Released: June 30th 2007
Last change: January 2008

Contents

• How is the new version 6.1 installed and licenced?
• What is new in theGuard! NetworkManager Version 6.1?
• Service Packs
• Update from older CINeMa or theGuard! NetworkManager versions
• Further information
• Known problems

How is the new version 6.1 installed and licensed?

• New Installation:
  Installation is accomplished over a normal SETUP routine. Please attend the related information in the Start-WEB, and the description inside installation-procedure.
• Update of an existant 5.x installation
  Installation is accomplished over a normal SETUP routine. Please attend the related information in the Start-WEB, and the description inside installation-procedure.

What is new in theGuard! NetworkManager Version 6.1

• New architecture:
  • theGuard! NetworkManager is an integrative part of the ITIL-conform theGuard! IT Service Management Center
• Auto Map - Automated design of maps
• Neue Module: VAA - Visual Assisted Analysis
  • VAA Option: Routing & Switching Analysis
  • VAA Option: Virtual Network Analysis
  • VAA Option: MPLS Network Analysis
• New Module: Correlation Engine
• New features at Device Configuration Management (Provisioning)
  • Site Manager
  • Parameter Sets (Value Container)
• Improvements at all modules und functions

New architecture

• theGuard! NetworkManager now is part of the ITIL-conform theGuard! IT Service Management Center
  • With the new version als the product name was changed.
    • formerly theGuard! ServiceCenter now is theGuard! IT Service Management Center
• Components and function modules:
  • theGuard! IT Service Management Center
    • Asset-/Inventory Management
    • Configuration Management
    • Business Process Management
    • Reporting and function-related Reporting Packages
  • Service & Support Management (theGuard! ServiceDesk)
    • Incident Management
    • Problem & Change Management
  • System & Network Management (theGuard! NetworkManager)
    • Element Management
    • Device Configuration Management (Provisioning)
    • Topology- and VLAN Management
    • Visual Assisted Analysis (VAA)
    • Accounting (Netflow)

Integrated SETUP of theGuard! IT Service Management Center

• An important new feature of the new release is the uniform setup of all IT Service Management components
• Advantage to the user:
  • Simplified installation of all components and function modules
  • Uniform handling regarding licensing and upgrades
  • All basic requirements will be installed from the first
  • Capability to test all functionalities of IT Service Management Center with a 30-day demo license

Auto Map

• Automated creation of maps
• Graphical analysis of the logical, as well as physical network topology
• Layer 1,2,3 views, no analysis functions (status informations)

VAA - Visual Assisted Analysis

• New optional modules::
  • VAA option: Routing & Switching Analysis
    • Graphical analysis of the Layer 2/3 topology
    • Visualization and analysis of spezific status-, configuration- and performance data of arbitrary ports and interfaces
    • Visualization of spezific status-, configuration- and performance data of layer 2/3 (Routing- and switching-ports respectively )
  • VAA option: Virtual Network Analysis
    • Graphical analysis of virtual network topologies
    • Visualization of spezific status-, configuration- and performance data of VLAN interfaces and ports respectively
    • Precondition: VLAN View Manager
  • VAA option: MPLS Network Analysis
    • Graphical analysis of MPLS structures (not yet prized)
    • Precondition: VLAN View Manager (estimated Q3/2007)

New Module: Correlation Engine

• Monitoring of important nodes in practice at network components (Switches, Router) by different functional properties:
  • Node Status, CPU Utilization, Memory Usage, Port Status, Port Utilization at important servers:
  • Node Status, CPU Utilization, Memory Usage, Service Status
• These status and performance attributes (properties) are monitored on basis of recognized Managed Objects (MO)
• Advantage
  • Without correlation in theGuard! NetworkManager always the highest level is created as status of the related MO and node, respectively
  • Status now is created by correlation of arbitrary status informations
• With Correlation Engine the node- and Managed Object status can be calculated by control equipment
  • Available are:
    • Rules
      • Worse than
      • Worse than or equal to
      • Better than
      • Better than or equal to
      • Equal to
      • Not equal to
    • Functions
      • Worse of
      • Best of
      • Average of
      • time-based functions in preparation
• Rules and functions relate to status of assigned Managed Objects and their monitored properties, respectively and can be nested arbitrarily
• The result is a correlated status of node or single MO
• Licensing
  • If Business Views are licensed, Correlation Engine needs not to be purchased additionally

New Module: Business Process Management (BPM)

