[c-nsp] Change Management

[Michael Markstaller]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net 
> [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of Brian Feeny
> Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 9:37 PM
> To: 'cisco-nsp'
> Subject: [c-nsp] Change Management
> 
> 
> Can some of you all share how you handle Change Management on your  
> networks?
> Everything from serious changes to something mundane like changing a  
> customer IP address.
> 
> I would hope there is some good open source tools for this purpose.
> 
> BTW, we already use "configuration management" tools like 
> RANCID, but I  
> am needing something that
> people can use to log a change, who did it, why, when, etc, so its  
> accounted for BEFORE it happens.

We're running rt3 http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/ for ticketing and
internal tracking of *everything* (tasks, work orders,sales inq etc.)
since mid-2003 now. 
It's GPL, has a commercial support on demand avail and works smooth -
I'd vote for it.

Custom fields with hostname and customer make it easy to look what
changed on router XX or customer XX.
Or with a simple query, support-staff can also see what has happened in
th last 24 hours (or more/less).

To set it all up, you should be familiar with some helpdesk basics but
it's flexible to do whatever someone needs. With a few internal "rules"
for staff (no ticket - no change) it should do the job. We're now even
starting letting bigger customers access it directly.

BTW: I've implemented Magic and Action Request a while ago for other
customers and worked with other ticketing-systems.. today I'd still
prefer RT3. There's also a good support mailing-list avail.

Michael