A great solution for getting all your network device configurations in one place for analysis and change management.
January 23, 2019
A great solution for getting all your network device configurations in one place for analysis and change management.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager
SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is used by the IT Department to maintain backups of the configurations of all of our switches. We have had switches go down, had unauthorized changes made to them, or had allegations that changes were made to them. Network Configuration Manager has helped us resolve all of these issues. The ability to compare configurations at different times on the same switch helps us to see when changes are being made to our network topology over time and gives us valuable historical information. It also gives us peace of mind that if a change is made, we always have a recent backup of the configuration to revert to, if necessary.
- Automatic backups of network switch configuration.
- Configuration comparison between switches or between time points on the same switch.
- Show mismatches between startup and running configurations on switches.
- Provides a repository of backups going back as long as desired.
- For larger configurations, loading the config for viewing can take significant time.
- Comparisons between configs can be slow to bring up.
- When we have replaced switches, using SolarWinds as our backup repository has saved time in that we have a network location where all configs can be found without requiring additional time to do this manually.
- When switches have died and been replaced, we don't have to spend a lot of time trying to recreate or reconstitute configs from snippets that staff has saved. We can go to the last backup that was made of the switch and use that as a base. Saves time and money.
- When potential job performance charges have been leveled, potentially implicating employees for making unauthorized changes, we have used NCM to prove that the charges were baseless in very little time, eliminating a potential time-wasting, acrimonious HR issue quickly.
When I took over my current position, we'd already purchased SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, but we were not using it. I can't, therefore, compare it with other tools, as the only thing I have to compare it to was our manual processes. When compared to any vendor-specific tools, however, I can say that if you have switches from multiple vendors, you really should simplify with a single tool to do everything you need.