Nagios XI Seminar

 

INVITATION TO NAGIOS XI SEMINAR

Astiostech Sdn. Bhd., in collaboration with NTT MSC Sdn Bhd. invites you to experience and know the power and ease of Nagios XI network monitoring system. Nagios XI, based on the industry-standard in IT monitoring, Nagios Core, is a powerful application that enable effective management of your IT infrastructure and productivity. To give you a first hand taste of XI, there will be a live demo. Register now. Limited seats.

Date: 13 February 2014
Time: 10.00 am—12.30 pm
Venue: NTT MSC Sdn Bhd, 43000, Persiaran APEC, Cyberjaya, Malaysia

To confirm your attendance, please RSVP to info@astiostech.com or call +603-8689 2800

Proudly organized by:                                                                         In Collaboration with: 

                                                       

    Astiostech Sdn Bhd                                                                            NTT MSC Sdn Bhd

Nagios in an Enterprise Environment

If you are looking for a network monitoring solution using Nagios or Nagios XI to monitor a very large number of hosts, I am talking more than 5000 hosts, it is possible to design them using Nagios or Nagios XI (hereinafter known as Nagios).

There are several critical points you need to take into consideration. Two very important points, this will either make your design flawless in terms of performance or give you a headache no medicine can cure!

Point 1: Hardware specification - Take into consideration CPU, RAM, IO of HDD, the higher the better (SSD even better)

Point 2: Frequency of check, how data is handled (queuing and writing)

The solution we designed writes over 1,000,000 records per day on a MySQL database (yes the DB needs to be tweaked for performance! and regularly checked for potential issues).

We designed a complete new dashboard from ground up. This dashboard displays only alerts, has the following action points:

1. Able to assign alerts to agents
2. Able to assign alerts to level 1, 2 & 3 engineers
3. Assign ticket ID to alerts
4. View hosts related information (asset information; like location, purchased date, warranty information, support engineers to call, etc)

The main interface was also design from ground up. This interface allows users to add hosts and select pre-defined templates for that particular hosts. We created over 100 templates, ranging from a switch, routers, firewall, load balancer's, multiple OS's, oracle, DB2, *SQL,and many more.

This is the high-level design that catered for this requirement.

Have a good week ahead!

Replacing Cisco with beatiful and sexy Asterisk IPPBX ;-)

Well folks, yet another humble milestone for us.

We were trying very hard to penetrate this organization to implement our NMS - Network  Monitoring Solution Nagios and Asterisk IPPBX/ Call Centre solution based on Asternic. We had faced multiple phases, yes phases of challenges. The main hurdle, it's a Cisco power house. No doubt they carry a Cisco smile on their faces, they were moving towards a downhill trend with cost savings.

Now they face a new challenge, they need to expand, add new sites, more users, greater demand for features and functionality are being requested from management and users, and they have no where else to turn to, they are stuck, without a choice!

That all came to past when they met us. We showed them how we can work with their budget and then save some! We talked about how we can have the following features on Asterisk to project a seamless cross over from the OLD and EXPENSIVE TELEPHONY solution:

1. Voice (for sure :-))
2. Integration via E1/ PRI to existing legacy PBX
3. Integration via SIP to a voice gateway
4. Integration via Skinny protocol to CCM
5. IM/ Presence
6. Call Billing
7. Call Centre Solution
8. Call Recording/ Voice Logger
9. Customization on the IP Phones to enable XML integration with 3rd party application (cool eh?)
10. And the sweetest thing, help phase out the existing dinosaur

 The above is just a stepping stone for them. There are many other back-end applications/ 3rd party applications that needs to be integrated with Asterisk.

So stay tuned. I will be updating more and more and more!

 

A nice and innovative solution for traders in a banking environment with Asterisk

Yes, we did it again. We designed a really cool solution that traders can now use in their environment. Say goodbye to super expensive hardware with limited functionality and a BIG hello to Asterisk! and a little bit of brain power :-)

I will furnish you with more details once I have it. My wonderful colleagues are working hard to get this out (with the clients approval)!

Hotel module for Asterisk / FreePBX

Our hotel module for Asterisk/FreePBX now works with two of the largest hotel systems Property Management System in Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, i.e FCS and JDS:

By

www.astiostech.com
 

We did it again...Astisotech stands proud and tall!

We won a bit to deploy an awesome Asterisk solution for a famous hotel chain, YTL. The solution fully integrates with their preferred PMS solution from FCS. We now have a real cool Asterisk solution that is fully integrated with a property management system for a Hotel.

This project consists of 3 properties with over 1000 extensions, a hybrid of analog and IP phones. Deployment starts soon :)

http://www.pangkorlautresort.com/

http://www.vistanahotels.com/

Astiostech's Website (Asterisk and Nagios power house)

Our Website is up...click here...

 

 

WebRTC with Asterisk

https://www.facebook.com/Astiostech

Our participation in MOSC 2013

One of my favourite quote

Note: This picture was taken from the internet. All of it's copyright content are by the publisher of this photo.

