Tag Archive for 'Hardware'

Weekly Snap: Hardware deals & OSMC CfP to Pangolin & PostgreSQL

Published by Amanda Mailer on 14.05.2012 in Diverses and English. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

camera Weekly Snap: Hardware deals & OSMC CfP to Pangolin & PostgreSQL7 – 11 May was packed with tidbits from all corners of the office – from hardware sales and open source events to database and operating system tips.

Georg began by announcing our hardware shop’s summer sale, as well as a new 2N UMTS router in store.

Stefan followed with his hyperthreading workaround for slow performance in Ubuntu LTS 12.04 “Precise Pangolin”, while Marius put his case forward for PostgreSQL.

On the event circuit, Bernd presented at the Open Source System Management Conference in Bolzano and Eva opened the Call for Papers to our Open Source Monitoring Conference on 17 – 18 October. Interested speakers are welcome to submit their presentation ideas by 30 June.

Finally, Tobias gave us his second round of IT buzzwords to lighten a busy week.

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großer Ansturm auf die Monitoring-Hardware-Ausstellung auf der OSMC

Published by Georg Mimietz on 08.12.2011 in Diverses, German, Hardware, ICINGA, Linux, Nagios, NagiosGrapher, NETWAYSGrapher and OSMC. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Auch dieses Jahr war unserer Shop mit einer Demo-Monitoring Umgebung auf der OSMC vertreten – die Besucher der OSMC konnten sich direkt von den neuesten Trends der Monitoring-Szene überzeugen. In unserer Demo Umgebung waren folgende Artikel ausgestellt:

  • GUDE expert Power Control (Stromleiste für das Messen des aktuellen Verbrauchs – Schalten via Web ebenso möglich)
  • GUDE expert net control 2101/2151
  • GUDE expert net control 2i2o 2100/2150
  • GUDE expert sensor box 7212 (noch nicht verfügbar)

Die ausgestellte Hardware wurde permanent in unserem Icinga überwacht. Kunden die sich von der Alarmierung überzeugen wollten erwärmten einen Sensor – kurze Zeit daruf wurde unsere Nagios-Ampel rot und zeitgleich gingen SMS und Voice-Alarmierungen ein.

Besonderer Beliebtheit erfreute sich außerdem der neue inGraph, der bereits auf unserem Demo-System zu sehen war. Wer Interesse an unserer Überwachungs-Hardware hat, sollte sich bei uns im Shop mal umsehen.

header großer Ansturm auf die Monitoring Hardware Ausstellung auf der OSMC

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Weekly Snap: Gude Starter Kit & Postfix Email Archiving

Published by Amanda Mailer on 15.08.2011 in Diverses and English. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

camera Weekly Snap: Gude Starter Kit & Postfix Email Archiving 8 – 12 August introduced a new hardware starter kit, senior consultant Philipp and two ways to archive emails in Postfix.

With a couple simple changes to the mail transfer agent (MTA) in the main.cf, Lennart showed how to archive emails in Postfix . Using ‘recipient_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/bcc_maps’ he specified the map file for emails which are assigned to a particular user on the MTA and then directed it to forward emails by copying the mails sent by the user with ‘sender_bcc_maps  =  hash:/etc/postfix/bcc_maps’. Alternatively, to simply archive all emails in the mail server, he suggested always_bcc = archiv@example.org also in the main.cf.

As part of our staff series, Philipp a senior consultant in our monitoring and systems management wing, introduced himself, his work and his life beyond the office. Involved in customer projects from pre-sales and conception to onsite implementation, he is also a trainer in our NETWAYS courses and workshops. Phillip reflected on his recent projects at large German automotive and financial corporations, and the trend towards open source in the corporate world.

