PowerShell + network monitor = powerful netman tool
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: 32% [?]
Jack Hughes's wry observations of the tech industry from the bottom looking up. 
Subscribe now with RSS
[...] has a blog entry PowerShell + Network Monitor = Powerfull Netman Tool which observes that if took a network manager tool and coupled it with PowerShell, you would have [...]
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 2:45 pm[...] has a blog entry PowerShell + Network Monitor = Powerfull Netman Tool which observes that if took a network manager tool and coupled it with PowerShell, you would have [...]
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 3:02 pmOne 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.
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 3:32 pm[...] has a blog entry PowerShell + Network Monitor = Powerfull Netman Tool which observes that if took a network manager tool and coupled it with PowerShell, you would have [...]
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 4:46 pmThey should probably just support powershell within MOM.
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 5:28 pmIsn’t this what we have with Systems Center Operations Manager. My understanding is it has full Powershell exposure.
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 6:18 pmCheers.
Greg
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…
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 7:55 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
Quote | Posted August 29, 2007, 10:20 pm