LOPSAGrams

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  • 04 Mar 2020 5:58 PM | Deleted user

    Hello, LOPSA community! During the board’s recent face-to-face meeting, certain issues pertaining to the future of LOPSA as an organization were discussed. Declining membership and involvement has given cause for some honest introspection into our goals and processes as an organization. We were founded almost 20 years ago with the specific goal of advancing the practice of “system administration,” and we found ourselves wondering what specifically system administration means in today’s information technology landscape.


    With the large-scale shift of resources to cloud providers and the focus on rapid, automated deployment, the traditional system administer role has been replaced with a much less specified and more flexible job role. Systems still play a large part in our day-to-day of course; whether you are a site reliability engineer, a security operations guru, or a white-box networking wizard, you are likely to need quite a bit of knowledge of the underlying systems, but these jobs also require application and implementation specific experience. Modern IT requires quite a lot of flexibility, and LOPSA has not been flexible enough on an organizational level and has not remained as relevant as it has been in the past.


    In order to revitalize LOPSA and make it again useful to the membership, we would like to focus on educating and supporting you as you move from role to role within your organizations and the industry. A major focus of ours will be providing LOPSA members with access and discounts to online training materials to help you keep your skills sharp and up-to-date. Personal and professional connections are also very important, so we want to focus on rebuilding our local LOPSA chapters to help build communities of like-minded IT professionals that you can rely on for mentoring and professional advice.


    None of this will happen overnight, but we hope that together with your help we will make great strides this year towards improving LOPSA. To read the long-form of the board’s thoughts on the future of LOPSA, please visit https://lopsa.org/thefuture and send your thoughts to board@lopsa.org. We look forward to working with you all to take LOPSA forward into the next chapter of its existence.



  • 15 Feb 2020 2:41 PM | Deleted user

    Hello and happy (late!) New Year's, LOPSA members! As we welcome the new year, the board would like to wish all of you the best of times in 2020 and to let you know a little of what the LOPSA board has been up to.

    With the new year the board is welcoming two new members, Andy Brown and Aaron Haun! They are excited to get started and to work on helping LOPSA be the best it can be. They are joining existing board members Scott Suehle, Brian Globerman, Branson Matheson, Drew Adams, Daniel Hodges, and Andree Jacobson.

    Andy is a Master's student at Tennessee Tech University and has worked as a security analyst working with IDS systems and Splunk. He is the president of his school's cyber security student club, where he competes in various competitions and mentors younger students.

    Aaron is a systems engineer focusing on dev ops practices. He is well versed in networking, system administration, and development. He has a wealth of knowledge on many non-technology topics too!

    Here on the board, our biggest New Year's resolution is to make LOPSA work for you, the membership. We are committed to refreshing LOPSA and recommitting to our mission of improving the field of system administration. If you have suggestions or comments on what you would like to see from the organization, please leave us a message at board@lopsa.org! We look forward to hearing from you and working with you in 2020!

  • 28 Feb 2019 11:57 AM | Deleted user

    January 2019 LOPSAgram

    Future of the LOPSAgram

    Greetings from your Community Manager,

    In December we announced changes to the format and tone of the LOPSAgram. The theme we had planned on was ‘core dump’. A major component of that was our QA with the board. We did not receive any questions for the board, and so waiting for some feedback pushed back the release time. Beyond that though, I’ve been beset with another wave of illness after regretfully relocating to a more northerly climate. Apologies for the tardiness.

    Among the changes we’ve discussed is to be less formal in our tone and content. Indeed the formality that LOPSA communications have tended towards has been somewhat tone deaf. LOPSA is a small but intimate community, and its publications and other communications channels should reflect that.

    I ask that Local Chapters and their leadership endeavor to develop tighter communication with me going forward. I’d like to be in a better position to make the LOPSAgram a voice for the local organizations as well.


    Mentorship Program Changes

    We have ended use of the Xinspire platform for our Mentorship Program. Though Xinspire is an excellent turn-key solution, in retrospect it was not the right solution for LOPSA. Going forward we will be using the LOPSA Slack for communications between mentors and protege. Details are being finalized and we expect to have a revamped Mentorship area live on the site soon.

    Stay tuned to our social media for finalized details 

    We will be handling matching and communications through Slack channels, and the Mentorship section will be updated to reflect these changes once they've been finalized.

    The decision to retire Xinspire ultimately boiled down to value. The platform was under-utilized and more expensive than such low usage justified. Beyond that, however, it was too elaborate. It was realized that a simpler more streamlined communication platform would suit the scope of how Mentorship actually takes place. Slack is renowned for ease of use and flexibility and we feel confident that it’ll place our mentorship program on firm footing.

    Click here to join the LOPSA workspace on SLACK




    Mattermost retirement

    On February 24th the LOPSA Mattermost will be shut down. Please use SLACK for the same functionality. Special thanks to Bruno Henc for his devoted service in implementing and running this service for LOPSA. The retirement of Mattermost is primarily in the interest of streamlining and centralizing communication. 

    Local events

    Seattle

    The February SASAG meeting to be held on the 14th was canceled due to inclement weather.

    March SASAG meetup for the 14th will feature Ski Kacaroski and refreshments provided by Fuzzy Logic:

    When NSD migrated to O365 over the holidays, we found out that many of our legacy systems did not work with O365. This talk will discuss the issues and the use of the Davmail software to work around the issues.

    San Diego

    Rescheduled from February, LOPSA-SD presents "Back from the dead- automated install of 1975 UNIX in the Google Cloud."

    Tom Perrine will be showing how to automate creating instances in Google Cloud Platform, using SIMH to run V6 UNIX on an emulated PDP-11 as an example.

    The main goal is to show how easy it is to automate GCP using just BASH, as well as show what it was like to use UNIX in 1975.

    There may be a surprise mainframe OS guest, as well.


  • 29 Dec 2018 1:49 PM | Deleted user

    LOPSA Tl; DR Newsletter 12/18

    a.k.a. LOPSAgram

    Happy Holidays!

    Woohoo!! The holidays. A great time of year filled with food, friends, and family... not to mention giving and getting. Oh and stress. Yep, usually, there is a healthy dose of stress. Especially in this industry. Pushing to finish those projects before holiday breaks and year-end is not always easy. We hope it all paid off and that you’ve had a fabulous holiday season.

    LOPSAgram Changes

    This year has been an interesting one in the story of the LOPSAgram. As you’ve seen, we missed some months and even one recent month. Yep, it’s not ideal. But for those of us involved in producing the LOPSAgram, it’s not easy. Getting info from our local chapters can sometimes be time-consuming, as much time is often spent simply waiting on replies. Then once we have some info to share, we must stitch it together. It’s the fun part, but it also takes time and a fair deal of effort, as it involves several rounds of edits and approvals.

    Internally we continue to have debates about the usefulness of the LOPSAgram. The consensus is that changes are needed, but what changes? We go back and forth on specifics, but this is slow and, in truth, only theory. So we have decided that the time for pondering is done, and we are shifting into action! It’s simple: we will open up the process. We will make changes, and ask you, our readers – our members – for feedback. We will explore changes in tone, info, length, frequency, and even title (How do you like this new one?). We ask that you tell us when we mess up. But also, tell us when you especially like something. We need to know what works best for our members so we can best serve you.

