I did not set up DX Spectrum, but it does seem complex if you dive deep into it.

The initial setup is fairly straightforward. You have to know all the steps, obviously, but I can do it in my sleep now.

To install it and get it fully functional takes about a week. That sounds like a long time, but the optimization piece is what really takes the longest. To get it installed and have some of the basic, out-of-the-box stuff working would take a day or two days. The optimization piece could take anywhere from three or four days to two weeks, depending on what the customer wants to see. 

Clients would normally go with a OneClick Console and three primary SpectroSERVERs and then three backup SpectroSERVERs. Each of the primary and secondary pairs works in tandem. They communicate with each other.

Each SpectroSERVER pair can be thought of as a separate entity. Within each pair, they work together, such that the primary does the data collection, correlation, and polling. It sends its information over to the secondary and that's happening with each of the three pairs of SpectroSERVERs. 

The primaries are also sending your data over to the OneClick server. The latter has the ability to see all three of the devices and correlate things. The OneClick Console can be thought of as your web front-end, and then the SpectroSERVERs are like your database and polling layer. 

The number of SpectroSERVERs really depends on the size of the environment and what you want to monitor.

About 90 to 95 percent of my deployments were on-prem hardware servers. It then went to being on VMware virtualized boxes. Now, most of them are using cloud-based systems. The SpectroSERVERs are in the cloud.

Most of the companies using the solution have two, three, or four data centers with a SpectroSERVER pair in each data center. Or it might be set up with a primary SpectroSERVER in data center A, data center B, and data center C, but with the secondary for A in B, the secondary for B in C, and the secondary for C in A. That way, if a data center goes down, you still have some functionality for multiple SpectroSERVERs in different data centers.

Because SpectroSERVERs talk to devices, you want to keep them as close to the devices as possible, in that particular data center. You don't really want to do polling, monitoring, and management across wide area network connections. 

In terms of how departments manage the information, that's where Global Collections come in. You can make them either departmental or functional, et cetera.

In terms of maintenance, backups are done on a daily basis and that is something that has to be maintained. Replication between the SpectroSERVERs is something that needs to be maintained as well. There's a fair amount of maintenance that needs to be done on the product, but it's not to the point where you can't do anything else.

Setup is easy and pretty straightforward. If you have a simple architecture and everything is already together, it will only take a couple of hours. If you have an architecture that's more complex, then it takes only one day or two altogether.

It's a bit too complex right now. From the point of DX Spectrum, you have to implement a lot of server components. It should be easier because a lot of automation is possible today in the market.

If everything is already prepared, you just need one day to deploy it. It doesn't take so much time. The implementation strategy depends on the customer or data center environment and the processes. With preparation, it takes about one month.

In terms of the staff required, you need just one person for the Spectrum piece, but of course, you need a few people for preparing the network, firewall rules, and things like that.

In terms of maintenance, the maintenance is that you have to keep it up to date. Other than that, there is not so much to do.

The setup is quite straightforward.

The initial setup is very easy. 

After 10 minutes, you have a complete Spectrum up and running and you can start discovery immediately.

The deployment is very fast and straightforward.

I was not involved with the original setup at this particular company. I was involved with the initial setup at a prior company I was at.

When I started at the hospital, they already had it. I've been involved in building the Spectrum and Performance Center from the beginning, because when I started there they weren't really leveraging it at all.

It's been somewhat complex. More complex than I think it should have been, but I think that was more due to the original implementation being done by a third party. It wasn't done by CA and I think that was a problem. I think there was a lot of disconnect between what was actually being done and what was said was being done, and it wasn't very transparent, because the people that were overseeing it didn't really understand it. They were given a whole bunch of smoke and mirrors.

Spectrum installation was pretty straightforward. We had our primary servers acting as our fault tolerant servers. We were able to import a lot of our information from our old tool, which made it a lot easier to get up and running quickly.

The initial setup was complex. We have an operations team who was responsible for doing it. They spent a lot of time working with CA on a couple of different issues that were not as straightforward. Mainly because our environment is significantly different than the typical environment that CA would have expected. 

