October 2012 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Free hardware: Internal IDE CD drives

by joel d

Could anyone use some internal CD drives? Just found a box full of them. They are "bare" IDE CD readers with no cables, drivers or manuals. Will gladly bring as many as people want to the next meeting. Don't be shy, I probably have 30 of them, and all are guaranteed to be worth every penny of free! Please kindly reply to me via e-mail directly if interested (to not clog up the WLUG e-mail). Thank you, Joel joelgroup(a)gmail.com

Oct. 26, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network

by Chuck Anderson

On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 12:59:26PM -0400, Eric Martin wrote: > I'm trying to get a better handle on what's happening on my network at > work. I'm currently using Nagios to monitor the big things (Server health, > switch health, etc), but I'd like more granular statistics (how much data > is coming and going, are any links saturated, etc). A quick glance shows > that MRTG, Cricket, and RRD are good things to start playing with. I'm > staring to play around with MRTG, but I'm hearing rumors of scalability > issues and I don't want to get deep into MRTG if I should be putting > resources elsewhere. > > A quick sketch of the network is a few internet connections, our router, > and a few switches for networking along with a few switches for VoIP as > well as our PBX. I don't want to monitor every port all the time, I > instead want to monitor the uplinks of the switches to have a good idea, > and look at the switch if something looks awry. > > My question to the group is, what do you use / recommend, and do you have > anything that sticks out in your head about any of these packages (good or > bad)? Statseeker is good if you want to monitor every interface @ 1 minute intervals without any rollup of the data over time that RRD does. But it is commercial. It is a FreeBSD appliance install (they basically provide an ISO, you provide the server).

Oct. 24, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network

by David Coutu

Have not checked out Graphite yet, thanks for the heads up. Looks like it uses time series data, which is interesting. I've poked around OpenTSDB before and found the potential for usefuleness. Just haven't had the time to really dig in with it at all. Will definitely check out Graphite, as I agree that Cacti requires some manual interaction to get new hosts added and components monitored. It's one of it's major drawbacks as it definitely doesn't lend itself to auto-magical configuration when adding new hosts like Nagios/Icinga can. It can be done if you are determined, but it's not out of the box. Thanks Tim! Dave > Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 14:19:30 -0400 > From: turbofx(a)gmail.com > To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > Subject: Re: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network > > Cacti is cool once you get ot configured. We've been playong with > graphite and we've ditched our cacti graphs in favor of it. > > Creating a new graph consists of openong a tcp port ane passing ina > tuple... Tada... New graph. > > Then you can go to the web interface and tinker with the graph parameters. > > Just my .02. > > Tim. o/wlug

Oct. 24, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network

by Tim Keller

Cacti is cool once you get ot configured. We've been playong with graphite and we've ditched our cacti graphs in favor of it. Creating a new graph consists of openong a tcp port ane passing ina tuple... Tada... New graph. Then you can go to the web interface and tinker with the graph parameters. Just my .02. Tim. On 10/24/12, David Coutu <cout(a)alum.wpi.edu> wrote: > > I'd take Cacti over MRTG, more flexible and scale-able IMO. Mike also > mentioned OpenNMS which is pretty decent too. You could get into more > involved setups with Zabbix, ZenOSS, Hyperic but the ROI on those could turn > out to be minimal. I've used MRTG, Cricket and Cacti in Production and at > home and prefer Cacti above them all, as it has involved the least head > banging over the years. I've tried the various others but they fulfill a > bigger role (combined network, system, and application monitoring) and are > probably overkill for what you are trying to accomplish. > Dave > > Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:59:26 -0400 > From: eric.joshua.martin(a)gmail.com > To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > Subject: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network > > I'm trying to get a better handle on what's happening on my network at work. > I'm currently using Nagios to monitor the big things (Server health, switch > health, etc), but I'd like more granular statistics (how much data is coming > and going, are any links saturated, etc). A quick glance shows that MRTG, > Cricket, and RRD are good things to start playing with. I'm staring to play > around with MRTG, but I'm hearing rumors of scalability issues and I don't > want to get deep into MRTG if I should be putting resources elsewhere. > > A quick sketch of the network is a few internet connections, our router, and > a few switches for networking along with a few switches for VoIP as well as > our PBX. I don't want to monitor every port all the time, I instead want to > monitor the uplinks of the switches to have a good idea, and look at the > switch if something looks awry. > > My question to the group is, what do you use / recommend, and do you have > anything that sticks out in your head about any of these packages (good or > bad)? > Thanks in advance, > > -- > Eric Martin > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- Sent from my mobile device I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Oct. 24, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network

