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	<pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:50:07 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Path to success in SCJP 5.0 CX-310-055 and SCJP 6.0 (CX-310-066) certification exam</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/it-certifications/path-to-success-in-scjp-50-cx-310-055-and-scjp-60-cx-310-066-certification-exam</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/it-certifications/path-to-success-in-scjp-50-cx-310-055-and-scjp-60-cx-310-066-certification-exam#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2008 12:50:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Certifications]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[scjp 5.0]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[scjp 6.0]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=706</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[by whizlabs
The Sun Certified Developer for Java 2 Platform SCJP 5.0, CX-310-055) certification validates a developer&#8217;s understanding and familiarity with the basic syntax and structure of the Java programming language. It proves a developer&#8217;s ability to create Java technology applications that run on server and desktop systems using Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0
The [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>by whizlabs
<p>The Sun Certified Developer for Java 2 Platform SCJP 5.0, CX-310-055) certification validates a developer&#8217;s understanding and familiarity with the basic syntax and structure of the Java programming language. It proves a developer&#8217;s ability to create Java technology applications that run on server and desktop systems using Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0</p>
<p>The Sun Certified Programmer for Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 certification exam, the latest certification exam from Sun Microsystems, is for programmers experienced using the Java programming language. Achieving this java certification provides evidence that a programmer understands the basic syntax and structure of the Java programming language and can create Java technology applications that run on server and desktop systems using Java Platform.</p>
<p>Comparison of SCJP5.0 and SCJP6.0</p>
<p>Number of questions:<br />*SCJP 5.0 â€“ 72<br />*SCJP 6.0 â€“ 72</p>
<p>Time:<br />*SCJP 5.0 â€“ 175 minutes<br />*SCJP 6.0 â€“ 210 minutes</p>
<p>Passing score:<br />*SCJP 5.0 â€“ 59% (43 of 72 questions)<br />*SCJP 6.0 â€“ 65% (47 of 72 questions)</p>
<p>Exam Objectives:<br /> SCJP 5.0 (http://www.whizlabs.com/scjp/scjp-5.0-details.html) - exam is based on the following objectives: <br />*Declaration, Initialization and Scoping<br />*Flow Control<br />*API Contents<br />*Concurrency<br />*OO Concepts<br />*Collections/Generics<br />*Fundamentals</p>
<p>SCJP 6.0 (http://www.whizlabs.com/scjp/scjp-6.0-details.html) â€“ Objectives of SCJP 6.0 are almost same as SCJP 5.0 except few changes which introduce new topics like Console (API Contents), NavigableSet, and NavigableMap (Collections/Generics) and removed the overridden methods and constructor from &#8220;OO Concepts&#8221;. <br />Objectives - The seven categories of objectives for the exam are as follows: <br />*Declarations, initialization, and scoping<br />*Flow control   <br />*API contents   <br />*Concurrency   <br />*Object-oriented concepts   <br />*Collections/generics <br />*Fundamentals</p>
<p>Cost:<br />*SCJP 5.0 - USD 150 (or locally priced)<br />*SCJP 6.0 - USD 300 (or locally priced)</p>
<p>Having looked at the difference the natural question in your mind would be so &#8220;Which should I go for?&#8221;</p>
<p>Well there is no clear cut answer to this, the choice is subjective (depends on individual preference). Whizlabs recommendation is that you go for the latest certification (in this case SCJP 6.0) unless you have compelling reasons like client&#8217;s requirement, some ongoing project in your organization etc. The differences are really not very significant so the switchover is not so difficult. </p>
<p>How to prepare for the certification?<br />The real challenge in preparing for certification exams comes from the fact by this time most of the IT professionals are working and preparing along with a full time job becomes quite a challenge. Also maintaining the zeal for the exam on your own comes in the way. Here are some suggestions that are quite helpful in successful preparation:</p>
<p>* Get into a group â€“ be a part of any discussion group or couple up with friends or colleagues to prepare for the exam. Some discussion groups you may consider are javaranch.com, javabeat.net.</p>
<p>* Practice questions by actually writing the code a website on this is devsquare.com</p>
<p>* The trick to cracking the SCJP certification exam is not only knowledge of Java but also being able to complete the exam well in time. Thus practicing for the certification from before on time taken to choose between the multiple choice questions, time taken to switch between screens etc is always helpful. In this case using exam simulators is a good idea.</p>
<p>You may not need to relearn ABCD to know the spelling of &#8220;catastrophe&#8221;. Whizlabs certification exam preparation techniques are inspired by the philosophy represented in the above statement.</p>
<p>Whizlabs Certification Preparation Kit has you prepare in a question-answer format which is known to have exponentially high retention power than any other form of study. It results in an immediate boost to your performance in the exam. You get so used to the question types, exam environment, exam temperament, exam level concentration that it naturally results in boosting your marks in the exam. This kit drastically reduces your preparation time because you will only be spending time on areas you need to rather than everything in the subject. The biggest benefit of this preparation kit is it jump starts your preparation saving you huge amount of time and effort, it kills procrastination.</p>
<p>Preparing with Whizlabs SCJP certification Preparation kit is a win-win situation for you, god forbid in case you do not clear the certification exam we will refund back the entire amount you spent with us to you without asking any questions all you have to do is send us a copy of your results. So you have nothing to loose with us. We have been in the IT certification industry since last 8 years with success rate of 99.7 %.</p>
<p>
<h2>About the Author</h2>
