Security

Chair: Marcus Ranum, Ranum.com

An Approach for Secure Software Installation
V.N. Venkatakrishnan, R. Sekar, T. Kamat, S. Tsipa, and Z. Liang, StonyBrook University

Network-based Intrusion Detection–Modeling for a Larger Picture
Atsushi Totsuka, Tohoku University; Hidenari Ohwada, NTT, Tokyo; Nobuhisa Fujita and Debasish Chakraborty, Tohoku University; Glenn Mansfield Keeni, Cyber Solutions, Inc.; Norio Shiratori, Tohoku University

Timing the Application of Security Patches for Optimal Uptime
Steve Beattie, Seth Arnold, Crispin Cowan, Perry Wagle, and Chris Wright, WireX Communications, Inc.; Adam Shostack, Zero Knowledge Systems, Inc.

Panel: Nobody Notices Until It's Broken: Self-Marketing for Sysadmins (PDF)

Moderator: Lee Damon, University of Washington

This panel will explore the issues of keeping your management and co-workers up-to-date on what you do and why it's important. We will include discussion on topics such as how you can let them know why the
systems are doing so well, and why they need to keep you around.

Performance Tuning Guru

Jeff R. Allen, Tellme Networks, Inc.

Jeff has been working in the sysadmin field since 1992. He finds himself drawn to running large, complex
systems that serve people who don't want to know they are using a computer (therein lies the complexity). He developed tools for the NOC at WebTV Networks, then moved to Tellme Networks, where today he acts as a bridge between engineering and the NOC, interfaces with the European operations team, and solves tricky problems as they arise.

SysAdmin, Stories, and Signing: Learning from Communication Experts

David Blank-Edelman, Northeastern University

To communicate effectively, you have to know how to tell a good story and how to speak someone else's language. With peers, sysadmins can use the model of storytelling to relate better and to understand the complex, multi-variate scenarios that make up our lives. With other species, such as users and managers, sysadmins can use wisdom gleaned from professional American Sign Language interpreters.

We will test these ideas by applying them to some difficult sample exchanges like those in my "Taxonomy of Useless Support Email Requests." Audience members will leave this talk with concrete tools to improve communication with peers, users, and managers.

Perl 6

Larry Wall, Creator of Perl

Perl has always been good for those little household cleanup chores, but there's nothing so good it can't be improved upon. In this talk Larry will hype the latest and greatest thinking on where Perl 6 is going, and how that will help you get your job done—all for the same low, low price!

System Monitoring Guru

Doug Hughes, Global Crossing, Ltd.

System monitoring covers the gamut of activities from intrusion detection through availability to performance and response. Doug Hughes has been doing various forms of system monitoring since the early 1990s. Tools he uses range from such home-grown utilities as cpupie, qps, and various ping and pager scripts, to OS-integrated apps such as vmstat, iostat, and sar, freeware such as SE toolkit, big brother, and netsaint, and commercial suites such as Netcool and OpenRiver. Sites he's monitored include educational/university, commercial, quasi-governmental/financial, and military/industrial.

Work-in-Progress Reports (WiPs)

Chair: Peg Schafer

Short, pithy, and fun, Work-in-Progress reports introduce interesting new or on-going work, and the LISA audience provides valuable discussion and feedback. A schedule of presentations will be posted at the conference.

See page 25 for complete information on how to submit presentations.

How to Write a Book with Someone You Don't Know: Internet Collaboration for the Truly Geeky

Tom Limoncelli, Lumeta Corp., and Christine Hogan, Independent Consultant

When Tom and Chris began writing The Practice of System and Network Administration, they faced a few challenges: They didn't know each other. They were five time zones apart. They had to share and interact with gigabytes of data. Amazingly enough, the book was completed, nobody went crazy in the process, and they've still only met in person 7 times. This conference will be the 8th.

While this talk sounds as though it's about collaboration, it's really about system administration. The project had security requirements, reliability requirements, bandwidth requirements, processes to be defined, and tons of scripting. The talk will cover all of these issues and more. We can't imagine how non-sysadmins could ever write a book!

Infrastructures Guru

Steve Traugott, TerraLuna LLC

Steve helped pioneer the term "Infrastructure Architecture" and has worked toward industry acceptance of this SysAdmin++ career track for the last several years. He is a consulting Infrastructure Architect and publishes tools and techniques for automated system administration. His deployments have ranged from financial trading floors and NASA supercomputers to Web farms and growing startups.

The LISA Game Show

Closing out this year's conference, the LISA Quiz Show will once again pit attendees against each other in a test of technical knowledge and cultural trivia. Host Rob Kolstad and sidekick Dan Klein will provide the questions and color commentary for this always memorable event.