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Results of Last Month's Virtual Server Curiosity Poll On Demand Product Demonstrations and Schedule |
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We often here from clients who are interested in upgrading to the next level of monitoring in ELM but there are some questions as to how they go about this while retaining their existing configurations.
For example, a client decides to start out with ELM Event Log Monitor for basic monitoring of their Windows servers. After giving ELM time to prove it's value in their environment, they decide to look into expanding their use of ELM to include their firewalls, a few Linux servers, and some other network devices. This step often involves the consolidation of other automated log monitoring tools into ELM as well. ELM Log Manager is the next step up, supporting both Syslog and SNMP as well as monitoring of flat files. In addition, ELM Log Manager includes the custom reporting engine ELM Editor which provides great flexibility and control of how the data being collected is displayed and delivered - an excellent resource for compliance and audit reporting.
Or perhaps they are looking to add SNMP, Syslog,performance monitoring and other features such as process and service monitoring into their environment as well with ELM Enterprise Manager.
The first step is to contact your Account Manager at TNT Software and get the details on an upgrade quote for the number of servers, workstations and network devices you'll be monitoring. This customized quote will also include any applicable volume discounts that may apply.
Once the purchase is finalized there are a few options for implementation.
A newly published knowledge base article is now available describing how to perform a cross product upgrade with ELM. This KBA walks you through the backup procedures necessary followed by the upgrade procedure if you prefer to handle the upgrade yourself.
Click here to view the KBA on cross product upgrades.
With your annual support agreement you also have the option to contact one of our support engineers to walk you through the process of upgrading to another ELM product.
Ready to get started?
Contact one of our Account Managers today for a customized ELM upgrade quote!
Results of Last Month's Virtual Server Curiosity Poll
In last month's newsletter we asked:What virtualization technology are you using? And as of the publishing of this newsletter here's what you said:
"VMware is King"
Microsoft may dominate the OS world but when it comes to running virtual machines VMware is the 800lb gorilla according to respondents.Want to see who voted where?
Click on the link below for a state by state comparison response map.
With smart phones, iPhones, Blackberry's and more attached to hips of IT pros everywhere, we're wondering: Do you use your cell phone/smart phone/blackberry for remote admin tasks?
On Demand Product Demonstrations and Schedule
Did you know TNT Software offers on demand demonstrations of all our ELM products? Although there is a great deal of information available on the website, sometimes it just makes sense to get a guided tour through the product, see it in action, ask questions about specific features you're interested in, and then put that knowledge into action with your own deployment of ELM. Or perhaps a demonstration will help to determine if ELM is the right product for you and convince you to try a free evaluation copy. Either way, we enjoy the opportunity to show you what ELM can do for your event log and system monitoring needs!
We typically like to block out an hour for a good overview of the product. If you would like to see specific features and more details we can take the presentation any direction you'd like to go and allocate more time as needed. TNT Software also offers an "open to the public" bi-monthly presentation of ELM. These group presentations fill up fast so make sure to register early and mark your calendar!
June 11, 2009 - Live Overview and Demonstration of Centralized System Monitoring with ELM Enterprise Manager!
Would you like to know more about the centralized system monitoring and automated event log management capabilities ELM can provide your organization? How about a chance to "kick the tires" and take a look under the hood in a non sales pressure environment before downloading or deploying ELM Enterprise Manager?
You're in luck! TNT Software will be giving another live demonstration of ELM Enterprise Manager via WebEx on June 11. This one hour overview presentation will introduce you to the architecture, power, flexibility and efficiency ELM can bring to your IT operations.
Areas we will cover include:
Monitoring
Monitor your servers, workstations and other network devices in real-time. Different monitoring features covered include:
- Deploying Agents - Virtual & Service Agents for agentless and agent-based monitoring
- Setting up Monitor Items - Collectors, Alarms & Monitors
- Creating Agent Categories - Apply common monitoring templates across groups of servers
Notifications
ELM includes a rich, robust Notification Engine that enables you to customize notification and corrective action to suit your organizational needs. We'll cover:
- Filters - the "criteria" for all notifications
- Notification Methods - Email, Scripting, Pager, Desktop Pop-up, SNMP, Syslog & more
- Rules - the "connector" between Filters and Notification Methods
Results
The Results container in the ELM Console contains the results of monitoring and management activities that have been configured. We'll take a look at Alerts and Event Views which provide a mechanism for grouping events into a view that match one or more filters. We'll also visit Performance Collectors; and both the customizable and preconfigured reporting options - ELM Editor and ELM Publisher.
- Alerts - Open & Closed Status (Agent color coding: Red, Yellow)
- Event Views - Default and customization options: include filters, exclude filters and custom date/time ranges
- Reports - ELM Editor (custom reporting engine) and ELM Publisher (preconfigured reporting engine)
Demonstration Details
What: ELM Enterprise Manager 5.5 Live Overview and Demonstration
When: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 8:30am PST / 9:30am MST / 10:30am CST / 11:30am
Where: WebEx On-line Presentation
Duration: 1 hourHow do I attend?
Register by using this link: https://tntsoftware.webex.com/tntsoftware/j.php?ED=109056562&RG=1&UID=0Â
The "ELM 411" - Monitor Long Running SQL Jobs
This month's ELM 411 technical article features a situation where a little research and ingenuity uncovered some great benefits for a customer struggling with another enterprise class monitoring solution. Here's how a little creativity combined with the flexibility of ELM paid off.
