In the past I have seen where a network management tool is only good until you want to upgrade the network element to be managed. Usually you have to revert back to the CLI to perform your upgrade and enable/provision new features you may be interested in. It would be nice to see the developers have the foresight to address this and make sure the current version of network management tool will be able to perform future upgrades of the network elements. It seems that the developers of the NEs OS and the developers of the network management software are worlds apart in terms of developing in parallel usually releasing the operating system before the management software is available. In most cases this gives an operator no choice but to revert back to the CLI while he awaits a new network management release. Upgrades are one of the core functions you expect an Op to perform and ease of an upgrade goes a long way to determining whether a tool is worth the trouble.
Just my 2 cents.
Cheers
Wayne
Wayne Godsoe
packetXpress.net - playground.net
NORTEL NETWORKS
ESN 393-8750 - (613) 763-8750
email - wayneg@nortelnetworks.com