An array of half-day workshops will take you inside the most pressing topics in the field. From hands-on labs for specific platforms (such as Linux/UNIX, Windows, network, and z/OS) to in-demand skills training, our Sunday Workshops deliver the practical techniques and knowledge you need to be effective.
Title: Performance Management with Free and Bundled Tools
Presented by: Adrian Cockcroft & Mario Jauvin
Topic: Capacity Planning
Abstract:
Computer system and Network performance data collection, analysis, modeling and capacity planning on any platform using bundled utilities and freely available tools such as Orca, BigBrother, OpenNMS, Nagios, Ganglia, SE Toolkit, R, Ethereal/Wireshark, Ntop, MySQL and PDQ.
Overview:
Capacity planning and performance management tools have been commercially available for many years. A new generation of freely available tools provides data collectors and analysis packages. As the underlying computer platforms and network devices have evolved, they have added improved data sources and have bundled free data collectors. Several open source and freeware projects have sprung up to collect and display cross-platform data, and with the advent of highly functional free statistics and modeling packages comprehensive analysis, modeling and archival storage can now be assembled. Free and bundled tools are of special interest to sites with very diverse mixes of systems, very large sites where licensing costs become prohibitive, and sites replacing a few large single systems with many more low cost horizontally scaled systems.
Bio:
Adrian Cockcroft - formerly at Sun for many years, well known author and presenter. Now at eBay.
Mario Jauvin - formerly at Nortel, now an independent consultant at MFJ Associates
Title: Hands on Workshop on Performance Prediction for Multi-tier Distributed Environment
Presented by: Dr. Boris Zibitsker
Topic: CPE
Abstract:
An intensive "hands on" workshop for performance management professionals who would like to learn the fundamentals of building and applying analytical models to proactively manage the performance of applications in multi-tier distributed environments including Web Servers, Application Servers based on Web Logic and Web Sphere as well as Oracle 10g, 10g RAC and DB2 UDB ESE DBMS supporting parallel processing.
Objective
Bio:
Dr. Boris Zibitsker is the Founder, CTO and Chairman of BEZ Systems. He is responsible for research and development of predictive performance modeling technology.
Boris and his colleagues have developed proactive performance management tools which are used by many Fortune 500 companies to plan, manage and control performance of their applications. Dr. Zibitsker has consulted with many of the largest enterprises in the world and taught seminars in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Title: Introduction to WebSphere MQ Performance
Presented by: Peter Enrico
Topic: z/OS
Abstract:
IBM WebSphere MQ (aka WMQ or MQSeries) is IBM’s Messaging Middleware offering.
During this WMQ performance workshop, Peter Enrico will discuss:
Please note that although this workshop concentrates on WMQ for z/OS, most of the overview and performance concepts discussed apply to WMQ on any platform or application exploiting WMQ.
For those of you that have attended previous Peter Enrico classes and CMG sessions you know this energetic workshop will be packed with lots of practical, useful, real world information and recommendations.
Extra Offer : Send SMF Data Prior To The Workshop!
Peter will once again offer workshop attendees the opportunity to send him SMF data. Peter will process any SMF data received at least 1 week prior to workshop. If the submitter attends the workshop Peter will return a CD containing tables and graphs of their own data. Then, on an informal basis, Peter will be available during CMG week to those wishing to discuss their WMQ SMF data with him.
For data gathering instructions, email Peter at .
Bio:
Peter Enrico has strong and diverse experience with the IBM zArchitecture platforms, and a solid background in z/OS, Workload Manager, Parallel Sysplex, USS, and WebSphere e-business performance.
Peter regularly teaches z/OS performance classes and as a member of Enterprise Performance Strategies, Inc., he works as a consultant for companies interested in z/OS performance analysis, tuning, capacity planning, and application performance.
Details of Peter’s seminar schedule, his consulting services, and for past papers and presentations, please visit http://www.epstrategies.com.
Title: Java Performance Analysis and Tuning
Presented by: Peter Johnson
Topic: CPE
Abstract:
Most likely you have Java applications running within your enterprise. And perhaps the performance is not what you would like. The default settings for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) are usually sufficient for basic application, but when you stress the application, unexpected slowdowns can occur. This workshop examines various mechanism that you an employ to analyze the performance of your Java application, and how to tune those applications.
The focus is not on making application changes, but rather on tuning the JVM or the application server hosting the application. After attending this workshop, you will be able to
Bio:
Peter started his computer career in August of 1980 working for Burroughs, programming mainframes in COBOL and Algol. He started coding in Java in 1998, and for the past several years was chief architect on a team that does performance analysis of Java applications on large-scale Intel-based machines (8 to 32 CPUs), and evaluates various open source software for enterprise readiness. Peter speaks often on Java and open-source related topics at various industry conferences, and won the Mullen Award for his presentation on Java performance analysis at the CMG 2006 conference.