• Correlation on level
  • MO (Status of assigned properties)
  • Node (Status of assigned MOs or/and properties)
  • See also Correlation Engine
• Display of Business Views
  • Business Views (Status of assigned nodes or/and MOs or/and properties or again Business Views)
  • Special area inside Map
  • Special access profiles
  • WIN- and WEB-GUI
  • Eventfilter can use Status severity directly as Event severity
• External data can be implemented
• Licensing
  • With basic module, up to zu 20 Business Processes can be configured with Business Views (BVs)
  • For configuration of additional Business Processes BV-Packages can be purchased (plus 20 BVs per package)
  • Correlation Engine is also available as extension module for all basic system configurations without BPM

New features at Device Configuration Management (Provisioning)

• Site-Manager
  • Can be used for basic design of IP addresses
  • Provides clear IP structure at modern distributed networks
• Parametrization of Macros
  • Parameter Sets
    • Keep data, needed for parametrization of macros, in Value Containers
    • Can be administrated node-specificly
    • Do not need any special product know-how
    • Value Containers can be created for arbitrary purposes
  • Macros
    • Contain the syntax-specific commands of he related product component
    • Can be predefined for certain partial tasks
      and fetch values in realtime from Parameter Sets
  • Target
    • Consistent network- and device configurations
    • Automated creation and distribution (Provisioning)
    • Simplification and thus, enhanced quality
    • Simplification of designing complete network configurations

Service Packs

• ServicePack v3.0

  NetworkManager
  - Bugfix: Map text element position is not updated if text is moved in another session
  - Bugfix: When dragging a network attachment endpoint to the node it is attached to, an access violation occurs
  

  Service Pack Installer
  - Improvement: Now update (reinstall) of the NetworkManager default database is done during the service pack installation
  

  Discovery Server
  - Bugfix: Topology tree sorting may fail on sorting ring structures
  

  Browse Server
  - Bugfix: DNS did not work if an unavailable DNS server is in system server list
  

  Event Server
  - Improvement: Additional match variables for user defined node data (custom 1 - 3) in event actions
  

• ServicePack v2.5

  NetworkManager
  - Bugfix: In some cases, devices are displayed with a wrong icon in correlation dialogs
  

  Discovery Server
  - Bugfix: Polling is always activated for new nodes assigned to the 'Ping' class
  

• ServicePack v2.4

  SNMP Interface
  - Reset SNMPv3 engine if a timeout occurs
  

  Database Administrator
  - Bugfix: Daily,Weekly,Monthly und Yearly Archive databases were not copied by Database Wizard, while importing data from other configurations
  

• ServicePack v2.3

  NetworkManager
  - Improvement: Scaling factor for automaps
  - Improvement: Locate function for nodes in automap views
  - Improvement: Trap Community '*' (= arbitrary community string) is used as a default for new nodes
  - Improvement: Automatic reset of some node properties to their default value whan copying/pasting nodes
  - Improvement: Maintenance schedules with only an End-constraint are listed as 'Start-End' again
  - Improvement: States 'Acknowledged', 'Assigned', 'Ignored' etc. remain untouched when trying to close state relevant events
  - Improvement: Order of threshold items for history thresholds can be changed by user
  - Bugfix: Network tree is not updated when the 'router flag' of a node is changed
  - Bugfix: Duplex-Check is not displayed properly in AutoMap views
  - Bugfix: References to non-existent node groups may cause an access violation
  - Bugfix: When opening the event window of an active discovery scan, an access violation may occur
  - Bugfix: Deleted sites are displayed in the AutoMap 'Site' list box
  - Bugfix: Poll definitions under the managed object type 'Device' cannot be assigned a threshold set
  - Bugfix: After executing a pager action, on certain modem/operating system combinations, an access violation may occur
  

  Multi Site
  - New Feature: Node Status forwarding
  - New Feature: Fail state tolerance for 'Poll on demand'
  - New Feature: Import of Managed Object Properties
  - Improvement: Import day count settings for History and History Archive combined
  

  Discovery Server
  - Bugfix: Scan stops with one node left
  - Improvement: improved topologie sorting
  

  SNMP Interface
  - Improvement: speed up property requests
  - Bugfix: wrong delta computation in case of a request error e.g. timeout
  

  Histroy Server
  - Improvement: speed up polling
  - Bugfix: wrong delta computation in case of counters
  

