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Which network management software?

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by public 1 view

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Hi there folks. I'm just curious, based on all of your experience, which Network Management Software do you use? I would like something that doens't take classes to learn but still make my life a little easier to manage my network from my desktop.

I've been looking into SMS but i wonder if it will map out my network graphically like the 3com network supervisor transcender software i use (3com has a freeware, basic network management software) but that is very limited in its scope.

Thanks for the suggestions
-Ginel Junior Network Administrator

7 replies

by boyhowdy

It depends on what you're looking to do and what your budget might be.

If you've got a large budget, you might want to consider something like Unicenter TNG from Computer Associates. It's large, exspensive, and has a long deployment time, but the features on it are unbelievable. The 3D map is damn cool, too.

If you have a smaller budget, you might want to consider What's Up from Ipswitch. A lot of geat features for the price. Great network mapping.

For e-commerce, I have found that SiteScope from Freshwater Software works very well. It is designed around monitoring web sites and the resources they use. No mapping, but lots of trend data.

Since my main concentration is on servers. I like to use NetSaint on LINUX. It's an open source NM package that is fully customizable, but configuration is fully manual, so I don't feel it's quite ready for an entire enterprise, but great for monitoring a mixed environment of servers. I use PERL to create plug-ins to check just about anything I need. From SQL Servers to Web Page flows to CPU usage to user connections.

I hope this helps.

by Member 29244100

It depends exactly what you're looking for.

We use HP Openview NNM as a commercial product to "Traffic Light" Network status of Routers, Switches, and Servers. The downside is that it's quite expensive, and it takes some knowledge and experimentation to get the map "right".

There are some quite good freebie tools about; 3Com Transcend being one, another is Compaq's CNMS (downloadable from tp://www.compaq.com/support/files/networking/software) which supports non-Compaq devices quite well,unlike the 3Com offering!

If you want something at a lower level, try Ethereal (www.ethereal.com) as a freebie Packet Sniffer, etc.

Have Fun!

Jason.

by rkelly

SMS has a good feature set and with the latest service packs provides stable managemenet platform.

SMS is purely based about desktop management and though it does have some network diagraming built in it is restricted to showing Routers, subnets and SMS Server Systems - so it will not map out clients for you.

Personally I like SMS - I've been training people in it's use for the last 3 years and providing it is installed correctly it goes no problems. I hear lots of horror stories about many different pieces of management software but the story is always the same. The installation must be planned carefully, otherwise no matter which software you use it will cause you more problems than it resolves.

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