Using Netiq’ S Appmanager: It Resources Essay Example

management, fault management, accounting management, performance management and security management.

Each of the 5 management categories have unique characteristics that cover a wide range of business processes related to the use and availability of an organization’ s networked assets. They are also interrelated in a way that a change in one area of management can have an effect on any or all of the other categories. Configuration management facilitates the continuous operation and interconnection of networked assets.

The ability to redefine default component attributes to enable improved information processing is critical to the efficiency of the enterprise. Configuration management is closely related to fault management since it is often necessary to reconfigure sections of a networked environment to bypass component weaknesses or errors. Fault management is the ability to detect, isolate and correct abnormal network operations. Upon detection of a fault or component failure it is necessary for several events to occur. The network must be isolated from the fault to allow continuation of service without interference.

The network must then be reconfigured or modified to minimize the impact of the fault. Finally, the failed component must be repaired or replaced in order to restore the network to its initial state (Stallings and VanSlyke, 1998). Accounting management is the establishment, monitoring and distribution of charges for use of networked resources. This is strictly an internal management function of developing charge-back algorithms, identifying inefficient or abusive resource usage and updating business plans that address resource allocation or network expansion (Stallings and VanSlyke, 1998).

Performance management is concerned with monitoring the behavior of and communications between networked components. By comparing network performance statistics to an established baseline, situations can be identified

as areas of present or impending performance degradation. It is imperative to identify and correct potential performance bottlenecks before they cause problems for either internal or external customers (Stallings and VanSlyke, 1998).

Access control, data encryption and user authentication are the three areas of concern when providing protection for network resources and user information. An enterprise network management solution must address these 5 categories efficiently in order for a business to profit from its implementation. Functionally, a network management system should perform the following tasks in support of the 5 management categories:

• Collect Statistics on Communications and Network Activities
• Store Statistics Locally
• Respond to Network Control Commands
• Send Messages About Network Operations to the Network Control Center (Stallings and VanSlyke, 1998)

The effective performance of network management tasks, application of network management software, monitoring and analysis of collected management data and application of that data to support strategic business goals is extremely beneficial to organizations that are dependent upon IT resources for critical business functions. With support from executive management, organizations can realize benefits that include improved business processes, more efficient use of IT resources and increased productivity within the IT department. NetIQ Biography NetIQ is a leading provider of e-business solutions management software.

NetIQ AppManager software helps organization optimize the performance and availability of their Windows NT and Windows 2000 based systems. NetIQ is the first company to offer solutions that encompass system administration, data center operations management and network performance management. NetIQ was established in 1995 to address the need of a strong Internet economy and provides system and management solutions for the Windows NT environment. NetIQ is privately held company with over 100 employees.

The company

is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with personnel in Houston Texas, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Bellevue, Washington. It has additional field offices in Washington D.C., Dallas, Denver, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. NetIQ is comprised of three distinguished companies collaborating to provide eBusiness solutions and infrastructure management software.

One these is Sirana Software, Inc. of Bellevue, WA. Sirana’ s specialty is the development of web-based enterprise analysis and reporting solutions for Microsoft BackOffice. Sirana Software, based in Bellevue, Washington, builds web-based enterprise analysis and reporting solutions for eBusiness applications like Microsoft Exchange and BackOffice. Sirana Software delivers decision-making information to business and technical managers to help them better understand and improve the performance of these important systems.

The addition of Sirana Software continues NetIQ's strategy to provide a complete range of solutions for Windows 2000-based eBusiness software. The second company in the NetIQ family is Mission Critical Software. Mission Critical is a leading provider of systems management software for Windows NT and Enterprise Network Management J. Banks, J. Brown, E. Kimble, J. Sachsel 8 Windows 2000. MCS is based in Houston, Texas, and operates regional offices in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Mission Critical Software, Inc. recently acquired Ganymede Software.

Ganymede is located in North Carolina is the third member of NetIQ strategy. Ganymede products provide for the end-to-end testing and monitoring of enterprise networks. According to Mark Mager (1999) NetIQ has a very direct and unabmiguous aim to focus its development resources on application management products running under Windows NT/Windows 2000 systems.

Its target customers are typically Global 1000 organizations that include Dell, Shell, Boeing, Phizer, BBC, Philip Morris, Adidas, Glaxo Wellcome, Lloyds and Roche. Mager’

s (1999) report for the Butler Group estimates future NT server deployments to exceed 2 million by the end of 1999, and exceed 2.5 million by the next year. These figures are based on the fact that 1.6 million NT servers were deployed in the 3 years preceding 1999 with a reasonably constant increase between those 3 years.

AppManager Software NetIQ’ s AppManager is a comprehensive systems and application management suite of products. According to Mager (1999), it can manage and monitor performance and availability of distributed Windows NT/2000 systems and server products from either a central location or from remote locations. AppManager provides an enterprise-wide view of an organization’ s entire networked environment. With some customization it can automatically perform a great number of network management functions with little or no input from the network manager except for some up-front configuring.

AppManager’ s multi-tier architecture is key to the robustness and scalability of the management solution. As a networked environment expands, different tiers of the architecture can be deployed at appropriate levels of the network to afford optimal monitoring, processing and fault correction techniques. With AppManager’ s logically deployed functional objects distributed across an entire network, monitoring, processing and managing tasks are organized and efficiently executed. These functional objects make up AppManager’ s 4 tiered architecture.

The multi-tiered architecture provides flexibility in distributing the process load across multiple networked components and allows for efficient communication between components. The first tier is the management console. This object is the primary interface (GUI) between network administrator, AppManager and every object, either hardware or software, connected to the network. It is from the console that pre-programmed monitoring functions, known as

knowledge scripts (KS), are configured and executed. These scripts are written in Visual Basic for Applications, and are the business rules for collecting and reacting to performance and event data. From this console, and by using either supplied or customized knowledge scripts, the network administrator can address the 5 categories of enterprise network management described above.

Multi-Tier Architecture and information returned from running knowledge scripts. The repository communicates directly with the console and the third tier, the management server, using Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC). The third tier, the management server, is the interface between the fourth tier, management agents, and the repository. The management server distributed knowledge scripts to their intended locations from the repository. It also directs monitoring and event data returned from execution of knowledge scripts to the appropriate locations in the data repository.

The management server communicates Enterprise Network Management J. Banks, J. Brown, E. Kimble, J. Sachsel 11 with the management agents using Microsoft’ s Remote Procedure Call (RPC) technology. The fourth tier is the management agent. This object can reside on any Windows NT managed client and is used to monitor associated system and application resources. The agent executes knowledge scripts that are either directed by the console or scheduled in the repository. Upon completion of the requested script execution, the agent communicates any relevant data or events collected back to the management server. The agent can operate independent of control in the event of a network outage between the management server and the agent.

The agent will continue to collect and store data, monitor objects and applications and execute knowledge scripts locally until network services and normal network operating conditions are restored.

An additional advantage of this fourth tier is the ability to follow Liebmann’ s (2000) “Follow the Sun” advice for battling increased management costs. Instead of running second and third network management shifts to cover a 24-hour monitoring period, agents can be installed at any location on a WAN, essentially monitoring an internationally distributed network around the clock. Front line management responsibilities are spread across the enterprise and data can be uploaded to the main console for analysis during regular business hours.