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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>You’re really comparing apples and
oranges here. All the software you mention covers different areas.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Routers2 is a frontend for the RRDtool-based
MRTG system, which is a very good performance graphing tool. It has a
trending plug-in, which could be improved on but works. MRTG has a basic
alerting system but it does not have the alerting features you need in a large
enterprise – however, if all you want is to submit alerts into a master
consolidator, then this could well be suitable for you.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Cacti is a complete RRDtool-based graphing
and monitoring system but again is primarily graphing, not alerting. This
is very feature-rich but is more complex to set up and maintain, IMHO.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Big Brother is an alerting system,
possibly with some graphing add-ons. This is not suited for larger
installations (IMHO), and you’d be better off with something like Nagios.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Here, we used to use Big Brother, but then
moved to Nagios as our alerting system, which I can definitely recommend.
It has the ability to send downstream alerts or accept upstream ones, and there
is a migration path from Big Brother. It also is easy to integrate Nagios
with Routers2, and MRTG and Nagios can share the same plug-ins for monitoring. We
use this method here, with Nagios doing the alerts and MRTG/Routers2 doing the
graphing, While Nagios can do graphing, it has no trending and the
options are limited.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>I can’t comment on the abilities of
Vitalnet as I’ve never heard of it before.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>HTH<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Steve<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
mrtg-bounces@lists.oetiker.ch [mailto:mrtg-bounces@lists.oetiker.ch] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>PAUL WILLIAMSON<br>
<br>
</span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>I have an
installation of VitalNet that I've been "competing" with for <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>the last few
years, and I revisit this topic with management roughly <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>once every 6-8
months. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Does anyone have
any pros or cons about VitalNet vs. any of the <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>fairly popular
front ends like:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Cacti<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Routers<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>I only am
concerned with trending and alerting to a master monitor.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>We've got an
entrenched installation of Netcool and we're working <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>on replacing our
aging Big Brother deployment, but I need to give <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>some fresh
information to keep VitalNet at bay, or just a <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>incredibly strong
argument to eliminate it from use.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Or, if there
really is a compelling reason to use it vs. something like <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Cacti or Routers,
I'd like to heard that as well.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Paul<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<pre><font size=2 face="Courier New"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></pre></div>
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