1.11 Storage Monitoring and Maintenance

Your storage solution must be monitored and maintained. The ability to monitor from a distance allows you to centralize your storage administration tasks.

Storage Requirement

Novell OES Solution

Centralized storage management: The ability to perform storage management tasks remotely to reduce complexity and costs.

The browser-based Novell iManager allows IT staff to manage servers, storage, directory, users, security, and the network from any location. You can remotely manage servers from NetWare, Windows, Linux, and UNIX computers via a Web browser.

iManager provides role-based management of the environment. Different people in the organization can have rights to manage different parts of the enterprise, even if they are not IT staff.

For general information about iManager, see the Novell iManager 2.7 Administration Guide.

For information about the storage-related plug-ins, see Novell iManager and Storage-Related Plug-Ins in the OES 2: NSS File System Administration Guide.

Local storage management: The ability to perform storage management tasks on the server when the operating system volume is not mounted.

The NSS Management Utility (NSSMU) is used to manage storage when the Web-based tools cannot be used, such as when the sys: volume is not mounted on NetWare. NSSMU is available for NetWare and Linux.

For information, see NSS Management Utility (NSSMU) Quick Reference in the OES 2: NSS File System Administration Guide.

Unified resource management: The ability to centrally maintain and manage access authorization and information about network resources.

Novell eDirectory is the cornerstone of a business continuity solution. eDirectory is a repository for all intelligence about network resources and access authorization information, settings, rights, locations, control variables, etc.

Because of its architectural design, eDirectory is not tied to any specific domain, volume, or hard drive. This makes it possible for disk drives, servers, clusters, and even multiple locations to fail, but eDirectory and all of the intelligence contained therein remains intact for recovery and continued functionality. A network can continue to exist and rebuild itself using contingency solutions, providing full capability as long as one simple segment of the network remains intact.

For information, see the Novell eDirectory 8.7.3 Administration Guide.

Mixed environment data exchange and management: The ability to securely synchronize, transform, and distribute data across applications, databases, and directories on the network and across firewalls to partner systems.

Novell Identity Manager (formerly DirXML®) provides a means to synchronize, transform, and distribute information across applications, directories, databases on the network and across firewalls to partner systems.

Identity Manager achieves uniform data integrity and automated efficiency by helping to eliminate the manual and repetitive tasks of creating and modifying user identities in different systems and applications within an enterprise. It makes automatic changes based on business rules and preserves authoritative data sources.

Monitor and manage system performance: The ability to monitor and manage server and storage performance.

NetWare includes performance monitoring and management tools. The Novell Remote Manager interface includes many system performance monitoring and graphing tools. For information, see the Novell Remote Manager for NetWare Administration Guide for OES.

Monitor and manage backup/restore performance: The ability to monitor and manage server and storage performance during backup and restore processes.

The TSATEST utility is included to help find backup/restore performance bottlenecks in the overall hardware/software system. For information, see the Utilities Reference for OES.

Remotely monitor and manage system performance: The ability to remotely monitor and manage server and storage performance.

Novell Cluster Services management provides remote cluster resources management from any Web browser enabled for Java*. Server storage can be dynamically assigned or reassigned, as needed. Administrators are automatically notified of cluster events and cluster state changes. For information, see the OES Novell Cluster Services 1.8.1 Administration Guide for NetWare.

Monitoring tools: The ability to monitor and report space usage, events, and policies for quotas and access.

The iManager Plug-In for NSS provides reports of volume quotas and user space restrictions. For information, see Managing Space Quotas for Volumes, Directories, and Users and Monitoring Quotas and Space Usage for NSS Pools and Volumes in the OES 2: NSS File System Administration Guide.