<p>Sudeepa Basu CEO of Whizlabs Software, is an IT Certification Exam Preparation company supporting individuals in succeeding in their certification exams since 2000. Whizlabs has 800,000+ professionals being certified &amp; advancing their careers with a success rate of 99.7%. Whizlabs offerings have been endorsed by many such as TheServerside.com, JavaRanch, CertCities etc &amp; rated best by many discussion forums. </p>
<p>
<h3><a href="http://www.content4reprint.com/computer/software/path-to-success-in-scjp-5.0-cx-310-055-and-scjp-6.0-cx-310-066-certification-exam.htm" title="Path to success in SCJP 5.0 CX-310-055 and SCJP 6.0 (CX-310-066) certification exam">Article Source:</a> <a href="http://www.content4reprint.com" title="Free high quality articles">Content for Reprint</a></h3>
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		<title>Implementing Six Sigma to Improve Business Outcomes During a Recession</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/sixsigma/implementing-six-sigma-to-improve-business-outcomes-during-a-recession</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/sixsigma/implementing-six-sigma-to-improve-business-outcomes-during-a-recession#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:30:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[SixSigma]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[recession]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=704</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Bradley E
In the 1980s, Motorola developed a core set of Six Sigma management procedures based upon an evolution of Quality Management. The company utilized a data-driven approach to isolate and fix defects in manufacturing, ultimately leading to over $10 billion in savings over the next two decades.
Fast forward to today when small and medium [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bradley_E">Bradley E</a></p>
<p>In the 1980s, Motorola developed a core set of Six Sigma management procedures based upon an evolution of Quality Management. The company utilized a data-driven approach to isolate and fix defects in manufacturing, ultimately leading to over $10 billion in savings over the next two decades.</p>
<p>Fast forward to today when small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are struggling with rising costs and unstable consumer demand. Managers of organizations today, across various industries from service to manufacturing, can implement six sigma to begin identifying defects in processes and working to improve outcomes.</p>
<p><b>Six Sigma Data</b></p>
<p>The core approach to implementing Sigma Management is to begin collecting data on every aspect of your business, from your supply chain to your production process. In a recessionary economic, nothing is sacred and every aspect of your business should be scrutinized for potential cost savings.</p>
<p>Waste can be understood through the lens of opportunity cost: every single cost across your organization could potentially be replaced with a different input - you can find better employees, more cost effective suppliers, a more competitive shipping rate and upgrade your machinery. Prioritizing which outcomes can be most improved is a case part of implementing lean procedures throughout your organization.</p>
<p><b>Sigma Training</b></p>
<p>In order to create a consistent, data-driven model within your particular organization, there are expert six sigma training courses that will give you the tools you need. Since statistics are a core element of sigma management, you&#8217;ll want to ensure that you have the knowledge, resources and procedures in place to incorporate six sigma into your review process. As a manager, you can undergo sigma certification and then begin to help train project leaders to further ensure that each level of your organization is centered around continuous improvement.</p>
<p>Start your <a TARGET="_NEW" href="http://blackbelt.org/">six sigma training</a>, and learn how you can become a <a TARGET="_NEW" href="http://blackbelt.org/understanding-six-sigma-belts-and-roles">six sigma black belt</a> to grow your company and increase profits.</p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bradley_E" target="_new">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bradley_E</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>How to Start an Online Store - Choosing an ECommerce Shopping Cart</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/it-reviews/how-to-start-an-online-store-choosing-an-ecommerce-shopping-cart</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/it-reviews/how-to-start-an-online-store-choosing-an-ecommerce-shopping-cart#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:26:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[magento]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=702</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Bradley E
Overview 
The software that powers your online store is a crucial part of the success of your brand. Not only does your shopping cart software form the core of the checkout process, but it also plays a crucial role in your consumer-facing front end design, your ability to adapt to insights and requests [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bradley_E">Bradley E</a></p>
<p><strong>Overview </strong></p>
<p>The software that powers your online store is a crucial part of the success of your brand. Not only does your shopping cart software form the core of the checkout process, but it also plays a crucial role in your consumer-facing front end design, your ability to adapt to insights and requests from your customers as your grow and to ensure safe, secure transactions as your business grows. This guide aims to provide a road map to helping your select the right shopping cart software for the needs of your business.</p>
<p>Considerations when Choosing an eCommerce Solution When choosing your software platform it is important to, first, consider the choice between self-hosted and commercially-hosted options. Hosting Platforms Self-hosted platforms allow you the ability to host a shopping cart on your own server, which brings both opportunities, in terms of customization, and responsibility, in terms of maintaining your server and installation. In general, if you have a strong technical background, feel comfortable with managing a server and are willing to spend the necessary time working on upgrades, patches and customizations, then installing a store on your own server can provide you a level of control over the store that you otherwise would not have and can save you money in the long-run since the costs are primarily up-front, as opposed to recurring (note: commercial self-hosted carts may charge for upgrades, so make sure to read the fine print.)</p>
