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19 Mar 1998


      ...
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"
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Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 10:50:12 -0500
Subject: Building a NOC
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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

Dave Morse

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