Thursday, July 30, 2009
ITIL V3, Youtube, and Free Training Part VII
1. ITIL V3 The 4 Ps of IT Service Management
2. ITIL V3 The 5 Aspects of Service Design
3. ITIL V3 Dr. W Edwards Deming's PDCA Cycle
4. ITIL V3 Continual Service Improvement Model
1. ITIL V3 The 4 Ps of IT Service Management
2. ITIL V3 The 5 Aspects of Service Design
3. ITIL V3 Dr. W Edwards Deming's PDCA Cycle
4. ITIL V3 Continual Service Improvement Model
"Now What?"
ITIL V3, Youtube, and Free Training Part VI
1. ITIL V3 Impact, Urgency and Priority
2. ITIL V3 Service Request
3. ITIL V3 Problem
4. ITIL V3 Workaround
5. ITIL V3 Known Error
6. ITIL V3 Known Error Database (KEDB)
7. ITIL V3 Communication
8. ITIL V3 Service Assets
9. ITIL V3 Release Policy
10. ITIL V3 Value Creation through Services
1. ITIL V3 Impact, Urgency and Priority
2. ITIL V3 Service Request
3. ITIL V3 Problem
4. ITIL V3 Workaround
5. ITIL V3 Known Error
6. ITIL V3 Known Error Database (KEDB)
7. ITIL V3 Communication
8. ITIL V3 Service Assets
9. ITIL V3 Release Policy
10. ITIL V3 Value Creation through Services
"Now What?"
ITIL V3, Youtube, and Free Training Part V
1. ITIL V3 Configuration Items (CI)
2. ITIL V3 Configuration Management System (CMS)
3. ITIL V3 Definitive Media Library (DML)
4. ITIL V3 Service Change
5. ITIL V3 Change Types (Change Categories)
6. ITIL V3 Release Unit (RU)
7. ITIL V3 7 R's of Change Management
8. ITIL V3 Event
9. ITIL V3 Alert
10. ITIL V3 Incident
1. ITIL V3 Configuration Items (CI)
2. ITIL V3 Configuration Management System (CMS)
3. ITIL V3 Definitive Media Library (DML)
4. ITIL V3 Service Change
5. ITIL V3 Change Types (Change Categories)
6. ITIL V3 Release Unit (RU)
7. ITIL V3 7 R's of Change Management
8. ITIL V3 Event
9. ITIL V3 Alert
10. ITIL V3 Incident
"Now What?"
ITIL V3, Youtube, and Free Training Part IV
1.ITIL V3 Business Case
2. ITIL V3 Risk
3. ITIL V3 Service Provider
4. ITIL V3 Supplier
5. ITIL V3 Service Level Agreement (SLA)
6. ITIL V3 Operational Level Agreement (OLA)
7. ITIL V3 Underpinning Contract (UC)
8. ITIL V3 Service Design Package (SDP)
9. ITIL V3 Availability
10. ITIL V3 Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
1.ITIL V3 Business Case
2. ITIL V3 Risk
3. ITIL V3 Service Provider
4. ITIL V3 Supplier
5. ITIL V3 Service Level Agreement (SLA)
6. ITIL V3 Operational Level Agreement (OLA)
7. ITIL V3 Underpinning Contract (UC)
8. ITIL V3 Service Design Package (SDP)
9. ITIL V3 Availability
10. ITIL V3 Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
"Now What?"
ITIL V3, Youtube, and Free Training Part III
1. ITIL V3 Service Transition Goals and Objectives
2. ITIL V3 Service Transition Value
3. ITIL V3 Service Operation Goals and Objectives
4. ITIL V3 Service Operation Value
5. ITIL V3 Continual Service Management Goals and Objective
6. ITIL V3 Utility and Warranty
7. ITIL V3 Assets, Resources and Capabilities
8. ITIL V3 Service Portfolio
9. ITIL V3 Service Catalogue
10. ITIL V3 IT Governance
1. ITIL V3 Service Transition Goals and Objectives I
2. ITIL V3 Service Transition Goals and Objectives II
3. ITIL V3 Service Operation Goals and Objectives
4. ITIL V3 Service Operation Value
5. ITIL V3 Continual Service Management Goals and Objective
6. ITIL V3 Utility and Warranty
7. ITIL V3 Assets, Resources and Capabilities
8. ITIL V3 Service Portfolio
9. ITIL V3 Service Catalogue
10. ITIL V3 IT Governance
"Now What?"
