All Corner Bowl Server Manager Reviews
1-25 of 38 Reviews
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Asaf
Verified reviewer
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2021
Reliable & Efficient
Excellent High Tier software. Does exactly what we need and more. Allows reliable log and SIEM monitoring for security and compliance with custom options including retention. Feature requests are taken into consideration most of the time. Support is outstanding.
PROSInstallation and setup was very fast. It's very reliable and runs smoothly on the server. Support team is super responsive, attentive and extremely professional. The first setup is easy with excellent guidance from the team over the phone and/or remote support. UI is very easy to navigate after a short period of time.
CONSMissing custom range filtering by date for logs.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
The previous product we tried was too heavy on our system and consumed high cpu and memory.
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
The previous product we tried was too heavy on our system and consumed high cpu and memory.
Vendor Response
Thanks so much for the great review. To view data in a custom range create a report then when configuring the report specify the custom date range to include in the report from the Date Range tab.
Replied November 2021
Nathan
Farming, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2023
Best Value in Monitoring & Log Managment
I have only scratched the surface of what I can do with this software. While initially looking for a low-cost replacement for our previous tool that was primarily used for AD user account monitoring (e.g., new accounts created, privilege escalation, etc.) and some basic auditing of activity on network shares, I found this tool that can do those things and so much more. It can do everything from basic alerts on server free disk space to helping discover & troubleshoot network issues using the syslog server and everything in-between and beyond. The documentation is thorough and accurate. There are also numerous YouTube videos available to help get things configured. The developer's passion for this software is evident, as he's eager to assist with any issues. I look forward to finding more ways to expand my company's usage of CBSM.
PROSThe flexibility and extensibility of this software is amazing. The ability to easily monitor and receive alerts on so many diverse machines (basically anything that produces any type of a log - even text files in the filesystem) through one tool makes this a great fit for SMBs, but it's also evident that it can scale to enterprise infrastructure as well.
CONSIt takes a little time to get a firm understanding of how the software works. Although you can get it installed and monitoring/collecting logs from a single server in ~10 minutes, you will want to spend some time learning how to properly configure your database to suit your environment and how to customize your templates. The documentation and tutorials on the website cover all of this and more.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Cost, ease of use, flexibility, support
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
A 30% cost increase for annual renewal had me looking for alternative solutions. I recalled Corner Bowl from one of my previous employers. The cost is a fraction of the competition, and it can do so much more.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the detailed review, Nathan. As always, please let us know if there is any functionality you would like to see added to the software.
Replied June 2023
Karim
Marketing and Advertising, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
Great SIEM / Monitoring / Log collection / Alerting solution
It's an all-in-one solution! Cornerbowl provides supports us with Regulatory and Alerting.
CONSCurrently testing with SQLlite. There is a possibility that we may have to move to MS SQL, which we'll need a license for.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Cornerbowl met our company requirements and was financially attractive in comparison to other solutions
Vendor Response
Karmin, thanks for the great review. We just discovered the issue with Sqlite throwing database lock issues and have released a fix! Sqlite cannot process multiple transactions from different threads.
Replied March 2024
Randy
Government Administration, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used monthly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed January 2022
Fair product that needs refinement
It seems to provide some alerting, but setup is difficult.
PROSGeneral log monitoring. Product pricing was good.
CONSThe interface is not intuitive. Searching is difficult. Support is non-existent.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Pricing with the expectation of minimal log management.
Vendor Response
I am so sorry to hear you say support is non-existent. I just checked our support email history for the last two years and I do not have a single request from anyone at your organization for support. For others reading, the number on complement we receive is our excellent support. We offer email and phone support M-F 8-6 Mountain Time. We do not outsource our support. If you are using the latest version, searching has been greatly enhanced. If you are unable to search the logs please contact us and we can do a remote session to help resolve any issues you might have.
Replied January 2022
Ansan
Banking, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
CornerBowl is very simple and friendly tool for SIEM and FIM solution.Highly recommended
CornerBowl is very simple and friendly tool for SIEM and FIM solution. Once you are familiar with tools very simple to use.
PROSCornerBowl is very simple and friendly tool for SIEM and FIM solution
CONSsome tabs little confusing.But once get familiar with it. then easy to use.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
CornerBowl is very simple and friendly tool for SIEM and FIM solution
Vendor Response
Ansan, thanks for the great review. If you have any idea's how to make some of the tabs less confusing, please let us know and we can look into making some usability changes.
