Home Products Downloads Support Sales About us    
 
MetaLAN Systems Management
MetaLAN Systems Management

MetaLAN™ Systems Management

 
MetaLAN is suite of products aimed at Windows network administrators, helpdesk, support staff and IT managers. MetaLAN reduces the time taken to support network users and servers and provides higher level views of the network including hardware, software and configurations on a global scope. The included tools enable quick response and remote solutions to network-service and user / desktop issues. MetaLAN also provides easy access to information on the kind of hardware and software installed on the network in order to strategically plan and justify budgets for infrastructure upgrades.
 
MetaLAN is an agentless management system. This means no software needs to be installed on the managed nodes (computers) for full integration and control. The software can be run in a standalone mode (MetaLAN Administrator only) or with ProbeServer which is a server side service that collects data from the network on a continual basis. When using ProbeSevrer software licensing compliance can be managed using the License Manager software. Use of ProbeServer and License Manager is included with all licenses.
 
Purchase comes with 12 months software maintenance, upgrades and email support after which additional maintenance may be purchased for around 18% of the purchase price at that time.
 
 

MetaLAN Stand-Alone Mode MetaLAN Stand-Alone Mode

 
Reviews and testimonies
MetaLAN help file online
 
MetaLAN ProbeServer (Free Add-on)
MetaLAN License Manager (Free Add-on)
 
Windows Firewall Configuration using Group Policy
Guide to installing MetaLAN with ProbeServer

 
 

Features:

 
Agentless operation is at the centre of the MetaLAN design.  NT/2K/XP/2003 clients will fully integrate with MetaLAN without the need to visit or install an agent.
Remote control. For remote support of computers and servers.
Monitor health. Quickly check performance and ascertain if there is a problem with a computer or server.
Monitor processes. View processes on remote computers.  Monitor CPU/Memory/IO/Owner of individual processes and allow processes to be started and killed.
Shutdown or Reboot groups of computers.
Wake On LAN (WOL). Wake groups of computers.
Deploy monolithic MSI packages to groups of computers using the Remote Software Deployment Tool.
WMI query from a computers WMI database.  Get information not available anywhere else like RAM slot usage and much more.
Reporting for global OS, hardware and software installations and configurations.
Easy export of data to standard portable CSV format.
Save reports to HTML for portability and easy presentation.
Software Tool for finding all installs of particular software on the network.
Enquire from and conditionally modify node registries real-time.
Run as a standalone application or use ProbeServer (Free) for consolidated data collection and storage.
 
 

Ongoing Development Guidelines

MetaLAN’s current and future design is governed by the following guidelines: 

Provide the majority of functionality that network admin and support staff would require day to day in one convenient tool with data cross-referenced where practical for extended “smart” functionality.
NT4/2K/XP/2003/Vista nodes must fully integrate with MetaLAN without the need to visit or install an agent.
The interface must be simple and intuitive to the point that no additional training should be required to use the product.
Data must be as close to real-time as possible.
The product must scale well and be as usable on a 3000 node network as it is on a 200 node network.
MetaLAN must provide flexible installation configurations.  Data collection should be supported in standalone (application on administrator’s computer) and server (service on a network server) modes.
Installation package must be small and simple to install.
No condescendence with existing software where possible.
New features must be added in a way that will not detract or complicate the use of the product.
Hammer Software will continue to expand and refine MetaLAN in line with
 

 

ProbeServer Database Service for MetaLAN.

 
Guide to installing MetaLAN with ProbeServer

 
MetaLAN ™ can run as a standalone application. However, ProbeServer will reduce and distribute the network load required for data collection when there is more than one person using MetaLAN on the network.
 
ProbeServer offers a central location for the collection and distribution of the data collected from the computers on the network. When running ProbeServer the "freshness" of the data is configurable.
 
Benefits over using MetaLAN in standalone mode:
  • Reduced network load. ProbeServer will reduce and distribute the network load required for data collection. Without ProbeServer MetaLAN collects data in real time when requested. If several administrator/tech support staff are using MetaLAN, the same data may be collected numerous times over a short period of time.
  • Centralized persistent data storage. ProbeServer offers a central location for collecting and distributing the data collected from the computers on your network. When running ProbeServer the freshness of the data is configurable and data is available for computers that are currently offline. The offline/online status is highlighted in MetaLAN along with the other information collected.
  • Admin privileges not required by staff. MetaLAN users do not need administrative privileges on client computers to view the data collected from those computers. By default the everyone group has access to this data which is stored in the probe$ share on the computer running the ProbeServer Service. To restrict access to this data appropriate security may be applied to this share.
 

 

MetaLAN License Manager

 
License Manager is an add-on for MetaLAN that allows the user to easily monitor software license compliance on a network. License Manager requires ProbeServer to be installed on the network in order to collect license information.
 
License Manager tracks software installations by Licenses. Licenses are created in License Manager and then software titles are assigned against the license. The total installations are then tracked against the license.
 
Reports available:
  • Computers by software title
  • Users by software titles
  • Installations by license
  • Software titles by computer
  • Software titles by user
 

 
 
Hammer Software Knowledgebase
 
If you want to know the answer to common questions and issues go here: Knowledgebase
Group Policy for MetaLAN
 
If MetaLAN will not manage or control Windows XP Service Pack 2 and above computers it may be due to the Windows Firewall. Click one the following links to get a guide on how to create a Group Policy to configure Windows Firewall for remote management.
HTML: MetaLAN Group Policy
PDF : MetaLAN Group Policy
Using MetaLAN in Server Mode
 
MetaLAN™ can run as a standalone application. However, using ProbeServer will reduce and distribute the network load required for data collection. ProbeServer offers a central location for the collection and distribution of the data collected from the computers on the network. Best of all, ProbeServer is free when you buy MetaLAN.
HTML: ProbeSevrer Guide
PDF : ProbeSevrer Guide

MetaLAN in Technet Magazine
 
1st March 2008 Check out the review in Microsoft's March 2008 edition of Technet Magazine.
MetaLAN 1.8.12.153 Released
 
26 October 2007 Changes in this version :
Improved VNC Service detection for computers already running VNC.
Simplified dialog when connecting to pre-existing VNC install.
Added configurable detection via services.txt file in VNC directory.
Fixed unexpected program termination when using ADSI.
 
download      more...
License Manager 1.1.3.18 Released
 
22nd Febuary 2008 Changes:
Fixed incorrect license status when license count changes
Fixed license count refresh
Added single write multi read ability
 
download      more...
New Knowledgebase Launched
 
19th January 2008 If you want to know the answer to common questions and issues go here: Knowledgebase
License Manager 1.1.2.17 Released
 
3rd Novenber 2007 Changes:
Improved interface
Copy report data to clipboard, compatible with Excel
Added reporting
 
download      more...