    As things develop and we decide on what changes will stick, we will be sure to let you know.

    From all your friends on the LOPSA Board and your Community Manager, we wish you the happiest of holidays, and we’ll see you next year!

    Board Changes

    As some may know, Aleksey Tsalolikhin, one of our board members, stepped down in late August to give more focus to his growing professional training business, Vertical Sysadmin, Inc. Though we are sad to lose his dynamism and enthusiasm, we are happy to see his success!

    So now, Aleksey remains the organizer of the Los Angeles LOPSA chapter and Drew Adams has taken over as chair of the Marketing and Communications Committee.

    But there was still the pesky matter of that empty board seat.

    Well, we have great news: We have formally filled the vacancy! Daniel Hodges heard about the vacancy and showed interest in filling it. He made it a point to meet the current board members and answer questions. During our last board meeting, we moved to appoint Daniel in Aleksey’s absence, and it unanimously carried. He will take the remainder of Aleksey’s term, serving in the Membership and Finance Committees.

    Most are unlikely to know Daniel, but coming up, we will be doing interviews with all the new Board members, starting with him. Stay tuned! Here’s a quick preview:

    Daniel (it’s always Daniel, never Dan, Danny, or any such derivative) grew up in Southern California but currently lives in New Jersey with his wife, Kim, and their zillions of animals. (Daniel and Kim are both huge animal lovers.) He works for Major League Gaming (aka MLG), a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Over the years Daniel has held positions as a SysAdmin, Sr. SysAdmin, and Lead SysAdmin. His specialty has been maintaining large Hadoop clusters. Like many of the current Board members, Daniel feels we need to be doing more to bring real value to our members. He is excited by the momentum LOPSA has had toward this end in 2018 and is looking forward to helping pick up the pace in 2019.

    The board is excited to have him join and think he is a great addition to the team. He is eager to jump in and be an active, contributing member of the Board. Welcome to the LOPSA Board, Daniel!

    Donations

    We want to thank all who have donated during this holiday season! You all rock!! Every bit helps.

         
     Jennine Townsend

    Brian Globerman

    Lee Damon

    Ian Viemeister

    Clark Hahn


    And a corporate donation from Fuzzy Logic Systems (Lee Whalen)

    There is still time to donate

    While the year is almost out, there is still some time left to make a donation so you can write it off on your taxes. Don’t let the opportunity pass! Click the Donate button on LOPSA.org and make it happen before the year-end.


  • 30 Sep 2018 1:26 PM | Deleted user
    1. Call for Donors
    2. Member Spotlight
    3. LISA 2018, will you help?
    4. Chapter News
    5. Brazilian Chapter Forming
    6. Dell Discounts Available

    September 2018 LOPSAgram

    1. Call for Donors

    As a non-profit organization, donations and recurring memberships are the lifeblood of LOPSA.


    As we continue to ramp up our activity and outreach, this naturally has associated expenses. We hope you'll consider making a tax-deductible donation to LOPSA so that we can continue building community and making more benefits available for our members.


    https://lopsa.org/Donate


    2. Member Spotlight

    Mark Lamourine

    I'm Mark Lamourine. I've chosen to take up the task of communicating and working with the LOPSA local groups.

    I've been a member of the LOPSAish community since I attended my first LISA conference in 1993.  My most visible contribution was probably A Day In The Life, an attempt, working with Barb Djiker to quantify what we do...did. It was 1999. Things have changed. A lot.

    Today I have a vested interest in promoting the locals community. Until recently I was a regular attendee and one-time presenter at Back Bay LISA (BBLISA) in the Boston area. I watched the organizers find speakers each month for years. I put my hand in now and then but in general, the core people (basically two of them) really bound the group together.

    Within the last year, both of these core people have bowed out and moved on. Both had served totally on their own personal initiative literally for decades. BBLISA has never been a formal group and so, without their continued attention, our regular meetings have lapsed again.

    When we, the new members of the new LOPSA board were allocating roles, the idea of working with the local groups was instantly appealing to me. I think promoting our profession close to the work is the best way to reach new members and support current ones. It's one of the concrete ways we can improve our visibility and provide value to our members. It makes good use of our limited resources and our unlimited enthusiasm. I like the idea of learning the different ways that local groups can organize and support themselves, and how they can share their knowledge. With the lapse of BBLISA, it's become personal again.

    I mean to reach out over the next few weeks to the leadership of our local groups to learn how things stand, how they work, what they bring and what we at LOPSA can do to support their work. I hope to be your advocate and I hope to use what I learn to see if BBLISA can be revived again in some form.


    3. LISA 2018, will you help?

    We need volunteers to work the booth for the 2018 LISA conference.  LISA hosted by Usenix begins on October 28th and proceeds through the 31st. LOPSA traditionally has a substantial presence at LISA and needs volunteers to work this year's. The LISA conference is held in Nashville Tennessee.


    Omni Nashville Hotel
    250 Fifth Ave South
    Nashville, TN 37203
    USA 



    Sign Up



    If you'd like to represent your community at this years LISA conference, you may also e-mail the Community Manager at community@lopsa.org


    4. Chapter News

    East Tennessee

    LOPSA-ETENN held a presentation hosted by Ben Taylor on Endpoint Security. This event was held at Tek Systems on September 4th.


    Details

    Given the constantly evolving cyber threat landscape, it is imperative to consider a multi-layered defense strategy in your environment. The foundation for this strategy begins with your endpoint security solution. Traditional, definition-based antivirus solutions are struggling to keep up. Blake will take you through his recent evaluation and selection process, highlighting available features and capabilities that are prevalent today. He will also give a retrospective on the presumptions entering the implementation and the lessons learned from the implementation process.

    About the speaker

    Blake has worked as a Windows System Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory since 2016. His primary focus in this time has been endpoint management, desktop virtualization, and PowerShell scripting. Prior to coming to ORNL, he spent 7 years at EnergySolutions focusing on desktop virtualization, patch and software management, and Active Directory administration. In his spare time, he enjoys playing League of Legends, playing tennis and spending time with his wife Katie and his 2 dogs, Baxter and Max.


    https://www.meetup.com/LOPSA-ETENN/events/254259198/


    Seattle

    SASAG held a viewing party and discussion September 13th. Refreshments were graciously provided by Fuzzy Logic.


    Details

    The current plan is to watch James Mickens newest video, a keynote from the USENIX Security Symposium titled:

    "Q: Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting that Improving Security is Possible?"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajGX7odA87k

    Hilarious!

    To be followed by a serious discussion about security.

    Addendum: We expect to have a Vive Pro VR right on site for this event, that people will be able to try for 5-10 minutes each.

    Food for 2018 meetups is sponsored by https://fuzzy-logic.org/


    https://www.meetup.com/LOPSA-ETENN/events/254259198/


    5. Brazilian Chapter Forming

    Marcos Alano is an enthusiastic LOPSA member and Linux System Administrator from Novo Hamburgo in Brazil. 


    Mr. Alano is actively recruiting new members in Brazil to start a chapter there. This would not only be the first Brazilian, but also the first chapter in South America.


    If you'd like to be involved you may e-mail Marcos directly, or join the Brazilian Mattermost Team space.


    marcoshalano@gmail.com


    6. Dell Discounts Now Available

    Active volunteers such as Delta Pack or Chapter organizers now qualify for discounts on hardware from Dell! If you would like to take advantage of this partnership deal, please contact the Community Manager at community@lopsa.org with your preferred e-mail address for your e-coupon.

