TrustRadius Insights
Users have found this product to be extremely versatile and useful in a variety of situations. One key use case is for professional …
Starting at $1,638 per year
View PricingOverview
What is SolarWinds NPM?
SolarWinds NPM is a monitoring and performance management platform. It provides performance troubleshooting support, auto network discovery, customizable thresholds, and can be rapidly deployed.
Recent Reviews
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Alerts (228)8.989%
- Hardware health monitoring (215)8.888%
- Network monitoring (231)8.787%
- Customizable reports (212)7.979%
Pricing
NPM
$1,638
On Premise
per year
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.solarwinds.com/products/pric…
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Why I Recommend SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
YouTube
Features
Return to navigation
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is SolarWinds NPM?
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) delivers comprehensive network fault monitoring and performance management that scales and expands with a company's network monitoring needs. Users can collect and view availability, real-time and historical statistics from routers, switches, firewalls, servers, and any other SNMP-, ICMP-, or WMI-enabled devices directly from a web browser.
The vendor states that SolarWinds users can get a full NPM installation up and running the same day they download, and that implementation does not require a team of consultants. NPM provides visibility into the health of network devices and servers on the network, ensuring that users have needed real-time information to keep their network running at peak performance.
Network Performance Monitor helps IT Pros:
- Detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues and avoid downtime
- Respond to multiple condition checks, correlated events, and device dependencies
- Automatically calculate capacity exhaustion dates using customizable thresholds based on peak and average usage
- Streamline network troubleshooting with a Web interface
- View paths to critical business services hop-by-hop, even into the cloud, with the NetPath™ feature
- Get deeper visibility into complex network devices with Network Insight™ features for Cisco ASA firewalls, Cisco Nexus switches, and F5 BIG-IP load balancers
SolarWinds NPM Features
Network Performance Monitoring Features
- Supported: Automated network device discovery
- Supported: Network monitoring
- Supported: Baseline threshold calculation
- Supported: Alerts
- Supported: Network capacity planning
- Supported: Packet capture analysis
- Supported: Network mapping
- Supported: Customizable reports
- Supported: Wireless infrastructure monitoring
- Supported: Hardware health monitoring
Additional Features
- Supported: Seamless conversion upgrade to AIOps-powered Hybrid Cloud Observability
- Supported: Multi-vendor device support for any router, switch, firewall, VPN concentrator, wireless access point and other devices that support standard protocols
- Supported: Intelligent alerts for correlated events, sustained conditions, and complex combinations of device states
- Supported: Insight on hardware health by monitoring, alerting, and reporting on the state of key device sensors
- Supported: NetPath for hop-by-hop monitoring of critical business services, on-premises or into the cloud
- Supported: Network Insight for Cisco Nexus switches, F5 BIG-IP load balancers, Cisco ASA firewalls
SolarWinds NPM Screenshots
SolarWinds NPM Video
Network Performance Monitor overview
SolarWinds NPM Integrations
- SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
- SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
- SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
- SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN)
- SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM)
- SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
- SolarWinds Web Performance Monitor (WPM)
SolarWinds NPM Competitors
- LogicMonitor
- OpenText Network Node Manager i (NNMi)
- Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Management
- Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued)
- ManageEngine OpManager
- Nagios Core
- Progress WhatsUp Gold
- DX Infrastructure Manager (formerly CA Unified Infrastructure Management)
- Paessler PRTG
SolarWinds NPM Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Windows® Server 2016; SQL Server 2016 SQL Server 2016 SP1 SQL Server 2017 (including installations on Linux) |
| Mobile Application | No |
SolarWinds NPM Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
SolarWinds NPM is a monitoring and performance management platform. It provides performance troubleshooting support, auto network discovery, customizable thresholds, and can be rapidly deployed.
LogicMonitor, OpenText Network Node Manager i (NNMi), and Broadcom DX Unified Infrastructure Management are common alternatives for SolarWinds NPM.
Reviewers rate Alerts highest, with a score of 8.9.
The most common users of SolarWinds NPM are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(600)
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!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Users have found this product to be extremely versatile and useful in a variety of situations. One key use case is for professional presentations. Users have praised the product for its ability to create visually appealing and engaging slides that captivate audiences. The ease of use and intuitive interface allows users to quickly create polished presentations without the need for extensive design skills. Additionally, the product's extensive library of pre-designed templates and customizable options provide users with a wide range of choices to cater to their specific needs.
