My Learning Curve

Solaris Cluster 3.2 Training at Bangalore
After a considerably long gap, I was assigned the task of going through a training on Solaris Cluster for some our Employees in Bangalore. Like I said elsewhere, the concepts of Cluster are too good to be forgotten. If you already work on Cluster, you might want to test your knowledge by appearing for the cluster certification exam. Details are here.

On a Foggy Week In Delhi
On a week when Delhi recorded the worst fog in the last seven years, I was going through a Directory Server training for the folks in the picture below; my third consecutive training on Sun Directory Server.



While I wouldn't forget the remarkable experience of being driven in a car through dense fog with near zero visibility and yet managing to reach the destination on time, on all days of my stay at Delhi, I think the memories of my sessions with the folks on the picture above would remain clearer. It was fun, to say the least. Finally, before I left them, I wanted them to experience the joy of teaching...



Thank you folks for some great memories; more so for the wonderful gift.

Directory Server 6.x Analysis & Planning Training in Bangalore
Last week I went through a training on Directory Server 6.x Analysis & Planning at our office in Bangalore.

New Year Wishes - Year 2010
To my ever tolerant audience, to my friends and relatives, available round the clock for valuable support and guidance, and to all those who are very close to my heart, here is a special note, exactly a day before yet another sunrise in our life that'd see us replace one more calendar with a brand new one, quite symbolic to our mind's act of replacing unfullfilled dreams and promises with new ones and to give it all a fresh beginning. Though the Nature does nothing spectacular on the day of New Year, every year, I'd wager we continue to consider the New Year to be that one special occasion when new exciting goals are set and some strong resolutions made. How far would we stretch ourselves to make our resolutions count and to achieve our goal is something that only time will tell. Nonetheless, we have every right to hope for a grand beginning to a new episode in this short journey called life. And with a mind brimming with such positive thoughts about a promising future, it is but natural for us to celebrate the moment when another New Year would march gently into our life.

Before we bid farewell to this year and welcome the New Year, it isn't inappropriate to spare some moments to reflect on the surprises - some pleasant, some shocking- that life had in store for us in the year that's passing by. Such sessions of reflection would only bring into light a common pattern in our lives: some moments of glory, some of utter misery, some exciting ones, some very depressing, some that invokes happiness and some grievous and sick. One would imagine that all such elements of emotion shall continue to show up in everyone's life and that all of us, at least on the day before another New Year in our life, spend a few minutes figuring out means that'd help us raise ourselves to a different plane enabling us to digest all ups and downs in life with equanimity, and not just hope for a New Year full of only favourable events.

Like I have written elsewhere, every time I fall into a retrospective mood, what comes to my mind instantly are memories of time spent with some good human beings and their influence in my makeup: be it my loving relatives, affectionate friends, extremely professional colleagues or cherished training participants. So on the last day of an eventful Year 2009, the least I should do to satisfy my conscience is to spend some time remembering them all, expressing my deep felt gratitude and affection. I thank God for connecting me with so many wonderful people and giving me opportunities after opportunities to learn so many valuable lessons in life. I'm hopeful, the Year 2010 would bring me many more such great 'teachers'.

Here's wishing all a very happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year 2010.

Merry Christmas
Wishing all a very Merry Christmas.

This Day, That Year
Exactly two years back, on this date, I expressed my excitement about the arrival of Season of Joy on this very same blogs and boy, haven't several things changed dramatically since then! The most significant - at least in my professional life - is perhaps this, that approximately two years ago Sun announced its intent to acquire the World's most popular OpenSource database company and now it is the World's largest Enterprise Database Company who turns the buyer. And even with those wild changes happening around, pushing everything else to the background and making it all look insignificant, I haven't really failed to notice some interesting patterns in my professional life. Though it may sound rather silly to the public, I felt tickled on discovering that in the Year 2008 on the date of 17th December, I walked into an organization in Bangalore (which is now a part of IBM) to conduct a four day training program on Directory Server EE Analysis & Planning, and two years forward to it, on the same date I found myself in Chennai facing another set of enthusiastic audience from an organization (which is now a part of HP) and delivered a four day program on Directory Server EE Maintenance & Operations. I know such patterns may make no difference in life, but then the discovery of it generates enough excitement to immediately mention it in a private journal or to push it to the blogosphere, just the way I am doing now. Well one another pattern is: Sun Directory Server EE solution was stronger then, it is stronger now and it will only get better.

