CA Releases UniCenter for Linux 34
Computer Associates looks like it has finally released it's UniCenter Managment Framework for Red Hat Linux. Other distros to follow soon, and you can order a free CD from CA.
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CA Releases UniCenter for Linux
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The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else doing it wrong, without commenting. -- T.H. White
Re:Unicenter (Score:1)
As a matter of fact, I'm using ITO 5.0 (NNM 6.0) and I was speaking specifically about ITO's application monitoring
capabilities (or lack of).
Do you have all the latest patches?
We are using ITO on a correctly sized HP/UX server, thank you.
Good!
Now, I'd like to know people using IP unnumbered interfaces on their routers (which Cisco says is the proper way of
configuring WAN links) and still don't poll the routing table.
Try editing netmon.lrf and adding -R to the 3rd field, ovdelobj netmon.lrf, ovaddobj netmon.lrf, ovstop netmon, ovstart netmon. That will tell netmon not to regularly poll routing tables on routers.
Using unnumbered interfaces for WAN links may be the way cisco recommends configuring their routers, but it is not, IMNSHO, the best method. If someone told you to jump off a bridge would you? Using numbered interfaces gives you the ability to ping the other side whereas you don't have that ability using unnumbered interfaces. You can check each level of the stack to see where the problem lies, instead of just having everything "Up" or "Down." I don't recommend using unnumbered interfaces to anyone. (Just like I recommend against using zero subnet networks, even though all router vendors I know of support it).
Why would you want to poll the routing table with unnumbered interfaces? To see if they are up or down? If that's the case, the default for NNM is to SNMP poll unnumbered interfaces. In ITO that default may be different, but I doubt it. If it is, then you can add a -k nonIPStatusPolls=true to the netmon.lrf file. This will give you status info on your unnumbered interfaces. If you don't see connections between your unnumbered interfaces, you could add -k discoverLevel2Nets=true to netmon.lrf. Again, this is the default, so someone must have been mucking around, or ITO a lot different than the base NNM, if you have to do this to get acceptable results.
I again encourage you to join the OVForum. You don't need to be a member (which requires a membership fee) in order to join their mailing list....
HTH
Unicenter bashing (Score:1)
What's all this CA bashing around here ? Everybody's complaining 'bout how crappy all CA software is. Of course critics have a point when they say Unicenter needs a lot of fine-tuning. But there's only one big point to be made. CA sells Unicenter as an "out-of-the-box" solution, which it isn't. The power of Unicenter lies in all you can do with it, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of configuration and a whole lot of fine-tuning before you can fully benefit from Unicenter.
Unicenter can be a very powerful tool if you use it right and take the time and effort needed to build those things you'll want and need to fully administer your network.
It seems to me that most of the CA-bashers here haven't taken that time and effort and therefore do not realize the full power of these tools.
Wouldn't it be just great to really be able to concentrate on real network management instead of just running around from fire to fire after users complaints. Well, with a proper implementation of Unicenter and the right choice of Unicenter options this can be achieved, but you'll have to change your "way of thinking". That is, react before problems arise instead of after end-users nag you 'cause they can't do this or that.
And no, I'm not working at CA
Re:Unicenter (Score:1)
My company (an ISP) invested time and a lot of money to jump into the network management bandwagon. They choose HPOV (because it's the "defacto standard", they say).
I must say I'm not impressed. The core routers were rapidly flooded by SNMP requests asking for their routing table (each time the 60,000 routes from the internet). We haven't yet found anything HPOV does that we cannot do with free software like BigBrother or MRTG. And we still have to code our own perl scripts that monitors the various applications running on our network. I don't find the UI very user-friendly. The maps are ugly. The various daemons are memory and processor-intensive.
I'd like to find info about other users of network management software in an ISP environment. What did you expect? What did you get? How do you actually use the platform?
How we use HP Openview. (Score:1)
use it as a fault-indicator system. And it
doesn't do that very well. It can't seem
to understand that some traps are good and
some traps are bad and keep track of the
status of the node based on the traps. Heck,
even SNMPc can do that. And the get/set
interface is pretty ugly, sow we end up
going to the devces themselves or attaching
proxy boxes with web interfaces.
Now an SNMPc Linux port, that would be sweet.
-- cary
Re:Sweet (Score:1)
The support needn't be free for the software to be 'free'.. Whether unsupported free software is useful or not is up to the community to decide, depending on that software's utility (security, functionality, robustness, open-standards compliance, etc.) and licensing..
Also, support comes from many quarters, and some of it is free, and some of it is rightfully for-cost... (and, like MS API documentation, some of it is wrongfully hidden or for-cost)
Re:Unicenter (Score:1)
As far as applications monitoring, that's not what NNM is for. Take a look at ITO if you want to do systems management. HP OpenView Network Node Manager is for network monitoring, not applications monitoring. FYI, ITO includes NNM as it's "base" platform.
You're not using the Windows NT version are you? That would be your first mistake. The daemons are not much of a problem if you have a properly sized Unix box. Did you follow the suggestions in the sizing white paper about how much RAM/swap/disk you should have depending on the number of nodes/ovw sessions/etc? Are you using an external database or the bundled one? For large installations you probably want to use Oracle as the database.
Sounds like you are just a little inexperienced and are complaining because you can't figure it out. As a first-step help. I'd strongly recommend joining the HP OpenView Forum and definately their mailing list. The problems you describe are "newbie" problems that get covered quite often on the list (such as polling the router tables in ISP routers). I think you'll get up to speed rather quickly if you participate in the discussions on the mailing list.