<p>Hosted solutions provide a level of convenience and stability that allows you to focus on the business-aspects of your online store while relying upon the provider to keep the software up-to-date and running smoothly. The drawbacks to hosted solutions are primarily the incremental monthly, recurring fees associated with them, as well as limitations in customization of both design and functionality. Open-Source Software Another option to consider is whether an open-source (free, in terms of both code availability and basic cost) solution is appropriate for your store. In general, more technically-inclined business owners will be able to better navigate an open-source shopping cart, as support tends to be decentralized and community-based.</p>
<p>The main advantage of open-source solutions, such as osCommerce and Magento Commerce, is their lack of an upfront cost, as well as the fully flexible customization structure. If you chose an open-source package, keep in mind that the software will continue to evolve and improve only insofar as the community remains active - case in point: osCommerce, the largest open-source shopping cart, hasn&#8217;t been updated since late 2007, although the many previous years of development produced a largely stable cart. The recent introduction of the &#8220;freemium&#8221; open-source model by Magneto provides the benefits of an open-source community, while allowing for paid support for those who require it.</p>
<p>Accepting Payment: Merchant Gateways In order to successfully accept credit cards for your transactions, it is necessary to chose a merchant gateway that serves as a means to both finalize a transaction and also to keep your customers&#8217; financial records secure. You can think of the gateway as a virtual credit-card swiping terminal that you can find at most retail stores - these serve to complete the transaction and encrypt the financial information to keep it secure.</p>
<p>A number of major gateway provides are available on most carts including Paypal, Authorize.net, Cybersource and Verisign - factors to consider include ease of implementation, breadth of payment options (some gateways, for example, may accept Discover cards while others do not), fee structure (this can vary widely, so pay close attention to the fixed and per transaction fees). Functionality and Features While most shopping carts will get a user from browsing to checkout, features vary widely. The ability to add unique features to your store such as user wish lists, intuitive navigation, coupons and gift certificates will vary widely depending on the cart.</p>
<p><strong>Shopping Cart Reviews</strong></p>
<p><em>Magento Commerce Review</em></p>
<p>For years, osCommerce remained the largest open-source shopping cart community with thousands of stores, countless voluntary developers and a growing list of features. As technology evolved and development slowed, a number of offshoots emerged, including ZenCart and, most recently, Magento Commerce. Mangento is a natural successor to OS as the next-generation open-source shopping cart with a full set of features and professionally-driven development community.</p>
<p>With over 400,000 downloads shortly after emerging from Beta earlier this year, Magento already has an impressive set of features. While Magneto does require a lot of customization work to get the most out of the software, the learning curve is lessened by an active support community and intuitive software structure. On the backend, Magento offers an impressive integrated suite of analytics and reports, including integration with Google Analytics, a highly customizable inventory management interface that allows for advanced pricing rules and robust options for categorization and product tagging, a clear presentation of customer database and order management (including automated integration of call center, invoicing and shipping options), near-universal payment gateway integration, as well as a rich set of pricing and discount features. On the shopper presentation end, Magento similarly delivers a strong set of options including an ability to zoom-in on multiple product images, wish-list integration, interactive tagging, an automated recommendation engine, clean URLs for SEO, a wide variety of design templates and multi-lingual support.</p>
<p><strong>Commercial Shopping Carts</strong></p>
<p><em>Volusion Review</em></p>
<p>If you are seeking a more streamlined, out-of-the-box hosted solution, Volusion can simplify the technical aspects of starting a store and allow you to focus on running your business. Since Volusion is a hosted, commercial solution, there is both a nominal setup fee (normally $199, currently $99 to $129), as well as a sliding scale of monthly recurring fees ranging from $29.95/mo up to $197/mo (no long-term contract required) depending on the feature set you chose. These fees entitle you to 24/7/365 phone support as well as Rackspace hosting and 50 ready-made store templates and training videos that can greatly streamline the process of building a store.</p>
<p>Volusion comes with a rich, growing feature set including a full set of tools to manage your backend with an integrated CRM. Additionally, as an integrated solution, the payment gateway and security features are automated, simplifying the process. Volusion is particularly impressive in terms of its marketing features with a full array of SEO features from clean URLs to automated sitemap generation to a number of social media features including a widget builder that allows you to sell directly on sites such as Facebook.</p>
<p>Bradley E. is an editor at <a target="_new" href="http://iRW.com">iReviewer</a>, a leading reviews site providing the latest reviews and news covering everything from technology to business and travel. Find more <a target="_new" href="http://irw.com/category/eCommerce-reviews.html">shopping cart reviews</a> at iRW.</p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bradley_E" target="_new">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bradley_E</a></p>
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		<title>Separation of concerns</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/top-feed/separation-of-concerns</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/top-feed/separation-of-concerns#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:39:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Design &amp; Architecture]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Top Feed]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[architecture]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Design]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Separation of concerns]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[SoC]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=694</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[by Vijay S