It is the same problem that you run into with anybody who sells software. They think users use software a certain way, but then users do not use it that way. Or, you think the user's environment is going to be a certain way, so you build things it that depend on it being that way, but when it gets into the real world, you find out, "Oh well, you don't have it that way? Why don't you have it that way? Oh, I never even considered that you would have a reason for not doing it that way." So, those are the kind of things that we run into, because we are a company that does not do things your typical way.

The tool's setup is simple. 

It could be a little bit better, to be honest. The upgrade process could be smoother. More of the steps around upgrading could be automated, I think.

I can complete DX Spectrum's deployment in two hours. 

You do need a decent level of knowledge to roll out this huge scale solution.

Small, single location-based solutions for 10,000 or fewer devices are relatively simple.

In our experience, the OOTB settings are very usable.

The initial setup was complex because it requires a deep knowledge about tool architecture and proprietary software. In some cases, if you make a mistake during the installation or the initial setup, the better solution is to reinstall or reinitialize some DB.

Installations went smoothly. Customizations were pretty straightforward.

The initial setup is quite complex. It takes a lot of knowledge, but it is well worth the effort.

It was somewhat complex, but that's also a little difficult to evaluate because we had a consultant that was the primary resource for the setup, and he had some challenges. I think if we had had a different resource it might have been more straightforward.

The installation has always been simple. When I initially started using it, it was on Windows or Solaris. More recently, I've always suggested Linux. The move to Linux also didn't pose any issues and I've since done installations using custom scripts using the unassisted install. It just works!

We have an internal process. When the network team asks to deliver a new network device, they have accounts and administrator privileges to take charge of all the specs for the new network device. We have to manage and check the tool. We have to configure the new alert and the new integration with Zabbix. The discovery is generally managed directly from the network team.

Setup is relatively straightforward and with the support of the CA technical staff, it proceeds very straightforwardly. Spectrum can be implemented entirely on virtual devices, as it is here. Training is available and purchase usually includes a certain amount of training credits.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

I was part of the initial setup. We leveraged CA Professional Services to help. It is complex in a way that we have a large infrastructure and we wanted to map it out correctly from the start. If not, then you're going to have problems in the future.

It was very easy to set up, install and configure Spectrum.

I was not involved in the setup process. From what I have heard, it was straightforward. CA helped us to do the basic setup.

I was not involved in its deployment. It was done well prior to my being part of the team that was using it. 

In terms of maintenance, it requires just the standard software updates and patching. It doesn't require anything out of the ordinary. You just have to deal with more of the ordinary patching cycles. I didn't actually have any experience updating the entire system itself. That was outside of my scope of work. Because we were deploying it at a telco level, we had several teams working on it. My role was adding and removing devices and updating devices for the customers I was supporting. We would add and remove devices in the client networks and the client containers based on the additions and removal of the hardware in the system.

I was involved in the initial setup. It was pretty straightforward.

Initial setup was complex because deep knowledge about tool architecture and proprietary software is required. In some cases, if you make a mistake during installation or initial setup, the better solution is to reinstall it or reinitialize a DB.

Initial setup was completely straightforward, as the product already included a discovery and an auto-connect function.

The initial setup was straightforward. The time taken for deployment depends on the project and architecture. Simple projects take only a couple of days.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

I was not involved in the initial setup. However, the biggest issue is setting up some of the custom traps is a little complicated. So, you have to have someone that really knows the tool. It could be a little more intuitive overall.

Initial setup complexity depends on how big your environment is. If you're doing a distributed setup, then you need little bit of architecture help on how it's going to be built, but on a scale from one to ten, with one being easy and ten being hard, initial setup is between six and seven.

It was pretty straightforward. We actually had the CA Services guys come in and help us set it up. 

I wasn't involved in any of the implementations that were put in there. I became the new caretaker in some ways, a shared investor in this solution.

It is deployed on the cloud and has an easy initial setup process.

The setup isn't complex it's just not up to date. It's 2021, why would anybody use a 32 bit package for an application. 

