|
|
Enron Mail |
NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NEAL WEINBERG
on PRODUCT REVIEWS 06/05/01 - Today's focus: Configure this Dear Wincenty Kaminski, In this issue: * Two configuration/auditing tools strive to provide just the right amount of network data * Links related to Network World product reviews * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ Get answers to the most important LAN questions. Yours. This FREE Network World Town Meeting brings you face-to-face with industry leaders willing to share their ideas, insights, experiences, and vision. So you have the knowledge to plan, build, support, and secure your LAN - now and in the future. For more information on this event visit http://nww1.com/go/2891649a.html _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Configure this By Neal Weinberg The Reviewmeister loves to get solid, reliable information on the state of my network. But if I get too much information, I get a migraine. And if I don't get enough, I worry that I may be missing something. So, I checked out two tools that are supposed to give me just the right amount of network information. Configuresoft's Enterprise Configuration Manager (ECM) 3.5 and Ecora's IT Auditor for Windows 1.4.3.136 will document your network's computers, but they work in sharply different ways. ECM gathers a nearly overwhelming wealth of detail from the Windows NT and 2000 machines, either servers or clients, on which you install Configuresoft Distributed Component Object Model agents. IT Auditor needs no agents, but it gathers information only from servers. ECM reports a ream of data on every computer, much of which you'll never examine or need. While even the short version of IT Auditor's reports are verbose, they contain useful nuggets of server configuration data. Our tests showed ECM is the better tool for monitoring and troubleshooting Windows machines, but we wouldn't use it for collections of more than about 5,000 clients. When used strictly to help manage Windows servers or on small Windows- based networks, however, ECM is an extremely useful tool. IT Auditor's server-only reports are less useful and its data collection process is slower than molasses in January. ECM supplies more detail about each agent-equipped Windows 2000 and NT computer than you'd ever need. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer configuration management for Windows 95/98/Millennium Edition. ECM's details include free disk space, event log entries, device drivers, file and printer shares, installed software, running processes, services, user IDs, passwords, and even registry keys and values. When we used the ECM data to troubleshoot client configuration problems, drilling down through the mass of configuration data was easy only for a small to moderate number of clients. For large client populations, using the ECM data to solve a problem with a specific client node would be tedious and time consuming. On the other hand, on an ongoing basis, monitoring client configuration changes with ECM to stay ahead of problems (such as running out of local disk space) is easy. Similarly, monitoring Windows-based servers with ECM adds an incremental assurance that those servers will remain healthy and available. Judiciously using ECM to manage only server configurations is a smart and creative application of ECM's abilities. Ecora's IT Auditor for Windows will collect data on your Windows 2000 and NT servers. It gathers data on running applications, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and DNS settings, event log entries, file and print shares, hardware settings, installed operating system particulars, user IDs and groups, server policies, services, file replication specifications, TCP/IP settings and domain controller details. IT Auditor for Windows doesn't monitor clients, which leaves the vast majority of your computers' configurations unwatched. However, if you're only interested in servers or dead set against installing agents on client machines, IT Auditor is your kind of tool. IT Auditor for Windows emits a set of reports each time it collects server configuration settings. The reports are the data repository; it doesn't store configuration data in a relational database. IT Auditor produces both short- and long-version reports in Web page, comma-separated-value and Word document formats. Disappointingly, the Word documents in our tests consisted of the same HTML as the Web page reports. The Web page short-version report wasn't all that short, containing entries such as "If it needs to, Windows can move pieces of the operating system to the hard disk to free up memory" to describe Windows 2000 and NT memory paging. When you're in the midst of solving a problem, such verbiage is less than helpful. The long version contains paragraph after paragraph of Windows server tutorial - material you'll quickly find superfluous. Importing the comma-separated-value files into Excel takes just a single mouse click. IT Auditor also can produce Visio diagrams of the servers in your domains if you have Visio installed on the same machine as IT Auditor. Like ECM, IT Auditor can filter to display just those server parameter values that have changed since the last time IT Auditor was run. For the full report, go to http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2001/0604rev2.html _______________________________________________________________ To contact Neal Weinberg: Neal Weinberg is features editor at Network World, in charge of product reviews, Buyer's Guides, technology primers, how-tos, issue-oriented feature stories and the Technology Insider series. You can reach him at mailto:nweinber@nww.com. _______________________________________________________________ RELATED LINKS Network management products at ComNet Network World, 01/29/01 http://www.nwfusion.com/archive/2001/116098_01-29-2001.html Feature: Locking down your desktops Network World, 04/30/01 http://www.nwfusion.com/research/2001/0430feat.html The archive for Reviews is: http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/index.html ______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE User Excellence Award If you've completed an interesting network project in the last 12 to 18 months, here's your chance to gain industry recognition for it. Network World is currently accepting nominations for its annual User Excellence Award. For more information and an online nomination form, go to http://www.nwfusion.com/nw/awards.html#excellence Deadline for submission is June 11. ______________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World e-mail newsletters, go to: http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/news/scripts/notprinteditnews.asp To unsubscribe from promotional e-mail go to: http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/ep To change your e-mail address, go to: http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/news/scripts/changeemail.asp Subscription questions? Contact Customer Service by replying to this message. Have editorial comments? Write Jeff Caruso, Newsletter Editor, at: mailto:jcaruso@nww.com For advertising information, write Jamie Kalbach, Fusion Sales Manager, at: mailto:jkalbach@nww.com Copyright Network World, Inc., 2001 ------------------------ This message was sent to: vkamins@enron.com
|