The latest revision of XcelleNet Afaria, version 4.51, offers strong document-management capabilities and a user-friendly system-backup tool across a vast array of platforms. Afaria 4.51 supports Windows 32żbased laptops, handhelds running Windows CE or Palm OS, and Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry pagers. The program's Java-based client adds support for even more devices. Although Afaria's feature sets vary with each type of client, each flavor offers significantly more support than do the other products.
Only Afaria provides configuration management, a feature that lets an administrator control the handheld clients' configuration. We were able to set our handheld device's owner's name, connection options, time zone and many other attributes from the Afaria server.
Afaria allows two types of distribution. During testing, we could push mandatory tasks to the clients, or we could let the clients voluntarily pull certain tasks from the server. No other product supports pull-oriented distribution. This capability let us configure inventory as a mandatory task to be run by all Palm clients every time they connected. The distribution method also let the Palm clients select which documents to download from the server. With the other products, you can schedule tasks such as the downloading of documents, but you can't empower the users to choose which documents they want at which times.
We found Afaria's logging and reporting features lacking. The other device-management platforms did a much better job of organizing the logs. To find out what was going wrong with a task we were running, for example, we had to search through copious log entries. If you are troubleshooting Afaria as we were, you may find this process cumbersome. It presents four views of the logs: file transfers, messages, replication and sessions.
The Afaria logs are presented in a listing, whereas the other products let you navigate by drilling down to find problems.
All three of the device-management platforms have different ways in which they try to make client software distribution easier, though none particularly stands out as best. Afaria provides a wizard called "Create Client Installation," which generates client setup files that incorporate defaults defined by the administrator.
We found this approach quite helpful because users need not configure the IP address of the server or know their default channel; the administrator simply makes a custom setup file that includes those configuration options before the client is even installed.
We used the wizard to create installations for each platform, and we configured them with the server IP address and the default tasks to run upon initial connection. These custom setup files can be distributed to the client via Web page, FTP server, network file share, CD-ROM or e-mail. Unlike Mobile Automation 2000, however, Afaria required us to set up the distribution mechanism manually.
Installation of Afaria works about the same as that of the other products. We first installed Microsoft's XML (Extensible Markup Language) parser, which Afaria uses on the server to communicate with the clients. We also set up a local user account on the server; Afaria would use that account to log in as a service. Once these preparations were made, we could run the setup application. We then answered a few setup questions about user name and the name of the MS SQL Server, and were ready to go.
XcelleNet Afaria won our Editor's Choice award because of its outstanding device support and enhanced feature set, but its pricing is much higher than that of the competition.
XcelleNet has said the next version of Afaria will offer PIM sync, bandwidth throttling and additional Windows CE management. If these features are executed well, the package will compete strongly with iMobile Suite and XTNDConnect Server in the PIM sync arena.
Afaria 4.51, starts at $5,000 including support for up to 250 total clients. XcelleNet, (800) 322-3366, (678) 585-7300; fax (678) 585-7389. www.xcellenet.com or info@xcellenet.com
Callisto Orbiter 4.6
Callisto Orbiter 4.6 is clearly the best when it comes to logging and reporting features. If you are looking for a device-management platform with all the standard features and are most concerned with user support, this is the platform for you.
Orbiter adds change analysis and Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) integration along with all the standard device-management features. It was the least expensive platform we tested. Novell recently acquired Callisto and is planning to integrate the Orbiter software into ZENworks (see "Mobile-Device Management: Alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions").
Orbiter's logging is superior because of its ease of navigation. Orbiter is the only platform that lists error alerts, and it displays them in a separate panel so the administrator can respond quickly to problems. Also, the logs can be queried; for example, we ran a query that showed us all the Palm clients with less than 1 MB free before we started file distribution. We found this function very helpful in troubleshooting.
Besides providing attractively presented logs, Orbiter can export the logs as Crystal Reports (the reporting standard for the Microsoft .Net platform). SMS can be configured to use Orbiter to send images to mobile clients and can receive the inventory information about the mobile devices from Orbiter.
Orbiter has an alert window, which shows administrators a list of outstanding alerts. During our testing, for instance, we had trouble delivering a WinZip package. We wanted to install the setup files and run the setup program automatically. The job was completed with errors, so Orbiter generated an alert, which appeared as an exclamation point in the listing of scheduled jobs. We could also drill down to find out on which client it failed and why it was breaking. Not only does Orbiter list the error message in the logs, it also explains why the error might have occurred right in the log file.
