Small and midsized businesses rely on software applications and other technologies but often don't have the financial or human resources to manage these technologies. Managing applications, distributing and upgrading software, and responding to Help desk requests are time-consuming tasks for a limited staff, and most small and midsized companies are trying to keep from drowning in a flood of technology. Systems administrators spend time fixing problems rather than proactively managing their networks' resources. Administrators must distribute and update software, keep email servers running, and keep servers and applications available. Many network management packages exist, but most focus on enterprise-scale systems and are costly, time-consuming, and exceed a small system's capabilities. What most businesses need to control their computing resources is a turnkey solution that is fast, easy to use, and affordable.
Tivoli IT Director 2.1 is the small-business answer to Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2.0. IT Director lets you distribute software, gather accurate inventories, monitor resources, and remotely control other systems across your network. The main difference between IT Director and SMS is that IT Director doesn't require extensive training to use.
IT Director gives small and midsized businesses enterprise-like management tools that are easy to install, simple to use, and affordable. The package comprises three components: IT Director Management Console, IT Director Management Server, and IT Director Management Agents. All administrative functions start from the Management Console. The Management Server is where management data, the server engine, and the management application logic reside. The Management Console and the Management Server must reside on your managing server, but you install Management Agents on each client or server that you want to manage. Three types of Management Agents exist: native managed systems, SNMP devices, and MultiPlatform Manager (MPM) systems.
Tivoli designed the software package to include management functions that most small organizations want, including automatic discovery of systems running IT Director software, MPM systems, and SNMP devices. You can also manage your applications, build granular custom system and network queries, and build an IT Director Web site for your users. You use snap-in application modules to manage as many as 1500 systems from one console. The program works within a Windows-centric network that can include AS/400 and OS/2 clients.
Tivoli packages the software with support for Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), Netscape SuiteSpot servers, and, for those that require it, Microsoft Commercial Internet System (MCIS). Tivoli sells support for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, and Lotus Domino separately.
The package also includes support for monitoring Windows NT clusters. The software lets you isolate clusters for viewing and monitor cluster resources and events. You can collect data from clusters and set thresholds that, if exceeded, will set off one of the program's notifications. Unfortunately, you can't add to or modify the cluster or its resources, and you can't start or stop services. I wish Tivoli would include a more robust tool to manage clusters, but gathering information about your clusters without a separate tool is helpful.
Installation
To set up my management system, I installed IT Director on a Dell 610 workstation running dual Intel 450MHz processors, 128MB of RAM, and an 8GB hard disk. I configured five workstations and a Data General Cluster-in-a-Box with the IT Director Management Agent. Then, I networked the computers on a 10Mbps network in one domain and subnet.
The program includes two CD-ROMs: one for an AS/400 management console and agent, and one that includes a management console for NT and agents for Windows 9x, Windows 3.x, Novell NetWare, and OS/2. I inserted the NT installation CD-ROM into the workstation's CD-ROM drive, and the installation wizard started immediately. Each screen detailed options and recommended the best option to choose.
IT Director integrates well with Tivoli Enterprise, which is Tivoli's monitoring and management program for enterprise-scale networks. The program automatically pushes its management agent software to systems that have Tivoli Enterprise management agent software installed. This feature saves time by moving small and midsized companies to IT Director without incident.
Groups
IT Director is a flexible program that lets you create and edit tasks, groups, and resource monitors. Flexible programs can quickly become unwieldy without an organization component. To organize IT Director, you can create groups, which are logical sets of managed systems, to help you find systems quickly for software distribution, patches, or maintenance. For example, you can create a group of desktop systems with 333MHz or faster processors and NT 4.0 installed. Two types of groups exist: dynamic (the default), and static. When your network changes, dynamic groups' contents automatically update, but static groups' contents don't. Dynamic groups are great for realtime network monitoring, and static groups work best when you frequently add and remove group systems and want to measure data at a specific time with a certain configuration.