Another important use case for this product is for educational purposes. Teachers and students alike have found value in using this product to enhance their learning experience. With its interactive features such as animations, videos, and quizzes, it enables educators to create engaging lessons that capture students' attention and facilitate better understanding of complex concepts. Users appreciate the product's collaborative capabilities, allowing for seamless group projects and real-time feedback.
Furthermore, this product has proven to be a valuable tool for businesses in creating impactful marketing materials. Users have reported that the product's drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to design eye-catching brochures, flyers, and social media graphics. The ability to seamlessly integrate images, text, and various graphic elements ensures that businesses can create visually appealing marketing materials that effectively communicate their brand identity.
Lastly, users have praised the product's ability to simplify personal projects such as photo albums or event invitations. The variety of customization options allows users to personalize their creations and add their own touch. Whether it's creating personalized greeting cards or designing stunning wedding invitations, this product has been a reliable choice for users seeking high-quality results without the need for extensive design knowledge.
Overall, this product has proven to be versatile and adaptable in various contexts, making it an indispensable tool for professionals, educators, businesses, and individuals alike. Its user-friendly interface combined with its extensive features and customization options allow users to unleash their creativity and achieve impressive results in a wide range of use cases.
Users recommend considering the whole stack of Network Modules on the SolarWinds platform instead of NPM as a standalone product. They believe the other modules are valuable additions for monitoring, managing, and analyzing the network. SolarWinds NPM is considered the best network performance monitoring solution on the market. Users suggest using it for network monitoring and exploring other modules for specific infrastructure monitoring. While NPM is a good tool for network monitoring, users advise looking into alternative options for advanced monitoring needs. Some users suggest improving the navigation to make it more fluid and user-friendly. Overall, users recommend SolarWinds NPM for managing and monitoring network infrastructures due to its reliability and cost-effectiveness. They also recommend trying the live action feature and Meraki for enhanced network analytics. Users suggest considering other products with better UI and capabilities. SolarWinds NPM is worth the price if affordable, especially with sponsorship. Working with third-party services or SolarWinds to properly set up the tool is recommended. Using multiple tools in conjunction with NPM provides more visibility. Users recommend signing up for Thwack and utilizing their resources for assistance with SolarWinds products. Trying the demo first before purchasing is advisable. NPM is considered a core module in every company that chooses SolarWinds as their monitoring tool. It is important to ensure that the server can handle the software. Experienced staff maximizes the benefits of the platform. Users suggest downloading a trial copy of NPM to test it out. NPM outperforms other tools according to user opinions. More theme options and additional ways to export data are requested. Other modules from SolarWinds that work well with NPM, such as Server & Application Manager, should be explored. Support team and Thwack community are highly praised by users. Users should not be overwhelmed by features and take advantage of free trial resources. SolarWinds is recommended for enterprise-level monitoring, but Loop1 consulting is advised for complex environments. Initial setup can be time-consuming. The 30-day evaluation of the full product is excellent. Becoming a Thwack member provides access to extensive resources and support. SolarWinds may have a higher cost but is considered worth it. Proper provisioning of hardware, software, and infrastructure is crucial before deploying SolarWinds. Users recommend setting up the trial version first and getting familiar with the product. SolarWinds NPM receives high recommendations from users and is praised for its great dashboards.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 51)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
April 04, 2023
The way to monitor your network.
Based on my 7-years of experience I am deeply convinced that Solarwinds products (NPM, NTA) are extremely scalable and reliable solutions with customizable user-friendly interfaces. The most important feature for me is the creation of custom reports using a variety of data sources (SQL query, SNMP, OID, etc.). Alerts constructor is a simple and powerful tool as well.
- Custom reports building.
- Alert management with conditions constructor.
- A huge variety of data sources.
- Web console requests cashing works quite slow - I assume Redis configuration should be improved.
- Network elements virtualization and clustering monitoring do not satisfy the contemporary requirements (has to be more functional and provide a wider list of vendors).
- WiFi heatmap is available for Cisco Meraki equipment only.
March 21, 2023
NPM is a great tool for your networking team!