I came to this company when the tool was already in place, but I was involved with the latest upgrade. I was not a lead engineer, but I offered support. I was involved with the project that upgraded all the tools.

It was very easy to set up, install and configure Spectrum.

The tool's deployment is easy. 

The initial setup for this solution was simple.

The initial setup depends on the implementation, but it normally takes a couple of days to a week. It depends on the size of the project. 

The initial setup is of medium complexity. It is not very easy, yet not very difficult.

Some preparation and special knowledge are needed to deploy.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

For us, the implementation was quite complex but it's because of the large number of different environments we're dealing with. So it's not the tool, it's the domain expertise. We need optimized implementation.

Time for deployment really depends on the size of the domain. It can be done in half a day, or it can take you up to eight months or even longer. So it depends on the domain complexity. And then it's not building an application itself; you have to design first, and that is the biggest chunk. It costs you eight percent. So if the design is done properly, then the building is already configurated. There are still a lot of app ports that can be done to help us out.

We used CA Professional Services. I was along with them. I would say it's a little on the complex side. 

The initial install, there's a little bit of complexity to it because you're dealing with operating systems. You have to make sure all the prerequisites are done, anti-virus exceptions, etc. You have to have a service account. Then there's the bringing it up and then there's discovery of the network and setting that up. It takes time. It's not like where you set it up, here you go, hand it over. No. 

You can hand over a bare-bones install but after that you have to import your network, make sure it's modeled correctly, make sure all the dependencies are mapped. Once it's installed that's just step one. Then setting it up to get to a steady state, that's step two. Then there are other items.

Our consultant was four months on-site doing Spectrum setup and working through issues. Sometimes there are bugs and the consultants have to reach out to support, themselves, and work through things. It's a very sophisticated tool, it's a very powerful tool. It's vendor agnostic. It doesn't matter what kind of infrastructure you have. They give you the capabilities to do many, many things. 

It's more on the complex side. It's not like some tools come with a bunch of out-of-the-box reports and things like that. Spectrum is not like that in terms of a lot of out-of-the-box things. They give you the functionality to get what you need, but you have to spend time to set it up. 

The initial setup and maintenance of Spectrum are complex. It is also difficult to upgrade to the more recent version. 

I would say mixed bag.

We wanted to make it so it was automated with a text file, so we didn't have to watch the little bar the whole time and answer those questions. We wanted all the configuration in one little file. So we had to figure out where that was and how they do that. Once that got done, then automation of getting it deployed to new environments, if we need to, is very fast. We just change a line or two in the text file and say, "Do this," and walk away. It's great.

The setup is complex for a big environment such as primary servers, slave servers, high availability, and fault tolerance.

If you have a small environment, it is very straightforward. You have the SpectroSERVER, OneClick, and database on the same server, although the recommendation is to split them.

However, the out-of-the box features are very poor for the price, since you are paying per device. You need to use the other features to make it worth it.

I was involved in reconfiguring the environment. I guess you could call it an initial setup. Everything was pretty straightforward. It's easy to install and easy to setup. I haven't had any management issues or issues from configuration.

Initial setup is easy, but configuration properties and EventDisp is quite complex.

Setting up general monitoring is straightforward. However, if you need something different than the standard setup, some customizations need to be done. Thus, it becomes more complex as a whole.

I didn't do the initial setup as far as installing the application. I've done a lot of tweaking of views of what the user should see and things like that and that's not difficult.

I did the architecture and implementation, soup to nuts; made the Kool-aid, served the Kool-aid, drank the Kool-aid, every day.

The nature of what we do in this space is complex anyway. There's only so much you can simplify at this level of complexity. And as much as it is complex, they've made it a simple as they can.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

its depend on the scope of project. But initial setup is not difficult for this solution.

Initial setup was easy, but in the initial stages we need more support from CA and our CA partner in order to understand the capabilities of Spectrum and how to take advantage of all of this.

I was involved in a couple of installations. It was very straightforward. It was just a matter of installing the package, doing the extraction, running it, and it seemed to work.

The setup of the distributed SpectroServer is complex for large environments, including the integrations with distributed eHealth environments.

