Software provides network insight: Web-based network monitoring helps answer SLA and bandwidth concerns

Communications News, Nov, 2004 by Drew Robb

As Jewish Home and Hospital of New York(JHH) installed a succession of management tools over the years to ease the burden on IT, it found that while each offered help, they always fell short. Even a blockbuster installation of Computer Associates (CA) Unicenter failed to accurately troubleshoot bandwidth problems on the network or pinpoint application and hardware problems on the LAN and WAN.

"My biggest problem is identifying what is causing slowdowns on the traffic flow," says Peter Bloom, director of technical services and assistant director of information services at JHH. "With Unicenter, I might see performance degradation, but not know what caused it."

Bloom says he likes Unicenter and uses it for a wide range of functions, but to gain full visibility into his devices and better management of bandwidth, he augmented CAs management platform with an inexpensive tool that eliminated a host of network slowdowns.

JHH is a non-profit geriatric and rehabilitation institution providing long-term care, sub-acute care and rehabilitation services at campuses in Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester. It serves more than 4,500 people per day. Operating in conjunction with the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, it also acts as an educational and training facility in geriatrics.

JHH has a total of four locations with 1,300 users (Windows 95/98/2000) connected by T-ls. The hospital connects its four sites through a wide area network (WAN). The network includes more than 60 Windows servers, an IBM eServer iSeries (AS 400) running 0S4, two 2 RS/6000s running AIX and four UNIX servers. Also, 160 Enterasys wireless nodes inside the hospitals offer 400 laptops access to the mainframe.

As the complexity of the network multiplied over the years, JHH deployed a succession of management tools. First came server-management software such as Compaq Insight Manager (CIM) to monitor Windows-based servers. The hospital added Aprisma Spectrum to take care of wireless nodes. Then it deployed CA Unicenter at a cost of $304,000 over four years.

SOFTWARE'S CAPABILITIES IMPROVED

Bloom especially liked the remote desktop-management features of Unicenter's Advanced Help Desk, as well as its asset-management functions. Unicenter also centralized the management of all the hospital's Windows and UNIX servers, as well as the AS/400 and RS/6000s. Thus, it became the central point of management for the entire network. CIM, for example, relays all data on Windows-servers to Unicenter.

While this represented a major leap forward, yet another set of problems emerged. Network slowdowns between the Manhattan headquarters and JHH's Bronx and Westchester campuses led to a steady stream of user complaints.

"We have 1,300 users and when stuff is down they respond quicker than most software packages," says Bloom. "The CA software lacked the ability to manage some of our devices, especially bandwidth utilization and T-1s."

While IT thought Verizon's T-1 lines were at fault, JHH ran into a wall when trying to demonstrate the problem. It could not provide the hard data to show to Verizon that it was failing to meet its service-level agreements (SLAs).

Bloom, therefore, looked around for a way to solve this problem, and offers advice to others in a similar predicament.

"Get a real handle on what you want to monitor with the software before you seek the solution," he suggests. "Your RFP should include your full plans so vendors know what they're up against. Vendors, in turn, should put every single aspect of their solution in writing."

He also recommends follow-up monitoring of the vendor to ensure there is no disconnection between promises and the reality of installation. By following these steps, JHH adopted Somix Technologies' WebNM to monitor network devices and bandwidth utilization.

This Web-based suite contains modules for performance monitoring, service-level monitoring, alarm management, hardware and software inventory, remote desktop administration and trouble ticketing. It shows graphically the status of any SNMP-enabled device on a network, including servers, workstations, bridges, routers and switches. In addition to monitoring devices, it also tracks other assets, such as applications and WAN links.

"We needed a system that would not only monitor bandwidth," Bloom says, "but would pinpoint problems on the LAN or WAN, and tell us whether they're application- or hardware-based."

REMOTE-ACCESS CAPABILITIES

The main WebNM interface consists of a color-coded network map showing device or connection real-time status. It can show how an asset is performing on a five-minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis. Because it has a low overhead, JHH loaded it on an existing application server where it coexists with other programs.

Administrators can access the software from any machine that has a browser, inside or outside the network, provided the user knows the URL and has the appropriate privileges. When a problem occurs after hours, a JHH administrator can dial in from a home PC or laptop to find out what happened and remotely correct any Web-enabled devices.