PowerShell + network monitor = powerful network management tool

by Jack Hughes on August 29, 2007

I am surprised that no network monitor manufacturer has jumped onto Windows PowerShell in a major way. Whilst tools like PowerGadgets use the full power of PowerShell, it isn’t really aimed at the network manager. It is more of a general IT visualisation tool.

A tool that combined the power and extensibility of PowerShell, with the reporting, graphing and mapping capabilities of a major network monitoring tool would be formidable.

A network monitor with integral support for PowerShell would mean that you could write your own script then leverage the full power of the network monitor in order to periodically run the script, graph the results and alert you when things go wrong.

Over to the manufacturers I think…

Popularity: 31% [?]

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{ 3 trackbacks }

Windows PowerShell : Making Applications Scriptable via PowerShell
August 29, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Making Applications Scriptable via PowerShell - Noticias externas
August 29, 2007 at 3:02 PM
MSDN Blog Postings » Making Applications Scriptable via PowerShell
August 29, 2007 at 4:46 PM

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Jack Hughes August 29, 2007 at 3:32 PM

One thing I forgot…the information stored inside the network monitor should be available via PowerShell cmdlets too. Being able to extract information out of a network monitor and into a format I want would be a great feature.

Ed August 29, 2007 at 5:28 PM

They should probably just support powershell within MOM.

Greg m August 29, 2007 at 6:18 PM

Isn’t this what we have with Systems Center Operations Manager. My understanding is it has full Powershell exposure.
Cheers.
Greg

Marco Shaw August 29, 2007 at 7:55 PM

Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but I am interested how this could work… Network tracing is usually something done with a live stream. PowerShell doesn’t necessarily handle live streams all that well, but I’m guessing this could be a dynamic object, but would also need some kind of event mechanism, when you’re trying to trigger something to happen based on something seen.

Still a very good idea, but open for discussion on the how…

Jack Hughes August 29, 2007 at 10:20 PM

@Ed: Why stop at MOM, why shouldn’t everybody get access to all of that PowerShell goodness?

@Marco: I’m not talking about network tracing, I’m talking about being able to execute PowerShell commands/scripts from inside a network monitor. I’d then have the advantage of using the network monitor’s built in reporting facilities and alarming

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