Hyperic Hints #2: False Alerts? Check System Time.

As you probably know, Hyperic HQ is an agent-based system management system. That means there is an HQ Server component and a separate HQ Agent component. When you have the HQ Server on one platform and the HQ Agent on a different platform, you run into an interesting trust issue.

The HQ Agent operates independent of the HQ Server, which is necessary because the network link between the two cannot be guaranteed to be up 100% of the time. Due to this, the HQ Server must trust the HQ Agent when it receives metric data from it. The HQ Agent stamps each metric with a timestamp before it is sent off to the HQ Server. When the HQ Server receives the metrics, it looks at the timestamp on the metric to determine when it was collected and inserts the metric into the appropriate “slot”.

Add comment February 28th, 2008 John Sachs

Desperate Acts of Marketing

I love working in technology. One of the main reasons is because there are guaranteed to be at least three new things I see every day. This ranges from technology innovation (today, I am impressed by a boat powered by waves, although I definitely note it has not made a sail obsolete) to new business strategies. These innovations fall into three categories:

1. Just cool - not to be confused with useful for society at large (yes, the wave powered boat falls in that category).

4 comments February 28th, 2008 Stacey Schneider

Blogging From SCALE

It’s been an eventful day at SCALE, with lots of interesting attendees, Linux toddlers, and our first SCALE casualty (RIP Firefly helicopter!)

Our beautiful booth:

It flies!

When Linux toddlers run wild:

Oh sure, he looks cute now… If only you had seen him wrecking helicopter carnage:

Add comment February 9th, 2008 John Mark

Why Are These Sysadmins Smiling?

I love my job. For those that don’t know me too well, I have the privilege of looking after all outbound activity here at Hyperic. In that capacity I get to interact with the community, customers, press and analysts. Sometimes all at once.

Thing is, I don’t get to see them that often - its mostly done over the telephone or email. This week though, I’ve been lucky.

Add comment February 7th, 2008 Stacey Schneider

Clouds are no substitute for competence

This morning I came across an AP article on Yahoo news calling out Amazon’s ‘cloud computing’ initiatives. The all-too-clever title “Amazon’s Hot New Item: its data center” caught my attention and I wanted to see the folks at AP take a crack at the topic.

The article seemed innocent enough until I ran into this quote from the CEO of Dallas-based startup Mile Meter:

During the first dot-com boom, he said, “It was a badge of strength to have as much as possible in house. “Now, unless that is your core business…it’s a liability.”

6 comments February 2nd, 2008 javier