Zenoss introduces a new enterprise IT monitoring offering

Zenoss Inc., an open source IT monitoring and management vendor, today announced the release of Zenoss Enterprise Edition.

Zenoss Enterprise is built upon Zenoss Core (launched in June), which is an open source IT management software product available for download on SourceForge.net. Zenoss Core allows IT operators to monitor the inventory, configuration, availability and performance of their IT infrastructures through a single web-based console.

Zenoss Core also has a CMDB (configuration management database), which is a key building block for improving IT management practices and ITIL process improvement programs. According to Zenoss CEO Bill Karpovich, this makes Zenoss Core the first open source IT monitoring to offer CMDB capabilities.

Much like Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Zenoss Enterprise is purchased through an annual subscription agreement. The services included in this agreement include expert support, professional services, training and indemnification.

Zenoss Enterprise also includes several new software extensions including:

End User Experience Monitoring
• Application-level end-user activity simulation
• Scheduled execution of transactions with tracking of availability and performance characteristics
• Applications supported include:

• – Web Applications (HTML, HTTP)
• – Databases (Microsoft SQL Server)
• – Email (SMTP compliant)

• WYSIWYG authoring environment for web application transactions

Certified Application Monitors (ZenPacks)
• Turnkey, best-practices monitoring packages for COTS applications
• Includes pre-defined templates for availability monitoring, performance monitoring, event management and reporting
• New applications supported: Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server

Global Dashboard
• A single integrated dashboard that integrates information from many distinct Zenoss instances
• Visibility into the health and performance of infrastructure distributed across many locations and management domains

We’ve talked with Bill in the past about the broad topic of IT monitoring, and have some more coverage planned for next month’s LinuxWorld San Francisco as well.