Our hardware storeman introduced a new starter kit for temperature and humidity monitoring in small server rooms. The kit consists of the “Gude Expert Net Control 2101” meter, a 2m cable combination temperature/humidity sensor and matching power adapter. The Gude meters are all SNMP compatible and can send alerts via email. They come equipped with a web based user interface, a second sensor port and digital output with watchdog functionality (PING). Plugins for Nagios / Icinga are available at www.netways.org

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Weekly Snap: GDB for Debugging, ispCP for Web Server Admin, 1 New Job & 3 New Hardware

Published by Amanda Mailer on 08.08.2011 in Diverses and English. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

camera Weekly Snap: GDB for Debugging, ispCP for Web Server Admin, 1 New Job & 3 New Hardware1 – 6 August started the month with blogging from across the office. First on new products from the hardware store, tips from the development and managed services teams and also a new job opening on the sales team.

Starting the week, Marcus shared a tip for web server management with isp Contol Panel Omega. A fork of the now inactive VHCS project, ispCP is an open source, multi server control and administration panel for internet service providers. He likes ispCP for its user interface and ability assign various roles to users such as ‘administrator’, ‘reseller’ and ‘user’ to apply refined user rights and principles. Installation is easy with the helpful official documentation and ispCP is available in a stable v1.0.7. However for a look at its new features Marcus recommends the v1.1.0 beta version or simply their online demos.

From the development team, Gunnar showed how to use GDB for debugging. As of v.7.0, GDB can “record” and replay program execution allowing the user to pinpoint problem areas in the source code. Handy indeed, but he cautioned that GDB significantly slows the program when “recording” and should be used for the shortest process portions possible.

Following on from Sales, Peter posted a position for a Junior Account Manager. The ideal candidate would have some experience in hosting, systems management, monitoring etc and enjoy dealing with customers. More on the position and application can be found on the jobs area of our website.

From our hardware shop, Martin announced the arrival of Kentix AlamManager, Multi Sensor LAN and the new Multi-Tech Multi Modem for SMS. The Kentis Alarm Manager Set consists of a base station and wireless multi sensor. The base station facilitates communication with the company network and sends SMS alerts through the in-built GSM modem. The sensor monitors temperature, humidity, dew point, fire/carbon monoxide and movement, communicating to the base station wirelessly via Zig Bee. For smaller environments, the Multi Sensor LAN is also available, offering a version that is integrated into the company network via a network cable (with PoE). As alway. Icinga/Nagios  plugins can be downloaded at www.netways.org

Finally, the last addition to the shop is the follower to the Multi-Tech Multi Modem MTCBA-G-EN-F4-ED-EU, known as the Multi-Tech Multi Modem MTCBA-G2-EN2-F4-ED-EU. From in-house tests, Martin noted that interceptty is no longer needed; instead communication can be set simply in the SMS server tool config.

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Weekly Snap: CeBIT & MonitoringExchange reflections, Puppet & Chive, Cat5e & PoE recommendations

Published by Amanda Mailer on 22.03.2010 in Diverses and English. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

camera Weekly Snap: CeBIT & MonitoringExchange reflections, Puppet & Chive, Cat5e & PoE recommendations

Mar 15 -19 was a full blog week with CeBIT and MonitoringExchange reflections and a string of recommendations from Puppet classes, MySQL development cycles and Chive database management, to Cat5e and PoE hardware.

Manuela gave us the heads up on the coming Puppet training course and its fast disappearing places. Led by Reductive Labs (Puppet’s founding development team) the course will be held on 20 – 22 April in greater Nuremberg.

Bernd L then tipped off the latest PHP database management project known as Chive. Comparable to phpMyAdmin and SQLBuddy, it has a few advantages nonetheless. With extended routine, trigger and view functions, Chive is up and running without adjustment once unpacked from the archive.

Following on with tips, Hardware man Martin offered us new USB extensions to soothe our 5m cable grumbles. With lengths up to 60m, the Cat5e USB extender works without a driver and effortlessly with Linux system- all for less than the typically expensive Windows exclusive, USB extenders. He also introduced the Wiesemann and Theis range of monitoring hardware which run on Power over Ethernet (PoE). From temperature, humidity and air pressure to relay output, all can send alerts through email, SNMP Trap and even Twitter. All are available at our online hardware shop.

