MediaHouse Software’s network monitoring and alerting solution for Centralization Corp. consists of one or two installations of Enterprise Monitor 5.2 for Windows NT.
Enterprise Monitor meets Centralization Corp.’s specific monitoring requirements by providing the following intrinsic testing features:
- SNMP Monitor for routers, switches, firewalls, and RAS devices *
- HTTP and SSL Monitor for web servers *
- SQL and ODBC Monitors for e-commerce applications *
- POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP Monitors for mail servers *
- DNS over TCP, and DNS over UDP Monitors for name servers
- Windows NT Event Log, Windows NT Service, and Dr. Watson Monitors for Windows NT servers
* These monitors verify transactions at both the Protocol and Application Layer
Enterprise Monitor meets Centralization Corp.’s specific notification and recovery requirements by providing the following notification methods:
- TAP/SMS Text Pager
- TAP Numeric Pager
- Paging via email/Internet
- HTML email report
- Simple email report
- Recovery Scripts for restarting a service and soft rebooting a server
- Third Party Software support
All failed monitor tests, in addition to notification and security events, are logged in detail. They are available from Enterprise Monitor’s History Event Reports.
Enterprise Monitor 5.2 for Windows NT
Enterprise Monitor can ensure Centralization Corp.’s services, servers, and devices are available and responsive at all times. Enterprise Monitor does this by regularly monitoring the state of configured resources, without the use of agents. When failures occur, Enterprise Monitor will notify administrators in any combination of pagers, beepers, digital phones, e-mail, and network broadcasts.
Enterprise Monitor can also correct faults when they happen via recovery scripts. Enterprise Monitor ships with two pre-configured recovery scripts. One restores a failed application or service by restarting a Windows NT service, and the other script can reboot a Windows NT server. Enterprise Monitor also boasts extensibility through third party software support; Enterprise Monitor can use external applications for notifications and testing enterprise specific applications.
Enterprise Monitor can save Centralization Corp. administrators’ valuable time by:
- Providing centralized management through a web interface
- Requiring no installation of satellite monitoring agents
- Automatically detecting devices and services
- Automatically restoring failing devices and services
- Providing advanced productivity features such as queries and mass edit and delete
- Allowing administrators to share or alternate notification responsibilities
- Eliminating redundant notifications and reporting the cause of failures
Enterprise Monitor currently provides more monitoring features than Centralization Corp. initially requires. Enterprise Monitor has a total of 34 different Monitor types. These Monitors cover a wide range of TCP/IP and Windows NT specific monitoring needs. Seven of these Monitors test at both the Protocol and Application Layer ensuring Centralization Corp.’s enterprise is performing within desired operating parameters.
Monitor timing parameters are extremely configurable, as each monitor has two individual schedules that specify how often to test. Some monitoring uses, such as database servers, can be setup to poll less frequently than others. Other uses, such as a router, can be verified every second. Each Monitor can cause notifications immediately or can allow a certain amount of downtime before causing notifications. This option saves administrators time by not causing alerts for intermittent failures.
Resources which do not require notification or recovery actions can be ignored. Notifications can also be configured to escalate based on the amount of time passed since the first failure. Each alert has its own weekly schedule that describes when the administrator is on duty or even on break.
Monitoring and notification solution with Enterprise Monitor 5.2
Recommended Configuration I: Network without proxy servers and firewalls
Requirements:
(1) Enterprise Monitor 5.2
(1) Non-production Windows NT server or workstation 4.0 or W2k SP3, 32MB, Pentium 90 or better
(1) Hayes compatible internal or external modem (non-WinModem)
(1) Administrator account context for the Enterprise Monitor Windows NT service
Estimated Software Cost: Approx. $350 US
This simple configuration requires no changes to the security infrastructure, and should take less than 15 minutes to install and import Centralization Corp.’s network.
An advanced HTML help system, complete with search engine, will allow for a quick integration of Centralization Corp.’s notification and recovery script settings.
Recommended Configuration II: Network with proxy servers and firewalls
Requirements:
(2) Enterprise Monitor 5.2
(2) Windows NT server or workstation 4.0 SP3 or W2k, 32MB, Pentium 90 or better
(2) Hayes compatible internal or external modem (non-WinModem)
(2) Administrator account contexts for each Enterprise Monitor Windows NT service
Estimated Software Cost: Approx. $700 US
Due to Centralization Corp.’s busy administrators, two Enterprise Monitor installations are recommended. Enterprise Monitor is to be installed on the open section of the network (on Host A), and on the walled off section (on Host B).
This will minimize the configuration time and costs by nearly eliminating all alterations to the existing security infrastructure. Two alterations are required:
- Allowance for a TCP connection originating from HOST B to a specific port on HOST A
- Allowance for a TCP connection originating from HOST A to a specific port on HOST B
Each Enterprise Monitor will monitor its section of the network and notify administrators when degradations and unavailability occurs. Each Enterprise Monitor host will monitor the other. *
* This configuration effectively provides redundant notification and a guarantee that network failures will be caught.
After the security infrastructure has been modified, Enterprise Monitor should be installed using the appropriate port for each host. Each side of the network should take less than 10 minutes to install and import Centralization Corp.’s network.
An advanced HTML help system, complete with search engine, will allow for a quick integration of Centralization Corp.’s notification and recovery script, and redundant monitoring settings.
The RFP - See the RFP to which the vendors responded.
The responses:
|
Avtech Dartmouth INS Ipswitch Knozall |
Loran MediaHouse NextPoint RGE Ripple |
RiverSoft (in Word format) Tally Systems Tavve Tessler |
RELATED LINKS
The RFP and responses from other vendors
Review and buyer's guide: Network monitoring and alerting
An in-depth look at several apps; database of detailed specs on 46 tools; and a forum on the technology.