ITIL V3, Youtube, and Free Training Part II
1. Introduction to IT Management
2. ITIL V3 The Concept of Good Practice
3. ITIL V3 The Concept of a Service
4. ITIL V3 The Concept of Service Management
5. ITIL V3 The Concept of Functions and Processes
6. ITIL V3The Concept of Processes and their Characteristics
7. ITIL V3 The Service Lifecycle Model
8. ITIL V3 Service Strategy Goals and Objectives
9. ITIL V3 Service Design Goals and Objectives
10. ITIL V3 Service Design Value
1. Introduction to IT Management
2. ITIL V3 The Concept of Good Practice
3. ITIL V3 The Concept of a Service
4. ITIL V3 The Concept of Service Management
5. ITIL V3 The Concept of Functions and Processes
6. ITIL V3The Concept of Processes and their Characteristics
7. ITIL V3 The Service Lifecycle Model
8. ITIL V3 Service Strategy Goals and Objectives
9. ITIL V3 Service Design Goals and Objectives
10. ITIL V3 Service Design Value
"Now What?"
ITIL V3, Youtube, and Free Training Part I
Below is a compilation of some of the videos I watched which is ITIL related. These are a collection of lectures by Marco Cattaneo from Charles Stuart University.
This post is divided into several parts:
PART I
This Section :)
PART II
1. Introduction to IT Management
2. ITIL V3 The Concept of Good Practice
3. ITIL V3 The Concept of a Service
4. ITIL V3 The Concept of Service Management
5. ITIL V3 The Concept of Functions and Processes
6. ITIL V3The Concept of Processes and their Characteristics
7. ITIL V3 The Service Lifecycle Model
8. ITIL V3 Service Strategy Goals and Objectives
9. ITIL V3 Service Design Goals and Objectives
10. ITIL V3 Service Design Value
PART III
1. ITIL V3 Service Transition Goals and Objectives
2. ITIL V3 Service Transition Value
3. ITIL V3 Service Operation Goals and Objectives
4. ITIL V3 Service Operation Value
5. ITIL V3 Continual Service Management Goals and Objective
6. ITIL V3 Utility and Warranty
7. ITIL V3 Assets, Resources and Capabilities
8. ITIL V3 Service Portfolio
9. ITIL V3 Service Catalogue
10. ITIL V3 IT Governance
PART IV
1.ITIL V3 Business Case
2. ITIL V3 Risk
3. ITIL V3 Service Provider
4. ITIL V3 Supplier
5. ITIL V3 Service Level Agreement (SLA)
6. ITIL V3 Operational Level Agreement (OLA)
7. ITIL V3 Underpinning Contract (UC)
8. ITIL V3 Service Design Package (SDP)
9. ITIL V3 Availability
10. ITIL V3 Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
PART V
1. ITIL V3 Configuration Items (CI)
2. ITIL V3 Configuration Management System (CMS)
3. ITIL V3 Definitive Media Library (DML)
4. ITIL V3 Service Change
5. ITIL V3 Change Types (Change Categories)
6. ITIL V3 Release Unit (RU)
7. ITIL V3 7 R's of Change Management
8. ITIL V3 Event
9. ITIL V3 Alert
10. ITIL V3 Incident
PART VI
1. ITIL V3 Impact, Urgency and Priority
2. ITIL V3 Service Request
3. ITIL V3 Problem
4. ITIL V3 Workaround
5. ITIL V3 Known Error
6. ITIL V3 Known Error Database (KEDB)
7. ITIL V3 Communication
8. ITIL V3 Service Assets
9. ITIL V3 Release Policy
10. ITIL V3 Value Creation through Services
PART VII
1. ITIL V3 The 4 Ps of IT Service Management
2. ITIL V3 The 5 Aspects of Service Design
3. ITIL V3 Dr. W Edwards Deming's PDCA Cycle
4. ITIL V3 Continual Service Improvement Model
"Now What?"
