Meetings

Using VMware

Joe Kaplenk
IBM

Tuesday February 27th at 7:00pm
College of DuPage, Room 2800

Abstract

The need to quickly develop software for various platforms is sometimes hindered due to the lack of hardware and test environments. In addition, teaching UNIX or other system administration is a problem in academic environments for the same reason. There is also the need to share systems with a number of classes. It is often the case that a student can take a class in UNIX or NT administration without ever doing any administration.

There are a number of solutions that include multiboots, virtual machines, networked, bootable CD-ROM and diskette based environments. Locally, one solution that is being tested and is proving very workable at the College of DuPage is the use of VMware. VMware allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on the same PC. Multiple networks and multiple virtual disks can be setup to further enhance the test and training environment. This is similar to what is done on the IBM VM mainframe environment.

The speaker will discuss these and other solutions and show how they have been tested and implemented in teaching UNIX Admin and how they can be used in the commercial environment for software development.

Speaker Bio

Joe Kaplenk currently works as a Senior I/T Specialist for presales for the IBM webserver sales group. He also has been teaching CIS part-time at the College of DuPage for 17 years and UNIX admin for 9 years. He has been actively helping the college to develop their system administration program. Previously he has worked for Collective Technologies as well as Argonne, Fermilab, Motorola, Loyola, UIC and other Chicago based companies as well as having previous positions with IBM Global Services. He has done consulting work directly with Red Hat, Inc. and is a Red Hat Certified Engineer.

He has written two books - UNIX System Administrator's Workbook and Linux Network Administrator's Workbook based on his experiences at COD. In addition he was part of the team that did the first series of 4 IBM Redbooks on Linux that are now being published by Prentice-Hall. He has contributed articles to Linux magazines and has done presentations at several conferences.

Getting to the meeting

The next general meeting of UniForum Chicago will be:

        February 27th, 2001
	7:00pm to 9:00pm
        College of DuPage
        Building SRC, Rm 2800abc
        22nd and Lambert
        Glen Ellyn, IL 60137-6599

Take 355 to Butterfield Rd (Rt 56).
Take Butterfield West to Lambert Rd, then Lambert Rd North to 22nd St.
Turn right and look for Lot 2 or the Faculty/Staff parking lot (behind Lot 1) on the right side of 22nd St.
Walk to the SRC building, room 2800 is on the second floor of the west side of the building,
upstairs from the north doors facing Lot 2.

All UniForum Chicago general meetings are open to the public free of charge.

Contact Scott Nemec at (630) 990-6265 for additional information.

For more information about UniForum Chicago contact nemec@xnet.com.