Great network focused tools for semi-automated network troubleshooting
Updated May 27, 2021
Great network focused tools for semi-automated network troubleshooting
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with TotalView
TotalView is being used for network trend data for the specific purpose of troubleshooting. It is used exclusively by the team of network engineers to address problems. It allows senior level guys to gather data quickly for complex issues (otherwise gained from CLI as a manual process) and junior level guys to quickly assess basic issues and get direction from within the tool with explanations of issues and corrective actions.
Pros
- The setup is fast and easy - 500 devices in 20 minutes.
- The ability to go back a day or a week in time allows us to more easily troubleshoot the "what happened at 3 a.m. yesterday" question.
- It gives us easily accessible stats for checks and balances like device types, counts, models, serial number etc.
Cons
- Customization can be difficult to achieve - although well documented and support is willing to help.
- Some configuration steps are cumbersome but strides have been made to fix that in recent years.
- Automation and discovery of devices aren't the easiest to do, it is one of the short comings. While it is achievable it's not as up front as other tools
- There is certainly an increased saving of time when dealing with issues - troubleshooting time is at least 75% less for basic issues.
The three tools listed do different things with some similarities. For us the biggest need was data analysis, semi-automatic troubleshooting, and data gathering and topology mapping. TotalView hit the most of these in the price point we were looking for. Each tool has "extras," but we felt that the extras provided by TotalView were good enough and that the other tools didn't justify the cost.
Comments
Please log in to join the conversation