NetMaster

NetMaster refers to a family of software products available from CA (formerly, Computer Associates).

NetMaster for Network and Systems Management

NetMaster products perform network and systems management on IBM mainframe computers.

NetMaster products aren't home or PC software products - they run in large data centers at large companies. They don't run on Windows or Linux - they run on IBM's mainframe operating system, which is called z/OS. z/OS is designed for huge and critical enterprise undertakings, and can do things like run hundreds of virtualized servers underneath it.

Network management means tasks like making sure the network infrastructure stays active and provides fast and efficient throughput. Systems management means tasks like stopping and starting applications and reporting on their outages and problems.

Network and systems management products aren't 'end user' applications - they work in the background, ensuring a healthy and trouble-free environment for a company's own business applications such as banking, ticketing, retail and so on.

Proudly Developed in Australia

The original NetMaster products were the brainchild of three guys in Sydney, Australia, in the early 1980s.

The first NetMaster products did basic network monitoring and file transfers. Being able to do file transfers between different mainframes - instead of writing the data to tape, and sending the physical tape to the other mainframe - was quite exciting at the time. This was long before the days of commercial TCP/IP and open interfaces - back then everything mainframe was proprietary (i.e. designed by IBM), right down to the network protocol, which was run only over privately leased lines. Since then, NetMaster has evolved in step with corporate networking, to become a leader in managing TCP/IP and its applications on the mainframe.

As with most mainframe software, the NetMaster products have had a bit of a journey over the years. The original Australian company, called Software Developments, was bought out in turn by US companies Systems Center, Sterling Software, and Computer Associates (now CA Inc.). But NetMaster survived and thrived, is still called NetMaster, and is still written by people in Sydney, Australia.

NetMaster for TCP/IP

Today, NetMaster's best-known product goes by the full name of CA NetMaster Network Management for TCP/IP.

It monitors and manages the logical and physical TCP/IP network environment from the perspective of the IBM z/OS mainframe.

NetMaster for TCP/IP offers powerful problem solving functions - including its highly-acclaimed SmartTrace z/OS IP packet tracing capabilities.

As well as its own real-time trace viewing, SmartTrace output can also be converted to libpcap format and exported cross-platform to products such as Wireshark (formerly Ethereal).

NetMaster for TCP/IP utilizes IBM's latest zIIP processors, to reduce its processing overhead. [http://esj.com/enterprise/article.aspx?EditorialsID=2457] [http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=60198]

Other NetMaster Products

The NetMaster family also includes complementary products to:
* manage SNA networks (CA NetMaster Network Management for SNA)
* look after z/OS FTP, XCOM, Connect:Direct and other file transfer activity CA NetMaster File Transfer Management)
* perform MVS automated operations (Solve:Operations)
* provide z/OS 3270 Session Management (Solve:Access)

For information about CA's NetMaster products, Google the CA web site. Use Google Search string site:ca.com netmaster