Chapter 14. Network Management Tools

   


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T HE CONTINUING EXPANSION OF COMPUTER NETWORKS and the rapid growth of client/server computing has added another problem for today's companies to deal with: how to manage these complex and heterogeneous environments that can often number thousands of systems in different locations.

In this instance, network management does not encompass the actual management of the network infrastructure, such as hubs, switches, and so on. Instead, it deals with the systems that comprise the network, for which the system manager has responsibility. The management of the network itself is the responsibility of the network manager.

The task facing the system manager is more one of remote systems management, and choosing a suitable off-the-shelf product with which to achieve it can be a difficult and sometimes extremely expensive exercise. Several companies have resorted to writing their own "in-house" network management applications, but this has the disadvantage of being customized to their own specific network; it also carries the overhead of having to maintain and update it when new methods or network protocols are implemented.

The objective of this chapter is to highlight some of the products that are available and to provide insight into the type of use to which they can be put. It is not intended to be an in-depth guide of how to use any of them. However, as part of the discussion of Solstice Domain Manager, this chapter gives a more detailed example of SunNet Manager, which is incorporated as part of Solstice Domain Manager.

This chapter takes a look at some of the network products available from Sun Microsystems designed to manage a Solaris network, no matter how small or large it happens to be:

  • The first section describes in detail the Solstice Domain and Site Manager products, along with Co-Operative Consoles. This includes detailing how they can be used together to effectively manage a Solaris-based network of computer systems.

  • The second product, Solstice Bandwidth Manager, involves the allocation of guaranteed network bandwidth so that mission-critical activities can be carried out in accordance with the criteria specified by an SLA.

  • The final Sun product, Solstice Adminsuite, is covered with a brief look at this collection of utilities that allows remote system administration for a number of Solaris systems.

The products listed here collectively deliver the necessary tools to provide the best quality of service to the customer while also being fully scalable to allow for future expansion or diversity.

Several other network management products available on the commercial market, such as HP Openview, CA Unicenter, Tivoli Netview, and BMC Patrol, would be suitable for multivendor environments. A brief description of these other products appears at the end of this chapter.


   
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Solaris System Management
Solaris System Management (New Riders Professional Library)
ISBN: 073571018X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 101
Authors: John Philcox

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