Health check

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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Hi all,First off I am new to this and new to the admin position. I have been the administrator where I work for the last 4 months and had not much previous experience before that. At this moment we are looking to contract someone in to do a health check on the server side and to do some mentoring to myself. So my question is can anyone give any recommendations of what someone would do for a health check, ie check licensing, any major errors. And also what they would do to mentor me.

I know this is kinda a vague question but any ideas would be appreciated. Or if you could point me in the right direction to do some reading on every day maintenance, etc etc

Thanks in advance

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Subject: health check

Here is a Master List of Best Practices:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27008523

There are several Administration tips in there, that ought to help.

Gregg

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Subject: health check

Corey

Just to add some precision to your question, you are asking 2 things here.

1- The Health Check. This is usually done by IBM or by a business partner. In this task, the person would NOT modify anything and, normally, does NOT recommend anything until the final report is presented.

This person would first ask you and your management what you want to find out. So you have to do some home work before you ask for the health check. If the person doing it is good, he/she will ask you what you want to know. Ie: Why do you want a Health Check? Is it because you have problems? Is it simply to review what you have? is it because you want to upgrade? etc. What would be checked would be what you ask for (you being you and your management).

A full Health Check can be long in time and relatively expensive. But the findings are worth the price. Ideally, you should contact IBM first and they would tell you how to proceed.

2- your second request is to help you in your day to day tasks. Normally, the person performing your health check would not do that, at least not extensively. They would set time outside the health check part.

Depending on the number of servers and users you have, what you are asking for would require a person onsite for a few weeks to a few months. But if your company is in Lotus for the long ride (and if the person you get is good), it is well worth any amount you spend.

I also notice you have been in this role for a few months only. From what I read, you have limited knowledge. This is really not a bad thing. Welcome to the group. It is a great one and you will love every day you work.

Now, to help you, there is sites such as this one here and courses you can take.

In my case, I like to play with something (not in production please…:)) before I take any course. This way, I can absorb most of what is thought.

Asking for a Health Check and some help is the way to go. I would simply add that you may want to consider building a test environment. Now, before you get new computers and all, you need to know that a new server/domain can be build directly on your laptop (yes, you can install a server and a client on your laptop)…

Warning! if you create a test environment, PLEASE create a brand new Domain. Do not simply add a new server to your production domain and have it locally. I have seen admins do that and thinking that since it was a “Test Server”, they could delete and modify things… If you do that, the changes WILL be replicated to your production environment. So create something new.

Above all this, there is also the best Practices documents as stated in this post, amongst many other sites to help you.

Hope this helps you get started.

Jacques

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Subject: RE: health check

I agree with Jacques here.We are the service provider of the DNA Health Check, and are often hired by IBM or one of it’s business partners to perform such a health check on domino environments. The Health Check can be used to identify persistent problems, to optimize the environment or to get the facts of the current usage of the system to allow for fact-based decisions for migrations or consolidations. In our case, it’s an exercise that takes about 3 weeks. We perform the health check without installing anything on the servers, and without consuming any of the clients resources, beyond the initial conversation with management to get the objectives clear, and the final presentation of the results.

Jacques is right though, it’s not an exercise that will give you a lot of help in your day to day tasks. It will give you an in-depth analysis of how the environment is currently operating, and what areas can be improved. In our case, it also includes benchmark information and expert advise how to fine tune things for a better performing environment.

For more information about health checks, ask your IBM representative, or find out more about our service in particular, on our website at http://www.trust-factory.com