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Easy Installation and Configuration: Many users have found the installation, configuration, and use of Solarwinds Network Configuration …
Overview
What is SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)?
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.
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- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)?
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) can help save time and improve network
reliability and security by managing configurations, changes, and compliance for routers,
switches, and other network devices.
Network Configuration Manager enables IT Pros with:
Network Configuration Manager enables IT Pros with:
- Out-of-the-box support for major network device vendors, including Cisco®, Juniper®, HP®, Huawei®, F5®, Avaya®, Ruckus®, and more.
- Automated bulk deployment of standardized device configs.
- Automatic backups of device configurations, and rollback to the last-known good configurations, if necessary.
- Identifying IOS® devices with potential vulnerabilities, utilizing the NIST CVE repository service, and even provides the tools to manage the investigation, remediation, or waiver of each vulnerability.
- Auditing device configs for NIST FISMA, DISA STIG, and DSS PCI compliance.
- Built on the Orion® Platform, NCM provides the ability to purchase and fully integrate with additional network monitoring modules (network performance monitoring, NetFlow traffic analysis, WAN management, VoIP, device tracking, and IP address management), as well as systems, storage, and virtualization management, all in a single web console.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Features
- Supported: Configuration Change Automation
- Supported: Configuration Backup and Restore
- Supported: Change Monitoring
- Supported: Change Management - Roles & Approval
- Supported: Baselines and Configuration Drift Monitoring
- Supported: IOS Vulnerability Scanning
- Supported: Compliance Assessment and Enforcement
- Supported: Network Insight for Cisco Nexus
- Supported: Network Insight for Cisco ASA
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Screenshots
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Video
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Overview
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Integrations
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
- SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
- SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
- SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
- SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor (WPM)
- SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM)
- SolarWinds VoIP & Network Quality Manager (VNQM)
- SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
- SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM)
- SolarWinds User Device Tracker
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Competitors
- ManageEngine OpManager
- Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
- DX Spectrum (formerly CA Spectrum)
- RANCID
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Windows Server |
| Mobile Application | No |
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.
ManageEngine OpManager and Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued) are common alternatives for SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM).
Reviewers rate Solarwinds Premier Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.5.
The most common users of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Comparisons
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(263)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Easy Installation and Configuration: Many users have found the installation, configuration, and use of Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager to be easy. They have mentioned that the product has a simple and intuitive setup process, allowing them to quickly get started with it.
User-Friendly Reporting: Users appreciate the simplicity and ease of reporting provided by Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager. They find generating reports to be a straightforward process, thanks to the product's user-friendly interface. This allows users to easily access and analyze the necessary data.
Seamless Integration with Other SolarWinds Products: Users highlight the compatibility of Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager with other products from the same company. It seamlessly integrates with other SolarWinds tools and can run on the same server instance. This unified experience provides users with a cohesive workflow and enhances their overall efficiency.
Confusing User Interface: Some users have expressed frustration with the user interface of the software, finding it confusing and difficult to navigate. This sentiment is shared by multiple reviewers who feel that the interface hinders their ability to quickly find information and perform tasks efficiently.
Slowness of Orion Platform: Several users have complained about the slowness of the Orion platform, particularly when additional modules and nodes are added. This issue has been raised by a significant number of reviewers, highlighting the need for improved performance optimization to enhance user experience.
Limited Vendor Support: Users have expressed a need for better support for multiple vendors in the software. They feel that currently, there is a lack of vendor-specific equipment profiles and features for non-Cisco devices. Multiple reviewers have suggested expanding the range of supported devices to make the software more versatile and suitable for diverse network environments.
Users of Solarwinds configuration manager have made several recommendations based on their experiences with the product. The three most common recommendations are as follows:
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Make it easier to access saved config comparisons - Users have suggested improving the accessibility of saved configuration comparisons. This would enable them to quickly refer to previous configurations and compare them with current ones, aiding in troubleshooting and auditing processes.
-
Explore Thwack for inspiration from other users' experiences - Users recommend exploring Thwack, Solarwinds' online community platform, to learn from other users' experiences and gain insights into best practices for using the software. This can help users make the most of the features and functionality available in Solarwinds configuration manager.
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Add more support for different vendors - Users have noted that while Solarwinds configuration manager is a useful tool, they would appreciate additional support for a wider range of vendor devices. Expanding compatibility and incorporating more device types would enhance the software's usefulness for a broader user base.
