The phone rings and on the other end is an angry user complaining that the system is down again. This is every IT persons nightmare, not to mention the user.
The IT person then scurrys around making phone calls, sending out frantic pings, hoping that the problem isn't in there area. System admins blame the network, network says there isn't a problem on there end, and send the problem back to the system admin, who in turn blames the programmers. What do you do? You reboot the box, when the box comes up the sys admins say they can't find anything in the logs, and it must just be one of those things. This happens about once or twice every 60 to 90 days. Does this sound familiar?
A system reported as down or crashed can mean many different things to IT, but to the user the system they depend on is down, end of story. Sometime systems crash or lock up and there is no apparent reason readily available, most of the time however there are warning signs and the mature IT staff will be looking for them.
This isn't an article on system administration, my point here is about monitoring what goes on in your environment. I shudder every time I here of a system locking up becuase of lack of disk space, 90% of the time this problem can be avoided by some simple monitoring and alerting. Monitoring will assist with other issues such as lack of memory, cpu, network traffic, or other errors. There is no excuse for organizations not doing network monitoring, There are free tools available. Nagios for example can be configured on a fairly low end machine and can track virtually anything that needs to be monitored. Nagios alows for alerts to be generated, escalations done, and has some rudimentary reporting which can show trending of uptime.
Having data available will help pin point problems much quicker. In the event of a server down scenario, a quick scan tell you what the network is doing, how the server was performing, and what if any capacity issues exist. With the setting of proper thresholds, most problems can be avoided before the user experiences a problem.
Most small businesses don't have good monitoring in place. If there is monitoring, it is done by different groups for there own particular needs, and a comprehensive approach is not in place to give everyone access to this vital information. Why is this? Poor managment. It is a management responsibility to make sure this infomation is available and regularly reported on.
Don't let your systems go unmonitored. Check out www.nagios.org this tool could save you thousands of dollars in lost production time. There are many other useful tools available, Nagios is the one I am most familar with, and in my opinion offers the most versatility. If you need help configuring Nagios, shoot me an email and I will help get you to a resource who can solve your problem.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Book review: Nagios: System and Network Monitoring by Wolfgang Barth
Read Jeremy Turner's review of the new Nagios book by Wolfgang Barth
Jeremy Turner reviews "Nagios: System and Network Monitoring" by Wolfgang Barth
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
ProjectSteps: A Collection of Project Management Sayings
Blogger Stephen Seay has assembled a collection of project management sayings that capture the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat experienced by the IT project manager.
Click on this link
ProjectSteps: A Collection of Project Management Sayings
Click on this link
ProjectSteps: A Collection of Project Management Sayings
What's in a project list?
I am always amazed when I go into a new company and ask to see the list of IT projects. Typically a spreadsheet gets produced with a wide variety of items that are typically 1-2 years old. When you talk to the admins, and programmers, they more often than not, have never seen "the project list".
Most small IT organizations have a huge back log of work that never gets done, the project list is more of a wish list! If you are going to move the organization along and get some of this strategic stuff done, you have to stay focused. Break these big projects down into manageable chunks and hold people accountable. Decide what is important and continue to drive forward, remembering that you can always find a small enough piece that can actually get done.
The other thing that amazes me is that many organizations have projects that make up a significant portion of there budget and there has never been a project definition, or scope defined. The project is underway, resources are being utilized, and a firm deliverable is nowhere in sight! If you have any of these "projects in the wild" stop right now.
While most small IT shops don't have budget money to spare, they continue to put resources into projects that will never come to fruition. I have seen several companies spend literally millions of dollars on the "system consolidation" project which will get rid of all of there core legacy systems and replace them with a new all in one system developed from scratch. I have yet to see one of these come into production.
Remember ...
Keep it simple.
Hold people accountable.
Identify the requirements, don't get caught in the "Ready, Shoot, Aim" game.
If you have a horror story of a "project in the wild", let me know.
Most small IT organizations have a huge back log of work that never gets done, the project list is more of a wish list! If you are going to move the organization along and get some of this strategic stuff done, you have to stay focused. Break these big projects down into manageable chunks and hold people accountable. Decide what is important and continue to drive forward, remembering that you can always find a small enough piece that can actually get done.
The other thing that amazes me is that many organizations have projects that make up a significant portion of there budget and there has never been a project definition, or scope defined. The project is underway, resources are being utilized, and a firm deliverable is nowhere in sight! If you have any of these "projects in the wild" stop right now.
While most small IT shops don't have budget money to spare, they continue to put resources into projects that will never come to fruition. I have seen several companies spend literally millions of dollars on the "system consolidation" project which will get rid of all of there core legacy systems and replace them with a new all in one system developed from scratch. I have yet to see one of these come into production.
Remember ...
Keep it simple.
Hold people accountable.
Identify the requirements, don't get caught in the "Ready, Shoot, Aim" game.
If you have a horror story of a "project in the wild", let me know.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Small IT needs structure TOO!