We choose to use SolarWinds because the legacy Monitor tool was not cover some areas/alerts/vendors. Also, we were looking for a tool able to identify and act in some alerts. We are using NPM to monitor the infrastructure, to provide some stats that can help us to identify possible issues in the future, and to automatize some regular actions.
- Monitor Cisco devices in general
- Monitor Azure Gateways
- Provide different kind of reports
- Provide different kind of alerts
- Pollers for Aruba Devices
- The SolarWinds support team is not familiar with non-Cisco vendors, so it's hard to get some support from them.
- Bugs sometimes is happening
- Sometimes the Dashboard delays to show the current status of Nodes/Services
September 08, 2022
SolarWinds NPM brings all your Network Tools into a single Toolbox
We use SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) to monitor the availability and performance of our networks across 15 geographically dispersed sites. This includes network devices, Servers, Virtual Machines and even our bandwidth consumption. SolarWinds NPM is a powerful and yet user-friendly solution with a variety of very useful tools and performance monitors allowing you to proactively manage your network and be alerted to potential issues using proactive monitoring and threshold management. The system is able to manage a wide variety of devices regardless of manufacturer and brand. There are also a host of very useful reports which can be customized to the organization's needs and automated according to run as needed.
- Excellent Network Reporting
- Great performance monitoring with various KPIs
- Proactive alerting with alerts when approaching set thresholds
- It would be great to have Root Cause Analysis built into the platform
- The Network mapping feature could use a friendlier interface
- The Network Monitoring Platform does not include the Topology Mapper.
We essentially use it to monitor our network devices - switches, routers, firewalls, ETC. We have our uplink interfaces monitored as well so that we can see usage and report on them as needed for things like bandwidth bottlenecks both internally and externally.
- Notify us when a network device goes down and comes back online.
- Reports for network interfaces.
- Fairly simple to add or remove a network device.
- The software upgrade process is a little hairy and has caused me trouble on occasion.
- The server that it needs to run is a bit of a resource hog along with the SQL server.
- Some additional features like the network map are a bit clunky compared to some other products that we use.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor provides advanced features to monitor network devices, firewalls, access points. It becomes easy to track such issues and resolve them within business objective timelines through the use of email alerts. The tool allows you to create custom dashboards and organize our data in ways that benefit our organization. The SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor also allows our staff to identify network bottleneck issues quickly which in turn results in faster problem resolution times.
- Provides real-time network performance data
- Customized reporting
- Easily create WiFi heat maps
- Cost when scaling can get expensive
- Would like to see tighter integration between SolarWinds products
- GUI could be streamlined more
Someone knew. But no one knew who. NPM let us regain control of the who knew and turn it into a measured responsibility. Our Company now has knowledge of what our network resources include and how those resources are utilized daily. We demonstrate processes and services which are hyperextended and leverage available resources for use in our production environment by monitoring the trends and use of our business assets. NPM tools have helped us free up monetary resources for additional pressing projects which provide business growth. The payoff?? Minimizing monetary bleed and maximizing resource utilization. We will renew our NPM licensing allowing us to continuously monitor our IT infrastructure, connect to upstream providers, and monitor many production processes and services. This will continue to maximize our planning capabilities for resources and scalability for continued Membership and Subscriber growth.
- Identifies IP addresses, hostnames, packet loss, and latency
- Displays top talkers per each monitored interface
- Path offers device details and detects configuration changes
- Detailed (potentially multi-path) map between Windows node and a specified destination
- Customizing the NPM interface is capable of a multitude of instructions in the Virtual Classroom via the SW website.
- Customizing the threshold values and which interfaces to monitor are configurable by many videos in the Virtual Classroom on the SW website.
- Customizing the active alerts' values are configurable by following directions and video instruction guides in the SW Virtual Classroom on the SW website.
January 27, 2022
Best Network Monitoring Tool out there
We are a University with 13 locations with 2 employees monitoring all locations inclusive of over 300 Switches and 200 Servers that host various apps. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor allows us to monitor
all devices from one console including switches, routers, servers, and even printers.
It
allows us to monitor for hardware errors and bandwidth issues which
is a major help in troubleshooting errors and planning for the future. I use it to view all of the switches and apps and ensure everything is up and functioning at just a glance.
