Utah Open Source Planet

I’m back from the Chicagoland area, and It’s good to be back home.  The trip home was mostly without incident, with both planes actually arriving on time (or earlier).  The trip was pleasant, and I made some really great friends with other instructors and developers out there within the ranks of the Apple Certified Instructor network.  

So, what about the training?  

Directory Services:  The Directory Services class was phenomenal.  It focused on connecting to various directory systems out there (both Active Directory and OpenLDAP), using the built in GUI tools, third party tools, and using the command line utility.  

We spent a lot of time demoting and promoting our servers to Open Directory Masters, while connecting to another directory system and making an Open Directory Replica.  

I learned a lot of new things at the training, mostly on how to replicate and create backup Directory systems for failover.  I’ll start covering each chapter in more detail as time permits, but needless to say it was a very useful class.  

Overall the flow was well designed.  The material was a little lacking in that some work in the workbook was not available or mentioned in the reference guide.  But other than that, it was well done.  The cognitive load was well managed with the timing of the class, and the constructivist method was well represented in this material.  Arek Dreyer, who wrote the reference guide, did a great job with the work.  I hope he works on the material again with the new 10.6 materials for which Apple Training is already planning.  

Advanced System Administration:  I want to preface this review by mentioning how this class was originally conceived.  When 10.5 came out, Apple Training looked at the existing certification and noticed that an Apple Certified Systems Administrator could go the whole certification process without once taking anything more than Server Essentials.  

Apple wanted to make the certification more meaningful, and so decided that knowing how to set up the environment was more important than knowing how to manage an Xsan or Podcast Producer.  And, quite honestly, they were right.  A Systems Administrator needed to focus on the core system that allows for Xsan and Podcast Producer to work well with the rest of the system, and not just the peripheral systems.  

So, basically, anything that didn’t fit into Deployment (system imaging and image maintenance) and Directory Services needed to be dumped into this class.  As such, the class is 5 days long and still too short for the material.  It’s also a fairly new class, as it is the only class that was not recreated from Tiger classes.

So, what do I think of it?  It definitely shows the signs of a kitchen sink class.  If you don’t have experience in the Command Line and didn’t take any of the other classes, you would be totally lost on this one.  It is completely designed to be a capstone course, and allow the student to design their own solution while completing the class.  

But there are problems:  If you don’t focus on the on-going narration (which the instructor had better be creating along the way for the sanity of the learners), then you can easily get lost in the details.  There is a lot of focus on current UNIX solutions, potential issues, tools that are still in development, and proprietary command line tools that Apple has created to manage their utilities.  All this is thrown at the student in four pillars:  Planning and Implementation, Networking, Administration (monitoring, security, and automation), and Troubleshooting.  

The narration is thus:  You have just been hired as the new PretendCo Systems Administrator, and the company is on the cusp of huge growth.  You find out that the company, up to now, has been running on one server, set up as a Standard configuration system for convenience.  You now have to do some real management to scale up the system you put in place in order to cope with the new growth expectations.  

For me, it’s going to be a challenge to teach this in a For-Credit schedule, if just because the course narration will be really difficult to keep in the student’s mind.  When I offer this class, I’ll be spending a lot of time focusing on the instructor notes, so that I can keep that narration flowing.  I may need to build the narration into some online exercises as well.  

So, overall, Directory Services was a hit, and a blast to teach.  Advanced System Administration was great, but I was honestly only able to keep up because of what I had already known having both taken all the previous Apple classes, and my experience with Linux.  I’m thinking that I may make the Linux Fundamentals a prerequisite for taking this class.  That way I can know that my students have had time to whet their experience on a UNIX environment in the command line.

This week I finish up with my T3’s for Apple with Advanced Server Administration.  This class is focused primarily on running the ADDIE process (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) throughout the IT  infrastructure of a company, and build it up using both the GUI and Command Line tools.  Because it is assumed that you have been learning the GUI tools up to this point (this is the capstone course), it primarily focuses on the command line tools available to the Mac.  

I’m not sure when we will offer the class at the U, as much depends on other training offerings and any additional infrastructure we would need, but I already have a lot of people interested in this class.  Most of them are Linux administrators who are going to be supporting the Apple platform, and want to do so with SSH (just as they would with Linux).  I already have a list of people who would love to take that class.  

Anyway, it all hinges on whether or not I’m judged “good enough” to train.  Partly judged by my peers, partly judged by the Master Trainer, my fate rests in their hands.  At this point, however, I’m less concerned.  I’m rather more concerned with how my family is doing back home.  I’m literally counting the days until I fly out.  But I will miss the Chicago area.  