by David Coutu

I'd take Cacti over MRTG, more flexible and scale-able IMO. Mike also mentioned OpenNMS which is pretty decent too. You could get into more involved setups with Zabbix, ZenOSS, Hyperic but the ROI on those could turn out to be minimal. I've used MRTG, Cricket and Cacti in Production and at home and prefer Cacti above them all, as it has involved the least head banging over the years. I've tried the various others but they fulfill a bigger role (combined network, system, and application monitoring) and are probably overkill for what you are trying to accomplish. Dave Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:59:26 -0400 From: eric.joshua.martin(a)gmail.com To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Subject: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network I'm trying to get a better handle on what's happening on my network at work. I'm currently using Nagios to monitor the big things (Server health, switch health, etc), but I'd like more granular statistics (how much data is coming and going, are any links saturated, etc). A quick glance shows that MRTG, Cricket, and RRD are good things to start playing with. I'm staring to play around with MRTG, but I'm hearing rumors of scalability issues and I don't want to get deep into MRTG if I should be putting resources elsewhere. A quick sketch of the network is a few internet connections, our router, and a few switches for networking along with a few switches for VoIP as well as our PBX. I don't want to monitor every port all the time, I instead want to monitor the uplinks of the switches to have a good idea, and look at the switch if something looks awry. My question to the group is, what do you use / recommend, and do you have anything that sticks out in your head about any of these packages (good or bad)? Thanks in advance, -- Eric Martin _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Oct. 24, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network

by Mike Peckar

opennms.org

Oct. 24, 2012

Re: [Wlug] Monitoring for a network

by Steve Pelland

We used MRTG at Verisign while I was there and it was fine... I dont get that visibility at this place so I am not sure here... On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 12:59 PM, Eric Martin <eric.joshua.martin(a)gmail.com>wrote: > I'm trying to get a better handle on what's happening on my network at > work. I'm currently using Nagios to monitor the big things (Server health, > switch health, etc), but I'd like more granular statistics (how much data > is coming and going, are any links saturated, etc). A quick glance shows > that MRTG, Cricket, and RRD are good things to start playing with. I'm > staring to play around with MRTG, but I'm hearing rumors of scalability > issues and I don't want to get deep into MRTG if I should be putting > resources elsewhere. > > A quick sketch of the network is a few internet connections, our router, > and a few switches for networking along with a few switches for VoIP as > well as our PBX. I don't want to monitor every port all the time, I > instead want to monitor the uplinks of the switches to have a good idea, > and look at the switch if something looks awry. > > My question to the group is, what do you use / recommend, and do you have > anything that sticks out in your head about any of these packages (good or > bad)? > > Thanks in advance, > -- > Eric Martin > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >

Oct. 24, 2012

Monitoring for a network

by Eric Martin

I'm trying to get a better handle on what's happening on my network at work. I'm currently using Nagios to monitor the big things (Server health, switch health, etc), but I'd like more granular statistics (how much data is coming and going, are any links saturated, etc). A quick glance shows that MRTG, Cricket, and RRD are good things to start playing with. I'm staring to play around with MRTG, but I'm hearing rumors of scalability issues and I don't want to get deep into MRTG if I should be putting resources elsewhere. A quick sketch of the network is a few internet connections, our router, and a few switches for networking along with a few switches for VoIP as well as our PBX. I don't want to monitor every port all the time, I instead want to monitor the uplinks of the switches to have a good idea, and look at the switch if something looks awry. My question to the group is, what do you use / recommend, and do you have anything that sticks out in your head about any of these packages (good or bad)? Thanks in advance, -- Eric Martin

Oct. 24, 2012

Re: [Wlug] help diagnosing PC issue: suspect power supply

by Walt

Take a close look at the capacitors on the motherboard. If they are bulging you can either replace them or the whole board. Walt On 10/11/2012 10:30 AM, John Stoffel wrote: >>>>>> "Brett" == Brett Russ<bruss(a)alum.wpi.edu> writes: > > Brett> Yes, I've done that several times. In fact, since my BIOS is > Brett> having issues preserving settings and shows the CMOS checksum > Brett> failure quite often, I usually have to revert to defaults just > Brett> to boot. This, despite a brand new CMOS battery. This is the > Brett> other symptom in my original email that I can't yet explain. > Brett> But, if it ends up being a motherboard HW issue, then anything > Brett> could go wrong including corrupted CMOS. > > This points more to a low level hardware issue in the motherboard, or > possibly the CPU. Hard to know. If it's old enough, it might be time > to just replace it. > > John > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

Oct. 11, 2012

Re: [Wlug] help diagnosing PC issue: suspect power supply

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Brett" == Brett Russ <bruss(a)alum.wpi.edu> writes: Brett> Yes, I've done that several times. In fact, since my BIOS is Brett> having issues preserving settings and shows the CMOS checksum Brett> failure quite often, I usually have to revert to defaults just Brett> to boot. This, despite a brand new CMOS battery. This is the Brett> other symptom in my original email that I can't yet explain. Brett> But, if it ends up being a motherboard HW issue, then anything Brett> could go wrong including corrupted CMOS. This points more to a low level hardware issue in the motherboard, or possibly the CPU. Hard to know. If it's old enough, it might be time to just replace it. John

Oct. 11, 2012