What was it that I did, you ask? Well let me tell you all of the tasks I was able to complete.

System Administration Study Group

Over the past year, I’ve been working on a way to do a regular free study group for those who want to improve their system administration skills, get certified, or just brush up on something they didn’t quite understand.

Enter sysadminSG, a self-guided tour of many of the standard tasks any system administrator should know. The main goal was to create an instance of a Fedora 14 machine for studiers to use.

Some of the tasks on the study sheets indicate certain issues that would need to be resolved which can’t be resolved without a ‘master’ instance. I was able to recruit a couple of excellent individuals to help get this further than I thought it would. Jon Stanley and Ivan Makfinsky helped put together many of the pieces which will help studiers get more done. Specifically, an ldap server for centralized authentication and iscsi target luns for use with LUKS encryption, LVM and disk partitioning.

Fedora Infrastructure

I attended the Fedora Infrastructure session, where we covered two major things of concern. One was removing the puppet staging branch and moving everything into ‘Production’. This is a mental shift for many, but makes sense because in truth, everything maintained from an infrastructure perspective is production.

Additionally, a longer term plan of being able to spin up ‘staging’ environments for any new things that will go into production looks to be the direction we’ll be going. Many of the applications we have in Fedora require some work to get us to this point, mostly so they can be more atomic pieces. I think a proof of concept environment will provide us with an good idea of how much work will be involved.

pam_otp

After the Fedora Infrastructure hackfest, there was a two-factor authentication hackfest. We discussed using Yubikeys and a unique PIN together for authentication within Fedora. The initial goal was determined to setup sudo authentication for sysadmin-main group with two-factor authentication.

Nathaniel McCallum found the pam_otp library and was able to get it to compile. He passed it on to me to test and document it, which I was able to get working after a drunk night by the fire. I was then able to document the usage of it and have a test rpm that we’ll be using.

All in all, it was a very productive weekend and more work will be getting done over the next few weeks as well. It’s all very exciting and fun, a really good reason for attending FUDCon!

Cheers,

Herlo

We did a successful version of the SysadminSG at the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE 9x) last year.  And thanks to Ben Williams prodding several months ago, I agreed to run this event again. Note: We will also be running the SysadminSG again at SCaLE 10x on January 21, 2012 as the Fedora Activity Day (FAD).

What is the System Administration Study Group (SysadminSG)?

The System Administration Study Group or SysadminSG is intended as a gathering of individuals with a common purpose, studying and preparation for the Red Hat Certifications. The two main certifications of focus are the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) and the Red Hat Ceritfied Engineer (RHCE).

This is a self-guided workshop for those who gather, it does not have any instructors. However, proctors will be around to assist as needed.

The SysadminSG could be used for many other reasons. The Fedora Infrastructure team is always looking for skilled system administrators. The study group is a great way to bone up on the technologies used by Fedora Project administrators every day.

Why should I participate in SysadminSG?

Because it’s cool, and other reasons, too!

Okay, while it is true that participation is the cool thing to do, it is also very possible you may wish to improve your system administration skills. Doing so with others in the room to bounce questions off can be very helpful. Studying by yourself is challenging and while IRC is nice, there really is nothing like real live people in a room, with similar goals.

So I am interested. What do I need to bring/provide to get me started?

To participate in this event, please bring a laptop, PC or some other computer with a current version of Fedora pre-installed. YOU DO NOT WANT TO INSTALL THE DAY OF THE STUDY SESSION!!

Amazon ec2 instances will be used where possible, so that things can be portable. The instances should be up and running for around 24-hours, which means if you don’t finish during the study session, it’s possible to continue for a short time after the workshop. To access an ec2 instance, it will need to be setup with an ssh public key, so come prepared with one.

Note: If the machine you bring has the capability for Virtual Machines using KVM or VMWare, we can work with that as well, but you may receive mixed results.

Resources! Pig for Wheat!

Okay, stop screaming about it! There will be plenty to do during the 4-hour session, but if you want to get a head start, read up on these guides.

• System Administration Study Group – A general information page about the concept of the event.
• RHCSA Study Guide – This page is intended to be printed to take notes. It covers the RHCSA Exam objectives.
• RHCE Study Guide – This page is intended to be printed to take notes. It covers the RHCE Exam objectives.

Contributions encouraged and accepted

One of the main goals of the study group is to come up with tasks that would be representative of each of the objectives listed. It is my hope that with a bit of contribution during the session, we can discover and improve the study group to make it a regularly occurring workshop. I would like to see these study guides go from big sections of blank to something more tangible. It’s possible each objective could have two or three tasks for a future SysadminSG workshop.

See you all at FUDCon this weekend!

Cheers,

herlo

As some of you may know, I’m putting on a workshop, called System Administrator Study Group. If you haven’t heard about this workshop, listen up!

SysadminSG as it’s called, is to get Fedora contributors prepared for certain certification exams, specifically the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) and the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).