Anyway, more details on the classes I attended during this trip sometime next week.  I’ll give a teaser for the classes, and give you my opinion of the materials and flow of the class.  

As promised, here is my review for the Mac OS X Deployment 10.5 T3 that I attended this last week.  

First, the location.  Of course I’m biased, but I have always loved Chicago, and as such enjoyed the trip Villa Park and Oakbrook Terrace.  The hotel was nice, and the location of the training facility was fairly easy to get to.  The only problem:  no sidewalks.  It makes it difficult to walk when you don’t have sidewalks, and there isn’t enough room to walk on the street (without getting hit).  Other than that, the location was nothing to complain about. 

The materials:  There are quite a lot of material for this class, and I was a little concerned that it would be impossible to fit it all into a 2 day training.  Luckily, that was the thought of the course developers as well, and as such the training was extended to 3 days.  That fits in perfectly with my training schedule I have planned for the University, so I didn’t complain. 

The Subject Matter:  There was still a lot that I wanted to cover but couldn’t in the class, mostly those focusing around the command line.  But then, there is a separate class for that, which I will be attending in two weeks.  ^_^  But those important topics, such as deploying through the command line, and imaging through the command line, were covered in depth.  Also planning, scaling, and third party utilities for managing a deployment option was well covered.  

One really nice thing I liked about the class was a mandate for the student to immediately apply what they have learned to a real world situation.  They do this through a Deployment planning sheet, which the trainer should have printed out for each student.  We didn’t have it, but it was made available to us in PDF form, and there is a link that comes with the learning materials to PeachPit’s website for the same PDF.  Once the form is filled out, the last chapter talks about real world solutions in many large companies, school districts, and training centers, and gives the student time to go through their document to see what they find useful, and what they don’t need, in their deployment of OS X.  

The Requirements:  It is essential the student have a command of both the Mac OS X GUI and have command line experience before starting this course.  Basically, students would need to have completed at least the Server Essentials course, and be able to manage a UNIX command line experience.  Why?  Because at the beginning of the course you are just expected to set up your computers with little assistance from the book.  At this point, it is expected that the student knows already how to set up a brand new install of Mac OS X. 

The command line experience would be more along the lines of familiar with syntax of commands.  Most, if not all, of the commands used are Mac OS X Utilities and not your typical UNIX commands, yet the syntax is the same and therefore the student needs to be familiar with that syntax.  There may be some situations when troubleshooting is necessary, and as such the student will need to know how to get to the man pages.  

Something else that would be important before taking this class is having troubleshooting knowledge, and an understanding of what you are being prepared to learn.  This way if something doesn’t quite work they way it’s written in the book, you can step outside of the given examples and find alternatives.  That’s part of learning, something that many students I have had in the past didn’t quite understand.  It requires reading/studying ahead of time, asking questions, and being attentive.  

The Pace:  Unlike both Support and Server Essentials where we pend a lot of time trying to catch the class up after some really long first setup exercises, this class is paced just right for the materials.  We as a training class (of 10 trainers) finished with plenty of time on the last day to cover some topics more in depth, and that was with us doing the majority of the optional exercises.  So with a typical class at this level, the pacing will be such that students will have some time to play with some configuration, or perhaps have a long lunch as a thank you for coming to the class.  

Overall, it is the best designed Apple training course I have attended so far.  The materials are well designed, the pace is just right (low to medium cognitive load), and the course talks well to adult students (through Constructivist methods).  This is a class that may not run often here in Utah, but will most likely be a well attended class when it does.  It is by far my most favorite class to date.  ^_^  

Also, I’d like to say thanks to everyone that attended, because they gave me some very welcomed constructive criticism, and the Master Trainer was a great host.  If only the Cubs could have won all three games I was there, rather than just one of the two.  Oh well, there is always next time.  

Last night, at 10:30 PM, I flew into the Chicago Midway Airport.  Why?  Because I am taking a Train the Trainer class for OS X Deployment for 10.5.  I have never been East of the Mississippi, unless you count the quick stop in JFK on my way to and from Germany.  As such, I didn’t know what to expect.  

The flight was, bumpy at first.  I flew Frontier Airlines, which is based out of Denver.  The runway in Denver was really rough, and the plane I was on first made noises as though someone was literally riveting the thing together as we took off and landed.  Other than that, it was a pretty nice flight.  

