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Load Balancing
Tools |
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View detailed
findings for all Criteria Groups. Please be patient while the data
loads. |
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General |
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Basic
information about the product. |
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Factor: Standard |
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Product Name |
Central
Dispatch
3.1 |
Equalizer
4.0 |
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Manufacturer |
Resonate, Inc. |
Coyote Point
Systems |
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Group Score:
44 out of 60
Total Score:
559 out of 960 |
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Group Score:
46 out of 60
Total Score:
495 out of 960 |
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Consulting
Time |
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Weight: 2 |
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Weighted
Score:
4
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Weighted
Score:
8
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Most smaller site installations can be completed without
on-site consulting. Larger installations (ISPs, etc.) and site
design may require two to three days of consulting. |
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No
consulting time should be required, but careful pre-planning is
essential. |
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Platforms
Supported |
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Weight: 1 |
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Weighted
Score:
4
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Weighted
Score:
1
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Windows 2000, Windows NT, Solaris, HP/UX, Linux and
AIX. |
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Coyote point is hardware based using BSD. |
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Documentation |
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Weight: 4 |
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Weighted
Score:
32
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Weighted
Score:
32
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The documentation is extensive and well organized into
separate manual, but we found it difficult to find the right
information at the right time. The glossary is a great addition, as
is the extensive error message list. |
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The documentation is not large, but is very clear and
useful. There is also good online help that apears to mirror the
hard copy. |
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Technical
Support Information |
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Weight: 1 |
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Weighted
Score:
4
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Weighted
Score:
5
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A
support contract is required to access technical support, which is
available 24 hours, 7 days a week. The support contract is usually a
percentage of the maintainance fee and includes unlimited calls.
There is a manual included that details working with tech support
which is very useful. There are also online forms for reporting
problems, bugs or feature enhancements. |
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Technical support options depend on the service plan
selected by the standard 8x5 support is included in the purchase
price. 24x7 including emergency support is available for an
additional $995 per year. |
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Administration |
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The
features and functionality that facilitate the management of the
product. |
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Factor: Standard |
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Product Name |
Central
Dispatch
3.1 |
Equalizer
4.0 |
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Manufacturer |
Resonate, Inc. |
Coyote Point
Systems |
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Group Score:
128 out of 260
Total Score:
559 out of 960 |
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Group Score:
170 out of 260
Total Score:
495 out of 960 |
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Ease
of Installation |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
16
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Weighted
Score:
16
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The product installed simply enough, but we had a hard time
actually getting it to work once installed. Each server to be used
in the system has to have software installed which could be quite
tedious in large installations. |
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The product installed very easily once we had our laptop
console set up correctly. This is required to set configure the IP
and gateway addresses. We were not shipped keys with our evaluation
unit, so we could not install the hard drive until they were shipped
which was done promptly. Once installed, the machine booted and
configured first time. |
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Ease
of Configuration |
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Weight: 2 |
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Weighted
Score:
4
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Weighted
Score:
10
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First time configuration was quite complex due to the large
number of different components in the whole system. We were unable
to properly create a site without a lot of time taken to figure out
all of the terminology and components of the software. Once we had
everything figured out by reading the Site Preparation Guide,
configuration was fairly simple though not as easy as it could
be. |
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The product can be configured very easily using the web
administration interface. The documentation described the various
architecture possibilities and configuring a cluster was very
easy. |
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Administrative
Interface |
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Weight: 5 |
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Weighted
Score:
48
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Weighted
Score:
64
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The administrative interface was fairly easy to use. The
terminology and arrangement of the features make it seem more
complex than it really is. |
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The web-based administrative interface is very clean and
efficient. It is very easy to understand and takes only a few