Saturday, July 4, 2009
ITIL V3 Intermediate
The ITIL V3 Intermediate has 2 streams namely the Lifecycle Stream and the Capabilities Stream. The Lifecycle Stream focuses on the specific Lifecycle phase, principles and processes while the Capability Stream are basically from V2 but broader in scope and process implementation
Intermediate Lifecycle Stream
- Service Strategy
- Service Design
- Service Transition
- Service Operation, and
- Continual Service Improvement.
Intermediate Capability Stream
- Operational Support and Analysis (OS&A). Subjects covered inc. Event, Incident, Request, Problem, Access, Service Desk, Technical, IT Ops and Application Management
- Service Offerings and Agreements (SO&A). Subjects covered inc. Portfolio, Service Level, Service Catalogue, Demand, Supplier and Financial Management
- Release, Control and Validation (RC&V). Subjects covered inc. Change, Release & Deployment, Validation & Testing, Service Asset & Configuration, Knowledge, Request Management and Service Evaluation
- Planning, Protection and Optimization (PP&O). Subjects covered inc. Capacity, Availability, Continuity, Security, Demand and Risk Management.
I guess you could start with the ones most relevant with your present work or with the areas you would like to expand your knowledge to. I could say IMO that the Capability Stream is much more enjoyable since they are most practical while the Lifecycle Stream is more of in the management aspects. Whether you'd go for the entire Lifecycle or Capability Stream is up to you or you could also have a combination of both. The Credit profiler could help you choose from the Expert Option routes available:
http://www.itil-officialsite.com/itilmapping/v2/map.asp
Btw, you'd be needing at least 22 points to become an ITIL V3 Expert Level. 2 points is awarded for the completion of the Foundation certification. 3 points is awarded per Lifecycle Module and 4 points is awarded for every Capability Module.
Next is what are the requirements to become eligible for an examination?
- ITIL V3 Foundation Certificate
- Completion of the training Module/s from an Accredited Training Organization (ATO) e-Learning included.
So where do I look for an Accredited Training Organization here in the Philippines?
After some googling around, I found out that ouch! There is none here in the Philippines. I guess all of the training being offered around here is only for the Foundation Level. So its either you go out of the country to get a training OR via an e-Learning based on the syllabus.
With the e-Learning option, I came across Mountainview (http://www.mountainview.ca/) which offers accredited Distance eLearning and CBT (Computer Based Training). I have sent an inquiry and they said that the training with CBT would also make you eligible to take the exam. I guess I'll just take this path since its self-paced and would not requireme me to travel abroad just for a training.
Another site that I came across with is The Art of Service (http://theartofservice.com/). This has lots of reference materials and toolkits since as of current writing, there are only a handful of reference materials available for the V3 version.
"Now What?"
Friday, July 3, 2009
ITIL Foundation V3 Certification
To put it simply, ITIL is one of the IT Service Management best practice. Coming from ITIL's official website - "ITIL® is the only consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practice for IT Service Management. Used by thousands of organisations around the world, a whole ITIL philosophy has grown up around the guidance contained within the ITIL books and the supporting professional qualification scheme."
I prepared for this examination by using the following materials:
- ITIL v3 Foundations Exam Prep - Book
- Introduction to The ITIL Service Lifecycle ITIL Version 3
- ITIL Version 3 at a Glance: Information Quick Reference
- ITIL Infrastructure Library Foundation CBT Nuggets
I was very nervous to take the exam but it appeared to be fine the moment it started. The exam is all about memorization, analogy and taxonomy bloom. The key points for the exam are the following:
- Service Management as a practice
- The Service Lifecycle
- Generic Concepts and definitions
- Key Principles and Models
- Major Processes
- Minor Processes
- Functions
- Roles
- Technology and Architecture
The exam cost is $185 USD + 10% VAT wherein you need to have at least a rating of 65 to pass. I took my exam at Edupro Inc. (www.edupro.com.ph - where of course excellent trainors are) via Prometric. This training/examination center is also where I completed all my Microsoft Certifications by the way.
