Practical Technology

The Graphios instructions provided by the author are accurate, but for those who need some hand-holding (like me), here's the actual process (on CentOS 6.5, OMD 1.20).  If you need help, comment and I'll see what I can do.  I'm new to this, too.


Install pre-reqsTried using pip, but still had issues with post-setup, so I just cloned from githubInstall Graphioscd into your cloned repopython setup.py installEdit the config fileedit /etc/graphios/graphios.cfgSee below because blogger just isn't great for code blocks...Configure serviceI didn't have much luck with the post-setup, so I did this:edit /etc/init.d/graphiosPaste in the contents of: https://github.com/shawn-sterling/graphios/blob/master/init/rhel/graphiosChange GRAPHIOS_USER to match your OMD sitename userI changed the log file to: /var/log/graphios.logThen changed permissions/owner on that file to OMD sitename userProbably will need to set up log rotation?...Create spool dir/omd/sites/SITENAME/var/graphios/sp…

I had a post about monitoring a while back, here's a progress update...

Some ideas behind what we're trying to achieve:
Gain insight into how our systems are functioning (from an application point of view, secondary from a server point of view)Know that something is broken before it breaks (minimum immediately)Show people how our systems are functioningUse data (metrics/logs/etc) to aid in trending, RCAs, etc Again, our big catch is that we run 95% Windows in our 'production' environments.  An MS shop, if you will.  Another big catch is very small budget for this sort of thing.  Another big catch is very little support from developers (who are busy working on revenue-generating projects).  Another big catch is the existing monitoring infrastructure consisted of WhatsupGold and hard-coded email alerts inside the system (i.e. we have to dump it).
So...the internet provided ideas and tools, we just put them together. Data sources: Windows event log & IIS logs (NXlog CE)…

According to VMware's EULA, you are only eligible for patches if you have a valid SnS contract.

So when you purchase your ESXi licensing and only opt for a 1-year SnS because who needs support (when you can pay for single support incidents) and you get major version upgrades when you do hardware refreshes anyways...and your Dell rep just smiles and nods...

When you do that, you then get to go back to your manager and tell him, oh yeah, nobody picked up on this: we now owe VMware a minimum of $many-k that must be paid in the next 30 days or we lapse our contract and then get to pay penalties on top of that money.

Now, while I suspect that patch functionality won't stop working due to SnS status, the legality certainly does.
Lessons:
The vendors will not hold themselves accountablewhen something like this comes up.  It is always your fault, so view all potential expenses in that light.VMware SnS should be considered a mandatory thing, even though 'updates/patches' are onl…

TL;DR: If you must help someone migrate from HDD to SSD, uninstall/disable any drive encryption before even starting this process.

If you are going to use Intel's SSD migration software (Acronis-based) to 'help someone out', be VERY VERY VERY VERY certain that the drive is not encrypted before starting.  In retrospect a pretty noob mistake, but it does highlight something that I haven't had much exposure to (disk encryption).

What happens is that the clone software modifies the MBR or something like that so you boot into the clone software rather than the OS.  TrueCrypt goes bananas and the Intel/Acronis software throws "MBR ERROR #3" and/or #2/#1.

No prob, right?  Just do a bootrec fixmbr/fixboot off a Windows recovery disk and you're back to normal!  Nuh uh.  Drive is nuked.  I would note that at this point NO CLONING HAS BEEN DONE.  Simply installing the software, starting the clone wizard, and rebooting has broken the drive.

The only way to recover i…

Well, the presentation went over really well, so this project is now a real thing.  I'll probably post a follow-up once the pilot is in place that will highlight the questions that needed answering before it could go ahead.

If you're looking at having to go this route, some questions to consider:

Why are YOU looking at solving this problem?  If it's just you, either you or everyone is doing it wrong.Is there a cross-dept team linking the project together?  Why not?What is 'DevOps' to you?  It should mean 'making things flow better'.(realizing the irony of this) Have you already picked out tools?  If so, you're doing it wrong.Do you understand exactly what you're trying to accomplish?  I mean, really?  You sure?
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.  I know these posts have been incoherent at times. Lessons learned Technical: Using Go & Go agents to remote around means you're always kinda wondering what user you are, and why such a…