  Web Console
  - Improvement: display massive netflow data
  - Bugfix: wrong descriptions in performance charts
  - Bugfix: wrong handling for archived netflow data
  - Bugfix: error while display tree in map view
  

• ServicePack v2.2

  NetworkManager
  - Bugfix: TCP ports greater 32767 are not accepted in TCP polls
  - Bugfix: Printing of AutoMaps does not work
  

  Database Server
  - Bugfix: Already created reports was lost in the overview of the WebConsole during reinstall/update of database
  

  Multi Site Server
  - Bugfix: Possibly TCP connection between Multi Site servers couldn´t be established
  

  Event Server
  - Bugfix: With Log Actions within an Action Sets the Clear filter(s) did not function correctly
  - Bugfix: In some cases filter-configurations are not activated when opening a profile
  

  Poll Server
  - Bugfix: Polling remains active on Central-Site for some Poll-On-Demand-Poll-Entries although the Site is active
  

  Window Spitter
  - Improvement: Additional tool buttons and menu items to enable or disable "Delta" or "Time Ticks to Absolute" conversion in managed object tables
  - Improvement: Now there are three calculation methods available for "Time Ticks to Absolute" conversion and it is possible to set them by the command line
  - Bugfix: Some dialogs (especially "Chart Properties") threw an access violation error bevor displaying
  

  Discovery Server
  - Bugfix: Changed MOs which were not from SNMP
  - Bugfix: User specific class detection didn't work
  - Bugfix: node naming failed if the node name was changed manually
  

  SNMP Interface
  - Bugfix: Rounding error in index computation
  - Bugfix: error in property requests with message "Value out of range!"
  - Bugfix: Discovery stopped if a request needed too long
  

  Browse Server
  - Bugfix: MOs from XML files were deleted if the file was not available
  

  Web Console
  - Bugfix: Frame Relay statistic charts displays only zero values for Forward and Backward Congestions
  

• ServicePack v2.1

  Service Pack Installer
  - Improvement: Old DLLs will be deregistered bevor registering the new ones
  

  Multi Site Server
  - Improvement: Monitoring of the TCP connection between Multi Site servers was intensified
  

  SNMP Interface
  - Bugfix: Memory leak
  

• ServicePack v2.0

  NetworkManager
  - New Feature: XML file parsing for automated import of Managed Object-, state- and property data
  - New Feature: Extended and persistable filters in event log and NodeManager
  - New Feature: Define property sequence histories on Managed Object instances in NodeManager
  - New Feature: Filter actions to set poll status and to start scan profiles
  - Bugfix: NodeManager display is not updated correctly after changing filter criterion
  - Bugfix: Using the SNMPv3 protocal may cause the NMDatabase Server to terminate
  - Bugfix: DES encryption for SNMPv3 can cause request errors
  - Bugfix: Extended poll settings cannot be inherited from class defaults
  

  Database Server
  - Bugfix: NMDatabase Server may 'hang' under certain conditions
  

  Discovery Server
  - Added IPv6 Address detection over SNMP
  

  Event Server
  - New Feature: LogFile-Settings-Dialog (via Process Monitor Client)
  - Bugfix: Execute actions with 'Use this login ...' return with an error after an certain number of executions
  - Bugfix: $group Parameter may be filled twice
  

  Poll Server
  - New Feature: LogFile-Settings-Dialog (via Process Monitor Client)
  - Improvement: Optimized correlation calculation on startup
  - Bugfix: Calculation of dependent correlations may return a wrong state information
  

  MultiSite Server
  - Bugfix: Possible crash during the Site monitoring
  

• ServicePack v1.0

  NetworkManager
  - New Feature: Class property display in NodeManager.
  - Bugfix: Mail actions using alternative protocol implementation are not executed.
  - Bugfix: Opening a CommCenter configuration dialog causes access violation.
  - Bugfix: Status changes with non-compatible SNMPv3 devices.
  

  Communication Server
  - Bugfix: Partially the agents couldn't transmit their data complete
  

  Event Server
  - Bugfix: Scheduled event filters are not working properly
  

  Serialization
  - Bugfix: Sometimes registration of file extension 'psf' was lost after an Update Installation of a NetworkManager version 6.0
  - New Feature: Licenses available in the serialization file will be registered too, during the serialisation process
  

  MultiSite Server
  - Bugfix: Bad state of availability data after import
  

  Database Server
  - Bugfix: Error while MultiSite map import