Concord EFS, Inc. Success Story

Key benefits:- reduced cost of server management
- improved IT staff productivity
- increased availability of corporate IT infrastracture

"Server Manager is incredible, it let's me save about 50 percent of the time it used to take to administer our NetWare servers."

Mark McCall
LAN Manager
Concord EFS, Inc. Electronic Payment Services, Memphis, USA

Customer Background

Electronic Payment Services is a part of Concord EFS, Inc., a leader in the electronic payment services industry since 1970. Concord EFS is a full-service provider, offering hardware and software for complete electronic payment processing and settlement services, as well as communications, training, support and maintenance. Their mixed NetWare, Windows NT and UNIX environment is supported by five personnel, including Mark McCall, EPS LAN Systems Manager

The Challenge

Network administrators are at the front lines when it comes to dealing with servers, users, and file management challenges and issues. For example, they might need to find out why an e-mail system isn't running properly, discover what a problematic file's permissions are or quickly look at what users and specific jobs are hammering bandwidth on the server. Often they need to do all of this simultaneously. And along with using Novell's NWAdmin utility, administrators also need to use RConsole, PConsole and Filer to manage other tasks. Having the ability to put an end to constant button pressing and opening lots of consecutive windows is a time-saving solution any enterprise network administrator can appreciate

The AdRem Solution

"Server Manager is incredible," said McCall. "It let's me save about 50 percent of the time it used to take to administer our NetWare servers. We have seven NetWare 4.11 servers that have been up and running for years. They are so stable that the only way to improve their reliability and performance is through reducing the time it takes to administer them. One of the inconveniences I've encountered when administering NetWare servers was the need to run many programs. Server Manager includes all of the needed functions in a single interface, eliminating the need to run many tools on the server as well as on the workstation. Server Manager has been in constant use for the last eight months, and I'm still discovering what it can do."

A unique server management solution that uses client/server architecture, Server Manager is designed to minimize bandwidth use, and significantly lower network management and maintenance costs, especially in large network environments. "I can react to network problems quickly and very efficiently manage all network resources," continued McCall. "And since Server Manager is designed especially for big networks with hundreds of servers, it uses NLMs on the servers to perform most of the intensive, time consuming tasks locally. This allows me to manage and monitor servers through modem connections without overloading the network."

Results to Date

"Everything I need is right there in a single GUI interface," said McCall. "Shifting to the pure text environment of RConsole for managing the server can be uncomfortable. Server Manager's client and server modules allow easy management of parameters, connections and open files from one place. The integrated file manager is the fastest way to manage volumes, directories and files, including changing rights and attributes, copying files, and loading NLMs," continued McCall. "I can look at system logs, performance statistics, and system information, change server configuration files and system performance parameters. With the Active view I can see who's logged on to each server and the connections they are using. I can not only tell who opened a file, but also from which workstation. Messages can be sent to users that opened that file or even close it. NLM view shows which versions are loaded and allows me to unload and reload. But the Disk view is the best. It lets me look at disk information from the volume level to the file level. This makes it easy to enhance QoS, such as changing disk allocation for users. I can increase it by percentage, size or give everyone 10% across the board."

Server Manager enables EPS to exploit Novell's proven, scalable directory to grow their entire business. And as the company moves into the directory era, having a seasoned directory professional on staff is a real asset. "Another feature I like about Server Manager is that I can also see who owns the directory, and how the directory attributes and inheritance filters are set," offered McCall. "I can easily view and modify access rights, inherited rights, and change other properties such as attributes, creation date or owner. I can copy files and directories, preserving their attributes and all access rights, even between servers."

Conclusion

"The product demo was awesome, and the technical support for Server Manager has been excellent," continued McCall. "In fact, when I've needed support, AdRem answered my questions quickly and in excellent English. Working with a European company such as AdRem proves that Novell networking expertise is a global language."