HTH
Sweet (Score:1)
Jezzie Ballie
Re:Unicenter (Score:1)
Re:Sweet (Score:1)
OTOH if the two are linked (eg "no s/ware without support") then run awaaaayy...
~Tim
--
What is Unicenter (Score:2)
Unicenter is a package of software to monitor machines from a single "console". They have basicaly two component
1) AT technologie with which you'll try to monitor your machines - It can look on your file systems processes Memory usage, log files etc
2)EM : with which you can act on message that are send from the ganet to the console. manage some tapes and use the workload (a scheduler). tahta part is very tricky and goes low level on the system on which it runs. it is not has widely suported has the AT stuff.
CA products are young and unmature - so installing and configuring them IS tricky (look at the number of patches available here [cai.com]. Unicenter comes with many options some which are great asome which sucks
Re:Unicenter (Score:5)
I used to work @ CA. Please let me just get a few things off my back:
1. CA=Computer Associates=Constant Acquisition.
This company has never produced anything intelligent or even remotely good. They just buy smaller companies, fire everyone and milk their reputations and installed base for all they are worth.
2. Bill Gates is *not* the All-Powerful Evil Overlord of Darkness(tm). Charles Wang is the All-Powerful Evil Overlord of Darkness(tm). After buying a company, Mr Wang gather everyone around him, smiles and announces to the poor jerks: "I don't need you. CA does not need you. You are worthless little pieces of dirt and I am going to make you pay for it".
3. Boycott CA. I am serious: this company, even more than MS, represents everything that is wrong, corrupt, greedy and disgusting in the big soul-less corporations of closed-source software.
Their software sucks anyway.
I worked for CA for 1 and a helf year -- the day I quit that company was the day I started breathing again.
Enough said -- sorry for the ranting.
Unicenter (Score:3)
We've spent nearly 2 years fighting UNICENTER and the IDIOTS at CA before trashing the project and destroying the software. TIVOLI is the way to go...expect to see LINUX support there VERY SOON, and TIVOLI support seems to actually know the product the support, what a concept.
WTF???? (Score:2)
WTF does it doo? I wish their technical people wrote that white paper. From the *Why is a framework needed* section: "Pervasively implemented frameworks promised to enable a consistent, dependable, integrated environment, with minimum overhead and maximum flexibility."
English is my first language, but I have trouble parsing that one.
Re:Unicenter (Score:1)
Unicenter is a Bad Program. Stay far away!
We have several RS/6000 systems where I currently work. CA Unicenter was loaded on most of them... and for the most part hasn't been a problem. But on one particular machine, we were getting spontaneous "lock ups" (system could not fork() -- ping worked, but telnet would connect and then drop; console login was almost possible but you couldn't get as far as a shell prompt before it crapped out). These "lock ups" would happen after about a week of uptime, with no warning symptoms. We installed an rrdtool-based monitoring system (simple stuff -- load average, active virtual memory pages, etc.) -- there was no sign of danger before the "lock ups" at all.
We sent a crash dump to IBM for analysis. They told us the kernel heap had been corrupted.
We uninstalled CA Unicenter (which for reasons unknown to me loads itself into kernel space like a device driver). The system has been running continously for a good while now:
03:46PM up 17 days, 6:03, 10 users, load average: 0.98, 0.81, 0.48Of course this doesn't prove that CA Unicenter was responsible for the corrupted kernel heap, but we're sure as hell not going to reinstall it!
ObSillyAcronymSubstitution: one of my coworkers here calls them "Computer Assassins".
Re:WTF???? (Score:2)
The biggest lacking I found was that it wasn't intuitive. I can manage a novell, linux, or nt server, but I have to know 3 different sets of utilities and interfaces. If it gave one good interface to manage ANY server, and manage it well, it would rock. It's has some of the functionality of Novell's NDS but lacks the interoperability--most notably doesn't offer anything to Novell or mixed shops.
--Cant wait for the NDS for linux port.
Hemos, making brevity an art form... (Score:1)
Stay away!!! (Score:3)
After 15 minutes of poking around, Unicenter crashed. I had to switch machines because the instructor said a total reinstall of NT and Unicenter was needed. I'm good but not that good, I mean 15 minutes and I didn't change a single setting!!!
The software constantly showed incorrect network settings. Machines were up/down when they weren't. I had my dead machine off for 3 hours before Unicenter noticed.
My company is a CA VAR, and even with our great pricing I can't recommend Unicenter.
Re:Unicenter (Score:1)
It may well be all that and a bag of chips for NT, but do not under any circumstances use this bloated piece of crap on Unix. I spent months and months trying to make it work at a previous job on Solaris, HP/UX and AIX, and it never did, even when I followed all of the published documents to the letter -- CA's Unix support is a joke, an absolute joke.
Boycott Computer Associates.
Use something that's worthwhile: BMC Patrol [bmc.com] or Tivoli [tivoli.com] rock Unicenter's world.
Unicenter also for the Palm (Score:2)
This is a good move. I forsee easier management and reference with the Palm as a tool. Using the Symbol Technologies Palm Pilots with bar-code readers could be great. What a great way to manager a network!
For a little more info, go here. [palmgear.com]
CA Software Quality (Score:1)
Regards,
Gothland
Re:Unicenter (Score:1)
It looks _so cool_!
Like playing Tron and doing your job at the same time!
Too bad...
Re:Quake level like a computer room (Score:1)
(we've got a wuftpd sploit in the 8th floor server room... grab the BFG and get me some chocolate and coffee dammit..)
"NOT BIG ENOUGH!!! WE NEED BIGGER FUCKING GUNS!!!!!!"