When running a discovery, a text box pops up where the discovery engine runs--a sign of Unicenter's Unix roots. After a short delay, BrightStor SAN Manager discovered more devices on our SAN than the company's compatibility list suggested we should expect. With some limitations, the program let us manage our old Dell PowerVault 50F switch and 35F Fibre Channel-to-SCSI bridge.
Managing zones pops up the separate switch administrator application, which requires an additional user ID and password. While preventing any SAN administrator from bringing the whole network down could be viewed as a security plus, it would be better to allow the master administrator define multiple users and grant them levels of access the way SANavigator does.
CA also sent us BrightStor SAN Designer a Visio plug-in for SAN planning. With SAN Designer you can discover your SAN using the same discovery engine as SAN Manager and then add components and test the configuration.
Despite its occasional advantages, SAN Manager is a bit ponderous. The user interface can be overwhelming and difficult to navigate. Combine this with SAN Manager's significantly higher cost than the competition, and we can recommend it only to Unicenter users.
BrightStor SAN Manager, priced by server attached to the SAN; the base server is free with prices starting at $1,095 per Windows server managed and $1,495 per Unix server managed; BrightStor SAN Designer, $2,700 per seat, Computer Associates International, (631) 342-6800, (800) 225-5224. www.ca.com/brightstor
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