BIRDS-OF-A-FEATHER SESSIONS

Lead or attend a BoF! Meet with your peers! Present new work! Don't miss these special activities designed to maximize the value of your time at the conference. The always popular evening Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are very informal gatherings of persons interested in a particular topic.

Vendor BoFs
Want to demonstrate a new product or discuss your company's latest technologies with LISA attendees? Host a Vendor BoF! These sponsored one-hour sessions give companies a chance to talk about products and proprietary technology—and they include promotional benefits. Email sponsorship@usenix.org if you're interested in sponsoring a Vendor BoF. Click here for more information about sponsorship opportunities.

Scheduling a BoF
To schedule a BoF, simply write the BoF title as well as your name and affiliation on one of the BoF Boards located in the registration area. If you have a description of our BoF you'd like posted on this Web page, please schedule your BoF on the BoF board, then send its title, the organizer's name and affiliation, and the date, time, and location of the BoF to bofs@usenix.org with "LISA '09 BoF" in the subject line.

BoF Schedule (as of November 5, 2009, 9:00 p.m. EST)
For the most current schedule, please see the BoF Boards in the registration area.

BoF Descriptions

Cfengine BoF
Mark Burgess, Cfengine, Inc.
Monday, November 2, 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m., Harborside Ballroom D

Cfengine BoF – latest news and demos about Cfengine 3 and Cfengine Nova. Meet the cfengine team and chat with users.

Best Practices in DNS
David Ulevitch, OpenDNS
Monday, November 2, 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m., Harborside Ballroom E

DNS has historically been a painpoint for systems administrators at large enterprises. This session, led by DNS expert and founder of the world's largest DNS provider, OpenDNS, will guide attendees through best practices in managing DNS, introduce the many money and time-saving features now available through this 25 year-old system and provide an overview of current security best practices.

OpenDNS will be hosting a happy hour at James Joyce Pub from 8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. on Monday, November 2. All LISA attendees are welcome to join.

Puppet BoF
Luke Kanies, Reductive Labs
Monday, November 2, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Harborside Ballroom E

An informal Q&A session with the primary author of Puppet. Ask any question you have about Puppet or its ecosystem. It's a great experience even for those without questions, as you'll have an opportunity to go deep on many aspects of Puppet. We'll cover the current state of Puppet, its roadmap, various operational issues people have, and more.

Blackboard BoF
Mike Seda, Seda Systems; and Glenn Baker, TEKsystems
Monday, November 2, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Harborside Ballroom D

Join us for a presentation regarding System Administration aspects of running Blackboard Academic Suite. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, Configuration Management (via Puppet), JVM Tuning, and Shibboleth.

Job Scheduling
Randy Herban and Rick Irvine, Purdue University
Monday, November 2, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Harborside Ballroom E

MicroLISA (small site sysadmin; you define "small")
Robert Au, Telegent
Monday, November 2, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Laurel A & B

HPC BoF
Mike Seda, Seda Systems
Monday, November 2, 10:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m., Harborside Ballroom D

Join me for a presentation regarding the deployment of a custom Open Source HPC solution, which was used in place of a commonly used HPC cluster distribution. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, Configuration Management (via Puppet), Kickstart, DNS, and Job Management.

OpenSolaris and Storage in the Cloud Vendor BoF
Mark A. Carlson, Sun Microsystems
Tuesday, November 3, 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom I–IV

Cloud Computing and Cloud Storage are becoming more popular as an alternative to in-house equipment purchases but there is also increasing interest in creating private and hybrid public/private clouds.

OpenSolaris is available in several cloud computing offerings and can be used to create robust open storage for private or public clouds. This BOF will discuss the various offerings, best practices and the core technologies that can aid in setting up your own cloud.

So, What the Hell is Going on Over at Yahoo! Vendor BoF
Jim Barbour, Yahoo!
Tuesday, November 3, 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m., Laurel A & B

So, are Yahoos now wearing Microsoft ball caps?  Will we all be transferred to Redmond?  What is Yahoo's future?  What is Yahoo doing in the Production Engineering space?

Come meet and talk with Yahoo Production Engineers about how Yahoo! runs their large search, advertising, portal, and application sites.

There will be lots of networking, door-prizes, drinks, snacks, and information about Yahoo.

Yahoo is also hiring sysadmins.  We'll be glad to talk with you about that as well.

Teaching System Administration
Gerben Dierick and Pieter Geens, Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven (Belgium)
Tuesday, November 3, 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m., Laurel C & D

Exchange of ideas on teaching system administration. How and what to teach, what materials to use, which hard and software in the ideal lab, ... We welcome all input from those who can and those who teach, and of course from the large intersection of these two sets. We'll provide some typical Belgian incentives for participants (i.e. Belgian beer and chocolates).

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Friends BoF
Thomas A. Limoncelli, Google, Inc.
Tuesday, November 3, 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m., Kent A

It's the "Alphabet BoF!" Meet other Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer or whatever letter you want to pick (and friends) LISA attendees. Talk about workplace diversity issues, plan social events for the conference, or just come to meet friendly folks at LISA.

Cambridge Computer Services, Inc. Vendor BoF, Beer and Ice Cream Social
Tuesday, November 3, 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Essex A, B, & C

Want free beer? Want free ice cream? Want a sneak peek at the hottest topics in storage and data protection? If you answered "yes" to at least one of these questions, then plan to join Cambridge Computer and its selected storage technology showcase partners at this BoF. To show our thanks and appreciation to the USENIX and SAGE community, we invite all LISA attendees to join us for an informal evening of beer, ice cream, and a little bit of storage sprinkled on top.

Sun Vendor BoF
Rick Ramsey, Sun Microsystems
Tuesday, November 3, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom I–IV

GPG Key Signing BoF
Ken Schumacher, Fermi National Accelerator Lab
Tuesday, November 3, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Laurel A & B

There has always been a key signing BOF at each of the LISA conferances (at least the one's I've attended) in the past. This year, our gathering is scheduled for 8:00 Tues evening in the Laurel A & B room. Those of you attending the GPG key signing BOF might also be interested in the CAcert BoF starting at 9:00 in the same room.

If you are interested in attending this meeting, please add your key to the Biglumber Keyring. I have used a Biglumber event keyring in the past. I found that their service proved to be quite useful. You may also e-mail your key to me. I will add your key fingerprint to the list we will use at the keysigning. I will NOT add your key to this BigLumber keyring unless you ask me to. I never submit another user's key to a public key server unless specifically asked to do so. You should either add your key to the keyring or mail it to me. You need not do both.

For more information on Key Signing Parties, I recommend the "GnuPG Keysigning Party HOWTO" document. Our format will follow the suggestions there, specifically the List Based party format. I will bring a printout of the submitted keys. Please submit your keys at least 24 hours in advance of the party to ensure your key fingerprint is on the list.

Please bring multiple forms of photo ID. Other attendees may not be familiar with your states drivers license format (such as those coming from over seas). By having multiple IDs, you should have at least one that others will find acceptable. I'm bringing my passport, my Illinois Drivers License and my Fermilab (US Dept. of Energy) photo ID card.

PLEASE NOTE: If you don't put your key up on the keyring (or email it to me directly), we will have to go through the awkward process of you reading your key aloud so that everyone attending can write down your fingerprint. This can be a pain and not everyone may be willing to go to that extra effort. Please submit your key in advance or bring some handout with your Key ID and the key fingerprint. Printing (or writing) this info on the back of business cards is probably acceptable.

