May 10, 2001, 2:27 PM — In a previous article, I invited readers to tell me about their favorite management tools. Many thanks to all who responded. It’s clear some of you are passionate about your favorite tools, declaring " I LOVE IT! " " Well worth the money " and " I wouldn’t be without it. "
Here are some examples:
* MRTG. Several readers selected this product, which displays WAN link utilization.
http://ee-staff.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/mrtg.html
* NerveCenter from Veritas. Several readers like this correlation engine that minimizes the alerts seen by operations staff. It was noted that there is initially a steep learning curve, but once it’s learned, the product is flexible and has great functionality. One reader particularly liked that NerveCenter doesn’t poll if a situation doesn’t warrant it.
http://www.veritas.com/us/products/nervecenter/
* NDS Expert and Config Central from NetPro. One Novell user says NetPro’s solutions help resolve NDS problems more quickly and save time for service packs and upgrades.
http://www.netpro.com/products/products.cfm
* NetSaint. Several readers like this product, which monitors hosts and services on the network in a _NIX environment. Its extensibility was mentioned as an asset.
* Big Brother. A favorite UNIX systems management tool.
* comm.pl Perl module. Although it’s not pretty, it allows one reader to get home in time to help his children with their homework. In particular, this tool is useful to this reader for a mass survey and change of router SNMP community strings.
* WhatsUpGold from Ipswitch. One reader says it is cheap and easy to set up and use; has a great online discussion group; can be easily tailored for complicated things; and features detailed SNMP monitoring, various alert mechanisms and a customizable Web page for customers of service providers.
http://www.ipswitch.com/index.html
* HP OpenView Network Node Manager. Several readers made disparaging remarks about the large framework products because they have high prices, are complex and difficult to deploy. On the other hand, several readers love their framework products. Most noteworthy was topology mapping and graphing tool in HP’s Network Node Manager. Several readers think it’s the best mapping tool.
