George Bonser <grep@oriole.sbay.org> writes: > On Fri, 10 Apr 1998, Tracy Camp (Gemnis 2.1) wrote: > > You can go to our company web page and grab a helpdesk CGI that we > published in System Administrator magazine. It is free. It needs polish > but it is useable in assigning trouble tickets to people and allowing > people to browse their tickets. It is sort of a watered down version of > Quintas WebQ if you have ever used that. Feel free to improve on it if you > like. > > http://www.captech.com Nice looking web page. I'll take a look at it. > I am not so much the "seat of the pants" hacker. I have several years in > hardware service and in system administration. The main thing I have found > before committing to support something is to find out exactly what it is > you are agreeing to support. Debian makes this fairly easy since the > system is pretty much in a known basic configuration with some > customization specific to the customer's operation. I find Debian installations to be much more consistent over time than the equivalent Red Hat installation. Windows NT installations tend to be very consistent over time - because you have to reinstall it every couple of months. :-) > One think I would like to offer is simple basic system maintenance. > Example: Customer signs up for a basic maintance contract. CERT comes out > with an advisory for bind. You log into the supported systems, upgrade > their bind, then notify them by email that their system has been upgraded > to fix a potential security problem and you inform them of other operating > systems/versions that might be affected so they can contact those vendors. > > In some cases, it might be wise to notify them in advance that packages > x,y,and z have been upgraded and that you want to schedule a time when > the affected services might be unavailable for a few minutes while the > upgrade is taking place. > > It is support like this that many MIS departments like. It impresses them > when you are proactive in notifying them of the upgrades and that it is > part of the maintenance program that they signed up for. I agree that is a good service to offer. I basically do the same thing for my clients. I am sure that we will have quite a bit to talk about when it comes to choosing a set of services to offer, and setting rates. > BTW, my expertise is more along the lines of services configuration. I am > pretty good at getting the email, DNS, NIS, UUCP and news working and > keeping it that way. I also know gated and can get PPP working ;). Sounds good. I can do email, DNS, NIS, and PPP - but I've never done UUCP or gated, and I've only done a personal news spool for myself. So we already have a complementary set of skills. :-) Cheers, - Jim
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