    Business-Class Products  Consumer-Class Products  Electronics and Accessories 

    Business-Class Products 

     Consumer-Class Products

    Electronics and Accessories 


  • 29 Aug 2018 12:02 PM | Deleted user


    1. Call for Volunteers
    2.  Florida Chapter Formation
    3.  LISA 2018, will you help?
    4.  Chapter News
    5. Delta Pack Tech Team
    6. Membership credentials now available

     August 2018 LOPSAgram

    1. Call for Volunteers

    From the desk of the Community Manager

    LOPSA is undergoing a veritable renaissance. Chapters are reactivating, volunteers are stepping up, and more benefits are being added. Our Membership numbers have been leveling out in contrast to  the prior downward trajectory. It's been my incredible privilege  to serve this fantastic community, and a delight to see how it has responded since I donned the mantle of Community Manager in late March. Thank you to so many of you whom have responded with vigor and dedication to rebuild and enhance LOPSA. To those of you who have answered the call, I can hardly thank you enough.


    However, now that we approach the half-year of my tenure, it's become more necessary now than ever before for me to lean on the skills and capacity of our community to make up for those places where I lack specialization. I need you to advance LOPSA into the future. And I truly believe that we serve a noble purpose still, an that we can press this organization forward to a future that we can all be proud of. In the spirit of that last item, we have made membership certificates and membership ID's available for paid members.


    Last month I launched the Delta Pack, intended to be an elite technical force to build solutions for LOPSA. A sort of Skunkworks for our organization. I now have a total of four participants in this effort, and strongly hope to gain more. Beyond the technical though, I could certainly use teams of volunteers for more efforts beyond that.


    LOPSA needs marketing, fundraising, and graphical arts teams. If you have these skills, contact me directly or our volunteer coordinator. In essence, we've reasonably stabilized and now it is the time for us to build the next glorious chapter of the LOPSA story. We have the technology, we have the skill. We can do it. But we can only do it as a community, I am not myself a community. I don't have that power that rests in the hands and hearts of you, our membership.


    Even if you can only offer a little, that will be plenty. Community is always noble and worthwhile. Together we are stronger, together we will strive and build a glorious future for  the LOPSA organization and more importantly that community which it represents.


    Our professional fellowship is so important, both on a human level but also on a professional level. Personally of course it allows us the privilege of getting to know fellows in like position and interests, preventing us from feeling so alienated. And beyond that, when an employer hires a LOPSA member they have not merely hired one sysadmin, but in essence the entirety of LOPSA knowledge and proficiency.


    Your community needs you to help build a better future for us all. We are more than adequately capable, all that's necessary is for a few to stand and be counted. 


    Please contact your Community Manager if you'd like to help in any way. community@lopsa.org


    2. Florida Chapter Formation


    LOPSA Member Joanna Micco joannamicco@gmail.com is working to found a Chapter in the Jacksonville Florida area. If you are in Florida, we strongly encourage you to assist in founding this Chapter. 


    One of the most compelling features of LOPSA and membership with it is our Local Groups. Local groups do the heavy lifting for what LOPSA was founded to do. We should endeavor, wherever there is adequate presence to build LOPSA Chapters. We are all so much more powerful and capable when we have one another to lean on. We are each a greater value to our employers when we are part of this sort of community.


    3. LISA 2018, will you help?

    We need volunteers to work the booth for the 2018 LISA conference.  LISA hosted by Usenix begins on October 28th and proceeds through the 31st. LOPSA traditionally has a substantial presence at LISA and needs volunteers to work this year's. The LISA conference is held in Nashville Tennessee.


    Omni Nashville Hotel
    250 Fifth Ave South
    Nashville, TN 37203
    USA 



    Sign Up



    If you'd like to represent your community at this years LISA conference, you may also e-mail the Community Manager at community@lopsa.org


    4. Chapter News

    The summer is typically a time for chapters to lull in their activities. With summer break from grade school and college, the middle of summer is a time for families and beach excursions. 


    Though the chapter's and their membership are not hosting events there is still plenty of activity behind the scenes.


    Our chapter in San Diego is preparing to become active again with monthly meetings. The Nigerian chapter is likewise becoming more active and preparing to host events.


    Beyond the aforementioned chapters, there are rumblings of new chapters forming in New York City, Paris France, and Florida.


    Summer is in essence the eye of the storm for LOPSA activity. Expect that the comin year shall be exceedingly eventful. But beyond that, get involved. Let us make sure that the remainder of this year is one to remember. We hold the power to make great things happen for LOPSA and our peers.



    5. Delta Pack Tech Team

    The Community Manager is looking to build an elite tech-team of volunteers to help build new solutions for LOPSA and it's Members. If you'd be interested in bringing your tech skills to the community, please join! Follow this link to the Community Manager's Mattermost team space and join the Delta Pack channel.


    As a global organization, the Internet serves a critical role in how we achieve our mission. Volunteers are needed to build up superior infrastructure for our community to forward the fraternity and support that which LOPSA stands for.

     

    Let us build that which shows our skill and drive. Let us show what we can really do. We have the ability in spades, let's do good for ourselves, our community, and the world. We are much more powerful together.  



    6. Membership credentials now available

    Membership certificates and identification cards are now available upon request. If you'd like one of these please e-mail the Community Manager at community@lopsa.org 



     


  • 18 Aug 2018 11:53 AM | Deleted user
    1.  O'Reilly Media Partnership renewed
    2.  Florida Chapter Formation
    3.  Member Spotlight
    4.  Chapter News
    5. Delta Pack Tech Team

    July 2018 LOPSAgram

    1. O'Reilly Media Partnership renewed

    LOPSA is pleased to announce the renewal of our partnership with O'Reilly Media. 


    O’Reilly is a learning company that helps individuals, teams, and enterprises build skills to succeed in a world defined by technology-driven transformation.

    From in-person conferences and live online training courses to self-directed learning and immediate access to problem solving online, O’Reilly has you and your team covered.

    Their Safari product has evolved into a complete e-learning platform. They have made a special 30-day trial available exclusively for LOPSA Members. The offer can be found at our Member Discounts page.


    2. Florida Chapter Formation


    LOPSA Member Joanna Micco joannamicco@gmail.com is working to found a Chapter in the Jacksonville Florida area. If you are in Florida, we strongly encourage you to assist in founding this Chapter. 


    3. Member Spotlight

    Florian Rossmark was featured last month. This month he has released another great tool for Windows administrators

    "Having worked for various companies either as consultant or for their internal IT department, I again and again came across the fact that proper IT documentation, asset management and IP address management for the network is not documented at all or in various text, Microsoft Word or Excel files up to expensive solutions.

    Another challenge I faced a lot is proper network and system monitoring, while there are great tools out there – one of the challenges remains thought there are solutions for this as well but nothing I saw so far that was free and giving me the chance to see in detail What changed in my Active Directory? 

    Due to my experience with developing software (thought I am not a professional developer) I several times developed an in-house solution on various platforms. Partly deeply integrated in their ERP system or other systems they had in place. This code was sometimes developed in an .NET language – but there is always that one downside to it – who will support the application in the long run – especially if there are no other developers in the company.