minutes to get used to. There is also a command line interface that
is surprisingly user friendly. |
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Browser-based
Management |
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Weight: 4 |
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Weighted
Score:
16
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Weighted
Score:
40
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It
is a stand-alone Java application that connects via TCP. |
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Yes, the server management is entirely web-based. |
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Centralized
Management |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
16
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Weighted
Score:
12
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Yes, the manager can contact all of the available
agents. |
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Since it is web-based, the management system can be accessed
from a central location. The user must connect to one server but can
then view all of it's connected resources. |
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Graceful
Shutdown/Restart |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
12
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Weighted
Score:
12
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There is no graceful shutdown. When you stop a whole site,
all current connections are immediately closed. When you remove an
individual node, current connections are left open until done while
no new connections are made. Agents on each server can handle
automatic restart. |
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When shutting down an individual server you must first set
it's static weight to zero to stop new connections from being
initiated before you remove the server once you wait for existing
connections to finish. Shutting down the whole system does not
appear to offer any graceful shutdown. |
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Maximum
Number of Nodes |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
8
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Weighted
Score:
12
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There is a maximum limit of 64 nodes. |
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Depending on model purchased, the maximum number of cluster
nodes can be unlimited. Servers per cluster can be as high as 64 in
certain configurations. |
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Password
Protected |
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Weight: 2 |
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Weighted
Score:
8
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Weighted
Score:
4
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Yes, there are separate passwords to monitor or
administer. |
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Yes, the administrative interface is password
protected. |
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SSL
Options for Remote Management |
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Weight: 4 |
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Weighted
Score:
0
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Weighted
Score:
0
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Does not support SSL. |
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No, SSL is not used. |
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Load Balancing |
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The
components of the product that actually handle the server monitoring
and routing algorithm to be used. |
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Factor: Standard |
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Product Name |
Central
Dispatch
3.1 |
Equalizer
4.0 |
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Manufacturer |
Resonate, Inc. |
Coyote Point
Systems |
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Group Score:
160 out of 200
Total Score:
559 out of 960 |
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Group Score:
114 out of 200
Total Score:
495 out of 960 |
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Algorithms
Supported |
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Weight: 5 |
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Weighted
Score:
64
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Weighted
Score:
64
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There are many algorithms supported from basic round-robin
to weighted by number or by current CPU load or number of
connections or network activity. |
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Supports six different options: Round Robin, Weighted Round
Robin, Adaptive based on several performance indicators, Fastest
Response, Least Connections or a Server Agent value. The default is
adaptive and seems to work quite well. |
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Content
Replication |
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Weight: 2 |
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Weighted
Score:
0
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Weighted
Score:
0
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No
content replication support. |
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No
content replication features. |
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Resource
Mapping |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
20
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Weighted
Score:
0
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Yes, has extensive and excellent support for load-balancing
by resource. It is actually surprisingly easy to set up. |
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No
resource mapping functionality. |
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Server
Weighting |
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Weight: 4 |
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Weighted
Score:
32
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Weighted
Score:
24
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Yes, servers can be weighted between 0-100 and will be
selected based on their weight. |
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Yes, the weighting by default is dynamic but the
administrator can specifify static weights as a starting point for
load balancing. |
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Persistent
Sessions |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
16
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Weighted
Score:
16
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Yes, supports persistent sessions and can even make rules
for permanent persistence by IP or cookie. |
