What makes a good sysadmin?
I've been helping some friends with their resumes lately, and it's caused me to think a lot about how I became a sysadmin. I don't have any formal training (beyond some vendor-specific stuff), and I...
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Question about Report Writer and SQL
I have a 2 part question: Is there a way to color a row in a report based on the statusI have a query i created for this report and I am trying to pull the last event that happened for each node its...
View ArticleHave you tried Orion SAM or NPM on the same physical server as the SQL database?
We have about 500 elements in our Orion engine including some SAM, netflows logging, and other NPM. We are thinking about taking the Orion server off of a virtual machine and giving it dedicated...
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The SolarWinds SysAdmin Survey -- What do you think?
If you haven't already seen it, Denny LeCompte posted the results of our SysAdmin Survey over on The Whiteboard earlier this morning.Below is an infographic summarizing the results, and you can see the...
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Monitoring unpatched systems?
I was reading up on Thwack, and saw an article about how unpatched systems can lead to all kinds of funky business, like bank fraud. The article goes on to describe how SolarWinds Patch Manager can...
View ArticleHow should organizations organize BYOD?
While more and more people are working from their homes. BYOD programs will most likely motivate employees to get their own devices connected to the corporate network, while giving them a sense of...
View ArticleHow are you interacting with your end users these days?
End Users have high expectations these days. In my experience for the last couple of years It has grown out of proportion. Things change because everyone brings in or works from home with their own...
View ArticleWhat features do you require in your helpdesk software?
Before selecting the right helpdesk software, I want to discuss some of the basic criteria I am using to select the right tool:Problem management - problem logging; problem identification; call...
View ArticleThe need for an IT Self Service Portal?
How cool would it be for any manager or employee to access a single portal in which they can access the complete overview of their back-end systems within their department and team, placing the...
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Monitoring baseline & false positives during peak business demand
End-to-end monitoring and correlation of the data gathered from the entire stack is what matters. Even then, it's only useful if you have set a baseline and know what the normal state of your...
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How do you monitor your applications?
Every application is different from a management and interaction perspective. Some have APIs (or syslog / snmp), some are TCP/IP networked (using a client / server model), and some are web-based. With...
View ArticlePrivate Clouds and Patch Management Strategies
The cloud model is present in a large amount of companies within these days, and if it’s not they are already thinking about it. Even though there are still a lot of organizations which are not ready...
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Monitoring across the stack?
In a previous post, byrona brought up a valid point:For our internal stuff we also apply the same process, use a canned template and modify as necessary. Internally we also use the application...
View ArticleHow do you keep track of servers, applications, IP addresses?
Where I work we have a configuration management database, or CMDB. The term CMDB comes from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. ITIL to some is a true four-letter word, but the...
View ArticleWhat makes a good sysadmin?
I've been helping some friends with their resumes lately, and it's caused me to think a lot about how I became a sysadmin. I don't have any formal training (beyond some vendor-specific stuff), and I...
View ArticleHow do you keep track of servers, applications, IP addresses?
Where I work we have a configuration management database, or CMDB. The term CMDB comes from the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, or ITIL. ITIL to some is a true four-letter word, but the...
View ArticleDo You Trust Vendor Patches?
Microsoft had a bit of an issue with the latest round of patches last week. Nothing major blew up other than an Outlook folder pane view, but the implications were legion. Do you actually test these...
View ArticleWhen monitoring service uptime and availability, do you use geographically...
In dealing with availability monitoring, how many different geographic angles do you prefer to analyze from? Are the pros and cons to having too many or too few? I recently had a downtime problem with...
View ArticleIntegrating solar winds tools with 3rd party tools
Hi, I am working as an Technology consultant in designing workflows for automating the process/functionality of various tools. Is there any way Solar winds products can be automated by interacting via...
View ArticleAny advice on a well integrated setup?
Hi, I just started a new job and I have to say the infrastructure is a mess right now. I need to implement these functionalities:- Help Desk management- Network inventorying- Infrastructure...
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