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Network Management Software |
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Written by John Galt
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Thursday, 18 January 2007 |
"I am looking for some suggestions of network management software. This is for a very large deployment (~28 backbone nodes and >10,000 subscribers). The specified hardware has SNMP and MIBs.
I fully expect to pay (a lot) for this, so suggestions of "freeware" or "cheapware" are not really necessary."
davidpj:
www.ipswitch.com What's up Professional, I use it, nice product
butchevans:
What specifically are you want to do? If it is just monitoring, then there are a LOT of very nice options available. Intermapper is one of the best I've seen, though I found it a bit pricy. For your application, it will not be very much on a per node basis, however. You can find it here: »dartware.com/products/intermapper/index.html
If you are looking more for real management options, HP Openview may be a better choice, though that is likely to be a BIG difference in price. I'm not certain on their price structure, so I'm not sure about that.
These are the only 2 that I have used much at all in the commercial arena. I have a bit more experience with HP Openview, but not a lot. Intermapper is a really nice application.
Then, there are the freeware things. Don't overlook these options. Many of these are VERY good applications. You can spend the $$ you have set aside for the software and pay an employee or consultant (not me) some bucks to learn it very well, and even some training for existing employees. I'm not one that advocates freeware over commercial just because it's "open source or die"...but sometimes it makes sense to use this option. 
sporkme:
Are you looking to monitor every sub?
Here's some quick stats on some of the people who have chosen to share how many nodes/services they monitor with Nagios:
»www.nagios.org/userprofiles/quickstats.php
It's a ton of work to setup, and you'll need a beefy box to poll 10,000 nodes, but it is doable. HP OpenView or other big commercial products will also have a very steep learning curve and need lots of hardware - and possibly a "consultant" to get the whole thing running.
mrbueno:
HP Openview is a good choice.
»h20229.www2.hp.com/
However, cacti and MRTG should be pretty simple to deploy as well just because it's free doesn't make it bad.
Want support? Try »www.paessler.com/prtg at one time a simple to deploy and use MRTG derivitave. $1,495.00 for unlimited sensors. Demo available here: »prtgdemo1.paessler.com:8080/login.htm
Groundwork is a nice open source/commerical solution: »www.groundworkopensource.com/ with an ISO evaluation CD »www.groundworkopensource.com/dow···oad.html
Decided to use MRTG and need MIBs? »www.somix.com/support/mrtg_repository.php Somix also has a nice MRTG derivitave themselves.
All very interesting and viable solutions. Hope this list helps someone.
BTW, monitoring this many nodes too frequently will use a bit of bandwidth as well.
LLigetfa:
I use WhatsUp Pro but haven't learned to use all of the features. I upgraded it from Gold.
I had a build of MRTG that was using flat files but the performance was pathetic. Later I had a student rebuild it and told him to set it up using a MySQL db but found out that he cheated after he was long gone. I eventually decided to go with Somix.
I also have a collection of Fluke tools and software and manage my HP switches with ProCurve Manager Plus.
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