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Can NT Balance the Network Management Load?

By Bruce Boardman with Randy Grimshaw Makers of popular Unix-based enterprise network management platforms have boasted that their Windows NT versions will make child's play out of that management chore. With many of those products available, we thought it was time to see if NT solutions are a must-have network management tool or just another pretty face with a nice GUI. To learn whether NT-based management platforms can really balance the load, we played rough-and-tumble in our Real-World Lab at Syracuse University with Cabletron Systems' SPECTRUM Enterprise Manager 4.0, Computer Associates International's Unicenter TNG 2.0, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP OpenView Network Node Manager 5.0 and Tivoli Systems' TME 10 NetView 5.0.

We installed the products at Network Computing's lab on the 6,000-plus node network at Syracuse University. In addition to seeing if they could discover the university's diverse Ethernet network, we pointed the products at our four frame relay-connected lab sites. We evaluated each of these products on their ability to help us discover, manage and plan these highly diverse networks.

We found that most of the NT balancing act was performed by vendors attempting to outlast the competition while fixing their own teetering platform planks. Weighed against their Unix counterparts, some NT versions were cheaper and some were easier to use. Others, however, were startlingly expensive or more difficult to use than the Unix version. In short, all the products we evaluated showed room for improvement.

To view the Report card.
Tivoli's NetView outclassed all the other produc ts we tested, providing well-thought-out applications, excellent interface design and good performance, at a reasonable price. We give it our Editor's Choice award. New to this annual Network Computing measurement of network management platforms, CA's Unicenter TNG presented a solid, comprehensive systems management approach. HP's OpenView Network Node Manager on NT didn't have a lot of flash--but neither did it fail; it earns our Best Value award. Cabletron's SPECTRUM completely failed under load and was the least NT-like of the group.

Tivoli Systems TME 10 NetView 5.0
Tivoli struck a solid balance with its release of NetView on NT--on one hand offering ease of use through solid pre-defined, intuitive tools, and on the other designing in flexibility. It not only was the best NT version among the enterprise network management platforms we tested, it also was one of the best NT designed applications we have ever used. However, there is room for improvement. We'd like to see Tivoli apply the same intelligence that has made this new version so useful to RMON (Remote Monitoring), predictive analysis and the autosetting of thresholds. Tivoli says they're on the way. If so, NetView will be hard to catch, given the head start it has now.

NetView on NT is not just a watered-down port from Unix. Like its earlier AIX relative, NetView on NT is rooted in HP OpenView. The processes, parameter files and, for that matter, directories will look familiar to anyone who knows either Unix version. However, Tivoli has completely rewritten many of the processes to enable them to run multithreaded, and has redesigned the GUI to match the NT 4.0 design guide.

To download an Adobe Acrobat .pdf format version of the Network Management Software features charts, click here.

For the Side Bar on
How We Tested
Is Java The Future of Network Management? Kinnetics Enterprise Node Manager

ATM Backbone Switches
By Joel Conover

For more information on
Network Management
Check out these links
Web-Based Management: 9 Products to Help Simplify Your Network , Features, July 15, 1997
Systems Management: A Back-To-Back Measurement , Reviews, June 15, 1997
The Dawning Of The Age Of Java Management , Corporate.Net, May 15, 1997
Pointing A Finger At Network Management Point Products , Reviews, May 15, 1997
CA-Unicenter: The Next Generation , Sneak Previews, April 1, 1997

Updated November 10, 1997

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The May 23rd episode features interviews and demos with: