What's New in the 3.2 Release

GUI modifications
You have more control on how the displayed pages appear in the browser. Most of the display features are now defined with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) such as font size, color, backgrounds, etc. You only need to change the CSS attribute file(s) and your modifications will appear the next time you refresh your web page. By default, BB retains the look and feel of the previous version but the font sizes have been reduced to increase the amount of information available in the opened browser window. New features have been added such as hiding entire rows or single row. column, and removing certain columns from a table in the main display.

Improved UNIX based Web pages generation
The creation of the various web pages for the UNIX version have been improved dramatically by using compiled executables instead of scripts. This in turn improves the scalability of the Unix version and thus the interval between refreshes has been reduced to 2 minutes instead of the previous version’s 5 minutes.

Notification changes
Big Brother can now send SNMP trap messages natively under both Windows and UNIX based versions. Also, notification rules can now specify which color will trigger them. The page levels token now defines the default colors for the rules.

Notification disabling form
With Big Brother 3.20, you can disable notification requests using a web entry form. This allows you to temporarily disable notifications for an event or multiple events for a defined duration.

Status logs aggregation
In Big Brother terminology, synthetic rules. You can combine results from multiple status logs to create a new status log using logical operators.

User defined message size
In previous versions, the message size was fixed at 8192 characters and could not be changed. It is now a user definable value that can be adjusted to your environment.

Supported Platforms
The Big Brother UNIX Server and UNIX Client software are supported on these operating systems:

• Red Hat Enterprise Server 3.0/4.0
• SUSE Enterprise Linux 9.0/10.0
• Sun Solaris 6 or greater
• HP-UX 11.0 or 11i
• AIX 5.1, 5.2 or 5.3

The Big Brother Windows Server and Windows Client software are supported on these operating systems:

• Windows 2000 Server or Professional
• Windows 2003 Server
• Windows XP

Installing or Upgrading
These Release Notes do not include installation or upgrade instructions. Please refer to the appropriate Getting Started Guide for complete installation and upgrade information. You can download the Getting Started Guides as well as the Big Brother software from the Big Brother Web site: www.bb4.com

Documentation
In addition to these Release Notes, the documentation consists of:

• Four Big Brother Getting Started Guides: one each for the UNIX Server, the Windows Server, the UNIX Client, and the Windows Client. These guides describe how to install, start, and perform the initial configuration for the indicated part of the Big Brother software. The installation instructions include procedures for updating from an earlier version of Big Brother without losing your customized settings. The Getting Started Guides are provided as PDF files.



• An online help system covering both the UNIX server and the UNIX client. This includes complete configuration information for all aspects of Big Brother, including defining hosts and servers, setting up notification, and more. It also includes instructions for using the features available while viewing the Big Brother status display Web page. You can access this file by clicking the Help icon on the Big Brother Web page while connected to a Big Brother UNIX server.



• An online help system covering the Windows server. This includes complete configuration information for all aspects of the Big Brother server, including defining hosts and servers, setting up notification, and more. It also includes instructions for using the features available while viewing the Big Brother status display Web page. It does not include information on configuring a Big Brother Windows client host.



• You can access the Windows server help file by clicking the Help icon on the Big Brother Web page while connected to a Big Brother Windows server. You can also access the help from the Windows Start menu on the Big Brother server by selecting Programs, Quest Software, Big Brother Professional Edition, Server, Help.



• An online help system covering the Windows client. This includes only information about the various options and settings available on Windows client hosts. You can access the help from the Windows Start menu on the Big Brother client by selecting Programs, Quest Software, Big Brother Professional Edition, Client, Help. Also, the appendix at the end of this document describes how to integrate Big Brother 3.20 with Quest Software’s Foglight product. In the future, this information will be in the Foglight documentation.

About Quest Software, Inc.
Quest Software, Inc. delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications, databases and Windows infrastructure.Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best,Quest helps thousands of customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterpriseIT. Quest’s Windows Management solutions simplify, automate and secure Active Directory,Exchange and Windows, as well as integrate Unix, Linux and Java into the managed environment. Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe. For more information on Quest Software, visit www.quest.com.

Customer Support
Visit the support web site for current contact information and hours of operation: www.quest.com/support

Contacting Quest Software, Inc.
Phone: 949.754.8000 (United States and Canada)
E-mail: bbsales@quest.com
Mail Quest Software, Inc.
World Headquarters
5 Polaris Way
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
USA
Web site www.quest.com
Please refer to our Web site for regional and international office information.