How about a major oversimplification of a fix. Closed mailing list. One primary contact for each company is designated and allowed to join the list. Every 2 weeks (maybe a month?) an email is autogenerated that must be ACK'd or that companies NOC entry is considered stale. The person on the mailing list is responsible for ensuring contact info is updated.
Uhm, the usual problem is the contact person leaves the company. The exit interview rarely includes updating the contact information. Everyone else will know the information is out-dated, assuming you ban people from setting up procmail to auto-ack the message. But how do you get the replacement's contact information if the replacement doesn't know about the list, database, server, etc and you don't know who the replacement is? In any case, I'd be happy to participate in such a list. Although in some sense you are preaching to the converted. If you would like a sample message, how about something similar to what a previous government contractor used to send every six months or so when they managed the NIC database. Perhaps change the "do not respond," to "respond with 'ok 123456'" to make the procmail folks work a little harder writing their auto-ack scripts.
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 90 01:09:33 PDT From: HOSTMASTER@NIC.DDN.MIL Subject: Network Administrator Update To: sean@DRANET.DRA.COM
Dear Network Coordinator,
Here is the current information pertaining to your network. Please review it and return any corrections to HOSTMASTER@NIC.DDN.MIL.
** If no changes are needed, you do not need to respond to this message. **
The file
NETINFO:NETWORK-CONTACTS.TXT
on the NIC.DDN.MIL machine (network address 192.67.67.20) contains information regarding network contacts for every IP network registered with the DDN Network Information Center. This file may be FTPed by invoking FTP at your local host and connecting to NIC.DDN.MIL, using USERID = 'anonymous', PASSWORD = 'guest'.
Please allow 8 working days for changes to be processed.
Thanks,
Hostmaster Staff DDN Network Information Center
-----------
NAME of responsible organization: Data Research Assoicates, Inc.
Network Name: DRA-STL Network Number: 192.65.218.0
Coordinator: Donelan, Sean M. (SMD1) sean@DRANET.DRA.COM (314) 432-1100
I'm a firm believer in keeping things simple. But I also think we have to understand the nature of institutional entropy. Any system that relies on the active, continuing participation of a particular individual, no matter how well intentioned and no matter how minor, will run off the same cliff. The system has to be inserted directly into the institutional gut. Where the institution goes, it goes. And it needs to be more painful for the institution to remove it, than to leave it in. ARIN meets the criteria of gut wrenching pain. But I wonder how often and how long they can really apply sanctions against a network provider before it becomes easier for the network provider to take some alternative action. So they give ARIN a phone number, get their addresses and disconnect the phone line a week later. In six months or a year, when they need more addresses they plug the phone back in, and call ARIN. I really wish I was just being cynical, but can I see a show of hands of those providers who thought the same thing? Maybe I'm just slow to catch on, but here are what I see the basic principles of an inter-NOC communications system: 1) require an affirmative management action to start participation pay a dollar, cut a ribbon, sign something, do something, anything to avoid the 'NOC cowboy' problem, and everything that engineer did being tainted when he or she leaves. Ok, the CEO doesn't have to understand how it works, she just has to think it was her brillant idea. 2) once in use it should require an affirmative action to disconnect not require anyone to remember to update it. not require anyone to reload the special software on the PC after Microsoft does its periodic self-destruct. neglect shouldn't kill it, only yanking the wires out of the wall or some virtual equivalent should do it in. 3) must not be annoying, but still a pain if it doesn't involve me, don't bother me. the 'normal' channels should be the easiest to use. If you can't show the normal channels failed, you shouldn't be using this. If all else fails, it should get Someone's attention by Klaxon, sirens, flashing lights, you name it. If you answer it, it will shut up. 4) must be a 'visible' system can't be buried on an individual's PC hard drive, or inside a PBX's programming. Even if no one tells them about it, new NOC engineers should trip over it in their normal course of business (i.e. before they need it). "Hey wally, what's that funny machine in the corner for?" 4a) preferably something pointy-haired managers can point to when they are giving tours of the NOC "This is CNN, and this is our inter-NOC communications link" I thought about plugging a EAS-like box into the NOC's CNN feed, since everyone seems to already have CNN in their NOCs. See klaxon, siren, flashing lights above. 