Some nice pics taken from the KL tower

Too many good things happened, not much time to bloggggggg

Hi Folks,

Oh man, it ha been really a super busy 3-4 months... and the good news is, it keeps getting better and better.

Follow us on our facebook page, www.facebook.com/Astiostech

Visit our Facebook page Astiostech and read all about the new stuff that has been cooking. See the numbers above, if you're in Malaysia, dial it and see what happens (at no costs to you)!

Great support from our partners and customers

Hi Folks,

It has been an overwhelming experience since we started on our own with Astiostech Sdn Bhd. It was really unbelievable to receive such support from our business partners, friends, clients and family.

We are coming up with some exciting stuff, something that will change how people experience open source. We have broken it down into several phases in which, each phase will consists of a new and fresh outlook of things.

Our website will be up soon, so stay tuned.

Have a good day everyone!

A new career adventure begins in Jun 2013

Hey folks, I will be heading a new business unit developing VoIP solutions. This is really a unique and fresh opportunity as I start my new career with this "GOD sent" new organization. I am excited to undertake this role.

Will be updating this blog to provide more insights on my new adventure.

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. So remember: great achievements take time, there is no overnight success".

Ritu Ghatourey quotes

Cool softphone that well behaves with Asterisk

Yet another well behaved piece of software working nicely with Asterisk.

Do you want a softphone that:

1. Built entirely on a web browser
2. Built on Java
3. Has hundreds of API integrator's
4. Supports SIP, QoS, HTTP tunnel, g729 and g722
5. Has any features you want it to have from Asterisk
6. Integrates well with CRM solutions
7. Works like a charm on Call Centre's
8. Agents need not change screens for CRM reference
9. Ability to chat from a single web instance

Then you want to look at our Hayibo! web based softphone:

Customised Call Center Dashboard

Customised Call Center Dashboard

We created a very flexible framework which allows us to build customised dashboards in a very quick and affordable way.

All our dashboards are browser based and can be viewed on a supervisors notebook/desktop or projected on a wall in the call center. 

The below dashboard was created for a bank in Malaysia and displays:

• 17 queues divided into 6 queue groups
• Thresholds are configurable for SLA
• Calls Waiting
• Agents
• Agents Busy
• Call Center Max Wait time
• 
  

Work - Code with Asterisk

Work - Code with Asterisk

Our work code modules enables agents to key in a code during a call for classification.

You can define as many work-codes as you like.

Example: Code 200 = Enquiry for product A

Example: Code 201 = Enquiry for product B

Example: Code 301 = Enquiry for sales support

Agents can key in the work code during a call without the remote end hearing any DTFM tones on the line. In case the agent forgets to enter the work-code the system can call back the agent and ask the agent to enter the work-code for the previous call.

The call center supervisors can create work code reports easily via web based interface.

Dynamic real-time agent / queue assignment

Dynamic real-time agent / queue assignment

In a standard Asterisk based call centre system, agents need login into the queues manually. If the agents have to work in multiple queues at the same time he or she needs to login / logout into all this queues either via feature codes or by pressing fix pre-programmed buttons on the phone. 

The situation get's even more complex if the individual agent does not work always in the same queues. On top of this there is no possibility for a supervisor to dynamically re-arrange agents in realtime. 

Example: 
The supervisor realises that the english queue is full and that the wait time is above the desired SLA thresholds. 
What would the supervisor like to? 
He would like to have a web-based tool where he can simply login, and assign additional free agents to the english queue in realtime. The added agents do not need to login / logout out of the system to make the changes effective. 



The Dynamic real-time agent / queue assignment module communicates with Asterisk in the background and arranges the necessary queue login / logout tasks automatically.

A unique resort on a unique island - Asterified

I am very excited about the recent domination to Asterify a Malaysian premier resort!. We recently converted the entire resort to Asterisk. With over 300 rooms, Pangkor Laut Resort is an exclusive private island owned by YTL Hotels. 

We have integrated Asterisk with its PMS system and the feedback we receive from their users is simply awesome!.

We have a good mix of analog phones and IP phones scattered throughout the island. The implementation was done over a duration of 3 weeks, inclusive of the API development and testing for their PMS system.

The switch over was done sharp midnight, and as usual, Asterisk went online without any glitches...

Don't you just love Asterisk?! 

Well Done and Thank You 2012 and Welcome 2013

Wow, the year just went by in a flash. Many exciting new things happened. Life just got better and will even get better in the years to come. We just got some awesome solutions up and running on Asterisk.

Something real cool, Dynamic real-time agent/ queue assignment, Work code management and Dashboards. Click on the link to find out more.

You will be amazed on what else can be done with Asterisk.

New Oil & Gas Yard Asterisk Deployment Project

We have yet another project with beautiful Asterisk. This solution now will be deployed in a yard at an Oil & Gas company. Yes, with over 400 extensions, multiple Telekom's providers, SIP trunk back to HQ and the list goes on....

Some old pending updates...

Hi Folks,

Wow... it has been a while since I had the chance to update again.

Many good things happened in the last couple of months in our organization. As the saying goes, the bus will continue to move on...

