CA Offers Free Database Management ConsoleCA Offers Free Database Management Console

CA is giving away the Database Command Center, a component of its Unicenter system management software that gives database administrators the means to manage Oracle, IBM DB2, and Ingres databases through a single console.

With the console, DBAs don't have to learn each database system's management tools, and, at least in theory, one DBA can manage multiple systems in the data center, says Dave Schipper, VP of product management. This is part of CA's update of its Unicenter product, and the Database Command Center piece is available free on its Web site.

CA is making the offer at this week's Collaborate 06 Oracle User Group conference, where it also will reveal add-ons from which it hopes to make money. They include Unicenter Fast Unload for DB2, a high-speed data-downloading system for DB2 running under Linux, Unix, and Windows; Unicenter Fast Unload for Oracle; and Unicenter TSreorg for Oracle, a management tool for restructuring databases to recover unused database capacity. The Unload products will start at $800 and the TSreorg product at $1,000, with pricing based on server size and CPUs. The command center competes with database system management tools from BMC Software, Embarcadero Technologies, and Quest Software.

But the free part is hard to ignore. Polaris Technologies, a consulting firm that does custom development work and needed a database management system that spans Linux, Solaris, and other versions of Unix, was a Database Command Center beta site. "It worked so well, we put the beta software to work in production," says Dale Ross, senior database consultant at Polaris.

One critique from Ross: The database management console doesn't support Microsoft's SQL Server. Schipper promises that support is coming. Database Command Center manages DB2 on the mainframe and Oracle on mainframes running Linux. It also supports DB2, Ingres, and Oracle on Windows, Linux, and Unix servers.