SolarWinds NCM: One Year Later
May 29, 2019
SolarWinds NCM: One Year Later
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager
We use SolarWinds Network Configuration manager as an aspect of our change control process and for configuration backups for all our key equipment that runs our NOC and DC, our metro-network, and equipment we manage for our customers. Our network team are the primary users of the network configuration manager, our team not only appreciates it for the reliable backups and wide range of supported equipment but also the built-in easy to use diff tool. Our team can easily run a change report or do a full config comparison. NCM also includes real-time change detection which is very easy to configure. When we chose NCM, we were looking for a unified approach to our network monitoring, management, and alerting. It replaced some servers that although they served our organization well over the years, we had simply outgrown and the complexity to maintain so many separate systems had us searching for an alternative that could do the job of all our previous systems. We found SolarWinds NCM and NPM to meet all our requirements and has been an excellent investment that has proven its value to us since its deployment.
- Configuration Backups, real-time change detection, and config diffs work extremely well with a wide range of supported vendors which was a must for us.
- The reporting features and the scheduled tasks are great and take a significant amount of manual work out our processes.
- The change control feature is nice to have and fit well into our existing change control process.
- The SolarWinds community (THWACK) is an active and helpful community with contributions from other SolarWinds users and Solarwinds staff. We all have questions about the products we purchase and it's extremely convenient when the answer is only a search or a forum post away.
- SolarWinds provides all sorts of online training for their products.
- One of its big selling points is that it can pull a configuration backup from just about anything, and although that remains true, some devices can be difficult to add. These are usually somewhat obscure devices or they have odd cli behavior. Not a deal breaker by any means, but it would be nice if some of those devices also worked out-of-the-box like most everything else.
- Not really a con, but I do wish it supported additional authentication methods for users.
- Instead of maintaining many different systems, each with their own task, we have been able to move all our network monitoring and management to a unified platform saving time and reducing complexity.
- Automated tasks, as well as reporting, has also been a time saver, compiling reports for management and providing them with valuable information quickly, where-as previously some of these reports were compiled manually,
- It has reduced our effort to perform diffs and detect changes in our network.
Intermapper is a fine product but one that we felt that we outgrew.
It is a very reliable product that we have used for many years and provides excellent status and alerting but it is lacking in many of the features that SolarWinds is capable of providing. It's a simplistic product that does a few things but does them very well. Anyone looking for features comparable to other products might be left disappointed.
It is a very reliable product that we have used for many years and provides excellent status and alerting but it is lacking in many of the features that SolarWinds is capable of providing. It's a simplistic product that does a few things but does them very well. Anyone looking for features comparable to other products might be left disappointed.
PRTG
Network Monitor came very close to what we were looking for since it
was feature packed. Ultimately the only things it had going against it
was its user interface felt slightly more cumbersome to use and the lack
of configuration, backup was a hard requirement for us.
Network Monitor came very close to what we were looking for since it
was feature packed. Ultimately the only things it had going against it
was its user interface felt slightly more cumbersome to use and the lack
of configuration, backup was a hard requirement for us.
ThousandEyes
is a very cool product and any organization with complex routing will love it. Our networks aren't particularly complex and with the lack of configuration management, we didn't pursue this further.
is a very cool product and any organization with complex routing will love it. Our networks aren't particularly complex and with the lack of configuration management, we didn't pursue this further.
Nagios
and other opensource tools we also considered such as Observium or its fork LibreNMS (which we had deployed at the time) all fell short in some aspect. Nagios is feature filled and was also a compelling option, but the common theme for all the open source products we tested, fell short in ease of configuration compared to NCM. We still have LibreNMS deployed although focus has been shifted off of LibreNMS. LibreNMS is a
fork of Observium with an excellent community and compelling feature set.
and other opensource tools we also considered such as Observium or its fork LibreNMS (which we had deployed at the time) all fell short in some aspect. Nagios is feature filled and was also a compelling option, but the common theme for all the open source products we tested, fell short in ease of configuration compared to NCM. We still have LibreNMS deployed although focus has been shifted off of LibreNMS. LibreNMS is a
fork of Observium with an excellent community and compelling feature set.