Network Performance Monitor (NPM) VS other vendors

I have read many articles as to what different vendor’s software can do. I seem to be leaning towards solarwinds. However, the price difference for other vendors still makes them something to consider.

These are the 5 basic criteria for the software i would like to get.

1. Syslog

2. Netflow

3. "Real time" (not something my manager cares about)

4. Monitor Switches/routers (this is a networking project FIRST)

5. Monitor Ports on switches / routers (computers/servers eventually)

The three vendor’s software in question is NPM, whatsupgold, and Fluke Visual performance. Can someone give me some in site into these vendors’s software? Which one would be better for my needs? I have been through a lot of different software and these three are the ones i would like to stick with. Please stay on topic of these three vendors and not suggest a 4th party. Thanks!

Also, if there is any information you want from me, please ask and i will respond asap.

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byrona

Tesdall

Well, I can tell you that Orion NPM with the Netflow Traffic Analyzer will be able to do these things as you have stated them. It will also do a great job with the computers and servers as well, especially with the addition of the Application Performance Monitor (APM). If you are doing network stuff you might also take a look at SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, it is also a great product.

We recently (about a year ago) moved (kinda still in the process) to Orion as well. We use NPM, APM, and NCM with Additional Web Servers, an additional polling engine and a Hot Standby Polling engine. As part of our evaulation I also looked at Whatsupgold; can't make any statements toward Fluke as I have no experience with that one.

I found that Whatsupgold was much less flexible than Orion overall. Orion was a much more well rounded solution with a lot more customization options. Overall Orion felt much more like an Enterprise solution as compared to Whatsupgold.

I hope this information helps you!

byrona

I do highly recommend you download and install a trial version of Orion and test it out in your environment. Every product has quirks and a personality all it's own and you want to make sure it will work for you. If possible I would recommend doing this with each product that you are considering, this is what we did for our evaluation and I am very glad that I did.

ecklerwr1

I've been getting what I need from NPM (monitor switches/routers/a few servers) with NTA (netflow) plugin and for realtime stuff Engineer Toolkit.

Tesdall

Couple things to your post. First, the cost. Im trying to keep the project under 20K. With orion it is difficult as we are doing the SL2000 with netflow and a server put it at 21K. So, to add addiotnal modules would send me well over the price range where as whatsupgold is right around 10K and Fluke is around 25K.

Secondly i have tried to download the demo, but i couldn't get it install. I called the sales rep, who would then called his support tech. Who then never called me back.

Tesdall

Tesdall
Well, I can tell you that Orion NPM with the Netflow Traffic Analyzer will be able to do these things as you have stated them. It will also do a great job with the computers and servers as well, especially with the addition of the Application Performance Monitor (APM). If you are doing network stuff you might also take a look at SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, it is also a great product.
We recently (about a year ago) moved (kinda still in the process) to Orion as well. We use NPM, APM, and NCM with Additional Web Servers, an additional polling engine and a Hot Standby Polling engine. As part of our evaulation I also looked at Whatsupgold; can't make any statements toward Fluke as I have no experience with that one.
I found that Whatsupgold was much less flexible than Orion overall. Orion was a much more well rounded solution with a lot more customization options. Overall Orion felt much more like an Enterprise solution as compared to Whatsupgold.
I hope this information helps you!

I meant to quote you, sorry. New to the forums and all that jazz...

This information is all quite helpful, thank you.

Congo

Orion NPM and NTA can get you everything you listed. We are very happy with our purchase of NPM, 3 years ago.

We also own Fluke's Netflow Tracker and Visual Performance Manager (but not APA). We utilize this for our netflow needs instead of Orion's solution, as our traffic amount would crumble the performance that we have currently with NPM...so we keep these separate. Also Solarwind's NTA is not quite as granular or powerful as Fluke's NFT. You should demo each (we sure did) and see which one fits your environment. The effectiveness of NFT, VPM, and APA from Fluke is astounding. We have not seen anything as granular and in depth as these three tools combined, and with such ease of use. However, the cost of all 3 is quite substantial too. We are working our way towards APA as well.

Tesdall

Orion NPM and NTA can get you everything you listed. We are very happy with our purchase of NPM, 3 years ago.
We also own Fluke's Netflow Tracker and Visual Performance Manager (but not APA). We utilize this for our netflow needs instead of Orion's solution, as our traffic amount would crumble the performance that we have currently with NPM...so we keep these separate. Also Solarwind's NTA is not quite as granular or powerful as Fluke's NFT. You should demo each (we sure did) and see which one fits your environment. The effectiveness of NFT, VPM, and APA from Fluke is astounding. We have not seen anything as granular and in depth as these three tools combined, and with such ease of use. However, the cost of all 3 is quite substantial too. We are working our way towards APA as well.

We have a weird wan setup which is all monitored by AT&T. They said they could turn on netflow and dump it to a netflow product. That being said, we have 15 wan sites and around 630 ports total. Since the main WAN links are monitored by AT&T we are looking at LAN devices at the locations. Thus, i don't think our traffic is going to do an "crumbling" of anything.

Congo

We have a weird wan setup which is all monitored by AT&T. They said they could turn on netflow and dump it to a netflow product. That being said, we have 15 wan sites and around 630 ports total. Since the main WAN links are monitored by AT&T we are looking at LAN devices at the locations. Thus, i don't think our traffic is going to do an "crumbling" of anything.

In that case (and looking at your budget) NTA might be your best choice. As a service provider doing ~2.2Gbps of traffic...we had no choice but go with Fluke.

Tesdall

We have a weird wan setup which is all monitored by AT&T. They said they could turn on netflow and dump it to a netflow product. That being said, we have 15 wan sites and around 630 ports total. Since the main WAN links are monitored by AT&T we are looking at LAN devices at the locations. Thus, i don't think our traffic is going to do an "crumbling" of anything.

In that case (and looking at your budget) NTA might be your best choice. As a service provider doing ~2.2Gbps of traffic...we had no choice but go with Fluke.

They should both do the same thing, monitor netflow. How does Fluke beat out Solarwinds?