I use OpenView 4 now have for several years (since Openview 3). It was the
best thing going for a while anyway.
The best/worst thing about OpenView is using vendor equipment management
modules that only work with openview. Or HP LanProbes and such. These tend
to be huge worksavers, if you can somehow accomodate the security
limitations (or use oob sets, etc)
At least, they used to be. Now, I'm not so sure. Instead of using snmp to
actually change configuration, I am now mostly using it to monitor what's
going on, and react to snmp traps when they are sent. Frankly, I don't
think snmp monitoring is all that hard.
OpenView is still incredibly expensive, and very difficult to buy. I think
the freeware alternatives are just as good, and possibly better in some
cases. But it depends though on what you are going to do.
I'd check into mrtg and scotty first, and then look at OpenView. They also
work on freebsd...
--Dean