This workshop is not a place where you can come and earn either of these certifications. It is also not a course where you can get free instruction. Instead, this workshop is a hands-on place to sit down with others of like mind and work through the exam requirements as specified by Red Hat. If you have ever desired to get your RHCE certification, or just want to bone up on some of the qualifying skills, this is the place for you.

A Test Run – 18:00 to 21:00 UTC – December 27, 2011

My hope is to have everything working on ec2 instances for participants in the workshop. In that sense, I’ll be setting some things up in the morning tomorrow to make certain things work. It is clear to me that I’ll need help from a few folks to test the setup I’ve created.

If you have an hour or so tomorrow during the above time frame, I’d love your help testing these instances. Please find me in #fedora-cloud on freenode (I’m herlo) and I’ll set you up with your own 24-hour instance. I’ll probably be in there asking gholms and others for help getting ec2 policies working, among other minor issues.

Cheers,

Herlo

It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster ride, and so far, being an independent consultant has been very fruitful for me.  Until mid-January, I was as busy as I ever wanted, sometimes too busy.  But time and time again, I’ve been reminded that there will be leaner times for me and Purple Atom, my new training and consulting start-up.

So far, it’s just me and a couple contractors who I have known for some time that I have used for a couple small jobs.  But it seems the work has slowed for now.  While I know it will be back in a month or so, I’ve been trying to land more work, that’s a bit like chasing one’s own tail.

As I grow my business, I’ve wanted to keep a steady income and be able to do the gigs I’ve wanted to do.  Mind you, I’m in no world of hurt monetarily, it’s just interesting to see my first real lull.  While I have a couple on-going contracts, I’ve not had any training gigs in almost a month.  And I have to say, it is nice and disconcerting at the same time.

I find myself doing a little each day to locate a new client, but most of my day is spent on projects I’ve previously ignored.  This is a good thing for my skillset and for the Fedora Project, since that’s where most of the work is going each day.  I’m the one giving me work, and I’m the one completing the work I’ve given myself.

It has been fun and useful

In late January, Jennifer and I took our little AJ to Tempe, Arizona.  I was heading there for the annual FUDCon conference, and Jennifer took AJ over to meet her extended family.  We spent eight (8) days travelling.  We travelled for two days, visited the Grand Canyon along the way.  Spent four (4) days in Tempe visiting family and attending FUDCon.  Our return over two days took us by the Hoover Dam and we stayed a night at the Luxor in Las Vegas.

When we returned, I’ve started to get into a routine of heading over to the coffee shop and working on one project or another.  Much of my time has been spent on personal projects.  I’m working on my own development project, PyCamps.  I’ve also worked on fpaste-server and the SCaLE FAD.

I also spent basically a whole day sorting out honeymoon plans.  Yes, that’s right, I’m getting married to Jennifer on May 13, 2011.  I’m really only in charge of paying for things, but since I’m in charge, we’re doing a real honeymoon too!

The future

Purple Atom is going well, but I want it to get to the vision I have for it.  I have some good partnerships for training and I love that part of my business.  The consulting part, however, I’d like to pare down and focus on helping small-to-medium sized companies build a better infrastructure.  There is much, much more to come about this, so if it interests you, stay tuned…

I know that in the next month, business will pick up with or without my pursuing other work. I’d like to think that I have the chops for this Entrepreneur thing, so I’m out looking for work.  If you know of anyone who is looking for a super-awesome-system-admin or needs help building or retooling an infrastructure, please contact me, leave me a comment, etc.

Cheers,

Herlo

However, my pitch was a bit different than the rest.  Throughout the rest of the sessions from now until Sunday noon, I’ll be in room BYAC 190 to record your talent.  What I mean by this, is that I want you to come by and do a 5-15 minute presentation on your Fedora system that we can share with the community.

As an goal, I’m working to make videos that can help other Fedora contributors work toward gaining a larger skillset.  For example, a presentation on configuring a DNS caching server, configuring a simple smtp server, using Scribus, how to configure NetworkManager or SELinux basics could be good simple presentations.  As you can see, these topics could become very complex, but I’m mostly interested in the basics in these areas.

Once I get these recorded this weekend, I’ll process them on Sunday and Monday.  My goal is to get them up on the Fedora website somewhere (more details to come) by early next week.  Watch for another blog post when I get them online.

I’d like to thank you in advance for coming by and spending 10-15 minutes sharing your knowledge with Fedora and the free software community.

Cheers,

Herlo

But I kind of have a few problems…

1. The icecast streaming server we previously setup on talk.fedoraproject.org appears to be off.  I’m hoping to get a hold of someone who knows what happened to it and see if we can get that turned back on in time.  Unfortunately, I’ve been busy with a million other things this weekend, so it’s not been top priority.
2. I used to have access to my own icecast server at stream.utos.org, but that server recently crashed, and I don’t have it back up as of yet.
3. Arizona State University technical staff, as amazing as they are, didn’t know of my request for a wired connection until today.  Again, my fault for springing it on them last minute.  It’s still possible they’ll get it done, here’s hoping!

