Through my years of both support for SolarWinds and advancing to administrating environments I’ve come to learn a few tricks of the trade so to speak to having an environment that is optimized and working to its peak potential. My writings here are solely based on my experiences and what I’ve learned. I’m sure people may see it differently and might of taken different paths and that’s ok. I respect different train of thoughts as sometimes there is always more than one way to reach a solution. More than one way to answer a question. And that’s key. It’s almost a requirement that you think creatively and outside of the box to reach an answer.
Even if this means having the world record for the most complex and highly customized environment. SolarWinds in some ways can almost be seen as kind of like a Linux kernel. I’ve seen heavily scripted environments with home grown in house solutions where only the core components where used and integrated into the home grown solution. And I’ve seen environments that are out of the box basic SolarWinds. And that’s what’s so amazingly awesome about the software and what’s always kept my interest. SolarWinds goes above and beyond. True, they are far from perfect. But as far as solutions go they are truly the best out there. And that’s where you need the right admin to be the heartbeat of the solution. He or she will provide it the life it needs to function and breath on its own.
I became certified after I worked for the company because I saw my own potential in giving an environment life. It’s not pretty job but that’s the fun in it for me personally I love the challenge it is constantly offering me to keep it going . The challenge to keep it alive and the challenge to offering an an environment that has value and gives the company a tool that blows past expectations and amazes people just as much or more than I am.
Respect the software and it will respect you back. Think about that. The code is designed to work under certain circumstances and conditions. Give the code it’s room to breath and watch it make magic. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve taken environments left for dead running on scrap hardware and starved for life. And I’ve turned it into roaring beasts when I gave the software what it was asking for.
Solarwinds has implemented many feature requests I’ve made. In a way I feel like part of myself is now embedded In life of the software too. Might be a crazy way of looking at it but it’s what gives me the drive to learn and do what I do. To each his own and if you have your ways more power to you I respect my fellow admins out there taking care of their environments too. Hopefully the feature requests I’ve made helps you all in the long run.
Here are are some core points that I believe determines if your SolarWinds environment will succeed or if it will struggle.
1. A real admin makes things work with what he or she is given. What I mean is you might run into challenges where you won’t get approval for new equipment and the current one is wrongly specd out and starved. How can you deliver a system when it’s hamstrung due to lack of approvals? Most admins would fight to get the approval. Think smarter not harder. Evaluate what you have and work according to resources. At least if goals aren’t met you have the data to back it up and show that. If you run it based on resources available optimize it to use the resource efficiently by optimizing intervals and other parameter, you will have a top performer but sometimes a top performer isn’t enough and you need a heavy hitter. This would prove your point in any meeting to show that without more resources this is the best and there is no room to get more.
2 A real admin monitors the state and heartbeat of the environment proactively and catches problems before it is seen on the front end. Sometimes I’ve ran scripts to automatically restart services every so often just to keep an environment stable. Read the logs , check the resources. Check the data in general and hiccups spotted get it fixed before that spec on the radar turns into a monster of a problem
3. Keep it tidy. Apply the hotfixes and patch up the holes. Maintenance is key. Keep a schedule, read the release notes and determine if an update is minor and not required or if it’s a major release that’s needs to get implemented right away.
4. Schedule the changes and round up the meetings. Sometimes unfortunately there are what I call road blocks. Meaning approvals are needed to get things done. As soon as you find out get it out there sooner rather than later. This guarantees That there is a better chance you have everything in place by the time you have to set changes in motion.
Point being... know your system backwards and forward. This ensures a working system instead of having someone who is reactive and problems aren’t fixed until the plane has crashed and burned. If your in flight and you notice a problem fix it before that plane starts going down.
soalrwinds has grown up a lot since I was part of the company and thwack is a treasure trove of information and the most helpful people I’ve met. I’ll admit it I can geek out on SolarWinds at times. I wish I could the meetings and events. Maybe one day I’ll have the ability too but that doesn’t put me outside of the group.
I share are my experience because I want to help anyone who might be going through what I went through. It’s a fun journey to immerse yourself into a software and become the subject matter expert in the room. You know what your saying when others might not have a clue.
And the key to a working environment is always a good administrator. Who is savvy and knows how to use their resources and knowledge. Know how to make it all work and make it add value to everything. Find creative ways to get things done. Add features to SolarWinds. And own it.
Administration is almost like a representation of yourself. Do you rock at what you do? That should translate into on rocking system. Or are you hired just for the money and you don’t care about the system which in turn will provide no value in investment?it all really comes down to the person in my point of view and if you own what you do and genuinely love it nothings to stop you from being the envy of all other administrators.
Boy do do I wish I could run environments like I’ve seen others running it. But I had to play to my strengths. And when I found that that’s when I really was able to become the administrator I wanted to be.
i hope those reading this enjoy it and find it inspiring for what it’s worth. Feel free to comment about your experiences too. That’s the fun about being part of this community.
