For OpenView users, the wait for Java support will end this summer.
That is when Hewlett-Packard Co. will ship a Java-based user interface for Open-View's Network Node Manager (NNM), a feature long wanted by HP customers (NW, June 23, 1997, page 1). HP quietly demonstrated the new graphical user interface (GUI) at the ComNet '98 show here last week.
The chief benefit of the read-only Java GUI is its portability, HP said. It will enable network managers to view network topology and events as well as launch Web-based applications from any local or remote machine with any browser that supports Java.
Java provides graphical representation and real-time updates to network changes and events that were not available before.
HP currently ships a textual HTML-based Web interface on NNM 5.0 and previous versions.
The Java GUI, which is in alpha testing now, will ship free of charge with NNM 6.0. It is the third major enhancement to NNM 6.0, which also will include a data warehouse and an HP-developed event correlation engine.
Not impressed
"We looked at [the HTML interface] with Version 4.11 and weren't too impressed," said Bob Donaldson, a systems engineer at Charter Systems, Inc., in West Newton, Mass. "We'd be very interested in seeing [the Java GUI] and learning more about it. The [capacity] for more flexibility is positive."The NNM Java GUI will feature the HP OpenView Launcher, SNMP Data Exporter, Network Browser and Alarm Browser. The launcher will have a menu that allows users to launch Web-based management applications. It also will include a feature called User Roles, which will allow administrators to filter certain management information to other users based on their management responsibilities.
The data exporter allows users to query the network for data such as traffic routing, address translation, available services on a node and disk space. The Network Browser provides shared access to the NNM topology map and propagates status changes on the management server to all other NNM Web users.
The Alarm Browser works with HP's Event Correlation Services engine, which also is a new feature in NNM 6.0 (NW, Dec. 15, 1997, page 6). The browser will let users pinpoint the source of network problems and distribute alarm updates and acknowledgments to other NNM Web users.
For third-party application developers, HP will provide several Java user interface integration points. They include application registration files for toolbar and menu item integration; Java-based versions of many OpenView APIs; and the ability for developers to provide custom views of objects - such as backplane views of network devices - through Java applets.
Lately, users have been frustrated by the lag time between HP's release of a new version of OpenView and developers' release of applications that can take full advantage of it. And at this point, HP cannot say how many third-party applications will leverage the Java GUI when it ships.
"We don't know how many but were opening up the APIs and making them as easy as possible for developers to add into this," said Mak Ghangurde, an NNM product manager. We're talking to as many as we can for beta testing."
"HP is also developing a Java GUI for its IT/Operations systems management software and hopes to release it this summer," said Miika Helynen, HP technical consultant.
HP is not alone in developing Java front ends for NNM and IT/O. Edge Technologies, Inc., a small software developer in Fairfax, Va., rolled out Version 2.0 of its N-Vision GUI at ComNet last week.
Edge has been shipping a Java GUI for NNM since June 1997, and this June plans to unveil a Java front end for IT/O.
HP said Edge was wowed by the HP Java GUI, but Edge said that is not so.
"[N-Vision is] substantially more advanced than what HP [offers]" said Ryan Child, Edge commercial sales manager. "It's alpha code. It doesn't have full functionality. It's a flat file demo. We certainly were not 'wowed.' "
Users may be wowed by the price differential. While HP plans to bundle its Java GUI with NNM and IT/O for free, Edge charges from $15,000 to $75,000 for N-Vision.