Orbiter can communicate with clients via TCP/IP or e-mail. The e-mail feature is there to support legacy clients. We had some trouble figuring out how to get mail support working because the manual is unclear about how to set it up.
To prepare for the Orbiter setup, we had to install Microsoft Outlook on the server and configure it to communicate with Microsoft Exchange. Orbiter uses Outlook's MAPI profile to configure itself for communications with the Exchange Server. The mail system is used as an alternative mechanism for client/server communications rather than for PIM synchronization.
Upon running setup, Orbiter asked for the MS SQL server name. Then it automatically created a database for its logs. Orbiter is the only device-management platform we looked at to make its own database automatically; the other installations we tested required the database to exist on the MS SQL server first. This made Orbiter very easy to install.
Orbiter's ability to analyze changes on laptop clients also stands out. We used the change-analysis feature to compare differences in two clients and detect changes over time. This feature is most useful for supporting mobile devices. We used an older snapshot and the current snapshot to see what changes were made on a client. We edited the registry and altered system.ini files, and Orbiter's comparison tool immediately showed us the changes.
The change-analysis feature also can be useful for maintaining installation images: Simply take snapshots of each rollout and compare them as necessary. Orbiter clearly reports exactly what changes you should make to your image to update it.
Orbiter's scripting feature is not as good as those of Afaria and Mobile Automation 2000. Those two products have helpful scripting windows that let you click and add environment variables and functions to your script. Orbiter offers scripting only in the form of batch files. Creating custom operations for your clients is more difficult with Orbiter than with the other products.
One final impressive feature of Orbiter is the ability to distribute a folder rather than just a file. We set up a file for distribution for our clients, and every time a file in that folder was changed or added, the new file was sent to the client automatically.
We set up a folder specifically for our users. When we needed to distribute a new file to the users, we simply copied the file to that folder. The next time the client connected, the new file was transferred to that client without any Orbiter administration.
Orbiter 4.6, starts at $35 for handhelds and decreases with volume discounts; Windows clients start at $120 and decrease with volume discounts. Callisto Software, (630) 682-8200; fax (630) 682-8374. www.callisto.com or sales@callisto.com
Mobile Automation 2000
Mobile Automation 2000 was by far the easiest to use of all the products, but it lacks the extra features that some of the other products incorporate. It still is highly capable as a device-management platform. Mobile Automation's price is certainly not as high as Afaria's, but slightly more expensive than Orbiter's for our test configuration.
We had a few installation problems with Mobile Automation 2000. This package uses Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) and SQL Server extensively and, like the others, requires you to create a database on the SQL Server for its logs. You also need to create an account on the server for use of login as a service. Unlike the other programs, however, Mobile Automation 2000 required several workarounds to IIS permissions and to the registry. This should be automated.
After completing the workarounds, we still received error alerts when we tried to distribute files. Technical support helped us by telling us to use the "sa" (system administrator) account on the SQL Server to get permission to communicate and eliminate the errors.
After setting up the server, installing the client software on laptops is a cinch. Using the wizard, we automatically created a Web site directory on the server, to which our clients could point their browsers to download and run the installation file. The wizard creates a Web page that informs the users of how to download and install the client on their systems and provides a link to the software. To do something like this in any of the other products, you would have to create the Web site manually, but Mobile Automation does it for you.
Mobile Automation 2000 comes with file distribution, inventory and scripting features. File distribution comes in two flavors: generic file transfer and software images. Images involve the sending of program data as well as configuration changes for the application. The products include a few canned images with the default installation, but the administrator also can create custom images. We found it tough to create the images but eventually got them working fine.
Logging on this system was the second best of all the platforms we tested, behind Callisto Orbiter, which has suggestions to remedy the error embedded in the log. We were able to drill down into the logs easily to troubleshoot errors.
A scripting tool called the Package Editor lets you run custom scripts on the client. The Package Editor distinguishes between handhelds that are connected via a companion PC and those that are directly connected via a modem or LAN card. We had some problems with the scripting tool, however. Although it successfully created scripts for our laptop clients, it didn't work at all with our directly connected Palm clients.
Mobile Automation 2000 4.0, $85 per client and $8,995 per server. Mobile Automation, (800) 334-1150, (310) 914-9603; fax (310) 914-9703. www.mobileautomation.com or sales@mobileautomation.com
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