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Starting at $1,638 per year
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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.
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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
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Why I Recommend SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
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- Competitors
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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 Enterprises (1,001+ 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!
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
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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
(51-75 of 236)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
July 20, 2020
Solarwinds NPM - Well worth your time
- Graphing is fantastic. Trend lines and 95th percentile really make the grade when showing off what your network can do, or where it's limitations are.
- Alerting works flawlessly.
- The sales team is relentless and will never stop bothering you. Ever.
- More vendor MIB's can be put into the standard offering.
- 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.
July 17, 2020
SolarWinds simply works!
- System monitoring
- Application monitoring
- Update node properties
- Certain query functions in reporting
July 15, 2020
SolarWinds NPM is the bomb!
- Great for reporting (email notification) up/down status of network devices.
- Great to see status of stack ports in case 1 switch in a stack is down.
- It is critical to see bandwidth usage and NPM does it well.
- Not really anything. It does what we need.
July 15, 2020
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Review
- Detailed Statistics
- Reporting
- Configurability
- Doing anything in bulk needs major improvement
- Network mapping displays
- Be more reactive to customer requests
- Cover ALL technology vendors, not just a select few
July 15, 2020
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Review
- The alert functionality from SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor has been very helpful over the years. It provides us with the real time information needed during critical issues that may occur.
- The basic syslog and events features allows us to see in our main dashboard if there is something critical to address when we log in to the system.
- Network atlas also provides an intuitive graphical way to see if our environment has any nodes down or with issues.
- It would be nice for there to be a feature that would allow us to click one button to turn all alerting off during a maintenance window. It is required to either turn each type of alert off individually or all alerts on a per node basis.
July 14, 2020
SolarWinds NPM is the magic bullet!
- The software is very in-depth. You will be able to get metrics and data on things you never thought possible.
- SolarWinds has a vast array of products in its database so we have yet to add anything that wasn't already included.
- The reporting is wonderful. It is in-depth and allows us to provide documents to business partners when asked.
- Sometimes there are too many things to look at. It may be hard to find just what you are looking for. I would prefer a more dumbed down interface or even a guided wizard.
- It may be our implementation but it seems a little sluggish at times.
- Upgrading it can be a pain since there may be multiple updates needed to get current.
- Ease of identifying network issues
- Alerting and Notifications
- Customizable Reporting
- Cost
- Hardware Requirements
- Licensing Renewals
June 16, 2020
SolarWinds Network "Magnificent Performance" Monitor
- Providing detailed and high-level views of network device and infrastructure performance
- Providing an intuitive and informative user interface
- Generating flexible, customizable reports for any combination of devices imaginable
- Providing highly extensible device metadata categories and custom properties
- SolarWinds is an expensive platform with steep initial and recurring costs (if maintenance/update services are purchased).
- The amount of information in the Orion interface can be intimidating if you don't know what specific information you're looking for.
June 10, 2020
NPM - Forecast your network.
- 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 10, 2020
SolarWinds NPM Review
- Monitors and alerts on network device metrics
- Adding a device is easy and device templates are accurate
- The user interface is intuitive and packs information densely on the screen for easy use.
- Configuring and monitoring at the port level can be confusing. Often level 1 technicians misconfigure what ports actually need to be monitored. More common on larger or more complex devices such as core switches.
- The top-level menus in NPM (and all of SolarWinds Orion tools) are not always intuitive.
June 08, 2020
Review of SolarWinds NPM
- Comprehensive alert system
- Wide range of supported network gear
- Ability so save and push configuration files
- Can't turn off events
- Hard to find accurate help
June 04, 2020
SolarWinds Network Evaluation
- 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.
June 03, 2020
A mature, customization monitoring solution
- Very mature product, with lots of pre-built templates and features.
- It's very flexible and easy to customize.
- Fantastic support community (Thwack)
- Licensing model is simple.
- Upgrades can be tricky and time-consuming (especially if you have other Orion products installed along with NPM). It seems like SolarWinds is really focusing on improving this.
- It's Windows-only (which may or may not be an issue for your organization).
- Some menus don't take advantage of modern screen resolutions (e.g., on a 1080p or higher screen, a particular menu section will be locked at a very small size, wasting a lot of real estate).
- Traffic monitoring.
- Link performance.
- Device uptime.
- Detailed reporting.
- Price.
- More integration options.
- User friendly interface for juniors.
April 07, 2020
NPM for a medium size business
- Bandwidth alerts. Lets you be proactive to problems.
- Alerts that a device has rebooted. This lets you know that it was more than a normal internet outage. There may be power issues.
- Machine learning. NPM listens to the devices over time and creates baselines automatically.
- Too many alerts when a site goes down. Need to be able to fine tune better.
- The clarity of the NPM interface is unparalleled in the level of information displayed. This is often a challenge on other monitors when there is such a variety of equipment being monitored.
- Adding a node to be monitored is generally a stress-free process, with a lot of configuration available, but only the bare minimum being compulsory.
- The graphing provided for nodes provides us with enough knowledge to prevent noticeable failures in many cases. No need to click too many buttons.
- I have found the configuration of alerts to be somewhat confusing at times. I like to have as few required fields as possible to start with, and tailor the alert from that.
April 06, 2020
Good tool for network performance monitoring
- Traffic measurement
- Device hardware performance info
- Smart alerts
- 3rd-party integrations
- Detailed info and visibility of routing protocols
- A bit complicated
March 14, 2020
Review of SolarWinds NPM. Great product!!
- Great at monitoring devices.
- Shows great statistics on your devices.
- Check bandwidth on a switch port.
- Able to check disk space easily.
- Not sure.
- It just works really well.
March 08, 2020
Great product, and I hope they never stop making better.
- Pre-stack live monitoring
- EMA alerts feature
- History timelines for each sensor
- Web portal is sometimes slow
- Reporting is difficult and not intuitive
March 06, 2020
SolarWinds NPM: Good, but not great
- Identifying down nodes in network.
- Identifying neighbor adjacency changes.
- Graphing feature to give a quick look at interface bandwidth trends.
- "Network Top 10" to identify issues in the network.
- Support is almost non-existent. Almost always solved by Googling for a solution.
- Care and feeding sometimes requires direct database interaction. For example, when neighbor adjacencies are removed, they will show up on the alerts page. But deleting them from alerts won't work. Changing the auto delete timeout is not a workable solution as sometimes real links are down for extended periods of time. One needs to go into the database to delete the routing neighbors that are no longer valid to permanently remove them.
- Upgrades almost always have unforeseen issues. Whether a package isn't installed/ configured correctly to additional polling engines not able to be simultaneously upgraded, etc.
- No Linux version. Windows requires many patches that required reboots on a monthly basis.
- Good aesthetics in graph-rendering, etc.
- Handles a large number of monitored elements
- Fine-grained control of user permissions
- Polling engine requires windows
- Database only accepts MSSQL--requires license
- No templating of user permissions
February 28, 2020
An irreplaceable tool for complex networks
- 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
Helping You Know
- Device and port availability.
- Metrics of network port utilization.
- Can be heavy on hardware requirements.
- UI takes some getting used to.
February 12, 2020
8 Years using the product. Have tried others but still recommend it.
- Alerting
- Device health
- Custom maps
- Custom graphs