Which is the better interface to monitor?

Question

Hey all, I'm starting to get a good feel for my Orion NPM but I have a question regarding interfaces. Should I monitor the interfaces on the servers themselves or should I monitor the ports on the switches where the servers are plugged in? I was going to monitor the switch interfaces but I have TEAMed NICs in my servers so that's two switch ports to one logical NIC on the servers. Any ideas? Suggestions? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Joe B

Hey SolarWinds guys & gals, have you considered "pooling" Nodes, Interfaces and Volumes? Rather than limiting me to 100 Nodes, 100 Interfaces and 100 Volumes how about 25 Nodes, 200 interfaces and 75 Volumes? They both come out to 300 items monitored. Thanks!

jbruyet · Answer

Hmmm...

You make a good point about looking for "chatty" NICs on the network. If I'm monitoring interfaces on the server side of things I'd have an easier time finding out who the guilty party is.

Thanks,

Joe B

netlogix · Answer

I hope I'm not right, but I think if you upgrade to 10.x, you will need the SL250 (55 + 64 + 95 = 214) and then you will only have 36 more elements to add.

But if we get back to where you started - on the switch or server, well, that's a hard question, the errors counters could be different depending on if it's a transmit or receive error.  A full picture would require both, but for licensing purposes, you would want to only choose one.  So I don't want to say which one is better.

I am currently using the OS ones, except for my ESXi server because I can't poll those through the OS, only on the switch.  Plus if I am trying to see who is chatting it up on the network, it's easier to use the OS one because I won't have to back-track it to which server is on the switch port.

jbruyet · Answer

Yep, the SL100 license is restricting me to 100 elements per. Here's the message I received when I tried to add some switch ports:

============================================

You have selected to import more interfaces than you license allows.

You are licensed for 100 interfaces.                                         You have selected to import 5 interfaces over the limit allowed by your license.                                    To correct this error, go back and choose fewer interfaces to add,  unmanage currently managed interfaces,  or  purchase a different license.

============================================

I'm at 95 interfaces and I tried to add 10 more. I'm at 55 nodes and 64 volumes so I'm way under 300. I even looked into bumping up to SL250 but my budget won't support that.

Thanks,

Joe B