The Command Center system monitoring and management framework was originally released in January 2003 and is based on the technology that it acquired along with NOCpulse in October 2002.
It uses a web-based user interface for remote management for management of systems including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows, and Unix operating systems as well as Microsoft, Oracle, MySQL, BEA, and Apache software.
The product is offered as a complementary service to Red Hat’s Network Hosted, Network Satellite, and JBoss Operations Network services. Red Hat Network provides update, management, and provisioning capabilities for Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux, Directory Server, and Application Stack, as well as third-party Red Hat Exchange applications.
The Hosted version is included with every Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription as a remote service, while Satellite is available separately as an on-premise installation, as is the JBoss Operations Network systems management platform for the JBoss application server platform.
Our View
Systems management has previously been a side issue for Red Hat, but it is one that the company appears to be increasingly considering a differentiator. The company has called for an increased focus from the open source community on management issues and has already open sourced the code behind the JBoss Operations Network.
It is also planning to do the same for the Red Hat Network Satellite code, while there has been talk of combining that functionality with the JBoss ON code. Despite the purchase of NOCpulse and the release of Command Center the company has so far kept its management interests focused on its own devices.
If Red Hat does have interests in the wider systems management space then Command Center represents the starting point for that, so it could be that the latest release is a timely reminder of one of Red Hat’s hidden assets.