5) Positive ID required Everyone (and I mean Everyone) must be able to know exactly who (at least by organizational affiliation) is on, and off the NOC communications net. The list of participants must be able to be published, without fear a non-participant could use the information to intrude into the NOC-net. It should be possible to show the system works to an outsider, without the outsider becoming an insider (i.e. learning the secret handshake). Likewise, it should be possible to positively disprove a non-participant's claim they are on-net if they aren't. No signing MLPA's and never connecting. and I'm a bit leery of #6, but the more I speak with people who give me reasons why they haven't/won't participated in the previous attempts, I can't find a way around it. 6) a STRONG acceptable use policy, and a 'moderator' enforcing it The clash between 'open' and 'private' is a big one. Some folks have said the previous attempts had too much 'noise' and not enough 'signal.' Although from my experience the problem was usually ZERO signal, and ZERO noise. But maybe my filters aren't as sensitive as other peoples'. Since we have not yet created a sucessfull system, all previous attempts going down in the flames of neglect. Who knows if any of those principles are even close to what's required. I hope you noticed most of the my principles involve human or organizational behaivor issues, not technical requirements. I think technically, almost any of the previous systems could have worked.
BTW, I think the line printer idea rules :)
In the old days, when I had to walk 20 miles in the snow up hill both ways to school, TYMNET used to send their X.25 outage notifications to customers via Western Union teletype. It wasn't an ASR33, but some type of Telex thermal printer at the time. You knew when it fired up, trouble was on its way. -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation
Uhm, the usual problem is the contact person leaves the company. The exit interview rarely includes updating the contact information. Everyone else will know the information is out-dated, assuming you ban people from setting up procmail to auto-ack the message. But how do you get the rplacement's contact information if the replacement doesn't know about the list, database, server, etc and you don't know who the replacement is?
This describes another major problem in our industry. Policy and Procedure. Can you think of any other industry where the =primary= contact to the World could leave the company and no one from an operational perspective would think to let the world know they had left? :)
If you would like a sample message, how about something similar to what a previous government contractor used to send every six months or so when they managed the NIC database. Perhaps change the "do not respond," to "respond with 'ok 123456'" to make the procmail folks work a little harder writing their auto-ack scripts.
Precisely what I had in mind. And as usual, I agree with the rest of your message as well. However, the solution that I proposed was an attempt to develop an idea that was reasonable non-intrusive, didn't rely on adding new gear and monthly recurring cost, and had the potential of working. It could be -way- more sophisticated than this. I can think of neat things involving push (We all have a computer in the NOC don't we?), and probably some other things if I spent some time on it. But what it has to boil down to is that inter-NOC communications has to become something so much a part of the day-to-day life that it can't be neglected. If that can be done in the wild, wild west of our industry as it stands now, I don't know. OK -- off to the waterslide :) Derek
Derek Elder wrote:
This describes another major problem in our industry. Policy and Procedure. Can you think of any other industry where the =primary= contact to the World could leave the company and no one from an operational perspective would think to let the world know they had left? :)
Try all of them? One of the things I did to put myself through school was work as an office temp. As such I used to do a lot of phone work and in every office I ever went into one or both of the following was true: 1. All or most of the "official" contact info was out of date, including the company's own directories, etc. 2. The good companies/individuals that I worked for or with had a list of the "real" people who actually knew what was happening and could get things done. This included companies from the smallest local mom and pop office up to the national headquarters of a major residential mortgage company. The only differences I see between those companies and our industry is that there are situations where someone might actually *need* to contact your NOC on an "emergency" basis, and (and this is crucial) it's to YOUR advantage to have accurate contact info because if there is a problem it's better for your business to have it taken care of sooner rather than later. To date the fiduciary motivation hasn't been sufficient to encourage anything close to universal accuracy of contact information. My personal belief (hope?) is that this will change long before the government considers getting involved because the costs related to not being reachable will eventually exceed the costs of keeping the contact info up to date (if they haven't already). Doug
participants (3)
-
Derek Elder -
Sean Donelan -
Studded