Vendor Accountability
Yesterday a friend and I were talking about the countless hours wasted on vendors with crappy products.
Why is it that "WE the IT people" have to take this any longer?
How much do we have to endure before vendors are sued for over promising / under-delivering.
I mean people we are spending thousands of dollars a month on software that is supposed to "Revolutionize" our businesses.. Software / Hardware that is supposed to save us time, and increase ROI.. What a load of CRAP.
Not all companies are bad, the companies to note for their Awesome customer support and "Revolutionizing" means of taking care of customers (Thats us) is Chartec, Reflexion, ConnectWise, Sunbelt (now GFI).
How can Vendors become more accountable?
Here is a bold Idea: Pay us in time it takes to fix their issues...
Guess what Mr. Vendor, it will not take long for you to fix an issue thats draining you will it!!
My latest issues are with Cisco, specifically the small business group.
We have standardized over the last year with the cisco 4410n wireless access point for 2 reasons: Price, and POE.
Priced at about 200 bucks this access point is supposed to help the small business gain decent wireless connectivity, with some amazing features.
However this unit is faulty. After about 3-4 months of use, these units go bad.
You RMA the devices and get a new device but same thing they go bad.
I have spent at least 15 hours of my time to fix these units, Even went as far as writing a Labtech script to reboot these units 2 times a day!
Take a look at this thread: You know you have a problem with your hardware when.....
Yeah thats right, when you have over 42 Thousand Page views on a forum topic!!
If I were Cisco's CEO I would be all over this!
For thoes of you Vendors that are like this (and you know who you are) SHAME ON YOU.
Would love to see crowds of IT people waving a large banner in front of Cisco for this.
Kaseya going direct to your customers…
This is unbelievable
http://www.kaseya.com/company/News/en/pr-07132010-Kaseya-SMEE-release.aspx
But of course should come with no surprise to anyone. Kaseya has always walked a tight line selling enterprise and IT service provider editions side by side.
Now they go right to the heart of IT Service providers with this. Its already been a tough sell any more selling “Managed Services” where the customer already knows about the tools we are using, now this sales line card is voided as the customer now has the power to use the tools that only IT Service solution providers once had. So what next? Oh yeah Kaseya provides professional services to our customers direct!
IF you have not looked at the other options I would suggest you do so now.. jump ship. Kaseya does not have the Service provider in mind at all, I have been telling people this for a long time, now proof. Labtech (NO I dont work for them lol) Has a much better solution and half the cost as Kaseya.
Some people have said they are not interested because of no Web UI... guess what you dont need it with the console. You install the console and connect over HTTP... The console is much better any ways, as you have SPEED on your side... instead of the infamous click click click click as Kaseya refreshes the gazillion asp pages.
Your sales line card now has room for much more than Kaseya had to offer like room for innovation..
One Month into Labtech
So I bet many people are looking to find out what it takes to make a switch to something like Labtech.
As you know migrating from one system to another is not usually an easy task, this is why most people the endure pain their in. Executing on a new solution can be scary especially with a paradigm like LabtechSoft. I wanted to point out a few things I have learned in my roll out experience which may help some who are "scared" to move.
1. I already paid so much into the RMM I am currently using. Yes I personally have spent 7-8 years using the Kaseya Platform, not including money invested in the solution but my time and expertise in the product was a heavy burden I had to tend with in my migration. While I sympathise with you on the cost issue, you have already made your money back if you had a minimum of 3-4 MSP contracts. Opt Out and move on...
2. As given the privilege I have been on the "Beta team" for the upcoming Labtech version. While I cannot say specifically about any features as of yet, I can say that things I have been doing for YEARS now using workarounds in Kaseya and hacking certain tables Labtech has built into the new version... Thus making life in the IT Support world more streamlined. So if any point is to be made in this part of the blog, They are on the same thinking wavelength as I am if not more so! Again further confirmation that I made the correct choice.
