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What Would You Like to See in an Ops Center?
binaryspiral asks: "I work in a network operations center that has a fair amount of tours and escorted customer traffic. We (the ops employees) have been given the option of submitting ideas for a redesign that would upgrade our ops center to something more functional and visually impressive to potential customers who visit. I'm also looking into software applications that monitor our systems and put them on large displays but a lot of it looks ho-hum. Unfortunately, one of the criteria is that this redesign be functional and visually appealing. I would ask the Slashdor crowd to share with me the things you hate or love about your ops center. Any suggestions or ideas from this crowd might actually be what I'm looking for!"
all sorts of graphs, numbers, all of that. customers love to see that stuff
My UID is a palindrome, that must be good for some type of prize.
Really, other than software, I'd suggest a good look at layout; are the work areas separate from the racks, perhaps even a separate area for 'problem' servers? Is there a good size parts room (perhaps off the 'beaten path'). Can you keep people away from the cabinets by having large windows to view the 'magic area'. Nothing says 'professional' like all LCD monitors (dual is better).
Just don't let them forget the break room and the bathrooms. Also be sure to have plenty of cameras For a touch of fun, you could install UV lighting, and reactive cables. Taking another page from the case mode handbook, liquid cooling might really 'wow' them.
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
What more can I say?
I drink to make other people interesting!
A series of giant translucent displays hanging from the ceiling like giant columns throughout the NOC that show three-dimensional renderings of everything that is occuring on the network at the moment, like in the movie Hackers. Also, at least one of your main guys in the NOC should wear all black, have funky hair and carry a skateboard around with him through the office. Also, liberally spread around a few terminals. Most important of all, have a couple geeky/emo looking trogs arguing about RISC architecture off in some corner of the room, rather loudly. Follow my suggestions and you will not fail to impress!
I think a bunch of these in some systematic display would be pretty awesome. Maybe they pulse green slowly when things are good, and flash red when all hell is loose.
# (/.);;
- : float -> float -> float =
matrix screensaver! http://zmatrix.sourceforge.net/
what would you like to see
visually
large displays
visually appealing
Boobies, of course.
...and leave us out of your idiotic questions.
A low yield fusion weapon to make raiding the NOC a bad idea. Only helps if everyone has one, should disuade invasion by hostile forces.
Realities just a bunch of bits.
No, not information, but Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I always expecct to see Data at ops.
Since you seem to be having trouble coming up with general areas in which you want improvement the obvious answer is to tell them that you are doing as well as you can given the current state of technology and notning should be done. Your customers and shareholders will thank you.
If you have some systems running Windows I highly reccomend hooking up a few displays with Samurize. It's what all the case modders use to display system data on auxilary screens and does some absolutely beautiful things with your data.
http://www.samurize.com/
You gotta find first gear in your giant robot car
if you've got an iis server/.net framework running somewhere, check this out
"Designed to display and monitor real-time data using a range of fully customizable Gauge and Dial types, Dundas Gauge is perfectly suited to developers building digital dashboards, manufacturing, financial, and other applications that monitor KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) and other critical data."
they would look pretty sweet on some big flat panels..
Run Cacti on different monitors. View some screenshots here
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
Just have a few workers laying back in comfy chairs. With a wire stuck on their head somewheres...Have them twitch occaisonally. Tell vistors the twitches are when they reboot servers or detect intrusion attempts. Paint flames on one of the walls. Tell people that's the firewall.
The expectation of your visitors will only be what they have seen in movies. You meet or exceed that... excellent. If you are below that, visitors will think the system is below par. Personally. I like glass, lights, and large screens. Screens like NASA has. For the glass, I think machines behind glass like in the movie Sneakers is neat. Large glass windows like one sees in a shopping mall. Depends what you want the visitors to be impressed with. Security? Cool security things. Not some exit door alarm like the local bookstore has. First define the impression you want to make on visitors, then work from there.
You are planning on buying new hardware/software based on if it is visually impressive? I honestly would prefer to spend money on useful apps that will make your job easier and worry about impressing people who know nothing about data centers later. Your data center isn't Disney World. Function before form.
