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Raritan Computer's CommandCenter NOC

So many machines and operating systems to support, and only so many IT administrators to support them. Raritan Computer's CommandCenter NOC (CC-NOC) appliance takes some of the load off, automatically monitoring the health of IT systems.

The CC-NOC comes in three versions: At the low end, the CC-NOC 100 monitors up to 100 workstations, 10 servers and 10 infrastructure devices; at the high end, a distributed architecture version scales to 1,000 monitored workstations, servers and infrastructure devices. I tested the CC-NOC 250, which scales to 250 monitored computers, 25 servers and 25 infrastructure devices, at our Syracuse University Real-World Labs®.

Setup Basics


Good

• Integrates with Raritan's CommandCenter Secure Gateway
• Provides in- and out-of-band notification for all events

• Clean, intuitive user interface allows for quick installation


Bad


• Supports only three levels of administrative user accounts
• Lacks custom reporting tool

• IDS engine only supports 20- Mbps transmissions


Commander NOC, starts at $5,995. ($11,995 as tested.) Raritan Computer, (800) 724-8090. www.raritan.com

Initial setup of the 1U server appliance is done over a serial console cable, giving the CC-NOC its IP address, subnet mask and default gateway. After the Linux-based appliance rebooted, I finished the configuration using a Web browser (your choice of IE, Netscape or Mozilla on client platforms including Windows, Solaris and Red Hat Linux). Raritan quickly resolved the one small snag I faced--uploading a corrupted license file during setup. The wizard-like Web configuration site requires data on time zone, DNS servers, monitored IP ranges, SNMP community strings and e-mail server information; once entered, you'll be able to work using the polished Web interface.

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