"Now What?"
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
ZFS root with gmirror
This approach with ZFS and mirroring has raised a question in my head with my first glance on his post from the mailing list. Why use gmirror when you can already use ZFS to mirror hard disk drives? I asked him this during one of our YM sessions and his answer is quite simple. This approach is much cleaner and with the least administrative effort. You don't need to manually edit your fstab and do other uncessary actions with your box :)
Let's get our hands dirty and configure our gmirror root[0]!
1. Install 2 identical hard drive on your box
2. Install FreeBSD-7.1
3. Partition your hard drive:
ad0s1 6GB (for 2GB RAM and this will be change if you want more
swap if your RAM is more than 4GB)
ad0s2
4. Make ad0s1a 2GB (just enough for bootdir, I know this is kinda big,
but it is much better to have spare than to have few space)
5. Make ad0s1b 4GB (twice the size of 2GB RAM)
6. Make ad0s2d as your ZFS partition
7. Partition your second drive (don't for get to make it bootable of
course) according the first drive. e.g. ad1)
8. Install FreeBSD-7.1
9. Configure gmirror root[0]
a. Setup gmirror on the second drive
gmirror label -v -n -b round-robin gm0 /dev/ad1s1
gmirror load
b. Format the gmirror partition and mount to /mnt
newfs -U /dev/mirror/gm0a
mount /dev/mirror/gm0a /mnt
c. Copy the / to newly created gmirror
dump -L -0 -f- / | (cd /mnt && restore -r -v -f-)
d. Setup the fstab for gmirror
vi /mnt/etc/fstab
# Device Mountpoint FStype Options
Dump Pass#
/dev/mirror/gm0b none swap sw
0 0
/dev/mirror/gm0a / ufs rw
1 1
e. Force to boot to the second drive and load gmirror
echo 'geom_mirror_load="YES"' >>/mnt/boot/loader.conf
echo ad1 | sed -e
's;^\([^0-9]*\)\([0-9][0-9]*\)$;1:\1(\2,a)/boot/loader;' \
>/boot.config
f. Reboot and cross your fingers
g. Once everything goes as we expected, insert the first drive on
the gmirror
gmirror configure -a gm0
gmirror insert -p 1 gm0 /dev/ad0s1
h. From this point the gmirror is now rebuilding the first drive
gmirror status
i. Once the rebuild is finished, reboot the server
10. Set up ZFS root[1]
mount -w /
zpool create tank /dev/ad0s2d
zfs set mountpoint=none tank
zfs create tank/root
zfs create tank/usr
zfs create tank/var
zfs create tank/tmp
zfs create tank/home
zfs set mountpoint=/tank tank/root
zfs set mountpoint=/tank/usr tank/usr
zfs set mountpoint=/tank/var tank/var
zfs set mountpoint=/tank/tmp tank/tmp
zfs set mountpoint=/tank/home tank/home
11. Check zfs settings
df -h
zfs list
12. Enable ZFS on boot
echo 'zfs_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
13. Copy / to zfs root
13. Copy / to ZFS root
find -x / | cpio -pmd /tank
14. Remove /tank/boot to load gmirror boot
rm -rf /tank/boot
mkdir /tank/bootdir
cd /tank
ln -s bootdir/boot boot
15. Load ZFS on boot time
echo 'zfs_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf
echo 'vfs.root.mountfrom="zfs:tank/root"' >> /boot/loader.conf
16. Edit fstab
/dev/mirror/gm0a /bootdir ufs
rw 1 1
17. Setup the mounting points of ZFS
zfs set mountpoint=/tmp tank/tmp
zfs set mountpoint=/usr tank/usr
zfs set mountpoint=/var tank/var
zfs set mountpoint=/home tank/home
18. Set the mountpoint legacy
cd /
zfs set mountpoint=legacy tank/root
19. Reboot
20. If everything goes as we expected, chech the ZFS root
df -h
21. Setup the secondary drive to mirror ZFS
zpool attach tank ad0s2d ad1s2d
zpool status
Thanks Jim!