Initial setup was very simple; as simple as Next - Next – Finish. The complex part isn’t the setup, but the planning (architecture and such).

The initial setup was to download and install the software, which takes a few minutes for installation. It is a straightforward process and is not rocket science.

It’s complex, we had consulting on site for several years.

I was involved in the setup and it was straightforward.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

It's complex for an enterprise. For example, we have three database servers and one web server for our environment.

Not complex. CA technical guys were there to help if there were any issues and technical documentation at support.ca.com helps a lot.

The solution's initial setup process is easy for Windows. However, it is complicated to deploy it for Linux. The process involves two modes, including standalone and distributed. It takes around two hours and requires one engineer for execution.

The initial setup is straightforward, and the upgrade process is also straightforward.

I'd say it's medium. You need to know how to tailor the product to your environment.

Initial setup was complex because the client's infrastructure was very complex. Besides, we had another supplier that did not pass along complete information to the Spectrum configuration.

The initial setup is straightforward, and after the initial setup you can start the device discovery. You can configure multiple discovery profiles and schedule them as you please. After discovery, you can see devices and servers in the universe and you can start to manage them.

The configuration is easy, but it depends on the device’s technology. The discovery is very easy to do and the topology view is customizable.

The installation is straightforward.

As we operate in partnership with CA, we have had more input regarding implementations. The greatest difficulty is to understand the topology and to design the best possible way of implementing it to identify the connections.

I was not involved in the initial setup. Six years ago, when we first implemented Spectrum, I was in another role. Now, I'm responsible for the IT budget.

It’s not very complicated, just by following the manual guides were good enough to do a basic installation

It was straightforward. It has the ability to discover your environment and devices easily.

It's straightforward - install, and run.

The installation is straightforward. The length of time required for deployment depends on the environment. For example, in a financial institution, it takes between one and two months because we need to do some information gathering and have confidence that we are meeting the requirements.

There are times when we are mid-deployment and the customer will stop us to say that they want something new. In cases like this, it slows down the implementation phase.

The setup was complex. The installation is complex with CA products. They involve a lot of steps and customizations.

I really don't recommend it for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

It is absolutely necessary to hire the installation service, along with the license.

It's a bit complex on Linux box but straight forward for windows, but you need some hands-on experience to start on production.

The best feature of this product is the simplicity of its architecture, which, once understood, makes the implementation very easy. I have never ever faced any issues with the initial setup.

The initial setup was quite straightforward.

It's hard to say as every time it is a big challenge to implement any kind of the tool on our systems or improve them once in production. During the whole process we are faced with many more different situations. For this reason we have a testing environment. After the initial setup in the testing environment is complete, we are able to proceed onto the production process which is easier to do because because of the experience in the test environment.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

This is my job – to start form nothing and then help others set up. I also help others use it as well, so I scale it up for myself and others, and CA has been helpful.

Setup was very straightforward.

It's straightforward.

The setup was straightforward.

Straightforward installation and setup.

It's a bit complex.

Utilizing all the needed features for our environment made our initial configuration complex.

The initial setup was straightforward to install. Then it’s a rather big leap between basic usage and pro-usage. Spectrum is VERY tech advanced in its core, compared with other tools on the market. But that doesn’t show up until you do a more advanced type of monitoring.

With the help of the support and the documentation, setup was straightforward.

Creating the infrastructure did not prove extremely difficult. It was organized and detailed. It fully represented out network on all levels.

Straightforward setup.

Depending on the operating system, you may need more or less pre-install tasks (installation user privileges, hosts file configuration, then in Linux you need specific packages, disable or configure IP tables, or in Windows disable UAC, DEP, firewall, etc.). The platform installation is straightforward. Always use dedicated servers for CA Spectrum and if you have the chance to, install the platform in virtual machines making snapshots at important checkpoints. It will spare you a lot of work and troubles.

The setup was pretty straightforward, as with most of the monitoring tools. The setup's implementation and the support were straightforward, with the documented support provided.

The initial configuration is simple. It becomes complex, as the monitoring is more specialized.

You either know how to deploy such a system or you don't. the manuals were 5/10.