activemanage customer whitepaper 2002

7/29/2019 ActiveManage Customer Whitepaper 2002

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In charge of your systemsActive Control, Anytime, Anywhere

256 Broadway, Troy, NY 12180

518-273-9319

[email protected]

http://www.productivitynet.com


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IntroductionProductivityNets ActiveManage changes the balance of power between you and your servers.

Network administrators are managing both more servers and a more diverse set of servers these days. The con-solidation and downsizing occurring in many companies means more servers for each network administrator to

manage. The low cost of servers has also led to their increasing numbers for both workgroup and enterprise appli-

cations. These servers come in many forms. Although Windows has remained very popular, most companies have

more than one operating system given the influx of Linux and the continued dominance of Solaris for back-end

databases and high-end applications. Its not uncommon for applications to use multi-tiered architectures with user

interface, business logic, and database components split among Windows and Unix systems.

Servers enter your company innocently enough, one by one, but quickly become in total, an unmanageable

headache. ActiveManage, a simple and powerful tool, puts you firmly back in charge of the Windows, Linux, and

Solaris system in your company.

The visibility and control provided by ActiveManage leads to confidence in your systems and your companys con-

fidence in you. ProductivityNet is passionate about the tools necessary to help you in this pursuit.

ActiveManage supports the administration of Windows, Linux, and Solaris servers from a single unified Web,

PalmOS, or PocketPC interface through a single administration point, the ActiveManage Host. The engineers at

ProductivityNet have designed a tool with a thoughtful interface that demystifies complex operating systems so

you can handle routine tasks easily and focus on the root cause of problems when they arise. Any server or other

device put under ActiveManage control will be under your full and active control anytime, anywhere.

Compare ActiveManage to the alternative of using

a muddled set of underpowered tools that come

with Windows, Solaris, and Linux tools meant

for single-server, single operating systems adminis-

tration from the console or a management worksta-tion. Network administrators must master a slew of

different tools to manage Windows and a com-

pletely different set for Linux or Solaris.

ActiveManage harvests the capabilities of the most

important tools, adds additional powerful features

such as alerts and automated alert responses, and

presents it all to you in a simple Web or wireless

device interface.

Over time, ActiveManage will allow you to stabilize and continually improve the performance of all the systems

in the company. Imagine a single ActiveManage Host with connections out to each server on your network where

you can actively control each of these servers and they can actively communicate with you by using alerts.

Anything you need to do add a new user or group, start or stop a Windows service or Unix process, run a com-

mand on your servers is available to you on your browser or wireless device. You can manage servers in dif-

ferent locations from wherever you are. Problems can be solved today and prevented tomorrow.

Page 2 Copyright 2002 ProductivityNet, Inc. All rights reserved.

Figure 1: ActiveManage unifies and simplifies

the active administration of Windows,

Linux, and Solaris servers.


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ActiveManage makes systems administration more productive and satisfying because the tool was designed to

solve the real problems that occur in your network. Its a powerful and comprehensive tool with a simple, acces-

sible interface.

Saves time Enables time savings in accomplishing common day-to-day system adminis-tration tasks, anytime, anywhere over the web or using wireless devices.

Minimizes downtime Provides alerts to developing problems, and automated respons-

es/fixes to system anomalies, thus proactively managing critical systems in the organization.

Improves system quality Comprehensively manages servers, desktops and routers

including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Sun Solaris operating systems.

Simple to deploy Fast to deploy and configure clients, host and agents with secure and

encrypted access to the native interface of the systems.

The tool will change the way you administer your systems and enable some powerful solution scenarios well discuss.

With ActiveManage, a network administrator can support the critical needs of the business and readily maintain

an increasingly dynamic environment while improving the quality of service to the enterprise. A simple

ActiveManage agent on each managed server brings that server under full control. In fact, the entire ActiveManageproduct suite can be installed in just a few hours. Contrast this with more expensive solutions that often take weeks

or months to deploy and still dont provide the critical benefits of ActiveManage. While ActiveManage is not com-

plex, it is the most powerful tool available to actively control the servers on your network.

