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Solarwinds NPM vs UDT

rosemaruq53 over 3 years ago

Hi all,

We are budgeting for Solarwinds config manager and the network performance monitor for alerting / monitoring. I have a question about NPM and its ability to perform basic searches, like where is this IP and on what port / vlan is it? I am not sure how clunky the interface is.

Do we need to get a 3rd tool like user device tracker or the switch port mapping tool to perform these basic functions? Will NPM be able to search the whole network for a specific mac address or IP and report what port and building and switch that it is in (with relative ease)?

Sorry, we are in the middle of a few projects so I will not be able to trial for a few weeks. Just looking to get a little input.

Thank you!

0 stuartd over 3 years ago

We don't use UDT but I sometimes wish we did. However via the use of NPM, NCM and reports, we have replicated most, if not all functionality that we need. At this stage.
On a basic level, you can use custom properties and then use the out of the box widget 'search for nodes' to do just this. So, we have the widget on our home page, and it has a dropdown option which uses some default details like IP, node name, etc and then the rest are our custom properties. But this will only search for known data and or data input into CPs. It won't find a user MAC.
One thing UDT gives, I believe, is visibility into every interface. NPM will only let you see what you monitor. So if you don't have an unlimited license and don't care about knowing when User X turns off their machine each day then you won't monitor all ports. This then loses certain visibility - such as is it live, what's connected, etc. So no, NPM as is won't give you a user MAC Address and where it is seen, if that's what you are after?
But with skill (that I don't yet have) a search can also be scripted by the use of SWQL and a report or a PowerShell script. Alternatively you could create a 'job' that logs on and runs the commands you need to find the MAC. I also believe, with every NPM install you get a full copy of the Engineers Toolkit which has a standalone MAC Address Finder - I've not used that but it may do what you need.
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