Title: Introduction to Web Services, SOA and the Enterprise Service Bus
Presented by: Odysseas Pentakalos
Topic: Web Services
Abstract:
Web Services first appeared on the scene in 2000 and since then have quickly gained momentum in the industry. Almost every Fortune 500 company has incorporate Web Services in their IT strategy and small companies are using Web Services to integrate into the supply chains of their larger partners. Soon after Web Services started to gain traction, people started talking about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as being the key architectural pattern for achieving an agile IT infrastructure that enables ease of integration. More recently the concept of an Enterprise Service Bus has emerged as the solution to the problem of heterogeneous application integration.
This workshop will provide an introduction to Web Services, Service Oriented Architectures and the Enterprise Service Bus. We will start by describing Web Services and its basic building blocks. After reviewing the current state of Web Services in the industry, we will discuss the SOA architectural model and its relationship to Web Services. In the last part of the workshop we will focus on the concept of an Enterprise Service Bus and how it simplifies the management of the infrastructure for a large enterprise that has adopted the SOA architectural model.
Bio:
Odysseas Pentakalos is Chief Technology Officer of SYSNET International, Inc., where he focuses on providing his clients consulting services with performance management of computer systems and architecture of large distributed systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. He has published dozens of papers in conference proceedings and journals, is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is the co-author of the book Windows 2000 Performance Guide that is published by O'Reilly. Odysseas can be reached at odysseas@sysnetint.com.
Title: How to Move Beyond Monitoring, Pretty Damn Quick!
Presented by: Neil Gunther, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Topic: Capacity Planning
Abstract:
Monitoring and a performance database are fundamental to successful performance management and capacity planning. A plethora of tools, both commercial and freeware, are available to aid in that task. The strength of those tools, however, lies in monitoring operating system data on a per-host basis rather than business metrics, process transaction rates and web-user response times. Moreover, modern applications are tiered across multiple hosts. This leaves open the problem of how to stitch all these data together in such a way as to be able to assess capacity for application scalability and service level objectives. PDQ (Pretty Damn Quick) is an open-source, freeware, performance modeling tool that helps you to solve that problem. PDQ has been developed over the past 15 years and is used by a number of corporations as part of their routine capacity planning. PDQ is available in C, Perl, Python, Java and PHP, and runs on any platform including: AIX, Solaris, Linux, z/OS and Windows XP. In this tutorial, you will learn the same techniques I have used with PDQ to solve actual capacity planning problems associated with multithreaded WebLogic servers, a spam-filtering farm, a tiered e-business application, a client-server insurance application and more.
Bio:
Neil Gunther, M.Sc., Ph.D. is an internationally recognized consultant who founded Performance Dynamics in 1994. Prior to that, he held teaching, research and management positions at San Jose State University, JPL/NASA, Xerox PARC and Pyramid/Siemens Technology. His training classes have been given at both corporate and academic institutions including AOL, Boeing, FedEx, Motorola, Stanford University, and Sun Microsystems in the USA and Europe. Dr. Gunther has written 3 books and is well known for his CMG presentations. He is a member of the AMS, APS, ACM, CMG, IEEE, and INFORMS.
Title: Availability: Best Practices and Capacity Planning to maximize system uptime.
Presented by: Susan Schreitmueller
Topic: Linux/UNIX
Abstract:
This session will cover the logistical system planning and benefits of adequate capacity to maintain a rotational rather than cascading failover model. Methods of reducing availability will be discussed along with the capacity implications to maintain different models. One of the best techniques to minimize downtime is to plan for and implement rolling upgrades. Since failover models often result in non-zero disruptive take-overs, eliminating the need to fail back can significantly improve uptime.
We will also compare and contrast current technologies for availability and future methodologies for the System p platform along with predicted affects on capacity planning. Capacity Upgrade on demand will be reviewed in terms of maximizing availability.
Bio:
Susan Schreitmueller is a Distinguished Engineer with the IBM corporation specializing in systems management, availability and performance. Although she has worked on all platforms, her specialty is AIX and System p. Susan is recognized as a subject matter expert having successfully delivered over 100 presentations all over the world. She is the author of many white papers, redbooks and articles on various aspects of IT infrastructure management.
Title: Introduction to zPCR and Hands-On Lab
Presented by: Kathy Walsh
Topic: z/OS
Abstract:
Capacity Planning has never faced as many challenges as seen today on IBM System z9 processors. These large processors have the ability to support 60 different LPARs running traditional z/OS workloads, like CICS and IMS, and new workloads, like Linux on System z and Websphere. z/OS itself now supports 32 CPs in an LPAR and can be run with specialty processors like the zAAP which runs z/OS Java based workloads, and the new IBM System z9 zIIP which runs z/OS enclave SRB based workloads. Add to this mix the capacity issues from using other specialty CPs like an IFL used to run zLinux environments, and ICFs used to run Coupling Facility partitions.
