[no subject]

[Dave Morse <davmorse () umich edu>]

> To: nanog () umich edu
> From: Dave Morse <davmorse () umich edu>
> Subject: [Fwd: How to building a NOC]
>
> > Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 11:59:32 -0500
> > To: nanog () merit exu
> > From: Dave Morse <davmorse () umich edu>
> > Subject: [Fwd: How to building a NOC]
> >
> > Well, I've looked for reading material on the subject of building,
growing, managing a NOC for several years. Guess what, there really isn't
any. You did the next best thing by asking the question. I'm the NOC
manager for Merit and the University of Michigan. Bill Norton and myself
played key roles in building and moving to production this operation. There
were many questions to be answered before the proper direction to proceed
could be ascertained. David Greer mentioned several of these, such as, What
level of monitoring (router port, hub, host), Are you going to monitor
applications/servers, Are you going to monitor protocol, Are you going to
be reactive or proactive, Are you going to provide reporting with trend
analysis/captivity planning, Are you going to be self sufficient meaning
you do your own System Administration, tool development. This doesn't cover
everything, but as you can see that are a lot of questions to be answered
before starting the planning of the project. 
> > I agree with David again in his statement that most people do not realize
what the cost of building and running a NOC are. When looking at providing
a 7/24 service, equipment/tool/staff/start-up, not counting conditioned
space can easily be a million dollars. The best thing (I think) is to get
someone who has done this before and is very familiar with NOC activities
to include Call center applications, tools, staffing needs, space
requirement...etc to help you start the planning process. 
> > One other thing, being the Switching Manager for the UofM (45k line
SL-100 switch) and working for Centel Telephone Company as a CO supervisor,
then supervisor of the Technical Action Center (TAC,) and now the Manager
of the NOC, I have to say, I don't think the two are not the same!
> > P.S. John, I worked for Raytheon for about 8 years. I started at Fort
Hood Texas, Went to El Paso Texas and then to Germany for about 4 years.
When I left Germany they wanted me to move to Mass, but being stationed at
Fort Devens while in the Army, I didn't think I could get use to the
weather. Maybe we could talk off line.
> > > From:  John_W_Connors () res raytheon com   10:50
> > > Subject:  Building a NOC
> > > To:  nanog () merit edu
> > >
> > > Would anyone have information or knowledge of books, WWW Sites, or
> > > other
> > > means that would provide details on constructing a state of the
> > > art NOC to
> > > support 75000+ nodes in a LAN/MAN/WAN environment
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance
> > > JC
> > > ========================
> > >
> > > No books, it's all experience.
> > >
> > >
> > > Martin Hannigan                    V:617.500.0108
> > > Director - Data Networks           F:617.500.0002
> > > XCOM Technologies, INC.            hannigan () xcom net
> > > Cambridge, MA                      http://www.xcom.net
> > >
> > > ------------------------
> > >
> > > I think I'd disagree with that.  Where would all you folks be if
> > > you never
> > > picked up a book?  You wouldn't be reading this list.  Seriously,
> > > while
> > > there's not an ORA "How to Build a NOC" book with some cute animal
> > > on the
> > > cover, there is some information out there worth reading.
> > >
> > > I'd suggest digging through some telco info (if you'd like to
> > > consider a
> > > CO a NOC).  Also, there should be plenty of people on this list
> > > that
> > > work in or have even designed decent sized NOCs.  You can also
> > > cheat and
> > > go browsing as a prospective customer at someplace like Exodus or
> > > any
> > > other colo facility that is well-managed and modern.  You can
> > > actually
> > > learn quite a bit by just looking around...
> > >
> > > Hopefully some of the startup NSPs will answer here, as the
> > > experience
> > > should still be fresh in their minds...
> > >
> > > Charles
> > >
> > > ~~~~~~~~~                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > Charles Sprickman                               Internet Channel
> > > INCH System Administration Team                 (212)243-5200
> > > spork () inch com                                  access () inch com
> > >
> > > ---------------------------
> > >
> > > You mean there's not a "Building an ISP for Dummies" book?
> > >
> > > Listen out there, NANOG members--big royalty opportunity here
> > >
> > > ;-)
> > >
> > > (Sorry, folks--there are days when I just can't resist my most
> > > evil
> > > impulses).
> > > Bill Goldstein
> > > Senior Internet Specialist
> > > AT&T
> > > wgoldstein () att com
> > > TEL:(412)642-7288
> > > --------------------------------
> > >
> > > Bill,
> > >
> > > Skipping John's message for a minute with the number of small
> > > ISP's out
> > > there it is actually forseeable that a book on starting an ISP
> > > might be
> > > possible to a limited extent.
> > > I would have welcomed such a book when I set up our internet gear
> > > (we would
> > > qualify as a medium sized ISP in our own right.)
> > >
> > > Now to get back to John's message, although there is some
> > > information out
> > > there that could be read there are a number of questions that you
> > > should ask
> > > yourself as far as scope of the project, number of sites,
> > > technical level at
> > > the remote sites, do you need to monitor Sniffers and the like or
> > > just plain
> > > Openview/Spectrum.  Also does this NOC have to monitor and
> > > dispatch repair
> > > techs only or does it have to answer questions like how do I
> > > change my
> > > password on the server in my office.
> > >
> > > What about monitoring of the various servers in the enterprise?
> > > Novell?
> > > NT?  Unix flavors, etc.  Put all this together and the project
> > > manager in
> > > charge better have done it before at least once, or else this
> > > would quickly
> > > become a moneypit.
> > >
> > > Another major consideration is how much money and floor space is
> > > available
> > > for the NOC.  I have seen several companies under-estimate the
> > > floor space
> > > needed and end up shoving stuff into corners to get it all into
> > > the
> > > allocated space, or scrimping money because the budget didn't live
> > > up to the
> > > pipe dreams of over eager planning personnel.
> > >
> > > David Greer
> > > Project Manager, Wide Area Telecommunications
> > > General Nutrition Companies, Inc.
> > > David-Greer () GNC-HQ COM
> > >
> > > ----------------  End for now ------------------
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >  "It takes a person of your caliber to arrive at that decision"
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > UMNet      MichNet      Merit Route Servers-Next Gen      Internet2
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Network Engineer & Systems Admin    Network Operations Center
> > > mgf () umich edu                       Univ of Michigan  IT Division
> > >
> > > UM Personal Homepage:    http://www.umich.edu/~mgf
> > > Michnet Network Events:  http://www.merit.edu/michnet/statistics
> > > RSng, Peering & Stats:   http://www.rsng.net/routeservers.html
> > >
> > >
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> > > From: John_W_Connors () res raytheon com
> > > X-Lotus-FromDomain: RES
> > > To: nanog () merit edu
> > > Message-ID: <852565C9.0056A7A1.00 () ressud-as01 res ray com>
> > > Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 10:50:12 -0500
> > > Subject: Building a NOC
> > > Mime-Version: 1.0
> > > Sender: owner-nanog () merit edu
> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> > >
> > > Would anyone have information or knowledge of books, WWW Sites, or other
> > > means that would provide details on constructing a state of the art NOC to
> > > support 75000+ nodes in a LAN/MAN/WAN environment
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance
> > > JC