Spectrum SPM vs SystemEDGE (VAIM) SRM

[NARONGKIJ TEJASAKULSIN]

I would like to know the differences between Spectrum SPM and SystemEDGE SRM.

 

I would like to create "tests" to monitor SMTP and have the alerts sent to Spectrum, which is better at this?  Spectrum or SystemEDGE via VAIM?

[MattClausen]

SPECTRUM Performance Manager (SPM) is what schedules and manages the tests against a test host (Cisco Router, SystemEDGE Host with SRM, etc.)

 

SystemEDGE is an SNMP Agent on steroids.... It is capable of a lot more then a standard SNMP agent (i.e. Net-SNMP). The SystemEDGE agent is extendable with various modules that allow it to monitor/perform various things of which the Service Response Module (SRM) is one of them. The Service Response Module is a testing module that can perform HTTP/HTTPS URL tests, TCP/IP Port Tests, SMTP Tests, etc.... it can really do a lot of things but generally needs something to manage the tests on its behalf.

 

in the case of SPECTRUM vs SystemEDGE SRM - if SPECTRUM is going to be managing your tests (through SPM) you CANNOT have VAIM managing the Service Response policies. This will cause problems as SPECTRUM attempts to add/modify/delete tests through it's interface.

[Anon Anon]

Hello Teja,

 

Poll based alerts are anytime preferred over trap based alerts. I suggest to go with creating the SMTP tests from Spectrum so that you will have more comfort to manage these tests from Spectrum Oneclick itself.

 

Incase you would like to create the same test on bunch of models, you can still create the template in Oneclick and push it over to the test hosts in Spectrum.

[Sean-K-CA]

MattClausen sums things up nicely.

 

But just to further clarify: The SRM AIM is what actually runs the test. So your SMTP test is the same regardless of whether you configure it via Spectrum SPM or VAIM SRM policy. The differences come into play when managing the configuration and tests themselves. The one word of caution would be if you are already managing base SysEDGE configuration via VAIM policies, but want to configure the SRM AIM via Spectrum SPM tests - this has been known to conflict in the past since VAIM wants to control "everything" in this scenario. Some customers have lost their SPM configuration. It would be recommended to choose one tool for the configuration aspects. Spectrum would still be your manager receiving the alerts regardless.

[NARONGKIJ TEJASAKULSIN]

Thank you all for the replies !!!  Very helpful !!!