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ageManager comes from Atlantis Software, based in Fremont, California. It is a 32-bit snap-in application for Novell's

PageManager Pro
w/ManageWise Adapter

first-class event log that shows what alarms occurred and at what time. It indicates who was notified and by what means the notification was delivered. 

ManageWise console that runs on Windows 95. PageManager provides ManageWise with a low-cost alarm monitoring and notification utility.
    It automatically notifies the appropriate person by e-mail, pager or SMS - the Short Message Service supported by most digital mobile phones when pre-defined alarm conditions occur. PageManager  runs on the 

  

already been sent within a set number of minutes. You can also configure it to send an alarm if a certain threshold number of duplicate alarms have been reached. There is a 'Test Alarm Message' button in one of the dialogue boxes, so you don't actually have to generate a real alarm to confirm that PageManager is working and has been configured correctly. You can export alarm schedule assignments in standard   delimited

   

   A thin, but excellent, 26-page manual is supplied and we could not fault the documentation. PageManager implements the UCP and the TAP protocol, which are in use by most paging and cellular phone companies. System requirements are: Novell's ManageWise 2.1 or later, a Windows 95 workstation supporting at least 800 x 600 display resolution, Novell's IntranetWare client for Windows 95 and an Internet connection

Windows 95 workstation that is running the ManageWise console. When not configuring it, PageManager can be minimised to run in the background.
    PageManager setup is relatively easy. First, you must configure the interface to the email or the paging service, or both if you intend to use the two methods of notification. The e-mail interface requires an e-mail system that supports SMTP. Then you can configure the personnel to be notified according to the method of notification (e-mail, pager or SMS) and set up rosters of duty for who's on call and when. Finally, you need to

     
     

for e-mail notification - or a TAPI-compliant modem for SMS or pager notifications. TAPI-compliant digital connections via leased line or ISDN are also supported. Memory and disk usage are insignificant, each being about 2MBytes.

Verdict
PageManager is a very costeffective snap-in for ManageWise. It will pay for  itself over and over again by reducing network downtime through notifying the right people at the right time when remedial action is   needed for your mission-

assign the various ManageWise alarms, possibly to notify different personnel according to the nature of the alarm.
    Any combination of alarm name, alarm severity, alarm time, node, etc, can be used to determine which personnel are to be notified. Alarms are grouped into 'families', according to the name of the MIB, to make the alarm hierarchy easy to manage.
    To speed up administration chores, you can 'clone assignments' when setting up a new person - effectively copying an existing recipient's alarm assignments which can then be modified, if necessary. Atlantis seems to have thought this system through very thoroughly. For example, you can set up filters to prevent multiple alarms being sent. The way this works is that you can filter out any alarms that have

formats for import in to external databases or report generators.
    The alarms sent to e-mail, SMS or alphanumeric paging devices can be very informative, according to the messages you pre-define.
    Examples of the type of message it might be configured to send are: 'Server disk space reached high watermark of 80%'; or 'Server CPU utilisation exceeded threshold of 50% for a 5 second interval'; or 'Virus found in file on workstation DEVI'; or 'UPS for file server NETWCOMP running on battery -- server shutdown pending in 10 minutes'; or it could be as simple as 'User GEOFF has logged into server NETWCOMP'.
    Any ManageWise event can be set to trigger a notification. This includes all SNMP traps and supported MlBs. There is a

critical network resources. Where systems run unattended overnight, for example, it could avoid  the need for a nightshift systems manager to be present on site. Even physical (as opposed to hacker) intruder alarms can be linked to SNMP traps to notify personnel on call.

Product Overview
 Product: PageManager Pro
     with ManageWise Adapter