- Monitors all the switches
- Alert when a network device is down
- Monitor bandwidth usage across the network
- Monitor Hardware health on devices
- Bandwidth monitoring could be improved, when creating a map we need to either show bandwidth usage or interface speed. I would like to see both
- Wireless heat maps could be improved. It only works with certain vendors
January 24, 2022
Review of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
We are a University with multiple locations with one Network Engineer to manage and monitor all locations. SolarWinds NPM allows us to monitor all devices from one console including switches, routers, and printers. It
allows us to monitor for hardware errors and bandwidth bottlenecks which is a major help in troubleshooting error and planning for the future.
- Alert when a network device is down.
- Monitor device for hardware errors.
- Monitor bandwidth usage across network.
- Wireless heat maps could be improved. We have multiple AP vendors and from experience, it only works with certain vendors.
January 20, 2022
Robust Network Performance Monitoring Solution
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is our primary enterprise monitoring tool used for monitoring the entire infrastructure. This includes servers, N/W devices, storage, databases, firewall, UPS, etc., to list a few of the device types which we monitor. It supports multi-vendor network monitoring and insights for deeper visibility. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) includes intelligent alerting, intuitive dashboards, and reporting features. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is part of the SolarWinds Orion Platform and is the main monitoring component and integrates seamlessly with other SolarWinds modules. It supports SNMP, WMI, and agent/agentless monitoring.
- Very scalable for large environments
- Agent and agentless monitoring available
- Robust SNMP monitoring, realtime MIB updates by the vendor
- Integrates seamlessly with other SolarWinds products
- Support more vendors, checkpoint and storage vendors
January 19, 2022
Great one stop shop for Network Monitoring
SolarWinds allowed us to consolidate Network Performance monitoring into one tool. It has allowed us to spot issues we would have otherwise missed.
- Network Maps, Live Maps.
- Custom Dashboards.
- Ease of adding new elements.
- Support for Juniper/Arista devices.
- Sluggishness and need for a modern UI.
- Limitation to Windows.
March 08, 2021
Good system to have
It is being used to monitor our network, data center, all the IP devices and automation.
It is a customized application that monitors and reports the performance and availability status of our network and other critical components to us.
Think of it as a 24x7 guard to keep an eye on our network. It also can run automatic processes to react to certain tasks, so it can be a 24x7 fireman to put out small fire in our network.
It is a customized application that monitors and reports the performance and availability status of our network and other critical components to us.
Think of it as a 24x7 guard to keep an eye on our network. It also can run automatic processes to react to certain tasks, so it can be a 24x7 fireman to put out small fire in our network.
This is suitable for an enterprise network with a lot of applications, and devices. Then, the cost to keep it running can be justified.
- Automation.
- Monitoring.
- Reporting alerts.
- Creating logs.
- Presentation.
- Pre-packaged monitoring items with other manufacturers.
- Lower the cost.
December 10, 2020
My SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Review
We are using SolarWinds for all our networks as well as all client network infrastructures in the organization.
This will help us to provide real-time monitoring and IP flow top talkers instantly in a live scenario.
- Real-time monitoring
- Instant up/down of network devices across all networks
- Top talkers in different ways (IP, application, and others)
- Auto-discovery is very easy for devices.
- inbuilt scanner from LAN network to get auto network discovery.
- This should work with minimal hardware and work with any server OS.
- This should not depend on latest SQL Version. Clients have to arrange latest licence which is additional cost for client.
- During installation, the application crashed in many scenarios. This should have rolled back instead of crashed.
- Please include a device backup option and live monitoring of any change in device configuration.
- One tool for all network devices--monitor, manage, backup, utilization, and change all in one
December 08, 2020
NPM in PNW!!!
My company currently uses SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor to monitor the entire organization's network hardware both physical and virtual. We have multiple regions across the Pacific Northwest. It has been very supportive of all of our processing that ties into third party vendors' SaaS processes and appropriately triages any and all issues within the internal network and external tunnels.
- Network Mapping. The Network map is an absolute must for any multi regional organization that requires a holistic view of how the networking SLAs are being met.
- Network Atlas should be a process added to the console instead of having to access it to build the maps on the servers.