And to the folks in the photograph below, who attended the DSEE training at Chennai, my sincere thanks for choosing Sun and more so for offering a wonderful gift.



Life will go on. And from among the very many wild variations in the series of events in life, I would continue to observe and note those little ones that will fall in some interesting pattern.

OpenSSO Express 9 and OpenDS 2.2
Sun launched OpenSSO Express 9 and OpenDS 2.2. Read the press release here.

IDM 4485 Training at Bangalore
Batch photograph from the IDM 4485 training held at Bangalore last week.

New Product Releases
Just a week forward to the announcement about the release of Solaris Cluster 3.2 11/09, Sun also announced the hot new release of Java EE 6, Glassfish Enterprise Server v3 and Netbeans 6.8 IDE. It's raining new releases at Sun!

'kolkata Marathon' - Concluding Phase
Like I mentioned in my earlier post, my ten day 'marathon', kick started on 9th of this month at a client location Kolkata on Identity Management solution from Sun concluded last evening and I'm back in Bangalore. I'd believe that the program met its objective and I hope my friends in the picture below derive benefit out of the same.

'Kolkata Marathon' - Phase I
Two days from now, the city of Kolkata is hosting a walkathon, supposedly the first of its kind in the city. Though I'm in kolkata now, I have made no plans whatsoever to walk along with the whole of Kolkata in the walkathon as mentioned above. As such, I am already in a marathon, started exactly five days back, at a leading IT Consulting company in this part of India. In case if it isn't clear, let me use plainer language and say, I am doing a continuous ten days training program at a client location here in Kolkata. And this evening, the first part of 'my marathon' came to a conclusion. Tomorrow, I'm starting its second phase, spanning over to the next five days.

The program participants were generous to step out of their premise, declared as a 'No Photograpy Zone', to pose for a batch photograph. And the least I should do in return is to publish it here:

Sun Virtualization Training at Hyderabad
Not many days ago, I did a six day session on Sun Virtualization Solutions (Solaris Containers, LDoms etc.) and ZFS for a client at Hyderabad:

Sun SPARC M-Series Enterprise Server Training in Bangalore
Today, I'm concluding one more batch of MX000 Server Administration training in Bangalore. Anyone interested in knowing details about what's covered in MX000 Server Administration Training, click here.

Sun SPARC Enterprise MX000 Server Training at Delhi
Published below is the batch photograph of MX000 Training conducted at Delhi last week.

Solaris 10 10/09
The new update for Solaris 10 Operating System is released. The press release is here. Click here to know what's new in Solaris 10 10/09. Check this out to know what's removed from Solaris 10 10/09 release. Go here to read the release notes or visit this page for a set of documentation on Solaris 10 10/09. Get it NOW.

Get more information about Solaris OS at the Oracle Open World.

Sun Microsystems is No.1 in ASTD Seventh Annual "Best Awards"
The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) announced the list of 39 organizations from different nations in the 2009 ASTD BEST Awards competition. Sun Microsystems holds the No.1 position in ranking. Read the ASTD official blog here or download the pdf version of their press release from here.

Sun Identity Manager Deployment Training at Chennai
Just over a week back or so, I had an opportunity to meet up with folks in the photograph below for a Deployment Training on Sun's provisioning tool.



Already familiar with Sun Identity Manager? Go get certified!

Want A Better E-mail, Calendar & IM?
Sun, today, announced the release and availability of Sun Java System Communication Suite 7. Click here for more details.

