Not exactly 'shop', nor 'machine' related, but I just finished the rough configuration and testing of some network and server monitoring software. For right now it's monitoring 12 servers, 68 services (file shares, applications, ftp, ssh, print queues, etc), and shows me all the statuses at once. Updates once a minute, but mission critical things can be monitored in near real time. If it works out, I'll set it up on the rest of the machines, bare metal or virtualized.. It can even monitor the hypervisors (supervisors of the virtual machines) as well. In all, it'll be about 20 servers, 6 hypervisors, 39 printers, 6 network attached storage boxes, 3 SAN units, 2 router/firewall appliances, 2 spam/malware appliances, totalling about 450-500 services/stats to monitor. That's not counting the phone systems, core switches, or ~350+ workstations.
But, for now, I am happy to see all the monitored items are 'in the green', and it's time to indulge in some high proof spirits before bed. I think I have some 115 proof moonshine around here somewhere...