These recommendations highlight areas where users find room for improvement or suggest ways to enhance their experience with Solarwinds configuration manager.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(26-50 of 141)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
January 19, 2022
Helps Locate and Address Network Outages in Timely Fashion
Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager is used mostly by our technology department to monitor our servers, switches, and PSUs at our 40 plus locations. Principals have SolarWinds access to view the status of their campus equipment.
- The top 10 list is very helpful in showing what could possibly become an issue in the future.
- The events screen helps us to determine if there is an ongoing problem or if it was a one-time event.
- The homescreen on the dashboard is the best way to keep an eye on things.
- Currently use mostly for notification of downed sites - works well for that.
January 19, 2022
Powerful Network Configuration Management
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is used by our Network Team to backup our Network and SAN switches configuration files. Jobs are scheduled to backup running and startup configs. NCM is also used to push out config changes to all our switches without manually logging into each switch. NCM also detects unauthorized changes to out configuration and email alerts are configured to detect version mismatch.
- Integrates with Network Performance Management for Alerting and Reporting.
- NetPath and detects issues due to Configuration Change.
- Keeps a record of which user made the change.
- Which devices are not being backed up, devices where backups are failing, dashboard and alerting available.
- More automation options, in incase backups fail or unauthorized config changes [are] detected.
January 19, 2022
Solarwinds NCM--highly recommended
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) allows us to back up configurations, as the latest configurations are readily available whenever we plan to do an upgrade of software version or need to revert back to an older version of the configuration file. The compliance feature allows us to manage vulnerabilities and understand the new issues that arise in our software versions.
- Configuration backup
- Compliance
- Device templates
- Identifying vulnerabilities
- Software upgrades
- Configuration automation
- Some devices don't use a specific version of ssh and SolarWinds struggles with accessing those devices.
- Reporting could be made better, as sometimes some reports return empty data.
- Some SNMP MIBs need to be manually updated in SolarWinds.
January 19, 2022
Useful if you are familiar with creating compliance reports
We use it just for config backups.
- Backing up configurations
- Showing diffs
- Setting up compliance reports
- Creating deployment templates is hard overall
- Setting up approval workflow has no integrations
- Very Cisco centric
January 19, 2022
Solarwinds the rest is a toy
It is used to obtain switch backups and validate configuration changes, It has been of great help, referring to an erroneous configuration problem, if it had not been, chaos would have been generated in the plant. I use it for the administration of 280 switches backup and it works perfectly.
- Backups.
- Restore.
- Validation.
- Support multiple vendors.
Network device configuration backup, comparison, baselining, and configuration searching.
- Network device configuration backup.
- Searching all configurations from the web console for keywords.
- Writing new configurations to devices.
- Configuration device baselining.
- The menu is very old and dated.
- Better alerting capabilities.
January 18, 2022
A Must-Have for any IT Department
We use NCM to monitor our network for unauthorized configuration changes as well as to make bulk updates to our network.
- Configuration Change Management
- Bulk Updates
- Firmware Updates
- Multi-Vendor Support
January 18, 2022
Great Investment
SolarWinds NCM is a great addition to the tool bag. Having the ability to scan configurations and make changes on the fly across multiple devices is an immense time saver. Another great future is version caching [which] allows you to see all the changes that have been made and revert if necessary.
- Change reporting
- Policy Violations
- Configuration Management
- Better UI
- Too many clicks to get to certain features
- Need Feature Search
June 30, 2021
Realize the Single-Pane-Of-Glass
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is our prime network management software for our NOC, Network Engineering & Operations. We use it twenty-four seven to manage F5 Load Balancers both in the cloud and on-premises, routers and switches, wireless infrastructure, firewall infrastructure, LAN and WAN, and all other network elements. SolarWinds is also our alerting tool (red, amber, green) threshold management and performance reporting.
- Alerting
- Reporting
- Breadth of supported devices
- Baseline management
- Support for integrating network diagrams and maps
- Better support to customize UI
- Ability to create and maintain dynamic network maps in line within the UI
April 16, 2021
I like SolarWinds NCM
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, NCM, is used by multiple departments to automate configuration backups. There is also a feature that checks for vulnerabilities based on standard compliance reporting. Another feature is the firmware upgrade deployment where you are able to update your device to the latest supported version. This is helpful because we have measured things like configuration standardization and version number compliance. Very helpful when it come to looking at the compliance of our hardware. The leadership team can have real data from the devices instead of spreadsheets.
- Back up my configuration. Critical when system failures occur.
