To get the most out of this book

You will need at least one Linux system, which could be a virtual machine as well.

Depending on the specific features discussed, you might also benefit from the following:

• Access to an SMTP (email) server
• More Linux systems
• A device with SNMP support
• A Windows system
• A device with IPMI support
• A Java virtual machine
• A VMware instance

Some of these can be replicated on the same Linux box—for example, running SNMPD or a Java virtual machine will allow you to try out all the monitoring solutions without a separate system.