A highly flexible and scalable monitoring platform -- anything is possible (if you know what you're doing)
May 05, 2019
A highly flexible and scalable monitoring platform -- anything is possible (if you know what you're doing)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with ScienceLogic SL1
We use ScienceLogic in our managed services department to monitor our client's environments, covering networking, storage, and server technologies. The environment is multi-tenant. This means our monitoring tool must support the isolation of the individual clients, while still being able to handle unique requirements for each individual client. Due to the number of clients and components, ease of management and automation of the monitoring tool is also important.
- Flexible: it can be used to monitor anything, using its Dynamic App (DA) concept. DA's are the workers doing the actual collecting of data from the devices being monitored. The product comes with an extensive set of built-in DA's, but it is easy to develop your own, need be. DA's can use SNMP, custom Python code, REST/SOAP APIs, Powershell, WMI, Database queries, and others to fetch data.
- Easy to manage architecture: all updates and changes are done in the central interface and then automatically pushed to collectors. This is particularly important when dealing with complex environments with many collectors distributed across client networks.
- Open architecture: everything is customizable. The product has an open REST API which allows integration with other products. Dashboards and Reports can be built to suit most requirements for visualizing data. Run Book Automations allow for triggering automatic actions, both within ScienceLogic itself but also externally through scripting, rest, or database calls.
- Great support: Fast reacting and competent support teams in multiple timezones to aid with urgent support. There's a professional services teams which can aid when developing custom solutions and when our own expertise is no longer enough. Excellent Customer Satisfaction team for monthly followup meetings, making sure things are on track and new possibilities are identified and discussed.
- To get the full benefit of the product, you either need in-house expertise to do custom development, or be prepared to engage with ScienceLogic Professional Services for assistance.
- The current interface is a bit dated -- ScienceLogic is, however, working hard on releasing a new and improved version of it.
Yes - PRTG Network Monitor
Great product, but increasingly difficult to manage in a multi-tenant setup. We ended up having at least one PRTG server for every client.
Weak API with limited possibilities of controlling PRTG itself through it - low performing when doing huge data extracts
Strong network monitoring support, but is lacking in other technology areas like storage and servers.
Rather inflexible with regards to doing custom monitoring of "non-SNMP" devices.
Limited reporting capabilities.
Great product, but increasingly difficult to manage in a multi-tenant setup. We ended up having at least one PRTG server for every client.
Weak API with limited possibilities of controlling PRTG itself through it - low performing when doing huge data extracts
Strong network monitoring support, but is lacking in other technology areas like storage and servers.
Rather inflexible with regards to doing custom monitoring of "non-SNMP" devices.
Limited reporting capabilities.
Expanding the use of ScienceLogic monitoring across our infrastructure technologies -- starting with the network and then also including servers (physical and virtual) and storage components -- has allowed us to increase our knowledge of dependencies between components. It has also helped us be able to faster identify which services and clients are affected by infrastructure component issues should they occur.
We use the strong Powerpack/Dynamic App architecture of ScienceLogic to support various new products.
Being an MSP means we have to be able to support a wide range of components that our clients have in their infrastructure.
Usually, these requirements have to be addressed quickly, so us being able to quickly modify existing powerpacks or develop our own is crucial to success.
Being an MSP means we have to be able to support a wide range of components that our clients have in their infrastructure.
Usually, these requirements have to be addressed quickly, so us being able to quickly modify existing powerpacks or develop our own is crucial to success.
We have built an integration between ScienceLogic and our NCCM system (Network Configuration & Compliance Management).
This integration automates the addition of newly discovered devices to a scheduled backup, and allows for generating EM7 events when, for instance, backups are failed. The integration also allows quick links from a device in one of the systems to the same device in the other.
We also use the ScienceLogic REST API to pull configuration information and transfer this information to other internal systems.
This integration automates the addition of newly discovered devices to a scheduled backup, and allows for generating EM7 events when, for instance, backups are failed. The integration also allows quick links from a device in one of the systems to the same device in the other.
We also use the ScienceLogic REST API to pull configuration information and transfer this information to other internal systems.
- We have been able to build custom Dynamic Applications to collect data from proprietary systems.
- We have created an application to automatically link WLC controlled APs to the physical switches they are connected to, leveraging the already collected CDP information from both the WLC and the switches. This enables the intelligent suppression of events from the APs when the switch they are connected to goes down.
- We have built a custom DA to monitor our NCCM system, alerting us when subcomponents of the system become unavailable
- ScienceLogic has brought down the time used to manage the monitoring platform. All patching and device managements being done through one central interface
- Has allowed us to eliminate multiple other monitoring tools and consolidate in one
We chose ScienceLogic over PRTG due to:
- The ability to handle multiple clients in the same instance.
- The ability to scale to a very larger number of monitored devices.
- The ability to be customized to monitor all kinds of device types.
- The ability to do advanced reporting of metrics.
- Having an open and extensive API.
- The ease of management of the system itself w. regards to patching/upgrades and change in configurations.