- In this Issue -

August ELM Product Demonstration Schedule TNT Software Now Offering Term Licenses ELM Release 5.5 Preview Webinar The "ELM 411" - Avoiding Bad Mojo with Filters Not Strictly Business

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August Product Demonstration Schedule

August 14, 2008 - Automated Event Log Management and Centralized System Monitoring Demonstration with ELM Enterprise Manager

Would you like to know more about the system monitoring and event log management capabilities ELM can provide your organization? Would you and/or your team like to "kick the tires" and take a look under the hood before deploying ELM Enterprise Manager? Then you're in luck! TNT Software will be giving a live demonstration of ELM Enterprise Manager on August 14. This one hour overview presentation will introduce you to the architecture, power, flexibility, and efficiency ELM can bring to your IT Operations.

Areas we will cover include:

• Monitoring
  • Deploying Agents - Virtual and Service Agents for agentless or real-time monitoring
  • Setting up Monitor Items - Collectors, Alarms and Monitors
  • Creating Agent Categories - apply common monitoring templates across groups of servers
• Notifications
  • Filters - the "criteria" for all notifications
  • Notification Methods - Email, Scripts, Pager, Desktop ELM Advisor and more
  • Rules - the "connector" between Filters and Notifications
• Results
  • Alerts - open and closed status (Agent color coding: Red, Yellow)
  • Event Views - default and customization options: include filters and custom date and time range settings

Demonstration Details
What: ELM Enterprise Manager 5.0 Live Product Demonstration and Overview
When: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 8:30 am, PDT
Where: WebEx On-line Presentation
Duration: 1 hour

How do I attend?

Register by using this link: https://tntsoftware.webex.com/tntsoftware/j.php?ED=99579292&RG=1&UID=0  

-Or-

Request a formal meeting invitation by emailing: sales@tntsoftware.com
The subject line should read: ELM 5.0 Live Demonstration Invite 8/14

TNT Software Now Offering Term Licenses

TNT Software is happy to announce that we now offer an alternative to perpetual software licensing. Now you can purchase any of our products under a One (1) Year Term License! So how does this work?

Just like standard perpetual licensing, the price is based on the quantity and class of Agents used to collect data - Server Agents, Workstation Agents, or IP Agents. The only difference is the term license expires one (1) year from the date of purchase.

This new licensing model offers a number of great benefits:

67% Lower Upfront Costs. The term license is one-third of the price of a perpetual license. This provides the ability to access a software solution that might not otherwise fit into budget plans. Plus the annual license renewal can then be budgeted for accordingly.

Reduced Risk. IT Environments are extremely dynamic. System expansion, platform shifts, and merger/acquisitions may all have an impact on the size of the license required. With term licenses, the quantity of Agents can be updated annually, or at any time during the course of the year, for the most efficient use of your capital resources. Term licenses offer great flexibility.

Term license users still have access to technical support and are entitled to free software updates during their term. Before the term license is set to expire, users will receive a communication from TNT Software with details on how to continue with their term license as well as options to convert to a perpetual license.

For more information, contact one of our Account Managers today!

ELM 5.5 Preview Webinar

On July 24, TNT Software delivered a "sneak preview" webinar to a select audience introducing the new features and enhancements in ELM version 5.5. This included a 10 minute overview followed by a full 20 minute product demonstration. The presentation then concluded with a 15 minute Question and Answer session.

A video recording of this webinar has been posted on our website and we encourage you to take a look at http://www.tntsoftware.com/elm55preview.

The release of ELM 5.5 is right around the corner but if you'd like a sneak peak of what's in store, then check out the video!

The "ELM 411" - Avoiding Bad Mojo with Filters

From time to time we hear about an ELM user quieting down a busy Notification method by deleting the Filter associated with it. In essence, the Rule that triggers the Notification method is unlinked so this appears to have worked and the Notification does not get triggered anymore. However now there appears to be new unwanted data coming in to other Views as well as unexpected behaviors. So what went wrong?

There are a couple of problems that have been created with this action:

1. ELM uses Rules to tie Filters to Notification methods. In ELM 5.0 there are two main areas that can be affected by this: Notifications and Views. ELM has the flexibility to reuse Filters in multiple areas and in this case can cause problems by deleting one that is "in play" in more than one area. By deleting a Filter you may quiet down a pesky Notification method that has been hammering on you but at the same time you've now tweaked with a View (or views) or other Notification methods that are using the same filter in other areas.
   
   
2. Once a Filter is deleted, it can't be undone. It is completely gone from the product! The only way to bring back a Filter is to rebuild it from scratch. This is pretty straightforward to do, however it can be very time consuming and error prone to remember the multiple places where specific Filters have been assigned throughout your ELM deployment.