Separation of concerns is a concept in software engineering refers to identification and addressing the concerns of functional goals, components, integration, implementation, developer roles and aspects of software programme. The implementation of SoC invloves Modularising and decomposing the software into pieces which are meant for the concerns to be addressed. Here the concern [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>by Vijay S</p>
<p>Separation of concerns is a concept in software engineering refers to identification and addressing the concerns of functional goals, components, integration, implementation, developer roles and aspects of software programme. The implementation of SoC invloves Modularising and decomposing the software into pieces which are meant for the concerns to be addressed. Here the concern is a feature, objective, behavior, focus or a significant piece of interest in the system to be dealt with.</p>
<p>It may sound vague and little confusing, but it is based on the simple principle &#8220;Divide and gain&#8221;. If you look at any design principle the common thing epicted is to keep and address the concerns effectively by treating them as it require some individual and definite solution. In general, the whole idea is to make the software easier to understand, design and manage complex interdependent systems.</p>
<p>In Real time software design, this is an important objective to be fulfilled. So the reason you see &#8216;n&#8217; tier architectures and layered designs. Layering helps achieve separation of concerns, making applications more modular by grouping the components that does similar things.</p>
<p>All the design and programming methodologies help the designers and developers to benefit from the SoC. For example
<ul>
<li>Procedural languages such as C and Pascal can separate concerns into procedures.</li>
<li>Object oriented design is providing the principles like encapsulation to improve the SoC.</li>
<li>Object-oriented languages like Java separate concerns into objects.</li>
<li>The design pattern like MVC can separate content from presentation and data processing (model) from content.</li>
<li>Service-oriented design can separate concerns into services.</li>
<li>Aspect-oriented programming languages can separate concerns into aspects and objects.</li>
<li>Event-Driven design can separate concerns into events.</li>
</ul>
<p>So the goal is while designing the software systems, the individual units of the system can be given a focus independently rather than doing with the overlapping functionality. The immediate outcome of a module (separated concern) which does not cause other subsystems to fail or hold up, thus increasing productivity and speeding the development of other modules. I personally think that any subsystem or component which is not given a focus on its own effectiveness will be a disruption to any mission-critical application rather being a good piece of software.</p>
<p>This is applicable for developers with different skill sets working on an application development. For example consider any MVC framework development. A web developer in your team will be better choice for the front-end development rather letting a middleware person to work on web page development. And the integration at any level is done by contract.</p>
<p>In any ideal application development team will comprise all the necessary skill set required for the development and harnessing their skills to get the better solution and treatment to any concern. And this is not just for software systems and it is applicable for any business or application infrastructure. In conclusion, Separation of concerns allows individual modules in a software system to be rightly understood, effectively developed, better tested and optimised for its execution.</p>
<p>Let me know me what you think.</p>
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		<title>Open Source SOA - MuleSource</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/it-news/interviews/open-source-soa-mulesource</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/it-news/interviews/open-source-soa-mulesource#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:37:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Interviews]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[mulesource]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[opensource]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[SOA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=687</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The open source Mule ESB is lightweight and open, so enterprises can customize it to their needs and not be locked in by a vendor.

Video-Interview


]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The open source Mule ESB is lightweight and open, so enterprises can customize it to their needs and not be locked in by a vendor.<br />
<br />
Video-Interview<br />
<br /><center><br />
<embed src="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1568178642" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=1799151275&#038;playerId=1568178642&#038;viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&#038;servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&#038;cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&#038;domain=embed&#038;autoStart=false&#038;" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></center></p>
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		<title>What makes a good bug report?</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/software-testing-and-quality/what-makes-a-good-bug-report</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/software-testing-and-quality/what-makes-a-good-bug-report#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:18:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Library and Tutorials]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Testing Quality Tutorial]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Testing-Quality]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[bug report]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=680</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What makes a good bug report?
