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lca2011 – Wed Session 3 – Rolling your own cloud

Florian Haas & Tim Serong

Not using slides, instead 1 talking and other drawing cartoons in real time
Centralized backups and storage – snapshots
over provision of resources, better utilisation
pre-packages virtual images
building blocks of a system:
virtualisation
central storage
storage replication, increase reliability
“If you live in Queensland you’ll agree not everything that comes out a cloud is necessary good”
high availability
Existing commercial solutions, vendor lock-in
SAN stack: commodity boxes for storage -> drbd -> iscsi target -> pacemaker cluster
Virt Stack: Commodity Box -> Open Iscsi -> KVM
pacemake looks very nice interface for clustering, Will have to look at it.

lca2011 – Wed session 2 – Conference Video

Making great conference video on a budget – Ryan Verner and Ben Hutchens

Guys from team doing lca2011 conference video
BOF on this later in conference
2004 used tapes, hard to scale
Volunteer AV very different from using pros, skillset limited
common chellenges from conferences, not LCA specific
each component relatively simple, very easy to underestimate, many components, many rooms
incomplete AV workflow, focus primary on tech
Volunteers – limited manpower, expeience, training
unforseen tech issues – Small varience in hardware
workflow – automate as much as possible
workflow – manage schedule , feedback loop (recording sheets) , rapid post editing, distribute tasks, automate transcoding/.uploading
mistakes – LCA 400 hours of video, too much to do ANY manual editing, combining vga,main,audio feeds
vga capture – twinpact 100 – $600
Basic mixer – mike, usb sound – $300
Firewire camera – $300
Laptops running linux, DVDSwitch software mixes into single DV file
Audio quality – often neglected
Get a VGA capture device
100% test befoe conference, impossible to solve once things start
Train volenteers
Managment important, clear roles, delegation of specific tasks
Clear Documentation
Examples http://pythin.mirocommunity.org
http://videokollektiv.org – example of best practices
DVswitch software – video mixing, recording, streaming
Designed for free software confs, limited budget
Ofter used, sometimes without streaming

lca2011 – Session 2 – Behavioural driven development

Like “test driven development”
Initially unit test focussed
business doesn’t care about underlying implementation, just the functional results
“executable specification” – written in spoken language
“infrastructure as code”
code without tests is “bad”
Taking BDD and adapting to infrastructure development
Tools – cucumber – write specs, execute/test specs
cucumber-nagios
DEMO of cucumber and cucumber-nagios
example – continuous server builds as you update you config manager
migration to config management. – Use BDI to test existing, test CM env with same tests to make sure it replicates
Monitoring System : notify -> test -> repeat
Current monitoring systems miss many things
cucumber provides a common specification format that dev and ops can share
removes duplication of tests
Libraries being built of commons test (some already in cucumber nagios)

Geoff Huston

New technologies from the 70s – Unix and Packet switching (TCP/IP)
Open technologies – anyone can implement
TCP/IP not better than competing technologies but it’s openness greatly helped it win
One thing to “be open” , another to “stay open”
Useful technologies are rarely static
Technology evolves, uses change (eg growth of wireless), exploitation models change
Challenges – net neutrality, next generation networks, mobility and mobil service evolution, Triple/Quad play schemes
The really important thing is “We are running out of addresses”
190 m addresses given out in 2009, 248m in 2010
300million new things on the network
9 million new addresses just in Australia
7 /8s left, rate of 1/month
plan that IPv6 transition would happen before ipv4 ran out
Only 0.3% hitting google IPv6
IPv4 will run out during 2011/2012
Need to transition to ipv6 in 200 days
Won’t happen, have to muddle thing with ipv4
NATs are an externalized problem
ISP NATs, multi-level, within ISP network
aperture through through which the Internet can be seen and used. Reduced port space
transition to ipv6. Dual stack requires everybody to have a ipv4 address
If you run 6to4 15% of connections don’t connect.
Transition could take 5-40 years
Making ipv4 addresses last longer, they will cost
TCP/IP is the network monoculture
Will openness be lost in the transition?
Telcos being asking to make big investment in ipv6. No really in their interests to have an open network.
Similar for large Internet companies like google and amazon
Delays help the incumbents, open network infrastructure is at risk
Need to figure out how to motivate big companies to goto ipv6 and open infrastructure

