Capture Techniques (5 of 15 Data,data everywhere and not a bit to use

Having said we need to capture everything as it happens, the next question is how do we go about doing that?

There are 2 main ways to capture data Agentless and Agent and there are pros and cons for each:

•      Agentless (SNMP, WMI, etc)

–     Is subject to more security issues, and network quality. 

–     Broken communication = lost data

–     Easier/Faster implementation

–     (often), Less data of lower quality

•      Agent Based

–     Autonomous

•      Data collected by a local process.  If the server is up, data capture is running.

•      Broken communication = catch up later

–     Possibility to use existing Agents

–     Overhead (system and human)

In reality most of us end up using a blended delivery model, deploying a solution that has a bit of everything in it, because the world is a complex place.

Putting aside the hardware utilization data as a given, there are a number of other high value pieces of data that we can capture and use to understand the service. With this in mind I'll be looking at Data Sources next week.

Phil Bell

Consultant