I recently spent my 10th year anniversary at a really nice place...

The wonders of Nagios

If you're watching your satellite TV on your mobile via 3G, know this, Nagios is monitoring the entire system that makes this possible :)

We have created an awesome solution that enables service providers to monitor the infrastructure that provides such an awesome facility.

Kudos to our Nagios team!

Asterisk is now in the larger banking environemnt

Wow, it's been a while since I had written anything....

Anywho ..... We just closed a banking IPPBX project. The bank has many branches throughout Malaysia and an overall of 2000+ users.

We've got back-end integration into the banking system and future planning of integrating Asterisk for automated self-help services for their customers using our very flexible IVR.

If you would like to know more about this project, drop me an email.

Something on a lighter side of life!

Something really cool is happening this 8th February in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and check this out ... You will have a blast!!!

Check it out --> WOPG

Dearest wife got the boys a nice X-mas present.... A nice father and son activity for the many coming weekends :-)

Christmas is around the corner

Is that time of the year again. A warm and nice feeling oozes through your body, listening to the beautiful X-Mas carols, with friends and family, kids playing, exchanging gifts, wine, turkey, ... hrmmm can't wait for the 24th December to arrive. Have a good festive season everyone!

A new chapter for Enterprise Infrastructure and Network Monitoring with Nagios

We made Nagios look sexy and cool. With over 4000 hosts to monitor, ranging from switches, routers, firewalls, load balancer to monitoring ISDN link status, RTA, IPSLA, performing backup and restore of configuration files, databases, various flavors of OS's from Windows, Linux, AIX, SUN OS.

Our customer requested for a unique management interface, where a GUI is created with static pre-defined templates with host specific information and service checks, a customized dashboard, extra functionality and a detailed reporting engine that can produce reports such as multiple host and a selection of services in a single report, multiple hosts and multiple services.

It took us around 4 months to get this up and running. Now Nagios is live and running as smooth as a road runner .. Beep Beep!







Here is a sample of the dashboard and management interface that was developed in-house.. cool eh!

Yet another interesting day with Asterisk

I just sent out a proposal on Asterisk for a customer that requires a mobility solution for their internal users. What does this Cisco glorified definition mean? Simply this, a communication solution that allows users on mobile phones with SIP clients to connect back to their office IPPBX using either 3G or wireless internet (WIFI) connection.

This is quite interesting, as the solution design needs to take in, consideration of security, now no one wants to place an IPPBX out there without any protection, just imagine how many port scanners are running out there! We put in a routing server behind a firewall, which does SIP routing for authenticated phones.

With this solution, imagine the cost savings to and from international locations.

Happy selling Asterisk folks...

PS: Pretty soon, I will be writing something really cool about Nagios, what we have developed and where we plan to take it!

TechDay-Asia 2012

Techday Asia is currently the only Asterisk IP-Telephony Business conference in the World. After a successfull turnout earlier this year at its inauguration in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, we decided to have it Bigger, Better and Further.
This coming Techday Asia will be a roadshow Asterisk Business conference that will be held in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand from 27. Feb - 2. March 2012

Mygosscon

Visit us at this years MyGOSSCON 2011. We will be there with our Partner Strateq.

Event-Website: MyGOSSCON

Asterisk is going super secure with Intuit

Just finished an interesting meeting with our business partner. We now have the ability to secure Asterisk, IP Phones, and many other components. Looks like this would be another giant leap for Intuit in IPPBX deployments.

Stay tuned for more details ...

Client Appreciation Night

Intuit recently hosted her client appreciation night with an awesome Swiss band - Starch. We had this event at 2 locations, both back to back :) Here are some shots for those that could not make it.

How to Sell an Asterisk IPPBX solution, a sales person's guide

Ok, now after a long long time, I have decided to finally get something moving here. It's just been too long since I had the time and opportunity to write. We are looking at a Sales person's guide into selling Asterisk IPPBX, either for an office solution, call centre solution or specific components.

Firstly, we will concentrate on just a simple office solution, now this is further expanded into 2 to 3 categories.

a. Basic - With normal office requirements

b. Advance - With high availability and back end integration

c. Customized - With multiple locations, high availability and integration

Very likely, you will be confronted with 2 different scenario's. 1st scenario would be the easiest, a green field approach. All you need to do is understand the following information from your client:

1. Total amount of users

2. Total amount of incoming lines (analog or PRI)

3. Are there SIP trunks to low cost providers (pay attention to this as some of them will require specific codes for SIP trunks)

4. Features

Will all this basic information, now you would be able to cook up a really attractive proposal for your client.

An IMPORTANT point to remember: Do not cut down on hardware specifications to bring down the costs, as this will result in unwanted quality issues which will be time consuming and difficult to identify.

Another update

Finally.... Intuit is out with a new product ... we are a bunch of proud Intuiters with this new launch... something real cool ... a softphone that can work the way you want your softphone to work.

With full customization and cool features like passwords, central admin control, voice and video recording, just to name a few.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Have a good weekend!