3. Templates and Groups... Can I just say AMAZING, the entire world of templating is actually made CORRECT. Gone are the days that I have to go into my Kaseya system and make sure SLA's and schedules are audited, and cleaned up.
4. Scripting, this was the primary reason I left Kaseya. K2 has made nested IF statements (finally) Labtech has always had this feature. However here is the kicker for me, RAW sql access from a script! another great feature is the SPEED! in K2 I would have to wait for 50 (clicks) in IE for a stupid step to be added, before I could continue. In labtech we don't have a refresh as its a Client based application. Very Nice. Another Key in scripting is the import, this makes all your Kaseya scripts become Labtech Scripts. This was useful for only a hand full of my scripts as I had been hacking the Kaseya system for some time. Not only this but I needed to "Re-Think" my scripts as it was.. so many new powerful features i can cut out the FAT on some of my scripts in Kaseya.
5. Support at Labtech has been AWESOME. They have an online support chat system, I have been able to solve most of my learning curve issues though this, and usually right when I am needing the answer NOW. Unlike a support system that you submit a ticket and wait 2 days (if lucky Kaseya). Perhaps because Labtech uses ConnectWise. 
is the reason for great support.
Some draw backs right now are really only 2 things:
1. Dot net dependency for the agent installs, I have only had 2 instances for this where the client machine did not have DOT.NET 2.5 installed on the machine and the Agent would not install. Most of my customers already had DOT.NET 2.5 installed, and I am not a believer in Patching every day.
2. While I only have a hand full of Mac users and a few linux the agents from labtech are not that streamlined as of yet.
For MAC you need to install MONO framework before you install the agent, Still not working for me though... Perhaps because I am on a beta still.
OH one other thing I should mention.
ConnectWise integration is a Dream come true! I can have my customers use the built in Labtech agent ticket system and everything syncs with connectwise. One major reason for this is the Screen Shot button right on the ticket entry form, customers now have an instant way to capture an error. I am currently trying to debate the need for customer portal stuff right now. Its another paradigm I am working though.
Watched an Amazing 60 Min on Bloom Energy
I have always loved watching how people are trying to beat the Mega Energy companies, and build something that everyone can profit on. After all my years dealing with my house's energy problem and Edison to do nothing about it.. thousands of dollars spent every year and Edison tries to tell me that having 2 refrigerators is causing my 500 to 700 a month energy bill is outrageous. Until recently it was all due to a loose Breaker switch! Imagine, how convenient for Edison.
Anyway back to the story. I have loved watching people like Smaks on Youtube create HHO generators for his car etc.
Even went down the path and almost created one.
This 60 min aired tonight showing a man John Doerr created a Cell that generates more efficient energy.
- Bloom customers include eBay, Google, Lockheed, Wal-Mart, Staples and the CIA. Backlog and sales are in the $2 billion range
- eBay ordered four of the company's 100-kilowatt units.
- The units run on natural gas, propane, biofuels or diesel which gives them about 48 percent overall efficiency.
- 60 Min states the unit could cost about 3000 for the home user.. IM IN, if it reduces my bills!!
Check out the video
VirtualIron to Xen Migration Good to Know…
This week I have been migrating a customer that was on a Single User edition of Virtual Iron... Some of you may remember that Virtual Iron as lame as it was, would never support you in a production environment with this config. However we did it all the time as it was perfectly safe for the small business user.
So back to the goods, We now standardize on XEN mostly because of its tremendous support in the opensource community and due to the many features you get for free.
But how do you go from one virtualization platform to another?
Easy, Xen (and some others) have tools that allow you to do a V-V migration. This tool is called Xen Convert. Located here:
http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1857892&productId=683148
A little about the environment first.. Being this was a Virtual Iron Single edition server this means the server is being used and we dont want to disrupt business to much during transfers and you want to CYA if the transfers dont work!! So we used another server that was spare to act as the new xen temporary host. After we transfer and test for a few days we will kill the VI server all together. Install XEN and redo the storage repositories, then transfer from the temp machine to the new primary.
