Novell ManageWise 2.0
Although it toes the line between network and systems management, ManageWise 2.0 has one foot firmly planted on the other side. Novell offers this product as a systems management console with unmatched support for NetWare servers, a bundled copy of its LANalyzer protocol analyzer and Intel's LANdesk workstation-manager and virus-protection suite. It's a full-featured product, but prepare yourself for sticker shock. Novell prices ManageWise according to your NetWare server license, and a 10-user ManageWise-NetWare bundle costs $3,395.

If you are primarily a Novell shop and your needs sway toward managing NetWare servers and troubleshooting workstation problems instead of managing generic LAN components, choosing ManageWise is a no-brainer, if you can afford it. No other product offers this bundle of syst ems management applications and support for the NetWare environment. However, don't mistake ManageWise for a dedicated SNMP manager.

On its own, ManageWise provides only token support for generic SNMP devices. Basically, it follows HP's lead, relying on third-party vendors to supply snap- in applications for non-Novell products. Although its vendor base can't match HP's, most major management products, including CiscoWorks and Optivity, are represented.

Buying into ManageWise means making an investment in the Novell environment. ManageWise is a two-part application: The management console runs on Windows 3.1x, but most functions, such as the discovery and polling tool and protocol analyzer, run as NetWare Loadable Modules.

ManageWise 2.0 looks like a fish out of water when it's pitted against dedicated network mangers such as Castle Rock's SNMPc and HP OpenView. Support for generic SNMP devices can only be described as an afterthought. For instance, after highlighting a node to make an SNMP query, we were surprised to find that the SNMP tool asked for an IP address to query. Not only had the a pplication failed to pass the selected node to the SNMP tool, it required selecting an IP or IPX address instead of a node name, a process that is more than frustrating if you have to support many devices. Although the SNMP tool did work, it's enough of a hassle to make gathering meaningful network data a real chore.

However, once entering the Novell realm, ManageWise obviously is in its element. Double-clicking on a Novell server brings up a management utility that makes walking to the server's console a waste of time and effort. It gathers detailed performance information and can even tweak server parameters on the fly.

When opening a network map, all workstation nodes were mapped using their Media Access Control (MAC) addresses, resu lting in a rather unintelligible map of random node names. We were pleasantly surprised to notice that when a user logged onto a managed server, the MAC address was replaced by the user's login name. This is a great feature, making it easy to diagnose problems with a p articular workstation. Unfortunately, it did little for hubs, routers and non-Novell servers throughout our network.

Novell includes an excellent trap- and event-handling matrix that can scale to support large networks. Also, the inclusion of the LANalyzer agent adds a powerful performance tracking and troubleshooting tool. Combined with its bundled software, it can be a valuable tool for managing Novell networks.

Dan Backman can be reached at dbackman@nwc.com.