Conference csc32::consolemanager

    Andy,
    
        There will be no threat to VCS at all. VCS is very profitable for
    us and we would be very very foolish to to put that in jeopardy.
    The ultimate long term goal (as it stands now) is to port Console
    Manager to VMS. This would eventually replace VCS. Needles to say,
    the current VCS functionality must be incorporated into CM/VMS.
    
    Dave

    Thanks for the reply. I will be interested to see how its going to
    be marketed. From my perspective there will be two products to handle
    system consoles. One is based on VMS and will handle a max of 32
    devices. The other is based on RISC and will handle a max of 255
    devices. While they differ slightly in features they appear to offer
    the same functionality.

    Do we have two competing products ?

    							Andy

    No, not really. Since they are all being developed and maintained by
    the same group, there is no internal competition. Since Console Manager
    is a newer product, one would only expect that is is going to be
    better. Why don't you get a copy, install it and let us know what you
    think. If you don't have a system, then next time you're in REO, 
    stop by for a demo or as for a guest account. 
    
    Cheers,
    
         dave

Andy,
	thanks for the interest. Yuor points are very valid. both
the engineering group and outr Marketing Product mgr are keen
to ensure the right messages get to our customers. There is no
intention of having two competing products. For several years
our Un*x customer base has been asking for the VCS functionality
on a Un*x platform. Console mgr V1.0 gives this functionality,
and also provides the first move towards our second generation
console mgt product set. 

I shall not talk timescales here ( speak to Product marketing mgr
Laura Horn hyend::lhorn ) for further details on this, but it is
hoped to provide Console mgr on both our Open systems platforms 
and VMS. Work is already starting on V1.1 requirements and we will
launch a Phase 0 later this year (I hope).

We are trying to do the best both for Digital and our custom,er
base in this area.

Cheers Simon.....

>================================================================================
>Note 12.4                    Console Mgr. and VCS ??                      4 of 4
>OPG::SIMON                                           20 lines   3-SEP-1992 08:54
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                         -< Also talk to Product mgr. >-
>...
>our Un*x customer base has been asking for the VCS functionality
>on a Un*x platform. Console mgr V1.0 gives this functionality,
>and also provides the first move towards our second generation
>console mgt product set. 
>...
>Cheers Simon.....
> 

A customer of us has purchased VCS and is very satisfied with it (it is
monitoring, BTW, AIX systems).

He needs to monitor more systems, so he will probably move to CM. He would like
to know what differences to expect. We can, of course, play with CM and compare
with what we know about VCS. However, I guess that some of you can give
faster a very accurate answer to that: Is he going to see exactly the same user
interface and funcionality, with the additions in CM (more systems, telnet
support)? Or, what are the differences?

Thanks,
Yossi.

Yossi,

  One of our primary goals for Console Manager is to provide the same functionality
  as is available in VCS, this does not mean it will work exactly the same, or the
  commands will be the same, just that the customer will have the same functionality.

  Now, having said that, we are striving to make the user interfaces as similar to
  VCS as possible where appropriate, so, the character cell interfaces will look and
  feel very similar, however, be prepared for major changes to the DECwindows
  components.

Cheers,
Phil

Yossi,

      version 1.0 was not designed to be a complete
replacement for VCS and as such there may be some VCS
functionality not in CM 1.0. However, the next version
will include facilities to allow it to replace VCS (
with small differences). The final spec for the next
version is not yet available ( we are due to exit Phase
1 early in May. At this time the functional spec for
V1.1 will be published for internal consumption.

Cheers SImon...


P.S. Do you know if your AIX customer had any issues
getting VCS connections working to the AIX boxes and
if they have generated any scan profiles for AIX. If they
have AIX specific profiles would they be willing to
share them with us?