Lenz Grimmer's blog

Last week we concluded our first Oracle Technology Network Sys Admin Day in Sacramento (CA). Well, it was actually the second Sys Admin Day, but the first one that had two parallel tracks of sessions about both Oracle Linux and Oracle Solaris.

I helped preparing for the event by creating the Linux lab handbook as well as the VirtualBox appliance of Oracle Linux 6.1 that was used for the exercises. Unfortunately I could not be there in person, but it would have been pointless for me to go on an intercontinental flight just for one day.

From the feedback we've received so far, the attendees really enjoyed the event and were positively surprised about the depth and quality of the practical hands-on lab sessions.

If you've missed the first one and happen to live somewhere in the Seattle area, you have another chance to attend OTN sysadmin day: we'll be hosting another one on Thursday, September 22nd at The Westin Seattle (1900 5th Ave., Seattle, WA 98101). Again, attendance is free, all you need to bring is your own laptop with VirtualBox installed. We'll provide the rest. Space is limited — you can review the agenda and register here!

In my last post, I provided a short review of what I have been working on in the past few months since I joined the Oracle Linux team. Now it's time for a summary of upcoming events! Looking forward, I already have a few more things lined up:

I'll attend and speak at the Oracle OpenWorld 2011 conference in San Francisco in October. I have a joint session with Chris Mason titled Overview: New Features in Oracle Linux 6 where we'll cover the latest developments. I have another joint presentation with my colleague Rob Young from the MySQL product management team titled Using MySQL with Other Oracle Products - this one will give an overview how MySQL has been integrated with the other products in the Oracle portfolio.

At OpenWorld, I'll also do some booth duty (find me at the Oracle Linux demo pods) and I'll also give a number of hands-on lab sessions:

• 30540 - Oracle Linux Package Management: Configuring and Enabling Services
• 30541 - Oracle Linux Storage Management with LVM and Device Mapper

For these labs, I created an Oracle Linux 6.1 VirtualBox appliance and wrote a 70+ page lab manual. I'll be around, aiding the attendees through these exercises.

By the way, a sneak preview of these hands-on labs will be available prior to OpenWorld as well: they are part of an upcoming series of the OTN sysadmin days, free one-day events that will provide practical workshops on both Oracle Solaris and Oracle Linux. We have three days scheduled so far - the first one of these will come up faily soon:

• September 8th: Sacramento (CA)
• September 22nd: Seattle (WA)
• January 18th: Salt Lake City (UT) (no eVite page available yet)

On November 15-17, I'll be at the DOAG 2011 Konferenz + Ausstellung in Nuremberg, Germany. I'll give two presentations (in German):

• Oracle Linux und Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Update und Ausblick
• Einführung in das OCFS2 Cluster-Dateisystem für Linux

I'll also hold an "Unconference" (or BOF) about Oracle Linux and the UEK together with Manuel Hossfeld, one of our Linux/OVM consultants.

And finally, I'll be giving a talk about "Oracle Linux and the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel: Status Update and Overview" at the UK Oracle User Group Conference 2011 in Birmingham (UK) on December 6.

If you happen to be at any of these events, please let me know if you'd like to meet!

Despite my best intentions, I haven't posted on this blog for a while, which is a shame! I've become busy writing on so many other places since I moved into my new role in the Oracle Linux product management team in April. I've learned a lot and I am feeling quite at home here! The team is excellent and very nice to work with — I am slowly getting the "Big Picture".

But even though I've been neglecting this blog, there are a lot of things that are publicly visible and document some of my activites:

I've created two podcasts for the Oracle Linux podcasts:

• OCFS2: Features and Benefits
• Latest Btrfs Updates

In addition to working the @ORCL_Linux Twitter account and FaceBook page, I've been blogging on the Oracle Linux blog:

• Linux Filesystem, Storage and Memory Summit
• Follow us on YouTube and Facebook, too!
• Oracle Linux 6.1 has been released
• Oracle Linux 6.1 ISO images now available for download
• First episode of the Oracle Linux Podcast: Sunil Mushran on OCFS2
• New episode of the Oracle Linux Podcast: Chris Mason on Btrfs
• OTN Sys Admin Days - Oracle Solaris and Oracle Linux (Sep. 8th, Sacramento, CA)

From time to time, I'm a guest blogger on the OTN Garage blog:

• Pimp my Ride - Installing Additional Packages on Oracle Linux
• Save disk space on Linux by cloning files on Btrfs and OCFS2

I also created new content and updated pages on the main Oracle web site and the Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

• A new technical white paper about Oracle Linux and the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel
• An article about How to Extract Files from an Oracle Linux RPM Package Without Installing the Package
• Added a new page about our Oracle Linux support offering
• Updated the OCFS2 product page
• Updated the Oracle Linux technical information page.

I've been traveling a bit as well and attended a few conferences where I spoke about Oracle Linux (and MySQL):

• MySQL High Availability at COLLABORATE 11, Orlando (FL), USA
• An introduction to Oracle Linux at the HEPiX Spring 2011 Workshop, Darmstadt, Germany
• What's new in MySQL 5.5 at LinuxTag 2011, Berlin Germany
• Updates on Oracle Linux and Oracle VM at fisl12, Porto Alegre, Brazil

I probably forgot a few things in my reflection of the past few months, but these were some of the highlights.

Check out my followup blog post on what I'm up to in the coming weeks and months!