Newsgroups: bit.listserv.big-lan
Date:         Fri, 10 Apr 1992 09:39:16 EDT
From:         BIG-REQ@SUVM.BITNET
Subject:      BIG-LAN Digest, Volume 4, Number 23, Friday, April 10, 1992

BIG-LAN DIGEST            Friday, 10 April 1992        Volume 4 : Issue 23

Today's Topics:

         Re: Nice small DBMS for administering Campus-sized LANs.
         Re: Nice small DBMS for administering Campus-sized LANs.
      Summary: Nice small DBMS for administering Campus-sized LANs.

Moderated by John Wobus, Syracuse University

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Date:         Tue, 07 Apr 92 17:36:34 CST
From:         Bill Hayes <IANR012@UNLVM>
Subject:      Re: Nice small DBMS for administering Campus-sized LANs.

John,
     We use Alpha 4, a DOS-based DBMS, for tracking several hundred
connections of various sorts.  It's simple, robust, and easy to use.
There is a network version available, too.

     I just got a Windows DBMS system called Approach.  It supports dBase
files and SQL.  It does support a variety of networks.  This is a relational
data base, and also supports Object Linked Embedding (OLE).

Bill...

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Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 14:37 GMT
From: Calvin Blankenship <0003401662@mcimail.com>
Subject:      Re: Nice small DBMS for administering Campus-sized LANs.

In response to your query about a DBMS for managing inventory let me suggest
that you look at a product called LAN Auditor from Horizon Technologies, San
Dieago, Ca 619-292-8320. I wont try to plug its features but you might find it
is just the thing you are looking for.

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Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 09:22:45 -0400
From: "John M. Wobus" <jmwobus@mailbox.syr.edu>
Subject:      Summary: Nice small DBMS for administering Campus-sized LANs.

I wrote:
>Administering a campus-sized LAN involves keeping track of lots of
>equipment and people.  I have been buried in networking so long I know
>little about DBMS applications, and which ones would be most helpful to
>help keep track of such things.  I know some network management
>packages will interface with databases or include some database
>support, but in some cases I don't think the vendors idea of what we
>need to track matches our own idea of what we need to track.
>
>Can anyone volunteer a plug for any DBMSs that have been proven to be
>convenient for managing a campus net?  Our own needs would be for
>handling just a few databases of a few thousand records, making them
>available to probably fewer than eight people, but people who use
>different platforms.  War stories about campus net administrators'
>other solutions to the problem also welcome.
>
>Please feel free to post answers directly to BIG-LAN which is not
>overcrowded with e-mail traffic,  but I will post a summary of any
>answers mailed directly to me.

I received two private responses:

One from a site that uses INGRES for the purpose and complains about
it a lot.

The other which uses Filemaker Pro but would like something better.

Since I wrote my query, my own search for information led to Network
World V8N41 (October 14, 1991) which has an article on LAN-based DBMSs
and another on LAN inventory packages.  Some of the latter are the type
of package that gathers information by querying the network.  Others
aren't.  Included are some which combine database functionality with a
drawing package.  I've always suspected that a lot of network
management can best be aided with a DBMS and a drawing package and I've
heard other BIG-LAN readers say the same thing.

John Wobus
Syracuse University

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End of BIG-LAN Digest
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