To test grouping functionality, I created a dynamic group and filtered for a specific physical memory, OS version, and processor speed. From the IT Director main console, I right-clicked Groups and selected New, Dynamic to create a new group. The Dynamic Group Editor, which Screen 1 shows, opened. From the Installed Memory folder, I expanded Physical Memory installed, then dragged the 130228 entry to the Selected Criteria pane. Next, I expanded Version from the Operating System folder and dragged 4.0 to the Selected Criteria pane. A dialog box popped up and let me link the two criteria as All true (where only systems meeting both criteria would appear) or Any true (where systems meeting either criterion would appear). I clicked All true, which linked both criteria in an All true folder. Finally, I opened the Processor folder and expanded Maximum speed of installed processor (MHz), then dragged 333 to the All true folder in the Selected Criteria pane.
To edit group settings, click an entry, then choose Change criteria value from the Edit menu. You can change the operator to Equal to, Not equal to, Greater than, Greater than or equal to, Less than, or Less than or equal to and change the value to any number from 0 to 99999999999. On my network, I set the physical memory criteria to Greater than or equal to and the value to 64,000KB (64MB). I set the processor speed to Greater than or equal to and the value to 266. I wanted to track NT 3.51 or later installations, but I was disappointed to discover that I couldn't change the OS version. Tivoli needs to correct this problem. I named my group 130MBRAM+NT4.0+333MHzproc, saved the changes, and listed my new test group in the Groups pane.
Event Action Planning 101
Although not as robust as Tivoli Enterprise, IT Director includes so many management tools that it might overwhelm some users. Event Action Plans solve this problem. In IT Director, an action is a task such as sending a page or email message to an administrator or initiating a ticker tape message on the IT Director console when the system exceeds a preset threshold. The program lets you use Event Action Plans to bind event filters to one or more actions. Then, when an event occurs, the program performs whatever actions you have specified. You can include as many event filter and action plans as you need in one Event Action Plan.
To create an Event Action Plan, select Tasks from the main console, then select Event Action Plan Builder. The Event Action Plan Builder, which Screen 2 shows, will open. I selected File, New, Event Action Plan, and entered Windows NT Lab in the name field. The Event Action Plan Builder window has three panes: Event Action Plans, Event Filters, and Actions. You decide which events you want the program to notify you about and drag these events from the Event Filters pane to the appropriate Event Action Plan in the leftmost pane.
You can also customize actions you want to take. I told the program to email events to me. I double-clicked Send an Internet (SMTP) E-mail in the Actions pane, entered my email address and the name of the SMTP mail server, and entered Notice a critical event has occurred in the Subject of E-mail field. I clicked File, Save as, named the event critical email, and clicked OK. Next, I dragged critical email from the Actions pane to the Critical Events filter in the center pane. To activate the Event Action Plan, I dragged my new action plan to my test group.
Testing for Success
IT Director generates events when the system exceeds a threshold that you've established. In my newly created group, I wanted to view all systems that exceeded a specific CPU utilization percent.
I right-clicked All Systems and Groups in the leftmost pane of the main console and selected Resource Monitors from the pop-up menu. I expanded the Director Agent folder, then expanded the CPU Monitors folder. Next, I right-clicked Group Threshold. The Group Threshold: All Systems and Devices dialog box appeared. I entered the name highcpuall and left Generate events enabled to begin generating events immediately after I saved the threshold. I cleared the Generate events on value change check box, selected Above or equal, and entered 50.0 for the High Error threshold and 35.0 for the High Warning threshold. Finally, I clicked OK to close the dialog box. I expanded Resource Monitors from the Tasks pane and dragged All Available Thresholds from the Tasks pane to All Systems and Devices in the Groups pane. I clicked OK to finish the setup. I tested IT Director's responsiveness to event thresholds by forcing my test system's CPUs in excess of 70 percent until a scrolling ticker on my server informed me of the high CPU error.
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