    Out of this issue I started the Microsoft Access based project that you will find here. It is an simple structure SQL database with an Microsoft Access front end. For the most part it is very simple to understand if you at least have some VBScript or VBA experience and basic database knowledge.

    The whole application might likely already cover most of your needs – some of the highlights are


    4. Chapter News

    Los Angeles

    July 19th: An Introduction to Using PostgreSQL with Docker & Kubernetes

    This presentation was held for LOPSA-LA at their meeting held at the Coding Dojo in Burbank. Jonathan S. Katz is the Director of Customer Success & Communications at Crunchy Data. About one dozen people attended the meeting with Mr. Katz presenting. This meeting was held in cooperation with LA Postgres User Group.


    "The maturation of containerization platforms has changed how people think about creating development environments and has eliminated many inefficiencies for deploying applications. These concepts and technologies have made their way into the PostgreSQL ecosystem as well, and tools such as Docker and Kubernetes have enabled teams to run their own “database-as-a-service” on the infrastructure of their choosing."


    Seattle

    June 14th: Tame the IP address space beast with a DDI solution

    Ski Kacoroski, former longtime LOPSA Board member & President, former SASAG organizer, gave a presentation about IP address management DDI solutions. 


    July 27th: SysAdmin Day lunch celebration hosted by Fuzzy Logic


    Fuzzy Logic sponsored Sysadmin Day lunch at DaWaat .



    Ottawa Valley

    OVSAGE will be doing a series of workshop meetings covering vagrant, docker, and ansible until November. Everything provided but your laptop.

    https://www.ovsage.org/pages/calendar/


    Delta Pack Tech Team

    The Community Manager is looking to build an elite tech-team of volunteers to help build new solutions for LOPSA and it's Members. If you'd be interested in bringing your tech skills to the community, please join! Follow this link to the Community Manager's Mattermost team space and join the Delta Pack channel.

     


  • 09 Jul 2018 1:45 PM | Deleted user

    1. New Board Members

    Election results are in and we have three new members to the Board of Directors, and one returning to serve LOPSA for another term. Winning by acclamation the following LOPSA Members come to serve on the Board of Directors.


    • Brian Globerman serves another term and is the LOPSA Treasurer
    • Andree Jacobson
    • Mark Lamourine
    • Branson Matheson


    2. Meetup Pro Global Network

    LOPSA has purchased Meetup Pro for Nonprofits and is happy to announce the availability of this resource to our Chapters and Local Groups. All currently existing LOPSA Chapter Meetup groups have been added to our Global Network. Going forward, any Local Group that wishes to have a presence on Meetup.com may have one set up for them by the Community Manager.


    Meetup Pro solves two major concerns for Local Groups. Firstly, it allows LOPSA to assume the expense of the Meetup group. Secondly, it allows LOPSA to ensure continuity in case it becomes necessary to "pass the baton" to new organizers. We will be able to assure active organizers are empowered to keep their Chapter healthy and assure that our Members continue to be served.


    E-mail community@lopsa.org if your Chapter or Local Group is interested in taking advantage of this service.


    3. Member Spotlight

    Bruno Henc


    How long have you been a Member of LOPSA?

    Since April 12th, 2018.

    What made you join LOPSA?

    At my first job after my work with Funtoo Linux, I was a freshly-minted solo system administrator for a local company, handling everything from cabling, racking servers to troubleshooting production code. It was a hectic but rewarding job since there was a lot of opportunity to grow - I have learned a lot during those months but oftentimes lacked the know-how to push for decent standards in the organizations, something a more senior system administrator would have probably achieved with ease. I have dedicated a lot of my free time to reading books at that time to compensate, and I've stumbled Time Management for System Administrators by Thomas Limoncelli. There I read about LOPSA and I was intrigued enough to join the organization. Frankly, I did not know a single system administrator before that, and it was hellish to work solo since there was no one I could turn to for advice. I strongly feel nobody should have to deal with the terrible reality that is IT Operations on their own, and that one of the greatest failings of modern operations is the lack of a strong and tightly-knit community that supports each other, something that developers have achieved seemingly with ease. Also, I felt that to get better at being a system administrator one has to actually talk to professionals with different viewpoints and work experiences. The chess community has for a long time been a good model on how to achieve mastery - no one gets better at chess by playing on their own. You have to play agianst better and better opponents, loosing sometimes, learning from your mistakes, and pushing forward. I think that the same holds true for IT - the only way to get better at running infrastructure is to interact with a vibrant and diverse community, and work on projects together. Reading blogs and books just doesn't cut it.

    What are you doing with LOPSA, and hope to in the future?

    I'm currently working on the chat.lopsa.org Mattermost instance which will hopefully make it easier for new people to communicate while keeping the IRC community intact. It's a work in progress but I hope that with the next deployment it will be production-ready for general use. There's a ton of things I would like to achieve in the future, including a local Croatian LOPSA chapter, a LOPSA booth at FOSDEM and an open learning platform for learning all things sysadmin. It is going to be a lot of work, but I do hope to achieve some impact in my local community and in the general IT community to make it easier to be a sysadmin.

    What is your background? 

    I went to the elite informatics high school MIOC in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and frankly I got spoiled by the high teaching standards there (We had better maths nd physics than the first/second semester of college). In my final year I considered going to college in the US, but ultimately it was financially impossible though my grades and SAT scores were good enough. After trying to combine my studies of medicine and computer engineering (I wanted to work on medical devices) I've stumbled upon ecole 42 in Paris and decided to give it a go. I've passed the piscine and frankly I've been left impressed by the whole school (more on that later). My medicine studies didn't pan out, but I got part-time work maintaining wordpress websites, so I decided to switch to a computer science college. But I wasn't impressed at all what I experienced there: cutthroat and hostile people, outdated corses which had nothing to do with the skills that earned me money, and general lack of depth in teaching. Compared to 42, to the IT industry, and the open source community, IT colleges seemed to be stuck in the stone age. I dropped out, took the money from the second semester and bought myself a system to work on a Kaby Lake optimized Funtoo Linux build. At that point, working on an open source project was the most fun I've had in months. I've never looked back from that point on. Now I am a system administrator thanks to all the work I did independently of my main education.

    What are you doing now in your career?

    I'm learning at my new job, since going from managing servers for a small IT company to working for a large hosting company takes getting used to. Ideally, I'd like to work remotely while studying at 42 in Paris, since I learned more there in a month than I did 6 months in college. Regex, shell scripting, actually using git properly, and working with C/valgrind/gdb have proven to be invaluable skills, as did the code-reviews and the other "soft skills" that you develop while learning there.

    Do you have any grand achievements?

    I am proud to have a full-time job with the knowledge that I have accumulated over a decade of learning on my own. The work, though grueling sometimes, is much more interesting than being stuck in boring lectures. It just proves that being self-taught puts you at no disadvantage if you want to work in IT Other than that, I'm currently working on a smartphone application for monitoring/alerting servers, since I found the existing ones not to my tastes. If I can get it running, that will probably be my greatest achievement.

    How is the tech sector where you are?

    The tech sector here is mostly dominated by the Microsoft-centric universities which do a poor job of teaching any of the practical skills required by modern IT companies, much to their frustration. It's paradoxical however, that even Microsoft changed the way they operate, adopting more progressive views, but the universities seem to have stayed the same. Hopefully this will change in the future, as schools like 42 are going to be light-years ahead if universities don't change they approach soon.