Replied March 2024
Knut Kristan
Publishing, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2022
A *perfect* but not only real-time eventlog monitoring tool
We use this tool the the maximum. We had about let´s say 100 hours to understand completey the architecture and possibilities provided. This tool can be as complex as the questions you want to drill down with. It can analyse the most complex situations - but *then* you need the know-how (or just let you help). As we want to develop this tool ourselves, it was not a kind of "make it work for us and finish". It was like a "program these functions missing also into it", so that it gets even more capable. We are under permanent development as there are new alerts to be made visible with nearly every month. Different behaviour in NTLM, Kerberos, LDAPS, ... ... ... gives us the need to find legacy systems running into problems.
PROSWe were analysing the capabilities of a dozen other produts. Nearly none of them is as capable as this. One competitor we used the last 15 years was quite good. But they decided not to follow the path into the cloud. With corner bowl our Azure AD audit-logs, sign-ins and risk events are as easy to control as our on premises active directory events.
CONSThis software a completely modular. To an extent you would not have expected. This gives numerous options to achieve the goal. Some pathways are better, there is not a single way to built a solution. We had to find out what works best for us. And we had some redesign of the hierarchies of rules and so on we built. It is not totally easy to understand. (But that should be obvious because of the dramatic functional possibilities!)
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
The *only* product which provides real-time monitoring (offloaded intelligence to the distributed agents) of about 150 different event IDs and their correlation in a landscape fo about > 50 million events a day and event log sizes of 100 GB native Windows events logs growth per DAY.
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
They were no longer able to support our German SQL database servers, german texts, Ä,ö,ü,ß and so on. Not 10 % of the capabilities and modular logic - and a complete lack of Azure AD monitoring.
Vendor Response
Knut, first, thank you for the great review. We are happy the software is monitoring your on-premise servers and Azure environment as required. Yes, you are correct there are many ways to accomplish the same task. This can be overwhelming and confusing at times. With powerful software comes complex implementation. We will be working diligently in 2023 to include more tutorials so users can better understand the best method to implement their monitoring and audit compliance requirements.
Replied December 2022
Paul
Defense & Space, 1 employee
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
Simple software with a good amount of features, great price and gets the job done
I have been using this for the past 8-10 years (I don't remember when I first started using it) and it has been a lifesaver for me and my customers. No budget, no infrastructure, no technical experience then no problem. I didn't even read instructions when I started using it, just clicking around and looking at what the product does with the built in templates got me going.
PROSThe product is as close to plug and play as you can get for a log management software. Some built-in filters get you started and making your own is pretty simple. This software is made for small businesses and small environments. I use it for collecting logs from a few systems and applications then spit out a report for me weekly. It assist me with meeting compliance requirements without the big cost and infrastructure to make it happen. I like how it can help with other features, such as processor utilization, disk drive space and setting up a near-real-time monitor for functions (account lockout, services stopped)
CONSIf you are looking for something comparable to Splunk or Alienvault OSSIM, this is not it. This software will help you grab logs, parse through it (based on what you want it to look for) and generate a simple report for you. If you need to parse through large amounts of data (6-12 months) and correlate them with each other, it will be a little more work for you and it will take a bit more time.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Ease of use, functionality needed, within the budget, ease of deployment and limited infrastructure needed.
Vendor Response
Thank you very much for the reiview!
Replied July 2020
Marshall
Defense & Space, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed September 2023
Corner Bowl Server Manager
Preconfigured to meet JSIG and NIST compliance. Excellent customer service and support.
CONSI would like to see more preconfigured items such as agent staying connected out the box however this is as simple as checking a box on each machine so not really a con
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Cost, ease of use, customer support, and preconfigured auditing compliance.
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
Cost, ease of use, customer support, and preconfigured auditing compliance.
Vendor Response
Marshall, Thanks for the review. If you install our latest build, new hosts are now configured to automatically stay connected. Thanks for the option request.
Replied September 2023
Manny
Printing, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2022
Great Product
Great
PROSI like the ease of setting up the event log consolidation, directory size monitor, and many more I think I have to explore with this product that will be helpful in monitoring our network devices. Honestly, I am learning a lot, not just the features of this product but as a whole this product helps me improved my IT knowledge and skills.
CONSNothing right now. I believe the product is being developed for more features and I am looking forward to see more in the future.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Inexpensive and perfectly fits to what we currently need.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the great review. Please let me know what other features you would like to see.
Replied November 2022
Barry
Wholesale, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
Awesome Support
Besides the software being able to do what we need it to do, the support when needed has always been prompt. [sensitive content hidden] is always quick to help, get on your system, fix any problems that he sees that may be from a user setup to an occasional bug. Excellent product and excellent support.
CONSSo far there is nothing that we don't like about Corner Bowl Server Manager.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the great review Barry.
