Pocket size management

Last time, we reminisced about the many occasions we’ve talked about the tools and utilities designed to let you remotely manage your network, and which can be used to help you “get a life” outside of the office. Fifteen years ago I managed a “wide-area network” by jumping in the car and driving 50 or 60 miles whenever there was a problem. Given the growth in the size of organizations and enterprises but especially the geometric growth of networks, that trip today could easily be 500 or 600 miles – or much more. Remote management tools are not a luxury they’re a necessity. Today, I want to mention two – one that we’ve talked about before. So let’s start with the new one.

It was just two years ago that “PocketDBA” was launched – remote control for Oracle databases via a Palm OS handheld device. Now, the product’s developer PocketDBA Systems has since been renamed “Expand Beyond” and has indeed expanded beyond database management – all the way to full network management.

Expand Beyond’s PocketAdmin for Windows, which will ship later this month, lets network managers remotely assign user rights, reboot servers and handle other management tasks from a Palm OS or Pocket PC device. It will also run from a wireless-enabled laptop to perform real-time management on Windows 2000 and 2003 servers as well as Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional desktops. It’ll do Solaris 8 and Red Hat Linux 7.2 and 7.3 as well, should you have any of those hosts on your network.

Essentially, PocketAdmin provides a command line “window” to the host system. Anything you can do from the command line while seated at the host you can also do remotely with PocketAdmin. Take a look at the Flash demo at https://www.expandbeyond.com/ to see if this is something you might like to take a long look at.

Meanwhile, our friends at Calgary’s Sonic Mobility (see “Sun, Sea and Network Management”, https://www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/nt/2002/01659185.html) has just announced support for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PCs. Sonic Mobility’s SonicAdmin package also supports RIM’s Blackberry devices and earlier Pocket PC operating environments for remote administration. On the server side, SonicAdmin supports Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 to diagnose and fix problems on the fly. 

Sonic Mobility also enables secure handheld access to a number of third party network admin tools such as NetIQ’s AppManager Suite, Opalis’ OpalisRobot, and RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Get all the details from Sonic Mobility’s Web site – https://www.sonicmobility.com/ and take a look at its Flash demos too.