LiveAction Software - (Acquired by BlueCat)’s Post

Do you still rely on your users to tell you when your system is on the fritz? Implementing modern observability to resolve issues proactively is important in modern software development. How well does your team implement observability? Check out this interesting article on observability: https://lnkd.in/gmn6Tfh8

A new release! This time with activity logging. Not as comprehensive as the previous release but the ability to monitor device and client activity in real-time should be a godsend when you are debugging and diagnosing issues: https://lnkd.in/d9MAHg3T

The world has more detail than a user "story" can hold. Take a simple example: what is the value of a specific password encryption choice for an end user? Many Product Managers might avoid this by saying, "Use the best one", or "let's not roll our own; let's buy it from Auth0 or use something OSS that's common." And so the user story will be "As a user, I want my password to be kept secure." For many PMs and EMs, this is an acceptable answer. However, if you work at Auth0, that is a hilariously underspecified story. And no, you can't simply say, "use the best aglorithm" and call it a day. There are entire languages for formal proofs (like TLA+) that express in excruciating detail things like Euclid's algorithm, which can come up in password encryption. "So what?" you might ask. This is where you ask yourself, "What detail should my organization care about?" There is not a simple answer to this question. For things like password encryption, it is rarely the case that  your or my organization is adding value to the world by thinking carefully about the trade offs between different algorithms. It also true that the classic answer of always framing it in terms of customer value is at best short sighted.

What is a process and what is a thread in the operating system? Understanding the difference between them. In operating systems, processes and threads are sequences of instructions for execution. They differ in key aspects. A process is more independent with its own memory space and resources, making it suitable for isolated tasks. Inter-process communication (IPC) is required for processes to share data, and context switching between processes is heavy and time-consuming. Thread is a lighter execution unit within a process that shares the same memory space and resources with other threads of the same process. This shared memory allows for faster and easier communication between threads, making context switching quicker and less resource-intensive. Processes operate independently, while threads are dependent on their parent process and other threads within it. As a result, processes are ideal for tasks requiring strong isolation, such as running different browser tabs as separate processes, while threads are better suited for parallel tasks within the same application, like rendering a webpage and handling user inputs simultaneously.

Observability pillar 1. Logs   What are logs?    Logs are detailed records of events, processes, or transactions within a system. These are typically written by services or applications and provide insight into what is happening at a specific point in time.   Role in Observability:    Logs help to capture detailed information about system behavior, including errors, warnings, and other events. They are critical for troubleshooting, identifying root causes, and understanding the context of system actions.    - Key Features:    - Event timestamp    - Severity levels (info, warning, error, critical)    - Metadata (e.g., request IDs, user IDs)    - Structured or unstructured format #Observabilitypillars

Two questions: [1] How to tell what's functional vs what's non-functional? [2] Any case study to help understand this? ___________ [1] How to tell what's functional vs what's non-functional? While Functional requirements tell what a system is supposed to do, Non-functional Requirements define how the system should operate including things like speed, security, reliability, data integrity, etc. At a high level, you can consider following factors for non-functional requirements: a) Performance: How quickly the system can respond to requests b) Scalability: How well the system can handle an increase in number of requests while maintaining the same latency c) Reliability: How well the system can continue to support if there are hardware failures (fault tolerance) d) Security: How well the system is able to protect it's user data from bad actors ___________ [2] Any case study to help understand this? Let's take an example of a shopping cart. Well, the attached image says it all. *** If you want to read further, then checkout this detailed article on Non-Functional Requirements: https://lnkd.in/gQZ4PjSx If you like reading technical concepts in depth, then follow along for more reads in the future.

If you've been working in the world of troubleshooting for a while, you likely have a tried-and-true method for detecting the causes of network problems. we will focus on a basic four-part methodology for troubleshooting networks based on traffic: Task 1: Define the problem When a user complains about performance in such a general way, we need to ask some questions to focus and prioritize our troubleshooting tasks. Here are sample questions that you might ask a network user before capturing or analyzing a single packet. First: What were you trying to do? (Are you troubleshooting a file upload, file download, login, email send, email receive, database update, or something else? What type of traffic will you be looking for?) Second: What web site/server target were you communicating with? (Do you have an address upon which to filter?) Third: What are the symptoms?  Fourth: Did you receive any error message?  Fifth: Is this happening all the time? is it intermittent ? as it is simple as it is important to define the problem, don't jump to troubleshoot something you do not know specifically, try to verify that there is a problem in the first place, many troubleshooting ends with no problem at all, just wrong problem reporting. Task 2: Collect system, application and path information Obtain as much system, network and infrastructure information as possible. This will help put a framework around the tasks at hand, try to correlate these information, collect inventory information like what type of operation system, version or distribution , what type of the application they use Task 3: Capture and analyze packet flows Packet analysis is an art, it needs a foundation knowledge but if you know how TCP/IP and your applications work, and you are familiar with your tools it is more like a game. Anyone can play and the more you practice, the better you will be. capturing came before analyzing traffic, and if you captured wrong data or captured on the wrong place, then you miss analyzing packets ( you will not notice the error in your packets). you need to know the capturing techniques, and the capturing location, this will come by practicing, maybe you need to capture in more than one location and in sometime at the same time. Task 4: Consider other tools packet capturing does not mean Wireshark, yes, it's the most famous one but in some scenarios, you need other tools beside Wireshark or in place of Wireshark, below list of software that can be used: 1. Cascade Pilot® (architected by Loris Degioanni[4] and available at www.riverbed.com) was designed to work with very large trace files. 2. TraceWrangler (created by Jasper Bongertz and available at www.tracewrangler.com was designed to anonymize and edit trace files.  3. For WLAN analysis on a Windows host, the AirPcap adapters (www.riverbed.com) must have tool, the Wi-Spy and Chanalyzer products from MetaGeek

Rocket Software's UniData 8.3.2 is here! Improve your HA/DR experience with the identification of problematic LSNs and replication responsive charts. Read up on the latest security features to understand the reasons your teams should upgrade. https://shorturl.at/etHQV

In this Networking Field Day #NFD36 article, Sulagna Saha discusses how PathSolutions’ #TotalView software transforms root-cause analysis (RCA) in network troubleshooting, reducing the traditionally manual and complex process into a streamlined, automated experience. By leveraging deep network visibility and intelligent heuristics, #TotalView provides real-time diagnostics, actionable recommendations, and modular features tailored to diverse operational needs, enabling proactive problem resolution and minimizing escalation.

project is about a digital lock with multiple states. Each state depends on entering the correct password. If the correct password is entered, it transitions to the "open lock" state; if the password is wrong, it transitions to the "wrong" state. After three incorrect trials, the system requires a master password consisting of four numbers. If the master password is entered incorrectly on the first trial, the user is given another trial. If the master password is incorrect again, the system enters an infinite loop in the alarm state. The system consists of:  1. Two memory modules (EEPROM), each containing data (states). 2. A D flip-flop, used for delay in the system. 3. 3 LEDs for the password, indicating the recording of password numbers in the system. 4. 4 LEDs for the master key, indicating the recording of the master password numbers in the system.