Replied March 2024
David
Banking, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2023
Lots of functionality for the price!
Seems to be almost unlimited possibilities for logging, monitoring, and reporting.
CONSToo many possibilities to configure but I guess that could be a good thing.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Overall cost and knowing support is always there for help.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the great review. Look out for new tutorials to help with all the logging options.
Replied December 2023
Marc
Packaging and Containers, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
Great features for a reasonable price
We started using another tool many years ago, to collect eventlog information for SOX reporting. Although that system was supposed to have redundancy builtin, we experienced quite some downtime on several occasions so, we decided to install a second, different eventlog collection system for better redundancy and went for Cornerbowl server manager. It’s very stable and is quite low on system resources.
PROSThe rich feature set and the reporting are great at this price range. We use another product too that is much more expensive and has less features and with poor reporting.
CONSThe rich feature set is perhaps also its weakness as it makes it a bit difficult to find things from time to time.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
We had already used Cornerbowl log manager many years ago, with great success so, the choice was easy.
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
Application stability, poor reporting since v.5 and high system resource usage, high yearly maintenance costs
Vendor Response
Thank for for the great review Marc. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to find things better.
Replied August 2020
Alan
Verified reviewer
Insurance, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
Corner Bowl in a Small Company
With a very small IT department each member performs multiple tasks. Server Manager is great because it allows me to automate some things that I otherwise would have to manually check each day. The developer has always been very responsive to inquiries. I have used Server Manager for several years. At one point the software the was acquired by another company and I was delighted when ownership and development returned to Corner Bowl. This is a great product; definitely worth your time to try it out.
PROSThe breadth of features is great. I doubt I have scratched the surface of what can be done with Server Manager. The two main features I use are monitoring failed login attempts and monitoring Windows Service status. I use the service monitor to automatically start a service that has stopped for some reason. Server Manager will alert me to the stopped service and then also notify me when the service has been started again.
CONSNo real faults but I struggle at times with configuring different options. This is mainly due to the fact that it could be months between setting up a new monitor. By the time I think of another use for Server Manager it has been so long since I last configured something that it takes me a while to get a new monitor going. That is no fault of the software and the developer now posts how-to videos I believe so I should check those out.
Vendor Response
Thanks so much for the great review!
Replied July 2020
Ricardo
Verified reviewer
Insurance, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
Smart choice for Log Management...
After having evaluated several choices, we decided to use corner bowl as our core log management solution, reports are easy to build and storage is easily managed through standard DB structures. Cost is a great advantage of the software
CONSReport creation interfaces can be improved to simplify summarized results
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Cost and simplicity
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
It was the most cost-benefit efficient solution
Vendor Response
Thank you for the review! If you don't mind reaching out to our support team with your report creation interface suggestions we would love to get more detail so we can resolve the issue for you.
Replied July 2020
Tiziano
Chemicals, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
Corner Bowl Server Manager , to have !
The main purpose of this product was initially to collect and store all the events of our servers in one place. Over time we have also implemented various features such as dedicated alerts for some people interested in the activities of a particular server, as well as all the fundamental security checks in a vast and distributed network
PROSServer Manager is really simple to use. In a short time I managed to deploy and start monitoring the first servers. I use the software every day and the alerts help me keep track, especially via email, of all the events that are critical on my network such as activities on AD, new machines on the network, RDP sessions etc
CONSThe product receives continuous updates and implementations from the parent company, the latest releases have greatly lightened the software itself to the benefit of the whole process. It is possible to really customize it thoroughly and I have not yet found something that I cannot monitor with this product.
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
Server Manager offers a fully customizable solution at a very attractive cost
Vendor Response
Thanks for the great review!
Replied July 2020
Antonio
Plastics, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2022
Fast and reliable IT monitoring application
Automated IT monitoring for servers, endpoints or network devices that service don't need to be restarted in months until you decide to apply free upgrades to include improvements and new features requested by clients that help to all others.
PROS-Easy deployment that don't create a backlog on servers -Easy to modify templates to define specific goals on monitoring parameters -Fast notification responses -Precise umbral to trigger real time notifications -Easy way to integrate Databases for logging -Group creation by test or asset type (By CPU, Hard disk, ) -Reporting and triggers actions
CONSNothing in particular, I don't use all features and I believe I use less than 50% of capabilities and functions.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Because I tested all of them and overall cost/benefit on deployment, server load and easy management Corner Bowl event log manager is one on its kind.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the perfect review.
Replied December 2023
Steve
Retail, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2023
Server Manager Great Value
I have been using Server Manager for over 5 years. Provides great support, pretty easy to use, new features added with no additional cost, low requirements. Great way to stay on top of your critical items like services.
