SPUG: GSLUG January Meeting THIS SATURDAY, January 8th

Ken Meyer kmeyer at blarg.net
Fri Jan 7 00:45:52 PST 2005


The January 2005, regular meeting of the Greater Seattle Linux Users Group
(GSLUG) will be held this Saturday, January 8th, starting promptly at
10:00 AM on the North Seattle Community College campus.

  *************************************************************

    We are confirmed to use room IB 3319.

    Parking is free on weekends.

    For directions, please visit the GSLUG monthly meetings web page at:

     	http://www.gslug.org/meeting.html

    Please feel free to forward this announcement as appropriate.

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The presentation topics will be:

    * 10:00 AM - Making a Go with Linux

		    By Don Huff

Management Communication Resource, Inc. is a laser printing and database
publishing firm that has the goal of becoming free of Microsoft, and of
operating wholly within the open source sphere. The company has several
Intel hosts running Apache, PHP, and Informix web servers, and a collection
of Mac and MS machines for employee use and testing.  On the back-end they
use LaTeX and various other tools to compose and manipulate Postscript and
PCL print streams that are destined for four Xerox and Cannon production
printers, or external suppliers' typesetters.

Mr. Huff's talk will focus on MCR's business environment, several actual
application scenarios, the challenges and their solutions.

                       Don Huff's Bio

Don Huff is currently employed by MCR, of Mayfield Village (east of
Cleveland) Ohio; but Don finds it a nicer to live in Seattle.  His job
entails web support for employees and customers, who are preparing or
accessing production data.
Don works from a Linux laptop machine, via Comcast, to access MCR's LAN
through its firewall, using SSH tunneling.

MCR is a small company of less than 20 people, engaged in the business of
laser printing and database publishing in the arenas of corporate benefit
books, price catalogs, professional association membership lists, paper
ballot voting materials, e-commerce and many other things.  MCR's
principals, including Don, have been in this business since before the PC
era.

                                ---------------

    * 11:15 AM - EtherDrive Storage Blades and the History of Networks and
Storage

                        By Sam Hopkins

This presentation addresses the history of disks and networking, and how
they came together. Mr. Hopkins will explain why EtherDrive storage blades,
based on the ATA-Over-Ethernet (AoE) protocol, are the logical next step in
the evolution of storage technology.  He will show how the Linux device
driver glues AoE devices present on a network into the block storage of the
system.  He will also discuss the applications for, and the performance of,
this approach.

Starting with the work at IBM in the 50's, the development of disk storage
technology has advanced non-stop. We will see how IBM channels, fiber
channel, SCSI, SMD, ST506 and ATA all fit into history.  The advent of
Ethernet networking in the 1970's ushered in a new era of storage: keeping
disks on one network node and doing the computation on another.  Ethernet
continues to affect storage, first with NFS, then iSCSI, and now AoE .

AoE is a simple “Open Standards"-based protocol that is designed to
transport disk commands over Ethernet.  Using the AoE protocol, multiple
Servers can access EtherDrives as block storage devices that are
network-connected using standard Ethernet technology. EtherDrive provides
Storage Area Network (SAN) functionality without the need for expensive
Fiber-Channel networking technology.  Unlike iSCSI, the AoE protocol stack
does not require processing of TCP/IP, therefore eliminating the need for
expensive adapters on each server and providing inherent storage security.

EtherDrive® Storage Blades are Ethernet-connected hard disk drives. Using
EtherDrive Storage Blades, SAN's can be assembled for less than $1.50 per
Gigabyte, including the cost of disk drives and Ethernet switches (a
fraction of the cost of traditional SAN).  A shared pool of EtherDrive
Storage Blades can be expanded to multi-Petabytes.

                       Sam Hopkins' Bio

Sam Hopkins is co-author of the AoE protocol and the author of the Linux and
FreeBSD device drivers for the AoE protocol.  He works for Coraid, Inc.,
where he is responsible for OS development related to the AoE protocol and
EtherDrive Storage Blade implementation.

Coraid is a start-up, founded to provide the most affordable and flexible
storage possible to the Open Source community. Coraid's products includes
the EtherDrive Storage Blade and the RAIDblade RAID front-end.  Check this
out:

	http://www.coraid.com

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    The typical GSLUG meeting agenda is as follows:

       10:00 AM       First Presentation

       11:00 AM       Break

       11:10 AM       Key Announcements and (usually) Raffle Quiz

       11:15 AM       Second Presentation

       12:15 PM       Break

       12:30 PM       Raffle prize giveaway, when available.  Prizes
                            typically consist of current books donated by
                            O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley, and author Brian
Hatch.
                            Tickets are available for: 1) Arriving at the
meeting
                            on time, 2) Winning Trivia Quiz questions, and
                            3) Donating to GSLUG's room rental fund.

       12:35 PM       GSLUG business, including:

                            Discussion of potential future presentation
topics

                	        Announcements by attendees

                	        Receiving requests for assistance desired during
                            the ensuing Workshop Session, including
		        trouble-shooting and help with Linux installation
		        (bring your system).

       1:00 PM-ish    Formal meeting is adjourned; Workshop and
                             social networking opportunities begin,
                             including:

                * Installation and trouble-shooting assistance

                   For recommendations on preparations to maximize the
                   probability of a successful outcome, it is recommended
                   that you consult the "What to Bring" topic, way down the
                   page at:

                        http://www.gslug.org/meeting.html

                * Potential break-out discussions about interest-group
                   activities

                * Informal PGP key signing

                * Social networking and group discussions

       4:00 PM        End of meeting

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GSLUG meetings are held regularly on the second Saturday of the month
at 10 AM, currently at North Seattle Community College and USUALLY
in room 3319.

Meeting announcements are posted to the gslug-announce mail list.
To receive reminders for future GSLUG meetings and notice of other
GSLUG activities, you are invited to join the list at:

        http://lists.gslug.org/mailman/listinfo/gslug-announce

Directions, agenda, and presenters' bios will also be posted on
the GSLUG website, on the home page and at:

        http://www.gslug.org/meeting.html

You are invited to join the gslug-general discussion list at:

        http://lists.gslug.org/mailman/listinfo/gslug-general

A message board alternative may be found at:

        http://msgboard.gslug.org/

And a new wiki site is at:

        http://wiki.gslug.org/


  -- The GSLUG Crew

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