Once you have XenConvert you can simply install this in your virtual machine and tell it to convert "This Machine" to the xen server. You will need a workspace (area for it to copy files prior to transfer to the xen host) I just used a buffalo nas drive on Gigabit.
NOTE*** with some virtualization systems you should uninstall the virtual tools from the Virtual Machine FIRST!! However with Virtual Iron I left them in place as it made the transfer speed fast. Once you have transfered, boot the virtual server into safemode and disable the Virtual Iron Tools. Boot back into normal mode uninstall the tools, install xen tools etc.... Now once you have successfully transfered your servers you may have to re-activate. We also noted that some database files needed to be transfered from a backup. Probably due to the fact SQL was running at the time and volume shadow services could not release the file for the transfer, this was no problem for us as we HAD GOOD BACKUPS.
Ok so now we need to transfer out of the temporary server and back to the new Host, two ways you can do this. Again you can use the buffalo, OR if you want to get this done faster use an external USB hard drive, here are the Detailed steps:
1. Acquire a USB Harddrive
1. Plug in your hard drive to the XEN Host
2. Terminal into your XEN Host using Putty or using the console mode in XenCenter
3. type: fdisk –l (that is the lower case letter L) This will list all the drives in the machine.
4. The Drive you will be looking for (As long as you only have 1 usb drive plugged in) will be labeled with (e.g. /dev/sdg)
5. type: fdisk /dev/sdg to partition the RSB HDD
6. Assuming you have created /dev/sdg1 partition you need to format it using the mkfs.ext3 command.
7. Type: mkfs.ext3 -m 0 -v /dev/sdg1
8. Mount the new partition so that you can start the export routine.
9. Type: mount /dev/sdg1 /mnt
2. Export the machines to the hard drive. This must be done while the virtual machines are turned off, also you cannot do this via the XenCenter Console yet.
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This is where putty comes in handy, as we can launch multiple putty instances to connect to
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the same Xen Host.
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Type: xe vm-list (Use this command to look up your UUID's of each Virtual Server) use notepad and your trusty copy paste for this
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Type: xe vm-export uuid= filename=/mnt/.xva (xe vm-export uuid=721d0f80c-35e2-dsf1b-c7ce-3dadccddff12 filename=/mnt/Dcserver.xva)
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Open another Putty session and start another copy.
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You can use XenCenter to view the status of the copy (its about 1 GB/min)
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After your copies are done, you can type ls /mnt to view your files
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Type: unmount /mnt this unmounts the volume.
3. Lets move this drive to the newly formated and installed XenHost.
When your importing your VM's if you want to import them into a specific SR you can by following these simple steps:
1. Type: xe sr-list (This lists out all the SR's and the sr-uuid's for the next command)
2. Type: xe vm-import filename=/mnt/dcsever.xva sr-uuid=2bce2593-f6ed-a39d-a027-9d7b38ce19ea
I think that about does it.. Once all the VM's are imported just start them up.
Two hours later we were done and in time to go grab a bite to eat and some hang time.
Who done it?
I have found myself talking to people about the Kaseya/ConnectWise Executive Summary and when I built it. It sounds funny when I hear from others that Chad Gniffke is saying the same thing, and of course I correct the story by giving the long version as depicted here. Its actually fun to reminisce the good old days.
)
Labtech the Kaseya killer?
Labtech is so far the only winner of my Challenge.
Calling all KScripters
Hey guys,
My previous post gives you some background on this but we need to get a petition going that will vote in keeping the scripting variables open for us Power Kaseya users. Please comment to this post to allow the use of +++SQLCMD: statements in the scripts!
Again if you have this already in your scripts they will be lost in K6!
K6 Countdown..
Although I love the idea in upgrading to K6, its a nightmare to think about as well.
For thoes of you who dont know, Kaseya runs everything off of scripts.
