Most of the time, InfoWorldzeros in on strategic technology decisions that affect the enterprise as a whole. But to keep your organization humming from
day to day, it's vital that your IT department be equipped with the right tools. To that end, we polled our own Test Center
analysts to find out what gets used on almost every job.
The choices may not be obvious to the casual observer, but they're tried-and-true. Your datacenter may have top-of-the-line
networking equipment, big-ticket apps, the latest OS, and every patch ever released. But when the chips are down, your staff
had better be equipped with the software arsenal it needs. When all else fails, these are the tools that get the job done.
No one can offer a Swiss army knife to cover every contingency, but our analysts and a cross section of InfoWorldcontributors have come up with the next best thing: A list of the most useful, powerful tools they've used to make things
work. You won't find technology that changes the world here. But your staff may be better equipped to handle the slings and
arrows of everyday IT.
1. Perl
Perhaps there has never been a more malleable, yet simple language than Perl — traits that have made it indispensable on Unix
systems. Combining the portability of a shell language, simple database interfaces, surprising speed, and a world-class regular
expression engine, Perl has become the duct tape that holds networks together. It’s that most important type of tool: one
for building other tools.
Perl isn’t limited to the Linux/Unix world, either; plenty of time and effort has been put into making it run on Windows.
ActiveState’s ActivePerl implementation is generally regarded as the best available for the Win32 platform. Its PPM (Perl
Package Manager) emulates the Unix version’s CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) access, pulling add-on modules from
the Internet on request. Plenty of Windows-specific functions are also available. For example, Perl can interface with Microsoft’s
Active Directory to automate object creation and modification. It can even be statically compiled into log-in scripts, for
those requiring more flexibility than KiXtart can provide. Best of all, as are all versions of Perl, ActivePerl is fully open
source and available at no charge, although ActiveState’s commercial ASPN (ActiveState Programmer Network) Perl package includes
a variety of value-added components and support options.
2. Ethereal
rom simple packet sniffing to thorough network performance analysis, software that can peer between the layers and pull out
important information about a network is a mainstay of network administration. Of the many network analysis tools available,
the most malleable and easily procured is the open source package Ethereal— which explains why it made the top 10 lists of so many of the techies we spoke to.
Available for Windows and most Unix platforms, Ethereal provides an instant view into the network. Although its filtering
capabilities can seem somewhat esoteric to the uninitiated, they are very powerful. It can be configured to monitor either
a single server or an entire VLAN, with custom filters that display only traffic to or from certain hosts or that narrow the
view down to specific protocols. Ethereal can trace captured packets from handshake to FIN (finished), generate summary reports
on protocol streams, and analyze TCP streams for round-trip times and throughput. Furthermore, Ethereal’s advanced tools pull
apart and inspect every packet seen on the wire, color-coded for easy viewing.
For a deep and instant look into current network traffic, Ethereal can’t be beat. After all, when diagnosing trouble networks,
knowing isn’t half the battle; it’s nine-tenths.
3. NetCrunch
IT consulting has plenty of facets that I try to avoid, but few things are worse than that first week on a job, when you’re
simply trying to find out what’s going on. That’s why I love NetCrunch from AdRem Software . No, it’s not a freebie open source tool, but it’s worth every penny of its $795 list price.
NetCrunch combines straight pings with a variety of targeted SNMP requests, sending its information-seeking tendrils out onto
a network landscape and reporting back its findings. I get back basic IP address and DNS information for each device, as well
as information obtainable via SNMP.
NetCrunch provides all this data in a series of linked maps — one for each subnet — identified by different colors and backgrounds.
You can see problem devices in red, drill down to problem specifics if the device is SNMP-capable, or send an administrator
an alert via e-mail. It’s also great for finding rogue wireless access points.
NetCrunch is an excellent quick administration tool. For consultants like me or for IT managers who rove between installations,
there’s no better tool for getting grounded and productive quickly.
4. HP JetAdmin
Hewlett-Packard printers are popular on enterprise networks. Given multiple printers to manage, there’s no better tool than
the newest incarnation of HP’s JetAdmin management software. JetAdmin 7.5 runs as a secure Web application, is accessible
from any browser, and allows administrators to query and perform myriad changes to networked printers, either singly or in
groups.
For instance, with JetAdmin, a tedious job such as upgrading the firmware on 20 HP 4100N printers can be accomplished with
just a few mouse clicks. JetAdmin can display a list of available firmware images for that printer series, provide a link
to the latest image on HP’s Web site, and then queue that update for distribution to every matching printer on the network.
Similarly, whereas tasks such as standardizing printer names and reconfiguring printers for DHCP might normally take dozens
of Telnet sessions, JetAdmin’s Web interface gets the job done quickly and easily. JetAdmin can create queues on print servers
for printers discovered on the network. It can also copy drivers to the appropriate locations, identify printers by model
and specified name, and enable printer sharing. Together, these features result in a truly massive reduction in time, hassle,
and stress.
5. Symantec Ghost
When setting up a department network means deploying tens or even hundreds of systems, there’s really only one way to handle
the load: drive imaging. By spending time up front to build a master reference image, the staff hours required to deploy and
maintain desktops, laptops, and even servers can be significantly reduced.
Although a number of imaging solutions are available, the admins we spoke to agree that Ghost, from Symantec, is the top choice.
Its powerful combination of drive imaging and support for Intel’s PXE (Preboot Execution Environment) installation services
means a single tech can build a dozen laptops, configure them with the required applications, and deploy them — all within
a few hours. Although it began as a Windows-only product, Ghost Corporate Edition now includes the ability to image partitions
that have been partitioned with Linux’s ext2 and ext3 file systems.
Ghost can also be used to take snapshots of a server during the build process, making it easy to roll back to an earlier step
should problems occur later in the build. When it comes to reducing the burden of repetitive installation and maintenance
tasks, this handy tool is hard to beat.
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