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Daily/Morning Check Software

by TheRyanGoodman on Oct 14, 2015 at 10:39 AM

Best Practices
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Photo credit: Asterio Fiora

Hi Spiceheads,

I'm wondering how you all manage your daily or morning checks and how you begin to
report on it. I'm looking to use the checks I'm being asked to do to not only log them, but be
able to report and escalate issues where needsbe.

These checks will include hardware and software based - therefore checking if servers are
running, their temperature and whether the software/remote services are working. I currently
have a rubbish little C# application I'm building to automate some of the checks etc.

I could do an excel spreadsheet with pass and fail requirements but was wondering if anyone
knew of any different options or how you manage it.

Thanks!

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18 Replies
Habanero

BSOD'D Oct 14, 2015 at 10:54 AM

There's numerous ways to this.

For instance we have a runbook (web -based) which we fill out every morning and then
submit for approval. This checks space in exchange, AV is downloading newest dats, if
backups failed critical systems are running (via alerts from SolarWinds and VMware alerts,
tec...... Anything that pops up we raise a request and assign it to to our queue, fix and
document the fix

So depending on how you want to proceed you could implement something that will do all
the grunt work for you i.e. Solarwinds, NAGIOS, PRTG for checking servers and sending
alerts when something isn't right with services, memory disks. Have your Backup system
send job results which highlight failures or warnings.

You can get pretty granular with what you want to achieve, so the above is just an overview.
Others can add this, as different environments have different ways of reporting and
documenting

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor(114)

Nagios(84)

Backup Exec 15 (Discontinued)(340)

VMware396,506 FollowersFollow


SolarWinds2,170 FollowersFollow

Show all 5 tags

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Pure Capsaicin

peter Oct 14, 2015 at 10:59 AM

Petes PC Repairs is an IT service provider.

we have a separate gmail account with daily tasks listed as events with the helpdesk invited
so 10 mins before they are due helpdesk will get a reminder email which converts into a
ticket

we do it this way so none of our calendars/emails get clogged up

Spice

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Habanero
stables2511 Oct 14, 2015 at 11:03 AM

We have a display screen here running various pieces of software showing allocated &
outstanding jobs (bespoke), client network health (naggios), system backups etc etc. That way
everyone in the office can see whats outstanding or been allocated and as a manager i can see
if stuff is being done without having to ask.

Spice

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Mace

tfl Oct 14, 2015 at 11:18 AM

If you have your data center all or partly in Azure, you can use Azure Automation -
PowerShell workflows that you can schedule. One client kicks off the automation script every
morning at 06:00. The script looks at all manner of things (disk space, services, best practics,
etc, etc) against all the servers in their organisation. The script then sends email to people
(depending on what is found) so that when they get in at 08:00, the mail is sitting there
waiting for them.

You could, of course, do exactaly the same thing if your infrastrcture is locally virtualised -
just run the script say on a domain controller, and let it reach out to find out things using
PowerShell remoting.

Spice

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Ghost Chili

JoeWilliams Oct 14, 2015 at 3:50 PM

EBS Computer Services is an IT service provider.

I use PRTG to automate such stuff - it monitors backup mailboxes, checks for disk space etc,
checks that services are running and available, and alerts the appropriate person if there's an
error.

The advantage of this is:

1. It's automated.

2. It's real-time, not once a day.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor(114)

Spice

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Cayenne

HaroldFinch Oct 14, 2015 at 3:55 PM

For years we had a VBScript and later Powershell checking things like drive space and event
logs, dumping the output to a spreadsheet. Our management were somewhat insistant on
having a manual and human aspect to these checks, but refused to believe that what was
being checked was mostly redundant data and was a very ineffective use of our time, they
'didnt trust' automated solutions because they 'could fail', just like the systems they
monitored.

Then 2 full-time IT people left and they refused to replace them, so I decreed that there was
just no way IT could waste over an hour a day of now severely limited resources doing 'busy
work', manually checking things which would not indicate impending failure, much less
prevent it.

So I ignored management's misguided opinion, implemented Nagios across our entire

infrastructure and never looked back.
Now it constantly monitors everything 24/7 and actively tells us if somethings going even
remotely pear shaped, usually long before it becomes a problem. It even takes corrective
action by itself to fix certain things if we don't respond quickly enough.

Don't get me wrong it took me about a solid month to get it running exactly the way we
wanted and there were many hours of writing special host definitions and all the rest of it, but
the end result was well worth the effort. I thoroughly recommend it, theres not much it can't
monitor and you can script it to within an inch of its life.

Edited Oct 14, 2015 at 4:41 PM

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Cayenne

HaroldFinch Oct 14, 2015 at 4:07 PM

JoeWilliams wrote:

It's real-time, not once a day.

Exactly.

That's the key, and the thing I argued tooth and nail with management about. It's wonderful
seeing that all your Exchange databases are nicely mounted and working when the 'moment
in time' daily check is run at 7:30, but if they're on fire by 7:33 you're not going to know a
damn thing about it until either the next morning, or when users start phoning up anyway.

Edited Oct 14, 2015 at 4:26 PM

Spice

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Habanero

Michael (Netwrix) Oct 14, 2015 at 4:39 PM

Brand Representative for Netwrix

Lots of great stuff guys!

I just want to put in my 2 cents - Daily Check of your IT infrastructure configuration changes
can be done via free Netwrix Change Notifier Widget for Spiceworks, it reports all changes
made to your AD, Exchange, Group Policy by sending alerts to your e-mail daily, and also
has hourly updated dashboard inside Spiceworks.

