New Product Briefs (July 26, 1999) Attention vendors: Here's how to get your products mentioned in SunWorld By Kane Scarlett

July  1999

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Index

• ASC RemoteSHADOW disaster-recovery system adds Solaris support
• Innosoft DirectoryPortal integrates XML and LDAP 3
• Sun extends UltraAXi processor board speeds
• Sun Easy Access Server 3.0 offers NT network services
• Sun, HP to integrate systems-management systems
• Funnel Web rapidly analyzes high-volume Web traffic
• ICL spawns four new data-app management tools
• e-Parcel now handles data deployment for Solaris

ASC RemoteSHADOW disaster-recovery system adds Solaris support

RemoteSHADOW protects business information by offering a shadow version of the continuously updated data in alternate locations. It offers both local and remote replication capabilities for partitions or volumes. It can offer shadowing over any link, regardless of bandwidth requirements or distance from the server being shadowed.

A shadow set consists of up to 10 shadow members. A shadow member is any local or remote disk device partition. All user write I/O operations to the shadow set are directed to all available members within the shadow set. Each member has an associated read cost value, which the user can change, so that read operations occur with the fastest device.

RemoteSHADOW employs a utility to smooth out data peaks and troughs during high-traffic periods. It also uses a network restart feature, which sends information to a queue upon losing a connection. The queued data, only involving changes to the data, builds until the connection is restored, when it is sent on and the system is updated.

Besides Solaris 2.6, RemoteSHADOW also supports Open VMS and other Unix platforms. There is a 30-day evaluation version available.

http://www.advsyscon.com/products/unix/shadow/solaris_sparc/SSSPD15.htm

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Innosoft DirectoryPortal integrates XML and LDAP 3

The DirectoryPortal suite lets users rapidly construct and deploy Web-based applications that dynamically access data from LDAP directories.

DirectoryPortal Builder is an application development platform that uses LDAP directories for advanced enterprise and e-commerce services. It lets users rapidly develop and deploy Web-based applications that integrate data from LDAP directories by using an eXtensible Template Language (XTL) that follows XML standards. After the data is snagged, it is presented by dynamic server-side translation to HTML before being sent to a browser for rendering. The Builder includes an XTL interpreter for development and an XTL compiler to pre-compile the XTL source for optimal execution during deployment.

The DirectoryPortal Servlet provides a production application server that executes pre-compiled XTL applications. The application server can maintain multiple user sessions without relying on browser cookies. The Servlet has a number of features for dynamic modification via an XTL application property editor, such as real-time session monitoring, tracing, and incremental logging. Each Servlet is multi-threaded, relies on caching for high performance, and supports the LDAP 3 protocol for such advanced operations as concurrent queries and automatic following of referrals.

The Enterprise DirectoryPortal Browser employs a standard schema and LDAP 3 operations to support advanced browsing, searching, and editing functions. It leverages such advanced server features as secure authentication, dynamic schema, and paged results.

The DirectoryPortal products are compatible with any Java 1.1 platform, including Solaris, Windows NT, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Tru64 Unix, and OpenVMS. The Builder license is $15,000 and allows up to three application developers; additional developer licenses are $2,500. The Servlet license is $5,000 per application server. The Browser license is $25,000 and includes a Builder license and one Servlet.

The products will be available for free 30-day evaluation in August 1999. Commercial versions are expected 3Q99.

http://www3.innosoft.com/ids-products.html

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Sun extends UltraAXi processor board speeds

Sun has achieved this boost in its embedded products by upgrading the UltraSPARC IIi microprocessors from 330/360-MHz versions to 440/480-MHz versions.

Sun sells the PCI-based SPARCengine Ultra AXi motherboards to OEMs for network intensive applications, such as ISP services, telecommunications, and adjunct communication processors.

The 440-MHz SPARCengine Ultra AXi motherboard costs $2,350 in volume. The 480-MHz SPARCengine Ultra AXi should be available by the end of 1999.

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Sun Easy Access Server 3.0 offers NT network services

The server software combines Solaris reliability with the Windows NT ease-of-use, offering a complete set of Windows NT network services that run alongside the reliable Solaris network services. One of the top uses for the combo: Combining the workload of smaller, existing NT systems onto a single, reliable Solaris-based server, lowering administration costs.

The Solaris Easy Access Server 3.0 combines a complete set of Windows NT Network Services, administration tools, and global enterprise security services. Administration tools include the Java-enabled Solstice AdminSuite 3.0 and Solaris Web Start Wizards software. It uses Solaris PC NetLink 1.1 to offer higher availability of NT network services (such as BackOffice authentication, NT file services, and NT Directory services); it also makes Solaris servers look like Windows NT servers to users.

The server also supports the emerging WBEM (Web-Based Enterprise Management) standards as defined by the DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force). The server includes Sun WebServer, Sun Internet Mail Server, Sun Directory Services, and Kerberos v.5 security services.

The Solaris Easy Access Server should be ready in August 1999 for both Solaris 2.6 and 7 on SPARC and Intel. The suggested retail price starts at $595 per server.

http://sun.com/solaris/easyaccess

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Sun, HP to integrate systems-management systems

The combination will offer IT administrators a single Java console as a point of control to manage and monitor mixed Sun/HP environments.

