Event Sentry offers a collection of filter packages devoted to system-health
and performance monitoring. You can set monitoring intervals and thresholds
for notification, and you can assign to the filters and groups the same set
of actions valid for event log filters.
The product's Web-based reporting options are quite user-friendly. As is often
the case, reporting is a weak point of the product, offering simple lists of
data that meet the selection criteria you specify. Report-publishing options
are few: EventSentry supports online display, saving the data to a CSV-format
file, and publishing the report via RSS. On the plus side, it supports regular
scheduled EVT file backup and clearing, and it also offers a utility for loading
EVT files to a database, so you can always create custom reports when EventSentry’s
templates don’t meet your needs. One final criticism: EventSentry is one
of those products that doesn’t actually implement configuration changes
you make until you click Save—an annoying feature.
Worthy of Your Time
EventSentry boasts a comprehensive set of monitoring, recording, and alerting
options—although I would welcome enhancements to the reporting and remote-console
features. A breeze to learn and use, throwing few surprises my way, EventSentry
nevertheless gains my recommendation: Consider it closely for your environment.
SUMMARY
NETIKUS.NET EventSentry 2.8 PROS: Broad feature set, including
system health monitoring, support for custom event logs, and Syslog monitoring;
easy-to-use console for configuring filters, actions, and monitoring
CONS: Remote administration lacks full access to the configuration
created at another console; reporting could be more sophisticated; publishing
options are few RATING: 4.5 stars PRICE: Full license
starts at $75 per monitored host; Syslog- or heartbeat-only licenses start
at 10 hosts for $79. RECOMMENDATION: EventSentry offers terrific
log- and health-monitoring tools at a very reasonable price, and gets my
strong recommendation. CONTACT: NETIKUS.NET • http://www.netikus.net
• 877-638-4587 or 312-624-7698 |