    Florian Rossmark


    Tell us about yourself, what is your background? Any grand accomplishments?

    Thinking back, I must have been around 9 when I got my first computer, this was around 1991. I read my first book about MS-DOS before I even had a computer. From that point on forward I was hooked and learned a lot - often by experimenting around and for a big part reading magazines and books back then. 

    Down the road I started working in consulting and did so for many years. I grew up and started my career in Bavaria, Germany, while I now live in California, USA - my beloved wife and kids on my side. I decided to concentrate more on the enterprise sector rather then staying in consulting. 

    Now, you asked me about accomplishments, I think that knowledge is important and deep understanding of the matter someone talks about, but I am not all about certificates what some might see as accomplishments. I have a few but the truth is there are many people out there that have a lot of them while not fully understanding the matter and others that actually have the knowledge but never saw the reason to do all those certificates (that expire constantly). I see myself in the middle - if I think it helps me to gather a better understanding I might start studying, if I think I like the matter I might even do the certificate. In the end, all of what I really have accomplished is, that I worked and work with a great team of people that love IT. All of them did let me learn and grow and I hope I could to some point help them to accomplish the same. If it wasn't for all of them I wouldn't be where I am today. A big thank you to each and every single one of you - you are my biggest accomplishment.

    Where do you work, and what do you do there?

    Accriva Diagnostics, San Diego aka. Instrumentation Laboratory/Werfen - Sr. Systems Administrator

    How is the tech-sector where you are located?

    As for the company I work for, we are constantly updating our environment and as well migrating in to and adapting to the standards of the company that acquired us

    As for San Diego, it is a big city close to the so well known Silicon Valley - there are plenty of high tech companies around it - a lot of very smart people as well

    What made you decide to join LOPSA?

    Curiosity and the hope to find a group of professionals that are dedicated to their role, other then the countless newsgroups that are often overrun (to say the least)

    What do you hope to get from your LOPSA Membership?

    Asking others about their experience with certain products I might look in to or e.g. how they designed specific tasks in their network - like R&D requirements etc. - things that come up in the ever changing world of IT

    What do you hope to bring to your new LOPSA community?

    Share knowledge and ideas as well has support other system administrators with their daily challenges (as far as my time allows me to do so of course )

    "Having come across LOPSA quite a few years ago already, I always wondered what LOPSA is really about and why I should spend money to join "the club". In the hopes to grow further and help others to grow, I finally joined. Still, a bit confused about on how to access all the tools (forums, chats, meetings, etc.) LOPSA is all about, I got in contact with Roger Luedecke from LOPSA who helped me already out a lot. It seems to me that this is what I hoped to find, a growing community of dedicated professionals around the world. I am honored and happy to be a part of it and hope I can do my part to help it become even bigger while sharing my knowledge as well as accessing the communities knowledge."


    4. Volunteers Needed

    As should be no surprise, a volunteer-based organization needs volunteers! We want you to get involved in pressing the LOPSA mission into the future.


    We need your energy, creativity, and skills to strengthen our ability to execute our mission. Whether big or small, there is almost certainly something you can do for your LOPSA community.


    Perhaps you want to start a new Chapter, or just have a great idea. Whatever it is, your creativity can make a difference. Maybe you just have a contact for a potential sponsor or partner. No matter what your idea or ability is, we can use it. LOPSA first and foremost is about community and the empowerment of individuals within that community. Together we are stronger and more capable than we are on our own. There has never been a better time to make your mark on the direction and dynamism of your LOPSA community. Together, we can make LOPSA stronger and more useful for everybody.


    If you would heed this call contact the Board.

    board@lopsa.org 


    5. New Infrastructure

    Slack

    LOPSA has acquired Slack for non-profits. Slack is a very popular communication and collaboration tool. If you want to get involved with internal matters, or would just like to interface with your peers please feel free to join us. Our join link can be found at this page.


    We recommend using Slack with its native app for your platform such as Windows.


    Mattermost

    Mattermost is a free and opensource collaboration platform very similar to Slack. We have an instance running internally. We are beginning a staged rollout while we polish a couple remaining tasks. We expect to have this resource stable and available for use by our Local Groups and any committee or projects that would find it useful no later than mid-July.

    Besides making a fantastic resource available for your use, we are hoping that the adoption of Mattermost will enable more streamlined communication and planning for Local Groups. Beyond that, we hope that it will empower your groups to leverage LOPSA resources and more easily get help from the Community Manager.

    It is also our hope that by making resources such as this available we can begin to coalesce the ways that LOPSA and Local Groups communicate with one another and internally. Besides streamlining and assuring reliable communication this will also allow LOPSA to have greater oversight of Local Groups. This oversight can be vital if an administrator or organizer ceases to perform their duties and allows these groups to use the Community Manager to pick up the slack.

    Stay tuned for when this becomes available, and like Slack, we encourage the use of native applications for your preferred platform.

    Special thanks to Bruno Henc (see section 3. Memberr Spotlight) for doing this excellent work for us.

    6. Member Certificates and Cards

    Membership Cards


    LOPSA will be making Membership cards and certificates available upon request. We expect to be ready to receive requests by mid-July. The Membership cards will feature a more refined design than our virtual cards, and will be printed on high quality plastic. 




    Membership Certificates

    Certificates of Membership are also being made available and will be offered on demand. This design is not final and is pending feedback from the Board as well as the Membership. 


    Please send your feedback to community@lopsa.org


    7. Chapter News

    Los Angeles

    On Thu 6/28/18 5:30-9: 30 pm our Los Angeles chapter held a Free LPIC Beta Testing in Burbank 

    "The Linux Professional Institute, Vertical Sysadmin, and Coding Dojo are working together to give LOPSA-LA a very special opportunity this Thursday evening:  Free LPIC certification exams as beta testers for the brand new versions.

    Yes, the exams that are normally $400 will cost our members nothing!  LPI just needs our feedback.  Beta testers who pass will receive the exact same professional certifications as full price engagements. There's win all the way around in this."

    https://www.meetup.com/lopsala

    Kano Nigeria

    We are pleased and excited to announce the newest chapter of LOPSA in Kano Nigeria. The tremendous effort of the organizers have resulted in the approval of our first Chapter in the African continent and is merely the beginning of a tremendous expansion. So much more is on the way.


    The Kano Chapter has a web presence on Meetup and is the first Chapter to adopt LOPSA's Mattermost.


    https://www.meetup.com/LOPSA-of-Kano-NG/


    San Diego

    LOPSA SD has begun planning their monthly meeting typically held on the 4th Thursday of each month. A location and speakers have yet to be announced. Stay tuned for more information, or join their group on Meetup.


    https://www.meetup.com/LOPSA-SD


    East Tennessee

    Celebrate the 4th on the 3rd at the KTown Tavern. Hosted by Andy Cowell and Ben Taylor, happy hour starts at 6pm. Just ask for LOPSA at the front.


    https://www.meetup.com/LOPSA-ETENN/events/252289289/


  • 30 May 2018 4:25 PM | Deleted user

    1. A message from the Community Manager

    2. LOPSA Member spotlight

    3. Call for Volunteers

    4. 2018 LOPSA Board elections

    5. Certifications

    6. Chapter News

    7. Mentorship Program

    8. Events and Conferences

    7. Thanks to our sponsors

    8. Comments or suggestions?

    May 2018 LOPSAgram

    1. A message from the Community Manager

    I've been Community Manager for LOPSA for nearly two months now. When I took the contract, I wasn't quite sure what to expect beyond the defined tasks of my position. What I have found though has been surprising.


