Overview
What is SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)?
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is network diagnostics and troubleshooting technology, from Austin-based SolarWinds.
SolarWinds NCM provides a solid device management platform at a reasonable price
The best tool to manage your network devices while saving time!
NCM - makes our lives easy.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager review
You get what you pay for
Tool which is easy to implement and very well integrated with other SolarWinds products
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manger - Software that backs up your Engineer!
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager - Easy to deploy/use and just works
Solarwinds NCM - filling the gap of automation
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is a huge time saver!
NCM easy management of network configuration files
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) Review
SolarWinds NCM good product
SolarWinds NCM perfect tool to manage your whole Network devices
Centrally manage all network devices using Solarwinds NCM
Awards
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Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)?
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 (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
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(263)Community Insights
- 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.
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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 48)- 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 Network Configuration Manager review
- Backups
- Scripting
- Mass updates
- N/a
- N/a
Tool which is easy to implement and very well integrated with other SolarWinds products
- Difference between configurations
- Mass snippet deployment
- Scheduled backup of configurations
- Check configuration standards (policy reports)
- Automate network equipment lifecycle management (EoL, EoS)
- Simplify policy checkup setup
- Improve interface for diagnostic interaction between device and NCM
- 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
- Archiving of device configurations. This is the most basic of features for NCM and provides an easy way to maintain startup and running configurations for all network devices.
- NCM can execute scripts. Any task that is typically done by a technician from the command line is handled by NCM. This includes the ability to schedule script execution jobs against a single device or multiple devices.
- NCM provides several types of reports out of the box. These include configuration change reports and inventory reports as the best examples.
- One can easily perform a "stare and compare" of two device configurations so as to quickly and easily determine where changes have occurred.
- For those people who may not be proficient at using regular expressions, NCM needs to evolve to provide more direct contextual help in this regard.
- The job logs that NCM provides are very utilitarian and do not lend themselves to viewing and searching well at all.
NCM easy management of network configuration files
- 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
Centrally manage all network devices using Solarwinds NCM
- Monitor the current status of network devices
- Devices configuration backup and change tracking
- Push out configuration automatically
- The configuration change template could be more user friendly
A great time saver!
- 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.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager review
- 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
Network Configuration Management Made Easy with Solarwinds NCM
- 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.
Making Networks Better
- Network Auditing.
- Network Inventory Management.
- Vulnerability Detection.
- Network Configuration Automotion.
- Threat Management.
- Edge Security Management.
- Cloud and Application Performance Acceleration.
- SD-WAN and Cloud Management.
- Agent less client device management.
Powerful Network Configuration Management
- 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.
NCM is Kinda Cool!
- 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.
NCM great product to add to your toolbox
- Config backup.
- Vulnerability scanning.
- Network integrations.
- Monitoring.
- Usability.
- User interface.
- Reporting.
4+ year user loves the product for specific tasks, but has accepted some fairly major flaws as reality
- 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.
Network configuration management made easy!
- 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.
- 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.
NCM Worth a Try
- Change identification
- Backup
- Visibility to authorized users
- Licensing. Bought a 500 node license to manage a US only deployment. However that 500 node/device license only allows 500 ports/items to be monitored. That seems a bit restricted. I understand you need to make money but if I want to buy 500 nodes, at least allow me to monitor 5x ports, etc.
- Expensive remote worker servers. I already paid for an unlimited deployment, let me have the remote servers so performance statistics are measured close to the source. We have 80+ global locations but we have to measure everything from our data center server. Not useful to our remote site technicians trying to measure or monitor local performance.
- Automated Backups. It makes backing up network devices simple to do and easy to manage
- Change approval. When implemented correctly, it can provide an extra layer of assurance to network-related changes as they will have to be approved by someone else. This ensures that changes are not made in a bubble and at least two sets of eyes have reviewed it.
- Creating an easy to read device version report, with custom fields is relatively simple to do and can give project managers a greater understanding of the time it may take to perform a task, such as ensuring SNMPv3 or updating code levels due to bugs.
- Automate the creation of new hierarchy's within devices according to the year for backs.
- Allow scripts to be assigned to certain groups so that when users log in, they only see the scripts that they are allowed to use.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Evaluation
- SolarWinds NCM is able to backup all our network devices, regardless of vendor.
- SolarWinds NCM gives us a powerful tool to search configuration files.
- SolarWinds NCM allows us to verify and enforce network standards on a daily basis.
- More search options and abilities; Being able to utilize regex easily would be a huge plus
- A more intuitive wizard to build your own scripts for pulling configuration files
NCM - Network automation made easy
- Script management. The ability to save scripts & script results in this tool is a great.
- Change management. The feature to compare old and new configurations which gives us a good graphical glimpse of what changed with respect to configurations.
- This tool comes really handy if an engineer wants to SWARM config. changes.
- Configuration comparison.
- Configuration display.
- Color coding change comparison.
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is a lifesaver in volatile and corrosive environments, a big life saver!
- Automatic IOS config backups.
- Bulk IOS changes for adds/subtracts in a Cisco environment.
- Peace of mind that you have a good config in equipment failures.
- We always have speed issues, not sure if that is out issue or it is a SolarWinds interface issue.
NCM...12th man on the field!
- Configuration Comparison Tool is great since you can quickly compare configs in a single pane of glass. To make things easier to identify, NCM will highlight the differences.
- Vulnerability reporting on all current versions of Cisco IOS/NXOS software. NCM will identify the version of firmware you are using and also list the most well known CVE vulnerabilities that are associated with each version.
- I appreciate NCM is vendor agnostic. It will consume configs from any network device. It can also be customized to look for certain strings that are missing or to look for certain strings that are present. Very flexible and since it isn't vendor specific, I don't feel like I'm being forced to buy a certain manufacturer to obtain all of the 'features' like I do with other products.
- Improve the visibility into other popular platforms beside Cisco. It does seem to be Cisco leaning just a little.
- Baseline management is a little clunky. I'd like to see it made just a little more user friendly. For example, when writing the baseline configuration, identifying lines that you want to ignore can be very cumbersome.
SolarWinds Review
- Remediate firmware vulnerabilities
- Change control
- Workflow approval
- User interface
Good Product
- Backups
- Bulk Changes
- Cost
- Could be more flexible