Techouts as a CX technology provider and Infrastructure Management partner

The digital era is coming up with new innovations every day, and Techouts as a technology enabler is experimenting with every emerging revolution in a productive way to amplify different type of businesses. Here we are talking about one of our existing clients, a leading global consulting provider specialized in audit and assurance, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and related services.

e-invoicing system:

As mentioned, our client’s business includes GST and tax-related services, for seamless e-invoicing they have been using an on-premise invoicing platform. With an ample amount of data, continuous GST invoice generation, and the cost incurred in the on-premise maintenance, it became a lot of activities for the client, altogether. Now to eradicate this hustle-bustle, the client reached out to Techouts assisting our help to manage their infrastructure. As a MarTech expert, it was an exciting opportunity for us, and we recommended a smooth transition of the electronic invoicing system from an on-premise to AWS cloud hosting environment. Certainly, our expertise as an AWS service provider could help us being an infrastructure Management Outsourcing partner for the client.

Below are the scope areas we focused on while offering IMS to our client:

Detailed scope of the IMS and Techouts as an outsourcing service partner:

We sense that the infrastructure Management Service of a business includes the end-to-end maintenance of technical as well as operational activities in a business. Whether it’s about hardware or software, data or processes, policies or needed facilities; these all come under IMS, and Techouts was a big support for the client to carry out all the above-mentioned specifications.

We categorized all the sub-sections of the service phase by phase, and we assigned specified professionals to take care of those individual segments.

Operating System (OS) Management:

Involving in-house IT professionals in everyday hustle-bustle of generic IT activities like software update, keeping up with patch, maintenance of the systems, other OS components, etc. could be a waste of resources. Hence, we recommended the client to give Techouts this responsibility where their own IT experts can focus on business operations, and we can look after their OS management.

OS Management includes:

Administration:

This primarily implies User management, where we manage to create, modify, and delete local system users depending on the application installed on the system. We also managed local user groups, rights, seamless installation, and configuration of terminal service, updating antivirus pattern (automatic), and disk space administration.

Change, and configuration Management:

To mend, and renovate the hardware, software, and concerned configuration, we run patch tests. But instead of directly incorporating any change, we created a testing environment, and ran patch testing along with the supported application. This also includes; updating security patches, changing terminal service, memory dump, hardware, and WINS configuration.

Fault Management:

As the name says, in this discipline of IT operations, we managed to sort out the faults, isolated, and resolved them as soon as possible. It ultimately saves a lot of time, and helps to expedite the further growth process. We kept track of system-generated alerts, and issues reported by customers, then we focused on troubleshooting, deep analysis of the causes creating the issue, and noted down the problem areas. Our technical experts worked on resolving the situation with needed configuration changes or re-installations or replacements. Upon all our hard work on quick resolution of the fault, we also assisted hardware vendors to look deeper into the issues, and respond on priority.

Performance Management:

Whichever area of organization it is, performance management is the mandatory act to ensure every activity is streamlined appropriately. To execute a thorough this act of IMS,

• We monitored the performance parameters for 24*7
• Turned on automatic notifications on performance degradation or threshold violation
• Kept an eye on troubleshooting, and root cause analysis of faults or incidents
• Isolating the challenges and coming up with their remedial solutions

Operation Support:

To manage the operational activities from far and wide, we gave our support in work log update, where we filtered out the troubled tickets and worked on their immediate closures.

Active Directory (AD) Management:

The sole purpose of active directory management is to look after an effortless management and operation of active directory services. All the information about objects on the network will be stored at one hub, and the AD services will make the store easily accessible to the users as well as administrators.

Following are the activities Techouts managed to do for the client under AD Management:

Administration:

Under administration of AD Management, Techouts managed to take care of Group Managements, OU/Site/Domain Admin Management, and delegation administration.