If you're trying to impress the customers on tour, ask the customers, not us.
Kind of rules out any advice /. might provide. Unless you'd like a color scheme to blind your customers into submission.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I've known one IT manager to insist that every NOC needs a big disk and a nice rack. All of the real work ends up being done by overloaded and obsolete boxes under desks in offices, because the nice rack is idle and the big disk is blank.
I visited Norad when I was a kid, and was SO disappointed that there was no huge room like in War Games (at least not that I saw). And visiting various NOCs they were always a let down...
Then I saw this one in person. Straight out of the movies. You can't see it in the picture, but there's a briefing center behind it with glass that's normally opaque (translucent really) but turns transparent when current is applied (Exactly like the congressional hearing scene in Sum of All Fears). Fun to watch peoples' faces when they hit the button.
Big flashing lights. Especially if the people have ADD... then it'll be 'ooh! pretty light!!'
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
Have a computer play tic-tac-toe against itself as it also tries to discover nuclear launch codes. Have everyone run around in a panic, picking up phones and screaming orders, handing off papers, etc. Make sure you have a big red phone in the center. When it rings, answer, "Yes, Mr. President."
That'll impress them!
Oh, and hire this guy for your center. He needs a real job. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001056/
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
The Big Board is AWESOME!!!
The latest Slashdot meme.
A bunch of empty racks. Whenever a tour comes through, someone can run in and yell "We've been cleaned out. They stole all the machines! The database, payroll, everything. They're all gone!"
The tour guide can then point to a lonely machine in the corner and say they were all replaced with that one. Maybe have a memo handy.
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
What Would You Like to See in an Op Center?
Tom Clancy. So that we can deride him for his crappy books.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
You need three giant screens roughly 20' high each, on the first you would display all the current inbound and outbound traffic, status controls for nodes etc. The second would display routing information with a giant map of the world and flashing lines running backwards and forwards. Then the third would be allocated to display the biggest game of solitaire in the world. If the first two screens don't impress them, then the last will certainly make all the customers go "oooh!"
Then you need to buy 5 chimps from the local zoo and train them on how to change tape drives.
And THEN you need to hire about 30 circus midgets, paint them orange, with green hair and stripey suits, so that whenever a potential customer gets locked into a server cage they can magically appear and sing a little song...
Man, that's MY idea of a great ops building!
Task Mangler
A babecam with a dedicated display is what you need. Your visitors will sign up for your service just so they can come back often and enjoy the facilities.
Well, you could do what Verio does in NYC and open all of the security doors and put box fans in the doors to help keep the NOC cool. The sparks from overheated motherboards should add a nice splash of light and smoke, and you wouldn't even have to hire extras to be the frustrated throngs of people beating down the door to the OC.
Dunno about server, but I was wondering about a new desktop...
u be.php
m /after.html
http://www.orionmulti.com/products/specs_ds96
- Performance 230 GFlop peak, 110 GFlop sustained (Linpack) -
What else ??? ah, yes, an ugly as hell server I wouldn't mind this winter : http://www.iwill.net/product_2.asp?p_id=90
Dunno if many people are into rack server modding, but you cannot make it more ugly than it is on the outside....
The inside can host 16 Opteron 800 cores and 128Gig of Ram, which make it pretty hot - both senses.....
For the Network War room, what about a nice visual representation of network attacks/activity, using "The Spinning Cube of Imminent Doom" which is both impressive and easy to explain...:
http://www.nersc.gov/nusers/security/TheSpinningC
(maintenance of servers going on, use the cache, luke...
Personnaly I like people that forego LCDs and such and directly use a nice and silencious video projector for general informations (say a Sanyo Z3).
Even more if you show your skills at system management using "Doom, the Aftermath"http://www.cs.unm.edu/~dlchao/flake/doo
Yeah, follow my words, I can garantee your customers will be impressed 8)
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Old fashioned analog clocks on the wall, set for each time zone you support.
Make 'em big, with nice labels for the timezone and names of the cities where your remote offices are.
