For an additional $50,000 per management server, Opsware offers multimaster technology, in which a management server in one data center could take over for a failed management server in another location. Management servers share configuration data among themselves and can determine the optimal route to any agent. For large, geographically dispersed environments, this feature provides a measure of redundancy and ensures auditing and distribution activities continue unimpeded.
Given these factors, our fictional company is sized appropriately to choose a distributed management server approach from either vendor, implementing the management software on a physical server in each data center. We chose three, four-processor x86 platforms running Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server, at approximately $25,000 each, not including software or hardware support costs.
Call In The Agents
InterBank plans to place an agent on each managed server. While some vendors tout agentless operations, there's just no getting around the agent when you want full configuration control of a platform.
Opsware and BladeLogic take different approaches, however, to agent distribution. Opsware believes in getting distribution done in one pass, including all agent and sub-agent software required for any of its multiple management modules. BladeLogic, in contrast, initially pushes out the core agent to support its Operations Manager suite; if additional functionality, such as Application Release Manager, is used, a sub-agent must be installed. That means additional time and expense for the IT staff.