RPM Building BoF
Tuesday, November 3, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Laurel C & D

Ganeti: Open Source Virtualization without Expensive SANs
The Ganeti Project (Guido Trotter, Theo Van Dinter, Thomas Limoncelli, Google, Inc.)
Tuesday, November 3, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Kent A

An open forum by and for Ganeti users (current and future!). Ganeti is a cluster virtual server management software tool built on top of existing virtualization technologies such as Xen or KVM and other Open Source software.  Learn what's new in Ganeti 2.0 and what's planned for 2.1! http://code.google.com/p/ganeti/

MRTG Users BoF
Alice Chow and Steve Shipway, University of Auckland
Tuesday, November 3, 8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m., Kent C

For users of the popular MRTG software to discuss their experiences. Including a presentation on the challenges of using MRTG to monitor VMware virtual machines, and a solution to the problem. Come and share your own experiences, tips and ideas, and pick up some new ones in exchange.

Solarist.Next Customer Input Vendor BoF
Brian Leonard and Dave Miner, Sun Microsystems
Tuesday, November 3, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom I–IV

CAcert.org Assurance Process
Ken Schumacher, Fermi National Accelerator Lab
Tuesday, November 3, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Laurel A & B

The goal of this event is to inform attendees how the CAcert assurance process works. CAcert has developed new policies and procedures over the last few years. The presentation will introduce the CAcert Community Agreement and describe the audit as it relates to getting our CAcert ROOT certificate included with distributions. The primary purpose is to bring together qualified assurers in order to help those interested in attaining the points needed to start assuring others. By adding qualified assurers, we will help make CAcert free digital certificates available to more people.

For a more details, I recommend that you review the complete event description on the CAcert Wiki site. There are instructions there for preparations you can accomplish in advance of the BoF session. Make sure you bring more than one government issued photo ID to the event.

If you are a qualified CAcert Assurer, please consider attending this session and helping us get a pool of new assurers started with their first 100 points. Please contact Ken Schumacher to discuss your availability.

Zimbra Admins BoF
Tuesday, November 3, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Kent B

ZFS in the Trenches Vendor BoF
Ben Rockwood, Joyent
Tuesday, November 3, 10:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom I–IV

A practical look at ZFS Internals as they relate to day-to-day deployment of ZFS, including tuning, monitoring, and backup. This is an advanced discussion for those with prior ZFS experience but a brief primer will be included for those new to the subject.

Life Cycle Management and Long-Term Storage for Petabyte-scale Research Data Round Table Discussion
Jacob Farmer and AJ Beaverson
Wednesday, November 4, 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Atlantic

SpringSource Hyperic HQ and tc Server Vendor BoF
Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Dover A & B

Join members of the SpringSource Team in an informal information session covering the basics of the "Build, Run, Manage" product suite. Ask any question you have about the monitoring and management using HQ, reporting using IQ, or deployment of Java applications with tc Server or dm Server. Whether you are an old-hat with our technologies, or are just curious about who we are and what we are doing, you are welcome to join. We'll cover the current state of SpringSource products, their roadmaps, frequently asked questions, and more.

Thin Client Delivery for the Enterprise Vendor BoF
Dennis Maher, Sun Microsystems
Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Dover C

VDI is rapidly picking up the pace of innovation and capability. Join us to discuss approaches, pitfalls and successes in this fast paced and dynamic technology. VDI is interesting but we will also discuss other appropriate solutions to delivery of enterprise wide desktop solutions.

LOPSA Annual Community Meeting
Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Essex A, B, & C

Join the League of Professional System Administrators' Board of Directors for a presentation of the past year's activities as well as what's being planned for the future, followed by a Q & A. This meeting is open to all, members and non-members of LOPSA alike.

Automated OS Lock Down in Minutes, Not Days! Vendor BoF
Greg Hall and Rob Sanders, Trusted Computer Solutions
Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Kent A, B, & C

Be a Winner!

Come play word Bingo with Trusted Computer Solutions and we'll show you how you can be a winner at locking down your OS with the only Automated OS lock down solution. Lots of awesome prizes for game winners. Free beer, wine, and snacks provided!

Solaris Hardening BoF
Christoph Schuba, Sun Microsystems
Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Laurel A & B

In the Solaris Operating System there are a number of features and procedures that serve to harden the security stance of its installations.

