Architecture FAQs

Currently netPrefect is a software only product, although we are considering an appliance version for a future roadmap entry.

 

netPrefect is installed on standard server hardware. Typically, a customer site would have one or more server managers installed, often a small 1U rack server. The engine may be larger depending on the database and disk storage requirements.

 

Yes, netPrefect is fully cross platform and has been developed and tested on a variety of platforms. The various netPrefect components also communicate cross platform e.g. the engine can be installed on Linux and the server managers on Windows (or vice versa).

 

We currently test and support either Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle databases. However, netPrefect is capable of supporting others. We can test and validate your database of choice if we are given access to it for a few days in order to perform the necessary netPrefect configuration changes and testing.

 

Nothing, netPrefect is an agentless solution.

 

This depends on the verbosity of the managed device and the number of scheduled/interactive commands you execute on the device. netPrefect is designed to be scalable. So, if the engine is becoming overloaded, simply add another server to your existing setup using the engine clustering technology, and the work of the engine will be spread amongst the nodes in the cluster. As for the server manager, simply add more server managers, dividing the responsibility of a subnet between multiple server managers.

 

Again, this is difficult to quantify as it depends on how many managed devices are being monitored and what scheduled/interactive commands are being executed and how often. Bear in mind that we are using industry standard protocols so, whatever network management solution you use, an SNMP Get is going to generate the same traffic.

 

Yes, netPrefect is fully 64 bit compatible both to run on and to monitor, although it does require 64 bit java to be installed.

 

You purchase and own the physical hardware that netPrefect runs on. As for the software, you purchase the appropriate number of licenses to manage the devices you need to. It costs nothing extra if you decide to deploy those licenses to managed devices on one or 100 remote sites.

 

The engine would communicate with your customer devices either via the internet (unsecure) or through a VPN connection to your customer site.

 

This is impossible to say as it depends on how many devices are being monitored and the scheduled commands that are being executed on the device and how often.

 

No, all communication between netPrefect components is encrypted and performed using standard http and https ports and so does not require any extra firewall configuration above and beyond that required for normal web browsing.

 

The engine upgrades are performed manually, and Cyclone can come and perform these upgrades for you. The server manager upgrades are performed automatically after the engine has been upgraded.

 

Not currently. netPrefect is primarily a system and network management solution, not an automated software distribution and installation tool. If there is sufficient demand for this, we may consider it for a future version. Please share with us your requirements and we will add this to our roadmap.

 

netPrefect has a web interface that can be tailored to display standard reports in html format, which can then be printed. For more in depth reporting and analysis, all captured data can be exported in csv format into reporting software, such as Crystal reports.

 

No, the server manager can be installed on the same system as the engine. The decision as to where the individual netPrefect components are sited depends very much on how you manage your customers, the topology and the SLAs you have in place.

 

Use the Telnet (or to be secure the SSH) transport. This will allow you to remotely manage the configuration on your device.

 

Use the built in TFTP server functionality. BY importing your firmware image into the netPrefect configuration at the site level, then that configuration file becomes available for use by all the devices at that site. This enables the firmware update command to be executed on each device at the site in order to download the image to the device.

 

Yes, in addition to an ICMP echo request we can also perform discovery by attempting to open a connection to the TCP/IP ECHO port on a device. We have plans to perform other tests in the future to determine whether a device is connected to the network.