December 6, 1996 2:00 PM ET

BindView to give NT servers configuration management
By Paula Musich

BindView Development Corp. next week will bring its brand of network operating system server configuration management to Microsoft Corp. Windows NT servers with a new snap-in module for its BindView Enterprise Management System. BindView EMS is an object-oriented framework for managing network operating systems, workstations, and World Wide Web and database servers. It treats data collected from managed systems as if it were in a database, so that users can generate queries and reports against the data. With only network operating system modules currently shipping, it competes with server configuration managers such as Auditware from Preferred Software. The Houston-based company, which to date has supplied snap-in server configuration management modules for Novell Inc. NetWare 3, NetWare 4 and Open NDS, will add the NOSadmin module for Windows NT to its lineup. "We provide mainly configuration management of the NetWare OS, including disk space, user accounts, server and NLM management, and security auditing," said Eric Pulaski, president of the privately held company. "Now we're bringing to NT server auditing from the same console that manages NetWare servers." The NOSadmin module for Windows NT performs analysis of security, systems resources and configuration parameters for Windows NT servers and workstations. It can perform those functions across multiple NT server domains. Although Microsoft provides some security management with the NT network operating system, one early beta tester found the BindView supplement helpful. "That's nice because with Microsoft, you can't print a report," said Robert Burross, systems administrator for Argis International in Houston. At the same time, the disk space allocation analysis function in the tool doesn't go far enough, Burross said. "Disk space allocation reports who has what allocated, but you can't change the allocation. That would be an extremely nice feature to have. They just haven't done it." The NOSadmin for Windows NT module is due in January. Pricing has not yet been set. BindView can be reached at www.bindview.com. Copyright(c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company is prohibited. PC Week and the PC Week logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. PC Week Online and the PC Week Online logo are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Send mail to PC Week