In a recent conversation with a customer, our product support engineers discovered the customer running ELM in tandem with SCOM (Microsoft System Center Operations Manager) but would prefer to use ELM for budgetary reasons.
It turned out they were relying on a single feature in SCOM that kept them from moving entirely to ELM for their system monitoring solution. SCOM has a native module for monitoring long running SQL Server jobs. Their concern was that ELM could not provide the same level of granularity as the SCOM SQL Server monitor.
After some research, finding a script published on the internet, and some in-house testing in the TNT Software lab, our support engineer John advised the customer that they could in fact monitor the SQL job using ELM. It involved creating two SQL objects - a function and a stored procedure. Once these were in place, the default SQL Server Monitor query was modified to execute the stored procedure so that ELM now monitors and can send Alerts for long-running SQL Server jobs.
Although this may be considered a fairly unique situation, it is a perfect example of the extensibility of ELM products. With a little research and some creativity, ELM can be configured to do far more than you would think it can out the box. The flexibility that is engineered into ELM Enterprise Manager's design allows you to consolidate the use of multiple different monitoring utilities down to a single product and platform. Another way to look at it is being able to get enterprise monitoring capabilities, but without the enterprise monitoring price tag. Now wouldn't that be nice for a change!
We hope that you found this article informative and wish you continued success with your ELM deployment!
NOTE: All ELM 411 articles are written based on ELM Version 5.5 and instructions may not be accurate for previous ELM Versions. If you would like assistance upgrading to ELM 5.5 so you can use these tips - please contact support@tntsoftware.com.
Share your own ELM tips!
Have a tip or trick with our ELM products you'd like to share with our newsletter subscribers? Send your ideas and any applicable screen shots to info@tntsoftware.com with "ELM 411" in the subject line. We'll take a look and if usable you'll see it published here in the ELM 411 section of upcoming newsletters!
Tracking Disease with Technology
If you haven't heard about the Swine Flu Pandemic concern by now you must be avoiding every news source known to mankind. Swine Flu (Influenza) refers to influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs (swine).Swine flu is rare in humans. People who work with swine, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of catching swine influenza if the swine carry a strain able to infect humans. However, these strains infrequently circulate between humans as SIV rarely mutates into a form able to pass easily from human to human. In humans, the symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.
The 2009 flu outbreak in humans that is widely known as "swine flu" technically is not swine flu. It is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that derives from one strain of human influenza, one strain of avian influenza, and two separate strains of swine influenza. The origins of this new strain are unknown, and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in swine. It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation. The strain in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines.
*Source: Wikipedia.org
As you can imagine, getting up to date information on pandemic warnings and information is as important as ever. In decades past, news traveled much slower through the available mediums and the sharing of information was slow and difficult compared to today's standards. Even with the wide reaching distribution of TV, telephone, radio and print, the fastest medium for sharing information and updates continues to be the internet. Technology has radically improved our means of collecting, compiling, and sharing information for the good of mankind. We are able to respond faster than ever and launch plans and measures based on what we have learned from previous pandemic threats to help protect ourselves.
An interesting resource we've discovered for tracking the impact of the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak can be viewed at http://healthmap.org/swineflu.
A "Global Disease Alert" world visualization map displays information available in a graphical format which also provides tools for drilling down into specific areas of the world, specific types of diseases being tracked, and links to the latest news alerts around the world.
This collaborative effort is supported by numerous countries as well as organizations such as the National Library of Medicine, Center for Disease Control, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, U.S. Department of Defense, Health Protection Agency, Wildlife Conservation Society, and more.
This story and website listed above are not intended to create cause for additional concern. Rather, we encourage you to take some time to familiarize yourself with the information available and take necessary precautions to protect yourself and those close to you.
-TNT Software
A little more history on swine flu outbreaks and scares:
1918-1919 - Swine flu has been reported numerous times as a "zoonosis" in humans, usually with limited distribution, rarely with a widespread distribution. The 1918 flu pandemic in humans was associated with H1N1, thus may reflect a zoonosis either from swine to humans or from humans to swine. Evidence available from that time is not sufficient to resolve this question.The "Spanish" influenza pandemic of 1918–19 infected one third of the world's population (or around 500 million persons at that time) and caused around 50 million deaths.1976 - In February 1976, an outbreak of swine flu struck Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey, killing a 19-year-old private and infecting hundreds of soldiers. Concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a devastating epidemic (similar to that of 1918), President Gerald Ford ordered a nationwide vaccination program at a cost of $135 million (some $500 million in today's money). Within weeks, reports surfaced of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease that can be caused by the vaccine. By April, more than 30 people had died of the condition. Facing protests, federal officials abruptly canceled the program on Dec. 16. The epidemic failed to materialize.
1988 -In September 1988, a swine flu virus killed one woman in Wisconsin, and infected at least hundreds of others. A 32-year old woman was eight months pregnant when she and her husband became ill after visiting the hog barn at the Walworth County Fair. The woman died eight days later, though doctors were able to induce labor and deliver a healthy daughter before she passed away. Her husband recovered from his symptoms. Influenza-like illnesses were reportedly widespread among the pigs at the fair they had visited, and 76% of the swine exhibitors there tested positive for the swine flu antibody but no serious illnesses were detected among this group. Additional studies suggested between one and three health care personnel who had contact with the patient developed mild influenza-like illnesses with antibody evidence of swine flu infection.
*Sources: Wikipedia.org, Time.com, Wired.com, CDC.gov
