[ug-dfwosug] DFW OpenSolaris User's Group & DSUG

Tue Nov 20 14:39:10 PST 2007

Bob,
My thoughts on your thoughts are inline.....

Bob Netherton wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-11-16 at 15:10 -0600, Wences Michel wrote:
>
>   
>> Thank you all for your participation in the DFW OpenSolaris Users
>> Group!
>>     
>
> More than that, I think we all owe Wences a huge thank you.   When we
> started thinking about doing this, we knew we would have some challenges
> as our day jobs came into conflict.  Wences has absolutely been a rock,
> consistent - always keeping things moving along.   Thanks for all of
> your help over the past year.
>   
Could not agree more....... Thanks to Wences and Coberen Mark (even 
though he went to the dark side) and also for Lisa Danzer for management 
support on these users groups.
>   
>> 2)    We have formed a volunteer board to help grow and better
>> organize the group.
>> The volunteer Board Members  for the 2008 Board are:
>>         William A. Midyette - J.C. Penney
>>         Jerry Kemp - Neiman Marcus
>>         Al Hopper - Logical Approach
>>         Wences Michel - Sun Microsystems
>>         TBD - Sun Microsystems
>>     
>
> Thanks guys for stepping up.  We appreciate your assistance and the
> group will be better next year as a result of your efforts.  So thanks
> again.
>   
Very much agree........ vendors can't run these groups that's why they 
are called "User" groups
>   
>> 3)       The Community has decided on the following issues
>>       * We will continue Monthly Meeting for 2008 instead of going to
>>         every other month schedule
>>     
>
> Excellent.  One message that I have heard is that consistency is
> important.   No starting, stopping, dropping the ball.   So we
> will move forward with this charge.
>
> Since I have been king of the ball droppers, I think it wise to
> consider a primary topic with a backup for each month.  We'll
> advertise.   Think of it like the NFL - we'll cover a game in your
> area unless there's something better :-)
>   
Their is soooooo........ much technology to discuss and it changes so 
fast, I couldn't see dropping off to every other month!
>   
>>       * Problem Solving/Brainstorming: Dedicate 15 minutes each
>>         meeting  to help community members
>>     
>
> The DFW Unix User's Group does this and that sounds like a good idea.
>
> I'd also add a project update section where we can just highlight
> OpenSolaris projects that have either kicked off or reached some sort
> of milestone.   Perhaps interesting things that have hit one of the
> big repositories.   Sort of a human distrowatch.
>   
As a suggestion we may want to come up with a consistence Agenda that 
devotes the right amount of time to each recurring topic, Like

    * Problem of the month..... and discussion - contributed by user
      group member via website? (recurring and set time limit)
    * OpenSolaris Updates.... and discussion What does this mean to me
      and how I use Solaris?  (recurring and set time limit)
    * Recent Sun announcements - general (recurring and set time limit)
    * Main topic of the month - as scheduled (variable time)
    * Round table and wrap-up

>   
>>       * Try to add a little more systems hardware meeting topics
>>     
>
> Cool - so this is the DSUG side of the DFWOSUG/DSUG partnership :-)
> Good suggestion - we can do that.   How about if we do one product
> per month as a spotlight ?
>
>   
>> 4)    Agenda Planning for Next Year 2008:
>>         Jan - Project Indiana, Bob Netherton
>>         Feb - X64 & Blades, Terry Konich
>>         Mar - xVM & Ops Center, TBD
>>         Apr - OpenSolaris & ISCI Storage, Al Hopper
>>         May - Identity Managment, TBD
>>         Jun - Solaris 10 U5, TBD
>>         Jul - Combined Meeting with Fort Worth OSUG - TBD
>>     
>
> When we considered starting up an OpenSolaris User's Group, one specific
> goal was to avoid being yet another marketing outreach program.  As I
> look at the agenda, I'm having a hard time distinguishing between a
> users group and a set of lunch and learns.
>   
The discussion around more product information was from the users. They 
were asking  us to  provide true technical (no marketing) info on Sun 
products along with practical demos (don't tell me about it..... show me 
about it!).   That is what we had in mind.  In other words show up like 
Al does with a working mouse trap don't just tell me about how it 
catches the mouse..............
> So I'd really like to throw this idea out for some consideration (and
> ultimately as an alternative to the above calendar) - can we begin to
> change the focus in the direction of howto sorts of discussions ?
> That is one of the things that I really liked about Al Hopper's
> presentations, they were different from what we might do on a
> sales call.
>
>
> So I propose the following - and please comment!   I will not assume
> silence as concurrence :-)
>
> January - Project Indiana update - this stays as is.   It's a
> fascinating topic with loads of controversy.   We'll have our second
> developer snapshot about that time, so lots to talk about.  It's also
> a good opportunity to catch up on the status of some interesting
> projects like Network Automagic, Crossbow, xVM, etc.
>
> February - Implementing an open source web stack on Solaris.   Can we
> have a volunteer talk about how to get the parts, assemble them, and
> what you learned in the process.   Perhaps compare and contrast the
> Solaris and OpenSolaris approach with Linux ?    And the coolstack
> too ?   Any volunteers ?
>   
I think the group was interested in seeing Sun products in action...... 
That is why we set up February to do a technical dive into a couple of 
x64 products complete with a demo.......... I'm willing to set this up. 
The format would be to first present a technical dive into the product 
family to be demoed and the follow with a practical demonstration of the 
product in action. This can all be done in the Dallas office on a SunRay.
> Or how about Jumpstarting LDOMs and Xen domains ?   What do you have to
> do to make this stuff work.   How does ZFS play into it ?   iSCSI boot ?
>   
The LDOM jumpstart sound like a great idea...... Brad Beadles is setting 
up a couple of T2000s in our lab to create a demo for customers.

I'm also setting up x64 equipment to demonstrate ILOM,  xVM, and 
VDI/SunRay  technologies. Again all done in the office. We can even give 
them a tour of the lab and let them touch the servers if they would like.

>
> March - Performance Tools and Tips.    We can talk about DTrace, the
> DTrace toolkit, graphical performance tools, the new p commands in
> Solaris and the general approaches to problem solving.   I have several
> speakers in mind for this one.
>   
I personally think scheduling out beyond 2-3 months is non-productive as 
the only thing that changes faster that schedules is technology!
> April - iSCSI and OpenSolaris.   Great topic and Al returns to the
> podium.  A great topic, perhaps augmented with a small iSCSI primer
> for those not totally immersed in the technology ?
>
>
> May and on get a bit fuzzy at this point as things may come and go in
> terms of importance.  Somewhere in there we should do a what's new in
> Solaris discussion, again focused on the application of the feature :-)
>
>
> Comments, suggestions, questions ???????
>
>
> bob
>
>
>
>   

-- 

<http://www.sun.com/>

*Terrence Konich *
Systems Engineer

*Sun Microsystems, Inc.*
16000 North Dallas Parkway, Suite 700
Dallas, TX 75248 US
Phone 972-386-8404
Mobile 214 673 1552
Email Terry.Konich at Sun.COM

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