    Though there isn't a lot of visible activity among the Membership from the surface, nonetheless there is still a strong and vibrant community. LOPSA Members consistently surprise me with their true and strong sense of community and dedication to it. It is a relief and privilege to become acquainted with people of such rarefied quality.


    It's no secret that LOPSA has been running at a low idle for some time. I'm excited to be your Community Manager and look forward to revving things up. The board and I have been hard at work solving long-standing issues. More than that though, we are looking towards the future of what LOPSA can be. Particularly, we've been diligently moving forward with new services and partnerships to expand our Membership and increase the value of it.


    It's an exciting time to be involved with LOPSA, and I'm very grateful to be in a position to do so much good for so many. I hope you'll stay with us and work with us towards a new era for LOPSA.


    Sincerely,

    Roger Luedecke

    community@lopsa.org



    2. LOPSA Member Spotlight

    LOPSA Volunteer of the Month

    Mark Stenglein is a new Member of LOPSA. He's updated our page on Wikipedia.


    Mark is a student at George Mason University He also works for Bishop O'Connell High School as part of their IT team.


    We interviewed Mark, and we're happy to introduce you to him!


    Could you please briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

    I am a student at George Mason University's Engineering School currently working towards a degree in IT. I have been working for Bishop O'Connell High School the last year as a part of their small IT team. In the spare time I have, I enjoy working with new technology, contributing to free software projects I use, and operating amateur radio under the callsign KN4IJZ.

    How did you hear about LOPSA? Why did you join?

    There was a post or a comment on a Reddit thread which mentioned the LOPSA Code of Ethics and thought that was worth investigating a little further. There are very large professional organizations for the engineering fields, but I have not seen a strong emphasis on these so far in my time at school.

    How long have you been a member?

    I have been a member since mid-February, so about 3 months.

    What have you gotten out of your LOPSA membership so far? What would you like to get out of it?

    I have not actually had much opportunity to do much yet. Ultimately I'd like the opportunity to both learn from those more experienced than I am as well as be able to educate others in turn.

    How long have you been involved in system administration?

    I've only been working for about the last year, but have been tinkering with, breaking, and fixing linux systems on my own for the last eight years.

    What are your career plans when you finish school?

    With the size of the field, I have not pinned anything specific down yet. Ultimately, I want to be working in a place that allows me to spend time looking for solutions to complex problems. I've also got it in my head that working in the area of disaster response would be engaging, though I've struggled in finding any job descriptions in that area that would make sense.

    We understand you're an Eagle Scout. Was your final project IT-related by any chance? If not, could you tell us what you did?

    You would be correct! The Noland Trail, in Newport News VA, has several wooden footbridges which were in poor condition from poor maintenance over a long time. For my project I organized the process of procuring materials and coordinating volunteers to replace the surface structure and clean out the debris underneath and around one of these bridges (map.what3words.com/look.lock.saints).


    New Member from Nigeria, Omodolapo Victor Babalola

    We have a new Member from Nigeria who is working on establishing a new chapter in his city. Kano in Northern Nigeria is the commercial center for the region and host to the largest tech-sector in Africa. We interviewed the enthusiastic Mr. Babalola, and wish to introduce you to him.

    www.linkedin.com/in/omodolapovictorb

    How did you find out about LOPSA?

    I got to hear about LOPSA while I was researching for best practices in the System Administration field.

    What compelled you to join us?

    I must say the Professionalism and Objectives of this Noble organization

    What is the high-tech sector like in Nigeria?

    The high-tech sector in Nigeria is undoubtedly the largest in Africa and continually evolving.

    The IT industry is characterized by startups such as (Andela, Hotels.ng), Online Stores(Jumia and Konga), the Big 5 consulting Firms (KPMG, PWC, EY, DELOITTE & ACCENTURE), ISPs and Datacenters(MainOne, Glo1), Telecommunications Companies (MTN, 9mobile, Glo, Zain, IHS Towers, Huawei), Banks (GTB, UBA, SKYE BANK) and Fintechs (Interswitch, e-tranzact, remita)

    The high-tech sector here is continually evolving with more opportunities to harness

    Where are you working, and what do you do there?

    I work as IT Support at eHealth Systems Africa, Kano, where I handle setup and 2nd & 3rd level support for users’ computer system, servers, network printers, multimedia devices, photocopier machine and network devices (Routers, Access Points, Cameras). I support Network Engineers in network device configuration, Point to Point networking, surveillance and network monitoring and preventive maintenance in a Cisco, Mikrotik and Ubiquiti environment. I also support System Engineers in systems/server configuration, patch management, data center management, antivirus management, Backup management, system monitoring andpreventive maintenance in a Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Chromium, and Android environment.

    Could you tell us about your background?

    Omodolapo Victor Babalola is my name, I bagged a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Computer Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, an ITILv3 certificate in IT Service Management and a Project Management Professional, PMP certificate. My experience in the IT industry spans over 2 years as IT Support at eHealth Systems Africa, IT Analyst at Kano Electricity Distribution Company, Technical Manager at LS Crew, Ogbomoso, Google Apps Admin Intern at LAUTECH ICT Centre, Ogbomoso and IT Support Person at Digital Jewels Ltd, Ikoyi Lagos.

    During my leisure, I read, research and volunteer with the Nigerian Red Cross Society.

    What do you hope to accomplish as a Member of LOPSA?

    As a member of LOPSA, I hope to be mentored into a seasoned system administrator, contribute my quota to the establishment and running of the LOPSA chapter here in Nigeria and to uphold the ethics of our noble Organization.


    3. Call for Volunteers

    LOPSA needs volunteers to accomplish its mission. Visit https://lopsa.org/Volunteer for the many areas where we need help. Email board@lopsa.org to volunteer. Your ideas and energy are vitally needed. Get involved!


    4. 2018 LOPSA Board elections

    LOPSA-live was held on the 16th over the Freenode IRC network in the #lopsa-live channel. LOPSA-live gives everybody an opportunity to meet and ask questions of the Board candidates.

    As there are four candidates for the Board and five Board seats, the candidates are running without opposition and we will not be conducting a ballot for this election. The candidates will be, as they say in Canada, elected by "acclamation" (that means without opposition).


    5. Certifications

    LOPSA encouraged professional credentialing from industry recognized certification bodies. We've been researching some of the most sought-after certifications that employers look for, and have provided a page at https://lopsa.org/Certificates.


    As part of this new initiative, we are working towards sponsorships and partnership to allow us to offer discounted certification to our Members. 


    We would like your feedback on what certifications we should add to our page to promote for our Members. Send your recommendations to community@lopsa.org


    6. Chapter News

    General

    There has been a lot of activity among Chapters in the last month. Most encouragingly there are efforts to revive three dormant Chapters. Significant efforts are being made towards some new chapters, most notably a European and Nigerian Chapter.