We use the Orion Summary page for all senior admins - we get alerts if things are coming down, if servers are running low on disk space, if memory is over utilized. Many different uses. I like the additions of NetPath services. I have also used reports and the network Atlas to create visual representations for our active links. Diving into a node is helpful to establish response time issues, trends and even capacity forecasts. I use this on servers, SANs, switches, Wireless controllers, and alert monitoring services.
- NetPath services are a godsend when you are trying to explain to ISPs, etc. about where traffic is congested or stopping. Sometimes seeing is believing for them.
- The other BIG deal is anticipating disk capacity - when volumes get to full, servers crash. With NPM, we can and create set thresholds for warning us before we run into issues, and then we can add storage, memory, and CPU, (especially on our Virtual environment.)
- Alerts are great - instead of hearing from our users that a server is offline, we are aware of it right away.
- We also like the alerts that le us know when there are upgrades available.
- It would be nice to be able to set up SNMP3 for some of our systems in an easier fashion. But it is not a show stopper.
- Sometimes the support refers us to the Knowledge base and Thwack. Not a huge deal, but I only end up putting in a ticket when I have spent a great deal of time searching for a solution.
- Email alerts sometimes go wonky after an upgrade.
November 11, 2020
An EKG for your servers
We use SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor to monitor all of our infrastructure including servers, switches, and applications. It allows us to get alerts when anything is going wrong with a critical system so we can proactively address the issue before it impacts the business. It also provides us a detailed view into the health of our systems via reporting and dashboards.
- Alerting with custom thresholds
- Dashboards to give you a real-time view into the health of your systems
- Reporting capabilities are well sorted
- Need a more intuitive way to configure interfaces between nodes in map editor
- I would also like to see an improved method for auto-provisioning of server monitoring tools
- Cost
September 03, 2020
Why I spend my day with SolarWinds
We are using it strictly for our IT department to address issues before they arise. We are able to monitor multiple locations with different resources in every location. We are notified of issues beforehand so we can minimize any downtime. It's amazing to have everything under a single console and get a snapshot view of the big picture of what's going on.
- It has amazing alerting that you can customize based on every need.
- It has detailed dashboards that give a very nice overview of what's going on.
- The SNMP capabilities are off the charts.
- User management allows every tech to see what they need to see.
- Ease of setting up alerts
- Better map views
- More hardware information without needing to use the MIB Database
There are different verticals (towers) within the organization that are heavily utilizing one or more modules of this product line. My vertical uses it as an MSP where we are selling and supporting these products for 200+ clients scattered in different geographies. Primarily, we are supporting various hosted environments (dedicated accounts as well in some cases depending on the deal type) involving NPM and NCM as the core products. We are in the process of accumulating more such modules and tools to take over complete tooling requirements for our clients. Until now, we have been successful in addressing our customer needs through our centralized tooling but with their growing demand and competitiveness, we have to extend our horizon.
- The UI is dashing, user-friendly, yet powerful enough to do almost all the administrative tasks with the click of a button.
- The deployment and configuration is made simple thanks to the step-by-step guiding wizards.
- Reporting and KPI have the flexibility to run both simple and complex queries to get the intended output.
- Sonar discovery is an easy and efficient method for on-boarding devices.
- Dashboards and maps efficiently exhibit the entire topology and metrics.
- Reporting needs to be improved as there are more misses than hits in obtaining the intended output. CA eHealth reporting was much better and robust in comparison.
- MIBS certification is one more challenge as every-time we have to request support for the addition of OIDs. The UNDP option is great but needs to be more flexible and robust.
- Bulk discoveries, especially subnet-based, choke up the entire CPU and memory processing on the virtual infra. The discovery Wizard stalls in between without showing any error message for a considerable amount of time.
- Having multiple APEs makes administration (Patch, Upgrade, etc.) more difficult and complex. Any change in permissions on Application Folders and AV exclusion takes time in diagnosing and isolating the APE.
- Rabbit MQ and Cortex services frequently get corrupt, and we are unable to find a permanent fix for that.
July 20, 2020
SolarWinds NPM Customer Review
It's being used across our whole organization. It allows us to use one pane of glass to see both Network and Server issues across our organization. This is important to allow our NOC to watch many systems/interdependencies without watching multiple systems. It also allows us to keep recent configurations of our network gear, for survivability.
- It pulls SNMP data well, in particular it allows us to capture port level information with a decent amount of historical data. This is true for user ports or trunk ports.
