See What's New in ELM Enterprise Manager Version 6.5

We're excited to announce that ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5 is now available! This new release is packed full of enhancements for performance, reliability, ease of use and more. Monitoring servers and managing event logs has never been easier and gets better with each new release of ELM.

The latest version pushes the bar even higher with a new database design, workflow improvements, new licenses offering a versatile mix of monitoring features, more configurability and more control.

Here you'll find highlights of the newest features in ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5.

New Licenses

   Extensive research and customer input allowed us take a close look at the monitoring features we offer and the most used and high valued capabilities our customers have been seeking. New with version 6.5 is what we call a "Core" License - combining the best of the best at a more attractive price point. Details of each of the features found in this new license can be found in the links below.

Event Alarm	Event Collector	File Monitor	Performance Alarm	Performance Collector
Ping Monitor	Process Monitor	Service Monitor	Agent Monitor	ELM Server Monitor

  Our studies also indicated that customers would benefit from a lighter weight product offering to compliment our Windows server and workstation monitoring. We've introduced the new "Network" License to satisfy this need as well with version 6.5. This new license includes features most valuable for network devices (firewalls, routers, switches, etc.) and is priced to bring even more value to ELM monitoring environments.

SNMP Alarm	SNMP Collector	SNMP Receiver
Syslog Receiver	Ping Monitor	TCP Monitor

Notification Methods Connected to Event Views - No More Rules

With the powerful event filtering capabilities in ELM for collection, views, notifications and reporting, our market research indicated that this enormous amount of flexibility sometimes led to a disconnect between seeing an event and configuring ELM to send a notification on that event occurring.

Our product management and development teams were put to the test to come up with a more streamlined way for our end users to setup notifications based on what they are seeing in the ELM Console. The previous method for creating a notification was based on three building blocks.

A Filter looking for specific conditions. A Notification Method (email, pager, etc.) A Rule tying #1 and #2 together.

In ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5, we've taken a new approach to setting up Notification Methods based on Event Views to streamline and simplify setting up notifications. The basic premise is "What You See is What You Get." Rules have gone away.

Notification Methods are Now Tied Directly to Views

Each View now has the option of assigning a Notification Method directly to it. Any events being displayed in that Event View (based on the Filter criteria) will generate a Notification (or increment the Notification threshold counter). This presents a few different options. You can customize an existing Event View, fine tuning Filters, and then setup a Notification Method. You can also create a new Event View (or new Event Views) based off of an event and assign a Notification from that new Event View. Views could be created for various operational groups (Security, Network Managers, etc) and filters setup to include events and therefore Notifications specific to each of these groups as well. Event Views and therefore Notifications can also be assigned to Agent Categories to improve organization. However you prefer to approach it, assigning Notification Methods is much easier to do, while retaining the same rich, powerful filtering ability ELM is known for.

What happens to existing Notification Rules when I upgrade?

During the upgrade process from older versions of ELM to version 6.5 the installer looks for existing Notification Rules. Any that are found are converted to a new Event View and the existing Event Filters and Notification methods are imported into and assigned to that Event View.

Notification methods have also been improved with the addition of variables in the Message Contains field which include the Event View(s) that triggered the notification(s). This makes it even easier to pinpoint where notifications of Event Activity are coming from. (ie. This Event View triggered this Event from this Machine at this Time...)

Ping Monitor in All Licenses

It's the simple things in life that make us happy. With that in mind we've added the Ping Monitor to ALL of the licenses available in ELM Enterprise Manager. This simple but effective feature will allow you to continually check availability of all systems being monitored by ELM without the need for other 3rd party tools or applications.

Ping Monitor The Ping Monitor sends custom ICMP echo requests to verify TCP/IP connectivity and the Quality of Service. It provides an early warning alert of a problem with the remote system's status.

Agent Categories Available in Filters - Use to customize Event Views, Notifications and More

Dynamic Control

In ELM 6.5, any agent you add to a category is automatically added to existing Filters that are using that Category in it's criteria. You no longer have to go in and add the agent to the Agent Name field of the Filter when you make changes.

Similarly, if you were to remove an agent from an Agent Category - you don't have to go in and manually remove that agent name from the Filter criteria. It happens dynamically!

Performance and Usability Improvements

Quickly Add Performance Counters to a Performance Collector

Another great shortcut for fine tuning your Performance Collectors is the ability to quickly add a new Performance Counter through a shortcut we've added! This simple feature makes working with performance metrics in ELM a lot easier.

This will also save users a lot of time and moving around to different parts of ELM to get to the Performance Counter Definitions they want to add to Performance Collectors.

Event View Improvements

A common practice with ELM's Event Views is to switch to Summary View mode and sort by count to see where your heaviest event activity is and then investigate. However, in a busy environment this can be challenging as events continue to flood in, the ELM Console continues to refresh and your sorted event count can move quickly down the screen as seen in this example.

The Pause feature found in Detail Event Views (where events really move quickly!) has been added to the Summary Event View as well in ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5, making investigation into event activity much easier.

New Shortcut to Create Event Filters from Within an Event View

We've made it much more efficient to work with Event Filters in Event Views by adding a quick shortcut to create New Event Filters. Whether you are creating a new Event View or modifying an existing one, this new shortcut will be a real time saver when you don't have an existing Event Filter in place and need to create a new one on-the-fly.

       Command Script Notification Now Supports Microsoft PowerShell

By popular demand, we've added Microsoft PowerShell support to ELM's Command Script Notification. PowerShell provides full access to COM and WMI, enabling administrators to perform administrative tasks on both local and remote Windows systems.

Streamlining and Efficiency

We've gone through ELM Enterprise Manager from the top to the bottom, from Monitoring to Reporting, in an effort to streamline, standardize, and consolidate menus, features, and shortcuts. This effort has led to some older features being removed, unused features being disabled, and other features being easier to find. There are too many little enhancements to list them all but we're sure you'll find the overall experience more efficient and streamlined leading to a better experience working with ELM.

Alerts Container Discontinued

In an effort to streamline the UI and minimize confusion, the Alerts container has been removed from ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5. Just the Alerts sometimes gave the impression that they were some form of notification method which they were not. For current ELM users who have been utilizing the Alerts container in their daily operations have no fear; we have included a way to easily re-enable Alerts for those who request.

The upgrade to ELM Enterprise Manager 6.5 is free of charge to all clients with a current Support and Maintenance Agreement.