The Current State of Systems AdministrationActiveManage has defined a new product category: multi-server, multi-platform systems administration across the

Web. With its unique approach to multi-platform systems administration, ActiveManage can provide a cohesive

systems administration strategy that addresses the needs of a busy network administrator handling a diverse net-

work. Lets look at some of the approaches in use today for system administration.

Using native operating system tools

Network administrators do not have the right tools

to diagnose and correct systems problems before

they become company problems. Its tempting to

believe that server software such as Microsoft Win-

dows 2000, Linux, or Solaris comes with the right

tools to administer them effectively. They dont.

These tools are made for managing a single server

on the local network. These tools dont include the

proactive alerts necessary to catch problems beforethey happen and many of the tools cannot be used

remotely without additional technologies like virtu-

al private networks (VPNs). Microsoft Terminal

Server only works for single servers and requires

add-on security. Using only these tools is compara-



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ble to an accountant using only Excel or a creative designer using only the Microsoft Windows Paint program.

You can get by but you will be forever limited by these mediocre tools.

ActiveManage lets you both monitor and control multiple Windows, Linux, and Solaris servers without many of

the typical hassles.

Remote, secure administration as an afterthought

Companies have developed some painful methods to remotely manage Microsoft Windows servers. The most

common method is to use a remote control software package like Symantecs pcAnywhere, often over a VPN.

The second method involves making a dial-up connection to the server. Both methods lead to very slow response

time and do not provide the proactive administration with alerts and automated responses found in a tool like

ActiveManage. Also, the network administrator must connect to each server individually it takes longer and

there is no sense of managing the system as a whole.

Unix administrators often use a Secure Shell to provide an encrypted link to Linux or Solaris servers. This works

fine but doesnt offer a friendly user interface and once again, each server must be administered individually.

Wireless monitoring tools

Some vendors offer wireless monitoring tools to check on a servers

health. These tools do not offer the powerful Active Control offered

by ActiveManage to make changes from the wireless device. In addi-

tion, other vendors wireless devices are not ideal for many adminis-

tration tasks given their small user interfaces and lack of a keyboard.

The ActiveManage Wireless Client is much more suitable for many

administration tasks.

The ActiveManage Client for PalmOS and ActiveManage Client for

PocketPC provide rich interactive interfaces for monitoring and con-trolling servers.



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ActiveManage in a NutshellActiveManage provides many benefits for the network administrator with one, two, a dozen or even a hundred

servers to manage. ActiveManage excels both in managing servers on the local network and in managing remote

servers across town or across country. The architecture and Web interface also fit nicely into help desks and evenenable external consultants to effectively manage a companys servers.

The ActiveManage Host functions as the hub between Web and wireless clients and managed servers running the

Microsoft Windows, Linux or Solaris operating systems. ActiveManage agents are also available for Windows

desktops. ActiveManage agents for additional platforms will be released periodically. Lets explore each of the crit-

ical factors of ActiveManage systems administration:

Active Control

Active Control means that a network administrator can perform a complete set of tasks to effectively administer

all servers. Problems tend to decrease over time as the network administrator falls into the pattern of discover,

solve, and improve. ActiveManage raises visibility into the servers through helpful views and flexible alerts givingaccess to the root cause of problems. The ActiveManage Web and wireless interfaces provides access to power-

ful hooks into the Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems to fix most problems when they occur. The

ActiveManage Active Responder helps perma-

nently control problems by allowing the net-

work administrator to add automatic responses

to many known conditions.

Many other products and certainly the man-

agement tools included with Microsoft

Windows, Linux and Solaris only handle a sub-

set of these tasks and dont help network

administrators uncover the root cause of prob-

lems. These products keep network administra-

tors in a perpetual state of reacting to problems.

ActiveManage begins a state of continual

improvement.