Change, and Configuration Management:

We here worked on varieties of configurations such as;

• Active Directory Replication configuration, and its smooth management,
• Group policy creation-and-maintenance,
• AD configurations,
• Site links configuration,
• Commissioning/ decommissioning of domain controllers,
• Trust relationship configurations,
• Global catalogue servers managements, and configuration,
• Deployment, and configuration of ADFs (Application Development Frameworks)
• Configuration, and management of RODCs (Read-only domain controllers)
• Troubleshooting authentication issues

Performance Management:

As it sounds, this is to ensure the performance of the activities we incorporated in our client’s business. With performance management we managed;

• FSMO roles
• AD Database
• Active Directory Scheme Expansion
• Active Directory Servers, and domain upgrade

DNS, and DHCP Management:

When DNS is used to interpret website names into Website IP address and website address to website names. And, the significance of DHCP is to assign the IP address to every device or computer on the network, automatically, our role in our client’s business was to make sure all of these inculcations happen without any hassle.

Our role here was:

• Installation, and configuration of AD integrated DNS service
• Configuration of Lookup Zones, Root hints, and DNS data replication
• Recycling DNS services as and when required
• Configuration of external forwarders for resolutions
• Advance level configuration in DNS server in multi domain environment
• Monitoring DNS alerts & events
• Troubleshoot any DNS related Issues
• Configuring Scavenging and Ageing for stale DNS records either manually or configuring it in the tool
• Hardening DNS services as per customer requirement
• Configure Windows DHCP for customer configuration
• Configuring reservations for segregating users as needed
• Configuring DHCP Scope, pools & relay Agents
• Monitor DHCP alerts & Events
• Configuring Authoritative DHCP servers in AD Environment
• Hardening DHCP services as per customer

Cluster Management:

Cluster management is a term used by Google to imply the control of computing infrastructure in our datacenters which ultimately support almost all the external services of a business.

The following are the activities we managed for our clients to better their cluster management:

Administration:

It includes:

• Managing Quorum resource
• Restart / Stop/Resume/Pause
• Managing Failover & Failback of Cluster resources
• Managing cluster resource parameters
• Addition\Deletion of resources, of storage, of Quorum resource, of Node
• Creation\Deletion Cluster Group\Resource from Cluster
• Managing Cluster service accounts
• Managing Cluster Network for Public & Heartbeat connectivity
• Managing Network properties for SAN Storage connectivity
• Removing Node from Cluster, destroying / uninstalling Cluster

Change and Configuration Management:

• Configuring Network properties for SAN Storage, Cluster Heartbeat
• Installing Failover Cluster Manager
• Validating Cluster Configuration reports for building new Cluster
• Configuring Cluster, adding Secondary Node
• Creation of a Cluster resource (service or application)

Fault Management:

• Checking Application events for Cluster Failure
• Managing System & User Object Permission problems
• Trouble shooing Connectivity Issues
• Validating Cluster Configuration report and generating & analyzing Cluster logs in case of Cluster failure

Performance Management:

• Monitor the Cluster Services
• Monitoring the CLUSTERRD RESOURCE (example MS SQL, Microsoft File Server etc.
• Check the Node availability
• Check the connectivity between Clustered Servers (Node1 & Node 2)
• Testing switchover & switchback / failover & failback of cluster

Linux Management:

Educating users for the right implementations with phase-after-phase explanations, we supported our client’s Linux Management from end-to-end. We executed the below activities:

Administration:

• Local user and group management
• Create/modify/ delete local system users
• Manage local user groups
• Manage local user rights

Change & Configuration Management:

• Hardening ( tcp-wrappers, iptables, sshd_config)Update security patches
• NFS/ SFTP/FTP/SSH administration
• File system management
• Network service Management
• RPM based application installation, perl, php module installation
• Patch updates (as per customer's requirement)
• Hardware re-configuration as part of change (except reinstallation)

Fault Management:

• Response to alerts generated by systems or problems reported by customers
• Troubleshooting, root cause analysis and identification of problem area for OS
• Resolution of problems through configuration changes/ re-installations / replacements / modifications.
• For NetMagic owned hardware
• Escalate hardware failures to hardware vendor
• Assist hardware vendor to Identify problem area (by log collection & reboot)
• For Customer owned hardware - escalate hardware failure to customer

Performance Management:

• 24 X 7 monitoring of performance parameters (Parameters as per “Monitored Parameters & Threshold” document) through best-in-class NetMagic monitoring tool ‘NGmon’
• Auto alerts and notification to performance degradation / threshold violation
• Kernel fine tuning in consultation with customer
• Trouble shooting & root cause analysis for incidents / faults
• Identifying bottlenecks and suggesting de-bottlenecking solution