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_800342"><a style="font:14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;display:block;margin:12px 0 3px 0;text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/rpremraj/what-makes-a-good-bug-report-presentation?type=powerpoint" title="What makes a good bug report?">What makes a good bug report?</a><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=fse08-1227978682929756-9&#038;stripped_title=what-makes-a-good-bug-report-presentation" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=fse08-1227978682929756-9&#038;stripped_title=what-makes-a-good-bug-report-presentation" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
<div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;">View SlideShare <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/rpremraj/what-makes-a-good-bug-report-presentation?type=powerpoint" title="View What makes a good bug report? on SlideShare">presentation</a> or <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/upload?type=powerpoint">Upload</a> your own.</div>
</div>
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		<title>Network Performance Monitor</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/networking/network-performance-monitor</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/networking/network-performance-monitor#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:27:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Network Performance Monitor]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=678</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Eric Morris
A Network Performance Monitor is a tool to improvise the performance of network server. It can track Central Processing Units (CPU) load, memory usage, available disk space, bandwidth utilization, traffic and more. It is most appropriate for monitoring the usage of servers, switches, routers and historic graph of a network performance. It can [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Eric_Morris">Eric Morris</a></p>
<p>A Network Performance Monitor is a tool to improvise the performance of network server. It can track Central Processing Units (CPU) load, memory usage, available disk space, bandwidth utilization, traffic and more. It is most appropriate for monitoring the usage of servers, switches, routers and historic graph of a network performance. It can read traffic data from router and can also displays a usage chart of last 96 hours or 365 days or 12 months. Users can also set the Network Performance Monitor tool to provide a daily report of each sensor.  The monitor alerts a user on traffic usage, bandwidth usage, Packet Loss and more. It has a capacity to monitor from one single server to hundreds of elements. Generally, being an agent-less tool, it does not install any outside element on the network component being monitored or on a server. All the monitoring is executed from an Engineer Work Station or the Network Operation Centers (NOC) or any Central location.</p>
<p>The Network Performance Monitor is highly capable of collecting and monitoring traffic stats from the devices that backup Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Some devices that do not backup SNMP can also be monitored such as Packet Loss and Network Latency. Most Network Performance Monitors can monitor about 10 to10, 000 nodes and interfaces from a single server at a time and there is no limitation on maximal number of interfaces and nodes that can be monitored.</p>
<p>The Network Performance Monitor charts, logs, alerts and reports about each and every transaction. It can keep track of every transaction such as logins, shopping carts, retrieved items from databases, downloads, checkouts, etc. It immediately warns and alerts the user about system related problems. It also can transfer data to applications like Microsoft Excel.</p>
<p><a target="_new" href="http://www.i-NetworkMonitoring.com">Network Monitoring</a> provides detailed information on Network Monitoring, Network Monitoring Software, Network Monitoring Tools, Network Performance Monitoring and more. Network Monitoring is affiliated with <a target="_new" href="http://www.e-NetworkMonitors.com">Network Bandwidth Monitors</a>.</p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Eric_Morris" target="_new">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eric_Morris</a></p>
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		<title>Fault Management Using SNMP Traps Over IPv6</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/networking/fault-management-using-snmp-traps-over-ipv6</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/networking/fault-management-using-snmp-traps-over-ipv6#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:24:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ipv6]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[snmp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=676</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Alex Paul
Typically network management software was engineered in the 1990s, and computer programmers used older languages and transmission technologies, like the ubiquitous internet protocol version 4, or IPv4. Some of this software was used by large corporations to detect faults by intercepting information in SNMP Traps sent from a variety of network hosts. These [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alex_Paul">Alex Paul</a></p>
<p>Typically network management software was engineered in the 1990s, and computer programmers used older languages and transmission technologies, like the ubiquitous internet protocol version 4, or IPv4. Some of this software was used by large corporations to detect faults by intercepting information in SNMP Traps sent from a variety of network hosts. These fault management solutions were mostly acquired by large IT management software vendors in the late 1990s through 2005, in an attempt to complement their legacy product offerings.</p>
<p>The best IT monitoring tools are those that can perform a variety of functions as well as fault management, but they must be ready for next generation networks and services. That is the key component that several of the legacy framework providers cannot supply - mobility and ease of use, especially with respect to adding critical new functionality to support new services.</p>
