Consulting and service provider companies can use ObserveIT to record and monitor their clients' servers. By monitoring these servers and recording all human interaction with the servers, these companies can gain better control over what happened to each server, quickly perform root cause analysis, manage client projects and maintain knowledge.
Because ObserveIT for Servers records exactly the actions that contracted employees and consultants are doing on the enterprises servers and when they are doing it, project managers can verify:
- Compliance with enterprise policies
- Actual working hours
- Documentation of deliverables and work performed
For the purpose of this article, I will use a fictitious company called "ABC Consulting" that will monitor and record servers located in different physical locations, and belonging to 3 separate clients.
The following scenario describes the organization’s current network configuration.
The company's main offices are located in New York City, with servers running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The client computers are using a combination of Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista. The company is currently implementing ObserveIT for Servers on its main site, and the data captured has helped the company's administrators in numerous troubleshooting instances, while providing them with the ability to reduce mean time to repair and harmful activities performed on the company's main servers.
The company has recently received orders to deploy new Microsoft-based servers for 3 separate clients. These clients are located in 3 separate physical locations in the USA, as shown in the following diagram:
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The "ABC Consulting" company has had a very positive experience with ObserveIT for Servers, and has learned how to utilize the captured data in their own internal IT infrastructure. Because of that, the company's project managers have decided to use ObserveIT for Servers on these 3 new projects. The major requirements and benefits that the company is looking to gain from using ObserveIT are:
- Supervise the administrative actions that where performed during these projects
- Improve auditing, compliance and accountability
- Provide proof of user and administrator actions
- Reduce potentially harmful activities performed by the clients' internal IT staff prior to the projects' completion
- Leverage IT expertise
Judging from their own experience, project managers in the "ABC Consulting" company rightfully assume that, after seeing ObserveIT's capabilities in action, each one of these clients will want to continue using ObserveIT for servers even after the projects are finished.
Architecture
The ObserveIT Application Server, Management Server (Web Console) and Database Server can be installed on a single server or distributed on multiple servers, based upon the client's requirements and performance tuning. The ObserveIT Agent is deployed on any server that is to be monitored in the enterprise.
For the purpose of this example, the following architecture will be used to record the 3 clients' servers on one centralized ObserveIT database located in the main offices of the "ABC Consulting" company.
- The Application Server, Web Management Server will be installed on a single server located in the "ABC Consulting" company main offices. The Database Server will be installed on a different single server using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 in the "ABC Consulting Company" main offices. Both servers will be located at the same physical location, and will have LAN-type connection between them.
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- At the "ABC Consulting" company main offices, the external Firewall will be configured in such a way to allow HTTP (TCP Port 80) traffic from the remote client locations, and forward this traffic to the ObserveIT Application Server. If needed, the Application Server will be configured to use a different TCP Port, and then the Firewall will be properly configured to forward that TCP Port to the ObserveIT Application Server.
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- The ObserveIT Agents will be deployed on any server that is to be monitored. The Agent will be configured to transmit its recorded traffic to the ObserveIT Application Server by using that server's IP public address or FQDN. If configured, a specific and different TCP Port will be used.
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- Traffic between the ObserveIT Agents and the ObserveIT Application Server is sent through HTTP (TCP Port 80) and is secured by using encryption, digital signing and token exchange. However, if required, SSL traffic can be used to further protect the Agent-Application Server traffic.
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- A dedicated ObserveIT Server Group will be created, one for each respective client company. All monitored servers belonging to that client company will be placed within their respective server group.
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- If needed, a dedicated ObserveIT Server Configuration Policy will be created, one for each respective client company. This policy can be used to configure specific recording settings or specific applications or users that need to be monitored.
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- A dedicated ObserveIT Console User will be created, one for each respective client company. This user will be given the "View-Only Administrator" role, and given permissions for only their respective group of servers. This way, each client company can access the ObserveIT Web Management Console and log in as their respective Console User. That user will then be able to only view recorded sessions that were captured on the respective server group.
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- When logging on to the ObserveIT Web Management Console, each client's ObserveIT View-Only administrators will be able to only view their own servers, and NOT the servers of any other client located on the ObserveIT Database. In fact, each client is totally unaware of any other servers that are being monitored by the "ABC Consulting" company except their own servers.
Software and Hardware Requirements
The following is list of the minimum system requirements for each ObserveIT component:
Software Requirements
- Application Server and Web Management Server: Windows 2003 Server, Internet Information Server (IIS) 6.0, .NET Framework
- Database Server: Windows 2003 Server, SQL Server 2005
The ObserveIT Agents will be deployed on the clients' servers by using Group Policy (GPO), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or login scripts.
Hardware Requirements
ObserveIT’s minimal hardware requirements are easily met in today’s modern computer hardware specifications. However, in order to provide adequate performance for a major enterprise, one must make carefully plan the hardware specifications.
For this example, the following hardware configuration will be used to monitor approximately 1000 servers:
- Application Server and Web Management Console: Dual Core 3.2 GHz; 2 GB RAM; 2 X 72 GB Disk (in a RAID 1 array)
- Database Server: Dual Core 3.2 GHz; 4 GB RAM; 4 X 146 GB Disks (in a RAID 10 array)
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