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Yes, can enable sticky connections for some services even
among different clusters or proxy servers. |
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Port
Mapping |
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Weight: 2 |
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Weighted
Score:
8
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Weighted
Score:
2
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Yes, supports several port mapping and load balancing
options. |
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Has only basic port mapping funcitonality. |
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Server
Health Monitoring |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
20
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Weighted
Score:
8
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Yes, an agent running on each server constantly monitors a
wide range of data from CPU and memory usage to network traffic and
latency. |
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Yes, can monitor several aspects of individual servers or
whole clusters including load, service time and local server agent
values. |
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Monitoring &
Mapping |
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The
product's facilities for examining and reporting on application,
system, and network usage or performance. |
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Factor: Standard |
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Product Name |
Central
Dispatch
3.1 |
Equalizer
4.0 |
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Manufacturer |
Resonate, Inc. |
Coyote Point
Systems |
|
| |
|
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Group Score:
58 out of 125
Total Score:
559 out of 960 |
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Group Score:
32 out of 125
Total Score:
495 out of 960 |
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Baseline
Establishment |
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Weight: 2 |
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Weighted
Score:
2
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Weighted
Score:
0
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No
specific features, but the basic round-robin method can be used for
testing and gathering baselines for improvement. |
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No
benchmarking features. |
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Server
Load Testing |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
8
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Weighted
Score:
0
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Supplies a program called loadg but it is apparently
unsupported and largely undocumented. |
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No
load testing features. |
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Load
Bottleneck Testing |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
4
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Weighted
Score:
0
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No
specific functionality, but the loadg program could probably be
used. |
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No
bottleneck discovery features. |
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Alerting
Options Supported |
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Weight: 4 |
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Weighted
Score:
32
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Weighted
Score:
16
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| |
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Yes, has a very nice and highly customizable option for
alarms. |
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Can forward events to a remote syslog host or run a command
on the unix server such as sendmail. |
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Resource
Monitoring |
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| |
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Weight: 3 |
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Weighted
Score:
12
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Weighted
Score:
16
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The NT Performance monitor can be used to monitor server
performance. |
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Yes, has excellent resource monitoring. |
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Network
Mapping and Monitoring |
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Weight: 2 |
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Weighted
Score:
0
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Weighted
Score:
0
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No
mapping functionality. |
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No
support for network mapping. |
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SNMP
Support |
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Weight: 1 |
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Weighted
Score:
0
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Weighted
Score:
0
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| |
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No
SNMP features. |
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No
SNMP support. |
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| |
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Networking |
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Features that assist with administering, troubleshooting,
and documenting the network. |
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Factor: Standard |
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| |
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Product Name |
Central
Dispatch
3.1 |
Equalizer
4.0 |
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|
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|
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Manufacturer |
Resonate, Inc. |
Coyote Point
Systems |
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| |
|
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Group Score:
88 out of 100
Total Score:
559 out of 960 |
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Group Score:
32 out of 100
Total Score:
495 out of 960 |
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Scalability |
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Weight: 4 |
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Weighted
Score:
32
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Weighted
Score:
8
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Resonate is designed to be flexible for use in large scale
applications. You can set up different computers for the various
