NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NEAL WEINBERG
on PRODUCT REVIEWS
06/05/01 - Today's focus: Configure this

Dear Wincenty Kaminski,

In this issue:

* Two configuration/auditing tools strive to provide
just the right amount of network data
* Links related to Network World product reviews
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Configure this

By Neal Weinberg

The Reviewmeister loves to get solid, reliable information on
the state of my network. But if I get too much information, I
get a migraine. And if I don't get enough, I worry that I may
be missing something.

So, I checked out two tools that are supposed to give me just
the right amount of network information.

Configuresoft's Enterprise Configuration Manager (ECM) 3.5 and
Ecora's IT Auditor for Windows 1.4.3.136 will document your
network's computers, but they work in sharply different ways.

ECM gathers a nearly overwhelming wealth of detail from the
Windows NT and 2000 machines, either servers or clients, on
which you install Configuresoft Distributed Component Object
Model agents.

IT Auditor needs no agents, but it gathers information only
from servers. ECM reports a ream of data on every computer,
much of which you'll never examine or need. While even the
short version of IT Auditor's reports are verbose, they contain
useful nuggets of server configuration data.

Our tests showed ECM is the better tool for monitoring and
troubleshooting Windows machines, but we wouldn't use it for
collections of more than about 5,000 clients. When used
strictly to help manage Windows servers or on small Windows-
based networks, however, ECM is an extremely useful tool.
IT Auditor's server-only reports are less useful and its
data collection process is slower than molasses in January.

ECM supplies more detail about each agent-equipped Windows
2000 and NT computer than you'd ever need. Unfortunately,
it doesn't offer configuration management for Windows
95/98/Millennium Edition. ECM's details include free disk
space, event log entries, device drivers, file and printer
shares, installed software, running processes, services,
user IDs, passwords, and even registry keys and values.

When we used the ECM data to troubleshoot client configuration
problems, drilling down through the mass of configuration
data was easy only for a small to moderate number of clients.
For large client populations, using the ECM data to solve a
problem with a specific client node would be tedious and time
consuming. On the other hand, on an ongoing basis, monitoring
 client configuration changes with ECM to stay ahead of
problems (such as running out of local disk space) is easy.

Similarly, monitoring Windows-based servers with ECM adds an
incremental assurance that those servers will remain healthy
 and available. Judiciously using ECM to manage only server
configurations is a smart and creative application of ECM's
abilities.

Ecora's IT Auditor for Windows will collect data on your Windows
2000 and NT servers. It gathers data on running applications,
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and DNS settings, event
log entries, file and print shares, hardware settings, installed
operating system particulars, user IDs and groups, server
policies, services, file replication specifications, TCP/IP
settings and domain controller details.

IT Auditor for Windows doesn't monitor clients, which leaves
the vast majority of your computers' configurations unwatched.
However, if you're only interested in servers or dead set
against installing agents on client machines, IT Auditor
is your kind of tool.

IT Auditor for Windows emits a set of reports each time it
collects server configuration settings. The reports are the
data repository; it doesn't store configuration data in a
relational database. IT Auditor produces both short- and
long-version reports in Web page, comma-separated-value and
Word document formats. Disappointingly, the Word documents
in our tests consisted of the same HTML as the Web page reports.

The Web page short-version report wasn't all that short,
containing entries such as "If it needs to, Windows can
move pieces of the operating system to the hard disk to free
up memory" to describe Windows 2000 and NT memory paging.
When you're in the midst of solving a problem, such verbiage
is less than helpful. The long version contains paragraph
after paragraph of Windows server tutorial - material you'll
quickly find superfluous.

Importing the comma-separated-value files into Excel takes
just a single mouse click. IT Auditor also can produce Visio
diagrams of the servers in your domains if you have Visio
installed on the same machine as IT Auditor. Like ECM,
IT Auditor can filter to display just those server parameter
values that have changed since the last time IT Auditor was run.


For the full report, go to
http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2001/0604rev2.html

_______________________________________________________________
To contact Neal Weinberg:

Neal Weinberg is features editor at Network World, in charge
of product reviews, Buyer's Guides, technology primers,
how-tos, issue-oriented feature stories and the Technology
Insider series. You can reach him at mailto:nweinber@nww.com.
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RELATED LINKS

Network management products at ComNet
Network World, 01/29/01
http://www.nwfusion.com/archive/2001/116098_01-29-2001.html

Feature: Locking down your desktops
Network World, 04/30/01
http://www.nwfusion.com/research/2001/0430feat.html

The archive for Reviews is:
http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/index.html
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

User Excellence Award

If you've completed an interesting network project in the last
12 to 18 months, here's your chance to gain industry
recognition for it. Network World is currently accepting
nominations for its annual User Excellence Award. For more
information and an online nomination form, go to
http://www.nwfusion.com/nw/awards.html#excellence
Deadline for submission is June 11.
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Copyright Network World, Inc., 2001

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