LISA '13: Build a Sysadmin Sandbox — Interview with David N. Blank-Edelman
On Sunday, November 3, David Blank-Edelman will teaching a half-day training session at LISA '13: Build a Sysadmin Sandbox. In this interview, he offers a preview of his session.
LISA '13 early bird registration and hotel discount has been extended until October 22, so register now for the greatest savings.
Rikki: Can you give us a real-life example of a time you used a sandbox?
David: I use sandboxes all the time for exploring new tools and
technologies that I am either personally interested in or know will be
something I will want to deploy at work in the future. One of the things
I've truly appreciated about the DevOps movement in the number of
phenomenal system and network administration tools they've created for
addressing large-scale challenges. Many of these tools are available in
pre-made sandbox form because others in the community have the same
desire to play with them before considering using them in a production
situation. This makes it really easy to experiment with the tools before
using them in a serious fashion. I've also used sandboxes to give me
pre-made development environments when I needed to extend something I
was running in production.
Rikki: What is a common example of a situation in which a sandbox approach would be useful?
David: Well, see above. Besides this, sandboxes also make for lightweight ways to test "what if?" scenarios. If you can create a functional sandbox that mirrors part of your production environment, you can start to answer questions like "What if I upgrade to the next version of X?" or "What if we used a different log parser?" or "What if I place something under heavy load?" I also really encourage anyone who wants to increase their knowledge and skill level in the field to start building sandboxes to get hands-on training. This is tremendously helpful for people who want to train themselves up for a career move or to advance within their organization. Employers also love it when you can say "Not only have I solved this problem, but let me show you a working prototype I whipped up."
Rikki: What else should attendees expect to get out of your session?
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