tasks and components. It's detailed load-balancing options make it
possible to build a very custom configuration depending on the
nature of the service. |
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No
specific scalability features other than the advanced load-balancing
options and the ability to have a large number of clusters and
servers. |
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Recovery
and Failover Options |
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Weight: 4 |
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Weighted
Score:
40
|
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Weighted
Score:
24
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The agents monitor all components of the system and will
automatically failover and recover the systems. When an individual
server goes down, failover will kick in depending on the
configuration until the server returns. |
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Can configure two units with one as a hot-backup. Also,
servers designated in a cluster can be declared to be Hot Spares
only. |
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Virtual
Servers (Hardware and Software) |
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| |
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Weight: 3 |
|
Weighted
Score:
16
|
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
| |
|
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Yes, Virtual IP addresses (VIPs) can be used to create a
whole virtual server. |
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No
support, only deals by IP address. |
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| |
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Reporting |
|
|
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| |
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Environment for retrieving and manipulating stored
reports. |
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| |
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Factor: Standard |
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| |
|
Product Name |
Central
Dispatch
3.1 |
Equalizer
4.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Manufacturer |
Resonate, Inc. |
Coyote Point
Systems |
|
| |
|
|
Group Score:
77 out of 185
Total Score:
559 out of 960 |
|
Group Score:
96 out of 185
Total Score:
495 out of 960 |
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|
Benchmark
Report |
|
| |
|
Weight: 2 |
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
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| |
|
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No
specific benchmark report. |
|
No
benchmark report. |
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| |
|
Error
Log Monitors |
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| |
|
Weight: 4 |
|
Weighted
Score:
24
|
|
Weighted
Score:
24
|
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| |
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Each node maintains it's own log file. The Manager
application can collect these logs for central analysis. Alarms can
be set based on severity. |
|
Events such as server or server agent failure and
restoration and triggered as events and can be automatically acted
upon. |
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| |
|
General
Reporting Capabilities |
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| |
|
Weight: 4 |
|
Weighted
Score:
24
|
|
Weighted
Score:
24
|
|
| |
|
|
Has good reporting activity for the whole site or for
individual nodes. It keeps a track of several useful
statistics. |
|
Detailed system logs are recorded. Graphical history of
clusters and servers are available in full detail. |
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| |
|
Logging
Activity |
|
| |
|
Weight: 4 |
|
Weighted
Score:
16
|
|
Weighted
Score:
32
|
|
| |
|
|
Detailed logs are kept until cleared. The log format is
fixed. |
|
System log only displays the last 1000 entries. The
graphical activity reports for the individual clusters and servers
are available for up to 3 days. |
|
| |
|
Snapshot
Capability on Load Monitoring |
|
| |
|
Weight: 2 |
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
Weighted
Score:
4
|
|
| |
|
|
Can not snapshot on a specific time, only the whole log
file. |
|
Only supports a snapshot within a range. |
|
| |
|
Reports
Saved |
|
| |
|
Weight: 2 |
|
Weighted
Score:
4
|
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
| |
|
|
Reports are saved in a text file. They can be filtered in
the Messages tab. |
|
Reports can not be saved. |
|
| |
|
Traffic
Statistics |
|
| |
|
Weight: 3 |
|
Weighted
Score:
8
|
|
Weighted
Score:
12
|
|
| |
|
|
The activity graphs can show number of open connections or
hits per second. |
|
Hit rate, service time and active connections are all
tracked in the graphical plotting. |
|
| |
|
User
Defined Graphs |
|
| |
|
Weight: 2 |
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
| |
|
|
No
custom graphs or reports are available. |
|
No
user defined graphs are available. |
|
| |
|
Reporting
Tools Integration |
|
| |
|
Weight: 1 |
|
Weighted
Score:
1
|
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
| |
|
|
No
direct support for any specific external reporting tool but the log
files could probably be read into most applications. |
|
No
data gathered for use in other programs. |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Standards
Compliance |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Industry standards to which the product adheres. |
|
| |
|
Factor: Standard |
|
| |
|
Product Name |
Central
Dispatch
3.1 |
Equalizer
4.0 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Manufacturer |
Resonate, Inc. |
Coyote Point
Systems |
|
| |
|
|
Group Score:
4 out of 30
Total Score:
559 out of 960 |
|
Group Score:
5 out of 30
Total Score:
495 out of 960 |
|
| |
|
Databases
Supported |
|
| |
|
Weight: 1 |
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
| |
|
|
No
support for any databases. |
|
No
database support. |
|
| |
|
Integration
with Third-party Vendors |
|
| |
|
Weight: 2 |
|
Weighted
Score:
2
|
|
Weighted
Score:
2
|
|
| |
|
|
Integrates with the rest of the Resonate product line. No
specific other integration. |
|
Can integrate seamlessly with Coyote Point's own Envoy
geographic load balancer. |
|
| |
|
Hardware
Integration |
|
| |
|
Weight: 2 |
|
Weighted
Score:
2
|
|
Weighted
Score:
2
|
|
| |
|
|
No
specific hardware integration, but supports a wide range of network
installations. |
|
No
integration with anything other than other Coyote Point
boxes. |
|
| |
|
Supported
APIs |
|
| |
|
Weight: 1 |
|
Weighted
Score:
0
|
|
Weighted
Score:
1
|
|
| |
|
|
No
APIs provided. |
|
No
APIs are included. There are sample programs for use as customer
server agents available. |
|
| |
|
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|