He didn't write the OpCenter books.. just put his name on them.
Not that that excuses him.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Imagine a series of acrylic columns, each filled with water or some other fluid. Bubbles are gently percolating in each column (when all is well).
Each column represents the network load on a given subnet.
As the network load rises on a subnet, the intensity of the bubbles increases.
Stripper poles
What Would You Like to See in an Ops Center?
Boobies?
AT&T has a pretty awesome global operations center:r ojects_software/photo_global_center.jpg
http://www.research.att.com/areas/visualization/p
Seriously.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
And wire-fu matrix hacker-fights every half hour on the hour!
Woah!
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
These are what I have in mind: http://www.poetictech.com/
and to you, I say,.. good day
Check out the Denver Nuggets Dancers at the Cheyenne Mountain operations center. The also host cheer leaders there.
...I'd say the following items really impress potential ops centre customers:
- a dedicated viewing area; somewhere that visitors can sit/stand/watch that's glassed off from the day to day work area. If possible, with separate entrances so customers don't experience the joy of conversing with some out-of-it operator who's had to work a double shift in the outside smoking area
- the requisite lots of screens showing pictures of systems/apps in green/yellow/red. No customer who visits an ops centre actually understands this stuff, but they'll notice if it isn't around
- a BIG display showing a very simple view of the number of Sev 1 or Sev 2 problems. Visitors DO understand this
- security cameras showing a very clean and tidy machine room, and maybe shots of attached car parks and external doors. This reinforces the impression that, if they go with you, their machines and data will be "safe"
- if they're going to see real live people, make sure they're seeing a calm controlled work environment AT ALL TIMES. When disasters occur, you need to be able to drag the relevant people off to some out-of-view meeting room when you rip their heads off so potential new customers don't get to watch the bloodshed
- no PostIt notes! Whether it's true or not, many people associate these with being disorganized, and you can't afford to appear disorganized. Use some alternative to store scribbled down bits of info
http://info.biosci.ohio-state.edu/network/etherape .png
http://etherape.sourceforge.net/images/v0.3.1.png
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
Why are you intentionally misleading, if not pure out bullshitting, your customers? The intelligent ones will see right through your flashing lights and other such faggotry.
Show them a clean, functional environment. That means you don't have cables all over the place. That means your staff are well dressed, well groomed, and act with the utmost professionalism. Make sure all servers are mounted in their racks with the correct number of screws. Make sure any PC-style servers aren't badly scratched and have their cases on. Keep PC servers lined up evenly. Sweep the floor very often. Polish it, too.
But please, don't try to awe your customers with flashing lights and spinning fans. Don't insult their intelligence so obviously. If I were shown such a fanboy facility, I would politely say, "Take me away from this shit," and I would proceed to never deal with them again.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Software:
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/
http://www.nagios.org/
Hardware:
Two high resolution projectors and screens to project them on.
"Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
Personally, I think it would be sharp to have modded towers. Maybe all acrylic cases that are uv reactant
http://www.girlgeekette.net/clear_tower.jpg
Or have different departments that have different tower designs
http://www.girlgeekette.net/tower.jpg
Even modded glow from the inside keyboards
http://www.girlgeekette.net/kb.gif
Course it is hard to photo the towers, but they do show up in regular fluorescent lighting in a building and not just with the lights dim (The flash reflects the inside so you don't see the lights in towers)
You can even buy the thin glow wire and outline desks, speakers and monitors with it.
Maybe even have different colours for different departments.
Of course, all the monitors would have to be the lcd flat screens. And try running R4 as a screensaver type when not in use. (load the program on the computers not active)
http://www.rabidhamster.org/R4/screenshot.php
All of that is eye candy though. Aesthetics would also show proper ergonomic height of desks, cables neat and orderly - use panduit - not just lying on floor or duct tape over, hanging from ceiling.
Wireless keyboards and mice so no cords everywhere for those.
Functional, Sharp and Orderly.
Why not? Unprofessinal yes... but in my experience the NOC is under appriciated.
Continuously variable transmission rocks. The car alters the torque as you accelerate, this leads to massive improvements in fuel efficency.
