3.10 Third-party tools

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The success of previous versions of Exchange Server has generated a market for a large number of third-party system management and monitoring tools. You should select third-party management and monitoring tools with care. Many are developed by excellent software developers with considerable knowledge of Exchange, but some are not. When considering any third-party tool, you should analyze several areas, including the following:

• Is the functionality better than the standard Microsoft tools that come with Exchange?

• Will the software scale to the size of your enterprise? Will it easily support the number of users, the number of servers, and the number of messages?

• Does the software introduce security concerns?

• Is the software flexible enough to satisfy your management and monitoring needs?

• What is the cost of the software? What will support services cost? What is the potential return on investment?

• Does the vendor have the type of support options that you desire, such as online knowledge bases, 24 hours a day/7 days a week telephone support, and so on?

• Does the software work in your hardware environment? For example, does it work with your Storage Area Network, Windows cluster, and tape devices?

• Does the vendor have a history of providing new releases in a timely fashion after Microsoft upgrades?

If your answers to these questions are satisfactory, you should perform a hands-on analysis of the product. If your analysis proves favorable, the next step is to pilot the software in a limited production environment. On the basis of your experience during the pilot, you may want to refine or modify your planned deployment.

Table 3.2 includes a brief description of some of the third-party system management and monitoring tools that are available for Exchange.

Table 3.2: Third-Party Tools

Product/Developer	Description
Profile Maker AutoProf.com www.autoprof.com	Provides users with automatic profiles across your WAN for full Outlook client access from anywhere on your network.
bv-Control for Microsoft Exchange BindView www.bindview.com	Combines on demand reporting with real-time performance monitoring and management tools to help simplify, speed, and improve Exchange management.
BrightStor Enterprise Backup Agent for Microsoft Exchange Computer Associates www.ca.com	An Exchange-aware backup tool.
OpenView Operations for Windows Hewlett-Packard www.hp.com	OpenView is an enterprise-level management tool that provides service-driven management and monitoring for the full range of products (i.e., more than just Microsoft products) found in most corporations.
Microsoft Operations Manager Microsoft www.microsoft.com	Microsoft Operations Manager provides operations monitoring for Microsoft such as Exchange and SQL.
NetIQ AppManager for Microsoft Exchange NetIQ Corporation www.netiq.com	Allows you to centrally monitor the performance and availability of services on all Exchange servers.
FastLane ActiveRoles, FastLane Reporter, Spotlight Quest Software www.quest.com	ActiveRoles gives administrators simplified control of Active Directory. Reporter delivers reports that enable ongoing security audits on Windows networks. Spotlight lets an administrator drill down into a component to resolve problems.
Antigen for Microsoft Exchange Sybari Software www.sybari.com	Offers antivirus and antispam protection for Microsoft Exchange.
Veritas Backup Exec for Windows Servers Veritas Software Corporation www.veritas.com	This is an Exchange-aware backup tool.

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