cgaller

My biggest concern with 'cloud' solutions is how do you know that they haven't given someone else access to your data/systems. Also, when you delete something in the 'cloud', that application might delete it from their database, but if they are using cloud storage themselves, that data might not really be deleted from the…

I have only setup the Solarwinds IPAM and haven't used it much on a daily basis. Seems like a decent product and much better than a spreadsheet. I have used Infoblox daily in my previous $dayjob. While it is expensive, if you use it for IPAM, DNS, and DHCP it is worth it's weight. The key with Infoblox is that everything…

Visibility from the user's perspective it critical. Most monitoring systems poll from the data center instead. In the network I used to administer we put older windows workstations, with dual NICs, at every branch. We could then test things from the user's perspective, run wireshark or iPerf.

Do you see any value in something like Dameware over Webex? Do you ever have any need to access a workstation when someone is not there locally?

Just tonight my wife asked why Dropbox wasn't uploading her pictures from her phone. I asked her what was on the Dropbox screen and she said nothing. When I finally got to look at the phone, there was an error message at the top stating that Dropbox didn't have permission to her photos.

If you don't mind sharing, how many end hosts? Internal and external hosts? How often does it get patched? Do you have to update the clients with every update to the server?

Any time you deny the requestor what they are asking for will result in negative feedback. How do you compensate for that?

I like the idea of tracking all projects and tasks, then review them at the end of the period. But like you said it is at the whim of the manager. Perhaps if along side the list surveys can be included. What about surveys sent to those involved in the project after it has been completed? That would get more accurate…

Some support organizations are motivated to create more tickets because each ticket equates to additional revenue.

Emailing in lends itself to not only laziness from the end user, but the end user it typically ignorant of what information may be needed to begin work on the issue. As for calling into the Helpdesk, that really depends on the agent taking the call. I have seen everything from those that create and punt to agents that…

Agreed. Also, not just seeing the error message, but the timing of it. Did the error message pop up immediately? Was it 10 seconds? 30? 60? User's just don't realize the importance of something like that when troubleshooting. The immediate message could be related to a rejection or permissions issue, where a longer…

Do you get more surveys completed if they are anonymous?

I left my last $dayjob because of my manager. He was always very negative and critical of the people that worked for him and gave praises to people on other teams.

When I was a network administrator, most of my work was project related. I would brought in on tickets that were fairly complex or the problem was elusive. My annual evaluations were completely up to the perception of my manager. You could get anonymous surveys from your peers, but that depends on how you interact with…

I did a full implementation of Infoblox at my previous job. I absolutely love that product. It integrated IPAM, DNS, and DHCP. The DHCP server maintained forward and reverse DDNS records, so they were always correct and up to date. Windows DDNS never removed stale records. We also implemented DNS anycast with Infoblox,…

In a TAC presentation this week at Cisco's Geekfest, they had a bullet point that you should only open one issue per case. Cisco's end users are typically ones that are technical and already in IT. They should already _know_ to open one issue per case, however their web site ticket creation makes it very easy to put…

I usually have to use what the client approves, but I do like the WebEx ability to revoke remote control of my machine. WebEx also tends to have a easy ability to setup access to the remote machine fairly easily and consistently.

So how do you determine from these statistics that one employee is doing an excellent job while another is doing poor.

What social networks are you referring to? Ones like Twitter & Facebook, or Thwack & support forums?

I used that same PERL module years ago until the company I worked for at the time purchase the Solarwinds NCM. That tool was much more efficient and had a lot more features. As a consultant, I don't manage my own network any more. I do have a need to backup configurations or deploy bulk changes. I have written a Python…

I agree that SLAs need to be based on response. What timeframe do you think there should be on that response? And how often? I have opened cases with some manufacturers and I get a response quickly. Typically they ask for information I have already provided or I reply back immediately with the information they requested…

I understand that SLAs are to give the business a timeframe for a response or resolution, but I agree that many times they are setup for failure. In regard to the SLAs you have seen, which are typically better? Ones that are based on response or resolution? What time frames?

With site visits you also have to account for travel time. Usually that is not billable, but a site visit usually has a minimum time. And with remote access, the troubleshooting can begin almost immediately.

Infoblox is a great complete solution, but it is expensive. Solarwinds is a much cheaper solution if all you are looking at is visibility and monitoring.

You can create an alias in NX-OS for the write command. One of the first things I do when I setup a NX-OS device. Use 'cli alias name write copy running startup' in configuration mode and that should be a work around.