"Now What?"
Monday, April 20, 2009
Mirroring a ZFS Root on FreeBSD
Now let's get our hands on having a mirror or RAID-1 with ZFS and FreeBSD.
- Well first off, we have to install the hard disk to your system and boot up
- Login as root
- Type in sysinstall
- Select Custom Installation
- Partition the Hard Disk (Use A = Use Entire Disk and Press Q = Quit)
- Label the Hard Disk (Use A = Auto Defaults)
- Select the /usr, /var, /tmp Mount Points one at a time and press D (Delete)
- Leave only the / and the swap partitions
- Press C to create a new partition and then type /anything as the Mount Point
- Select the newly created partition and press M (Mount pt) to clear the field by deleting /anything and then press on W to write on the disk and Q to quit
- Press on
- Exit from sysinstall
#zpool statusThen we add the 2nd drive to our mirror (our second drive comes up as ad6)
# zpool attach tank ad4s1d ad6s1dIt will now show the two hard disks on a mirror
# zpool status
pool: tankSeeing that we have a new mirror, we now copy the contents from our UFS slice to the second drive.
state: ONLINE
scrub: none requested
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
tank ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror ONLINE 0 0 0
ad4s1d ONLINE 0 0 0
ad6s1d ONLINE 0 0 0
errors: No known data errors
# newfs /dev/ad6s1aNow supposed that we have a failure on the 1st HDD, we have configured the 2nd HDD to be ready.
# mkdir /mnt/bootdir
# mount /dev/ad6s1a /mnt/bootdir
# find -x /bootdir | cpio -pmd /mnt
We also have to stop fsck during the bootup process should the first HDD fail (in this case ad4). Edit /etc/fstab so our UFS slice is mounted in the right location for when ZFS boots.
We also NEED to make sure that the /bootdir/zfs/zpool.cache file is the same on both HDDs and edit /etc/fstab as:
/dev/ad4s1a /bootdir ufs rw 1 0And that's it!
/dev/ad6s1a /mnt/bootdir ufs rw 1 0
"Now What?"
Saturday, March 14, 2009
FreeBSD Installation and ZFS
I am using an AMD Phenom Quad-Core Processor with 2GB of memory b0x under FreeBSD 7.1 AMD64 over this installation process. And then I followed the instructions that was given here http://www.ish.com.au/solutions/articles/freebsdzfs. I modified some intructions from here because of the problems that I encountered and because of the fact that I'm an idiot.
ZFS on FreeBSD Installation
The installer does not support ZFS natively so we'd have to make our hands dirty.
- Boot up on the FreeBSD 7.1 CD Installer
- Choose the Country and Locale
- Choose Custom Installation
- Partition the Hard Disk (Use A = Use Entire Disk and Press Q = Quit)
- Select Standard (Install a standard MBR)
- Label the Hard Disk (Use A = Auto Defaults)
- Select the /usr, /var, /tmp Mount Points one at a time and press D (Delete)
- Leave only the / and the swap partitions
- Press C to create a new partition and then type /anything as the Mount Point
- Select the newly created partition and press M (Mount pt) to clear the field by deleting /anything and then press Q to quit
- Select on Distribution and choose Minimal Install
- Select Media and choose CD/DVD
- Select on Commit to install the Operating System
Create the ZFS Pool
- After the Installation has been completed, remove the CD installer and reboot
- Boot on the FreeBSD partition and press 4 to boot in Single User Mode
- Accept the /bin/sh shell by hitting the ENTER key
# mount -w /And to see what we've done so far
# zpool create tank /dev/ad4s1d
# zfs set mountpoint=none tank
# zfs create tank/root
# zfs create tank/usr
# zfs create tank/var
# zfs set mountpoint=/tank tank/root
# zfs set mountpoint=/tank/usr tank/usr
# zfs set mountpoint=/tank/var tank/var
# zfs set mountpoint=/tank/tmp tank/tmp
# zfs create tank/tmp
#df -hAnd...
