Our network has several sites, each with a Mac server (most of which are running Leopard Server), Airport Extremes, Cisco switches, printers, lots of Mac clients, and then a back-end server room with things such as a firewall, a VOIP system, mail server, web server, etc.
I really would like to be monitoring our system. As I haven't a lot of time to dedicate to the task, I'd like to be able to do it incrementally (ie. monitor servers at a couple of locations, and then airports at a couple of locations, and then servers at a few more locations, and so on, as I have time to set it up.) It is worth noting that some of the devices (notably the Airport Extremes) get their addresses via DHCP.
I've tried a few of the monitoring systems. Some don't compile cleanly on the Mac. Others, once you get them installed, have things built-in to monitor Linux and Windows servers, but nothing for Mac servers (and, one assumes, nothing for Airports).
[Yes, I know that Server Admin provides some monitoring features, but I dare say it is limited.]
Can anyone recommend some software for monitoring a Mac-centric environment? Are there any guides for, after you've deployed a typical system, what you need to do to make it monitor a Mac environment? Am I out to lunch thinking that I can build things up as I have time, or do I need to spend an entire week learning about monitoring and creating custom profiles or even hacking on software to get something to work? If there is a for-pay solution, what did you think of it, and how can I convince management to spring for it?
Thanks!
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