Re-imagining the Internet – Vint Cerf

768 million machines and 1966 million users in mid-2010
Already more chinese on the Internet than americans
No particular applications in Internet design
non-national IP address structure
Open standards, No IP attached to TCP/IP
Anybody can build a piece of the Internet and connect to it
Recent developments: ipv6, int domains names, dnssec, rpki, sensor nets, smart grid, mobile devices
Two factor authentication really needed by everybody
Security problems on OS, Browser, Interpreter boundaries
We privacy laws, lax user behavior
Invasive devices
Cloud to cloud missing, data between them has to go via user
List of unsolved, research problems
Buffer bloat problem might have to mean reduction in buffers

lca2011 – Haecksen Miniconf – session 3

Finding you feet without losing your head – Alison Young

Tech writer at redhat
starting a new job
make sure people know your name, spelling and what you prefer to be called
drop nickname you don’t like when switch jobs
find out dress policy
hopefully have a buddy to get you going
preferred communication ways at company ( talk vs email vs IRC vs skype ), need to allign with this
management style. hands off vs micromanagement
work from home. at Redhat be qualified
transitions at workplace (dinners, cake days)
breaks, present-ism, how intently are you expected to work.

We are here, have always been here – Donna Benjamin

5 minute history of feminism
$7000 to digitise “The Dawn” , fund-raising effort
In past women more common in computing, cheaper to hire skilled workers
Less common today since women get less computers when young
examples of Women in Australian computing she uncovered
“we are not fucking unicorns”
Challenge to find women for Ada Lovelace day

Roleplaying Session – Val Aurora

Roleplaying sessions of people doing sexist activity and options for replying

lca2011 – Business of Open source miniconf – session 2

Arjin Lentz – creating the business you want

– ex mysql
– left when 500 people
– growth in company revenue doesn’t always mean good elsewhere in business
– remote services for mysql
– no emergencies – time with daughter, sanity
– started pre-GFC, prices reasonable, published, stuck to.
– no emergencies = no worries after hours, do oncall infrastructure
= Pool of people who won’t work weekends
– biz processes = some cases no *real* reason why it’s done that way, but hard to change if other
things depend on it.
– hard to disrupt yourself
– no borrowing, external funding etc.- big affect on how run. See rules
– big growth , floating, being bought doesn’t always benifit customers
– lives below the big companies, keep pricing below them
– total value of biz-space is too small for “china” to enter
– value curve, invest in different balance of value for your product than your competitors, feature set
– nintendo wii, amazon
– list of cool books
– bigger clients require different sort of company to service

13 years of LWN – Johnathon Corbet

– most audience lwn subscribers
– establish 1998, 3 emplyees, x000 subscrbers, >100 company subs
– Programmed Cray 1 – #3
– drifted up to mid-level management in 96/97
– little correlation between work and reward
– Starting off “Linux Consulting” company ( eklektix.com ), start website to show how smart we are – not many $
– we’ll do linux support – became linux support partner – program went away
– linux training company – crowded market – didn’t work out
– Maybe online news company
– lesson – business skills matter
– lesson where money coming from – pay attention to what customers want
– be ready and will to change plans
– acquired by tucows. went for mainly cash
– seemed like good people, money over pure stock.
– after dotcom crash, tucows handed back.
– advertising revenue big drop from pre-crash
– business very cyclical
– real customers are the advertisers. Other sites did articles for advertising spend
– Blocked microsoft.com, hard to block all the other variations for the name
– other ads for dodgy products, soft core porn, political ads
– ruins customer experience, javascript, flash, popups
– hard audience to advertise to
– donations didn’t work
– July 2002 put up message that calling it quits
– $35,000 in tip jar over 1 week. “why don’t you try subscriptions”
– Nobody pays, Linux users less likely to pay.
– listen to customers, especially when they are offering money
– credit card company, reverted donation surge
– credit cards,; extra feels for: discount rate, transaction fees, “international charges”, affinity charges, some arbitrarily
– banks nervous about extending long to credit to merchants
– chargebacks. customer always wins. 5 chargebacks over 10 years
– credit card security, big dangers, huge potential downsides, pci compliance
– credit card lessons, keep money from somewhere else
– alternatives to Cc – 5% of stream, works okay, cost 4%
– Checks – pain to deal with internationally
– Corp PO cycle – big pain to deal with, Be patient
– other services, amazon. Haven’t investigated heavily
– lesson – have 6 months in the bank
– where are we now
– subscribers get access to feature content
– free after 1-2 weeks
– ability to disable advertising
– other features
– Basic cost $7/month , higher and lower cost alternatives, group subscriptions
– aligns interests with our readers
– people want to support us
– subscriptions are a business expense for most people
– non-cyclical
– 2008
– subs steady
– adverting dies
– many competitors die, freelancers writers more avaibale
– amazon affiliate , not good results and then amazon pulled plug on all of Colorado
– lots of revenue sources good. biggest business is 5% of revenue
– why doesn’t it work. audience is too small
– people don’t want to pay
– we are terrible at selling
– pricing is really hard, raised prices by 40%, minimal loss of subscribers
– “design the business as a functioning system” – hard to do with periodical

