There are literally hundreds of possible types of log sources around your environment and choosing which bubble to the top of your IT consciousness can be difficult. In a job where everything seems to be a top priority, understanding all the log types and sources available for selection can be daunting. In your environment, some logs may be more valuable than others, but having general guidance about logging and what types of logs may be available to monitor can help make you a better technologist.
Cloud
How to Tame — and Redefine — Your Network Now
The network as we know it is being redefined. As more endpoints, applications, and devices are added to the mix, the network is transforming. For IT, the challenge is two-fold: stay on top of the network today, and prepare for what it could look like tomorrow. In an environment where workers expect to be online … Read moreHow to Tame — and Redefine — Your Network Now
The Importance of Performance Certainty
Uptime is assumed. Performance is the new black. You can’t hope for performance, you need to be certain of the performance of the system. You need to know what drives performance and how any changes to the system change (or could change) the performance profile. This is, in summary, what performance certainty means. It’s a new world, performance matters Not … Read moreThe Importance of Performance Certainty
How SQL Server DMVs Can Be a Savior in SQL Azure, Too
Be it SQL Server or the improved version of SQL Server on the cloud called as SQL Azure, when it comes to monitoring, there is nothing as powerful as DMVs (Dynamic Management Views). For a primer, Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) are a set of virtual views which expose the internal states of SQL Server deployment. … Read moreHow SQL Server DMVs Can Be a Savior in SQL Azure, Too
Must-know Tips and Tools for Oracle Virtualization
These days, even business-critical applications are being virtualized, and with the increasing costs and complexity of data environments, it’s not surprising. Some estimate that large organizations are as much as 70% virtualized already, with no plans to go back to physical servers. Virtualization, however, introduces new challenges for the Oracle DBA, including getting visibility to … Read moreMust-know Tips and Tools for Oracle Virtualization
TDD: A Blueprint for Choosing Metrics
Test Driven Development (TDD) is not only a discipline we like to write about, we practice it ourselves every day. This is a blog post we shared with our friends over at Rainforest QA. Because we know you can’t enough of a good thing, we’re re-posting it here. Enjoy! Librato is a prolific engineering shop. … Read moreTDD: A Blueprint for Choosing Metrics
Choosing Metrics that Matter (Beyond CPU/Disk/Network)
Imagine for a moment that you have suddenly been promoted from regular old developer to senior architect, and tasked with overseeing the telemetry efforts for all of the engineering teams at your organization. I recently had a conversation at DevOps Days Toronto with someone who was living through exactly that experience. He’d just been put in … Read moreChoosing Metrics that Matter (Beyond CPU/Disk/Network)
Virtualization Monitoring Management Guide
Virtualization management requires mastering a specific set of skills. But once mastered, these essential skills can lead to a long and meaningful career in IT. IT pros need a foundation in technologies. To extend utility to their organizations, they should further develop three essential skills – monitoring, troubleshooting, and reporting. Think back to your first responsibilities as an … Read moreVirtualization Monitoring Management Guide
No Need to Be Alarmed: Crafting an Effective Alert Strategy
The world may run on coffee, but it’s the alarm clock that gets us out of bed. It operates on a simple threshold. You set the time that’s important to you and receive an alert when that variable is true. Like your alarm clock, today’s tooling for web service alerting often operates on simple thresholds, … Read moreNo Need to Be Alarmed: Crafting an Effective Alert Strategy
Comparing vSphere and Hyper-V
Virtualization is supposed to provide consolidation and high availability benefits for applications. So what is a hypervisor? Why are there two types of hypervisors? What’s the difference between VMware® vSphere™ and Microsoft® Hyper-V®? What exactly are Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors? What if I just want to learn about vSphere and Hyper-V so that I can compare … Read moreComparing vSphere and Hyper-V