Back in August, when I told you about the newest version of AdRem's free Remote Console (FreeCon) for NetWare, I also mentioned that a new version of AdRem's Server Manager product would soon be released. Well, "soon" arrived (along with Server Manager 5.0) last Friday.

AdRem Server Manager is a tool that lets you manage all of your NetWare and Open Enterprise Server servers - Version 4.11 and later - from a single console. The dashboard-style console gives you a network-wide view of all your managed servers complete with information about their health, configuration, connected users, file systems, NLMs, trustees, and most other critical aspects. You can easily detect and resolve problems - and even anticipate them.

Server Manager also allows automating and task-scheduling cross-server operations such as configuration management, or file and software distribution, helping you to mitigate the risk of downtime, improve server consistency, and consolidate your multiple server environment.

Major enhancements in AdRem Server Manager 5.0 include:

* A single consolidated view of all servers with key performance indicators in sortable columns.
* Multiple real-time trend chart views for different servers.
* The ability to copy files from multiple servers to the local workstation.
* A new option to compare server configuration files across multiple servers.
* Daily/weekly/monthly trend reports of server parameters.
* Reportable comparisons of long-term trends across multiple servers.
* Instant access to statistics for the last 15 and 60 minutes of any monitored performance counter.
* A dashboard-like view of server status and health.
* New monitored performance objects including those related to NSS, Remote Manager and NSS Volume Inventory.
* The ability to sort and filter log parameter columns and the option to limit the displayed content of large log files.
* The ability to create custom reports from defined templates based on collected performance data.

There's also a new, streamlined user interface, improved sorting, filtering and customization of table information, and an enhanced display of NCF files for easier reading. There's even a copy of AdRem's Free Remote Console bundled with the program for quick remote access.

There's even more but I think you get the general idea. Go to the AdRem Server Manager 5/0 Web page and check out all the features. It's a great tool, and it's designed for NetWare from the ground up.

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To contact Dave Kearns:

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found here.