lca2011 – Cloud Miniconf – Session 1

Lindsay Holmwood – Devops

Consistency

config managemnt – puppet
puppet workflow – write->apply->debug
testing via snapshots, apply,test, keep/revert
puppet roles

Repeatability

capistrano – cap-sub for config management
railess-deploy (capistrano, externsion)

Visability

Collectd
git hub newsfeed
mk-query-digest (slow sql queries)

Lots of ideas in his talk, far to quickly said for me to type them in a all in.

Deltaclound – David Jorm & Stephen Gordon

Redhat project
deploy workloads to multiple clouds (some, internal, some external, multiple vendors )
free and open standards
REST API that abstracts other cloud APIs. Drivers for different clouds.
Support EC2 and Cloundfiles, others being worked on
Build images, store, push to cloud provider and then deploy instances

Cloud Computing in Govt – Pia Waugh

Cloud vendors vs govt people – Vendor gtee’d no personal data in their cloud
SOA buzzwords drop straight in Cloud Buzzwords
http://soafacts.com/
Govt + cloud = $$$$ for vendors
Lots of vendor hype, have to ask the hard questions
Jurisdiction – govt data can’t go overseas
standards – avoid vendors, technology lock-in
data – reliability, what if vendor goes out of business
AGIMO – official govt cloud strategy doc
private vs public clouds
Govt needs good advice
To influence Govt – “be helpful”
More consultation events planned in near future
AGIMO actually using cloud for some things

2011 Sysadmin Miniconf

Just a reminder that the Call for Papers for the Sysadmin Miniconf at Linux.conf.au 2011 will close on Friday the 22nd of October (just 2 days away).

We have accepted 7 proposals so far and have a few more pending but we still have space.

XKCD vs NZ University Websites

xkcd.com recently did the following cartoon on University Website:

So I thought I’d see how the Websites for New Zealand Universities stacked up:

University	Things they tend to have	Score	Things people are looking for	Score
Auckland University of Technology	Yes: Full Name of school, Alumni in the news, Promotions for Compus events, Statement of School’s Philosophy, No: Press releases, Letter from the president, Virtual tour	5/8	Yes: Full Name of School, List of Facility phone number and Emails, Usable campus map, Campus Address, Application forms, Campus police phone number, Dept/Course lists, Parking information No: Academic Calendar	8/9
Lincoln University	Yes: Alumni in the news, Promotions for Campus events, Press Releases, Statement of School’s Philosophy, Full name of school No: Campus photo slide-show, Letter from the president, Virtual tour	5/8	Yes: Full name of school, List of Facility phone number and Emails, Campus Address, Application forms, Academic Calendar, Dept/Course lists, Parking information, Usable campus map No: Campus police phone number	8/9
Massey University	Yes: Full name of school, Alumni in the news, Promotions for Campus events, Press Releases, Statement of School’s Philosophy, Letter from the president No: Campus photo slide-show, Virtual tour	6/8	Yes: Full name of school, Campus Address, Application forms, Academic Calendar, Campus police phone number, Parking information, Usable campus map No: List of Facility phone number and Emails	8/9
University of Auckland	Yes: Full name of school, Alumni in the news, Promotions for Campus events, Press Releases, Statement of School’s Philosophy, Letter from the president No: Campus photo slide-show, Virtual tour	6/8	Yes: Full name of school, Academic Calendar, Campus police phone number, Dept/Course lists, Parking information, usable campus map No: List of Facility phone number and Emails, Campus Address, Application forms	6/9
University of Canterbury	Yes: Full name of school, Alumni in the news, Promotions for Campus events, Press Releases, Statement of School’s Philosophy No: Campus photo slide-show, Letter from the president, Virtual tour	5/8	Yes: Full name of school, List of Facility phone number and Emails, Campus Address, Campus police phone number, Parking information, Usable campus map, Dept/Course lists, Academic Calendar No: Application forms	8/9
University of Otago	Yes: Full name of school, Alumni in the news, Promotions for Campus events, Press Releases, Letter from the president, Statement of School’s Philosophy No: Campus photo slide-show. Virtual tour	6/8	Yes: Full name of school, List of Facility phone number and Emails, Campus Address, Application forms, Campus police phone number, Dept/Course lists, Parking information, Usable campus map No: Academic Calendar	8/9
University of Waikato	Yes: Full name of school, Campus photo slide-show, Promotions for Campus events, Press Releases, Statement of School’s Philosophy, Letter from the president No: Alumni in the news, Virtual tour	6/8	Yes: Full name of school, List of Facility phone number and Emails, Campus Address, Application forms, Academic Calendar, Academic Calendar, Campus police phone number, Dept/Course lists, Parking information, Usable campus map No:	9/9
Victoria University of Wellington	Yes: Full name of school, Campus photo slide-show, Alumni in the news, Press Releases, Promotions for Campus events, Letter from the president, Statement of School’s Philosophy No: Virtual tour	7/8	Yes: Full name of school, List of Facility phone number and Emails, Campus Address, Application forms, Academic Calendar, Dept/Course lists, Parking information, Usable campus map No: Campus police phone number	8/9

In all cases I opened up the site and searched around for up to 30 seconds for each item. I used the links off the front page and the search tools on the site. When possible I tended to be fairly generous with awarding points. So if the University calendar was browsable rather than downloadable it was okay or you could enrol online rather but not download the documents you also got the point.

Out of the sites I found Auckland’s the worst in that it was large and confusing (See below) while missing the basics. The other universities were all a lot better to the extent I can’t really pick between them.

Notes:

I found the University of Auckland’s website very hard to actually use. Pretending I wanted to enrol in 1st year Computer Science I found it very hard to find out what courses were offered, which ones I should take and how I should apply. The process seemed to involved jumping back and forth between half a dozen computer different sections of the website. Very bad for a core function of the website.
Many of the sites had separate websites for depts and other organisations within the University. I found that it was often the case where a search for “Maps” or “parking” would sometimes show the the dept’s version of that page rather than the campus-wide one.
I think just about all the sites would benefit from a usability test. Create a list of 10 common things people want to do at the website and pull some people off the street to try and do them. The things in the “What people are looking for” could be a good start.
Search quality seems to vary a lot between the sites. Those using Google search usually are worst. Having the option to highlight certain pages to ensure they appear at the top of search results is a useful feature.
In most cases I could easily find the campus security number by searching for “Security”. Good enough in most case but perhaps some improvement needed since people might be in a panic when dialling the number.
It’s good to see that in most cases the sites were trying to be user-centric. However in many cases the “follow this path to enrol” didn’t interact well with the rest of the sites (eg when it came time to look up course information). Part of this is possibly the high complexity of enrolment and the regulations but the experience could be better.
Best page I came across on my tour was the Otago University Parking Page , with notes like “All phone calls to the Parking desk are recorded”you can tell that is a fun place to work.

Category: Tech