This workshop will introduce you to the methods IBM uses to describe processor capacity for IBM System z9 and IBM zSeries processors. We will discuss the use of LSPR data and the ability to easily use the LSPR data via a new tool, free from IBM, called zPCR. This hands-on lab will provide attendees with a copy of zPCR and several different capacity planning scenarios will be taught using the tool. Attendees are expected to bring their own laptops on which to run the exercises. Whether planning a processor migration or just changing your LPAR configurations learn how to use zPCR to understand the capacity impacts of the change.
Bio:
Kathy Walsh is an internationally recognized speaker and author on the zSeries platform. With extensive experience consulting on the use, deployment, performance and management of z/OS environments Kathy is a sought after expert on the management of large System z9 environments. She has written numerous articles on z/OS performance and on capacity planning approaches for large mainframe environments. She is the team leader of the performance team at IBM's Washington Systems Center.
Title: Performance and Tuning of .NET Framework Applications
Presented by: Mark Friedman
Topic: Windows
Abstract:
The .NET Framework is an extensible, object-oriented Class library that is used by millions of application developers. This workshop provides a thorough introduction to the most important performance-oriented aspects of building scalable .NET applications. Participants will gain hands-on exposure to the run-time architecture of .NET Framework applications, with an emphasis on the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the managed-code environment in which the applications run. Additional performance considerations for .NET Components, WPF, ASP.NET and WCF web service-based applications will be discussed. The different programming models used to access to SQL Server, including LINQ, ADO.NET, and hosting of CLR-based programs are compared and contrasted. Specific techniques for exploiting parallelism on today’s multi-core machines are also considered.
The Workshop is oriented around case studies that illustrate and emphasize the interpretation of the measurement data and the use of the tools.
Bringing a portable computer capable of running Windows Vista or XP is highly recommended.
Bio:
Mark Friedman is the founder and President of Demand Technology Software, headquartered in Naples, FL. The company develops tools for Windows performance monitoring and capacity planning. He is the author of the Windows Server 2003 Performance Guide, a volume in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, published by Microsoft Press in 2005. His earlier book, Windows 2000 Performance Guide, was published by O’Reilly Associates in February, 2002.
Mr. Friedman's experience in commercial Information Technology spans twenty-five years with Fortune 100 corporate data centers, government, hardware vendors and commercial software houses. His previous experience includes senior technical and management roles at Datacore Software, Landmark Systems, Morino Associates, and StorageTek. He is a recognized expert in computer performance and storage management. He was a regular contributor to Enterprise Systems Journal and is in demand to speak at Computer Measurement Group, SHARE, GUIDE, Storage Management User Groups, the RAID Advisory Board, and meetings of other professional organizations.
Mr. Friedman's training seminars, lectures and published work are highly regarded for their technical quality and depth, and he is esteemed for his ability to communicate complex technical topics in plain, concise terms. He holds a Master's degree in Computer Science. He was the recipient of the Computer Measurement Group’s prestigious A. A. Michelson lifetime achievement award in 2005.
Title: Capacity Management from A to A (ITIL® + pragmatic processes, trusted techniques and sample studies)
Presented by: Adam Grummitt
Topic: ITIL
Abstract:
When embracing ITIL® as a discipline, Service Delivery and Capacity Management in particular should be high on the agenda for implementation to gain quick returns and meet all IT governance and compliance issues. Capacity Management covers both performance management and capacity planning and this workshop deals with it from A to A:
This workshop addresses all of the activities involved within the Capacity Management process. It addresses the theory, background, key concepts and their practical implementation. It shows the nature of the main activities: measurement, analysis and prediction and reporting on all of them. It looks at the required data sources and available key metrics and the tools and techniques involved in their collection and analysis. Various statistical and analytical models available for their interpretation are introduced. It considers the pragmatic detail in implementing the required activities and considers their interfaces with other ITSM processes. It includes some practical exercises and sample capacity plans based on case studies to underpin the techniques introduced.
Bio:
Adam Grummitt has been playing with computers since graduating from Cambridge way back. Doing research in mass spectrometry he used the first Digital PDP8 in the UK and early IBM mainframes. He has since been an analyst, designer and programmer for end-users, software houses and as a consultant.
He is a founding Director of Metron (21 years ago), which was an early partner in UKCMG, ITIL and itSMF. He is on the executive of the UKCMG and itSMF. He gives papers and workshops on ITIL and capacity management at many international conferences and is a well-known speaker at many chapters of CMG.
Title: ITIL V3: What's New in ITIL this year?
Presented by: George Spalding
Topic: ITIL
Abstract:
The hottest thing in ITIL this year is the new refreshed ITIL Version 3! Are you wondering what the key differences are between V2 and V3? There are some key concept changes in V3. This workshop session will give you an overview ofV3 as well as a key concepts overview of the each of the five new Core V3 Books.