OpenSSO Enterprise 8 Deployment Training at Bangalore
A couple of days forward to the announcement about the availability of OpenSSO Express 8, I met up with the folks in the photograph below at our Learning Center in Bangalore for a five day session on OpenSSO deployment. Thanks to David Goldsmith for developing a near perfect OpenSSO Deployment Labs, employing the powerful features of Solaris 10 OS like Solaris Containers and ZFS, giving the audience of this program an experience close to a real time OpenSSO deployment.



Since the course used a number of software components like Glassfish, WebServer, 'OpenDS', Directory Server EE and of course OpenSSO, I requested all participants to help me do a quick review of the entire course on the last day by doing a teach back. Thanks to each of them for doing a good job reviewing the topics well, helping each other gain considerably good clarity on the overall contents of the course.



For me, the bygone week was nothing less than immensely satisfying.

OpenSSO Express 8
OpenSSO Express 8, an interim release of Sun OpenSSO Enterprise is now available for download. Check out Sidharth's blog to have a quick look at the new and exciting features in OpenSSO Express 8 (Yippee, support for MySQL as User Data Store). Should you wish to have a detailed study on the OpenSSO Express 8, click here.

It's a Hat Trick
The batch photograph published below is my third consecutive batch on an MX000 Server Administration Course this quarter. Boy, doesn't that say how popular these machines are!

Happy Onam
Wishing all a very happy Onam.

ES 411 Training in Bangalore
Published below is the batch photograph of MX000 Server Administration Training concluded in Bangalore last week:



Good week ahead to all of you!

MX000 Server Administration Session at Hyderabad
On a week, when the legendary thinker J R D Tata's 105th birth anniversary was celebrated, it was my privilege to find myself delivering a program on SPARC MX000 Server in one of his several institutions. The below batch photograph comes to you, courtesy a participant of this program. The date on the photograph is a "bug".



Wishing all a happy friendship week.

Farewell, Kingston!
I have come home. It always feels nice to be back home. It feels nicer to have come home with loads of good memories; memories about a very short period of my life in an Island, far from my home, its people, its culture and many many other things. Like every other human, I also long to keep all joyous memories safely and dearly. And as long as I can retain the memories of wonderful days of my life at Kingston in Jamaica, I know it always carry a potential to bring smile on my face. It's adorable; largely because of some kind hearted people.

Let me be frank: I badly wanted to get back home. This was on day one. I began counting days. But soon I got used to the environment, the people, their dialect, the music by the pool side of my hotel, the courteous staff in there, the strange and weird gestures by the street walkers, the hot climate, the sight of beautiful lush green mountains, but not certainly the food. As such I'm notorious for my poor eating habits. So the last thing that I want to discuss in here is about food. Barring that, I have only very fond memories of my journey to a Caribbean Island.



The tall man standing next to me is Devindra Sharma. People call him Dev. He was one of the first two people, whom I met at Fujitsu. That he is an Indian is painted all over his face. But it surprised me to discover that he was born vegetarian. To snatch from him some information around the secret vegetarian food outlets in Jamaica stood high on my priorities. Thus began my company with Dev that may have started with a very casual conversation around Vegetarian food or probably around the details of his favourite chauffer at Kingston, but went on to several other topics: some personal, some historical, some geographical, some cultural and what not. If I know that Lignum Vitae is the National Flower of Jamaica, that's because of him. I wouldn't have known that the consumption of unripe fruit called The Ackee, also the Jamaican National Fruit, invites disaster, but for Dev's detailed explanation. A few hours of conversation with him seemed like a quick flip through the pages of an Encyclopedia! Does anyone here needs more explanation on why I love exposure to the people the most. I thank Dev for all the wisdom that he shared, for all the time that he gave me in shopping around, hanging out in Indian restaurants, driving me around and lastly for his drop at the Norman Manley International airport in Jamaica during very early hours on a fine Saturday morning. I admire him for his linguistic capabilities and several other qualities.