Anytime, Anywhere

Network administrators are people. They move around. They go to lunch, go home at night, go to tradeshows,

and walk around within a company. They need a systems administration tool that travels with them. Native tools

within Microsoft Windows, Linux and Solaris require client installs that require a network administrator to be at

his desk or at the server console. Microsoft tools are notoriously bad over slow links or across the Internet. Even

secured administration of Linux and Solaris servers requires a computer fitted with a Secure Shell client.

ActiveManage lets you move around naturally with full control of and communication with your servers from

any wireless device with the ActiveManage client or from a Web browser.



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Multi-server

The native tools in Microsoft Windows, Linux and Solaris are designed for single-server administration. Often a

network administrator wants to view settings or make changes on multiple servers simultaneously, a task ill-suited

for these native tools. For example, companies often use clustering software or server farms to offer high-avail-ability for key applications. These techniques ensure that the application will continue working even if a server

fails. When troubleshooting these applications, a network administrator needs to simultaneously view each of the

servers in the cluster or farm to diagnose problems.

In addition, companies often have similar servers

deployed around the company for file, web, or other

services. A change to one server usually means the

need to change, or at least check, other similar

servers.

ActiveManage puts all of these servers under a sin-

gle point of control. With a single login to

ActiveManage, multiple servers can be viewed, com-pared, and configured from one interface. Also,

ActiveManage alerts and automated responses dis-

play warnings and informational messages for any

collection of servers.

An effective systems administration tool like ActiveManage will make administering multiple servers much easier.

Multi-platform

The Microsoft Windows platform is very popular within companies but Linux and Solaris often house key appli-

cations such as databases, directories, or firewalls. A systems administration solution that does not address these

platforms will be incomplete. Ideally, the systems administration tool would treat the common features of an oper-

ating system such as adding users, starting and stopping services or processes in a common way. A network

administrator would perform the same task in the same way for different systems and have the tool figure out the

appropriate implementation for each disparate system. ActiveManage simplifies systems administration across dif-

ferent operating systems so network administrators can focus on the semantics of the problem without worry-

ing about the syntax.

ActiveManage in ActionActiveManage will not sit in your server room collecting

dust. You will use ActiveManage on a daily basis for

routine administration such as adding users and groups

or stopping and starting Windows services and Unix

processes. You will use ActiveManage in troubleshoot-

ing to discover and to solve many types of server prob-

lems and finally to improve the network and your con-

trol of it over time with new alerts and automated

responses to recurring issues. All of these activitities will

be simplified because you can manage all of your



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servers from a unified Web or wireless device interface. Moreover, you will really appreciate the power and flex-

ibility of ActiveManage when trouble hits. Lets look at a probably all-too-familiar scenario.

Friday afternoon

Your SmoothSales order entry system is down. This system takes all Web-based and direct sales orders in your

company or at least it did. Why now? As luck would have it, its early Friday afternoon near the end of the quar-

ter and you are at a remote office setting up some new users. Your pager just went off with the frantic message

from your vice president in charge of sales.

Before ActiveManage

Before you brought in ActiveManage, the prospects were gloomy. Drop your current work and drive the 45 min-

utes back to the home office to fix the problem. The people at the remote office need you but you cant be in two

places at once. You anxiously think back on all the times you attempted to walk someone through a solution over

the phone. Those were frustrating times and rarely worked to your satisfaction. The best answer then was for you,

and you alone, to solve the problem.

This outage is costing your company money, some serious image problems, and could put a damper on the whole

weekend, a weekend you really need to relax and recover from the hard work youve done in conjunction with the

companies expansion over the last 3 months. The company comes first but the thought of another weekend in

the office is tough to take.

ActiveManage helps you discover the problem

The SmoothSales application has always been reliable but you had some warning signs of the current problem.

In the last half hour, youve received two alerts on your Compaq iPAQ through the ActiveManage alert interface.

One of the SmoothSales servers was low on disk space and the CPU was running abnormally high. You thought

it might just be end-of-quarter surge but you were planning to check it out before you left for the day.

ActiveManage can help you discover and solve this problem

from where you are. The SmoothSales application runs on

two Windows 2000 servers with a back-end Oracle database

housed on Solaris. These Windows and Solaris servers are

under ActiveManage control. Since ActiveManage uses net-

work and firewall-friendly communications, you have no trou-

ble logging in and seeing the SmoothSales servers securely

from a browser at your location.