Bernd E celebrated MonitoringExchange’s 2000th project milestone. Cause for celebration, as we recently revamped the platform with Ajax search, extended developer-user communication channels and the mysterious Catalot system. Now there’s even more plugins, addons and utilities to browse for open source monitoring solutions the likes of Nagios, Icinga, Zabbix and OpenMNS.

We paid our respects to MySQL’s development cycle, while Karo reflected on the recent CeBIT. She posted photos, a news video clip and a shout out to customers who popped by to visit including T-Mobile, Sidmach and Tradoria. Julian, Bernd and Michi’s presentations will soon be available in the Linux streaming archives, with the slides of course coming to our blog too. Thanks to Bayern Innovativ, it was such a pleasure to be a part of their group stand that we can’t help but say: see you @ CeBIT 2011!

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Weekly Snap: Sesam checks, Sidmach visits and HWG-STE

Published by Amanda Mailer on 23.11.2009 in Diverses and English. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

camera Weekly Snap: Sesam checks, Sidmach visits and HWG STENov 16-20 was a busy week on the blog, with Open Source Expo impressions, new tools, plugins and hardware and a visit from new clients from abroad.

To start, Bernd reported back from the Open Source Expo in Karlsruhe where he represented Icinga. He gave us a peek into the concurrent International PHP Conference with a presentation by Zend developer Ralph Schindler on “PHP in a Cloud”.

William followed with yet another plug-in release – check_sepsesam to monitor SEP’s back up system, Sesam. The plugin can be queried via SSH and NRPE, filters recent backup task by hosts and tasks for analysis, and enables hosts and task lists to be specified such as timeframe restrictions in configuring multi-line outputs. Check it out and download at www.netways.org and www.monitoringexchange.org.

On the topic of development, we looked at Myterm for the querying, filtering and charting MySQL data, while Martin K introduced his latest handy hardware. The HWG-STE network thermometer by the HW group monitors temperature and humidity for server rooms and data centre racks. With email alerts, SNMP functionality and an easy to use web frontend for configuration, Martin recommended it as an environmental monitoring base, tipping off a demo site for those interested to test.

Moving onto Hosting & Managed Services, Stefan G introduced himself and his work. As our System Engineer responsible for the mammoth StayFriends system, his highlights range from server migration of the 3 digit calibre to large scale VoIP and firewall construction for the ever growing social networking platform.

From the same sphere, Peter thanked Sidmach Technologies for their recent visit- our newest Hosting & Managed Services client. Mike Olajide, Chijioke Eke and Lawal Mudashir came to inspect the data centre and see their new server in action, which we host for their student registration portal. With lesser guarantee of stable infrastructure or reliable broadband speeds in their company base of Nigeria, Sidmach made the decision to ensure high availability by outsourcing to us in Germany. Tech talk aside, Peter also introduced Mike, Chijioke and Lawal to classic franconian fare in form of “Schäufele”, making for a great visit all in all. Now we’re already looking forward to the next.

SidmachRZ31 300x181 Weekly Snap: Sesam checks, Sidmach visits and HWG STE

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Weekly snap: Jasper & Bacula, hardware & appliances

Published by Amanda Mailer on 28.09.2009 in Diverses, English and NETWAYS. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

camera Weekly snap: Jasper & Bacula, hardware & appliancesSep 21-25 was a packed week on the blog, with hardware, monitoring, reporting, back up and appliances all coming into play.

Peter shared a new NETWAYS creation commissioned by a customer who wanted Nagios minus Linux. A Thomas Krenn server with redundant hard drives and power supply bundled with a customised web interface with various Nagios views, NagVis and support channel access gave rise to the NETWAYS Nagios Appliance. With an ingenious user rights system, new scripts could be tested but access was limited so no certification for Linux operation needed to occur.