    Chapters are one of the pillars of LOPSA, providing community networking and support in meat-space to Members. Many Members have forwarded their careers through participation and attendance in local groups. Whether through learning from one another and bringing their skills to a higher level, or finding job opportunities a LOPSA Chapter has been for many a key turning point in their careers.


    LOPSA is actively working towards ways to provide new services and incentives to Members in general, and local groups particularly. We have begun using Meetup Pro as a way to subsidize local groups efforts and promote LOPSA activities. We encourage your chapter to join our Global Network on Meetup. Whether you have an existing Meetup group to link to our Network or would like to take advantage of the platform with a new Meetup group, we want you to succeed in building more populous and powerful local communities.


    We need YOU to build the communities that we stand and are famous for. To elaborate we are working on ways to help local groups be empowered with better tools and services to minimize complexity and issues while affording local groups to leverage assistance from our Community Manager. Now is the best time to start a new Chapter, or resuscitate an old one. Please consider getting involved in building a local Chapter, knowing that you can count on us for assistance in your efforts. Without each of you, there is no community.


    General inquiries and assistance requests may be directed to the Community Manager.

    E-mail; community@lopsa.org


    Los Angeles

    Their next meeting will be in June, with Kirk Waingrow presenting on his tool KASM: "Operational Management Tools and IT KASM"


    See https://www.meetup.com/lopsala/events/250133706


    Columbus Ohio

    They met on April 30th. "Mining Ethereum Transactions". Good attendance, good food. Thanks for sponsoring from TEKsystems. 


    Next event tentatively scheduled for May 29. Working out final details with the speaker.


    East Tennessee ETENN

    ETENN met on May 1st for a presentation "Azure Automation: What is it and Why Do I Care?" by Benjamin Mitchell of Discovery, Inc. (21 attendees.) 

    Next meeting will be June 5th, Jesse Trucks presenting.

    Ottawa Canada OVSAGE

    met on April 19th, for the first in a series of microservices builds. Next meetup on May 17th.


    San Diego

    Chris McEniry and Tom Perrine are spearheading an effort to revive the San Diego LOPSA Chapter. You can find them on Meetup at https://www.meetup.com/LOPSA-SD. Contact Chris or Tom directly through Meetup to get involved!


    Seattle SASAG

    Our Seattle chapter, Seattle Area System Administrators Guild (SASAG) needs speakers. Plus if anyone in Seattle area is able to host (even occasional) meetings where they work, that would be most helpful. SASAG meets evenings the second Thursday of each month. www.sasag.org

    Their most recent meeting was on April 12th for a SCALE recap by Brian Globerman.

    7. Mentorship Program

    Our recently revamped Mentorship program is off to a strong start on stable footing! So far we have thirty proteges and nine mentors participating in the program. 


    We've also been getting a lot of wonderful feedback in excitement about the relaunch of our Mentorship Program. This has not only come from our Membership but from our well-wishing sponsors.


    One of the pillars of LOPSA is education. Towards that end, we hope that you will participate in the program as a Mentor or Mentee. Particularly, we are assessing best practices for effective implementation of the program and how to leverage our new technology and your participation can help us work out that formula quicker.


    Check out http://mentor.lopsa.org to get involved.


    Meet our Protégé, Ionut Cadariu

    To celebrate the successful relaunch of our esteemed Mentorship Program, we wanted to introduce you to Ionut Cadariu from Romania. Ionut is a Member of LOPSA who sought us out and joined specifically for the Mentorship Program. We interviewed Ionut and are proud to introduce you to him!


    Tell us a little about yourself. What is your background and how did you get involved with LOPSA?

    I'm currently an infrastructure & security engineer. I've started being a systems administrator back in 2008 and continued to learn and understand the basics of Linux systems since this is my passion for many years.

    How did you first hear about the LOPSA mentorship program?

    Searching over the internet for a mentorship program.

    What did you hope to get out of it?

    Have someone with higher experience guide me in my career.

    What did you actually get out of the mentorship program?

    Besides technical depth, I've met an awesome guy - Aleksey Tsalolikhin who helped me become a better person not just in my career but in life, so thank you again Aleksey for everything.

    Is there anything else you would like others to know about the mentorship program?

    I think having a mentor when you start your career will help you get better faster.


    8. Events and Conferences

    LISA 18

    LISA18 will take place October 29–31, 2018, at the Omni Nashville Hotel in Nashville, TN,USA.

    LISA is the premier conference for operations professionals, where sysadmins, systems engineers, IT operations professionals, SRE practitioners, developers, IT managers, and academic researchers share real-world knowledge about designing, building, securing, and maintaining the critical systems of our interconnected world.


    The LISA18 Call for Proposals is now open! The Conference Organizers invite both industry leaders and people on the front lines to propose topics that demonstrate the present and future of operations. Start preparing your proposals for talks, training, panels, and demonstrations. Submissions are due by Thursday, May 24.


    For more information about LISA 2018 visit https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa18


    If you'd like to participate as a speaker etc. navigate to https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa18/call-for-participation


    Big Data Day LA

    LOPSA is planning to have a table at Big Data Day LA in Los Angeles, California. We need volunteers to help us. The conference will be held on August 11th, 2018 at the University of Southern California.


    Big Data Day LA is the largest, of its kind, Big Data conference in Southern California. Spearheaded by Subash D’Souza and organized and supported by a community of volunteers, sponsors, and speakers, Big Data Day LA features the most vibrant gathering of data and technology enthusiasts in Los Angeles.


    For more information, or to register visit https://www.bigdatadayla.com/

    If you'd like to help LOPSA as a volunteer, e-mail rluedecke@lopsa.org


    9. Thanks to our sponsors

    Thanks to our Lifetime Members: Benjamin Carrell, Philip Kizer, Greg Rose, Todd Taft, Jennine Townsend

    Thanks to our individual sponsors:

    Platinum: Jennine Townsend, Dan Rich 
    Gold: Ski Kacoroski
    Silver: Matt Disney, Lee Damon, Scott Murphy, Ian Viemeister
    Bronze: Gary Studwell, PreOS Security

    Sponsor DataDog helps you monitor your entire stack. Graphing, alerting and correlation for all your systems. Sign up for a free 14-day trial.





    LOPSA's web content is hosted by DreamHost .




    10. Comments or suggestions?

    As we close out this month's LOPSAgram, we want to make sure we're giving you the information you want or need. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to send them to communications@lopsa.org


  • 14 Apr 2018 4:27 PM | Deleted user

    1. LOPSA at LinuxFest Northwest

    2. Relaunch of the Mentorship Program

    3. New Community Manager

    4. 2018 LOPSA Board elections

    5. Launch of KnowledgePress LOPSA member blog syndication

    6. Locals

    7. Thanks to our sponsors

    8. Comments or suggestions?

    April 2018 LOPSAgram

    1. LOPSA at LinuxFest Northwest

    LOPSA will have a booth at the LinuxFest Northwest 2018. 

    LinuxFest Northwest is being held at the Bellingham Technical College April 28th and 29th. Registration is open until April 29th.

    https://linuxfestnorthwest.org/conferences/lfnw18


    2. Relaunch of Mentorship Program

    The LOPSA Board is pleased to restart our Mentorship program on a new platform!

