Halcyon Software announced at COMMON a new version of its established and proven system monitoring solution, Network Server Suite 7.1, which includes a new Linux Server Manager component. 

The Network Server Suite is designed for system administrators and managed-services providers to allow for centralized monitoring and management of Windows, AIX, Linux, UNIX and networked servers, as well as SNMP devices. The suite has been proven to help deliver a seamless IT operation under increased workloads while reducing the need for additional staff. 

This new version of Network Server Suite has been designed to fully support the latest technology for IBM Power Systems by providing a native solution for any platforms running on the server. 

Donnie MacColl, Technical Services director at Halcyon said, “The Linux Server Manager integrates with your existing Windows or IBM i monitoring tools, eliminating the need for multiple screens to monitor multiple environments or platforms.  You don’t even need to be a Linux expert to manage the platform as the Linux Server Manager comes with pre-populated, pre-defined monitoring and alerting templates covering the most common monitoring requirements that precisely emulate the actions of a very experienced IT operator facilitating rapid deployment of the software.” 

These templates have been developed for both Red Hat and SUSE Linux variants and are easily applied so the administrator can begin monitoring systems within minutes of implementation.

Halcyon’s native Linux Server Manager enables the administrator to achieve tight control of “mission critical” applications running on the Linux platform. The software monitors web servers, corporate email servers, and application servers. In addition, administrators can monitor back-end database, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and IBM WebSphere as well as other Java-based web applications. The Network Server Suite can also monitor multiple servers running on different operating systems. 

Significant features of the Linux Server Manager include:

• A script monitor enables users to run their own scripts using custom parameters and then monitor the output with full regular expression and wildcard compatibility.
• Logical Volume Monitoring gives users the ability to check physical volumes and keep track of unused disk space.
• A File and Folder Monitor enables users to browse both local and remote devices for a specific folder and check for any changes to the folder or any file contained within.
• The Process Monitor verifies critical processes are active or inactive at certain times. 

Halcyon’s Linux Server Manager also comes with CPU, file system, memory monitoring, system uptime, and load average features providing early warning alerts to critical issues and notifications of system performance.

Further enhancements to the Network Server Suite’s growing list of system monitoring tools, are an expanded version of the AIX File and Folder Monitor providing threshold monitoring capabilities including alerting on size changes or modification dates and also if files are deleted, renamed or created. In addition, the software is able to acknowledge alerts from the Enterprise Console allowing users based across multiple locations to take control of individual alerts.

These new software features enable system administrators to proactively monitor, manage and control system availability and automatically respond to operational situations specific to the organization's notification and escalation policies.

Halcyon also has other specialist monitoring tools to support the IBM i operating system covering advanced job scheduling, system message, performance, disk space and spooled file management (see related article on Halcyon Operations Center V3.0).

About Halcyon Software

Halcyon Software is a global leader in multi-platform systems management solutions that reduce the complexity and cost of monitoring critical business systems, core applications and processes. They help companies prevent business disruption, increase the efficiency of their IT services and save costs.  In most cases, Halcyon’s solutions increase IT efficiency by 30 – 40 percent, delivering significant savings and a rapid return on investment – often in less than six months.

Halcyon achieves this in three ways:

Monitoring: Halcyon’s monitoring software keeps a vigilant watch on the most critical IT systems and core applications on which business depends. IT administrators receive early warnings of any potential problems or ‘bottlenecks’ before they affect the organization.

Automating: Halcyon enables IT teams to set up ‘self–corrective actions’ to issues or problems to ensure that they never impact the business again.  IT teams can also automate regular tasks, checks or jobs which would normally be undertaken manually. This frees up valuable resources, saves costs and helps to eliminate human error. 

Reporting: Halcyon’s cloud-based reporting solution proves to management that the IT team is achieving the service levels demanded by the business or flags any issues so they can be quickly resolved. 

Halcyon’s products support IBM Power Systems servers running IBM i, AIX, Linux and Windows. With regional offices in the United States, Australia and UK, Halcyon also has a network of partners and distributors supporting territories world-wide. For further information, please visit www.halcyonsoftware.com