This workshop session will feature one of the new ITIL V3 authors, George Spalding, who will guide you through a look at the 5 new ITIL V3 Core Publications which will have a consistent structure:
Bio:
George Spalding
VP Global Events, Pink Elephant
For over 25 years George Spalding has been helping individuals on five continents realize their full potential by simplifying complex topics and inspiring people to acquire new skills. He is one of NA's most insightful and engaging ITSM experts. In addition to his commitment to improving the IT Service Management industry, George's irreverent blend of quick wit and high-tech humor make him a much sought-after presenter. His speaking credentials include keynote presentations at nearly every support-related conference on the continent.
Title: Archiving Data Economics and Regulatory Compliance
Presented by: Randy Kerns
Topic: Storage
Abstract:
While archiving data has been a practice in Information Technology since the early days of recording media, what constitutes archiving has become an area where there are many definitions. The ongoing capacity demands and the operational cost issues have led to a new focus on archiving of data. New technologies and new systems have been deployed that provide new opportunities for archiving and allow for more archiving discipline.
The economics of archiving touch many different areas:
In the current climate of litigation and protection, archiving of data carries along and heightens the need to handle some percentage of data according to regulatory compliance rules. The compliance requirements are in addition to providing capabilities regarding legal discovery which applies to any type of business. Archiving of data, to be effectively implemented, requires the integration of handling of different regulatory requirement and discovery demands.
This workshop will characterize what constitutes archiving today and explain the different options available. The economics of employment of an archiving strategy will be detailed and the different regulatory and discovery requirements will be highlighted.
Bio:
Randy Kerns is currently the Chief Technology Officer of ProStor Systems in Boulder, CO. Previously he was an independent storage analyst and consultant. His thirty-plus years in the computer industry include executive management, development and analyst positions. Prior to ProStor Systems, Randy served as an industry analyst covering data storage, including SAN and NAS analysis. Randy is the author of Planning a Storage Strategy, a book that provides step-by-step guidance on how to build an information storage strategy as part of a larger business process.
Title: SQL Server performance tuning and scalability experience sharing
Presented by: Xianeng (Shennon) Shen (Ph.D.)
Topic: Windows
Abstract:
IT staffs and application developers are facing a lot of issues in performance and scalability in a SQL Server environment, especially those moved over from DB2 and Oracle experience. This workshop is designed to help you with understanding and improving your SQL Server application in certain areas. It will focus on sharing the experience of using the performance features of the SQL Server and tuning your applications using SQL Server. Considering the complexity of database applications, it is not possible to cover all the areas in a half day workshop. We will only focus on optimization of data load, temporary database, and schema tuning.
Attendees will learn how to use SQL Server Profiler and Database Engine Tuning Advisor monitor, discovery performance problems, and got tuning suggestions.
Monitoring application and discovering problems are the starting point of real world examples. We will walk you through how to find root causes, come up with reasonable solutions, and implement those solutions. Attendees should be able to apply the material covered to their job.
Bio:
Xianeng (Shennon) Shen (Ph.D.) is a performance architect at Risk Management Solution Inc. (RMS). He has worked extensively on database architecture, performance tuning, application performance, and scalability. He has more than 15 years experience in software development, including performance and scalability of clustering file system, storage system, cluster & server systems, and database application.
Title: Trouble Free High Performance SANs; Detect & Eliminate SAN issues before applications are impacted!
Presented by: Kerry Kane & Craig Foster
Topic: Storage
Abstract:
How often is your Storage Network blamed for application slowdowns? Surveys show that over 90% of the time the SAN is blamed for application performance issues, but after exhaustive and time consuming analysis, less than 10% of the time is the problem in the SAN! During this workshop, Finisar, the leading OEM provider of optical components and design and test equipment to the Storage vendors, will demonstrate best practices to instrument your SAN to ensure high-performance and trouble free storage network data paths so that applications have rapid, uninterrupted access to their data every time, all the time. This workshop will focus on instrumentation of non-disruptive, fault tolerant Traffic Analysis Points and proactive monitoring solutions to provide both real-time and historical data traffic visibility across your SAN network links to quickly and easily detect Fibre Channel network congestion, problems, and errors before users or applications are impacted.
Bio:
As VP, Enterprise Solutions, Kerry Kane is responsible for delivering Finisar’s SAN Performance solutions to the Enterprise market. Kerry has over 20 years storage technology experience with both established and early stage startup companies.
As Mgr, Partner Development, Craig Foster is responsible for developing partner strategies with major storage vendors to deliver Finisar's SAN performance solutions to the Enterprise market. Craig has 12 years experience architecting, designing & developing solutions for system, application, and network monitoring.