Maintenance Mode If you need to deactivate nodes for a period of time, you can do so by unmanaging / putting the node into maintenance mode. Changes you make to the managed or unmanaged status of a node takes affect after the next polling cycle. To unmanage a node : Log on to your [...]
I encountered a problem yesterday that started when a customer reported a minor application issue. It demonstrated a common logistical problem that happens across many organisations when engineers attempt to fix customer issues and end up creating problems while trying to access servers. Here is the common application server support problem : An engineer builds [...]
What is WMI? Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a set of Microsoft specifications for consolidating the management of devices and applications in a network from Windows computing systems. WMI was first introduced and can be utilised on computers running Windows 95, Windows 98 and NT and later editions of Windows. WMI [...]
What is SNMP? Developed in 1988 to provide network-device-monitoring capability for TCP/IP-based networks, SNMP was approved as an Internet standard in 1990 by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and has been in wide use since that time. More recently, Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX)-based networks have added support for SNMP. Currently, most network equipment vendors provide [...]
The bad old days. When there was no such thing as infrastructure monitoring, it was all about logs, everything was manual. Support processes were tedious and long winded often resulting in site visits or lengthy remote desktop sessions. "The last to know support desk" was a common occurrence. Technical support teams were fire-fighting problems [...]
Operational Shutdown Before making any changes to the Solarwinds environment, such as patching, application or OS, a shutdown of the Solarwinds services is required. Orion Service Manager can be located on the Solarwinds application server and is a better alternative to having to stop and start services manually. To shutdown Solarwinds correctly click stop everything. [...]
I have just had a chat with my fellow workmates, some of them are a little annoyed that I have set Solarwinds SAM up to detect and restart IIS application pools. The engineers get paid overtime rates for working at night and with the application pools now being restarted automatically, Solarwinds has saved the [...]
The Wannacry / Wannacrypt virus is surging freely across the internet. The payload took effect on the 12th of May 2017. It has affected over 74 countries so far. Many NHS trusts (16), hospitals, GP surgeries have been affected by the recent so called "Cyber-Attack." What is it? A worm, that spreads by exploiting SMB [...]
Monitoring applications, servers, and components need to be clearly defined so that better understanding of the technical environment can be gained. When technical and non-technical staff are asked to work within an environment, certified diagrammatical information is critical to the effective support, development and future maintenance of the environment. This diagram is a representation of [...]
When creating a network operations centre dashboard, it has to be concise, informational and relevant. custom dashboard A network operating centre dashboard, should contain IP addresses, server hostnames, relevant connection information, server and software status. It could also contain server specifications. For this production environment, I have applied a background image created in [...]