#zfs listNow to enable ZFS on boot...
# echo 'zfs_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.confAnd to give us a workable FreeBSD installation under ZFS...
# find -x / | cpio -pmd /tank
Solving the FreeBSD Boot Problem
# rm -rf /tank/bootNext is editing our /etc/fstab to:
# mkdir /tank/bootdir
# cd /tank
# ln -s bootdir/boot boot
# echo 'zfs_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf
# echo 'vfs.root.mountfrom="zfs:tank/root"' >> /boot/loader.conf
/dev/ad4s1a /bootdir ufs rw 1 1Setting the true mountpoints:
# zfs set mountpoint=/tmp tank/tmpAnd for the legacy:
# zfs set mountpoint=/usr tank/usr
# zfs set mountpoint=/var tank/var
# cd /Reboot and we're ready to go!
# zfs set mountpoint=legacy tank/root
# df -h"Now What?"
Friday, March 13, 2009
FreeBSD Tuning and ZFS
Norbert Copones (http://www.feu-nrmf.ph/norbert/weblog/) have been a very BAD influence for me since puberty. One of the many things he influenced me with is the Z File System or ZFS. I tried Open Solaris 2008.11 first but I was bored to its performance most specially with the gnome desktop. How I wish I could take it off and just have a very minimal installation -- just like Norbert did. Now, since my first love have always been FreeBSD, I plan to walk further on this path with ZFS.
The ZFS was developed by Sun™ that uses a pooled storage method. There's really a lot of features that makes this file system the most advanced file system. But unfortunately, I don't really understand them that much. So as of this current writing, below are the things I do understand, and how I understand it (corrections are VERY welcome).
- Redundancy - still is available when something bad happens
- Mirroring - much like using RAID1 on ZFS or having a hard disk/s with an exact copy to another disk and keeping the process running eventhough 1 or more (but not all) disk fails.
- Snapshots - Keeping a state of the hard disk at a given time.
- Rollback - A recovery process from a Snapshot.
FreeBSD 7.1 CONFIGURATION AND TUNING FOR ZFS
I used an AMD Phenom Quad-Core Processor with 2GB of memory b0x under FreeBSD 7.1 AMD64. I started on reading from the FBSD Handbook (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/filesystems-zfs.html). I also used this reference to modify my b0x http://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFSTuningGuide.
I started having this configuration added to my FBSD b0x by editing the /boot/loader.conf
vm.kmem_size_max="1024"
vm.kmem_size="1024"
vfs.zfs.arc_max="100M"
I also added a line to my rc.conf file by typing:
Then, I restarted my b0x and unfortunately, the result was a kernel panic :(
Afterwhich, I chose Escape to loader prompt from the FBSD boot menu and used unset to remove the above variables (ex. unset vm.kmem_size_max) and executed boot.
I started reviewing my configuration and realized that the reason for the panic was simply me being stupid. I forgot to put "M" to specify the file size. And so I edited the /boot/loader.conf file and put the values below:
vm.kmem_size_max="1024M"
vm.kmem_size="1024M"
vfs.zfs.arc_max="100M"
I rebooted my b0x and typed in
# zpool list
no pools available
Yeah! It seems to be working just fine now.
Edit: I ended up with the config below for my server
zfs_load="YES"
vfs.root.mountfrom="zfs:zfbsd/root"
vm.kmem_size_max="1024M"
vm.kmem_size="1024M"
vfs.zfs.zil_disable=1
vfs.zfs.arc_max="100M"
vfs.zfs.vdev.cache.size="5M"
"Now what?"
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Got My Microsoft Certs!
The certifications I got was MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist). The specific technology is on Windows Vista, Configuration. Well some of you may raise your eyebrows on this most specially the people who've known me well because most people know that I am a UNIX lover!
I took the exam last January 19, 2009. I barely passed this exam and perhaps the result is just a fluke. I'm not really looking forward to becoming a Microsoft Expert but hey, I'm in the IT field and knowing more does not make me less.
"Now What?"