OK, you have finally got your network in great shape. Large portions of your infrastructure are virtualized to increase efficiency, you have implemented grey-listing to cut down on spam and your front and back-end systems are running smoothly. It’s Miller Time, right? Not yet. Before you crack open that beer make sure you implement one of the many top notch monitoring solutions available. Monitoring solutions watch all of your network components and proactively alert you when problems arise. So instead of being told the “Internet is broken” by an irate colleague, you already know and are working on the issue.
One of my favorite monitoring solutions is Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). Boasting one of the most comprehensive monitoring feature sets (using management packs), it really covers every single aspect of your network. But with this grand feature set comes an even grander price tag. And, oh by the way, MOM shines best when you use a strictly Microsoft network. Go figure.
What if you can’t afford MOM, but still want the rich feature set? You’re in luck. Zenoss, an IT software management company, has an open-source product called Zenoss Core. Zenoss Core provides many of the monitoring features of MOM for free. In my environment I have Zenoss Core running in a Redhat Linux VM. But don’t worry if you are not too familiar with UNIX – Zenoss has a fully functioning VMware image that can run on Windows using the VMware player. Like MOM, I found the setup for Zenoss Core to be straightforward with comprehensive monitoring and alerting capabilities.
In the IT world there is nothing better than being alerted to a problem and getting it fixed before anyone notices. These two monitoring solutions afford you ease of mind allowing you to finally crack open that beer!
Kevin McGarry serves as the senior systems analyst at Eureka Software Solutions. Please contact Kevin if you have any questions about this newsletter or questions about IT service offerings. Call Kevin at 512-459-9292 ext. 291 or email him at kevinm@eurekasoft.com.