Open Source Configuration Tool For Nagios

Emeryville, CA — June 20, 2005 — GroundWork Open Source Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of open source IT management solutions, announced today GroundWork Monitor Architect (Monarch), a free, open source configuration tool that accelerates and simplifies the deployment of Nagios, a popular open source monitoring tool, and GroundWork Monitor, GroundWork's IT management solution based on Nagios. The availability of Monarch represents GroundWork's committment to provide open source software that extends and enhances Nagios and Nagios-based solutions. The company will launch more open source software projects in the coming months.

"The release of Monarch puts us one step closer to our vision of pervasive open source IT management tools," said Robert Fanini, CEO of GroundWork Open Source Solutions. "With Monarch, we are demonstrating a commitment to supporting the growing user communities surrounding Nagios and other open source IT management tools."

Monarch is a Web-based configuration tool that enables system administrators to more easily and rapidly set up and maintain Nagios and GroundWork Monitor by allowing them to configure the system through a Web-based interface rather than having to edit actual configuration files — a time-consuming and tedious process.

"System administrators are increasingly accustomed to GUI-based software configuration tools, but Nagios still requires users to edit by hand. With Monarch's graphical, Web-based user interface, we've bridged one of the largest functional gaps of Nagios," said Fanini. Nagios, a popular open source monitoring tool, has been downloaded more than 660,000 times since 2001. GroundWork Monitor, which integrates Nagios and other open source components, is in use by more than 50 GroundWork customers.

Monarch's Profiling System Automates Configuration

A powerful and flexible monitoring tool, Nagios has nearly limitless configuration options, making installation and configuration a complex proposition for systems administrators. A key feature of Monarch is its robust system for profiling the unique configuration requirements of commonly deployed servers and networking equipment. Until now, system administrators were forced to look up each of these requirements individually and configure them one-by-one. One simple configuration error meant the solution was inoperable. "With Monarch's automated profiling system, system administrators can set up one profile and assign it to 2,500 devices with one command, saving considerable time and avoiding human error," said Fanini.

Licensing and Availability

GroundWork Monitor Architect is currently available under an open source software license at GroundWork's web site and SourceForge.

About GroundWork Open Source Solutions

GroundWork Open Source Solutions, Inc. (www.groundworkopensource.com) develops, integrates and enhances leading open source software to deliver comprehensive open source IT monitoring solutions. With GroundWork solutions, enterprises leverage the flexibility and low cost of open source tools to achieve enterprise-level availability, performance and operational efficiency at a fraction of the cost of commercial software. GroundWork is based in Emeryville, Calif. and its investors include Mayfield and Canaan Partners.