Looking for a network monitoring software, need your advice

gomcse2002

Hi to all

I am working for a small project for my boss and we are now looking for a user friendly network monitoring software to create alert if the server(s) are down etc. We need to monitor 20-30 servers without our network / domain.

We prefer the software does not need to be installed on any of our servers and the software application must be user friendly adn not resource / memory intensive.

Any suggestions ?

Please kindly advise ASAP.

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Comments

RTmarc

I was going to suggest MOM but if you can't install it on any of the servers I'm not sure what to tell you. I haven't looked but SpiceWorks might have some type of alerting tool included. I don't know for sure. If you can install it on a server then MOM is by far the way to go. We use it in my company for servers and SolarWinds for network equipment.

BeaverC32

We use Mercury SiteScope for agentless monitoring. The amount of different things you can monitor is amazing!

blargoe

You can do agentless monitoring with MOM too, though I've always used the agent myself. They have a workgroup edition that is for smaller networks.

sprkymrk

Check out GFI Server Monitor:
http://www.gfi.com/nsm/

Or you could use IP Monitor:
http://www.ipmonitor.com/default.aspx

Or if you're feeling linux-y and open source-ish, try Nagios:
http://www.nagios.org/

larkspur

what about what's up gold?

check out OpenNMS, installs on i386.

seuss_ssues

nagios is good stuff

it does take some time to setup and would probably be a steep learning curve for someone not familiar with linux......but you can do ALOT of stuff with it .... ohh yeah and its free.

Ahriakin

Hyperic (www.hyperic.com) has a native Windows install. You could monitor SNMP without an agent but it does have an installable one (pretty light, Java based) that yields more detail. Free and very easy to setup if you don't have the time or Linux chops to go with Nagios. You can read the install and basic config instructions and setup your server within 30 mins of first touching it, then allow about 2 mins. per machine if you decide to go with the agent.

MishaZorin

For different purposes I use Nagios or NetWiev

phreak

If you want to go the Nagios route, try CactiEZ.

Full blown monitoring distro. It'll provide pretty graphs from netflow, and nagios can be configured (its part of the install) so you can monitor hosts. I track 200+ devices with CactiEZ/Nagios and it works great.

sprkymrk

sprkymrk wrote:

Check out GFI Server Monitor:
http://www.gfi.com/nsm/

After dealing with their very poor tech support the last week or two I retract my endorsement of this software.

No toll-free tech support number. Live Support chat on website always states "No one is available". Email support takes from several hours to more than a full business day for replies. Support costs 20% (of purchase price) for annual maintenance and all you get is slow email support.
Not saying the techs are sub-par, just impossible to get a problem resolved in under a week.

hypnotoad

I've been evaluating monitoring for a while for a large network...here is what I've found.

SolarWinds Orion is very cool, but expensive. It is primarily for SNMP -- so it's focused for uptime and bandwidth.

Paessler is a pretty amazing set of products. Overall, it is my favorite. Paessler IPCheck will use SNMP or Pings to check server status. It can also check ports (i.e. is DNS running?) More advanced settings can be used if you install an agent. Paessler Rotuer Traffic Grapher will use SNMP or Pings to check as well. It is more designed towards monitoring bandwidth. Both products will alert you if thresholds are exceeded. They are not free, but they are probably affordable.

Cacti or Nagios are the defacto-standards for Linux-based monitoring. Both are free and have web interfaces. They do SNMP monitoring and are geared around bandwidth usage. The only reason I don't use them is because I don't want a web interface. Both of them have a LiveCD and VMWare appliances available -- just google for them.

GFI is ok. We have GFI set up to monitor what services are running (on our Exchange server, for instance), monitor group membership (so if someone figures out a way to drop themselves in to Domain Admins, it will notify), and that switches are pingable. It basically monitor anything you can throw at it -- from SNMP monitors, to pings, to WMI-based (for checking disk space, cpu usage, etc) and can even execute scripts to do more advanced features like verify group membership.

jamesp1983

I second GFI

theseman

We have a server running IPcheck software here. It has various sensors that it can monitor (service, ping, file size, WMI sensors, etc).

-Travis

gwenz

Have you evaluated any of the Microsoft products?

WSUS is a free product

Essentials 2007 is for small and mid-size businesses

Operations Manager and Configuration Manager are for large organizations.

Gwen Zierdt
The Real World is Messy: Making Sense with Essentials 2007
http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/gzierdt/default.aspx

blargoe

Last company I worked used EventSentry, which is fairly highly regarded as well. Current company is using Operations Manager 2007, for the most part we're happy with it though the learning curve is HUGE.

mwgood

We are using a Nagios Virtual Machine Appliance.

Running on XP - built with Debian.

Works great so far, and takes only 15 minutes to install.

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/372