The following is a short interview I conducted with an IT event that I discovered last week while investigating an issue within my data center.

Maverick
Hello and thank you for taking time to participate in this interview.
IT Event
No problem. Thanks for having me, Mav.

Maverick
So tell us a little bit about yourself. What kind of event are you? Syslog? Web App? Proxy Log?
IT Event
Sure. I’m a syslog event.

Maverick
I see. Any particular kind?
IT Event
Well, I’m NOT a syslog-NG event, if that’s what you mean. Just plain standard syslog.

Maverick
No. I mean, what type? User event? SNMP trap? Something like that?
IT Event
Oh, yeah, I’m an sshd “session opened” event.

Maverick
As in reporting USER activity?
IT Event
Precisely.

Maverick
That makes sense. So when were you written out to the log file, exactly?
IT Event
A couple weeks ago. My timestamp is Sep 7 10:36:17, assuming you are interested in my details.

Maverick
Of course. Why would you think I’m not interested in your details?
IT Event
Well, most of the time we go unnoticed, is all. Most of the time me and all my fellow events just sit in our log file until it gets rotated out and eventually written over.

Well? nominate them now for the sysadmin of the year 2007 contest!!!

Also, if YOU are a muscial sysadmin rockstar, check out our sysadmin rockstar song contest allows you (when you are not fixing servers) to share your rockin’ voice with the rest of the IT world out there and win some prizes too. Use your best Getty Lee, Brian Johnson, Bon Scott, Ian Gillan, Dio, Sammy Hager vocals on the song I wrote and you could win $500. I’ve provided all the the instrumental tracks, including the cowbell track, which you are free delete and add even more cowbell, if you want..use garage band (or similar app) to mix, master and submit, have fun, enjoy it. Let’s here what you got!

Sysadmin Rockstar Song Contest

As we say here in Dallas, TX, YEEEEEEEEEE-HAW!!!1!11!!

Splunk 3.0 is GA now!!!!

In celebration of this wonderful day, I would like to redirect you to a previous blog article regarding a song I wrote about being a Splunk user. It’s real geeky, I admit, but hey, if you use Splunk or are thinking about it, I’m am sure you can relate to it. And if you are a long-time customer already, well, then,…you know doing geeky stuff like this is part of being a Splunkhead.

Check out my rap song called “Splunk IT”

Also, if you have a sysadmin that is an absolute rockstar where you work, please go and nominate them for Sysadmin of the Year. Let us know what makes them a rockstar in your eyes and they might win some fabulous prizes, like a new guitar, laptop, a case of redbull, etc. Do it now!

After being extremely inspired by all you die-hard Splunk fans out there, I decided to lay down some high-tech “geeky” rhymes over some old familiar classic rock riffs, including Queen’s “We Will Rock You”, Rush’s “Tom Saywer”, and AC/DC’s “Back In Black”. So…

Here are the sick lyrics, dog!

Splunk IT (a rap by Eric “Maverick� Garner)
Copyright © 2007, Garner. All rights reserved.

We got all kinds of issues occurring in the system
They’ve always been there, but I guess we just missed ‘em
We need Splunk to help troubleshoot it
We got Red Hat 3.0, so we won’t have to chroot it

Yo, we got hundreds of servers in multiple locations
And the IT folks are venting all their frustrations
Telling me that grep is a bottleneck
We need something better, we need to Splunk IT

Oooooohhhh We need to Splunk IT
Yo, Yo, I’m telling you, dog, we need to Splunk IT
Oooooohhhh We need to Splunk IT
(Word to your mother)