Netwrix3,320 FollowersFollow

Netwrix Change NotifierPlugin

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4
Tabasco

MikeMalsom Oct 14, 2015 at 10:25 PM

We started with PowerShell scripts to start automating things like checking disk
space\backups. Pretty much just started picking off manual tasks and making PowerShell
scripts for them (spice works has great ones, also learned a lot about PS). So if you normally
go and check the free disk space on 4 servers, make a PowerShell script to do it for you and
give you a nice report (which also doubles as some historical data so you can spot trends).

It is not the prettiest way to do it (I have several scripts that run every morning), but it cut
about an hour out of my day, and now I have the report waiting for me when I get in.

I have just started playing with PRTG for some of the more mission critical processes that I
check several times a day, and this looks like it will save some more time!

Best advise I have is start small. While it would be nice to do it all at once, you will drive
yourself crazy. Break it out in chunks, get it providing the information you need\when you
need it, then move on to the next chunk.

Spice

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Serrano

booman925 Oct 14, 2015 at 10:36 PM

I keep all mine on my Spiceworks Dashboard and the PRTG. With just those 2 things i keep
my task for the day and all alerts up-to-date with no issues.

Spice

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Datil

Anil (Lepide) Oct 15, 2015 at 8:18 AM

Awesome !

Sounds like, you do have now some great resources to manage your tedious tasks in different
ways. Spiceworks has also some good stuffs to help you and manage the routine jobs in an
secure way.

And, to get notified of critical events into real time, you can also look into Lepide 2020 suite
that provides an automated solution to get total visibility of crucial changes and complete
control over your Active Directory, Group Policy, File Server, SQL Servers, Exchange
servers, SharePoint server and much more in order to enhance the IT environment in more
appropriate way.

Lepide1,211 FollowersFollow

Spice

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Cayenne

WilliamNB Oct 15, 2015 at 11:22 AM

This may help a bit - this is a How To I created for automating backup checks:
http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/3270-automating-your-backup-checks-using-
spiceworks--a-few-sc...

This is a How To I created about a system monitoring screen I built:

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/110830-system-monitoring-screen

I've since extended the system monitoring screen to include server temperature checks, with
resultant colour changes in the display if temp goes over certain thresholds I've set. Crossing
the thresholds also generates an email feeding my Spiceworks helpdesk.

I'll update the monitoring screen How To in a bit to add the temp monitor.

Spice

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Cayenne

WilliamNB Oct 15, 2015 at 11:44 AM

Right, I've made the changes to that How To, so the temperature monitor scripts are in there
now.

Spice

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Jalapeno

cryolyte Oct 15, 2015 at 1:49 PM

I have a powershell script that emails tickets to my spiceworks server, using hashtags to make
sure they are routed properly. I have different scripts for daily, weekly Monday, weekly
Friday, Monthly, quarterly, yearly, and my weird patching schedule (calculating second
Tuesday of the month and going from there to take care of all of my patching tasks). Here's
the function and the first task to get you started. You basically just copy a task and edit it to
reflect the new task.

Powershell
Function Send-SpiceMail {
send-mailmessage `
-To $To `
-Subject $Subject `
-From $From `
-Body $Body `
-SMTPServer $smtpserver `
-BodyAsHTML
}

$To = "helpdesk@contoso.com"
$From = "me@contoso.com"
$SMTPServer = "mailserver.contoso.com"

#Begin Task List

####################################

#TASK 1
$Subject = "Scheduled - Server Room Walkthrough"
$Body = "Walk through the server room, performing physical check of
equipment
<br>`#assign to Tech1
<br>`#priority high"
Send-SpiceMail

Spice

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Jalapeno

AlanJosko Oct 15, 2015 at 2:45 PM

BSOD'D - You said you use a web based runbook... which providor?

Thanks!

Spice
 Reply

Cayenne

Jeff2262 Oct 16, 2015 at 2:08 PM

Well, you've explicitly stated you want something for daily/morning checks. We used to have
a script ("wot I wrote") which we'd run when the early shift came in, and again about 30
minutes before the late shift left. This script would create an email detailing issues found that
went out to a distribution group.

The problem with this approcah is that it only gives you a snapshot of what's happening at the
moment you run the script. Which is fine if all you're interested in is the state of things in
your environment at (script) runtime, but surely you're interested in the state of things ALL
the time?

So, what you really want is something that runs all the time and send alerts when it detects
any kind of outage. i.e. something dynamic.

We used to used Servers Alive for this (nice and cheap, but a bit dumb so you have to define
each and every alert condition and notification(s)), but now we use Microsoft SCOM (with a
LiveMaps add-on) which at least automatically sets its own alerts based on its knowledge of
each system you make it aware of,

But then, there's always, oh what's it called, ChiliFactory? No, PepperJobs? um...Got it!
SpiceWorks!

Spice

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Chipotle

GarethC Oct 17, 2015 at 9:27 AM

Over and above the live network monitoring tools and infrastructure wall display, we use 2
printed checklists every morning that the support staff work through. We operate in the retail
environment and automated checks and notifications are just not full-proof enough to use on
their own.

One of the techs gets in early and works through the 1st checklist which only covers any
hardware or software required for normal trading operations. This check is performed early
enough before the stores open so that any problems can be sorted out before the customers
walk in. The 2nd checklist goes through overnight processes, backups, daily maintenance
tasks etc that are important but do not influence retail operations. Almost all of the check
items are already monitored by various tools but we get better levels of thoroughness from
the support staff when they have to record the various statuses (such as server room
temperature) and sign-off on the checklist. This process does not take very long as the
monitoring tools and scripts provide almost all the info required for the checklists.

(These tickets are automatically generated in Spiceworks using gmail calendar notifications)

Spice

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Poblano

thomasjohn Oct 19, 2015 at 1:35 PM

was looking for something, thanks.

Spice

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