- It does a good job of keeping an up-to-date stable of configurations. This is invaluable for recovery operations.
- Syslog collector is also very useful to again correlate performance data against what errors the box itself is processing.
- I would like to see the robustness of the database and pollers improved. It seems like we often need to do system upkeep or the application seems to grind along very slowly.
- I would also like to see an improved method for auto-provisioning of server monitoring tools.
- I would also like to be able to update maps/drawings directly from the web interface without having to use a separate Windows client.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is being used primarily by the Network Team to monitor for various alerts directly related to the network infrastructure. There is a limited number of other teams within our organization that use it mainly to monitor bandwidth and CPU utilization. We have a lot of infrastructure. Without NPM we could have extended outages. It allows us to see issues and address them right away.
- Alerting is easy to set up and customize--without good alerting, why bother?
- The custom charts can be a real lifesaver at times. Many times I have been asked to essentially prove that a particular network component or circuit was not to blame. Custom charts make it quick and easy to put a graphic together to share.
- Easily customizable dashboard with widgets galore allows us to see the things we really care about at a glance.
- I personally find the maps a little cumbersome to work with. Yeah, you can create one pretty quickly, but it's a bit of work to make it look nice.
- The upgrade process hasn't gone as smoothly as we expected in the past. We haven't upgraded to 2020 yet, so maybe that will go better.
- I wish I could provide more cons, but it really is a great product. If they can make the maps easier to deal with, and streamline the upgrade process, it will be nearly a perfect product.
June 10, 2020
NPM - Forecast your network.
It is used on the IT department to scan, maintain and monitor all the systems, servers and devices in the whole organization. We had to add two extra pollers to loadbalance all the devices. Using only one poller is heavy for the system.
- You can add other Solarwinds products in it.
- Monitor network using SNMP, WMI. Getting health information and server useful information even for VMs environments.
- They need better support team.
- Some areas need to be more open to the user, more customization enabled by the user.
- Pollers need a better improvement to support more heavier weights.
June 04, 2020
SolarWinds Network Evaluation
Solarwinds NPM at my currently company is only being evaluated and utilized by a small subset of our whole organization. We are currently deploying and utilizing NPM and NCM as a proof of concept to gain support for an eventual full migration to the remaining aspects of our team.
- Building service groups based on multiple aspects and technologies allowing for monitoring of a full service as opposed to the individual aspects of it.
- Ability to pull and organize information with custom snmp pullers means we are able to monitor and report on any event that occurs in our network.
- The ability to create additional pages and gather custom information to create simple and easily accessible locations vast improves our ability to understand and react to network related events.
- Custom page layout in NPM only allows for vertical columns of information, limiting your ability to display information in the best manner.
- Universal Device Poller is a separate application that would be much more user friendly if it was incorporated directly into the NPM web interface.
- High Availability failover solution requires additional licensing from third parties to utilize.
February 28, 2020
An irreplaceable tool for complex networks
As a network architect consultant, I manage the monitoring and SLAs of the CRIF group's network--a network of over 1000 multi-vendor nodes. SolarWinds Orion NPM allows me to monitor all network devices with proactive managed alarms. It also allows me to analyze traffic in case of network issues thanks to the Live performance feature. Configuration of a new device to monitor is very simple, and it's very easy to create custom detailed reports to help the management have a global view of the network and traffic status.
- Simple discovery of multiple nodes to monitor
- A lot of graphical snippets to represent data
- Customization of dashboard
- Missing the ability to create a partition to give separate customizable environments to different groups
- Traps triggered alerts can be done only on the TrapTools, not in the web interface
- Custom maps can be done only on the Atlas tool, not in the web interface
February 12, 2020
8 Years using the product. Have tried others but still recommend it.
NPM monitors all the organization's network assets and datacenter servers. We use it to have insight and real-time status of all the essential devices. It provides us a way to centralize network management and visualization. We also heavily rely on it to analyze traffic trends and traffic patterns. It is also the way we have to prevent issues or be proactively utilizing the advance alerting processes.
