GFI EventsManager 8 Update

GFI Software announces the release of GFI EventsManager version 8 - Extending Network Administrator's Event Management Capabilities.

Version 8 is Certified for Windows Server 2008 and supports Vista, SQL Server Audits and SNMP traps

Security and Messaging Software

GFI Software, an international developer of network security, content security and messaging software, have announced the release of a new version of GFI EventsManager. Version 8 allows administrators to monitor an extensive range of hardware devices from over 20 of the world's largest manufacturers and report on the health and operational status of each device as well as track staff activity within the company, what they do on their PC, which files they access and much more. A trial version can be downloaded from http://www.gfi.com/eventsmanager/.

Version 8 ships with full support for Windows Server 2008 and Vista events, SNMP Traps generated by heterogeneous network sources and SQL Server Audits. GFI EventsManager has also achieved the prestigious Certified for Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 status. The new platform will be launched later this month.

Events Monitoring and Management

GFI EventsManager 8 is a solution that covers two main functions: events monitoring and events management and archiving. The first function helps administrators to monitor the health and security of the entire network and boost uptime, while the management and archiving function allows the administrator to centralize events from multiple sources in various formats in such a way that makes it easier to identify deficiencies, provide detailed audit trails and meet various compliance regulations The availability of data that is easily searchable and analyzed helps forensic investigations by reducing the complexity of the volume of events logs as well as the cost of, and the time required to analyze the data.

From a system events perspective, GFI EventsManager increases the range of systems and devices that can be monitored through various log types including Windows events, Syslog, W3C and SNMP traps generated by heterogeneous network sources. GFI EventsManager ships with new event processing rules which allow for a one-step configuration and support for Juniper Networks (via syslog), Allied Telesis (via SNMP traps), Cisco IOS (Catalyst family, via SNMP traps) among others.

The software can also be installed on, and collect events from Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Although these new platforms use a different log format, GFI EventsManager presents events from various operating systems in the same manner, thus allowing the user to get used to a common structure, irrespective of the platform being monitored.

Simple Network Management Protocol

The new version also supports Simple Network Management Protocol ver.3 which is the language spoken by low level devices such as routers, sensors and firewalls, etc. Through SNMP, users can now monitor a whole range of hardware devices on their infrastructure with the ability to report on the health and operational status of each device. The ability to monitor different devices is further enhanced by GFI EventsManager's capability to import generic management information base (MIB) definition files. These files contain information about hardware device properties and are usually provided by equipment manufacturers. Using MIB file updates, the new version can support any hardware models that rely on SNMP messaging, as soon as these become available. By default GFI EventsManager ships with MIB definitions for the following vendors: Cisco, 3Com, IBM, HP, Check Point, Alcatel, Dell, Netgear, SonicWall, Juniper Networks, Arbor Networks, Oracle, Symantec, Allied Telesis and others.

Another new feature is SQL Server Auditing for commercial versions of SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. With this function, administrators can track and report on SQL server activity such as: running of SQL statements, altering DB tables, attempts to access data without necessary privileges, etc. This can ensure data in SQL servers is authentic and thus reliable.

Network Monitoring

“GFI EventsManager is an essential tool for monitoring your network," said Andre Muscat, Director of Engineering at GFI. "Most administrators are intimidated or unaware of the extensive knowledge available within their event logs. However, with events and logs generated by nearly every IT component, they are the most effective and reliable source of information on network activity."

"More experienced IT managers know that the data contained in event logs is their most valuable resource in examining system failures and security breaches. Companies are now also legally bound to retain and proactively review their event logs as part of their daily business operations. The retention of secure archives of events in their native format is critical in providing evidence of legal compliance. With version 8 we are increasing the range of events they can monitor, even when using heterogeneous networks," he added.