F.2. NMS Suites We use the term suite to mean a software package that bundles multiple applications into one convenient product. In this section, we discuss NMS software, which is one of the more important pieces of the network management picture. Without it, the agent software in the previous section is virtually useless. NMS products allow you to have a total view of your network, including all the servers, routers, switches, and desktops. In most cases, this view is a graphical representation of your network, with lots of neat labels and icons. These are highly configurable packages and work in almost any network environment. This freedom often comes with a big price tag and a confusing setup process. Some of the products focus more on the network side of management (i.e., devices such as routers, hubs, and switches). Others go a step beyond this and allow you to customize server and workstation agents to integrate nicely into your NMSs. Keep in mind that the bigger packages are for larger, more complicated networks and require extensive training. Be sure to take some time to research the packages before purchasing; if at all possible, get trial versions. Table F-2 lists both commercial and open source NMS suites . Table F-2. NMS suites |
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HP OpenView | http://www.openview.hp.com | SolarWinds | http://www.solarwinds.net | IBM Tivoli | http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli | Castle Rock SNMPc | http://www.castlerock.com | BMC Software | http://www.bmc.com | Computer Associates Unicenter | http://www.ca.com | Veritas NerveCenter | http://www.veritas.com | Micromuse Netcool | http://www.micromuse.com | GxSNMP | http://www.gxsnmp.org | Tkined | http://wwwhome.cs.utwente.nl/~schoenw/scotty | OpenNMS | http://www.opennms.org | SNMPSTAT monitoring system | http://snmpstat.sourceforge.net | Big Brother | http://www.bb4.org | Mercury SiteScope | http://www.mercury.com | Ipswitch WhatsUp | http://www.ipswitch.com/products/whatsup/index.html | Just For Fun (JFF) NMS | http://www.jffnms.org | Nagios | http://www.nagios.org | NagMIN | http://nagmin.sourceforge.net |
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