<p>And today there are new challenges with respect to managing networks, including security (addressed by SNMPv3) and the address space explosion caused by the sheer number of new machines and services that are being brought online (addressed by internet protocol version 6, or IPv6). The IPv6 protocol has been designed to have a much larger address space than IPv4, allows flexibility in routing internet traffic and allocating addresses, as well as eliminates the need to use network address translation or NAT to avoid address exhaustion; lastly, it simplifies some aspects of address assignment and renumbering when changing between Internet service providers (ISPs). IPv4 uses a 32-bit address space, which limits the number of supported hosts to 4,294,967,296 (232), whereas IPv6 supports a 128-bit address space, and expands the number of supported hosts to 3.4×1038 addresses.</p>
<p>Why are a huge number of addresses important? Because our world is becoming increasingly more complex, and each new gadget it seems is something that should connect to the internet. As the number of networked devices grows, the networks grow (especially the internet), and each one of these devices, no matter how large or small, will need a unique address. And if that device needs to send information over the network, chances are it will also be programmed to send traps, in order to alert a manager of informational or critical events. If new devices are IPv6 enabled and sending SNMPv3 secure traps, the fault manager had better be able to scale to being able to handle huge amounts of traffic as well as large volumes of encrypted SNMP Traps</b over the IPv6 protocol.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the old legacy products cannot easily be retrofitted to support receipt of events and traps over these new protocols like SNMPv3 and IPv6. Because of these new challenges and the need to support those cutting-edge protocols, new software solutions are now needed. These new fault solutions will become a critical component in the entire management infrastructure to help keep next generation services available and functioning.</p>
<p>So, to sum up, basic <a target="_new" href="http://www.oidview.com/network_fault_management.html">fault management</a> and receipt of SNMP Traps over IPv6 or using SNMPv3 is typically not offered by any of the top tier management vendors, leaving room for young upstarts to elbow into the market and take some serious market share.</p>
<p>Alex Paul is a writer on fault management for Oidview . Oidview.com focuses on Sending and capturing SNMP Traps offering a software available <a target="_new" href="http://www.oidview.com/network_fault_management.html">fault management</a> and also a commercially available Snmp tools software application.</p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alex_Paul" target="_new">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Paul</a></p>
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		<title>SNMP Made Simple - Simple Network Management Protocol</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/networking/snmp-made-simple-simple-network-management-protocol</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/networking/snmp-made-simple-simple-network-management-protocol#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:13:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Networking]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Simple Network Management Protocol]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[snmp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=674</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Asif Khan R
At some point or other, if you are working with networks, you would have heard this term. The full form of this is much simpler and gives more confidence to use than the abbreviation. It stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. As the full form suggests, it is really simple. You need [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Asif_Khan_R">Asif Khan R</a></p>
<p>At some point or other, if you are working with networks, you would have heard this term. The full form of this is much simpler and gives more confidence to use than the abbreviation. It stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. As the full form suggests, it is really simple. You need some sort of rules that can be understand between what you manage and yourself. This is the protocol part. And what you end up finally doing with it is Managing the Network. To begin with, it starts with managing a simple element or agent and then you decide to add more and more agents. Now you have a network of agents and you want to monitor and manage then using some application and this application would be termed as the manager. This is done in a simple way and hence it is called Simple Network Management Protocol. Of course it is simple if you only want to use it. If you want to develop SNMP itself, then this is not the article for you.</p>
<p>First, let us decide on what to manage. Let us say a router or a switch or a computer for example, we need to have some software or something inside that will speak our language and will do what it is asked to do. If he starts understanding complex language, then it become difficult. So we teach the agent only 3 commands. And we have the manager who will issue some of these commands and also understand something the agent sends. This is the protocol we agree between the agent and the manager. It is termed SNMP and it is as simple as what we have just read.</p>
