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By Mark Gibbs
Network World, 2/23/98

"It slices, it dices - but wait! There's more!''
- Ad for the Vegematic food processor

Using standard network management tools and utilities in the Web world has obvious drawbacks, such as the high cost of buying a half-dozen or more products and the lack of an integrated console. But there is hope: WindDance Networks Corp.'s WebChallenger.

WebChallenger is sort of a Web management Vegematic: It measures, it tests, analyzes, raises alarms and reports.

WebChallenger is a Windows NT service with an HTTP interface. It provides a range of diagnostic benchmarking tools, and with the distributed version, you can set up load-balancing and redirection services. All of this is in a product that is simple to install, makes intranet management easier and provides good value.

On the downside, WebChallenger displays a number of defects.

To begin with, WebChallenger's user interface needs some work. It requires use of a browser with Java and JavaScript support, raising issues of browser compatibility. In my tests, I couldn't access WebChallenger with Netscape Communications Corp.'s Communicator 4.02, but could with Version 4.03.

I also found that when you don't do things in an expected order, the product may produce obscure error messages. For example, if you tab from field to field in the user configuration form and tab over the server name field to get to the server pick list button, you'll see the error message: "Value is not conforming to the naming convention specified in RFC 1035.''

This is fine if you happen to know that RFC 1035 is for the implementation and specification of domain names. The problem is, when you set the focus on the server field and tab to the next item, leaving the field blank, WebChallenger's JavaScript code checks the server field's value and decides that blank is unacceptable. That's even though the next item is the button to access the list from which you choose a server!

Another gripe is WebChallenger's screen layouts. They are just plain clumsy, diminishing usability. Part of the problem is WindDance uses primitive screen formatting.

An example of this is when you click on the "Save & Reload Data" option available in many sections. This opens a new browser window, but the window doesn't contain a button or link to take you back to the page you were at. This means you have to exit the window via the window controls.

More seriously, I have concerns about WebChallenger's reliability. The service crashed a couple of times with Windows NT access violations for no apparent reason.

Even so, I like this tool. Installation requires no more than 10 minutes. Then, upon reboot, WebChallenger launches as a Windows NT service.

You can install the product on the same machine as a Web server or on a different server. One copy can monitor and check multiple Web servers on the same network segment.

Installation requires 12M bytes or so of disk space, but data storage and statistics require 100M bytes or more, depending on how busy the servers are.

To configure the product, you use a Web browser to connect to the machine running WebChallenger via Socket 31119 instead of the usual HTTP Socket 80. The home screen informs you that Java and JavaScript must be enabled, tests and confirms that they are and displays your browser version.

WebChallenger's home screen and the first screen of every major section offers a description of that section.

Under "Configuration" in the Administration subsection, you can set up the administrative user's name and password and the e-mail and pager addresses for sending alarms. There also is an option to set up names, passwords and e-mail addresses of secondary users who can only access alarm and statistical functions for one server.

WebChallenger tools

The main options are:

• Web Benchmark, to determine server performance.

• Web Alarm, to report on limits exceeded and error conditions.

• Web Diagnosis, which captures TCP, User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Internet Control Message Protocol packets for analysis.

• Web Explorer, to identify servers.

• Web Statistics, for clients' usage statistics.

• Web Verify, to detect broken resource links and orphan files.

Web Benchmark provides a load simulation that approximates the load of up to 120 users in a number of different tests. This is a useful facility for finding baseline performance.

WebAlarm monitors Web, File Transfer Protocol, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, Network News Transfer Protocol and other services. You can set alarms for response, connection and throughput thresholds, and for servers not responding or listening.

Another bug I discovered was that WebChallenger refused to admit that my SMTP server was running. This prevented it from sending me an alarm saying that SMTP wasn't running.

Web Diagnosis is a packet-capture service that can display packet capture in real time or store it as an HTML report, as well as replay a packet-capture session. Here again, there are minor problems. The format of the real-time capture display is weird (it looks like a bug in the Java applet), and the replay is too fast to be of any use.

The HTML Web Diagnosis report is useful as long as you can decode the raw packet data displayed. Also, the lack of date- and time-stamping of packets limits the value of this feature.

Web Explorer does a competent job of identifying services on all the nodes in a given network range and produces a useful report. It can help you find out what's really running on your intranet.

Web Statistics monitors the segment on which WebChallenger is running and tracks a number of parameters for each server it is configured to watch. These parameters include the 200 most and least wanted pages, clients having errors, the 200 most active referrers and the 1,000 most active clients.

The only problem with this feature is only the pie chart for total number of accesses is displayed. The Java applet failed with an obscure error for the hourly, day-of-week, day-of-month and monthly options.

Web Verify is great. You can configure WebChallenger to explore any number of Web servers' content, either immediately or on a schedule that ranges from every half-day to once per month. Verification also can include checking external URLs, although this is of no use if external sites can't be accessed directly - WebChallenger doesn't support proxy servers.

When URL errors are found during background verification, notification is sent via e-mail or pager according to the configuration.

Finally, with the Distributed WebChallenger, the Web Director feature allows you to identify the domain of a client request and redirect it to a specific server. This is useful in extranets for redirecting requests. For example, say a client in Japan tries accessing your Asian Web site, you can redirect that request to your Japanese Web site for better performance.

But wait ...

WebChallenger is useful, despite the few minor and the couple of more major problems. When it comes to the range of management functions, WebChallenger certainly has that slicing, dicing quality. For large intranets, this tool will pay off its cost quickly.

If WindDance addresses the problems I've discussed, the next release of WebChallenger will be an indispensable management tool. Hey, it might even do crinkle-cut fries.