Solarwinds 8.1.7 versus Freeware NMIS version 4.2.4

Question

I have Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor version 8.1.7 that is being used to monitor about 200 Cisco routers and switches, 25 Checkpoint Secureplatform firewalls, 10 Juniper 5GT firewalls, 10 Cisco CSS/ACE load balancers and about 500 Windows, Solaris and Linux Servers.  This Solarwinds box is running on a Windows 2003 Enterprise Server Service Pack 2 with MS SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 and Solarwind version 8.1.7.  The Server is an IBM x3650 dual processors/quad-core 3.16Ghz with 12GB of RAM.  I modified the settings on the Windows box so that it can see all 12GB RAM.  The Harddrive is RAID-5 SAS-drive 15k RPM 1.8TB.

The issue I have with Solarwinds NPM is that it is very slow.  Accessing through the web page is extremely slow, sometimes it takes about 5 minutes just to load up the whole page.

The other issue I have with Solarwinds is that when it pulls the data from the device via SNMP, it does not show any IP addresses of the devices on the interfaces.  For example, let say I have a Checkpoint firewalls with 20 interfaces, Solarwinds does not show me the IP addrresses associated with these interfaces.  That makes tracking down which interfaces associate with particular IP addresses difficult.

Another issue with Solarwind is is customization of grouping devices and creating my own group(s).  For example, I would like to create my own group like DCA, LAX, DFW, etc...  I can not do this with Solarwinds at the moment.

I just recently built an NMIS box version 4.2.2 and it seems to run much faster than Solarwinds on the same hardware and can resolve the issue I mentioned above.

My support contract with Solarwinds will run out in about 30 days.  I am debating whether I should renew the contract.  Does the new version of Solarwinds solve those issues listed above?  Thanks.

netmonguy

KCWayner · Answer

netmonguy,

Yes, it is possible.  You can use the location field of the node (or create a custom field) to enter dca, lax and dfw.  Then you can group on the web page by that field.  That is how I have mine grouped.  It won't automatically divide those out by node name.  An easy way to enter the field is under Node Management you can have it sorted by Node Name, check all the boxes with the desired start of the name such as dca and then click edit.  This will bring up those fields and once you have the field entered, it will save that on all nodes checked.  Do this process again for all the other locations and it should be a snap.

KCWayner

netmonguy · Answer

I guess what I am trying to do is the follow:

Let say I create ten devices call dca-fw-1, dca-fw-2, dca-linux-1, lax-vpn-1, lax-fw-a, dfw-fw-a, dfw-vpn-a, dfw-win2k3-a, df2-solaris-hr

Now I want to create three groups call dca, lax and dfw.  Under group dca, I want to add all devices begins with dca.  Under group lax, I want to add all devices begin with lax.  Same thing for dfw.

Is that possible?  Thanks.

KCWayner · Answer

Here is a peek at our page for grouping.