Conference netcad::hub_mgnt

4301.0. "Do we take RMON Manager seriously or not?!" by KERNEL::FREKES (Like a thief in the night) Mon Mar 24 1997 06:09

    Folks

I know this issue has been raised before, but I feel little if anything was
actually done about it. My problem is with the lack of any documentation that
is available for RMON Manager. I ran into this same issue when attempting to use
the Report Generator. I managed to get through that with a lot of help,
offline, from the people in here. But at least I can do this. Many of our
customer are left wondering what to do when things don't work as expected.

I have a real issue with the seemingly lack of support/documentation for RMON
Manger. I have tried now with a few colleagues here to get the Alert Monitor
working, with little or no success. The online help is useless to the extent
that it becomes embarrassing to even suggest to a customer that they might want
to look at it. 

I appreciate that RMON Manager is a 'bought' in product, from Frontier, but
this is little comfort to our customers. It is getting to the stage that our
customers are not even considering RMON Manager, as a product. 

Notes entries about this get little or no response. Don't get me wrong, I am
not blaming people for not answering notes. But this just shows, that very few
people have any idea how this actually works. You can't answer questions on
something you have no clue about. May I make a few suggestions, would the rest
of the noting community please add to these if you feel strongly enough about
it. If we have to take this product seriously then lets put some serious effort
into making it not only use-able, but supportable.

1. Improve the online help. In its present shape and form it just a waste of
diskspace. No real tips on how to configure anything.

2. Supply documentation on how to not only use the product, but how to support
it. Those in the support community need to know how it works, and what to do
when it breaks. Currently nothing along these lines actually exists. 

3. If it is a bought in product, then do the developers, have any support/tech
tips. If not, are we entitled to call them for assistance.

4. A help utility that explains what the error messages mean, and how to get
around them.

5. A how to do document: How to configure and receive traps. - What to do when 
     			  it does not work.
			 How to generate reports. 
			 How to successfully install domains.
			 A list of commands for the clearVISN Shell.
			 

I am not expecting miracles here, just a working product. And I don't mind 
giving up some of my personal time to help achieve this. If we are going to do
it, lets do it properly.   

Any feedback, on/offline would be appreciated.

Regards
	Steven Freke
	UK CSC - Networks

    I know that when they productized the RMON manager, product management
    thought that the on-line help would be OK and that the documentation
    was too expensive to produce.
    
    
    Sigh....
    
    So much for great minds...
    j

I must agree with what Steve says. I have had numerous customers complain
about
the on line help for Rmon manager. 

Could we not get a copy of the docs from Frontier or whoever at least 
for internel use.


cheers Jim

[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]