IBM Corp has announced the next version of NetView/6000 – now rechristened NetView for AIX – which adds support for multiple relational databases, and includes other enhancements. IBM claims the new release vindicates its decision to divorce itself from the marriage to Hewlett-Packard Co’s OpenView network management technology, saying that it is already providing what Hewlett-Packard is only promising for the forthcoming OpenView version 4.0, which is due to ship towards the middle of next year. NetView for AIX, which is still built on OpenView 3.3, is also the basis of Digital Equipment Corp’s Polycenter Manager on NetView V3 for DEC OSF/1, announced at the same time last week. With the new version, IBM says that it now provides support for DB2/6000, Informix, Ingres, Oracle and Sybase databases and that they have been integrated into a single point of control through NetView’s graphical user interface. The intention is to enable users to use their existing databases to analyse, report and present Internet Protocol topology, event-logging and Simple Network Management Protocol data. Also new is a feature enabling the system to be configured to switch management control to a user-defined network subset automatically, if either the current manager fails, or when a shift change occurs, for example. Other additions include autodiscovery of Internet Protocol address ranges through a seed file; a new series of authorisation traps; expanded discovery and storage of a greater number of node interfaces, now up to 2,000 per node; and the capability to access General Topology Manager data through a GTM applications programming interface. NetView now also supports IBM’s AIX Trouble Ticket/6000 v3 product for enhanced trouble-ticketing, system inventory and notifications, and enables the management of SNA resources when used in conjunction with AIX SNA Manager/6000. IBM has also furthered the product’s distributed management features with a new Systems Monitor for AIX v2 Mid-Level Manager and System Information Agent, which are said to reduce network traffic by distributing tasks such as discovery and polling. Finally, the new release now also supports the IBM Systems Monitor for HP-UX, Solaris, and NCR Unix. NetView for AIX v3 runs under AIX 3.2.5 and costs from $16,500, and is out now. An entry-level version for networks of up to 32 nodes with identical functionality minus relational database support is $5,000. DEC’s Polycenter Manager on NetView for DEC OSF/1 v3.1 will ship at the end of the month, priced at $15,500.
