Agent installation is a manual process. Installing all the distribution files on the remote machine meant mailing the CDs to Green Bay! We begged CA to give us the subdirectory that the agents needed for installation, but the company was unsure what all the dependencies were. Remote installation would have taken way too long across a slow link. The install script did figure out what was needed to install just the agents on the remote servers. But because CA uses separate products for the Web server monitoring agent, the WebSphere monitoring agent and the systems monitoring agent, we had to run separate installations for all three on both our test servers. This compared unfavorably to the more straightforward process that other vendors used, having a base agent that then gains extended functionality.
The install process was rocky, with software components on the server not installing successfully, even though the guided process never indicated failure. We ended up reinstalling from dirt and taking another try at it, which was more successful, but there were still a couple of quirks. For example, our WebSphere servers both showed up in our portal, but we couldn't locate them with the Explorer. Not good for the business owners to know about a service that operations can't find. We eventually found the WebSphere server with CA support's help--it was placed in an "Unplaced Objects" group because of an error in discovery.
Unicenter. Computer Associates International, (888) 423-1000, (631) 342-6000. www.ca.com
Bruce Boardman, executive editor of Network Computing, tests and writes about network management and systems. He has 12 years' experience managing networks and distributed computing for a financial service provider. Write to him at [email protected].
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