BindView EMS/NOSadmin

This network and resource reporting tool now works with Windows NT

Many of you are familiar with BindView EMS/NOSadmin from your NetWare days(or you currently work in a mixed shop). You know that BindView EMS is a networkreporting tool. But what you might not know is that BindView now works withWindows NT and NetWare 3.x and 4.x.

Because many reviews have covered how BindView works as a network andresource reporting tool in a NetWare environment, I won't go into that areahere. Instead, I'll focus on how BindView works with NT. BindView EMS usessnap-in management modules to collect data from all areas of the enterprise.When you plug in a single module for a single NOS (e.g., NT), the module worksas a comprehensive management and security tool for a homogeneous network. Whenyou integrate multiple modules to manage multiple NOSs (e.g., NetWare 3.x,NetWare 4.x, and NT), BindView EMS lets the modules access information fromNetWare or NT from one console and view information from multiple NOSs on onescreen.

Installation is straightforward. I installed a query engine on a machine ineach of the domains I wanted to report on. This command-line process is easy.Next, I installed the EMS console program on the machines that I used for thereporting. Aside from a few permissions problems (hey, we're talking NT),installation was easy. Total installation time was 35 minutes.

For this review, I configured BindView on an HP NetServer LX Pro serverwith four 200MHz Pentium Pro CPUs, 512MB of memory, and 4GB of disk. I made thisserver part of the main Windows NT Magazine Lab domain (NTLABS). I thencreated 10 clients (100MHz Pentium clones) and made them a part of a differentdomain (CLIENT). I used BindView from NTLABS to manage systems on the CLIENTdomain.

Up and Running
I ran a few reports from the local console to make sure everything wasworking properly before the real test. As any administrator knows, you have tobe able to run the reporting and management software from your office. You don'twant to have to get up and go to the machine in question. I jumped right in andinstalled the management tools on my laptop. Given that this version of BindViewwas still beta, the install went pretty well. BindView uses Btrieve, a DOS-basedclient/server database platform, to store its data, so you have to edit a coupleof .ini files. This step was a little bit weird, mostly because I haven't editedan .ini file in about three years. I'd like to see BindView store these valuesin the Registry, where they belong, and provide a configuration utility so thatyou don't have to edit these values manually. Also, I'd like to choose thecontainer that BindView stores the information in. Having to worry about aBtrieve database is just another hassle. If BindView used Open DatabaseConnectivity (ODBC) calls for storing information, storing that information inthe container you choose would be a simple exercise.

Once I'd tweaked all the .ini files, I loaded the program successfully.Screen 1 is the EMS console screen, and I've selected the Windows NT tab, whereeach icon represents a logical grouping of tasks (submenu) or a report. Iclicked the List of Services icon to bring up Screen 2, which lists all servicesrunning on the client machines in my scope (BindView presets this list at thefactory, but you can modify it--more about modifying later). If you click thesecurity icon, you get a submenu and more security-related choices.

Strength in Reporting
BindView EMS's strength is reporting, and it ships with hundreds of standardreporting templates. Table 1 lists some commonly used reports you can createwith BindView. But one thing I've learned in systems administration is that ifyou think you have all the reports you need, you just haven't talked to enoughsenior managers yet. So with this idea in mind, I took a standard report thatships with the product and modified it.

No systems administrator has enough disk space on the network, so I startedwith the Disk Space Analysis report. The BindView report shows the availablefree disk space and any disk space the client is currently using. You can addthese two numbers to get the total disk size, but I modified the report todisplay total disk size.

You can use the current disk usage graph as a template and modify it, oryou can make a duplicate, as I chose to do, with the Make Duplicate function inthe Edit menu. Right-click the duplicate item, and select the Modify Definitionfunction. To modify the query portion, navigate the buttons until you reach adisplay similar to Screen 3. Scroll down the Fields box to find the Disk SpaceTotal KB field. Click this field to add it to the field list. Next, you'll wantto filter out certain machines. In my case, I wanted to see only the Telosmachines. Choose Filter Specification to filter the output for this query. Ifiltered by machine name and restricted the query to only machines that startwith Telos, as shown in Screen 4. I also wanted to sort the results by disk sizeinstead of machine name. From Screen 5, you get the same point-and-clickmodification of the sort criteria. You can also change the scope to reflect onlyspecific domains. For my report, I left it at the default. Click OK to finishthe process.

Next, I decided to modify the graph for my report. To make this graphfunctional, I changed it to a 2D horizontal bar graph. I chose the Graph Setupoption from the modification screen to bring up Screen 6, and I selected thehorizontal bar graph and selected 2D. I clicked OK and was back at themodification screen and ready to test the modified report. I clicked LaunchGraph to bring up the modified report, shown in Screen 7. Now I needed to savethis definition. I selected Close from the File menu, and BindView asked whetherI wanted to save this definition. I said yes, and was finished. (To change thename of this report or the icon that represents it, you can right-click the iconand choose Properties.)

Almost Perfect
As I demonstrated, you can quickly build a toolkit of useful reports withBindView. As I created different reports, I was continually amazed at howquickly I could manipulate the results into a meaningful graph or report.

Unfortunately, BindView doesn't provide desktop management. If you want toinstall some software or take control of a system to solve a problem, forget it.BindView Development intends to add these features, and the company promises themanagement functions will work the same regardless of the operating system.

If you need a top-notch reporting tool for your network and can wait forthe management tools to follow, BindView is an excellent choice. Because it iseasy to set up and supports NT and NetWare 3.1 and 4.0, BindView is a niceoption for mixed shops. If BindView can deliver on the promise of completedesktop management for NT, NetWare, and UNIX to complement its alreadyimpressive reporting features, systems administrators will beat a path toBindView Development's door.