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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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- Tech Details
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- 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 Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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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
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- 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.
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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
(1-25 of 78)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
We use Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager primarily for the network configuration backup use case. We have it pull configurations on a daily basis from our Cisco Catalyst/IOS/IOS-XE/Nexus/WLC and Fortinet devices, both running and startup configs. We also use it to send daily config change notifications showing a diff between the previous and the current versions. Finally, we use it to send us weekly emails whenever there is a difference between our running and startup Cisco configs, meaning the config was not saved to flash.
- Pulls down configurations of network devices
- Provides diff reports/emails, comparing previous and current configs
- Customizing isn't as straightforward as one would expect, could be made simpler
SolarWinds NCM is principally used to perform configuration backup but also to perform global configuration update like a password change or SNMP community update.
- Configuration backup
- Policy violations
- Execution script
- A more pre-defined script would be welcome.
- NCM jobs are quite slow to run.
- Chart designs are old school.
November 16, 2022
NCM - makes our lives easy.
We use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager to manage and make changes to configured switches and other network devices. It saves us a lot of time in configuring new devices because the configurations are stored on SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager also makes reports and inventory a lot easier for us. Using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager makes it a lot easier to manage our configurations over the network.
- Reports. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager allows us to generate config change reports
- Firmware upgrades. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager allows us to upgrade the firmware on all our networking devices
- Storing configurations. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is used as part of our disaster recovery strategy to store current configs of all devices
- Network Insight can be improved to support more vendors.
November 14, 2022
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is used to pull backups of network devices. We also try to use it to also push code to out of the box devices, which speeds up setup time. Additionally, we use it for mass code pushes to 40+ switches (VLAN additions, updates, etc.) I have saved countless hours of manual work by utilizing SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager in our environment.
- Backups
- Scripting
- Mass updates
- N/a
- N/a
I manage the network by myself so NCM has made my job much easier simply by automating the downloads and triggering an event when the configuration has changed. I use the config compare to review changes that I have made to ensure that the change has been made correctly. It is almost like I have another employee helping me keep all the configurations in order AND keeping an eye on what changes I have made!
- Automated Download of every configuration per your schedule
- Notifies end user when baseline configuration does not match the current running configuration.
- Easily manage the baseline configurations so that you can keep all information up to date
- Beautiful dashboard red = bad green=good at a glance you can see if something is not quite right
- Odd Hardware that does not have a "startup-config or running-config" per definition; it would be nice to be able to edit the rules to be in compliance for startup-config matches running-config
- Policy violations are only targeted at Cisco equipment
- Firmware vulnerabilities only target Cisco equipment
We use the SolarWinds NCM to manage the configuration of all of our network appliances, specifically all the switchgear in all of our offices, using it to maintain configuration history.
- Easy to deploy
- Easy to configure
- Easy to manage post initial configuration
- The main frustration is the overall slowness of the Orion platform, especially as more modules and nodes are added.
April 15, 2022
Solarwinds NCM - filling the gap of automation
We used Solarwinds NCM for almost a decade before the unfortunate Solarwinds hack. Automation and scripting wasn't as prevalent during those years and Solarwinds NCM filled those needs. Making configuration changes to hundreds of devices using NCM saved countless hours which was a direct benefit to the our business's bottom line. The amount of changes needed throughout a year were in the dozens as our network was constantly changing. NCM also came in clutch in many device failures because of the automated backups. We were able to quickly pull the previous configurations and restore them onto the new replacement device within minutes.
- Configuration backups (incremental and timed)
- Pushing out configuration changes in mass
- Scheduled Firmware upgrades
- Storage hungry (needs lots of storage space)
- basic alerting (could benefit from triggering scripts if/then conditions)
- auto-discovery didn't always work (had to manually add nodes most of the time)
March 08, 2022
NCM easy management of network configuration files
This is an outstanding tool for performing Network configuration management. Solarwinds natively support config management for most of the Cisco device types, as well as, a significant number of other Vendor types. The tool provides configuration comparison reports, vulnerability assessments, and provision to upload config back to the network nodes. The tool includes scripts that are useful in setting up and deploying nodes which is a significant time-saver during deployment. We needed to configure NCM to run inventory and compliance reports for all network assets for our auditors.
- Easy to install, configure and use
- Reporting is simple
- Works with other SolarWinds products and can run on the same server instance as other products
- Cost effective
- Hot fixes for bugs are released often
- Online interface can be confusing
- Difficult to track changes within the tool
January 25, 2022
Review of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager
We have 13 sites and several hundred switches and routers combined of various models and firmware. Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager is integral to our disaster recovery planning as it is required to monitor the firmware version of each device as well as backup configurations of every device once a change is made.
- Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager monitors our firmware to ensure we are at risk of any vulnerability
- Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager back up device configs every time a change is made keeping out recovery documents up to date
- Solarwinds Network Configuration Manager allows us to push configs to multiple devices at once simplifying the process
- Network Insight can be improved to support more vendors.
January 24, 2022
SolarWinds's Well Rounded Network Configuration Manager
The main use of SolarWinds NCM in my use case is to have a repository of saved configurations of network devices to be retrieved and applied to replacement devices when a device fails.
- Back up of configurations
- Saving of configurations
- Retrieval of configurations
- Comparing new and old configurations
- Could be priced more attractively
January 24, 2022
A great time saver!
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager has treated us well. All our network equipment is backed up through the Network Configuration Manager module on a daily basis then spits out a report on what has changed day over day. When a device inevitably fails we are able to quickly restore the previous configuration to the replacement device, greatly minimizing downtime. Network Configuration Manager also makes it a breeze to keep configurations consistent across devices. Updating an access list on 100 switches goes from a tedious afternoon to a three minute automated job. The module is also capable of deploying firmware and probably much more but I have not dipped my toe into those waters just yet. Overall a great product for making automation simple!
- Automating configuration backups
- Preventing configuration drift
- Reporting on configuration changes day to day
- Module can be slow to load.
- The interface could use a facelift.
- I'd appreciate more out of the box jobs for common tasks.
January 20, 2022
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager review
I use it to manage the compliance of our network devices to configuration hardening standards. Our information security program requires that all our network devices, routers/switches/firewalls/etc, have a defined security hardening standard defined and implemented. As a member of the team, I had to come up with an easy way to measure and demonstrate device compliance to defined standards. I tried setting up regex checks against configs stored in ansible but that required all configs to be in ansible, which they weren't, and so I found myself working edge cases and relying on others who had better things to do than help a security guy. I tried a few config managers including the managing engine NCM, which I used for several years at a previous job, but then migrated to the SolarWinds NCM. I like the SolarWinds NCM interface better and since it is part of the Orion suite and our network team was using Orion I was able to add it to their deployment. If I'm being honest I prefer the management engine interface better but found the functionality to be identical between the two. Most valuable thing is having all the device configs available for testing without relying on other teams.
- Manage network device configurations
- allow for customization of network device hardening standards
- visualize the compliance status of your network device configurations
- The user interface could be more intuitive
- a stable Linux version would be great
- better and faster performance
January 20, 2022
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager: A Good Software
I mainly use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for switch backup and to validate security updates.
- Push back a configuration
- Scheduled job notification
- Compare configuration
- Check point capabilities
January 20, 2022
Network Configuration Management Made Easy with Solarwinds NCM
We use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) at our core and distribution to track configuration changes, since it's a module for Orion it provides a single pane of glass for the team. We have real-time configuration change monitoring enabled for the equipment with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) enabled so once a change has been made we have a record of the change and can easily revert changes from SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) or do a comparison if needed. Previously we had used other products but the setup was more difficult and not all equipment was easily supported whereas SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) has support for a majority of the devices we use out of the box without any additional configuration or customization, although that is an option if needed.
- Keeping previous configurations
- Tracking configuration changes
- Configuration reporting
- Real-time configuration change tracking via trap notifications
- For our use case, it does everything great and some of the features we underutilize but I would like to be able to set a configuration baseline when initially adding a node instead of after the configuration is pulled but it's not a particularly big deal to let it pull the configuration then set it as the baseline.
We use SolarWinds Network Configurations Manager to download a nightly backup of all of our Cisco and HP/Aruba equipment as well as to provide compliance reporting for various network conditions. The NCM tool is also super helpful when comparing configurations and launching various remediation scripts on your Cisco or Aruba hardware. If your company needs daily backups, this is a must-have tool for any network administrator.
- Daily backups
- Compliance reporting
- Firmware Vulnerabilities Scores
- End of Support Device Alert
- To my knowledge (I apologize if I am incorrect) NCM is unable to download backups from Cisco Next Generations Firewalls such as the Firepower 2110 or similar. While the Cisco tool has a backup function of its own, it sits within the Cisco architecture and if that is corrupted it's hard to recover from. Having an external backup sitting in SolarWinds would allow us to have greater redundancies and store the data in multiple locations for high availability backups.
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
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.
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.
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.