The database monitoring market consists of tools as diverse as simple alerting systems in ERP packages to sophisticated neural network-based agents like Computer Associates' Neugents and Searchspace's Sentinels for the Intelligent Enterprise Framework, which use artificial intelligence. DQagent's strength lies in its simple interface, which makes it intuitive for business users, and in its ability to access diverse data sources and present a single logical view of the enterprise data. Creating an Agent You install DQbroker on the server where it runs as an NT service or Unix daemon. DQadmin is a graphical user interface for administering DQbroker, and you can install it on the administrator's machine. DQagent is typically installed on the business user's desktop.
Installation is very straightforward, and each product takes less than five minutes to install.
I used DQadmin to connect DQbroker to the two data sources. I created a catalog and assigned the two data sources to the catalog. Finally, I created a user and assigned permissions to the catalog for the user. Setting up the data source interfaces is simple enough for a junior IT person to do. I created an agent that would monitor the two data sources and notify me when the revenue generated by a product through the Web channel exceeded the revenue the product brought in through store sales.