In IT there is not simply more than one way to skin a cat. There are multiple philosophies describing the methods. Most of these philosophies are based on preference and history, and on how, where, and when we learn, but not so much on what is necessarily the best way. Much of the how and when is linked …
TVP Tag Archives
Microsoft Open-Sourced PowerShell
In case you have not heard the news, Microsoft recently announced that the company is open sourcing PowerShell and will be bringing PowerShell to both Linux and OS X. Actually that is just part of it in that it is not just PowerShell that Microsoft has open sourced, but rather the .NET framework as well as the PowerShell Editor Service and making it available for Linux and OS X at the PowerShell GitHub repository.
Flip Side of the Coin: Automation Tools of the Trade
In my last post I started the discussion on the tools of the trade for automation and orchestration. The post mainly focused on Microsoft PowerShell as one of the primary tools of the trade when working within Microsoft, VMware and Citrix virtualization and orchestration solutions. One of the main reasons that I focused on Microsoft PowerShell. So why PowerShell? Quite simply it is a very powerful platform that has a very strong community to help support it and companies outside of Microsoft have invested a great deal of time and development to use this technology as one of the main administration and management platforms for working with VMware vSphere and Citrix Xen. For the sake of this discussion, I am going to refer to PowerShell as one side of the automation coin and now concentrate on the flip side of the automation coin.
A Look at Automation Tools of the Trade
A look at automation tools of the trade. In my last post, I spent a little time talking about the difference between automation, which is the automated task or scripted solution to perform a task, and orchestration, which is the complete process and then top it all off with how DevOps is a philosophy behind the orchestration. For this post I want to focus in on the some of the most common tools of the trade behind the automation and orchestration for the different types of environments.
Strategy for Cloud Automation
Strategy for Cloud Automation. There is a lot of post about the Cloud and Cloud Computing but have not seen to many post or articles that discusses different strategy to consider when it comes to the automation in your environment. I did comes across a nice post called Legacy Job Schedulers: 3 Effective Exit Strategies to Consider by Jim Manias from Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. that had some interesting points and thought it would be a great topic for discussion. In this post, Jim Manias, starts old school with a reminder that the early stages of automation were managed via schedulers from the host system to kick off the scripts when triggered either manually or from an event. Actually in all practical purposes if you use PowerShell for any of your automation needs, chances are you have used the Windows Scheduler in one form or another.
A look at Microsoft Windows PowerShell Web Access
Microsoft Windows Server 8 Beta has been open to the public and there is one feature that really caught my eye. With Windows Server 8 you can now have basic PowerShell console over HTTPS with Microsoft Windows PowerShell Web Access (PSWA). Think about the possibilities with that. You get an email that there is an issue and you could start PWSA on your phone, or other device, and resolve the problem or request.