The Future....NOC Management???

[ehuk]

Hi Guys,

 

Before I start I know WHMCS is a billing platform etc. and it does it very well! I have been a customer for over 10 months now and am very happy. I just wonder what the future holds (...beyond the dev tracker).

 

WHMCS has huge potential, I already love the reporting features, automated setup, client frontends, and most importantly how flexible it all is. I just wonder (in the distant future!) if WHMCS will ever incorporate some sort of NOC Management?

 

I mean there is very limited support for dedicated servers, and I for one (I hope I am not on my own here ) would love to see some sort of IP address manager, bandwidth monitoring/billing, power usage (power bars), asset management etc. We currently use a number of spreadsheets and custom scripts but it is getting hard to manage.

 

I know there is ALOT to do before any of this is even discussed but I have done a quick search and didn't find a thread discussing these features.

 

Hope I can get some feedback from the community.

[Shaun]

Hi Guys,

 

Before I start I know WHMCS is a billing platform etc. and it does it very well! I have been a customer for over 10 months now and am very happy. I just wonder what the future holds (...beyond the dev tracker).

 

WHMCS has huge potential, I already love the reporting features, automated setup, client frontends, and most importantly how flexible it all is. I just wonder (in the distant future!) if WHMCS will ever incorporate some sort of NOC Management?

 

I mean there is very limited support for dedicated servers, and I for one (I hope I am not on my own here ) would love to see some sort of IP address manager, bandwidth monitoring/billing, power usage (power bars), asset management etc. We currently use a number of spreadsheets and custom scripts but it is getting hard to manage.

 

I know there is ALOT to do before any of this is even discussed but I have done a quick search and didn't find a thread discussing these features.

 

Hope I can get some feedback from the community.

 

This could be interesting in the future.

The main point of WHMCS is to be client management.

You have to remember that there is a seperation between cPanel and WHMCS. Something lilke cPanel is good at its job cause its a hosting panel. When a software tries to do Everything the developers get spread to thin and you end up with a crap piece of software.

[ehuk]

Hi Shaun,

 

That is fully understood, but look at the likes of http://www.ubersmith.com/ I know its a whole other level, O know its a *fair* bit more expensive than WHMCS, but the idea is there. After all everything I mentioned above (minus assent management) is client related, bandwidth charts, bandwidth billing, power usage, ip address assigned, even stuff like rack location for Colo clients. I understand that is may never come, but I would be interested to know if the guys have ever thought about this?

 

I think WHMCS is near perfect in many ways, and I just think something like this would benefit the clients and WHMCS themselves

[Shaun]

The title for ubersmith says it all "Data Center Automation" whmcs is a Client Management System

The ideas are there but there are more important features for whmcs that relate to client management. WHMCS allows you to addon it it with custom code anyway.

[ehuk]

Fully understood but does that mean 2/3 years down the line you won't seem some of these features implemented?? Sure its a Client Management System but it has many reporting functions, quick and easy cost calculators, a simple monitoring tool etc etc etc. It is a very good client management system, but I am sure you will agree, it does and can do much more!

[othellotech]

>would love to see some sort of IP address manager

 

see the wiki

 

>bandwidth monitoring/billing

 

integration to cacti is possible (although the t'hold plugins are still not working correctly)

 

>power usage (power bars)

 

already do this, but there are so many different methods/suppliers and no two use the same code

 

>asset management etc

 

you can add this yourself as an admin module

[handsonwebhosting]

Have you ever used Ubersmith? I have. It was one of the stops I made after ModernBill, and after working with it for 3 months, I killed it. It doesn't do everything I needed it to do. I needed inventory tracking. Monitoring of IPs. History of events so I can do trending. Limited ability to add custom work unless you pay a lot of money. Also you have to pay PER server/node monitored. Well lets see, each server has at least 7 items to monitor (ftp, http, mysql, pop3, smpt, shell, ping), and then you have the SNMP connection for pulling details from the server. Now times that by 200 servers - the price is out in some other universe for what we want it to do.

 

I'd like to see WHMCS go forward, however I don't want to see them try to do everything (ubersmith did that - modernbill tried - parallels is trying now).

 

Having multiple programs and the ability to integrate them is what we wanted. Kayako is great for their helpdesk and live help etc - they stick to that. WHMCS is great as a ticket system too (heck, we still have our OWNED license of Kayako not doing anything as we moved everything into WHMCS). Live help programs should be stand alone also.