I use to have a funny sig, but slash cut it off, and I forgot what the punchline was.
"As the network load rises on a subnet, the intensity of the bubbles increases."*
Slashdot should make it look like a hyperactive coffeepot.
*$25 to Taco, and he can arrange for there to be a slashdotting every time you have a tour.
"Absolutely! Most server racks these days are booooring."
Maybe they should take a cue from fine audio equipment manufacturers. Elegent and understated.
There should be a scoreboard that is always displaying major stats... Like the stock market ticker tape that you see at the brokerage firms... Visually appealing AND useful. Well, as long as there isn't a board full of red stats!
A giant 2-pole blade switch.
Jacob's ladder and/or plasma sphere.
Enormous red button with yellow stripes.
Sharks. With frickin' laser beams.
You need something like the Ergotron Lan Organizer 3000
o rganizer/default.asp
l t.asp
http://www.ergotron.com/3_products/furniture/lan_
Plus a big multiscreen LCD like this:
http://www.ergotron.com/4_markets/financial/defau
Then you can really impress people, they'll think they're in Enron's fake War Room!
The old tkined program can put up a very big,
very detailed connectivity map via a cheap
LCD projector.
That's both visually attractive, and useful,
as it spots blown machines and links
relatively quickly, as longas you keep
the tests low-cost (ping, SNMP gets, etc)
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
Cute ladies.
I did an internship for a large network operator, and at one time I was able to visit their NOC. Basically, they never allow customers or visitors in there (but foreign interns are...). However, the NOC was adjacent to a large conference room, only separated by a glass wall.
Otherwise the design of the NOC itself was pretty standard. Lots of big screens, a wall of projectors and professional-looking operators. Think NASA's launches, only with style.
Nobox: Only simple products.
Find some antique computer gear, and make it work. 9 track tapes, paper terminals that sit on the floor and are filled with real tubes. Not many, but they look impressive in a "we never throw anything away" way. (This can be good to show bankers as they don't like waste) Seeing (and hearing!) the auto-loader on a 9-track reel to reel tape is impressive. Put Adventure on the paper terminal.
Of course you do your work on modern computers, but sometimes it is fun to work on machines older than you are.
This seems like a marketing question, not a technical one, since the primary consumer of the visuals is the potential customer who will only be glancing at it.
So, there's very little need for detailed statistics up on the screen.
You want to show them you're "realtime" and "proactive".
Put CNN up on a plasma, along with the Internet Weather Report. If there's a hurricane coming through make sure the strike probability maps are up.
For some useful real-time data, you might want to layout your network on Intermapper and have the realtime network traffic animations visible. Very impressive.
But overall you're selling emotion, not data.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
One guy from their finance group jokes that it was expensive, but still the highest return investment they ever made.
You need a giant Lite-Brite. Here is an example.
Build a matrix showing servers vs services and have an intern run around changing the Greens to Reds in real time.
Put up a 2-color LED array with your corporate logo in green, and map some or all of the LEDs to a particular thing you are monitoring.
:)
When something fails or needs attention, change the corrosponding LED from green to red or yellow.
At any given time, your logo will be 99% green, with a smattering of yellows and reds.
Of course, this will be all for show, the actual failure-indicators will be the same ones you use today.
Hmm, this sounds like a good project for an intern to work on
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I meant two, where two = 1+1+1 :)
Sorry, forgot to proofread. Hand me the dunce cap for the day.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
How about The Spinning Cube of Potential Doom?
But probably necessary.
For example, Openview with a big map of the network looks cool and all, but it sucks to manage.
Networks are managed by events, not by maps.
"Conan, what is best in life?" "To crush your enemy! To see them driven before you! And to hear the lamentations of the
Finally someone might know this.
After a power failure or something, traffic lights blinks the red stop lights.
It takes *hours* for a body to get there, open the yellow panel, and push a button. Why?
Why can't this be done from that, err, Ops Center?
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Damn!
This is what happens when you reads TFA too quick.
