Comment SNMP monitoring (Score 1) 103
I continue to be utterly amazed that people still take network monitoring for granted when building out highly complex networks. (For the sake of argument, we'll ignore that cheap monitoring is probably appropriate for legacy technology like frame relay...)
Since you're installing frame relay, I assume that you're using hardware from the Evil Empire (Cisco), so CiscoWorks is a perfectly adequate SNMP element manager for the Cisco hardware. However, if you're interested in more than just monitoring your routers, which would include servers, UPS, even facilities hardware like generators and air conditioners, you want a true enterprise NMS. And no, the open source freeware packages DO NOT qualify as enterprise- sorry to all of you advocates of What's Up and Big Brother and Nagios and all those other poser programs.
Unfortunately, you're going to have to lay out some money to get the kind of monitoring that you want. I can't speak for Unicenter from CA, but the full Unicenter package might be more than is required- a good start from CA would be Spectrum (acquired in the Concord/Aprisma purchase last year) for outstanding SNMP monitoring, including services and process management- they even have a Frame Relay focused module that would work well for you. Of course, there's always Tivoli- if you have more money than sense- or HP OpenView or Smarts from EMC.
Please, by all that is holy, don't go for the crappy cheap solution- you've already spent more than you need to if you've bought Cisco gear (remember, you can buy better than Cisco, but you can't pay more), so it shows that you're willing to spend money. Get a management solution that's worthy of your investment.
Stay hard.
Since you're installing frame relay, I assume that you're using hardware from the Evil Empire (Cisco), so CiscoWorks is a perfectly adequate SNMP element manager for the Cisco hardware. However, if you're interested in more than just monitoring your routers, which would include servers, UPS, even facilities hardware like generators and air conditioners, you want a true enterprise NMS. And no, the open source freeware packages DO NOT qualify as enterprise- sorry to all of you advocates of What's Up and Big Brother and Nagios and all those other poser programs.
Unfortunately, you're going to have to lay out some money to get the kind of monitoring that you want. I can't speak for Unicenter from CA, but the full Unicenter package might be more than is required- a good start from CA would be Spectrum (acquired in the Concord/Aprisma purchase last year) for outstanding SNMP monitoring, including services and process management- they even have a Frame Relay focused module that would work well for you. Of course, there's always Tivoli- if you have more money than sense- or HP OpenView or Smarts from EMC.
Please, by all that is holy, don't go for the crappy cheap solution- you've already spent more than you need to if you've bought Cisco gear (remember, you can buy better than Cisco, but you can't pay more), so it shows that you're willing to spend money. Get a management solution that's worthy of your investment.
Stay hard.
