Manage your network from one console
When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards. I started with only a few cards, which I kept in a beat-up shoebox. However, my collection soon outgrew the shoebox, and I needed a better way to organize the cards. So, I bought a specially built box that made my collection look neater and let me monitor the cards' condition.
Managing Windows NT systems is similar to card collecting—as you acquire more systems, you need an organized way to manage those systems. For example, your company might have thousands of NT systems, in hundreds of locations, and an email infrastructure generating millions of messages per day. Managing those servers requires long hours, extensive resources, and numerous separate applications. Unfortunately, the time and cost associated with learning and maintaining individual products hinder monitoring and can lead to unforeseen problems on crucial servers.
Systems administrators need a consolidated solution that provides the best of monitoring and reporting from one location for an unlimited number of servers and workstations. Because companies are managing systems worldwide, the need for Web-based monitoring support is crucial. Also, management products must include a snap-in that you can easily drop into Windows 2000's (Win2K's) Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
NetIQ AppManager Suite 3.0, which NetIQ targets at systems administrators and managers who monitor crucial servers in single or multiple domains, extends its NT support to Win2K servers. AppManager lets you monitor applications such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Win2K Server Terminal Services, Oracle's relational database management system (RDBMS), and Citrix WinFrame. The software also lets you monitor framework products such as Computer Associates' (CA's) Unicenter, HP OpenView, and Tivoli Enterprise. AppManager lets you use preconfigured business rules for automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks and setting proactive notification and problem correction.
Not for the faint of heart, the product comes in an imposing 5-pound box that includes a CD-ROM and three thick manuals: the Installation Guide, Users Guide, and Knowledge Script Reference Guide. The extensive documentation is a testament to AppManager's robustness.
Inside AppManager
AppManager includes four essential components—the console, repository server, management server, and agent—and an optional Web-management server. The console, in which you perform most management work, is available as a standard program or as an MMC snap-in. (You can open the AppManager snap-in from the AppManager program group, or you can add the snap-in to a separate MMC console that includes other program snap-ins.) The repository server, which uses a SQL Server 6.5 database, stores information about monitored systems and applications. You can't use SQL Server 7.0 for the repository, but NetIQ promises SQL Server 7.0 repository support in the future. The management server is the communications mediator between the monitored system's agents and the repository. To receive requests from the management server to accomplish a specific monitoring task, you must install the agent on each server or workstation. The Web-management server lets you use AppManager in a Web browser, which can save money if you manage systems worldwide.
AppManager monitors other systems through Knowledge Scripts (KSs), which are files that you configure to automate specific management and monitoring tasks. You can choose from more than 400 prebuilt KSs, or you can use a text editor to create custom KSs. NetIQ includes a list of the most popular KSs for each monitored application. You can begin using the KSs immediately, but I recommend that you spend some time reviewing the KSs in the hard-copy Knowledge Script Reference Guide, which describes each KS in detail.
Prebuilt KSs for NT administration let you identify CPU bottlenecks, pinpoint top CPU-consuming applications, check the status of key services and restart them if necessary, monitor DHCP leases, review Performance Monitor counters, measure disk space utilization and disk I/O, and check for key files. Prebuilt KSs for Exchange Server let you track end-to-end response time between Exchange servers, monitor inactive mailboxes over a specified period of time, check the status of key Exchange Server services and restart them if necessary, pinpoint frequent senders and receivers of email, and monitor overall message flow. Finally, prebuilt KSs for SQL Server let you monitor a server's status; identify frequent database and CPU users; monitor free database, device, and log file space; and determine the cache hit ratio.
Microsoft is bundling the AppManager Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Agent with Win2K. The WMI Agent, one of AppManager's key architectural components, will conduct performance monitoring and event monitoring for networks with Win2K and NT systems.
Microsoft is also bundling AppManager's Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) in Win2K. WBEM embraces standards that let you use Internet technology to manage systems, networks, and users. WBEM defines schemas, outlines protocols, is open and extensible, and offers a fast and inexpensive way to gather and analyze data.
With Win2K's instrumentation, you can access AppManager and its data from an Internet browser. This accessibility is particularly important if your company has international locations.
Preflight Checklist
To test AppManager's capabilities, I ran the program in a domain environment. I used a Digital PC 3000 model system with a 300MHz Pentium II processor and 128MB of RAM. I installed Win2K Advanced Server (Win2K AS) beta 3 on this system—which I named DIGITAL2000—and configured the system as the domain controller. I also used two servers running Win2K Server with 350MHz AMD-K6-2 processors and 64MB of RAM; one server ran SQL Server 7.0, and the other server ran Exchange Server 5.5.
AppManager includes a preinstallation application that checks your system against AppManager's components' software requirements. In an application as large and complex as AppManager, this feature is essential. I ran the preinstallation check from a separate window, and in about 4 minutes I had an HTML report that listed each component's system requirements and told me whether my test system passed or failed each requirement. The report included HTML hot links that led me to Web pages containing detailed explanations of each requirement and instructions for fixing items that failed. I used the suggested settings to configure SQL Server and Exchange Server, then initiated the installation program. The setup program was thorough: I entered information or accepted default settings through about 15 screens.
You need to ensure that your applications are working (i.e., services are running) before you start the installation. Otherwise, you'll spend time troubleshooting application-related errors. Installation problems can occur because of insufficient RAM or disk space for a component, improper NT or SQL Server permissions, broken network connectivity between computers, or use of an unsupported version of SQL Server for the repository.
After I ensured that my servers met all the software requirements, I began the installation program. The program installed the console, repository server, management server, and agent on the DIGITAL2000 system.
If you haven't installed SQL Server, the system will prompt you to install the 120-day evaluation copy of SQL Server 6.5 that AppManager includes, install a licensed copy of SQL Server 6.5, or skip the repository installation. Because I'd already installed SQL Server 6.5, I didn't receive this prompt. The system asked me to name the repository, and I chose the default name QDB. I entered the SQL Server login password (for repository access) and left the default for the SQL NetIQ account password, netiq. Next, the system prompted me for repository options; I left the default, which selects all options.