Linde

01. challenges

The ability to detect server and network problems before they occur or to rectify them more quickly should significantly increase user satisfaction and system availability. In addition, administrators should be notified of problems via various channels such as e-mail, SMS, pager and telephone, as well as instant messaging.

According to Linde Refrigeration, it should still be possible to generate meaningful statistical data for forecasting long-term trends. In addition, Linde Refrigeration’s management also needed a simple, fast and browser-oriented way of obtaining information about the current status of the network from a central location: In short, all isolated solutions had to be replaced by a centralized system.

02. solutions

As Linde Kältetechnik had had very good experiences with free software and Linux in previous projects, open source alternatives were once again very popular for this project. In particular, the ability to make changes to the source code and thus adapt the system even better to individual requirements was a high priority. Thanks to the contact established between Linde Kältetechnik and NETWAYS at this early stage, NETWAYS was able to support Martin Keusch’s monitoring team with extensive information on feasibility during the decision-making process. Before contacting Linde Kältetechnik, NETWAYS had already developed an interface that is particularly easy to configure and extends the monitoring software in this area. At the end of the test phase, the strategic decision to use the monitoring software and to work with NETWAYS as an integration partner was made personally by the CIO of the Linde Refrigeration division, Dr. Jürgen Overfeld.

The actual implementation on site then took place in a five-day joint workshop to enable the system to be put into operation quickly and to reduce additional training costs as far as possible. At this workshop, 130 servers and network devices were included in the monitoring, which was to be expanded to 200 devices in a further workshop. As the services provided by the systems are also monitored in addition to the general availability, the monitoring software server then checks over 2,000 potential sources of error for correct functioning. During this workshop, the NETWAYS consultant worked with the Linde Kältetechnik administrators to develop a template-based configuration that could save many times the normal configuration work and minimize the time required for subsequent changes in particular.

03. success

The investment in the implementation of the monitoring software and the consulting services provided by NETWAYS paid off after a very short time, as five specific failures were prevented within two months of the introduction. But the administrators are also relieved of routine daily tasks and can concentrate better on their core tasks: “As you can imagine, it is not possible to keep an eye on all possible sources of error in our infrastructure every day. The monitoring software now does this for us – completely automatically – and reliably notifies us of impending problems or failures. Hundreds of possible sources of error are scanned and checked every five minutes,” says Martin Keusch, the project manager responsible for introducing the monitoring software. “The monitoring application has fully met our expectations in terms of functionality and efficiency. By completely eliminating the license costs and the short implementation time, we were able to achieve an almost immediate ROI,” says Dr. Jürgen Overfeld.