In my prior review, Zultys: A Look Under the Hood, I briefly noted the onboard tools offered in their solution.
The Hardware Monitor shows system uptime, internal temperature and hard drive utilization. The snapshot also shows load on the system and system status. Knowing the last system reboot is always helpful without relying on guesses. High internal temperatures indicate the local environment conditions, and the traffic load on the system can point to problematic traffic issues on links. While it's a snapshot, the picture is only one of several that collectively paint what's going on in the system.
The Circuit Status screen shows WAN, LAN, FXO, FXS, T1/PRI status, metrics and IP information. Isolating the issue(s) in both soft and hard demarcations is made easy here. The traffic counters can be cleared anytime and the reporting fields allow isolation of source problems.
Call Monitoring of SIP, PRI, BRI and ISDN traffic is a real time event that is useful especially in initial configurations of SIP phones. Drill down to the packet information to view message information, and a misconfiguration is easily solved. From the ADMIN manual, an entire section is dedicated to logging:
LOGGING
System events describe status and actions related to software functions, hardware functions, and system resource utilization. Specific system events report on such items as the status of backing up and restoring data, AC power status, internal temperature messages (when the threshold has been exceeded), and system operational status.
Transport events report status and actions that relate to data packet transport and the maintenance of the logical structures and protocols that support this transport. This includes all functions related to CAS, ISDN, SIP, RTP & RTCP, and Frame Relay.
User events report status and actions that relate to maintaining and accessing user accounts, including login activities and license registration attempts.
System events report status and actions that relate to end user services provided by the MX, including auto attendant, voice mail, ACD, and VoiceXML related activities.
IP events report status and actions that relate to the maintenance of the physical ports and the system network. Specific topics include switching, STP, VLAN, NAT, Firewall, QoS, Routing, and traps.
Numerous other monitors include the Syslog, and other maintenance tools that Zultys provides are worthy of note. The tools are so comprehensive that I have to ask, "What’s under your hood?" There are more tools in the system than the small sampling I’ve listed, and you can see screen shots here. When you view the menu shown in the screen shots, you may note the number of selections dedicated to maintaining and supporting the system. The other interesting discovery is in the "Administration Manual" itself--unlike some other manufacturers, the error codes are documented and listed in the manual. It's not that any one vendor has the most onboard tools or the least; the important thing is to have the right tools and in the right places. This was another exceptional area that really got my attention when I reviewed the Zultys system. It may not be sexy to users/customers at least until there's a problem. For dealers/VARs, these tools are more than a shot in the arm because they work, are easy to use and do help isolate issues.
I spoke with Jason Smith, VP of Midland Communications (Zultys dealer) and he said, "Zultys has tools unlike any other vendor we've seen and you don't need to rely upon the provider or ITSP when attempting to resolve problems." Jason also said, "We generate 10 tickets daily for MACs, reconfigurations or service issues, and with Zultys, we can even look in the syslog for customer misdials to prove there is no problem or to run it down." Jason added, "Zultys doesn’t even charge for these tools." Other systems and solutions that lack adequate onboard tools will contribute to noticeable deficiencies in the way of response time, time to resolve and cost to resolve them. When service becomes in effect a truck roll--customers pay more and suffer longer.
IPT systems' backup processes are unlike old TDM systems. Customers with SIP telephones may find their systems are backed up without profiles of their telephones. Then, the ability to recover quickly from either a system hardware or software failure may prove to be eventful and time consuming without a well thought out backup and restoration process. My suggestion is an admonishment to find out how your solution is supported and backed up and then practice it. For those of you familiar with the military it's called a drill. Otherwise if you wait until there is a disaster or significant service disruption you may not like facing the unknown.
I have to agree with Jason's observation because I haven't seen the same breadth of tools in other solutions but I have seen enough makeshift solutions to understand that tools are often viewed as nice to have, and go unnoticed by customers and even VARs/Dealers. When there's an issue, then everyone involved needs to review what went wrong along with why and how the problem could have been handled differently. Then, the root cause of the issue is not always known and this is often due to a weakness in the reporting capabilities of the solution and available onboard tools. For manufacturers that don't consider this as important or think the responsibility rests with the VARs/Dealers or even customers, I have a different message. For you, your gamble at keeping costs in check won’t always pay off. When solutions fail and time to restore and cost of service erodes the customer’s initial benefits just as they can negatively impact the P&L of VARS/Dealers--customers will remember these negative service experiences. Too many events and customers feel buyer's remorse and when an ongoing pattern develops, you can bet that customers will rethink their initial decisions and these sources of pain won't likely be considered in the future.
