Hewlett-Packard Co OpenView users will finally be able to collect event information using Seagate Technology Inc’s NetLabs Inc NerveCenter data monitoring, reporting and fault detection system and have it automatically passed to OpenView’s OperationsCenter problem management system with a new release of NerveCenter due in the fourth quarter. By that time, NerveCenter will have been integrated to work with version 2.0 of OperationsCenter, which Hewlett-Packard will ship in August. OperationsCenter 2.0 enables users to create tiers of hierarchy based upon pre-defined rules that enable regional intelligent agents to take action according to a given set of procedures, only passing problems to which they’re not programmed to respond, back up the chain. It also me ans that all problems relating to a particular application or database could be forwarded to consoles where specialists in that application work, just as all network information could be sent to a team in a completely different location. Version 2.0 also includes a new application programming interface to Legent Corp’s Prevail/XP that enables problems on mainframes and AS/400s to be monitored and corrected. Version 2.0 will be up on most Unixes – the Digital Unix implementation will ship in November. NerveCenter, which already co-exists with OpenView’s Network Node manager is being merged with OpenView under the two firms’ July 1994 agreement (CI No 2,450). OperationsCenter (a problem management module) is one of Hewlett-Packard’s three OpenView process centers that run atop its SNMP Platform, or the enhanced version called Network Node Manager which comes with additional services and application development tools. The other two are AdminCenter for change and configuration management and PCS/PerfView, the performance and resource management module. Hewlett-Packard also has new versions of its OmniBack II and OmniStorage applications for use with OperationsCenter which support a bunch of new systems and mainframe data back-up via support for Emprise Technologies Inc’s Stage3 storage device, which is marketed by Boole & Babbage Inc. On-line back-up of Oracle, Sybase and Informix databases will follow in the fourth quarter. OmniBack II 1.3 is due in August, OmniStorage 2.0 in December. Meantime from October, Hewlett-Packard will be offering a new version 4.0 of the HP OpenView Network Node Manager. Enhancements include moving processes running under OpenView’s Windows graphical user interface off the server on to local clients, freeing, it claims, more processor time for additional operator consoles (and presumably requiring local systems with higher specifications). Hewlett-Packard claims version 4.0 supports a dozen operators, up from four now. A new zooming module enables users to explode any part of the network map into a more detailed view. As well as its own flat file structure and CA-Ingres, the Manager now also supports Oracle as a repository. A lite version of Network Node Manager limited to monitoring and managing a maximum of 100 devices will cost $5,000. Beta copies are expected this month.
/