Dev introduced me to Conrad, his colleague. Together we had some fun at a couple of Indian Food Outlets in Jamaica in the evenings.



On the other hand, during the daytime, empowered by the energy and enthusiasm of a youthful audience, I sailed through my assignment at Fujitsu rather smoothly. There weren't any hiccups in the program that I can think of. Well, if there were any that I am now unable to recall, I believe one among the group in the picture would show up and comment loud and clear. I thank each of them for all learning and fun in the class.



On the final day of the Boot Camp, they very kindly offered me a drive to the famous University Of West Indies. I found it difficult to turn down such an offer, especially when a visit to the UWI was always on my 'To Do' list while at Kingston. Consequently, I found myself taking a stroll in the huge campus of UWI, accompanied by some of its alumni. They would have had a stream of memories about their college going days while taking me around the beautiful University Campus. By the time we drove out of the UWI, I had just over a dozen hours left in Kingston.



Again, I am happy to be back home. I'm happy also to have got an opportunity to spend two weeks of my life in a beautiful Island, spending some quality time with some wonderful people, the memories of which, I hope, shall take a very long time to even fade. Farewell, Kingston!

From Kingston, Jamaica
It has been exactly a week since I landed at Kingston in Jamaica. The stay so far has been very pleasant. The days have been quite busy and that coupled with an element of laziness kept me away from blogging for a full one week. Honestly, I haven't been able to see much of Kingston yet. But whatever I managed to see and experience in the last six days or so, I found this city interesting. Perhaps there are problems here, like every other city, that doesn't quite seem visible to a stranger like me, settled in the comforts of a luxurious hotel situated in the heart of New Kingston. Whatever it may be, the fact that many major Corporates have their presence in this part of the world and that the city caters to the need of all its visitors fairly well makes it appear a very good destination to me. And like I said, I have been enjoying my stay in this City so far.

The trip to Kingston from India was rather long. I had to hop a couple of flights before I finally landed at the Kingston airport. Visa is stamped on arrival at Kingston. En route, I halted at Miami for a day and seized that opportunity to see the South Miami beach. On the day when US celebrated its Independence Day, a long stroll through the beach roads exhausted me and I was left with no energy for any other activity except sleep. Luckily, flight from Miami to Kingston was scheduled only on the next day and it was the shortest leg in my whole journey with a flying time of just about 1 hour 25 minutes.

And thus I landed in the Norman Manley Intl Airport at Kingston, located so close to the sea that while landing, for a moment at least, I thought the flight was landing in water!!!

I was charged USD 25 for transportation from the airport to the Hilton Kingston and that I felt was reasonable considering the distance covered. It was water on either side of the road for a good distance from airport to the Hotel and I really enjoyed that sight. Like me, if you also carry a misconception that it's beaches and beaches all over this Island, please be clear that no one comes to Kingston to see beaches. There aren't many beaches in this part of the world. For beaches, there are other exotic destinations within the Island.

Being a strict vegetarian has always thrown some challenges during overseas trips. On my arrival at my hotel in New Kingston, one of the things that I did was to walk around the place to spot an Indian restaurant named 'Akbar," which always stood prominent whenever Google fetched me the results for 'Indian Restaurant in Kingston, Jamaica'. I did drop in there a couple of times for my dinner. It's a decent Indian restaurant worth trying while in this part of the world. They have hotel pick up as well, but yours truly hasn't made use of that facility yet, as 'Akbar' is a just few minutes walk from 'Hilton Kingston', where I am stationed. On one another day during last week, one of my friends took me to another Indian restaurant near by. 'Jewel Of India,' as it is named is also worth a visit. Most of the afternoons last week, I got into the Earls Juice Center to fetch some fresh fruit juice and strict vegetable meals. Not very tasty, but certainly healthy.

