[cacti-announce] Cacti 0.8.6j Released (fwd)

Wed Jan 24 19:03:49 UTC 2007

Maybe this is overly naïve, but what about the ability to auto-magically import and search various vendor SNMP/WMI MIBs?  I can think of 3 open source NMS that do a good job if you set up all 3 to monitor the network, but they all overlap and none of them really do a good job.
I also am using a closed-source NMS at work that does little more than minimal on-system agent monitoring of Windows/Linux based servers (disk space cpu memory utilization).
Good graphing, good alerts, good SNMP integration, granularity, and escalation, as well as pretty executive reports to keep PHB's happy (and that display the system as 5 9's uptime no matter how many times the mail server crashed!).  
The reason why the open-source tools don't work is a lack of comprehensive coverage of Cisco, third party network kit, Linux and Windows.  It just doesn't quite "do it all". 
The reason why the closed-source tool didn't work (in my mind) is that it just doesn't have the flexibility to deal with anything other than what it's expecting.  I've submitted a few dozen support tickets with them (and they will remain nameless) simply because of a lack of SNMP knowledge on their part.  
Please forgive me for all above M$ specific references, I work in a MS and *IX environment.

Andrew D Kirch - All Things IT
Office: 317-755-0202
"si hoc legere scis nimium eruditiones habes." 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu] On Behalf Of
> Ray Burkholder
> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:12 PM
> To: nanog at merit.edu
> Subject: RE: [cacti-announce] Cacti 0.8.6j Released (fwd)
> 
> 
> I see a reference in the response to RTG.  RTG's claim to fame looks like
> speed.
> 
> I've done some work with Cricket and have figured out a way to get at it's
> schema.  I've been looking at mating Cricket' s 'getter and schema with
> Drraw and genDevConfig tools and putting a Mason based HTML wrapper around
> the whole thing so people can pick and choose the components of charts
> they
> want to see (per chart), (per page).  And by filling in simple web forms,
> it
> would be easy to generate command lines for genDevConfig to go out and
> create the customized SNMP queries that are needed for Dial-Peers, Cisco's
> Quality of Service, etc.
> 
> Would anyone be interested in such a contraption?
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu] On
> > Behalf Of Paul Vixie
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 13:43
> > To: nanog at merit.edu
> > Subject: Re: [cacti-announce] Cacti 0.8.6j Released (fwd)
> >
> >
> > jml at packetpimp.org (Jason LeBlanc) writes:
> >
> > > After looking for 'the ideal' tool for many years, it still
> > amazes me
> > > that no one has built it.  Bulk gets, scalable schema and
> > good portal/UI.
> > > RTG is better than MRTG, but the config/db/portal are still lacking.
> >
> > if funding were available, i know some developers we could
> > hire to build the ultimate scalable pluggable network F/L/OSS
> > management/monitoring system.  if funding's not available
> > then we're depending on some combination of hobbiests (who've
> > usually got rent to pay, limiting their availability for this
> > work) and in-house toolmakers at network owners (who've
> > usually got other work to do, or who would be under pressure
> > to monetize/license/patent the results if That Much Money was
> > spent in ways that could otherwise directly benefit their
> > competitors.)
> >
> > "been there, done that, got the t-shirt."  is there funding
> > available yet?
> > like, $5M over three years?  spread out over 50 network
> > owners that's ~$3K a month.  i don't see that happening in a
> > consolidation cycle like this one, but hope springs eternal.
> > "give randy and hank the money, they'll take care of this for
> > us once and for all."
> > --
> > Paul Vixie
> >
> > --
> > Scanned for viruses and dangerous content at
> > http://www.oneunified.net and is believed to be clean.
> >
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Scanned for viruses and dangerous content at
> http://www.oneunified.net and is believed to be clean.