    The previous system was a bit of a hodge podge of custom code and volunteer labor, which eventually fell apart last year.  Our new program will run on a SaaS product from Xinspire, and should operate in a much smoother manner.  Please check it out!

    https://mentor.lopsa.org/

    Our goal is not to make major changes in the operation of our Mentorship program, so there are not any changes into how the program is intended to operate.  Mentees will be able to browse possible Mentors now, though, and apply directly to them to start a relationship.  Mentor engagements are still limited in scope, as before.  Mentors are able to select how many Mentees they wish to allow at any time, and, once that limit is reached, no further applications will be received until their current engagements are finished.

    You must be a LOPSA member to sign up as a mentor and/or mentee. Join LOPSA if you're not already a member. Reminder: student membership is *free* with student ID.

    Mentors:

    * Register at https://mentor.lopsa.org and list your availability and a brief description of your skills and interests.

    * Once you are approved, new proteges will request mentors. You may approve and reject their requests.

    Mentees:

    * Register at https://mentor.lopsa.org/ as a Mentee.

    * Once your registration is approved, you will be able to browse mentors and request mentorship.

    * Once your request has been accepted by a mentor, you and your mentor should agree upon how often you will communicate how you will communicate if your proposal is project-based, a set of milestones and a timetable for achieving them


    If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail the LOPSA Mentorship Program Team at lmpt@lopsa.org.

    Our First Protégé!

    Sharing our excitement for the newly revamped Mentorship Program is our first Protégé! Adam Snetiker. We interviewed Adam, and hope to share our excitement with you as well.


    "What excites me the most about this program is the ability to interact with someone who is a currently practicing professional with experience in areas of IT in which I hope to build a successful career. What I hope to get out of it is specific feedback that will help me to establish a focused plan of action that includes careers I should target at the entry level and the most important skills for success. Eventually, I hope this feedback process will repeat itself as I work through my career so that as the specific skills and job titles change, the focus is still on making sure they are in sync so I can continue to advance and add value."

    Read more on the LOPSA Blog


    3. New Community Manager

    LOPSA is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Community Manager! As LOPSA Membership and programs expand, the need for a Community Manager has become important for dealing with the increased work and maintenance of the organization. 


    Roger Luedecke is a long time Member and volunteer of the openSUSE Project. He has served the Project in varying capacities and events since 2011.

    Roger may be reached at community@lopsa.org

    4. 2018 LOPSA Board elections

    Once again, it is time for the annual board elections with the 2018 Election process beginning on May 1st. The candidate slate and statements will be published at that time on lopsa.org and in the May LOPSAgram. We have two LOPSA-Live sessions tentatively planned for the second and third Wednesdays of May - the times and participation method will be communicated as the dates get closer and we get consensus from the candidates. The election will run from June 1 to June 21 with the voting system closing on June 22. The results of the election will be made public July 1st.

    We have five board positions opening up, so if anyone is interested in being a candidate for the board and having a direct impact on the governance of our organization, they should send an email to leadership@lopsa.org and indicate why they would like to be a board member. There are a few criteria that need to be met, all of which are available in the bylaws (http://governance.lopsa.org/LOPSA_Bylaws)



    5. Launch of KnowledgePress LOPSA member blog syndication


    Are you a blogger? Would you like your knowledge to reach a broader audience? Participate in our new KnowledgePress blog syndication program to get more exposure.


    KnowledgePress is a new initiative to feature our Member's blogs on LOPSA.org and through our social media outlets. Submissions will be reviewed by our Community Manager. Approved submissions will be indexed on LOPSA.org and sent out over our social media outlets.


    KnowledgePress can be found at https://lopsa.org/KnowledgePress


    Submissions should be sent to community@lopsa.org



    6. Locals

    LOPSA-LA 

    LOPSA LA is hosting a meetup on April 17th at CodingDojo in Burbank. The meetup features Asya Shklyar's presentation on Big Data in the life sciences: "From Raw Data To Usable Results, Build, Rinse and Repeat".  

    https://www.meetup.com/lopsala/events/248784796/


    Los Angeles chapter member Kelvin Vanderlip and LOPSA Treasurer Brian Globerman at the LOPSA booth at the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) 16x March 2018


    Ottawa Valley SAGE

    LOPSA-Ottawa will be starting a series of introductory workshops on containers and micro-services this month (May 17th at the Kanata Dymon Storage Boardroom) that will be running for several months in order to get people new to the concepts a little hands experience on in a relaxed setting. 

    https://ovsage.org


    LOPSA Columbus

    Our very active Columbus chapter recently met up on the 28th of March. Jared Price gave a presentation on "From Sysadmin to CTO." 

    "Making the transition from a systems administration role to a technology leadership role is often challenging. Many sysadmins are talented and passionate about what they do and have perfected the art of expertly managing systems, automating key processes, and adapting to a constantly changing technology stack (virtualization, cloud, containerization). The move to a leadership role requires a strong foundation in technology, but also an understanding of business processes and people."

    LOPSA of Columbus Ohio can be reached at their website http://www.lopsacbus.org/


    East Tennessee LOPSA

    LOPSA of East Tennessee held an event on April 3rd. Hosted by TEKsystems in Knoxville, Matt Lindsey of ORNL spoke on 'IoT Hacking for Fun and Profit.'

    "The Internet of Things is an increasingly inescapable element of life on the information superhighway in 2018. While this plethora of low power, infrastructure-like devices can provide a lot of user convenience, it’s no secret that security is near the bottom of most vendor’s priorities. This talk will cover the state of IoT industry security in 2018, recent events that shape it, a primer on the unique security considerations of these devices and best practices for organizations that leverage them."

    LOPSA of East Tennessee can be found online at http://web.lopsaetenn.org/about-lopsa-etenn.html

    Call for Volunteers

    If you'd like to start a chapter or volunteer in some way, email board@lopsa.org


    7. Thanks to our sponsors

    Thanks to our Lifetime Members: Benjamin Carrell, Philip Kizer, Greg Rose, Todd Taft, Jennine Townsend

    Thanks to our individual sponsors:

    Platinum: Jennine Townsend, Dan Rich 
    Gold: Ski Kacoroski
    Silver: Matt Disney, Lee Damon, Scott Murphy, Ian Viemeister
    Bronze: Gary Studwell, PreOS Security

    Gold Sponsor Paessler AG

    Bronze Sponsor Edgestream Partners is a small group of scientists and engineers with a unique approach to trading in the financial markets. Our company designs, builds and runs a global trading software platform. We take pride in our software craftsmanship and use Python, Cython and C on Linux to run our global trading operations. We also use open-source tools as much as possible - Python, PostgreSQL, numpy, git, Cobbler, Puppet and Ansible are all crucial to our business.

    Bronze Sponsor O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. Check them out.

    Bronze Sponsor PreOS Security  offers software, consulting and training for firmware level security for your desktops, laptops and servers. Firmware is the new software, and persistent vulnerabilities and exploits have been growing steadily. Protect your firmware better with software and knowledge from PreOS Security. Sign up for our quarterly newsletter and get a free e-book.

    Sponsor DataDog helps you monitor your entire stack. Graphing, alerting and correlatoin for all your systems. Sign up for a free 14-day trial.

    LOPSA's web content is hosted by DreamHost .


    8. Comments or suggestions?

    As we close out this month's LOPSAgram, we want to make sure we're giving you the information you want or need. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to send them to communications@lopsa.org 


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The League of Professional System Administrators
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Email: info@lopsa.org

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