Writing a dependency checking tools?

[zucchini123]

Hi, first time post here,

In my job, i need to arrange a schedule to perform a maintenance on a series of machines (100+), which quite a waste of time to do a dependency checking by hand bases.

Here's the situatioin,

- Machine A, and its backup machine B
- A and B can't perform maintenance at the same week
- There may be hardware replacement, or apply newly fix on the machine which require extra downtime during the maintenance window
- and more dependency x 5....

If there's a already developed tools (like a excel or access?) will be great to perform a checking (interactive or by click on a button) base on 1) machine name x 2) Date x 3) Time x 4) Extra time required x 5) adjust maintenance schedule daily x 6)other dependency...

If none, any suggested which programming language will approach this goal easier? So i can find some book to start learning the language

Thanks

[WingedPanther]

What languages, if any, are you familiar with? Any RAD language should be able to do the job fairly easily (.NET languages, Delphi/Lazarus, etc).

[zucchini123]

I only learnt some basic of Java before..any language you recommand.. (easy to learn / pick up..)?

[WingedPanther]

I would stick with Java or try Lazarus (rapid GUI design). Ultimately, the real issue is going to be designing and storing your schedules, and enforcing the dependencies. You'll probably want a database.

There are tools out there than can be used for this sort of thing. You could look on sourceforge.net for scheduling programs, for example. There are also some commercial packages, but the ones I know of aren't cheap.