I love the beaches. Since Kingston offered no famous ones and because I had a weekend at my disposal I followed a friend's advice to book myself on to the Knutsford Express that carried me from Kingston to Montego Bay, an exotic tourist location in Jamaica, on a Saturday, dated 11 July 2009. I came back to Kingston the same day evening in the same bus.

On reaching Montego Bay from Kingston, after a good three hour drive (approximately) with one stop of ten minutes at Ocho Rios, I went and spent some time at the Doctors Cave Beach and then shopped around for a while. To kill some time, I walked around the streets in Montego Bay. It was crowded with Music floating all around the place. I could even spot a DJ standing on the street and playing music for the public! Some street walkers produced weird noise and actions to grab my attention and my response to all of it, as advised in this website, was to just IGNORE them. It works.

And here I'm resting on a Sunday in my hotel at Kingston. Oh yeah, before I forget, I'm here for a very serious reason, not to enjoy a vacation. A two weeks Boot camp around Sun's Software and Hardware Products at Fujitsu is what really brought me here to this Island. How well I managed to take care of the business purpose of this visit is for the folks in the photograph to comment. May be, their happy faces would well be a positive indication of a good Phase I of the Boot Camp.



Tomorrow I'm starting the Phase II of the program and I am looking forward for a wonderful experience full of learning and fun!

The Fast Moving MX000 Servers
A back to back course on MX000 servers in two different location across the Nation is some kind of indication on the rising popularity of those servers, especially in the Banking sector. With me in the photograph (by the way, I'm on the front wearing a dark blue shirt) are gentlemen from two very popular banks in India, who turned up for a course on MX000 Server Administration at Mumbai last week. Well they use High End MX000 Servers in their data center to run some critical banking applications:

Sun SPARC Enterprise MX000 Server Administration Course At Bangalore
A course on MX000 Server Administration concluded here in Bangalore yesterday and following is a moment from the class.

Taming Sakila
Just under two months ago I decided to embark on a journey through the Certification roadmap of the Worlds most Popular Open Source Database. They say, Certification isn't a substitute for real world experience. Who says it is? But it certainly has the element to motivate someone to go after a new technology, just the way it occurred to me. This morning, the journey that I've mentioned above completed rather satisfactorily, leaving me in possession all possible titles from the MySQL Certification roadmap viz CMDEV, CMDBA and CMCDBA. I'm happy is an understatement.


My entry into the world of database has nothing to do with any recent announcement from Sun, but does have a connection with an announcement from our CEO, published well over a year ago. Since then, MySQL came up in all serious conversations at Sun and that perhaps is one main factor that encouraged me to go after a technology with such a massive installation base. I regret to have taken some time before finally going for it, but the learning curve was extremely smooth and exciting.

In general, I spend a lot of time reading books (not necessarily technical) and there are some books (read technical) that I value more than others which includes Practical Unix and Internet Security, Learning Perl, Mastering Regular Expressions, Perl Cookbook to name a few. The book MySQL 5.0 Certification Study Guide easily falls into the aforesaid category for its simplicity, clarity and richness in content. Thanks to Safari Books Online, I could thoroughly utilize an online copy of MySQL 5.0 Certification Study Guide to prepare for MySQL 5.0 DBA and Developer Exams. To make it curt, this one is strongly recommended.

A similar material is available for candidates preparing for the Certified MySQL 5.1 Cluster DBA exam and its details are available here.

So if any of you feel it's time for you to tame Sakila and then show up for a test to prove you have done so, please make use of the resources as mentioned above, or find a training program at a suitable time and location, read the faqs, create a VUE ID* , register for an exam and GO FOR IT with no second thoughts. Oh yeah...don't forget to check out these sample Questions before the test. Good luck!

*Beginning on July 31st, 2009 MySQL Exams will no longer be delivered by Pearson VUE. For more details click here.

OpenSolaris 2009.06
OpenSolaris 2009.06 is being released today. Download it from here. If you are looking for an official press release about the same, that's here. Learn everything about the OpenSolaris 2009.06 release here.