On the monitoring theme, hardware man Martin introduced the Rittal CMC-TC Wireless Monitoring System which can manage up to 64 sensors when expanded while Bernd explained how to group data and add diagrams in Jasper reports in his ongoing Jasper series.

Just 2 days after Christian tipped off Julian’s appearance at the Bacula Conference in Köln, was his speech ‘Bacula Monitoring with Nagios or Icinga’ online. He covered implementation of back up hardware monitoring, operating systems, clients and the Bacula logic in monitoring back up jobs or pool workloads. Phew!

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Weekly snap: SecurityProbe to FrOSCon, Twitter to OSMC

Published by Amanda Mailer on 31.08.2009 in Diverses and English. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

camera Weekly snap: SecurityProbe to FrOSCon, Twitter to OSMCAugust 24–28 took us from one conference to another, over Twitter and to hardware. Backtracking to the weekend before, Christian D and Eric reported from FrOSCon in St Augustin, presenting NETWAYSGrapherV2 in amongst open source heavyweights the likes of MySQL, FreeDSB, Debian and Ubuntu.

After 4 weeks and 9 posts, Bernd rounded up his Twitter Development series. He flagged the Twitter API Wiki and his own examples for those who want to dig even deeper into Twitter API calls.

Hardware man Martin heralded the coming of a new product, the AKCP securityProbe 5E. Using expansion units to enable up to 600 sensors to be monitored under one IP and web interface, he noted its extended capabilities at the same old price.

In similar anticipation, Christian F announced the final OSMC program, featuring a few bigwigs from abroad including: Ton Voon (Nagios Core Developer and Nagios Plugins Development Team Member), Spike Morelli (Linden Lab/Second Life Monitoring Project Leader), Michael Medin (NSClient++ Creator). Places are flying out the door with 75% already gone – so register online soon.

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Weekly snap: Twitter, Personas, Teltonika and fallacies

Published by Amanda Mailer on 24.08.2009 in Diverses, English and Inhaltsverzeichnis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

camera Weekly snap: Twitter, Personas, Teltonika and fallaciesAugust 17-21 mixed modems with distributed computing, Twitter and Nmap for a good blog blend.

Julian kicked off with a reminder to heed the 8 Fallacies of Distributed Computing, while we answered some FAQs on Nmap in automatically generating Nagios configurations.

On cue, Bernd rolled on with his Twitter Development series and explained the workings of Twitter ‘replies’ and ‘mentions’ as well as the many ‘tweet’ search capabilities. Just for fun, he tipped off MIT’s uncanny natural language processing site – Personas, for the online vain to view their internet portrait.

Hardware man Martin announced his successor to the soon-to-be discontinued Falcom Samba 55 USB GSM Modem: the quad-band Teltonika Modem USB/G10. Besides heralding its features, he promised test results for it with AKCP securityProbe and Intellipool Network Monitor in the coming weeks and its availability from the end of September on our online hardware shop. Stay tuned!

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Weekly snap: Following with Twitter and pushing with Prowl

Published by Amanda Mailer on 10.08.2009 in Diverses and English. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

camera Weekly snap: Following with Twitter and pushing with ProwlAugust 3-7 opened the month with posts from all corners of the office – from hardware to events, and Nagios to Twitter. Indeed, Bernd forged ahead in his Twitter Development series with two posts on determining ‘followers’ and ‘friends‘ (following) as well as the linking of tweets between them.

Apart from sharing his memory of the Guru Meditation error, Julian responded to requests in his Nagios Notification series for a method to directly push alerts to iPhones. For those who don’t have a Mac to act as a transmitter, he showed how to connect a Nagios server to an online Prowl application instead.

In step, hardware man Martin introduced our new mini Nagios USB traffic light complete with installation instructions and its corresponding check_usbtligh.pl, to replace the old (albeit larger) product.

From the events side, Karo welcomed the Nuremberg Start-up Weekend organising committee to the office. In support of the event, NETWAYS will be looking after technical aspects such as wireless, blog hosting, and office space. For those who will be there, see you in September!

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