After you initially setup a environment for example a citrixfarm with 30 servers that will host aproximitly 1000 users you might start to think about software that can give you the advantage of pro-active managing the environment. Software from for example Citrix like EdgeSite will give you not the real time monitoring if something happens. Also the eventviewer is a nice tool but for troubleshooting afterworths.

Software like MOM2005 (soon MOM2007) or Patrol will give you that part of advantage if you configure it the right way. Default out of the box most monitoring packages will give you a overflow of information and guess what happens then. Engineers start to ignore the monitoring tools because to much information is comming out of the box and they simply get tired from messages like "out of licenses" , "Uptime of server is xx-xx-xx".

Configuring tools like MOM or Patrol is job an sich, you need to dig deep into the packages that are delivered with the software or write your own scripts. Also you need to monitor the hardware, luckely vendors like HP, DELL, IBM have there own systems (SIM, IBM Directory and DELL open manage).

Trigering your monitoring application with the right configuration may save you time to investigate and solve issues before users get them and start ringing the helpdesk. What tool(s) are suited for your environment that is something we cannot tell you. We can however tell you what tools are available from real expensive to less expensive.

Expensive tools (great support but for a price)

• Microsoft MOM2005 (soon MOM2007 or SCOM)
• Patrol
• NETIQ

Cheaper tools

• Advanced Host Monitor
• Nagios

Free Tools (disadvantage can only monitor hardware from vendor)

• HP Insigh Manager
• DELL Open Manage
• IBM Directory

Note that with all tools you stil have to configure it to suite it for your needs. Out of the box most of the tools are configured but give you a overkill with information you really don't need. We didn't test any of the above tools but simply wanted to share some information nor are we sponsored by any of the above software vendors.