On Dec 20, 2012, at 10:01 PM, Jimmy Hess <mysi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/20/12, Charles N Wyble <charles-li...@knownelement.com> wrote:
>> Zenoss works very well as a cmdb.
>
> Zenoss is very visually appealing, but a monitoring system for network
> hosts, not a CMDB.
>
> In particular, except through extensive custom programming, I see no
> mechanism to manage CIs with it or query for facts...
>
> Zenoss doesn't seem to have any way you can represent or, query, or
> model a fact that a certain IP address terminates in Vlan X, on
> device Y, with default gateway IP G that has NSAP ID H, and device Y
> lives in building A room 1 aisle 2 rack 4 rack slot number 5,
> fed by breakers 186 and 237, with upstream Ethernet cable ID #G296R
> plugged into port 39 on patch panel 2, which lands on Switch K
> port Gig8/44.
> Networks have many "items of importance" that are not hosts, also,
> and are not readily modelled using SNMP.
Much less the application layer, physical SW installs or logical groupings
layer, or a virtual hosts or internal cloud stack layer. Or tie ins to the
release management or DevOps control layer.
I know this is NANOG, but configuration control runs a ways up the stack... A
proper CMDB will have to be able to take a much bigger picture.
Not to slight Zenoss; it's good at what it does do. But that's not a CMDB.
That is not to suggest that products that handle a limited slice of the stack
in a more organized manner are not valuable. Every little bit helps, in the
current absence of a delivered off-the-shelf comprehensive product.
But if you've ever watched a comprehensive product run, partnered with a
systems deploy tool with all the business logic on physical anti-affinity for
power, rack, network layers, ... Provisioning a 1000+ node, 60+ server types
app environment into a data center with one command line, selected, booted,
network side VLANs allocated and configured, apps installed, apps configured,
and ready for traffic...
The data to be able to pull that off can be gathered and can be managed and
used effectively. That's the power of a real, comprehensive CMDB.
George William Herbert
Sent from my iPhone