First, you check the Solaris server that houses the Oracle data-

base. There is no need to use a secure shell client or an inse-

cure Telnet session. ActiveManage provides secure connec-tivity right from your browser. Oracle was updated just last

week, supposedly just a minor update, and you suspect that

might be the cause of the problem. The Oracle processes on

Solaris check out fine the processes are running and the Oracle logs look fine. A little perplexed, you click on

the Windows 2000 SmoothSales server. The services are up and running, but one more click shows the CPUs

pegged at 8085% and no one is using the system.



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Its starting to become a little clearer. The hard disk

warning you received earlier and the consistently

high CPU usage lead you to believe the application

has run out of resources. You check the services

more closely using ActiveManage and see the log-ging service eating up CPU and RAM. A check of

the log file shows that it has grown to a monstrous

10 GB! Its all clear now. The DBA who upgraded

Oracle had turned on verbose logging on the

Windows server and had turned off the maximum

log file size for a weekend of testing. When the sys-

tems were cutover to production, these helpful test

settings were slow death for the application. It was

just a matter of time. This system was eating its own

hard disk and RAM resources and had finally died.

ActiveManage helps you solve the problemThe fix is easy. You delete the log file from the ActiveManage Web interface and change the log file settings on

the SmoothSales Windows application using the ActiveManage integrated remote control interface. This fixes the

CPU usage problem and a call back to headquarters confirms the system is back online.

ActiveManage helps you improve the situation

You rest easier now that the immediate problem is solved. You take a few minutes more to add some additional

protection against future problems.Within ActiveManage, you add an alert that monitors the logging service more

closely. You dont believe it will be a problem in the future but youve been burned once. You make a mental note

that next time, youll pay closer attention when ActiveManage shows you the first sign of a coming problem. You

are convinced that you can avoid future problems altogether by setting up the right alerts for each of the Smooth-

Sales Windows services and Solaris processes youll work on this on the following Monday.

ActiveManage made a potentially painful problem for you and your company quite easy to solve.



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More ActiveManage ScenariosActiveManage assists network administrators on a daily basis. We highlight some common scenarios where

ActiveManage can help network administrators complete an important task. Earlier we discussed how to use

ActiveManage to successfully fix a multi-platforms sales system from a remote office. The following scenarios willshow in shorthand other ways to use ActiveManage. The flexibility of ActiveManage proves useful for a large

number of common and unusual problems. ActiveManage provides summary and fine-grained control over the

Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems. The operating system plays a central role for any system as the

link between the underlying hardware platform and all applications running on the server. By using the informa-

tion and functionality provided by ActiveManage, both application and hardware problems can be discovered and

solved through their interactions with the operating system.

Here are some specific examples to illustrate how ActiveManage can be used to assist a network administrator. You

might imagine other similar scenarios where ActiveManage can help you solve your specific systems challenges.

Administration by walking around

Network administrators often need to be in two places at once. Much of the job requires you to be out with the

people helping them to use the network and its applications. Great network administrators have great people skills.

However, many of the configuration changes can only be done from the server console or from your desktop

computer. This creates stress and inefficiency for network administrators commuting between their desk and the

floor. ActiveManage reduces this stress by bringing a full set of administration tools to a wireless device or lap-

top that travels with you. You can use a PDA with the ActiveManage client to provide full administration wher-

ever you are inside your company. We call this administration by walking around.

Adding a new user from anywhere

Commonly new employees or consultants are hired without much warning to the

network administrator. They require immediate access to the network to performtheir jobs. Network administrators are forced to react to these situations often at a

great cost to productivity and sometimes at personal cost to the network adminis-

trator when these requests come at night or over a weekend.

With ActiveManage, you need not come into the office or even return to your desk

to add these new users. You can use any browser or wireless device with PalmOS

or PocketPC to add or delete a user from any location. After only a minor inter-

ruption, you can return to your meeting, go back to the conference, or carry on

with your project.

