From the Procurve Manager getting started guide:
The HP ProCurve Manager Plus Features
HP ProCurve Manager offers the basic functionality required by most IT organizations for network management. HP ProCurve Manager Plus includes all these features as well as the set of advanced features described on the next page. For more detailed information on these features and their uses, please see the
HP ProCurve Manager Network Administrator’s Guide that is included on the product CD.
Basic Features – with PCM
Network status summary:
Upon boot-up, a Network Status screen displays high-level information on network devices, end nodes, events, and traffic levels, all on one screen. From here, you can drill down on any one of these areas to get specific details.
Alerts and troubleshooting:
An Events Summary displays alerts and categorizes them by severity, making it easier to track where bottlenecks and issues exist in the network. Alert details provides information on the problem, even down to the specific port.
Automatic device discovery:
Customized for fast discovery of all HP ProCurvemanageablenetwork devices. Youcan also define specific IP subnets and VLANs on which to perform discovery.
Network Topology and mapping:
Automatically creates amap of discovered network devices. Maps are color-coded to reflect device status and can be viewed at multiple levels (physical view, subnet view, or VLAN view).
Device management:
Many device-focused tasks can be per-formed directly by the software, or you can access web and command-line interfaces with the click of a button to manage individual devices from inside the PCM Client.
Advanced Features – with PCM+
The ProCurve Manager Plus (PCM+) package includes all of the functionality of PCM, along with advanced functionality that can dramatically improve the performance of an IT organization.
Network Traffic Analysis:
The Traffic Monitor helps you collect, measure, and analyze data about enterprise network traffic. Traffic Monitor allows you to quickly identify issues, isolate problems, and optimize resource usage.
The Traffic Monitor interface provides detailed information on traffic throughout the network. Leveraging enhanced traffic analysis protocols such as XRMON, you can monitor overall traffic levels, network segments with the highest traffic, or even the top users within a network segment.
VLAN Management:
The VLAN Manager in PCM+ provides a single tool to create, track, and manage VLANs on your network. The VLAN management interface lets you create and assign VLANs across the entire network, without having to access each network device individually. The VLAN Manager also provides Wizards for creating VLANs, and modifying VLAN configuration, significantly reducing the likelihood of error in working with VLANs.
Configuration Management:
The Configuration Manager in PCM+ automatically tracks and logs configuration changes. You can archive configurations, and then, for example roll back to a knowngood configuration ifany configuration changes cause any problems. Configurations can also be compared over time or between two devices, with differences automatically highlighted for you.
This functionality helps significantly decrease unplanned net-work downtime and reduce the number of repetitive, configuration tasks that consume hours of your valuable time.
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