IBM Director. Is it any good?

[RMaguire996]

I need to find a suitable diagnostics tool that can be used to check the health of all the machines on a network, as well as their peripheral devices. IBM Director has been recommended but I know nothing about it. I've been told it can be very hard on memory. These testimonials have been unconvincing at best. Does Microsoft SCOM do the same thing??
I have very little experience with this so any advice is really appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[DelJo63]

check the health of all the machines on a network

how many systems are there - - more precisely, are they all on one subnet (eg 192.168.x.*) from one router or do you multiple subnets (192.168.1.*, 192.168.2.*, . . . 192.168.n.*)?

Define "health". I wrote Availability Monitoring stuff for Unix systems and health took in considerations like:

1. memory usage
2. paging statistics
3. processes vs number in the run queue
4. disk capacity
5. disk activity
6. network utilization
7. systems defined vs systems online

 

[RMaguire996]

I need to monitor several hundred IBM tills which are on multiple subnets (192.168.1.*, 192.168.2.*, . . . 192.168.n.*). I need to check that the peripherals (printer, scanner, ) connected to each system are working and if not find out what the problem is.

As I said, I'm new to this, trying to research possible ways of doing this.

 

[DelJo63]

These system tools are BIG, expensive and complicated.

IBM tills which are on multiple subnets (192.168.1.*, 192.168.2.*, . . . 192.168.n.*). I need to check that the peripherals (printer, scanner, )

by tills, to you mean teller or cashier stations and/or atms?
suggest you see the FAQ
and the descriptive info

 

[RMaguire996]

They are cashier tills. Thanks for the FAQ link. I didn't see this when I was on IBMs site. Again, please forgive my inexperience in this area and thanks for your help.

 

[DelJo63]

please forgive my inexperience in this area

not a problem - - see my signature

 

[DelJo63]

Btw: this stuff is terribly complicated. as an example,

any device with an IP address can be seen to be online using ping, BUT

• that assumes the NIC is configured to respond to pings
• being online doesn't mean the device is operational (consider a printer with a paper jam needing manual intervention)

and it just goes on and on and on . . .

 

[DelJo63]

Here's a product to view network devices (Network View) which can scan the network using several technologies - - I think the SNMP interface would be your best bet.

An issue to be resolved is accessing devices beyond the local subnet router, aka networks like

gateway-router ---switch
				   |
				   +--- routerA (192.168.1.1)--- devices
				   |
				   +--- routerB (192.168.1.2)--- devices
				   |
				   +--- routerC (192.168.1.x)--- devices
				   |
				   +--- routerD (192.168.1.y)--- devices

or still more complicated

Internet
				   |
				   +--- physical-siteA-gateway-router --- devices
				   |
				   +--- physical-siteB--gateway-router -- devices
				   |
				   +--- physical-siteC--gateway-router --- devices
				   |
				   +--- physical-siteD--gateway-router --- devices

this is possible, but your network admin will need to allow port 161 thru the gateway routers