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We are contemplating installation of a MARS system and would appreciate
comments from anyone who has participated in one (installation). Issues
that are of interest:

1. How difficult is it to install? (The CCO marketing info implies an easy
slam-dunk, but these sort of statements are not always accurate.)

2. If multiple locations are involved, was any impact experienced on the WAN
segments?

3. If the command console (GUI interface) is performed from a remote
location, is its performance good? (Does the information get presented
quickly, or are screen builds/refreshes slow ... e.g., 10 or more seconds?)

4. Can remote management be done acceptably with a laptop, or is a "muscle"
desktop required for acceptable performance?

5. And most important, does it work as expected or was there any
disappointment?

TIA

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 19:58:53 +0000, S. Gione wrote:

> We are contemplating installation of a MARS system and would appreciate
> comments from anyone who has participated in one (installation). Issues
> that are of interest:
>
> 1. How difficult is it to install? (The CCO marketing info implies an easy
> slam-dunk, but these sort of statements are not always accurate.)
>
> 2. If multiple locations are involved, was any impact experienced on the WAN
> segments?
>
> 3. If the command console (GUI interface) is performed from a remote
> location, is its performance good? (Does the information get presented
> quickly, or are screen builds/refreshes slow ... e.g., 10 or more seconds?)
>
> 4. Can remote management be done acceptably with a laptop, or is a "muscle"
> desktop required for acceptable performance?
>
> 5. And most important, does it work as expected or was there any
> disappointment?
>
> TIA


1. easy to install if you have few devices ..it can do snmp discovery too.
2. depends on how much logging, or what level of logging and on how many
devices. if you're generating over 100 log events per second from a
remote site, you probably want to think twice
3. it's a standard (well not really, as it only works with IE) web
interface with decent response times.
4. standard laptop is fine
5. i had a hard time generating the reports that i wanted. i never figured
out how to (simply) see all events logged (in raw format) from a specific
device.

my company demo'ed one from cisco for a couple weeks..i didn't have enough
time to spend w/ it. but if it were as easy as they said, i wouldn't need
that much time. we have not purchased it yet, but probably will b/c we
have no other logging /reporting solution.
if you need to generate pretty reports for management or security audits,
go with this. if you want raw log data, go with something else

[CalvinJones]

Originally Posted by john smith

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 19:58:53 +0000, S. Gione wrote:

> We are contemplating installation of a MARS system and would appreciate
> comments from anyone who has participated in one (installation). Issues
> that are of interest:
>
> 1. How difficult is it to install? (The CCO marketing info implies an easy
> slam-dunk, but these sort of statements are not always accurate.)
>
> 2. If multiple locations are involved, was any impact experienced on the WAN
> segments?
>
> 3. If the command console (GUI interface) is performed from a remote
> location, is its performance good? (Does the information get presented
> quickly, or are screen builds/refreshes slow ... e.g., 10 or more seconds?)
>
> 4. Can remote management be done acceptably with a laptop, or is a "muscle"
> desktop required for acceptable performance?
>
> 5. And most important, does it work as expected or was there any
> disappointment?
>
> TIA


1. easy to install if you have few devices ..it can do snmp discovery too.
2. depends on how much logging, or what level of logging and on how many
devices. if you're generating over 100 log events per second from a
remote site, you probably want to think twice
3. it's a standard (well not really, as it only works with IE) web
interface with decent response times.
4. standard laptop is fine
5. i had a hard time generating the reports that i wanted. i never figured
out how to (simply) see all events logged (in raw format) from a specific
device.

my company demo'ed one from cisco for a couple weeks..i didn't have enough
time to spend w/ it. but if it were as easy as they said, i wouldn't need
that much time. we have not purchased it yet, but probably will b/c we
have no other logging /reporting solution.
if you need to generate pretty reports for management or security audits,
go with this. if you want raw log data, go with something else

I would agree with all that, apart from the reporting, which is customisable to a point.

For more info try ciscomars.blogspot.com or demolabs.co.uk has some online demos.