From Denver to Chicago was different.  Because I was in such a hurry to make my connection (the plane was supposed to be taking off when I landed), I had to place my smaller bag overhead, which had my reading material.  So, I read the magazine available to me, until the entertainment was turned off and then on again.  They had to reboot (and on these planes each person had their own TV screen).  The good news is that we all got free TV content without having to pay for it (normally it was $3.99).  Also, the leg room was MUCH better than either Delta or American Airlines.  I was impressed.

The taxi ride was a bit longer than I would have expected, and the traffic was really light (but then, it WAS after 10:00 at night).  It was pleasant, and the hotel attendant that checked me in was very courteous.  I hadn’t eaten all day (my delay at Denver was more of a mad dash), so I ate the cookie in my room.  I’m sure I’ll be paying for it later, but I was really hungry.  

The room was really warm.  I didn’t see an air conditioning unit, and didn’t know how to cool things off, so I just dealt with it.  It was still cooler than my house had been lately back home with a broken swamp cooler (which I managed to fix for my wife Sunday, before I flew out).  By that time it was midnight Chicago time, and I was planning on waking up at 6:00, since I didn’t know where I was going the next day. 

I woke up at 7:00 AM, checked my email, and breathed a sigh of relief that the training was not starting until 9:00.  I got ready and headed down to breakfast, which was filling, yet light.  Not too much meat, plenty of egg, a half a danish, and some yogurt.  

I then headed out to the training building.  I’m walking, because the training building was supposed to be less than a mile away from my location…  except I got some rather dodgy directions and ended up going the wrong way.  By now the heat and humidity was getting to me, and I was 15 minutes late to the training.  Luckily they didn’t start anything important, and I was able to get settled.  I’ll comment on the training on the last day (but for now I’ll just say I’m enjoying it.  ^_^).  

Lunch was at the Baker’s Place (I think), which has the exact same menu items as Village Inn, which apparently no one on either side of the Rockies had heard of.  It was good, even though the meal came slow.  But it was right next to the training center, which gave us plenty of time to get back (five of us ate there).  

After the training, I headed back to the hotel.  The traffic was horrendous, making me quite happy I opted to walking.  I hate traffic, even in Salt Lake which didn’t even compare to what I saw on my way back to the hotel.  

Along the way, I was looking for options to try for my dinner.  I’m not really that picky, and I like to make something light while on the road.  That way I can study while eating and not be bothered by anyone.  Well, I was about to give up on any type of grocery store until I saw it:  An Aldi.  

Now, many of you may think I’m being silly, but I love Aldi.  Why?  Because I used to always shop there in Frankfurt.  They were everywhere, and held the cheapest, almost tasteless food imaginable.  But it brought back fond memories of the old days, and I picked up some things for dinner and lunch for the next two days.  I picked up fruit, bottled water (mostly for the bottles), and two dinner items.  All total it came to $14.00.  I just had to carry it the rest of the way back to the hotel (again, another Germany moment). 

So, how do I rate my trip to the Chicago area so far?  Traffic is a definite minus, no sidewalks reminds me of Austin Texas (and the blisters I got), and I don’t really like the heat.  

The plus sides are close shops, a nice, comfortable hotel room (I’ve since found the AC ^_^), and an ALDI close by.  I’d say that this is definitely the best training trip I’ve been on.  The only thing that could make this better than going to Cupertino for training would be an Apple Company Store with employee discount.  ^_^

Stay tuned for details on my Training experience!  

This week I am preparing for training in Chicago (Villa Park) for OS X Deployment, 10.5.  The class is newly remade, with a pretty hefty schedule for something that was supposed to be just 2 days long.  As it sits now, It looks like it will be a good 3 days for the class, though I will find out for sure next week.  

The course seems to be pretty straightforward, focusing on deploying Mac OS X to a large audience.  All the bases are covered from planning to execution.  It will be a great class to sit through, and prepare to take the certification exam.

This will be the second time I am leaving my wife and son for training.  Luckily, this week will be a short one, as I am leaving on Monday, and coming back late Thursday night.  This way I will still be able to teach my Server Essentials class on Friday, and not put the students one more day behind.  

The next step will be going to Mac OS X Directory Services 10.5, and Advanced Server.  These classes are 4 and 5 days each, respectively, and will put me a full 11 days away from my wife and son.  I didn’t do well last time around Christmas, but this time the major holiday will be behind me, and I will have another that following week to devote to my son.  

At any rate, it will be the first time I have ever been to Chicago in my life, and I’m really excited.  I’m a big Chicago Cubs fan, and have always wanted to see the Windy City.  Perhaps I’ll get a chance to head into town for the weekend.  One can only hope.  

