Ricky Martin’s Blog

My first introduction to Nagios was about 5 years ago while working on a large deployment project in Phoenix for the airport. We had initially been using what’s up gold to monitor devices. But this had been set up by our predecessors and no one from their group who was working on site had the expertise to configure or up date the system. So as most things we let it be until we found out from a contractor working for the airport as a network admin was using this tool called Nagios to monitor all the devices on the network, including our own.

He graciously offered to build us our own for a fee. And at the time the division I was working for had a limited budget and several other factors hindered the acquisition via this means. But I was asked to look into and see what options I could come up with.

I quickly found several documents, websites and forums related to this until then unheard of product. I managed to pick up a few books and download some packages.

I built the first Nagios “server” using an old Dell SX270 small form factor PC. With that first attempt we tried out a few configurations. And the results were great we managed to monitor equipment that with the previous was not possible. And the biggest selling point was we were getting notified of failures before the client or anyone else was even aware there was a problem.

So with that initial system I set up 400+ devices and over 4000 services to be monitored for the Phoenix sky harbor airport (PHX).

Because of the great success we had. The division I was working for wanted to try and implement it at other airports that we serviced as a value added service. So the next pilot site was BWI Baltimore airport. This site was one of the smaller installations but it was frequently used as a demo site given it’s proximity to the main office in Maryland.

I also found this tool being used by the on site staff in Milan and Linate airports in Italy While I was working on site there supporting them.

I left the division shortly after to work in the UK. Last I heard this model did not pan out as the budgets for most projects were so tight they could not bear the additional cost, even though the could benefit from the service.

I became the subject matter expert and provided training to the staff responsible for supporting it as well created specific documentation for each site.

It turns out to be a very popular product and I have been involved with many top level organizations that use it and value staff that has the skills to work with it, as it does take some special understanding to optimize it uses and bring value to the organizations that use it.

I am Currently working on a project to implement a new server at my current employer to focus only on Production systems monitoring and alerting. I will keep you updated on the progress or if you have an interest in using it in your organization whatever size please feel free to contact me at info@rickymartinblog.com.

So as I mentioned earlier I am in the process of pursueing the MCSE 2003 Certification. I had previously Completed the training for the MCSE on NT 4.0 but never finished all the exams. partly because I had already started to work in the field and found that at that time the certification helped but experience counted for more. I had also completed the training for the CCNA course back in 2003 but that too I did not have time to take the exams as a result of my work schedule. In My current position, the management goal is to have our whole team (approx 10) people trained and certified on MCSE 2003, CCNA, and ORACLE DBA by the end of next year. The schedule is quite aggresive but the plan would be to attend 2 week bootcamps for each of these certifications. unfortunately one of the drawbacks is that the company would like us to sign an agreement to the effect that we wont leave after getting the training, or else there will be a financial penalty. With that in mind, hence I am starting to pursue the training on my own, I have usually managed to read the books and do the practice exams and that usually prepares me enough to take the microsoft test. Hopefully that will still be the case