Admins often want to know how to measure the performance of a specific solution. Care is needed, however: Where there are benchmarks, there are pitfalls.
Redmond is set to launch the next-generation Windows Server 2016. Microsoft promises to make administration more secure, which is a good enough reason to take a closer look at the new Privileged Access Management feature.
Classic security safeguards, like antivirus and firewall products, are imperative for system protection. To search proactively for network intruders, as well, Microsoft offers Advanced Threat Analytics – a tool that will help even less experienced admins.
Keeping track of hardware, software, and licenses is next to impossible in these days of BYOD and virtualization. Spiceworks Inventory solves the problem with a single, small executable full of open source software and a web browser.
The Veil pen-testing platform provides some powerful tools that will hide your attack from antivirus scanners – and Veil even supports Metasploit payloads.
Installing Active Directory Federation Services is complex and involves several GUIs. For admins entrusted with building a farm, repetitive clicking in various management consoles can become an annoying and error-prone process. The call for automation is loud.
The combination of Open Management Infrastructure standards and the performance of Windows PowerShell opens new perspectives on heterogeneous networks, making PowerShell a realistic option as a management console for Unix and Linux.
In ESXi environments, the powerful Puppet automatic configuration tool can perform its services and roll out VMs automatically. A test environment shows the benefits of Puppet in conjunction with vSphere.
CloudFormation lets you describe and manage a collection of Amazon Web Services resources. Defining associated dependencies and run-time parameters is quite easy with CloudFormation. We show you how to create a simple WordPress blog and delete it again.
MaxScale by MariaDB is a smart proxy server for MySQL that speaks the same protocol as the database server. The manufacturer claims solid high availability and horizontal scalability.
Cyber criminals don't need access to sensitive information to blackmail their victims. Simply encrypting everyday files can be enough to extort money from users, whose data is only unencrypted after they pay a ransom – and possibly not even then.
Version 219 of the controversial init system, systemd, comes with a few major changes. We look at the new features in network management and container handling.