Now that I have things pretty much under control back home, I promised that I would post my impressions on the Apple Training upgrade to 10.5 that I attended for the past two weeks.

The Design
Overall, the design actually follows some instructional design techniques, unlike the Tiger materials. The student, as they progress through the course, must utilize the techniques, steps, and knowledge they had acquired in previous chapters. Building upon the previous material the students are reinforced in that material, and are not treated as mindless children that can't learn. Constructivist theories at the heart of it, which makes me happy. THe command line is no longer separate from the individual events that the commands apply to, but rather you learn the command line all through the book. Finally, the training becomes professional, and therefore something I am proud to offer at the University.

The Materials
The materials are being published through PeachPit, though the student kits will only be available to an Apple Authorized Training Center. They are very well done, with bits of the lecture in with the slide presentations. They no longer follow the Reference book, which has additional assignments should someone want to continue on with their learning in another direction. The only thing that I currently see wrong is having a place for notes, should the instructor choose to cover a specific topic in more detail. Other than that, it will be professionally bound, and cost less than the workbooks that were available from Apple. ^_^ Good news for any Apple Authorized Training Center.

The Test
now that I have taken both tests, I can say that the tests are written a little better than the previous test, though I took the longer version than will be available for everyone else. The test will be designed to have someone sit for 2 hours (mine was designed for someone to sit for 2.5 hours), and instead of killing all the easy questions, both easy and hard questions will be removed from the test. This way the test results will be generally higher, and passing will also need to be higher. For now, it will still be multiple choice, but they are looking into some real application and development along that front. What I would like to see is a practical sit-down test, similar to Red Hat's exams, which no one can just memorize an answer without learning something. Apple Training would like to see it as well, so it's good to see that we are on the same page. ^_^

The Staff
Apple Training has gone through a lot of changes recently, with most of the staff being laid off. This comes from a common belief that the Macintosh platform is so easy to use, there shouldn't need to be any training for it (i.e., the Apple Executives that don't want to pay for a Training Department). Unfortunately, this is the way many companies are moving, and leads us into a longer rant about the importance of training, and the quick decisions to axe training in corporate environments to save money. Anyway, those that are left are really the cream of the crop, and being led by someone that really has a fantastic vision for the direction training should go.

Final Thoughts
My trip to Austin was bumpy, my trip back was agitated. I had more bad experiences in Austin than I have had in just about any other city, but all in all I liked it. I'm actually making a plan to head down to San Antonio in a couple of years, as we plan a trip to Oklahoma to visit some family. So it wasn't the worst experience I have ever had in traveling (that would be the time I was in JFK and a baggage car rammed into our plane, delaying us 5 hours). All in all, it was productive, and this Spring we can start with the 10.5 materials. In the meantime, I am going to see if it's possible to set up a testing environment for the Macintosh that will let me grade someone on the progress they have setting up a machine, both at the Computer and Server level.

I just finished the first week of Leopard Training for Support Essentials. It was an interesting ride, and there is a lot that I like about it, and some that I'm not too happy with.

What I Liked
I have to hand it to Apple: When they contract to people to write their training materials, they do a good job. The three instructors that we had all wrote the materials in the Student Workbook, and the workbook now looks like it is worth the money you pay for it.

The course does eliminate the need for a key chapter that was my most popular when I taught the class: The Command Line. Now, instead of having a single chapter, we introduce it bit by bit, integrating it with each of the chapters. So now instead of just getting a quick look at how to play with the command line, you are using it actively in each chapter.

How is this better? Well, for those that are looking to integrate a quick remote method of troubleshooting on the Mac and don't want to bother with the bandwidth required for a VNC connection, they can quickly perform pretty telling troubleshooting tasks. In fact, I would say that more Command Line content is included in this course than in the previous course.

Other great things are the lack of Apple Remote Desktop (yay!), more focus on the core open source technologies available, and a focus on BootCamp (which is now integrated into Leopard). It's also nice to be able to repartition your drive, live, with Disk Utility without having to use a third-party application. Sure, linux could do that for years, but with Windows and previous versions of Mac you would need a third party app to get it done.

What I Didn't Like
The weakest point in the Apple training is perhaps the testing. It always has been, because there has never been a bank of questions, just one set of questions for each time you take the test. So, it's not a real evaluation of your knowledge. It's also problematic because in order to compensate, they provide obscure questions that require a constant study of the reference material instead of practical application. But then, it is a multiple choice test, and what else can you do?

