Comments on: Defcon status at a hosting company

By: peterpiper

peterpiper — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:21:31 +0000

Top stuff. I like you’re style!

By: farthead

farthead — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:25:46 +0000

difficult to keep track of? HUH? They must not have very good managers or techs. BigBrother is what we used for over a DECADE and it works great to let you know what is good/bad or indifferent for hundreds of servers.

http://bb4.com/ it used to be free, now you gotta buy it.

By: Etan

Etan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:21:52 +0000

Add audio – “DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A GAME?”

By: rwbthatisme

rwbthatisme — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:12:40 +0000

Nice hack aaron, good to see the old lunchtime projects are alive and well…

By: Agent420

Agent420 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:50:45 +0000

for that matter, a mechanical indicator using a stepper or server would be cool too.

or an analog display like a meter

By: Agent420

Agent420 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:47:34 +0000

^ what was old is new again ;-) personally I also like the warmth and glow of incandescent over leds.

id also consider some cool jeweled lens indicators.

another idea would be one of those modulated neon tubes where you can control the lit length of the tube.

By: nebulous

nebulous — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:34:05 +0000

How about a classic (as in, old) feel. Just have a lightbox with 5 lights (flux leds or some such) for the five statuses, with colored plastic with the numeral on it. Add a nice buzzer/noisemaker in the order of the Lost sound, and you’ve got an attention grabber.

By: TJHooker

TJHooker — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:13:50 +0000

I would of just used a python script, ssh, and xml. It’d take maybe 5 hours to roll out the system.

By: amk

amk — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:34:55 +0000

im guessing you can collect enough data from your servers (sounds like you have quite a few) to generate an 8bit defcon scale. I’d use that data and fade a giant jolly roger from green to red based on server status.

By: miked

miked — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:12:13 +0000

seven segment display made from light tubes. like the ones you plug into your car cigarette lighter (cheap & 12v powered). Defcon 5 adds red strobe.

By: metalicaman8

metalicaman8 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:42:42 +0000

the next step should be self maintenance

By: frollard

frollard — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:57:12 +0000

imho defcon statusses need to be in bar-graph-thermometer shaped format. More lights = more doom.

By: Sirket

Sirket — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:08:41 +0000

Bah! blackspyder posted his link after I had already loaded the page and while looking for the damned image!

By: Sirket

Sirket — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:03:19 +0000

Aaron:

You need to build the Defcon display from War Games.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Zw2GXV3Fc6Y/SPG6JGZ035I/AAAAAAAAAPo/U6WGyPjkzrU/s1600-h/war-games-defcon-2.jpg

Just some relays, light bulbs and mains power if you want to go that route. Either way- seriously cool look for anyone that gets the reference.

By: blackspyder

blackspyder — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:49:19 +0000

http://www.microsiervos.com/images/war-games-defcon-2.jpg