There is much buzz in the IT community about Service Delivery and frameworks, ITIL, COBIT and even Six Sigma are at the forefront. These are all excellent methods for improving the IT organization and aligning IT with the business, but are they appropriate for the small business? How do you implement ITIL if you are 20 person IT staff?
Small organizations can implement the spirit of these full fledged frameworks without being burdened by the weighty process inherehent in them. So where does one begin? Small organizations have to maximize there IT dollar, hence the goal of IT should be to provide a stable platform to do normal business operations, most of these processes don't contribute to a competitive advantage and aren't part of the core business. Applications like accounting, order processing, and inventory managment are commodity items and should be purchased out of the box. Take your time in selecting the right package and don't make customizations, adapt your process to the application. There are a scores of applications available that are relatively inexpensive, and have years of development behind them, you are not going to significantly improve on there overall performance.
If you are going to do software development, only do it when it contributes to the competitive advantage. Remember most software projects fail! I have never worked at an organization where the custom software apps have been delivered consitently on time, and within budget. Software development eats away at the precious resources of the small IT budget.
Infrastructure is another area where there is not a tremendous advantage. Put in good solid products, don't scrimp on quality, but don't do technology for technology's sake! Put you energy into figuring out the most efficent processes for your organization. When the issue is well defined, the soluton is doable. Find local vendors who can augment your staff with the high end resources you only need occasionaly, small firms rarely need a CCIE on staff, but paying for one's services when your are doing a network upgrade can save you lot's of moeny in the long run.
Capture what is going on in your organization, the IT help desk is the hub of IT communication. Once again there are a number of inexpensive tools to track tickets and distribute work. Review your critical issues on a daily basis, and look for repeat offenders. Utilize your ticket database to do reporting, this will tell you what is going on in your organization.
Monitor everything! Make it part of your infrastucture build to enable montitoring. Once again there are free tools available that will tell you exactly what is going on in your enviroment, and notify you when problems arise or are about to occur.
Manage change. Many small organizations feel that they can not take the time to do change management, this couldn't be farther from the truth. Remember most outages are caused by something IT changed. Start with a simple process, if it is longer than one page, it is too long.
These are just a few tips, upcoming posts will dive into detail on these steps and provide some specific examples.
Small organizations can implement the spirit of these full fledged frameworks without being burdened by the weighty process inherehent in them. So where does one begin? Small organizations have to maximize there IT dollar, hence the goal of IT should be to provide a stable platform to do normal business operations, most of these processes don't contribute to a competitive advantage and aren't part of the core business. Applications like accounting, order processing, and inventory managment are commodity items and should be purchased out of the box. Take your time in selecting the right package and don't make customizations, adapt your process to the application. There are a scores of applications available that are relatively inexpensive, and have years of development behind them, you are not going to significantly improve on there overall performance.
If you are going to do software development, only do it when it contributes to the competitive advantage. Remember most software projects fail! I have never worked at an organization where the custom software apps have been delivered consitently on time, and within budget. Software development eats away at the precious resources of the small IT budget.
Infrastructure is another area where there is not a tremendous advantage. Put in good solid products, don't scrimp on quality, but don't do technology for technology's sake! Put you energy into figuring out the most efficent processes for your organization. When the issue is well defined, the soluton is doable. Find local vendors who can augment your staff with the high end resources you only need occasionaly, small firms rarely need a CCIE on staff, but paying for one's services when your are doing a network upgrade can save you lot's of moeny in the long run.
Capture what is going on in your organization, the IT help desk is the hub of IT communication. Once again there are a number of inexpensive tools to track tickets and distribute work. Review your critical issues on a daily basis, and look for repeat offenders. Utilize your ticket database to do reporting, this will tell you what is going on in your organization.
Monitor everything! Make it part of your infrastucture build to enable montitoring. Once again there are free tools available that will tell you exactly what is going on in your enviroment, and notify you when problems arise or are about to occur.
Manage change. Many small organizations feel that they can not take the time to do change management, this couldn't be farther from the truth. Remember most outages are caused by something IT changed. Start with a simple process, if it is longer than one page, it is too long.
These are just a few tips, upcoming posts will dive into detail on these steps and provide some specific examples.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Welcome, to IT for SMB
Hey,
This is my first shot at blogging, and I really am not sure what I am doing but...
I intend to make postings here concerning IT interests of the small business.
I have worked in IT for nearly 20 years, and I have struggled with all the classic problems that small organizations have, trying to do IT. After years of 60+ hour work weeks, I knew there had to be a better way to do IT, and I started to study not the technology but the "Strategy" behind IT. through this blog and my website www.itsd4smb.com I will share what has worked for me.
This is my first shot at blogging, and I really am not sure what I am doing but...
I intend to make postings here concerning IT interests of the small business.
I have worked in IT for nearly 20 years, and I have struggled with all the classic problems that small organizations have, trying to do IT. After years of 60+ hour work weeks, I knew there had to be a better way to do IT, and I started to study not the technology but the "Strategy" behind IT. through this blog and my website www.itsd4smb.com I will share what has worked for me.
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