Tivoli Software, the Austin, Tex.-based network management offshoot of IBM Corp., announced three products on Oct. 3 aimed specifically at Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server and Active Directory environments.
Tivoli’s Management Solution for Exchange is designed to monitor Exchange events and automate corrective actions, using a new, enhanced rules engine and reporting mechanism. Practice monitors have been preconfigured for Exchange environments, especially in crucial operations such as Exchange services, resource availability, mail queues, and end-to-end connectivity.
Meanwhile, the Tivoli Manager for SQL Server offers monitoring capabilities for SQL Server environments to either correct problems or notify network administrators via event consoles, e-mail or pagers. As with the Exchange tool, the solution’s configuration is preset to deliver plug-and-play functionality in enterprises that use SQL Server. Moreover, a rules engine automatically rectifies network problems before they reach critical levels.
Finally, Tivoli’s Distributed Management for Active Directory diagnostic tool ensures the health and availability of Active Directory components. Again, preconfigured settings let users easily manage their Active Directory services.
The new products have been designed with end-user ease of use in mind, according to Rodney Foreman, a Tivoli senior product manager. He further noted that Tivoli’s new head, Robert LeBlanc, has recently placed a greater emphasis on simplifying product deployment.
“We’ve taken our new resource model technology and new rules engine and put them into these solutions,” Foreman said. “It’s made them very quick to deploy and very intuitive.”
Tivoli also announced upgrades to its Distributed Monitoring 3.7 product, making it more compatible with Windows-based servers. The enhancements let users identify problems, correlate them with their servers, check for persistency and automate corrective action. Distributed Monitoring 3.7 also enables automatic distribution and installation of Tivoli services.
All of Tivoli’s solutions are now available, with the exception of Tivoli Manager for SQL Server, which will hit the market on Oct. 16.
Several other network management firms have also been active in supporting Microsoft environments. On Oct. 1, BMC Software announced support for Microsoft Exchange in an attempt to streamline the monitoring, management and security of Exchange applications. The company’s PATROL Recovery for Microsoft Exchange Solution enables network discovery, simplified management, and back-up and recovery functions. The solution is expected to be generally available in late October.
Similarly, Computer Associates (CA) launched Version 3.0 of its Unicenter Management for Microsoft Exchange application on Oct. 2. CA’s tool is designed to provide automated monitoring and Web-based reporting, relying in part on the company’s Neugents technology to identify trends in network data.
Moving forward, Tivoli expects to launch solutions for Microsoft’s new Windows XP operating system “in the very near future,” according to Foreman. Tivoli is currently doing testing on XP’s framework and expects to support XP applications as soon as Microsoft releases them, Foreman said.
“We’re constantly trying to boost our portfolio in the Microsoft arena,” Foreman said.