 

We do hosting (shared, dedicated and vps) and don't do any programming or design work for clients. We USED to, but something always gets dropped - so we do one thing, and we do it very well. WHMCS is like that. They have an AWSOME program and it can be developed upon, however extending into other fields I'm not an advocate for, unless it will be a totally separate design time and a separate program (not integrated - 100% stand alone, OR can be integrated with action hooks). I don't want to see people who are really good at what they do try to do more than they can and end up with two programs that don't get the attention.

[Hosting&COLO]

I know this thread is a few months old, but the discussion is exactly what I have been dealing with as of late.

Hi Shaun,

 

That is fully understood, but look at the likes of http://www.ubersmith.com/ I know its a whole other level, O know its a *fair* bit more expensive than WHMCS, but the idea is there. After all everything I mentioned above (minus assent management) is client related, bandwidth charts, bandwidth billing, power usage, ip address assigned, even stuff like rack location for Colo clients. I understand that is may never come, but I would be interested to know if the guys have ever thought about this?

ehuk has a good point. Everything mentioned IS client-related would assist in Client Management. In fact, the term "Client Managment" is far too general, as it should be considered "Hosting Client Management". I don't think you'll find a Dentist managing their clients with WHMCS.

 

I realize that only a minority of us here provide Colocation Services (for me its a good portion of my business), but Colocation IS a form of Hosting, and as such, should have the necessary tools and utilities to manage Colocation customers.

 

-R

[Salman75]

I sincerely hope Matt does not consider going down the line of MB and others. What WHMCS is now ........ thats exactly what most of us need.

[dmc_ss]

 

>bandwidth monitoring/billing

 

integration to cacti is possible (although the t'hold plugins are still not working correctly)

 

Any further details about this?

[ehuk]

Well I am working on some sort of Cacti integration, (details are in the customization section of this forum).

 

Over the next few months, I will be working to build some modules that will help us dedicated and colo providers.

 

Please post any interest!

[XN-Matt]

As other people have said, WHMCS should focus on client management. It allows modules to be coded/added and API to be used for billing (for external functions).

 

We've coded a complete IP database that deals with allocations, reverse DNS, RIPE updates and what not - simply referencing WHMCS data where needed.

 

In that we use RTG, to then do auto billing and give each user per port stats in their WHMCS area (as well as IP management ability).

 

I don't think you'll ever find an OOTB solution to suite everyone so for it to be included in WHMCS would still require work.

 

Just take some time to build what you need, and you'll be rewarded with near complete automation

 

Edited: Becareful of any products that do offer "NOC" management.. I recall paying a hefty price for "Noc Manager" for Modernbill which soon got abandoned by the dev when his company shut up shop (or didnt pay his bills - cant remember which).

Edited March 11, 2009 by XN-Matt

[Summy]

We also looked in to Ubersmith before we made the switch to WHMCS, about 6 months ago infact, started playing with it and spending quite a bit of time with it.

 

One thing we'd LOVE to see borrowed from Ubersmith is the order queue system, gives you total control over setting things up to suit your business requirements.

 

For all its wonders though, it does have a few major issues, and I've contacted them about this, gave a lovely big email but no reply.

 

1) it doesn't support multiple tax levels (so uk/europe businesses out of the question)

 

and another big bummer:

 

2) it stores cvv2 codes in the database !!!

[atilla.gahbro]

direct from the horse's mouth:

 

**********************************************************

http://www.whmcs.com/otheruses.php

 

Other Uses

 

WHMCS isn't just for web hosts. Here are just a selection of other uses that WHMCS is being put to:

 

* Web Design Clients Invoicing

* Automated Recurring Billing for Membership Sites

* Dedicated Server Sales

* Software Products

 

What few people realise is that WHMCS does not need to be tied into any servers to function. It can function perfectly fine as a billing system without utilising any of the automatic provisioning functions. And of course there's the support system which you can use to keep communication with clients organised.

 

With the flexible one time invoicing, product options, addons and promotions system you won't be limited by WHMCS for your invoicing and selling needs.

 

If you are interested in finding out more about just how WHMCS could work for your business, feel free to contact us.

 

**********************************************************

 

 

seems to me that the door is some what open here

[Hostserve]

I want to take a moment to add my two tidbits to the convo...

 

I am new to WHMCS, our parent company owns 9 different hosting companies; we own and operate our own data center in Canada. We are one of the few indipendant companies offering hosting, colocation and dedicated servers in our area.

 

After being a modernbill customer and reseller since mid 2005, we have made the switch to WHMCS and been brilliantly impressed.