While we plan on presenting the system hardening technologies briefly, we would like this BoF to contain the dialogue between attendees to share how to best take advantage of these features in practice. Which hardening features might be considered missing compared to other OSes? Which combination of features works best for certain deployment scenarios?

Put on your system administrator hat, share your experience, and voice your wish list!

Time Management for Sysadmins
Thomas A. Limoncelli, Google, Inc.
Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Laurel C & D

Tools, tips, techniques!

Management Standards and Technologies for the Cloud
DMTF
Wednesday, November 4, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Dover A & B

Technologies like cloud computing and virtualization are rapidly being adopted by enterprise IT managers to better deliver services to their customers, lower IT costs and improve operational efficiencies. DMTF's Open Cloud Standards Incubator is focused on standardizing interactions between cloud environments by developing cloud resource management protocols, packaging formats and security mechanisms to facilitate interoperability.

This session will overview these technologies and explore with the attendees how to apply them to private cloud deployments and the use of public clouds.

Sun System Administrator Training and Certification Vendor BoF
John Hathaway, Sun Microsystems
Wednesday, November 4, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Dover C

Sun Microsystems offers a broad range of training options and certifications to help improve and validate your skills. With courses ranging from the basics of Solaris through Performance Management, Storage Administration, and Server Maintenance, we provide comprehensive training to meet your needs. We will discuss available course options, various ways in which training is offered (ie: instructor-led, self-paced, etc), and available certifications. Details of the Sun Certified System Administrator, Network Administrator, and Security Administrator will be provided.

Monitoring/Reporting BoF
Jonah Horowitz
Wednesday, November 4, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Essex A, B, & C

Ganglia/Nagios/Cacti/Smokeping/Etc.

Vendor-Neutral Certification Training in Storage & Information Management: Options & Opportunities
Rick Bauer, SNIA, Director of Education & Technology, Sponsored by SNIA Education & Certification
Wednesday, November 4, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Kent A, B, & C

Want to go beyond vendor-specific knowledge and acquire a breath of wisdom across the storage and information management enterprise? Come learn about new opportunities to validate your skills, learn new ones, and receive valuable credentials in the network storage and information management disciplines. Training options and opportunities will be discussed, including new e-learning options right from your desktop. Representatives from the Storage Networking Industry Association will discuss training options in the SNIA Storage Networking Certification Program (SNCP), including Storage Networking Foundations, Management & Administration, and Storage Architecture & Assessment. Details on the NEW Storage Networking Security will be presented as well. SNIA's Storage Technology Electives Program (STEP) will be presented, including new credentials in Storage Networking Basics, Data Protection, and Storage Virtualization. Free SNIA dictionaries, collateral, and raffles for SNIA exam vouchers (retail value $200+) will take place.  And some lucky winner will receive an XBOX 360 for attending!

Lightning Talks
Duncan Hutty, Carnegie Mellon University
Wednesday, November 4, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Laurel A & B

A series of five-minute talks where enthusiasm is paramount and almost anything that might be of interest to sysadmins is on topic. http://www.allgoodbits.org/other/lt.html

Getting Started with Configuration Management
Cory Lueninghoener and Narayan Desai
Wednesday, November 4, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Dover A & B

Large-Scale Linux OS Patching (i.e., RHN Satellite)
Paul Krizak, Advanced Micro Devices
Wednesday, November 4, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Dover C

Non-Sexist Grrl BoF
Pamela Howell, Esoteric Resources
Wednesday, November 4, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Kent A, B, & C

Web Sysadmins BoF
Matthew Ball, Interactive One/Blackplanet.com
Wednesday, November 4, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Laurel A & B

BigFix SysAdmin of the Year Award Party
Wednesday, November 4, 9:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m., Harborside Ballroom D & E

Join us for refreshments as we celebrate the RockStar winner of the BigFix System Administrator of the Year Award! Enter at http://www.bigfix.com/rockstar until October 24. ...soihadto..., featuring Food Network Ace of Cakes' Duff Goldman on bass, is famous in Baltimore for amazing live performances that fuse styles from indie to punk to hardcore to soul-funk.

