G-5. NINOIf you're looking for a product that is rich in features and glitz, look no further. NINO (which stands for Nino Is Not OpenView) contains the usual features you've come to expect from NMS software: polling, event console, auto-discovery, support for MySQL databases, reports, and more. However, we'll discuss some standout features that set NINO apart. You'll find a demo at the NINO web site, http://nino.sourceforge.net/nino/index.html. Though it is not all live, it gives a nice overview of all the features and allows you to work with a few active items. Most of the screenshots were captured on a test network. Most NMS graphs that we've seen are flat images. Some allow you to change the date/time (and click submit), which can be a bit clunky when you are trying to poke around. NINO offers an interactive Java graph that allows you to click and drag the time interval, not only to the left and right, but also up and down to change the scale. NINO's hostmeter gives you a great view of the status of an object (don't let the host in hostmeter fool you; it can monitor routers and other devices as well). Using gauges, dials, and graphs, the hostmeter displays disk levels, processes, and CPU usage, among other things. NINO includes an interactive 3D map of your objects. Using your mouse, you can rotate the collection for a better view; you can also zoom in or out. An auto-rotate feature slowly spins the map, allowing you to see it from every perspective. Some default sounds come with NINO (and they are on by default). These can be configured to go off when a node goes down or some other important event occurs, to alert you when you are not looking at the screen. NINO offers a nice MIB search tool that allows you to find keywords within your loaded MIB database. Once keywords are found, the program displays the results within the MIB browser with each hit expanded for easy access. NINO has still more features worth mentioning:
NINO has its share of prerequisite software (see Table G-6). However, on Windows, the installation adds the prerequisites along with the NINO executables. On Linux, admins are expected to install the required packages separately. Overall, NINO is a great tool for people looking for an NMS with some eye candy. As with many open source tools, a few areas need to be polished. For more in-depth reporting, I had to reference the online guide to understand the relationships between nodes, charts, files, and so on. Nonetheless, NINO is a flexible tool that can make a boring NMS project a lot more fun.
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