CONSEvery time you ask, I wish it could do this, It seems that Corner Bowl adds that feature like Certificate Monitoring.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
I was looking for an inexpensive way of monitoring and alerting items. There are alot of features we are continuing to implement.
Vendor Response
Thank you for the great review!
Replied July 2023
Syed
Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2023
A great product to manage business needs
I would say about the email alerts integrated with multiple agents associated with various templates. Real-time alerts really help to manage business efficiently.
CONSSometimes, some features don't work after upgrades which is okay and the support is really awesome to get it resolved.
Vendor Response
Syed, thanks for the great review. Sorry you have experienced some update issues. We have updated our release process to address the issues you have experienced in the past. Please let us know if there are any new features you would like to see added.
Replied April 2023
Charles
Government Administration, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2023
Easy and affordable excellent reporting and retention.
I've been using this for about 10 years and have never regretted the decision.
PROSCustomer support is super. Very responsive always extra information.
CONSCan't think of any downside to the product, they do their best to keep things up to date and running smooth.
Reasons for switching to Corner Bowl Server Manager
Went from a free "ads based" service that wasn't easy to use.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the great review. Please let us know if there are any new features you would like to see added.
Replied April 2023
Michael
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 10,000+ employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2020
Server Manager Review
Amazing! Always picks up the phone when help is needed.
PROSServer Manager is both a feature and budget friendly application based by a customer-focused support structure. I am able to add monitoring functionality in minutes -- not hours -- and you can literally have the product installed and working in less than 1 hour.
CONSBased on the use case of the software for our organization I see no cons at this time.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
Use of setup, use, and administration along with price
Vendor Response
Michael, thanks for the excellent review.
Replied July 2020
Joseph
Verified reviewer
Textiles, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2022
Easy Windows Device Log monitoring solution
So far, good, one issue so far, but this was solved within a day with support. And so far, what data I needed to gather, I have been able to gather with minimal difficulty.
PROSThe software is easy to set up and manage. It is template based, so once you have a good template set up, group your devices, and then mass deploy templates to all the devices. Updating works the same; change something on the template, and it's replicated to all devices. The software makes it easy to centralize logs. Not just Windows logs but text logs, Syslog, etc as well. You can then create custom columns based on regex's to create custom columns to finally create that alert you are looking for or the right report to hand out.
CONSThere is a learning curve. Documentation is good, support is good, and the beginning templates were really helpful, but there is a learning curve, and there definitely needs to be an investment of time if you are looking for unique data. But if you are looking for basic data ( disk space, CPU utilization, security log consolidation), that is available out of the box. Lots of buttons, with customizability, you need lots of buttons, but still, lots of buttons to push.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the great review!
Replied October 2022
Chandrasekar
Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2020
Excellent Software & Affordable Price
The software customized templates send import events to management and it gives us more visibility on our network and the customer support is exceptional, even if you have simple question, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] connects to us within minutes/hours to resolve our query.
PROSIt is very easy to setup and it is easy to customize the email alert for each events.
CONSIt would be great if the log repository template can clear the data if the disk is full.
Reason for choosing Corner Bowl Server Manager
It is affordable, easy to setup and the support is excellent.
Vendor Response
Chandrasekar, thank you for the great review! We will looking into adding the feature for you.
Replied August 2020
David
Automotive, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2022
Server Manager - Easy to deploy with a wide amount of functions
The software is easy to set up, use, and is helpful in reporting and alerting. Support has also been outstanding and new features are continually being added.
PROSThe built in templates make reporting and alerting easy to set up. Once you have your alerts in place, the software is very low maintenance.
CONSThere are so many ways this software can be used, and some of the advanced features are difficult to understand for usage.
Vendor Response
Thank you for the great review!
Replied January 2022
Jose
Biotechnology, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2022
Great product and excellent support
I have a monitoring system in place that provides me with all the event and performance information I need from my systems.
PROSIt is simple to install and deploy. Basic features (log collection, filtering and archiving) are easily configured. I appreciate being able to consolidate my Azure audit logs.
CONSThe GUI to write log filters is not as intuitive as one would like.
Vendor Response
Thanks for the great review. We will be working on some filter tutorials over the next month.
Replied March 2022
Timothy
Legal Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2022
Great product for keeping the green lights on.
I have used this software for years at several different organizations. It is great and allows me to be very efficient.
PROSI really like the consolidated reports that show me network logon problems, disk space and consolidated event logs. They allow me to get out in front on problems before they become disasters.
CONSLittle bit of a learning curve getting reports tweaked, but overall, great software.
Vendor Response
Thank you very much for the great review!
Replied January 2022