Response to RFP: Loran

Network World Fusion, 08/23/99

1. Centralization Corp. is looking for a comprehensive network monitoring and alerting solution.
2. The current network is run be a team of very busy network administrators and troubleshooters. A solution is needed that will help free up some of their personnel resource.
3. One of the primary things that would save a lot of time is an automated system for checking the status of every device on the network;
4. and sending alerts via page or email if something isn’t working correctly.
5. However, there are several requirements to be met before such a system can be implemented. The solution must be capable of monitoring both the company’s Intranet and Internet servers and devices on a 24-hour basis.
6. The software should be able to continuously monitor the company’s routers, switches, firewalls, remote access servers, RADIUS servers, web servers, SMTP/POP3 (email) servers, DNS servers and Microsoft Windows NT server functions.
7. The software’s polling interval for each device should be configurable by the administrators, as some devices are critical to the network and should be checked on a very regular basis.
8. Other devices need to be checked much less frequently.
9. The software should check to make sure each device or resource is functioning correctly,
10. if a device fails, an alert should be sent immediately.
11. At a minimum, the alerts should consist of a page being sent,
12. either in alphanumeric or simple numeric format
13. as well as an email being forwarded to the IT team.
14. A nice feature for future expansion would be the ability to launch a custom application that could restart a service or execute a soft reboot of a device.
15. A detailed log file containing all device failures and alerts is required.

1. Centralization Corp. is looking for a comprehensive network monitoring and alerting solution.

Loran Technologies Inc. is offering Kinnetics Network Management System as a solution to the proposed requirement. Kinnetics is a full-featured web-based network management, SNMP monitoring and reporting system. Kinnetics is shipped as an embedded system including all hardware software and operating system necessary for use. It is fully automated and uses patented technology to automatically map the physical topology of your network. Its monitoring is comprehensive and continuous with little impact on your network bandwidth.

2. The current network is run be a team of very busy network administrators and troubleshooters. A solution is needed that will help free up some of their personnel resource.

Kinnetics automates most network tasks, requiring very little administrator input. Furthermore, with minimal input from Centralization Corp’s IT staff, Loran can preconfigure Kinnetics to allow for a turnkey installation.

3. One of the primary things that would save a lot of time is an automated system for checking the status of every device on the network;

Kinnetics discovers every device in your network including MAC only devices, non-IP devices and unmanaged devices. The system continuously monitors the presence of all devices and links in real time and reports on the behavior of all managed devices. It uses thresholds to warn and alarm the network administrator of device failures, and when various events occurs such as broadcast storms or traffic levels on any link exceeding a threshold and so on.

4. and sending alerts via page or email if something isn’t working correctly.

Kinnetics can send numeric or alphanumeric pages as instructed by the administrator. It also can e-mail events as required.

5. However, there are several requirements to be met before such a system can be implemented. The solution must be capable of monitoring both the company’s Intranet and Internet servers and devices on a 24-hour basis.

Kinnetics monitors the behavior of the network and all devices and links in the network 24 hours per day. It maintains continuous statistics on all managed ports in the network. Kinnetics is capable of monitoring the company’s Intranet (WAN) and Internet (LAN) devices (routers, switches, servers etc.) through automated performance reports and real-time device level alarms and warnings.

6. The software should be able to continuously monitor the company’s routers, switches, firewalls, remote access servers, RADIUS servers, web servers, SMTP/POP3 (email) servers, DNS servers and Microsoft Windows NT server functions.

Kinnetics monitors the behavior of the network including all devices and links. Kinnetics using host MIB can monitor additional functions on workstations and servers.

7. The software’s polling interval for each device should be configurable by the administrators, as some devices are critical to the network and should be checked on a very regular basis.

Kinnetics handles this problem by allowing the administrator to assign a priority level to every managed device in the network. This can be done globally by device type or on a device by device basis. Devices with higher priorities are monitored more frequently. The administrator can change the polling interval.

8. Other devices need to be checked much less frequently.

See 7. Above.

9. The software should check to make sure each device or resource is functioning correctly,

Kinnetics monitors and alarms on many variables such as device or link failure, excess traffic, drops or delays within a device, broadcasts and its source, etc.

10. if a device fails, an alert should be sent immediately.

Kinnetics will send an alarm typically within two minutes of a failure depending on the size of your network. A page and/or e-mail can be sent by any network alarm. Alarms also appear graphically on the network map and can generate audible alarms at the desktop.

11. At a minimum, the alerts should consist of a page being sent,

See 4. Above.

12. either in alphanumeric or simple numeric format

See 4. Above.

13. as well as an email being forwarded to the IT team.

See 4. Above.

14. A nice feature for future expansion would be the ability to launch a custom application that could restart a service or execute a soft reboot of a device.

This feature is planned to be in a future Kinnetics release.

15. A detailed log file containing all device failures and alerts is required.

Kinnetics generates an event log file for the administrator. This log file is easily viewed and filtered for event tracking and analysis. In addition, historical performance statistics are available for every managed device, regardless of whether or not alarm thresholds were reached.

Kinnetics is shipped as an embedded system including all hardware software and operating system necessary for use. The price for the total system is $19,500. For more details on Kinnetics, please visit Loran Technologies’ web site at www.loran.com.

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RELATED LINKS

The RFP and responses from other vendors

Review and buyer's guide: Network monitoring and alerting
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