tech iSMS’ new firmware 1.47 and plugin. Multi-Tech iSMS‚ new release brings new bug fixes and the ability to enter SIM card PINs in the web interface, removing the need to deactivate them in advance. View the changelog or download the firmware from Multitech. The updated monitoring plugin is available at www.netways.org.
Manuela reminded us to book before 28 Feb and save 20% on the Open Source Data Center Conference. Alongside high calibre presentations the 3rd OSDC will feature Puppet and Jasper workshops on the conference eve. To be sure you know what to expect, she threw in 2 videos of speeches from 2010 on Monitoring with Icinga (Bernd Erk) and Java Monitoring and Troubleshooting (Rainer Jung). And if one event isn’t enough, Manuela also offered an OSMC + OSDC special that saves up to €400. Register now and we’ll see you on 6 -7 April in Nuremberg!
NETWAYS Blog
Weekly Snap: OSDC Specials, Printing & VirtualBox Tips for Xmas
20 – 24 December embraced the spirit of Christmas, giving OSDC specials, printing tips and VirtualBox hints, not to mention the warmest festive wishes from the entire team at NETWAYS.
Manuela reminded early birds to get their tickets to the OSDC 2011 coming up on 6 -7 April in Nuremberg. She gave a sneak peek into the program, featuring ‘Puppet Advanced’ and ‘ITSM Reporting with Jasper’ workshops and speeches on: ‘Automatic Natwork Documentation with NetDot & RANCID’,‘Email Marketing, Spam, Email Filtering & Data Protection-What‘s Allowed & What’s Not?’, ‘Icinga – Enterprise Monitoring’, ‘High Availability Virtualization Clusters with iSCSI, Cluster LVM & Xen/KVM’, ‘NoSQL in the Cloud: Patterns, Architecture & Experiences’, and ‘FAI – Fully Automatic Installation’. Interested speakers a still welcome to submit their ideas to the Call for Papers and registrations before 28 February will enjoy early bird specials. For an impression of the event format and style, Manuela shared two speeches from the recent monitoring conference courtesy of Linux Magazine: ‘Monitoring with Icinga’, ‘Java Monitoring & Troubleshooting’.
Marcus then taught us how to send print jobs to two printers simultaneously, using a combination of Foxit-PDF reader, CutePDF and an AutoIT 3 script. Referencing the AutoIT forum which offered example code, he recommended it as an alternative to PrintMulti (also available for free) for its relative configuration simplicity. First the document to be printed is exported in PDF format and saved in a specific place with CutePDF. Once the AutoIT script registers the new file, it is moved to an archive and renamed (date and time) to finally be sent off to the printers with FoxitPDF.
Lastly, Bernd shared his own tip by taking a peek under the VirtualBox 4.0 hood. The recently released major version of the virtualization solution features a refurbished interface and changes to the architecture. With certain features migrated to expansion packs, he couldn’t quite say whether they are a precursor to commercialized packages or just more freedom combining features. The expansion pack currently available offers ISB 2.0, PXE-Boot and VirtualBox RDP support. Bernd’s favourite feature was its support of Async-IO and local disk resource limitations for guests. Through VBoxManage, resource groups are created and individual disks are assigned to optimize resource use and meet the configured limits. More on the new release can be found in VirtualBox’s changelog, and Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris suitable versions are also available for free download.
Weekly Snap: OSDC CfP, new Syslog-NG and faster PHP
29 Nov – 3 Dec turned over the new month with an OSDC Call for Papers, a PHP tip and a Syslog-NG new release.
From the development team, Marius shared a tip for accelerated PHP websites. He recommended the Zend Community Edition Server, a compiled Apache with a selected set of modules and the current PHP5. In the background an Apache2 runs for PHP and a lighttpd provides for the admin interface. The integrated Zend Optimizer+, PHP Opcode and page cacher help to generate pages quickly. Marius also demonstrated its ease of installation, with the help of the Zend Installer. Try it for yourself, by downloading it free from the vendor website.
Sharing his own open source tip, Julian took a look at the recently released Syslog-NG 3.2 and its new capabilities. Referencing the software vendor BalaBit, the latest release features log file correlation, a new plugin system and process accounting data collection among many others. Alongside the open source version, Balabit also offers a commercial variant with more features such as encrypted and tamper-proof log data storage. Balazs Scheidler, CEO of Balabit IT Security may be a familiar name for attendees of the 2nd OSDC where he introduced Syslog-NG 3.0 capabilities in 2009.
Finally, Manuela called out to interested speakers for the Open Source Data Center Conference coming up on the 6 -7 April 2011. Dedicated to open source software in data centers and large and complex IT environments, the conference will be held in Nuremberg with a new theme. The German language event will highlight “Automated Systems Management” and offer two intensive workshops (Configuration Management with Puppet and ITSM Reporting with Jasper) on 5 April. Interested speakers are welcome to submit their ideas to our Call for Papers and get more info and an impression of the past two events at: http://www.netways.de/osdc/y2011/ Early birds are just as welcome to snap up tickets at special rates till 28 February 2011!
Weekly Snap: Business Process Addons in Icinga & Conference Aplenty – OSMC to OSDC and OpenSUSE
18 – 22 October skipped from the close of the OSMC to the preparations for the OSDC and ended on the OpenSUSE, with a quick detour into Business Process Monitoring Addons’ integration into Icinga Web.Manuela celebrated the success of the Open Source Monitoring Conference 2010 with a few statistics. For the attendees from all over Europe, 22 speeches, 4 workshops, 1 intensive workshop and an AR Drone, ensured that there was something everyone. Thanks to Linux Magazine, the presentations where streamed live and are now available in their archives to view with the attendee area of the OSMC website opening soon. Final thanks also go to Thomas Krenn, and all speakers and attendees for making the event the success it was – we hope to see you at the next OSMC on 29 – 30 November 2011.
From one conference to another, Manuela jumped to the Open Source Data Center Conference to come on 6 – 7 April 2011 in Nuremberg. In its 3rd year, it will also highlight ‚Automated Systems Management‘ with focused presentations and practical case studies. In line with this, 2 workshops on ‚Configuration Management with Puppet- Advanced‘ and ‚ITSM Reporting with Jasper‘ will be held on the OSDC eve 5 April with restricted class sizes for intensive learning. The Call for Papers for interested speakers and early bird specials for registrations till 28 February 2011 are both currently open and welcome to all.
Finally, Bernd reported from the 2nd International OpenSUSE Conference which gathered many active developers in Nuremberg to discuss new ideas and the future course of the OpenSUSE project. For the first time, NETWAYS was actively there with a presentation on ‚Open Source Monitoring with Icinga‚ that received much interest. In return Bernd was also reassured by many there, that the old rumours of YaST messing up configurations and Russian roulette-like package installations are now history.
