hello

i would like to open new server and network management company


i want your advice about billing / management system


for billing i have many software (AWBS - ModernBill)
witch is best for my company


and i want ask about management systems (server monitoring - audit)

For server management systems you will need someone to manage your customer's servers not a system.

:) i already have my staff

but i want ask about monitoring software and billing software what is the best software can help us on managed

Server Management company in kuwait ? Hehe - good luck.

We use Modernbill. MB was designed for hosting companies, although it will work for other services as well. Also, if you are planning on providing a service as crucial as managing another companies servers, I suggest doing some research of your own. Opening a server management company is not as simple as opening up the typical fly-by-night hosting companies that has plagued the hosting industry for the past several years.

Nagios is a free monitoring service, although it requires a lot of time to setup and running correctly.

I recall many discussions on monitoring systems. Do a search and you should be able to pull up several.

Server Management company in kuwait ? Hehe - good luck.
What's so funny about a server management business operating from Kuwait?

? i don't know what is funny

if i open an managment company it will be the first arabic company provide managed service in arab world we will be the first who spicialized for server managed

UnixDevel, these are questions you should consider for yourself. There are many different options,

ModernBill I never did like, personally I use BillingOrchard for issuing invoices, it's much easier to handle.

Monitoring, I suggest you use atleast 2-3 monitors, again I use Nagios, Hybodus and cacti aswell as a script I wrote awhile back to try to fix downed services.

Always keep a note of who you have worked for, exactly what you have done and you will get the odd client who doesn't want to pay, keep everything you know about them, because chances are they will be back and if you don't keep this information you won't know they scammed you before.

Good luck.

-Scott

Cacti is good but is a bit more extensive than Nagios. Cacti will take some time in configuring correctly with SNMP, etc. It offers a lot more in terms of statistics and monitoring. If you're just checking uptime & server/httpd responses Nagios would do.

If you don't want to setup a seperate monitoring server, you can also consider alertra.com

thanks i will try Cacti system

thanks i will try Cacti system

UnixDevel,

I would suggest getting a few programmers together from a freelance site and tweak nagios and cacti to suite your current needs. If you really want a great solution, then get one that is made directly for you.

What type of experiance do you have in this field?

It concerns me that you're thinking of starting a server management company, yet aren't familiar with the monitoring software that you should use. Billing software, I can understand wanting advice about...but monitoring software is something that a server management company should already know inside and out. Its kind of like a doctor asking for advice on the best way to treat a common cold.

--Tina

WHM.AutoPilot for billing, Nagios for monitoring. Both scripts are simply great.

I agree with Tina here. If you don't know which monitoring script to use then you shouldnt be getting into your own management company.

Also, there is no script to do audits. Audits are done by yourself, you need to have the experience and know what to look for and how to patch/fix it.

We use modernbill. With our kayako suppost desk it makes it easy to integrate so that it used kayako's front end. Both work well together, but Modernbill is the root of the system.

Also, there is no script to do audits. Audits are done by yourself, you need to have the experience and know what to look for and how to patch/fix it.
Or, you can make your own scrpts to do audits like I do =)

I agree with Tina as well, however, by the sounds of it UnixDevel is just the owner / manager and he has the administrators / knowledgable ones working for him. So in this instance it would be fine, though having knowledge of what your staff are doing is a handy thing to have :P

I use a ticketing system to keep records of what has been done on servers, and use software on my computer (rather keep that disclosed) for producing .pdf invoices which i then send to the customer.

By the sounds of it, using nagios across all servers you manage would be a good idea, but thinking more forward than that - Scott.Mc made an excellent point, make your own scripts to check and put services back online, perhaps even with a reporting feature to send back to yourself.

I've always used a customized version of Nagios for monitoring in conjunction with NRPE for "on-the-box" monitoring and reporting (you can see a Nagios demo with NRPE here (http://www.serversurgeon.com/account/demo/hostmonitor/)). For billing, Modernbill is fine but you might want to try Ubersmith as well. If you want real easy setup, use a service like secondsite.biz.

There is a lot of other advice I think you'll need, as a server management company is a lot more than monitoring and billing. The biggest challenge is gaining a customers trust. Customers are very touchy in this area -- even if you're only performing a $50 job, the customer has to trust you with his root or admin password, his database contents, business information, and anything else on that server. Once you do gain a customers trust, you'll probably get the ongoing business so long as your price is right and work is done well and on time, as it's difficult to find

I have been fortunate enough that most of my new business comes via referrals from several large dedicated server providers, two of which are in Australia. And those referrals bring a certain trust with them. Those types of relationships take time to build, but if you stay in business for a year or two, you'll surely obtain some. Good luck.