Distro Versioning
John Detke, PDI
Wednesday, November 4, 10:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m., Dover C

Keepalived/Linux Virtual Server Users BoF
Jason Faulkner, Rackspace Email & Apps
Thursday, November 5, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Dover A & B

Come join a roundtable discussion about Keepalived, Linux Virtual Server (LVS), or any of your other favorite load balancing solutions.

Conference Organizing BoF
Hugh Brown, The University of British Columbia
Thursday, November 5, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Dover C

Having fun at LISA?  Do you want to organize a local conference of your own once you get home? Whether you've done it before and want to share, or you're looking for tips and inspiration for next year, join us and help nail down those plans.

Bcfg2 BoF
Cory Lueninghoener, Argonne National Laboratory
Thursday, November 5, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Kent A, B, & C

Bcfg2 is a configuration management tool developed at Argonne National Laboratory and used around the world. Come spend an evening with its authors and users talking about using it right now and the good stuff to come in the future.

Open Source for Large Enterprise Problems Vendor BoF
Mark Hinkle, Zenoss
Thursday, November 5, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Laurel A, B, & C

Discussion of open source tools and integration of systems. Participants will be discussing tools including open source tools for management and collaboration.

Network Automation
Brent Chapman, Netomata, Inc.
Thursday, November 5, 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m., Harborside Ballroom D

You've been using tools like Puppet and cfengine to corral the complexity on your servers. You revel in the scalability, reliability, and ease of maintenance of doing it The Right Way. You don't fear the next change because you know the tools will just get it Right. But you still tremble at an "enable" prompt, hoping you remembered all the bits that need to be twiddled, on all the networking devices everywhere. Is your DNS tied on straight – both ways? Is it all *really* being monitored by Nagios? As your network's complexity increases, so do the errors, inconsistencies, and omissions caused by manual configuration, and brokenness abounds. But wait – there's a way out of the swamp! Come learn about (and share!) methods and tools for automating the mind-numbing task of configuring network devices and services.

Google Vendor BoF
Thursday, November 5, 9:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m., Essex A, B, & C

Join Google for dessert and refreshments at their vendor BoF. Don't miss the raffle!

Small Infrastructure BoF
Matt Simmons
Thursday, November 5, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Harborside Ballroom D

Didn't make it in time for microLISA? Join a group of other small infrastructure sysadmins for an informal discussion about issues the big guys don't have to worry about. Small Infrastructure means whatever you want it to, though a rough estimate is anywhere from 1-100 servers on your network.

Enterprise Cloud Storage
Paul Armstrong, Zetta, Inc.
Thursday, November 5, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Dover A & B

BackupPC–Disk to Disk Enterprise Backup for UNIX and Windows
Ski Kacoroski, LOPSA
Thursday, November 5, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Dover C

Amanda Backup
Dustin Mitchell, Zmanda, Inc.
Thursday, November 5, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Kent A, B, & C

Confessions of a Firewall Administrator
Patrick Kelley, Carnegie Mellon University; and Maritza Johnson, Columbia University
Thursday, November 5, 9:30 p.m.–10:30 p.m., Laurel A, B, & C

Come by this BOF and swap stories from your days of corporate, academic, or government firewall administration. Tell us about the time you spent messing with ACLs, dealing with blocked port complaints, and exploring the newest firewall admin. tools. If you have a story to tell, we have ears to listen. It is these real-world experiences that will help us as we embark on an NSF-funded project to design software that will help facilitate large-scale firewall management.

Bloggers BoF
Matt Simmons
Thursday, November 5, 10:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m., Harborside Ballroom D

Come join this BoF and meet your fellow bloggers. Finally put a face with the name. Join in an informal discussion on blogs, writing better entries, upcoming events, and more. Future bloggers welcome.

Crossbow & Solaris Networking Sun Microsystems Vendor BoF
Sunay Tripathi, Sun Microsystems
Thursday, November 5, 10:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m., Dover A & B