Network Configuration Management Made Easy with Solarwinds NCM
January 20, 2022
Network Configuration Management Made Easy with Solarwinds NCM
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)
We use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) at our core and distribution to track configuration changes, since it's a module for Orion it provides a single pane of glass for the team. We have real-time configuration change monitoring enabled for the equipment with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) enabled so once a change has been made we have a record of the change and can easily revert changes from SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) or do a comparison if needed. Previously we had used other products but the setup was more difficult and not all equipment was easily supported whereas SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) has support for a majority of the devices we use out of the box without any additional configuration or customization, although that is an option if needed.
- Keeping previous configurations
- Tracking configuration changes
- Configuration reporting
- Real-time configuration change tracking via trap notifications
- For our use case, it does everything great and some of the features we underutilize but I would like to be able to set a configuration baseline when initially adding a node instead of after the configuration is pulled but it's not a particularly big deal to let it pull the configuration then set it as the baseline.
- Reduced labor when replacing failed equipment, we always have the latest configuration as well as previous configurations readily available. Saves us from needing to rewrite configurations.
- Reduced labor for adding devices for configuration tracking. SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) just works and doesn't require much input from the team to continue operating and pulling configurations for new or existing nodes.
- Pushing out firmware updates to network devices is incredibly simple using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) which also saves significantly on labor since we can do all nodes from a single location.
- SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) replaced a variety of other tools that our engineers would use, so instead of managing and configuring each tool only one needs to be configured and maintained.
We had previously used cattools and rancid for configuration management. Cattools is another Solarwinds product but one that we outgrew and doesn't integrate with the Orion platform like SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) does. Rancid it seems a lot of engineers are familiar with and is suitable for some use cases but its feature set is lacking when compared with NCM. Oxidized can be used standalone or with LibreNMS and works well for supported devices. Unfortunately, we came across a fair number of devices that it didn't support at the time so we moved on from Oxidized. Its also not as user-friendly to set up and maintain as NCM and also doesn't number of features as NCM. When paired with Librenms Oxidized I would rank this as our second-place pick. Depending on the environment and the organization this might be the first pick for some people. Ultimately for us, the Orion platform was the top pick because of its usability and available features.
Do you think SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM)'s feature set?
Yes
Did SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) again?
Yes