- View firmware version(s) across multiple devices, then compare them for the same model or type.
- Restore and apply changes for one or multiple devices.
- Run reports on firmware version and compliance to standards.
- Privilege management is lacking, do I want all my admins viewing sensitive data? Probably not. This certainly can be improved.
- Everything is based on a windows server, we prefer other OSes. Not necessarily a con, but more of a longstanding request.
- If you have other SolarWinds modules, it will integrate well with them. This is good, then you go back to my first point. Admin privileges allow access to sensitive data.
- In the news with a big vulnerability, not my favorite mention.
April 14, 2021
SolarWinds NCM can save your job!
We first acquired SolarWinds NCM after an incident where a bug in a wizard created a faulty filter in [our] firewalls and crushed all traffic in both directions. Without the ability to see, at the CLI level, where the change was made, it took Cisco TAC four hours to find it. Today, with NCM in place, we have immediate feedback for exactly what lines in the config changed, and the ability to easily roll back to the previous config. We are backing up every switch, router and firewall config in our enterprise to guard against misconfigurations or unintended consequences, and use real-time notification to know every time a switch, router or firewall is changed.
- Real-time notification of configuration changes
- Backup and restore of configurations
- Integration with other SolarWinds products
- Initial setup of real-time notifications was not super easy.
- We have had intermittent issues with the TFTP service used for backups when SW patches are applied.
April 06, 2021
It's good at what it does
All of our network switches and routers are set up in NCM. It provides a backup of all of our configurations. It allows us to quickly restore a change made, compare changed to configuration files backed up each day and most importantly, if a switch dies we can very easily and quickly restore that switch to get operations back.
- Make a backup of configuration changes that can be restored to a working switch
- compare changes to configuration changed over a 30-day period
- Roll back changes made that have created negative results
- It will detect changes such certificate keys. These aren't necessarily changes made to the switch but do change each day
- If multiple changes are made before the next scheduled backup, restoring those changes affect all changes made - not just the individual change you are looking to roll back.
Network Configuration Manager is being used to manage network devices configurations across the whole organization, helping us tracking changes and ensure software assurance by configuration compliance.
It's also used for devices automatic software upgrades and configuration changes by configuration templates and scheduled jobs.
It's also used for devices automatic software upgrades and configuration changes by configuration templates and scheduled jobs.
- Complete integration with other SolarWinds modules.
- Easy to use.
- Complete coverage of software configuration management.
- License cost.
- Scripting very limited.
- Firmware upgrade not very efficient.
December 24, 2020
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for Cisco environment
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is being used in all IT organizations, especially for Cisco Devices. It is helping to identify End-of-Life devices and code standardization that was hidden before.
- Running configuration vs startup configuration reports
- End-of-life report
- Policy violation report
- Inventory & firmware management
- Integration with other vendors (e.g. Aruba, HP, Palo Alto, etc.)
December 18, 2020
NCM is a life saver for automating network device backups in a centralized location!
Our IT Infrastructure team uses NCM to automate backups of all of our network devices. We also use this for keeping up to date on firmware versions, and for configuration change logging.
- Automated Backups.
- Change Logging & Rollback.
- Firmware version vulnerability information.
- Cisco IOS Updates directly from the NCM console.
- Multi device config information, like scripting.
- Non Cisco device information is not as detailed.
December 11, 2020
NCM is Kinda Cool!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it to maintain CIP-governed assets environment and non-CIP ones. It allows us to monitor our many assets connected on our network. We can deploy agents via Orion and monitor them all in one dashboard. It is used only in our department while Corporate IT uses another tool.
- NCM grants admins easy to use dashboard for all facets of monitoring.
- It has many built-in templates that can implemented easily for polling.
- Offers users canned reports and alerts.
- Some reports were created in old proprietary software that is now obsolete.
- Is somewhat of a bear to set up.
- Has many different modules that can be used but may require additional licensing.
We're using Network Configuration Manager primarily to automate configuration backup, though we intend to use it for change tracking, etc down the line.
- Once a device is connected, the regular config backups are super reliable.
- Like most SolarWinds products, the customizable dashboard works great.
- Change and policy reports are easy to find and read, and are automatically generated.
- NCM (and the thwack community) has great templates for a lot of the network equipment out there.
- We have a multi-context ASA that requires some fidgeting to get into NCM properly. Considering this is a pretty popular product (and one of the main reasons we purchased NCM), I would think this would be something SolarWinds could make more turnkey.