Sun Enterprise SyMON offers a single point of management -- remotely or from anywhere on the network -- for all Sun servers, desktops, selected storage systems, Solaris, software applications, and data-center services.

HP OpenView IT/Operations provides application-service management for large, complex, mission-critical IT environments, offering management functions to guarantee uptime of all layers of distributed IT service environments, including the network, systems, databases, and applications levels.

SyMON: http://www.sun.com/symon/datasheet/

OpenView: http://www.openview.hp.com/

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Funnel Web rapidly analyzes high-volume Web traffic

Funnel Web 3.5 has added proxy analysis and gives the user a choice of command-line interface or GUI. It also features streaming analysis, designed to process large log files in small amounts of RAM.

Funnel Web includes two separate applications, so users get a choice of a command-line interface and a GUI. The GUI version has implemented GNOME/GTK-compliant interface libraries. Proxy analysis for is available for identifying and eliminating security breaches and system abuse.

Funnel Web includes:

• A "Mean Path Through Site" report to provide an overview of the average path taken through the overall Web site, including mirrors and aliases
• Streaming analysis which continually monitors a site in a finite amount of RAM; it can also process extremely large log files in small amounts of RAM
• Domain aggregating which combines all mirror and alias data into one set of reports
• Offsite processing which allows companies hosting a site on a remote server to automatically schedule log processing for that server
• Event messaging to send automatic notification of predefined events
• Regionalized reporting to detail the number of hits by region

Funnel Web is available now on Linux and FreeBSD; releases for Solaris, Mac OS X Server, HP-UX, SCO Unix, IRIX, and Digital Unix are planned. It costs $995.

http://www.activeconcepts.com.au/products.html

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ICL spawns four new data-app management tools

• The Fast Track Development Toolkit, which automatically generates code for loading data warehouses, reducing the time needed for development

• The Disk Administration Toolkit, designed to complement the volume-management functions of Informix by delivering an easy disk-management ability

• The Data Warehouse Scheduler, a customer job scheduler designed to schedule the job steps required to load and manage a data warehouse and its related systems

• Database Backup and Restore, a platform-independent utility that takes compressed, full, incremental, or phased-incremental logical backups to disk

The Fast Track Development Toolkit uses a purpose-built meta-language that runs atop Perl for file handling, O/S interfaces, and atop interactive SQL. The toolkit includes:

• A framework source tree
• Perl pre-processor with Informix Dynamic Server generator
• Several makefiles
• Generic include files and control scripts
• A runtime processor
• A package/release/install mechanism
• A consistency suite generator
• A non-regression test framework

This toolkit will run on Solaris 2.6 or Windows NT 4.0. The model from which code is automatically generated is created using Platinum's ERwin Database Design Tool.

The Disk Administration Toolkit comes in two parts, a generic off-the-shelf set of advanced monitoring and display functions and a customized set of active functions. Active functions, which are crafted to the specifications of individual customers, are provided as part of a Toolset Enhancement Service and are delivered on-site. It takes about 10 days to create and install these components.

The Disk Administration Toolkit is best used for data warehouses that have time-based partitioning and use either application or hybrid fragmentation. It requires Solaris 2.6, the Informix Dynamic Server, and Perl 5.

The Data Warehouse Scheduler is a low-cost software component that makes it easy to control the plethora of regular job steps required to operate a data warehouse and its peripheral systems. With it, jobs can be scheduled on both local and remote systems. It runs on any flavor of Unix, can support any set of Unix job steps, and requires Perl 5.

The Database Back-up and Restore, platform-independent utility takes compressed full, incremental, or phased-incremental logical backups to disk. It supports hybrid-partitioned, application-partitioned, or non-partitioned databases. It requires the Informix Dynamic Server 8.0, any Unix flavor, Perl 5, and a utility to archive and restore tables to and from tape.

At press time, there was no further information on either the ICL or Informix sites.

ICL: http://www.icl.com/

Informix: http://www.informix.com/

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e-Parcel now handles data deployment for Solaris

The Unix version of e-Parcel Service uses a command-line interface to make integrating into existing systems practically programming-free. It is optimized for any system to deliver data of any size and type securely with full real-time tracking. The sender provides e-Parcel with the name and location of the data to send, the ID of the recipient, and e-Parcel automatically compresses and encrypts the data, informs the recipient how to retrieve, decompress, and decrypt the data.

e-Parcel has no delivery file-size limit. And if the Internet connection is severed before delivery is finished, e-Parcel will automatically resume delivery from point of interruption when the connection is re-established.

Delivery tracking is in real-time and displays whether the recipient is on or offline, providing date and time stamps and confirmation that the data was delivered, opened, and moved. It works over direct and dial-up Net connections.

There is a free trial version. e-Parcel pricing is based on per-piece, per-recipient, per-size criteria. One piece/recipient of less than 1.5 MB is $1; 1.5 to 5 MB is $2.50; 5 to 100 MB is $5; more than 100 MB is $5 plus one penny per MB.

http://www.e-Parcel.com/./eDS/eds.cfm

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About the author
Kane Scarlett comes to SunWorld from such magazines as JavaWorld, Advanced Systems, Digital Video, NC World, Population Today, and National Geographic. He's not a platform fanatic -- he just likes systems that work (that is, don't issue a beta as a final version) and systems you don't have to upgrade every six months (upgrades should be new features, not bug fixes).

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