The good news is that it's possible that new testing methods could be on it's way. I'm hoping for a more Flash-based virtual environment that will simulate the experience. Another possibility would be to have the training centers set up a physical exam, much the same way as RedHat exams, and allow the instructor/training center to deliver it. Of course it runs into consistency issues (from one AATC to another), but that is another topic all together.

Other than that, it was a good training situation. We got a quick peek at the future new exams that are coming down the pipe, and I'm really impressed with them. Finally, it feels like Apple is getting some real quality back into their training materials.

I'm really excited for next week, when we go over Server Essentials!

This is short notice, but we have another Alfresco training class this month.  This will be an excellent class, getting down into the details of designing content models, configuring the web client and a bonus section on configuring custom dashlets (Dashlets are like portlets on the My Alfresco Dashboard).   The 2-day class will be held in Reston Virginia.

The class will be taught by Louis LaFontisee, our Global Education Manager.

Content Modeling & Web Client Configuration

The Content Modeling & Web Client Configuration course builds upon the skills you learn in the System Administration course, enabling you to configure Alfresco even further.

Full course information »

We are having Sysadmin and WCM training for Alfresco in Santa Clara, CA, at the end of the month. If you are interested, register soon. Seats will go quickly. (This is probably the last chance for training on the west coast for the year.)

Sysadmin training is being taught by Luis Sala, Senior Director of Solution Engineering. WCM training will be taught the Peter Monks, Director of Services.

System Administration

This is an introductory course for customers and partners who need to deploy a production-ready system. It is a pre-requisite to most other Alfresco Training courses.
Full course information »

Web Content Management for Developers

This developer-oriented course focuses around an installation of Alfresco 2.1E with lab exercises for form development, template development, and deployment.
Full course information »

Today we have received official word that the University of Utah will be offering For Credit classes that are official training certification courses for Apple, Cisco, and Linux. Starting this Spring the School of Computing will be offering special topics for the Cisco Network Academy's CCNA Exploration course, Apple Support and Server Essentials, and the Linux Professional Institute courses for level 1 and level 2. INterestingly enough, there has been a lot of interest from the Engineering students on learning Cisco, and and the Business IS students for Linux and Apple.

These classes will be graded (not Pass/Fail for those worried about their GPA), and the courses are electives so anyone can take them from any department. That being said, there will be a hefty special fee to augment the cost of the labs, and the cost of the training materials. You would be surprised how much companies charge for their proprietary training materials.

CCNA Exploration Course
The CCNA course will be the latest course offerings (as of September 2007), and will be a 4 credit hour course. This is because of the large amount of information you need to get through, and need to study up on in your free time. It is not for the faint at heart, so you may want to take a Networking course first to prepare for it. It covers network connections, Frame Relay, Router setup, Switch setup, different routing protocols (RIP, OSCL, IS-IS, ect.), and will even have a wireless section.

Much of the lab will be virtual, and since the virtual environment software is open source you can implement your own test system on your computer at home. ^_^ The instructor is phenomenal, having taught professionally and in the Academic world for years. But, to be ready for any certification exam, you would need to take both semesters. This is similar to the program that Weber State University has in place.

Linux Classes
The Linux classes are being taught with the materials from our good friends at Guru Labs, and are excellent. The first semester is Linux Fundamentals and Enterprise Linux Systems. The books are geared to general Linux distributions, but have specific information for both Red Hat/Fedora and SuSE Linux.

The instructor is currently a programming manager that graduated from Boston University. He is very knowledgeable in Linux, and will also be teaching our non-credit vi class.

Apple Support and Server Essentials
For the first couple of weeks, Support Essentials will have the materials of 10.4, because Apple will not have the 10.5 materials ready until February. That being said, the concepts and contents of Support Essentials (first half of the semester) is almost identical to the 10.5 contents, and as the instructor I will be providing all the necessary 10.5 materials in training. Server Essentials will be all 10.5, and will be almost completely different from the 10.4 materials. There will be focus on Web and Mail (which is currently not covered in 10.4), and the Collaboration software (Wiki, Blog, iChat's Jabber server, and iCal Server).

And, at the end of the class, we will have an open sandbox period to let you play with the server setup that you want, without someone breathing over your shoulder should you accidentally wipe your file server clean. ^_^

If you are interested in any type of technology degree from the University of Utah, and need some additional electives, I would recommend the certification classes. Not just because I teach one, but because I think it's important to have some practical experience with the theoretical concepts that are out there. That, and all the EE students that we told about the CCNA program were excited (they didn't have to do to SLCC to take the courses anymore). ^_^

Hope to see some of you in my class!