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Voice quality on the network depends on how we control and manage jitter, delay, packet loss, latency and other tricky parameters. We hunt for the fabled "five-nines" on our VoIP enterprises and juggle the applications, servers and network pieces that combine to transport voice between our network nodes, all while wrestling with QoS (quality of service) and traffic policies. Welcome assistance is here in the form of NetIQ's VoIP Manager 2.0.

Built on NetIQ's established line of network-management and -monitoring tools, VoIP Manager handles the setup, implementation and sustaining of a VoIP environment.

As a relative newcomer to VoIP, I've relied heavily on Cisco's Technical Assistance Center for support of Cisco's Call Managers, Unity voicemail, Network Registrar DHCP server and VG200 voice gateways. I was eager to test VoIP Manager, which is designed to keep my complex kluge of applications and hardware in harmony and to provide an acceptable quality of call experience for my connected users.

VoIP Manager also promises to provide meaningful diagnostics, monitoring, data collection and report generation.

The Manager

I declined NetIQ's offer of a systems engineer to help me install and configure the software. After all, I had helped stitch together the many elements that comprise Syracuse University's production Cisco VoIP environment -- rolling out VoIP Manager should have been small potatoes. It turns out I was right -- mostly. Perhaps the hardest part of bringing the VoIP Manager platform to life was reading the extensive installation documentation. Chock-full of excellent information, the reference library spares no detail in readying would-be administrators for the product's installation, customization and use through a half-dozen or so individual guides.

VoIP Manager's hardware requirements are typical for a machine that will run a combination of server OSes and applications. And my final test setup was built with Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, SQL Server 2000 and related Microsoft applications. Before installing VoIP Manager, you should run the quick but detailed preinstallation test to ensure that the required underlying pieces are in place. My test showed that a couple of critical SQL-related services were not running.

After performing final tweaks and installing the many patches required when building any Microsoft-based server, I loaded VoIP Manager. Program configuration is flexible, with nine modules that fall into the categories of network performance, system performance, hardware performance and connector modules.

These modules are packed with the diagnostic minutia demanded by voice packets on the network. From simulating VoIP traffic for testing network quality to determining if server CPU utilization exceeds a user-defined threshold, thousands of the hidden details that can affect call quality and system performance can be viewed, saved and stored in the SQL repository.

Of course, for a management tool to do its job, it needs something to manage. For the Cisco Call Manager, VoIP Manager installs a "managed object" (aka "agent") on each Cisco Call Manger. This small piece of code works with the VoIP Manager server to monitor and manage the Call Manager. Similar agents are available for Cisco's Unity voicemail server, Compaq's Insight Manager and Dell's OpenManage platform.

Two generic agents, Call Performance and Call Setup-H.323, load on virtually any computer on the network as a target for simulated VoIP traffic and signaling, so that network segment performance quality can be measured. Multiple agents can be loaded on a box, but a given agent will not run if the host box doesn't qualify as a system supported by VoIP Manager. For example, if you try to use the Unity agent to diagnose a box that is not a Unity platform, an error message will be generated on the management server.

Knowledge Base

NetIQ's technical support staff was quick in helping me get past a bush-league DNS error I had made during setup. VoIP has strict network demands, ranging from a perfect wiring infrastructure to properly provisioned QoS strategies in

the routers and switches. Knowing that many of my network segments are substandard, I wanted to get some call-quality metrics from both my "good" network segments as well as my less-than-perfect locations. By running Call Performance knowledge scripts against computers from different network areas, I could pinpoint specific areas likely to cause delay, jitter or packet loss because of slow or inconsistent network performance.

Likewise, on segments where my team had gone nuts building in QoS and tight network operational rules, I could prove that our efforts were yielding expected results.

VoIP Manager knowledge scripts are the product's lifeblood, and the out-of-the-box library is comprehensive. The Call Manager module alone includes more than 100 scripts that let administrators schedule, manage and monitor critical Call Manager services, while collecting user-defined data for the reporting of and automated response to problems. I solved all my problems using the knowledge scripts.

The purpose of each script is explained not only in detail but also in plain English, making the unfamiliar less intimidating. The depth and volume of the knowledge scripts make delving into what is usually a cryptic converged environment much easier. From picking apart troublesome H.323 gateway behavior to working with Call Manager's call-detail records, no stone goes unturned with VoIP Manager.

NetIQ says VoIP Manager 2.0 is a complement rather than a competitor to the CiscoWorks 2000 management platform, which also features modules for VoIP support. After using both products, I'm curious why the platforms are not viewed as competitors. Net IQ's VoIP Manager competes with Integrated Research's Prognosis IP Telephony Manager, which also seeks to oversee Cisco's Call Manager server.

It's a safe bet that as VoIP market share climbs, more management products for converged environments will surface.

Lee Badman is an IT analyst and project manager at Syracuse University. Previously, Lee had a distinguished career in systems maintenance with the U.S. Air Force. Send your comments on this article to him at lhbadman@syr.edu.