- On initial setup, the separation between adding something to Orion and allowing it to be managed by NCM was a little muddy. Now that I've been using it longer, this is obviously less of an issue, but it seems worth mentioning.
- I wish the Network Discovery worked a little better.
December 09, 2020
NCM great product to add to your toolbox
The Network Configuration Manager is being used by the information technology department every day. The software provides a single pane of glass for our network infrastructure. We use it for our network switches, our firewall and other pieces of equipment. Network Configuration Manager allows us to update our critical infrastructure without intervention. It also backs up all of our configurations for the same to your critical infrastructure.
- Config backup.
- Vulnerability scanning.
- Network integrations.
- Monitoring.
- Usability.
- User interface.
- Reporting.
December 09, 2020
4+ year user loves the product for specific tasks, but has accepted some fairly major flaws as reality
NCM is being used within our department as well as the department responsible for the design of the network. NCM is being used to push mass changes to all of our network gear and to enforce configuration standards. It is also being used as a recon tool by running show (recon) commands on gear to have a quick but detailed look across the organization.
- Configuration Standardization
- Quick and Mass Configuration Changes
- A better implementation of using variables in jobs would be awesome.
- Being able to take the output of a command and feed it into a second command.
December 08, 2020
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Review
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is used to manage Cisco network equipment across the council's sites. It allows us to be able to keep multiple versions of our configurations and restore them if necessary.
- We can check compliance of equipment configurations across the campus.
- Monitoring of hardware health
- Review events/SNMP traps or syslogs to know what is happening across the network
- I have not found any issues to mention.
November 12, 2020
Network configuration management made easy!
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is being used by our IT department, both in Israel and the US. It helps mange configuration changes of our network equipment worldwide, mainly for Cisco firewalls, load balancers, switches, and other network equipment. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) helps us prevent issues with unwanted, accidentally entered configurations and meet compliance requirements.
- It is very good for managing configuration changes.
- Helps protect from unwanted changes.
- Very good with compliance.
- User interface can be more user friendly.
- Reporting has room for improvement, as is key in such software.
Network Configuration Manager is used by the IT department to manage all network devices in the organization. It was put in to address inconsistent patching levels and to give a better view into the network as a whole. Since the department is small, it is a valuable tool.
- NCM Maintains a DB of the devices and their current configuration.
- Automated backups of configs.
- Notification of changes to configs outside of maintenance windows.
- I would like to see the initial seeding of the DB more tightly integrated with NPM.
- Better integration with vendors for patch management.
July 19, 2020
NCM: lost possibilities
Initially purchased for Network Switch management, but only used for configuration backups. It does not address configuration management as we've hoped it would because of SolarWinds inability to support the mainstream HP/Aruba devices by this product's device templates.
- Configuration Backups
- Support of mainstream network hardware manufacturers
- Intelligent approach to NCM reporting logic (NCM stack in 15-25 years ago approach)
Our IT group uses SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager to maintain backups of the configurations of all our networking equipment. SolarWinds has made it extremely easy to be able to go back and audit changes and verify everything after the fact. The built-in ability to run jobs to make bulk changes or create reports makes it so even our employees with zero programming/scripting experience can quickly get changes done.
- Back up and maintain a database of configurations for CLI based equipment.
- Analyze and audit any changes done to a config.
- Make it easy to run bulk changes and create reports by using simple jobs and schedules.
- Would like to see some more advanced options in terms of pulling the data from a job that has run.
- The new software upgrade feature is nice but still seems just a little bit clunky to use.
- I would like to see an easier way of creating custom compliance jobs.
July 17, 2020
Solarwinds NCM saved my job (and my network)
Gone are the days of looking for that most recent configuration of your firewall, router or network switch. As an engineer, I can do so many things with SolarWinds NCM, without having to worry if the configuration backup is currently being archived, and when or where it has been stored. As a company subjected to audits, I have the ability to verify that changes were made correctly, and by whom. This makes management very happy. It also provides a "rollback" point should a change be made that causes things to break.
- Automated change manager. I can build my configuration change, schedule it for dark-30.
- I will be notified of any change in real-time. I also see the before/after view of the change, and track failed commands.
- I can snapshot my configuration, and later run a before/after report to ensure the correct change was deployed.
- The configuration module could use some additional canned reports.
- The configuration comparison between two devices is not working for me. The previous versions were on the server, but since moving to a WebUI, some of that functionality is more difficult to use.
- More training videos are always beneficial.