Restarting a Microsoft Exchange mail server

Microsoft Exchange is commonly used by companies for e-mail. The e-mails, discussion topics, and attached doc-

uments stored by Exchange are very important to a company. Exchange data files, like relational database files, are

a challenge to backup because the data files remain open and locked at all times. Most network administrators use

special backup software or write scripts that stop the Exchange server in preparation for a backup. The Exchange

Server is then restarted after the backup. Sometimes these scripts fail and an Exchange server may not restart.



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ActiveManage can alleviate this problem.A network administrator can create an automated response to manual-

ly check and restart Microsoft Exchange server as soon as a problem is diagnosed. ActiveManage includes canned

SMTP e-mail alerts than will notify the network administrator when a mail server using SMTP is down. POP3,

Web, DNS, FTP and other alerts can be used to keep network administrators informed about the health of key

company servers.

The Linux Application Server

The Linux operating system is very popular for running Web applications using HTML, JavaServer Pages (JSP),

and servlet technology. Developers can rapidly deploy dynamic applications to a production system using prod-

ucts such as Jakarta Tomcat. New features can be added frequently. Changes to these applications only take affect

when the Tomcat server is re-started. Sometimes developers forget to do this. Using ActiveManage, network

administrators can quickly cycle the Tomcat server to initiate recently added applications. The network adminis-

trator may opt to grant the lead developer rights to manage some of these servers. Then the lead developer can

start and stop processes from anywhere, anytime by using ActiveManage.

The Solaris infrastructure serverSun SPARC servers with the Solaris operating system handle the infrastructure for many medium and large com-

panies. Many companies run high-end applications and Oracle databases or LDAP directory services on Solaris.

In short, companies often trust this mission-critical function to Solaris and keeping these applications running

requires access to the Solaris servers.

When something happens to these servers, the Solaris expert is usually called in. ActiveManage can fix many prob-

lems without the need for expensive second or third level support. ActiveManage can make Solaris servers as

accessible as Windows servers. If a problem creeps up in one of your applications, youll have the power to check

the processes and hardware on the underlying Solaris infrastructure servers. You can check each of the processes,

any error logs, and if necessary make changes to the Solaris servers. ActiveManage provides a full picture of all of

the servers throughout a company to give you a complete picture of a problem, often before it becomes a problem.



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ConclusionTodays network administrator needs a powerful tool for systems administration.

No longer are the point solutions offered with operating systems sufficient for the network administrator deal-ing with a large number of diverse servers. Applications inside companies often have components distributed

across different operating systems, and companies themselves are often distributed across large geographic areas.

ActiveManage reduces the complexity of systems administration through a well-designed interface with summa-

ry and fine-grained control over Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Solaris servers as well as Microsoft Windows

desktops. Network administrators can use ActiveManage to discover problems and peculiarities in their networks,

solve everyday or one-time problems, and improve the resiliency of the network.

Network administrators are no longer chained to their desk as ActiveManage supports both browser and wireless

devices such as the Palm or Compaq iPAQ to proactively monitor and respond to any type of problem. Changes

can be made to a single server or multiple servers if required. ActiveManage can work on the high-level to solve

most problems and gives you the ability to dissect a problem in detail until you find its root cause.

ActiveManage changes the balance of power between you and your systems.



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About ProductivityNet, Inc.

Launched in 1999 from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Incubator Center and

located in Troy, NY ProductivityNet produces innovative software solutions for all

areas of network management. Our flagship product, ActiveManage, is designed

to give network administrators anytime, anywhere control over multiple server plat-

forms. Unlike traditional monitoring products, the ActiveManage product suite puts

control of networks into the hands of administrators through a centralized applica-

tion accessed through a Web browser or wireless handheld device.

ProductivityNet, Inc.

Corporate Headquarters

256 Broadway

Troy, NY 12180

Phone: 518-273-9319

Fax: 518-273-6591

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: http://www.productivitynet.com/

activemanage customer whitepaper 2002

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