Essentially, if these three things work out tomorrow, I still have to reconfigure my little PC to make streaming work.  That should be less painful and much more simple.

BUT

Just in case streaming doesn’t happen, do not despair! As an alternate, I do plan to have the audio of Jared’s talk recorded.  Once I have it cleaned up as best I can tomorrow, it will get pasted on the FUDCon Tempe page and I will blog a direct link for your consumption.  It should be up by noon MST.

AND

In lieu of streaming the sessions, don’t forget to logon to #fedora-fudcon on irc.freenode.net tomorrow and follow the transcripts of each session.  This started at FUDCon Toronto last time, and should be a good resource for watching the event from afar.

Now, to get some sleep!

Cheers,

Herlo

Every 10 minutes, starting at 7:45am, meet in the lobby of the Courtyard Marriott.  You will be directed on a walking tour as we head toward the Center for Design North (CDN), also known as the Architecture and Environmental Design Building (AED).

On the tour, you will see the following items:

• A short tour of Mill Avenue, with restaurants and pubs
• The Brickyard Artisan Court (where the Barcamp sessions will be held)
• The Center for Design North (where the Barcamp pitches will be held)

In addition to all this, you’ll be on time to the barcamp pitches!  But don’t miss out, the last tour will begin at 8:45 so we can all get there before 9am.

If you don’t get the tour, you can still make it on your own.  Here’s a map with information to make it simple and straightforward.  It’s a google map and works well by searching for the url right in your maps program on a smart phone.

See you all tomorrow!

Cheers,

Herlo

Today I’m heading over to the Brickyard Artisan Courtyard to test out the wireless access and make sure proper ports are open.  I’m certain to run into issues, but I’m planning on making sure ssh is open for sure.  If you have a particular port you want opened, please comment here or ping ‘herlo’ in irc before noon MST.

I’m also in charge of printing the Fedora Media and have brought a ton for FUDCon attendees.  Watch for the media to be out near the registration tables and take a copy or three.  I’m sure your friends back at home would love for you to share the love, so make sure you get plenty!

I’m ready for FUDCon Tempe, are you!?

Cheers,

Herlo

Even though FUDCon officially doesn’t start until Saturday morning, I’ll down in the meeting room at the Courtyard playing board games and discussing nerdy things with my Fedora friends.  I’ve even brought a few board games with me to share.

• Power Grid – Supply the most cities with power
• Pandemic – Prevent a worldwide pandemic outbreak
• Small World – Conquest and control of a world that is simply too small to accommodate them all.
• Metro – Complete the longest rail lines against other players
• Perudo – Sometimes called Liars Dice

There’s also a bigger list on the FUDCon Tempe wiki page.  If you are interested in these games, come and find me and let’s play!

Cheers,

Herlo

FUDCon Tempe 2011 is here in just a few short days.  Some of the people I would expect to attend, aren’t going to be at FUDCon this year.  I am going to miss their presence immensely.

• It’s the first FUDCon without the master of karaoke, Greg DeKoenigsberg.  He’ll be missing out on the warm weather and friendly collaboration for sure.
• I know my good friend, David Nalley isn’t going to make it either. I have been at so many Fedora events with him, it will sure be a bit lacking without his late nights and overall good nature.
• I’m also saddened to hear that Karsten Wade won’t be able to attend, he will surely be missed with his community insight and valuable opinions.

There are others, in fact, who I know probably would like to come.  These specific instances stood out to me because I think of them as amazing contributors.  Their consistent attendance at events like FUDCon have encouraged me to return year after year to events I now love. Mind you, the above folks I mentioned aren’t missing from Fedora overall.  In fact, I know that each of them and many more who can’t make FUDCon this coming weekend in person can still participate and contribute from afar (and will likely do so).

I see a new generation of contributor helping to grow Fedora into a grand new direction.  I’m interested in seeing where this road will take us, and I think that’s the joy.  With each new contributor in a community like Fedora, we continue down the path of the best of free and open source software, but we can meander into realms we had never thought of before.  This is what excites me!

Like I said, I’m on my way to FUDCon Tempe for what is no doubt going to be an awesome event. Right now, I am sitting in my hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona.  A mere 151 miles, about 2 hours at 75mph, from the Courtyard in Tempe, Arizona, where most of our attendees will stay for four days.  I should easily be there by early afternoon tomorrow.

Mind you, this trip was planned for me to be eight days, two travel days to and from Salt Lake City.  Just this afternoon, we spent about 3.5 hours at the amazing Grand Canyon National Park.  If you get a chance to visit this amazing natural canyon, at 10 miles across, do it!  Our little family had a great time seeing the sights and riding the buses around.  By the way, dusk is really amazing at the park, don’t miss that either.

The FUDCon planning committee has crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s.  Thanks to sponsors like Google, Rackspace, and of course our hosts, Arizona State University, we get to have food and fun while working toward our common goal.  Thanks to all who put in such hard work to make this event rock!

See you all in just a few days!

Cheers,

Herlo