Recently Kaseya has taken away a variable that allows you to run SQL queries and use them to better your service offering.
Here is an example:
Say you have monitor sets that monitor the CPU of a workstation.
Currently: You have to rely on your RMM to inform you that the workstation is running on High CPU... SO WHAT. Now you spend 20-30 min remoting into the machine because of High CPU, you may not get in) then trying to run task manager... bla bla you know the story.
What Kaseya SHOULD do: (and actually I have it working on my system)
You should run a script that runs a program to check what task is running and send this info back to you, but here is the next issue... what if you already know that 3DStudio Max may use 100% CPUfor a long time... You would like to create a table in SQL of Trusted APPS, and blacklisted APPS. Based on this info you can DO something like:
Hello User, we notice your running FISH screen saver and it is reccomended that we shut this off as it causes your machine to run HOT and could fail your Cooling Fans sooner. Would you like us to turn this off for you? YES NO.
WOW what have we done here ladies and Gents? We have Proactivly taken care of something.
But with the recent hot fixes Kaseya has stripped out the commands that allow me to do this.
And I know there are a bunch of people doing this, WARNING. K6 will whipe all that hard work you spent in differentiating your company.
The Arguement is this from what I understand of it:
We have to close this cause loop hole as it could be too powerful for the IT companies to use.
So paraphrasing this means you would open up pandoras box having this power, EEEHHum.
Here is my Arguement:
IF you own Kaseya you have already opened up Pandora's box. Here is how:
Scripting by itself is scarry if you dont use it right.
Case in point... if you dont know that a machine (your about to run a delete all contents of this directory script) that is currently not logged in with a user, your script will assume the account of SYSTEM. System's home directory folks is c:\windows\system, you run this script and you will delete all contents of the system directory.... here is the scarry thing, you will do this on ALL machines you manage.
GUYS this is why I choose Kaseya as an RMM solution... NOBODY can do this today, and why I am willing to look for someone who can. Kaseya is shutting the doors on my being an innovator, when that happens I need to find somthing else, and is why I have thrown the challenge for all RMM tools. Show me that you can do this sort of thing and I will be interested in knowing more about your product...
People who work for Kaseya should know that Kaseya is the Innovators Toolbox, when you do things like this you kill the innovators.
Who’s up for Challenge?
I don't know what it is about the MSP industry today, but everyone is trying to make a buck on the MSP businesses, 300 a month here, 3000 for that, 250 for this. By the time we add up what we spend on running the business there is little profit to be made.
Kaseya upsets me again. Here is my problem with this software package and just about every other package out there. They do not have the HEART of the MSP in mind, they only care about how much money we are lining their pockets with. With that being said here is what I mean about it (1 Example of several I have):
1. We (and just about every other person using this platform out there) have this issue where a monitor set decides to go rogue, IE stops monitoring. When the customer calls us telling us that the server is running slow is the only time we realize OH look at that how wonderful, Kaseya is not monitoring my stuff again... Why am I paying this exorbant amount of money again for this?
2. When you create a support ticket you will spend at least 2-3 maybe even days trying to help Tech Support fix it, therefore costing you more out of pocket.
This might be a minor rant to some but I have been using this software for may years now, and some of you know I worked for this company until they started ignoring my messages... They know that these issues exist but they decide there is no money to be made on fixing this issue so they focus on what does bring in money. This is very frusterating to me because they could be the BEST in all areas of IT Automation. Zenith, LPI, N-Able all FAIL in my eyes in this area.
Serously I am shocked WHY isnt there a software solution that competes with Kaseya costs less and does everything that Kaseya does today but 100% better. I would like to challenge the MSP Platform industry with this... I want to see the response. Who whats to build something and kill the competition?
Twitter: sourceminer
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Recent Posts
- Vendetta and personal issues
- Vendor Accountability
- Saying good bye to India..
- Kaseya going direct to your customers…
- One Month into Labtech
