Network Management Advice

[igolo]

Can someone point me in the direction to find network management solutions. We have 23 servers in the corp. offices, 150 workstations, 120 stores nationwide with 1-server and 4-workstations in each store. I would like to build a NOC so that we can monitor critical information about the servers and routers at a minimum. Basically I'd like to be able monitor up/down status, services, drive and memory utilization. I've look at some of the major players, but they are to expensive and have way more features than we need.

Any advice would be appricieated
Mike

 

[scottcsherman]

Take a look at MRTG.. It can do what you describe and the price is right (FREE).. Check out

http://www.mrtg.org/

or

MRTG for Dummies

http://www.netmon.org/mrtg/dummies/default.htm

Scott
scott@shermanusa.com

 

[splatbang]

There are several solutions but don't know what your budget is so I don't how affordable they are that you may want to check out. Give them a look if you haven't.

http://www.tivoli.com

http://www.platform.com

Feel free to contact me directly if you wish to discuss this offline at splatbang00@yahoo.com.

Good luck.
sb

 

[djwaddell]

Have a look at SNMP solutions. These tend to be quite cheap and you might find one that fits exactly what you're looking for. Take a look at

http://www.snmp.co.uk

for examples, but these are by no means the only ones. Some are even free....

 

[johnny99]

I would look into SiteScope from

http://www.freshwater.com

This tool is easy to set up, has a lot of features and you will love. It's also very easy implement new stuff to monitor.

 

[OpenViewMike]

Like some have already said, there are quite a few different ways to take care of your enterprise management issues. The solution that is normally put into place first has nothing to do with performance and capacity planning, though, and that is what MRTG provides and only to specific devices out-of-the-box. Administration is time-consuming, especially if servers are to be managed via MRTG.

So, go with a enterprise-class network management solution first, such as HP/OpenView Network Node Manager (NNM), which has a stranglehold on this area, and has been #1 best-of-class for about 15 years, now. Manage all of your routers and switches first, and make sure that you use a notification tool, like Vytek Wireless' aquisition of the (formerly known as) Telamon TelAlert, which integrates seamlessly with NNM, so that when critical outages are perceived, the correct personnel are escalated to via SMTP e-mail and/or page via modem.

What next?

Michael Stoller
CEO/Senior Systems Engineer
EHI-INSM Inc.
michael.stoller@ehiinsm.com

http://www.ehiinsm.com

818-708-3660
818-516-0570 {Mobile}

 

[djwaddell]

I'd agree that for what you're looking to monitor, Tivoli and BMC Patrol are a bit over the top. I've seen something of SiteScope and am pretty impressed. BUT - the guys here use "nagios" which is free.

Take a look -

http://www.nagios.org

I'd be interested in any unbiased views/experiences from anyone reviewing or using tools at this end of the marketplace.

 

[sathisht]

try

http://adventnet.com/products/webnms/index.html