Sorry please ignore my goof.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
We have had great success with creating affordable, and usefull data center designs. We can make cabinets that used shared uprights for cost effectiveness, accent rime (copper, stainless steel) parts, customer logos, cool environmental monitoring systems and cable management is always important for a good looking data center. A small NOC center is also desirable. Let me know if I can help with any of these things, I design cabinets and I'm always looking for creative people to work with on new projects mikem@inracks.com
I'm the guy you'll want to impress the most. I decide which data centres are best for my clients to put their equipment and services. I've built ops centres, so I know what goes in them. If you can't impress the extreme techies who will visit, your company is dead. We will not just avoid you, but will divert as much business away from you as possible. You need to make sure TPTB understand an ops centre is a functional business tool first, and a PR tool second.
An ops centre is first and foremost a place for humans to work, it is not a machine room, a laboratory, nor a visitors centre. It must be climate controlled for humans, not machines. It has to be quiet, neat, clean, and comfortable. It also has to be functional. If it doesn't meet all of these mandatory requirements, there is a problem. If the problem is lack of understanding of human nature by PHBs and bean counters, then this will extend to the rest of the infrastructure, and should be avoided.
Lets start with the non-technical bits. Assuming the ops centre will be staffed 24/24, there needs to be a break area immediately adjacent. A kitchen with a big refrigerator, a sink and a dishwasher, real dishes and cutlery, a good microwave. There must be food and drink vending machines at hand. The must be some tables and chairs so people aren't forced to eat at their work stations, and there needs to be a sofa or two, long enough people can stretch out and take a nap. There must be clean modern bathrooms just for the ops staff. The ops centre itself needs to be heated/air conditioned so that it is always comfortable and people can come in from outside, shed their heavy winter clothing, and work in casual t-shirt style. There should be a minimum of fan noise from equipment, enclosures and silent-PC tech should be used wherever possible. If there are windows, there should be adjustable blinds/shades in case of hot sunny days. The ops centre itself needs to be kept clean and tidy. Surfaces should be cleaned on a daily basis, cables should all be hidden away (and labled for easy maintenance). There should be some greenery, and the work areas should not be sterile of personal touches. I expect to see Dilbert and UserFriendly strips taped up, small figurines on monitors, nerf toys, and anything else within reason for keeping the techies relaxed and happy.
For the technical bits, I expect to see modern monitoring software. Cacti, Nagios, HP OpenView, BMC Patrol, custom built web monitoring tools to expose the current state of every part of your company. I expect to see at least two screens at every work station, one for monitoring/control and one for business functions like email, web, irc/IM, listening to podcasts or online radio stations. Techs need to be connected to do their jobs, and it shouldn't interfere with the monitoring functions. Googling bizarre error messages should be considered a normal business practice.
For a layout, it depends on what what your size is, the number of people working simultaneously, and the type of work people do. Large companies covering many regions or the whole world tend to have a layout like the bridge of the Enterprise, with a director in a big swivel chair in the middle, with about three consoles at hand running the MoMs (Manager of Managers, a consolidation function). There will then be groups of work stations around the central point, each cluster for a main function. In the background, on the walls, will be some big screen monitors with useful information, and usually a large schematic of the whole company's operations with red/yellow/green status indicators. Most large sites have a large screen TV tucked in the corner with CNN on the main, and a picture-in-picture tuned to the local news station.
Smaller centres tend to have just a large office area with low cubicles around the edges with everyone facing the same direction. At the far end of the room will be a few large, flat-screen monitors showing overall stats. Everyone has their own little work area, but can communicate with others easily enoug
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Our NOC had 5 clock, battery driven (not synchronized). The NOC manager would have the shift manager adjust the time on each every weekday, but never have AA batteries when needed.
The only thing new in this world is the history that you don't know.[Harry Truman]
you have to have a strange *guru* appearing sometimes, who never ever wears stuff like shoes, socks, ties, dresses, stuff like that, has a huge beard, and looks loke he knows about every screw and wire in the whole center.
Then the other poeple can tell stories and anecdotes about him and throw in some mysterious stuff...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.