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NETWORK WORLD FUSION FOCUS: NEAL WEINBERG on
PRODUCT REVIEW OF THE WEEK 12/12/00 - Today's Focus: Concord Communications' LiveHealth Dear Wincenty Kaminski, In this issue: * LiveHealth reports real-time network events * Experts Exchange * Links related to Product Review of the Week * IT Job Spot(tm): Assess Your Leadership Skills All new State of the WAN Town Meeting! Join Network World at the State of the WAN: Extending Your Business and Establishing QoS. The highly interactive format of this FREE Town Meeting gives you the chance to ask hard- hitting questions and get straightforward answers from the leading WAN experts. Register today at http://nww1.com/go/2184858a.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today's Focus: Concord Communications' LiveHealth --------------------------------------------------------------- By Neal Weinberg For the Reviewmeister, there's nothing like the smell of real- time data in the morning. Historical data is nice, but it's real-time data that gets the blood pumping. So, we took a close look at LiveHealth from Concord Communications. LiveHealth collects real-time data and reports it in an easy-to-understand, comprehensive and timely fashion. Like any new product, LiveHealth has its pros and cons. It produces excellent reports and supports more than 500 kinds of SNMP-aware devices. But it can't display a network's topology, doesn't offer corrective actions, and wasn't all that easy to install. LiveHealth starts at $35,000, and is part of Concord's suite that includes Network Health, System Health and Application Health modules. LiveHealth actively polls SNMP-manageable devices, determines their status and condition, and displays the result in real time. LiveHealth can present its reports via a browser-based interface, a server-based console and Adobe Acrobat-based reports. It also can send device status and condition data to network management products such as Hewlett-Packard's OpenView. LiveHealth is complex software. In addition to its sophisticated network monitoring and reporting elements, it comes with the CERN Web server for rendering management data and reports as Web pages, an Open Ingres database engine for storing network device data, and The Santa Cruz Operation's XVision PC Xserver, which LiveHealth's server console uses to display screen data. LiveHealth's discovery process is quick and accurate. By default, LiveHealth discovers network nodes daily at midnight. At 5-minute intervals (or less often, if you wish), the SNMP polling process probes the condition and status of network devices. LiveHealth understands a plethora of Management Information Bases, and it correctly recognized Lucent and Cisco routers, Samsung and 3Com switches, and the other devices in our test network. LiveHealth can tell you if a device is performing as it's supposed to, but it can't produce graphical maps showing network hierarchies. It stores collected network device information for six weeks in the Open Ingres database. In its first few days, LiveHealth builds a baseline of normal network behavior. Then, it can detect out-of-the-ordinary events, such as excessively high or low traffic through a router or switch port. Once LiveHealth detects a problem, a network administrator can choose to monitor the problem device in what Concord calls "fast mode." LiveHealth polls the device in frequencies up to twice a minute to help the administrator track the situation. LiveHealth doesn't offer external alerting functions, such as e-mail or paging, but relies instead on links to third-party programs (such as HP's OpenView) to provide such notifications or take corrective actions. The strength of the program is reports that show device information by time period, relationship to the organizational structure and type of behavior or exception. We could see devices that had experienced problems, by type of problem, as well as those associated with a particular application. LiveHealth runs on HP-UX, Solaris, Windows NT and 2000. The documentation is comprehensive, but should include a better roadmap to help users find the various software component discussions in the manuals. LiveHealth's installation was more difficult than we expected, but we found that LiveHealth's focus on performance and its extensive reporting are just what the doctor ordered. For the full review, go to http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2000/1127rev3.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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FOR RELATED LINKS -- Click here for Network World's home page: http://www.nwfusion.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Got a technical question related to new technology on your corporate network? Post it at Experts Exchange on Fusion at http://nwfusion.experts-exchange.com/. Another network professional may have the solution to your problem. Concord's MyHealth ties net mgmt. tools together Network World, 05/29/00 http://www.nwfusion.com/archive/2000/97754_05-29-2000.html Concord unveils Exchange management app Network Systems Management newsletter, 11/06/00 http://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nsm/2000/1106nm1.html *************************************************************** IT Job Spot(tm) presented by http://www.ITcareers.com IT Leadership: How do you stack up? Use Peopleassets.net to develop and retain your best group leaders. Easily administered on-line assessments, goal setting and support resources are ready to go. With Peopleassets.net, your IT managers conduct self-assessments and generate colleague feedback in total confidence. Team culture profile adds additional perspective. Reduce turnover, improve productivity. Click over and check us out. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;2191443;5137711;a *************************************************************** The archive for Reviews is: http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/index.html May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. Apply today at http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/nl ********************************************************* Subscription Services To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World e-mail newsletters, go to: http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/news/scripts/notprinteditnews.asp To change your email address, go to: http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/news/scripts/changeemail.asp Subscription questions? Contact Customer Service by replying to this message. Other Questions/Comments 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 Network World Fusion is part of IDG.net, the IDG Online Network. IT All Starts Here: http://www.idg.com Copyright Network World, Inc., 2000
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