I am working on the configuration management problem and have been toying with getting bcfg2 working on ESX 3.5. My goal is to have an isolated install that does not require modifying the existing system files or upgrading any packages. My approach to doing this is to create a local Python 2.5 install and install the bcfg2 packages there. This is just a start, but I thought I would put it out there for anyone who wants to work on something similar.

I am not very happy with the landscape of configuration management software out there for VMware ESX server. I am investigating using projects such as Bcfg2 to administer my servers. I am working with Bcfg2 because I do not have a lot of experience with these types of software and I am interested in learning more about Python. Of course these types of packages fail when you look at ESX 3i, but I am not convinced that I will be an early adopter of that platform.

I have been working on methods to benchmark the Windows infrastructure team at work and I have not been finding much luck finding existing metrics. I was not too happy with the last Gartner review of our IT department, but perhaps that is all that is out there. I have developed some thoughts on the matter and once I am fairly certain they make sense I will post them here.

A common problem in infrastructure groups is determining the value that we provide to the organization. One common way of thinking about this is in terms of asset utilization. Messages such as “take your servers from 5% utilization to 60%” are very common in virtualization value propositions, but I do not think that capacity utilization is the correct measurement of infrastructure value. That value is derived from being able to run an application at adequate performance levels.

I just read Leadership and self-deception : getting out of the boxand I am sure I will have to read it a few more times to have it sink in, but I like what I got out of it so far. I like that it goes beyond “don’t be selfish” to talk about the ways that a mindset can color our perceptions of other people. It hit pretty close to home for me and I am glad to have found it.

It amazes me the amount of incorrect information that is put on user forums. There are always mistakes and I have seen some posts where people realize and correct their errors. Primarily though, I see people ranting about “the correct way” when that way is not based in product knowledge, but rather on “it seemed to work”. This reminds me of the time I went to the pet store to buy some activated charcoal after my dog ate some wild mushrooms.

For the past 10 years I have been doing system administration and have benefited greatly from search engines and forums, but I have not provided much content. I am trying to correct this by creating this blog and participating in online forums. Time will tell if I can keep it up.

I needed a way to allow our admins responsible for patching to include VMware Tools updates during a patch cycle. You can easily update via Virtual Center, but this requires multiple interfaces and it can be difficult to pick all of the same servers without making a mistake. I fired up Process Explorer and watched what VMware did with their existing tools update process. This is pretty cool since it does not require a network connection and your Tools install is up to date without needing to maintain a repository.

It is interesting to read about more formal approaches to system administrator education. I have been reading “Master Education Programmes in Network and System Administration” from the LISA 07 proceedings. The authors’ approach is an interesting one, but I wonder what we do for all of the administrators already “in the wild”? A training vs. education mentality and the difficulty of adult education make introduction of a program like this very difficult.

I was looking into Cisco Discovery Protocol details and read that you can negotiate POE using CDP packets. Could a malicious trojan forge some CDP packets and energize the POE link to the PCs nic?

I am new to blogging, but I figured that creating an online persona is a good thing.