Please note that we are in a different room this month. Signs will be posted, but please check out the directions given under Location:
A modern day Linux Infrastructure should be flexible, scalable and able to deal with the constant changes any business will require. Automation is key to a reliable and consistence server infrastructure, Automation also allows for easy integration of new changes.
The DevOps movement melds two traditionally siloed teams; Application Developers and Operations Engineers. Writing infrastructure as code presents a number of challenges and potential pitfalls, Operations Engineers need to write code (something they may not be familar with) and Developers need to have a strong understanding of the system (many Developers don't want to be considered with anything other than web applications). There are several major projects related purely to the management of infrastructure as code.
We will examine Opscode Chef and make a strong use case for the implementation of Opscode Chef in a Linux Environment. David will demonstrate many techniques to utilize Chef quickly and efficiently to minimize the time of implementation. Although Opscode Chef can be run on Solaris, FreeBSD and even Windows, the presentation will discuss Linux and only Linux. David will also discuss the techniques to operate Chef on various Linux Distros which can provide a layer of abstraction from the package management systems (apt & yum). Finally David will discuss how Chef can be used to rebuild an Entire infrastructure (regardless of size or complexity) in a time previous thought impossible. The only limitation in speed of deployment is the hardware.
Speaker: David Rodriguez
Date: Thursday, December 13th, 2012 @ 7 pm
Location: Caltech - Lauritsen 269. Lauritsen is connected to Downs; the room is a lecture hall on the 2nd floor towards northeast end. The buildings are located across from the tennis courts on California at Arden. If you enter near our usual room (Downs 107), go down the hallway, hang a right, go past the elevators, and take the stairs up one level. As soon as you come out on the 2nd floor, the classroom is on the left hand side. If you take the elevator, you will want to head left after getting off the elevator. (There is a map taped next to elevator on the 2nd floor that shows the layout of Lauritsen.)