Operation Support:

• Work log update for trouble ticket and closure
• Local System log retention (1 month retention policy)
• Sudo access to customer

Network Load Balancer (NLB) Management:

The Network Load Balancing (NLB) feature is used to dispense traffic across several servers using the TCP/IP networking protocol. Techouts helped the client to keep their NLB managed. We did the following executions:

Administration:

• Adding / removing nodes to Network Load Balancing Clusters
• Setting Network Load Balancing Parameters

Change & Configuration Management:

• Installing /configuration of NLB
• Upgrading an Existing Network Load Balancing Cluster

Fault Management:

• Troubleshooting Network Load Balancing Clusters

Performance Management:

• Monitoring the Virtual IPs.

Firewall Management:

We understood the significance of data and cyber security, and so we suggested our client with a detailed firewall management, which includes:

Administration:

• Adding / removing Ips
• Setting Firewall Parameters

Change & Configuration Management:

• Installing /configuration of Firewall
• Upgrading existing firewalls

Fault Management:

Performance Management:

Load balancer with WAF Management:

Administration:

Change & Configuration Management:

Fault Management:

Network Management:

Taking care of all the individual services provided to a business is one of the important factors as it includes uninterrupted maintenance of all the attached network devices, monthly status reports, and the patches implemented, etc. We took complete care of that requirement from our client, and here is what we did:

Administration:

• User and Password Control
• Check and maintain access control
• Routine connection tests
• Adding / removing nodes to Network
• Setting Network devices Peters

Change & Configuration Management:

• IP Configuration
• VLAN configuration (No ACL support on Routed / VLAN interfaces)
• Trunk port, Spanning tree configuration
• HSRP, VRRP configuration in-case of L3 Switch
• Port Mirroring
• Routing
• Installing /configuration of Devices
• Upgrading existing Devices

Fault Management:

• Response to alerts generated by systems or problems reported by customers
• Troubleshooting, root cause analysis (RCA)1 and identification of problem area
• Resolution of problems through configuration changes/ re-installations / replacements
• OEM Product support / RMA will be as subscribed during the contract
• For Customer owned hardware - escalate hardware failure to customer

Performance Management:

• 24 X 7 monitoring of performance parameters (Parameters as per “Monitored Parameters & Threshold” document) through best-in-class Netmagic monitoring tool ‘NGmon’
• Auto alerts and notification to performance degradation / threshold violation
• Trouble shooting & root cause analysis for incidents / faults
• Identifying bottlenecks and suggesting de-bottlenecking solution
• Log Storage: Netmagic will store critical logs in shared Syslog server for retention period of 90 days
• Configuration backup: Netmagic will take incremental configuration backup daily for retention period of 90 days
• Restoration of configuration when required
• Trouble ticket logging, update and closure

Vendor Support:

• Cisco
• Juniper
• HP Procurve
• Brocade
• Force 10

Cloud Management:

The toughest yet significant part of Infrastructure Management Service is Cloud Management. It ensures all the tools and processes are in one place, and can be used whenever and however required. Techouts did an amazing job managing the Cloud Management of the client with the below-mentioned activities:

Administration:

• Installation of Hyper-V server
• Create and manage roles / users / groups1
• Hardening of server
• Virtual machine add / modify / delete
• Integration service installation

Change & Configuration Management:

• Patch verification and installation2
• Physical and virtual processors configuration and management
• Memory configuration and virtual machine memory management
• CSV & DISK management3
• Virtual machine Disk / Drive management (VHD / Pass through Disk)
• Virtual machine network management
• Virtual Switch Configuration & Management
• Failover Cluster configuration and management
• Configuration changes required as part of change request

Fault Management:

• Response to alerts generated by systems or problems reported by customers
• Troubleshooting, root cause analysis and identification of problem area
• Resolution of problems through configuration changes / replacements
• For NetMagic owned hardware
• Escalate hardware failures to hardware vendor
• Assist hardware vendor to Identify problem area (by log collection & reboot)
• For Customer owned hardware - escalate hardware failure to customer

Performance Management:

• 24 X 7 monitoring of performance parameters (Parameters as per “Monitored Parameters & Threshold” document) through best-in-class NetMagic monitoring tool ‘NGmon
• Auto alerts and notification to performance degradation / threshold violatio
• Trouble shooting & root cause analysis for incidents / fault
• Identifying bottlenecks and suggesting de-bottlenecking solution

Operation Support:

• Virtual machine snapshots and snapshot restoration4
• Cloning / clone a virtual machine to a template5
• Deploying template to a virtual machine
• Work log update for trouble ticket and closure

MSSQL Management:

Administration:

• MSSQL User Account Management
• Create /drop/alter application accounts
• Create/ drop/alter/Lock user accounts
• Grant Access Rights
• Manage user profiles / Policies
• Database Administration
• Manage Initialization parameters
• Naming conventions
• Datafile management
• Batch jobs management (Root/MS SQL/Application accounts)
• Maintain instance parameters and system settings
• Manage Database Links
• Maintain application objects
• Management of space on server
• Application specific administration

Change & Configuration Management

• Data Definition Scripts/ Schema Changes execution

Fault Management

• Creation of services
• Database / Instance creation
• Create Application Objects
• Patch testing and applic
• Security Patches
• Response to alerts generated by monitoring systems or problems reported by customer/end-user
• Troubleshooting, root cause analysis and identification of problem area
• Resolution of problems through configuration changes/ re-installations / replacements within the given Architecture and design. (Any change in design will be treated as a separate scope).
• Restart /shutdown instance
• Connectivity issues
• Kill sessions
• Fix Broken jobs / queues

Performance Management

• 24 X 7 monitoring of performance parameters (Parameters as per “Monitored Parameters & Threshold” document) through best-in-class Netmagic monitoring tool ‘NGmon’.
• Auto alerts and notification to performance degradation / threshold violation
• Generate and Analyze schema statistics
• Re-Indexing
• Inter-database interaction management
• Generate, parse statistics
• Tuning pools / caches
• Tuning and Reducing Database CPU / IO Read/Write
• Index performance Optimization
• Object Validity Checks
• Disk & Datafiles Fragmentation Tuning
• Execution of Dynamic Troubleshooting & Performance Views and Scripts
• Conduct Trouble shooting, root cause analysis and identify the bottlenecks
• Suggest bottleneck solutions.

Operation Support:

• Backup process execution1
• Restoration of files and configuration when required2
• Trouble ticket logging, update and closure
• Replication setup checks3
• Backup and resize log files
• Version upgrades4

Database Activity Monitoring Service:

Database activity monitoring refers to keeping a constant eye on the operating environments with real-time alerts, and notifications. This will help the system to filter out suspicious activities, and will manage those troubles. On balance, this will save a lot of time for the IT department, where they can invest their time in other important business aspects. Techouts effectively managed database activity of the client, with its database monitoring system, as below:

Administration:

• Check and maintain access control
• Routine connection tests

Change & Configuration Management:

• Installation and configuration of Sensor on DB Servers
• Installation and Configuration of DB Extension
• DB Monitoring Policy configuration
• Application Mapping
• Data Manipulation Language (DML) auditing

Fault Management:

• Response to alerts generated by systems or problems reported by customers
• Troubleshooting, root cause analysis (RCA)1 and identification of problem area
• Resolution of problems through configuration changes/ re-installations / replacements

Performance Management:

• 24 X 7 monitoring of performance parameters (Parameters as per “Monitored Parameters & Threshold” document) through best-in-class NetMagic monitoring tool ‘NGmon’
• Auto alerts and notification to performance degradation / threshold violation
• Trouble shooting & root cause analysis for incidents / faults
• Identifying bottlenecks and suggesting de-bottlenecking solution

Operation Support:

• Trouble ticket logging, update and closure

Wrapping up: Techouts as an outstanding IMS outsourcing partner:

Techouts could analyze the client business, and could recommend the services needed, ensuring all of its IT activities could run smoothly, without any error. We helped them to eradicate technical issues they can face with a miserable Infrastructure Management Service, with aforementioned management activities.

Our expertise in working with versatile domains, and different verticals helped us visualize the pain points of our client, and recommend them the best remedy; cost-effective, time-effective, and productive. We have excellent technical professionals working with us enhancing our client business, and as a leading MarTech expert, we stood out as the best IMS outsourcing agency.