Excellent system for monitoring

Pros

This has to be by far the best networking and services monitoring tool I have ever used. It is rich in features and it just works.

Cons

It is an amazing system and I would recommend to anyone. It is however a little time consuming to set it up, for some people even a little challenging.

Solarwinds npm

I have used multiple network monitoring softwares and there is no comparison with the support and quality of software with SolarWinds. A perfect monitoring tool with out of the box reporting and alerting with extreme customizations.

Pros

I have been using this software for a very long time and its graphical representations and reporting is so top notch and its very easy to install, configure, and troubleshoot and interact with highly skilled individuals on its Thwack Community and share and discuss new ideas and look for guidance/assistance and documentation with labs and we can collect points to exchange with gifts and certification vouchers.

Cons

Its a bit costly and fortigate firewalls are not supported completely to provide its site to site vpn details like it shows for cisco asa. It would be great to be able to monior our vpn and who gets in and out of our network.

Works well overall but can get slow over time

We use this software to monitor our network equipment and servers and for the price it works well for doing that.

Pros

Was easy to setup and maintain and their support seems to be great to work with.

Cons

Over time it gets really slow and the server needs rebooted. Nothing I've tried including putting it on a new server seems to rectify this.

Solarwinds NPM Review

This product is great when tuned and customized properly. We use it for alerting via email and for NOC (Network Operation Center) setups. For those not familiar - this is when you set up a large monitor in a "monitoring " room to view network conditions in real time. Custom NOC views allow you to present pretty much any monitored information on a screen. It also allows you to configure a single display monitor (perhaps a 70 inch TV/Display) that scrolls through multiple screens of valuable information.

Pros

Allows for customized views and alerts to really lock down your essential requirements. (The problem is most users do not customize)

Cons

I do not like that they promote how easily you can roll out this software to start monitoring your network. What they do not tell you that by doing a non customized quick roll out you will receive unlimited number of alerts to the point they will be ignored. By default the system shows you too much irrelevant information and it alerts on way too many general conditions. BE Warned - without tuning the alerts you will get many false positive alerts.

network management in minutes

Pros

SolarWinds NPM (Network Performance Manager) is one of the most gratifying products to use. After installing on a server, you can literally in minutes begin collecting actionable network performance if you have previously configured SNMP on your network equipment. Most of the products integrate, building on each other and adding more value. I have always been impressed with how their new versions add significant features and value for just paying maintenance on the product. Their online training is also very valuable.

Cons

More advance features will take more effort to configure and generate actionable results. You can easily be overwhelmed by alerts and syslog if you do not make an effort to manage what you really need to see.