Item: ScienceLogic SL1
Rating: 9
Author: Tony Sheen

Overall Satisfaction with ScienceLogic SL1

Implementation Rating

As first time developers, getting to grips with powerpack development using SNMP, Powershell and Python etc, was not helped by poor and badly organised online documentation. In many cases, we had to look at existing powerpacks and try to work out what it was doing and why - not always with much success. Even after receiving expert level training, the development of some powerpacks would not have been possible without access to the SL1 support staff.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Used in our own organisation and deployed on customer estates, It provides a uniform way of computer estate monitoring and capacity and asset management,

Deployment

On-Premise Only

Pros and Cons

Pros

Easy to configure for monitoring devices of the same make and model.
Straightforward to develop powerpacks for new or updated devices.
Easy to configure for setting alerts on devices and device models.
Easy to create dashboards for device or service monitoring.

Cons

Creating powerpacks from scratch for new devices may be straightforward but will rarely be easy. Rewarding when completed, but not easy.
Developer documentation needs a rethink. While the information may be there (it isn't always) it is not easy to find. This is not helped by using different terms for the same things.
A developer console/dashboard for monitoring data collection from powerpacks instances without having to switch webpages or have to monitor multiple webpages.

Key Insights

Do you think ScienceLogic SL1 delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ScienceLogic SL1's feature set?

Yes

Did ScienceLogic SL1 live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of ScienceLogic SL1 go as expected?

Would you buy ScienceLogic SL1 again?

Yes

Return on Investment

Once a powerpack is developed and configured for a device for one customer, it is easy to deploy the same powerpack on a second customer estate and configure specifically for that customer without having to reinvent the powerpack. This saves time and therefore money.
Once the customer estate tuning is complete, the Operations team have come trust the alerts. This is especially true when transient or self-correcting alerts are automatically cleared without ops team involvement, but a record is still available for audit and debugging purposes. This saves time and therefore money.
When setup correctly, it provides good visibility into applications, devices and whole customer estates. This saves time and therefore money when issues arise.

Infrastructure Visibility Rating

Alternatives Considered

I have not used other products recently. The last I used was HP Insight Manager back in the 1990's.

Other Software Used

GitHub, Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Likelihood to Recommend

Before starting anything in the dashboards and indeed in the data collection, careful thought, design and planning is essential before starting. All that effort is worthwhile as developing powerpacks and dashboards is then much clearer and straightforward.
1. When we needed to monitor an application that comprised of several devices and network components, it was easy to set this up and, after a little training, easy for the operations team to use it.
2. When we needed to monitor part of a cloud it was not so easy to configure, but once that was done, it was very easy to use for the operations team as it followed the same style as the application monitoring.

Comments

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Kyra Ecker
(Vendor Representative) commented a year ago
Tony - thank you so much for your feedback and for recommended steps on careful thought in design and planning. We appreciate you taking the time to inform others!

Useful all round monitoring tool