The proper way to avoid "bad mojo" with Filters is to disable them from a Rule rather than delete them. Take our example of the pesky Notification you want to quiet down. The proper way to go about doing this is to disable the Filter within the Rule as opposed to deleting the entire Filter. This will turn off the trigger for the Notification(s) you've been receiving without blowing away the Filter altogether.

Say our pesky Notification is coming from Audit Logon and Logoff activity. Rather than delete the suspect Filter to quiet down the Notification, we'll disable it or unlink it from the Rule. The screens below walk through this process step by step.

1) Highlighting the Include Filters under our Audit Long-Logoff All Rule we can see the filters that are linked to this rule.

2) Rather than clicking on a Filter and deleting it, we'll right click on the Rule itself and select Properties to modify the settings.

3) Under the Event Filters Tab and the Include sub-tab we can disable (or enable) Filters that are assigned to this Rule. Is this case we'll uncheck the box for User Account Locked and Unlocked and click Okay to apply our changes.

4) Back at the Include Filters screen we can now see that our unwanted Filter is gone - but not deleted! This will quiet down our Notification method without accidentally creating new problems by deleting Filters.

Think of Filters as reusable objects within the context of ELM. They can be used and reused in numerous places concurrently. Rules use them as links to Notification methods. Views use them to be able to create customized views. Deleting a Filter deletes it from ELM completely.

We hope that you found this article informative and wish you continued success with your ELM deployment!

NOTE: All ELM 411 articles are written based on Version 5.0 and instructions may not be accurate for previous ELM Versions. If you would like assistance upgrading to Version 5.0 so you can use these tips - please contact support@tntsoftware.com.

Share your own ELM tips!
Have a tip or trick with our ELM products you'd like to share with our newsletter subscribers? Send your ideas and any applicable screen shots to info@tntsoftware.com with "ELM 411" in the subject line. We'll take a look and if usable you'll see it published here in the ELM 411 section of upcoming newsletters!

Not Strictly Business

Did you know?
The 2008 Summer Olympics Torch Relay will run until August 8, 2008, prior to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China. The relay, with the theme "Journey of Harmony", is expected to last 129 days and carry the torch 137,000 km (85,000 mi) — the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay since the National Socialist German Workers' Party started the tradition at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The design of the Olympic Torch is based on traditional scrolls and uses a traditional Chinese design known as the "Propitious Clouds" (祥云). The torch is designed to remain lit in 65 kilometer per hour winds, and in rain of up to 50 millimeters per hour.

After being lit at the birthplace of the Olympic Games in Olympia, Greece on March 24, the torch traveled to the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, and then to Beijing, arriving on March 31. From Beijing, the torch is following a route passing through six continents. The torch will visit cities along the Silk Road, symbolizing ancient links between China and the rest of the world. The relay also included an ascent with the flame to the top of Mount Everest on the border of Nepal and Tibet, China from the Chinese side, which was closed specially for the event.

In many cities along the route, the torch relay has been met by protesters representing a range of political issues, particularly those related to China's human rights record, the recent unrest in Tibet, the war in Darfur, China's support to regimes in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, North Korean defectors, territorial disputes over the Spratly and Paracel Islands with Vietnam, Falun Gong persecution and the political status of Taiwan, resulting in violence at various locations. These protests, which ranged from tens of thousands of people in San Francisco, to effectively none in Pyongyang, have forced the path of the torch relay to be changed or shortened on a number of occasions. The torch was extinguished by Chinese security officials several times during the Paris leg for security reasons.

The protests in Europe were described as "despicable" by the Chinese government, condemning them as "deliberate disruptions...who gave no thought to the Olympic spirit or the laws of Britain and France" and who "tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit", and vowed they would continue with the relay and not allow the protests to "impede the Olympic spirit". Large-scale counter-protests by overseas Chinese and foreign-based Chinese nationals became prevalent in later segments of the relay.

Prompted by the chaotic torch relays in Europe and North America, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge described the situation as a "crisis" for the organization and stated that any athletes displaying Tibetan flags at Olympic venues could be expelled from the games,] though he stopped short of canceling the relay altogether despite calls to do so by some IOC members. The outcome of the relay will likely influence the IOC's decision on whether or not to scrap global relays in future editions of the games.

In June 2008, the Beijing Games' Organizing Committee announced that the planned international torch relay for the Paralympic Games had been cancelled. The Committee stated that the relay was being cancelled to enable the Chinese government to "focus on the rescue and relief work" following the Sichuan earthquake.

Sources: Wikepedia

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