IT project to please a nagging boss SOS

[Richard_115]

All
Does anyone out there have any idea on a project or a goal one can develop on an HP admin platform to please a micro-managing boss? He needs me to write a goal which is not routine sys admin for the yr2003. I need someone to throw me some ideas just for the sake.... Please help !!!!!!

[Jeff Schussele]

How about a project to harden all your HP systems?
You can use Bastille or any number of 3rd party SW products to evaluate the weaknesses & eliminate them.
That puppy should take a while & has a very sound business justification.

My 2 cents,
Jeff

[melvyn burnard]

look at implementing ServiceControlManager
Or ServiceGuard?
You could look at setting up cfg2html for system tracking.

try thinking of somehting that costs lots, so that it will put him off.
I read the Dilbert books, they give me good ideas.

[Richard_115]

WE have only 4 systems with service guard with failover. This is already done.
The other one about security, we just installed secure shell on all HPux systems. So it is done. Is there anything else or an addon to these that we have already implemented ?

Appreciate all your responses....

[Jeff Schussele]

Richard...Richard...Richard, there's MUCH more to a truly hardened system than just ssh.
I sincerely encourage you to download Bastille - it's free - and run it against your systems. You don't have to change a thing and it WILL ask for approval to make ANY changes. I think you'll be surprised at just what it will report.

Rgds,
Jeff

[Marco Santerre]

I alwasy like to come up with something that'll please lots of people, so maybe a product and customization of IDS/9000 could become a good project for you, and will please your boss and may get Internal Audit off your back (if you have them on your back)

[Ian Dennison_1]

What are your vulnerabilities in your environment?

Do you manage filesystem space growth?
Do you archive old files from /tmp and old logfiles from Applications?

Is there some performance issue you would like to examine (eg database striping, etc)?

Is there a disaster recovery issue that could be investigated? Could you use some of the HP Products to bypass them?

Are there any products you have that are behind levels that offer better functionality that the versions you have at the moment?

Do you have unused capacity on your systems (disks, CPU, memory) that could be deployed elsewhere?

I would hate to be working on 'make-work' myself, and there is always something new and something to improve on a UNIX system.

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[John Dvorchak]

Re-evaluating/updating your backup method/proceedures.

If you don't have mirrored disks MirrorDisk UX is a good one.

Incorporating SAN into your environment.

All of these cost a lot so that should get him off your back for a while trying to cost justify them. I'll bet there is something that you would really like to do, make that one the least expensive and you'll get it. Also take a look at something that has been bugging you and put that on the list. Remember don't use more than about 2 or 3 of these or you end up trying to meet and un-attainable goal. If he has an MBA remember that they are taught "To make money you have to save money". I know it's a stupid idea but that is the whole MBA course in a nutshell.

Good luck,

[Pete Randall]

How about a cost/benefit analysis of switching database vendors: from Oracle to Informix, or vice-versa, depending on where you are. No real work required - just solicit cost estimates from the vendors and assemble the numbers. You could drag it out for months.

This could also be applied to almost any other software package: backup, performance monitoring, etc., etc.

Pete

[Richard_115]

Marco,
Thanks for the response... But what is IDS/9000. I need more information on this...
Any other Suggestions? PLEASE!!!!!!

[Marco Santerre]

IDS/9000 : Intrusion Detection System.

You'll find a lot more info here :
http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/J5083-90007/J5083-90007.html

It's a system that checks for changes and other similar stuff that could comprimise your security

[James Murtagh]

Hi Richard,

Intrusion Detection System. More information can be found here on a lot of security products:

http://www.docs.hp.com/hpux/internet/index.html

How about proactive system monitoring, using something like IT/O? Go to:

http://www.openview.hp.com

for more info.

Regards,

James.

[Ron Kinner]

Put up an MRTG server which checks not only traffic in and out but also things like CPU usage and memory and temperature. It then makes pretty graphs of the data which can be accessed via a web browser. (It can even page you if you want it to when something goes out of bounds but don't tell your boss that unless you like the idea of the 24/7 pages). Best thing is it doesn't cost any money and it's really powerful. Micro Managers love it. Even pointed haired bosses can understand the output!

http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/

Also look into snort intrusion detection. It's another freebie and fun to play with. http://www.snort.org

Finally just tell him you are going to learn Perl. http://www.perl.com/CPAN/

Has all sorts of useful applications.

Ron

[Rita C Workman]

Richard,

Working in a political environment as I do...I would first ask myself,...does he want me to write a goal for me (where I want to be..) or does he want me to write a goal for MIS. Sounds to me like your micro-mgr may be on fishing expedition because some micro-mgr above him wants departmental goals.

So I would first figure which it is...

Rgrds,
Rita

...or maybe I have been working for a govt agency too long...

[Chris Vail]

How 'bout installing Glance Plus/MeasureWare on every server. Then compiling performance statistics for day-to-day operations, and long term analysis and planning. I attached a sample of what we're doing.

We use Open View to pull these statistics to a common server. But you could easily ftp or email them. Or, set up the statistical performance data on a CIFS 9000 share and make it available to the micro-managing boss, and let him write his OWN macros using Excel. It'll make him feel important.


Chris

Bonus: anyone wanna guess what time this server broke? Its an RP8400 that dropped its main card cage. Now my boss is talking high availability. I s'pose I'll get another HP T-shirt out of the deal....and the HP sales rep sells us maybe 5 RP8400's.....