<p>Now, what are all the things you would like to do on a router? Let us try to classify them. You would like to get the status of the router, get some important parameters on the router and get the current activities on the router. A verb which is common in all of theses tasks which we are planning to do is the word &#8220;get&#8221;. This is the first classification. So SNMP supports a command called the &#8220;GET&#8221; request.  Now once you decide that you have to do a get, of course you will also know before hand what is that you want to get. Do you want to get the status, the parameter or the activities? These terms and the tasks would be different for each and every device. So how do we solve this problem? We could use a string and say that we want to get this string. Or we could do it based on some identifier and identify each of the element which we are interested in uniquely. This is what SNMP does and this is what is in broad terms meant by OID.  So if you want to get the parameters of the router, you first need to know the address of the router. This is a IP address and then you also need to know what parameter you need on the router. Since we need to identify this parameter, we need to look up at something called the MIB and identify what is the OID of the parameter which we require to get it from the router. And we make our SNMP request of &#8220;GET&#8221; and the agent which is sitting on the router understands our language or protocol and replies back with the details as requested by the request.</p>
<p>Now we have got some parameters from the router agent. We find that something is not as expected and we need to modify something more or ask the router to do some additional task or may be ask the router to download a new software that we know is available and bug free and which the router vendor has mentioned that we need to apply. Here in this case, we need to  trigger some change operations. This is provided by a &#8220;SET&#8221; request in SNMP. As before as we have done with the &#8220;GET&#8221;, we need to identify which router we are interested in and which parameter we are interested in and we then identify the OID from the MIB and send it. The agent now again understands our protocol and will set the parameters which we have provided.</p>
<p>One question that would be on your mind now, is how does just setting the variable help in making changes to the router. Sometimes the parameter is as simple as increasing for example the capacity of the router and sometimes it is much more than that. I would explain to you with an example of my first project which was software download. Assume that you have got a new software that you want the router to install. Of course the router is not like a windows machine, where you have a colourful big monitor and you do a series of clicks and everything is installed.  Most probably what would need to be done would be the following. Place the software on some FTP server. Give the location of the FTP server and the user name and the password and the location of the file to someone and ask him to pick it up and give it to the router. This someone is our agent in the router. So what we do in this case is the following, we set some variables in the router that corresponds to the FTP server address, set one more variable that corresponds to the user name and again set one more variable to indicate the password of the FTP server and finally also set the variable to tell him where the new software is located. All &#8220;SET&#8221; operations are done by the SNMP manager to the agent on the router. Finally we ask the agent to initiate the software installation. This is again done using a &#8220;SET&#8221; operation on a particular control MIB variable for software download. Once this MIB variable is set on the agent, the software on the agent is now clever enough to know that it has to look at a series of MIB variables on the agent to identify the software location, get it and then starts the download of the software and would also probably install it. This the second class of operations that SNMP supports, the &#8220;SET&#8221; operation. With this example we realize the power of the &#8220;SET&#8221; operations though it is just a simple &#8220;SET&#8221; operation with respect to SNMP.</p>
<p>Finally, we would like to get some notifications from the router if something seriously is wrong in the router and this is also supported by SNMP. The first 2 types of operation are initiated from the SNMP manager and the third type is initiated by the SNMP agent itself. The agent has to be configured as to whom he has to send notifications and once this is configured, whenever the agent thinks is right, would send a trap to the SNMP manager and the SNMP manager can decide to do something as simple or complicated as ignoring it or sending a SMS to the operator incharge of the router to indicate the severity of the issues and also escalate it to the operator&#8217;s manager and not the SNMP manager in this case :). This is the third classification from SNMP, that it supports &#8220;TRAP&#8221;.</p>
<p>Once you have understood the three operations supported by SNMP,  you have understood more or less what SNMP is.</p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Asif_Khan_R" target="_new">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Asif_Khan_R</a></p>
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		<title>Analyzing Application Core Dump on Solaris Made Simple</title>
		<link>http://itspice.net/cms/open-solaris/analyzing-application-core-dump-on-solaris-made-simple</link>
		<comments>http://itspice.net/cms/open-solaris/analyzing-application-core-dump-on-solaris-made-simple#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:09:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>itspice</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Open Solaris]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[core dump]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[solaris]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://itspice.net/cms/?p=672</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Asif Khan R
Of late, I have been trying to find out the source of a crash on solaris. We have a C++ application that runs both on windows and solaris. We were searching lots of sites to see how to debug a crash on solaris. With windows, with our previous experience it was simple [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Asif_Khan_R">Asif Khan R</a></p>
<p>Of late, I have been trying to find out the source of a crash on solaris. We have a C++ application that runs both on windows and solaris. We were searching lots of sites to see how to debug a crash on solaris. With windows, with our previous experience it was simple as we knew more or less most of the tools and were comfortable with it. Solaris was sort of new for us for development as we were not very experienced in it. After searching some sites frantically for help and with some of my experiences, I have assembled some tips and tricks to arrive at the source of the crash.</p>