- Alerting
- Device health
- Custom maps
- Custom graphs
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I am responsible for the network, security, performance and overall data network for my organization. I have used NPM to achieve several objectives, along with overall daily performance monitoring. When I first implemented it 7 years ago, we had multiple encrypted tunnels running over T1's which degraded the performance for the end-users. I used SolarWinds NPM to draw a baseline (in red), which eventually went away with a better-configured piece of hardware.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor points our discrepancies; I feel like NPM is my left hand at work. it has definitely paid for itself many times over. It allows you to take baselines and look at performance in real-time and historically. I find hardware that is going to fail before it fails due to the statistics. The saying, you get what you pay for? You get more with NPM! I will say, you get out of the tool what you put into it! I have a standard for every device so it is very easy to see anomalies on the NOC!
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor points our discrepancies; I feel like NPM is my left hand at work. it has definitely paid for itself many times over. It allows you to take baselines and look at performance in real-time and historically. I find hardware that is going to fail before it fails due to the statistics. The saying, you get what you pay for? You get more with NPM! I will say, you get out of the tool what you put into it! I have a standard for every device so it is very easy to see anomalies on the NOC!
- Every network has a notorious piece of equipment that runs outside of normal thresholds! You can set up individual thresholds for alert notification. It is very important to find the right balance of notifications from your monitoring tools. You can tweak NPM or run with the defaults. I run the defaults until hardware indicates that it needs individual configuration.
- You can add nodes individually or in bulk. You can have NPM discover your network!
- NPM can set up a wireless heat map - you need to input a floor plan - massage the map with Network Atlas; before you know it you will have a live heat map of your wireless network!
- I love the top XX options to view in the NOC - I have the top 100 network events, the top 100 interfaces showing in the NOC. You can detail the NOC pages to show just about anything you are collecting in NPM. Unbelievable information when looking for anomalies!
- NPM is being driven by the user group THWACK! I love the fact that they just added Network Insight for the Palo Alto Firewalls: site-to-site VPNs: discovery, status, bandwidth, failures reason, and protocols. GlobalProtect VPNs: username, public IP, virtual IP, and status
- I can't complain or really say that SolarWinds Network Performance monitor has any particular flaw to report! I am pleased how Solarwinds used the THWACK community to add additional features to the product.
- I would like to be able to reclassify the Unknown nodes - the LINUX flavored servers running my virtual Avaya phone network are not classified at all. I did name and manage all the nodes. All nodes are properly identified, I just don't like that group called Unknown .. .but am glad it is there to catch unidentified objects!
- Demo NPM from Solarwinds Web site. You will not be disappointed!
January 18, 2020
NPM is a valuable tool for Network Monitoring
Our organization uses SolarWinds to gain visibility into the performance of the Network and to alert us to problems an outages. This helps us be proactive in identifying issues within the network and quickly address them. NPM offers high visibility into our network with a user-friendly interface. The product offers a high level of customizability allowing us to hone the monitoring and alerting to meet our needs. Getting the product up and running is pretty straightforward. The learning curve comes in when honing your monitoring. Support is responsive and reliable. The Thwack community also offers helps for deployment and management questions. The interface offers loads of charts and graphs allowing you to show how your network and key interfaces are performing. This is especially helpful when you are presenting to senior-level management and team member who may not fully understand Networking.
- Easy to Navigate Interface - The user interface is laid out very clearly and it is intuitive to navigate.
- Highly Customizable Alerts - You have the ability to fine-tune alerts to meet your needs.
- Detailed Graphs and Reports - NPM does a great job of translating raw analytical data in to easy to read graphs and reports.
- Ability to Monitor a Wide Range of Devices - There are built in MIBs for a wide range of device vendors and you have the Ability to configure more.
- Creation of Custom Charts and Reports - Charts and graphs can take a little time to tweak to get the data that's relevant to you. Creating custom reports also isn't intuitive however the SolarWinds support is great at assisting you when needed.
- Licensing Model - You definitely need a good knowledge of what you're trying to see. Licensing is based on the number of elements being monitored (devices and interfaces). This can get costly so you want to have a good understanding of what areas you wish to target if Cost is an issue in your organization.
- No Real Integration with SD WAN Tools - Solarwinds NPM allows you to link with SD WAN APIs but due to API limitations, you only get surface level info. I would like to see them partner with some popular SD WAN vendors.
- Network Atlas - this is the software you use to upload maps into the system. Currently, its a standalone piece of software on the server. I would like to see this integrated into the online console.