 

However, Ehuk has a very real and valid point... the issues that relate directly to a client such as bandwidth billing, IP address management etc should be addressed on one level or another in WHMCS if a webhost is supposed to be able to use WHMCS as they use in their tag line... which is at the top of the page "The COMPLETE Client management, billing & support system".

 

Let's take IP address management for an example:

 

If you are a small webhost with one rented server a /29 netblock of IP's and 100 hosting accounts, great, you can probably remember who has a static IP address, you don't have to worry about spreadsheets or IP address management issues.

 

We however have six /22 netblocks assigned direct from ARIN, 54 cpanel severs in a cluster... 3 tech support shift per day and a 4 person billing team. if we are all using WHMCS all day long, how does the level one tech support agent address the issue when a client calls and says "I ordered a dedicated IP address, can you tell me what it is please?"

 

should those kind of issues be "NOC management" issues or is it a Client management issue ? As far as I am concerned, its a Client management issue. We define a Client management issue as anything that effects a single client; thus a static ip address is assigned to one client.

 

I don't think that WHMCS needs to go out and build the most advanced IP address management system, but there needs to be simple tools to allow IP addresses to be assigned to a customer and billed to them as well.

 

I believe, that the issues that Ehuk outlined won't effect most companies, but there are those of us who use WHMCS that they are concerns.

 

I also believe that some of those modules should be considered by WHMCS as add-on modules. I'd pay the $60 or $90 fee to have some of these modules added. I think the important thing to focus on is this... IF WHMCS would take feedback and build some of these modules and charge for them as an extra, those of us who use it would have the freedom to know that it will become part of the future developement process. If we have one of our on staff guys build it as a custom module, who's to say some where along the way WHMCS might make a change that prevents us from using that add-on module we built... if they build it, they will be sure it works in the future.

 

Kudo's to the WHMCS team for that great product that they have built... I'm not complaining about it... I would just like to see some extra Client Management features

[mhugo]

+1 for hostserve

[zoilodiaz]

hello,

 

i agree too.

[Iceman]

I suppose another MODULE could be developed. Separate to WHMCS, but one that could integrate into WHMCS seamlessly. That way if it wasn't required, you don't need to PURCHASE it.

 

I suppose it depends on how many more new ideas and improvements Matt has for WHMCS. If he gets "bored"... maybe thats the next new project he could undertake.

 

:lol:

[bogo]

Well, we have been in the same situation. Having more than 4 Racks, stuffed with servers in our collocation takes a lot off additional work and work flow which is no covered (yet) by WHMCS. We where looking around for some Rackmanagement software and found rackmonkey

 

It shows some good rudiment and we will take it as basic for our own solution which we right now develop as a WHMCS Add On Module.

 

Monitoring

Need a good Monitoring System? I would recommend Panopta. Is not free but gives you everything you need to provide a professional monitoring system for your self and for your clients.

 

Reboot Server

How about 'Reboot Server the easy way' just buy you some sort of Power-Distribution-Unit. Once you have them in place all what it takes to reboot a server is sending a mail. It is pretty much simple to create a WHMCS Module which provides this function to server clients within the WHMCS. Place a button 'Reboot Server' in there Client Area, the WHMCS Module now generates a simple mail send to the 'Power-Distribution-Unit' which will reboot the server and send a Feedback to the Client. Quit simple but it works.

 

Server Deployment

Runing a colo you need to make your live EASY. Nowadays there are a tons of tools - most of them open source - which even allows you to put the burden of Server Deployment to the client. We have developed a WHMCS Module which allows client to repeatably install, configure, and maintain there Linux system installations. They can click at any time in there Client Area a Button 'Restore my Server' They also can choose to install Ubuntu instead of CentOS on there Server. No NOC Technician is needed for hands on.

 

As you can see, there is a lot what YOU can archive and since every Hosting company is different, our way of doing things might be not suitable for other hosting companies. WHMCS gives you a damned good basic for your own improvements - but don't expect that you get everything out - of - box. This is simple impossible and: I won't like it!

Edited May 25, 2009 by bogo

[Iceman]

Hello bogo,

 

Thanks for that detailed information. We'll have a look at one of those tools.

 

Cheers,

Paul

[bogo]

Greeting to down under

I forgot to mention phpIP Management have a look here

'phpIP Management is a complete IPv4 IPAM (IP address management) suite, built to handle the complexity of managing today's IP address space. phpIP Management was built to scale and address the full lifecycle of IP address space using techniques that are not administratively intensive.'

 

enjoy