<p>On a developer machine where you have dbx installed</p>
<p>Get the core file and the binary from the customer site and copy it to some machine which has dbx(comes with sun studio) installation. Load the core file using dbx</p>
<p>shellPrompt>>dbx myBinary myWorrisomeCoreDump</p>
<p>you can use dbx to determine the abnormal thread which caused the core dump by typing the following at the dbx prompt</p>
<p>dbxPrompt>>threads</p>
<p>This command will give you the list of threads which were active when it crashed. The thread marked with &#8220;o&#8221; is the culprit thread. Please change to the thread which is causing the crash inside the dbx prompt itself.</p>
<p>dbxPrompt>>thread t@5 (Thread 5 has crashed for example)</p>
<p>And now, u cud see where it has crashed. It displays what caused the error. Type where to find the cause</p>
<p>dbxPrompt>>where</p>
<p>And u have some amount of stack trace for it now.</p>
<p>On the machine itself which doesnot have dbx</p>
<p>====================================</p>
<p>You can copy the dbx file(just a single file sufficed for me) to some temp location and do the same as above.</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>See which thread caused the core dump using pflags</p>
<p>shellPrompt>>pflags myWorrisomeCoreFile</p>
<p>/1: flags = STOPPED why = PR_SUSPENDED sigmask = 0&#215;00000004,0&#215;00000000</p>
<p>/2: flags = STOPPED recv(0&#215;4,0&#215;2e0fee8,0&#215;1,0&#215;0) why = PR_SUSPENDED sigmask = 0&#215;00000004,0&#215;00000000</p>
<p>/3: flags = STOPPED lwp_park(0&#215;4,0&#215;0,0&#215;0) why = PR_SUSPENDED sigmask = 0&#215;00000004,0&#215;00000000</p>
<p>/4: flags = 0 sigmask = 0xffffbefc,0&#215;0000ffff cursig = SIGABRT</p>
<p>Check which of the threads has something like cursig=SIG(*) and u know this thread is the one to have caused the core dump. Here it is thread 4 which has caused the crash. Now do a pstack on the core file to see the current stack</p>
<p>shellPrompt>>pstack myWorrisomeCoreFile</p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211; lwp# 4 / thread# 4 &#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211; 005edafc __1cH__rwstdJ__rb_tree4nGString_nDstdEpair4Ckn0B_n0B___n0AL__select1st4n0D_n0B___n0CEless4n0B___n0CJallocator4n0D____Oconst_iterator2i6M_r5_ (fe579c8c, fffffff4, 270f4a0, 29a2a00, 0, fe579ce8) + dc<br />
005edd60 __1cHAddressFtoUri6kM_nGString__ (fe57a2b4, 298da08, 258ce31, fe579c8c, 2499a8a, 6) + 1f0<br />
005ecc48 __1cHAddressItoString6kM_nGString__ (fe57a2b4, 298da08, fe57a3e8, 25a019c, 0, 270f518) + 10<br />
016563c0 __1cMXOConnectionOhandleMessage36MrknCsp4nHMessage____b_ (29852d0, fe57b188, 258ce31, 258ce4d, 2499a8a, 6) + 248<br />
01655820 __1cMXOConnectionOhandleMessage26MrknCsp4nHMessage____b_ (29852d0, fe57b188, 3eeedec, feaa2a00, 298d9e8, 6) + 98<br />
01655758 __1cMXOConnectionNhandleMessage6MknCsp4nHMessage____b_ (29852d0, fe57b188, fed73700, feaa2a00, 298d9f0, 6) + 10</p>
<p>You could output this and more to a text file and then see the threads and the stack trace and correlate with pflags output thread.</p>
<p>Alternatively you can also verify with adb</p>
<p>shellPrompt>>adb myWorrisomeCoreFile</p>
<p>Once core file is loaded, then check the trace where it crashed in the adb prompt by typing</p>
<p>adbPrompt>>$c</p>
<p>Understanding the stack trace __1cHAddressFtoUri6kM_nGString__ This means Class &#8220;Address&#8221; Method &#8220;toUri&#8221; whic returns &#8220;String&#8221;. I am not sure I can tell u right now to differentiate between a return value and a parameter for the function __1cH &#8220;Address&#8221; F &#8220;toUri&#8221; 6kM_nG &#8220;String&#8221; __</p>
<p>If you want to know where in your application the crash occured, instead of just identifying the function name.</p>
<p>====================================================================================</p>
<p>If you have the stack trace in dbx and have the address of the call which crashed, something like</p>
<p>005edafc __1cH__rwstdJ__rb_tree4nGString_nDstdEpair4Ckn0B_n0B___n0AL__select1st4n0D_n0B___n0CEless4n0B___n0CJallocator4n0D____Oconst_iterator2i6M_r5_ (fe579c8c, fffffff4, 270f4a0, 29a2a00, 0, fe579ce8) + dc<br />
005edd60 __1cHAddressFtoUri6kM_nGString__ (fe57a2b4, 298da08, 258ce31, fe579c8c, 2499a8a, 6) + 1f0<br />
005ecc48 __1cHAddressItoString6kM_nGString__ (fe57a2b4, 298da08, fe57a3e8, 25a019c, 0, 270f518) + 10<br />
016563c0 __1cMXOConnectionOhandleMessage36MrknCsp4nHMessage____b_ (29852d0, fe57b188, 258ce31, 258ce4d, 2499a8a, 6) + 248<br />
01655820 __1cMXOConnectionOhandleMessage26MrknCsp4nHMessage____b_ (29852d0, fe57b188, 3eeedec, feaa2a00, 298d9e8, 6) + 98</p>
<p>Assume we are interested in finding out more information in the following XOConnectionOhandleMessage3 function as the other functions above it might not have any error as they are tried and tested classes. So please go to dbx loading the binary and the core file as mentioned above and then type</p>
<p>dbxPrompt>>dis handleMessage3 /300</p>
<p>We are now disassembling the code where handleMessage3 is written for the next 300 lines as we know that the crash occurs at memory offset of hex 248 Once u disassembly copy to some editor and search for the address 16563c0 16563c0. This would be exactly at an offset of hex 248 from the beginning of the function. Now you will have to use some experience and some assembly language knowledge and some judgement to find out where it has crashed. Try searching for some text words before and after the above crash line and you are now in a little better state to understand where could the possible crash be. In my case, the lines above had &#8220;operator++ &#8221; and some lines below it had &#8220;getLogLevel&#8221; which were some of my user defined functions. So I checked my function of handleMessage3 code and searched lines between these where there could possibly be any problem between &#8220;operator ++&#8221; and &#8220;getLogLevel&#8221; function call in my function of handleMessage3.</p>
<p>I had some respite, but still have to solve lots. As the saying goes, &#8220;Miles to go before I sleep&#8221;</p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Asif_Khan_R" target="_new">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Asif_Khan_R</a></p>
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