Cisco UCS Manager vs Icinga comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and Icinga are both solutions in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category. Cisco is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.8, while Icinga is ranked #50. Cisco holds a 1.4% mindshare in IM, compared to Icinga’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Icinga users who would recommend it.

Cisco UCS Manager

Read 27 Cisco UCS Manager reviews

5,370 Views
5,102 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Icinga

Read 17 Icinga reviews

7,834 Views
4,857 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco UCS Manager

Icinga

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Icinga and Cisco UCS Manager are competing products in IT infrastructure management. Icinga often has the upper hand in integration and cost due to its flexible pricing, while Cisco UCS excels in functionality and resource management.

Features: Icinga provides flexible pricing and extensive monitoring capabilities with seamless integration into various IT ecosystems. It features a modular design for enhanced adaptability and supports a wide range of plugins for increased monitoring scope. Cisco UCS Manager includes comprehensive server management with advanced hardware automation features and strong resource management capabilities within data center infrastructures. It also offers detailed monitoring of server components for optimized performance.

Room for Improvement: Icinga could enhance its user interface to be more intuitive for new users and improve its scalability for large enterprises. Documentation for advanced use cases could be expanded to better support complex environments. Cisco UCS Manager would benefit from a more simplified setup process and reducing complexity in its interface for non-expert users. Enhancing cross-compatibility with third-party systems would improve its integration capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Icinga is appreciated for straightforward deployment and integration into diverse IT environments, supported by a strong community. Cisco UCS Manager requires more involved setup but benefits from comprehensive customer service and documentation, offering strong support post-deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Icinga's cost-effective open-source model presents a lower initial setup cost, appealing to budget-conscious organizations aiming for high ROI. Cisco UCS Manager, while having higher initial costs, justifies it with significant ROI through improved efficiency and advanced capabilities in managing complex data center environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco UCS Manager vs. Icinga Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. Icinga

September 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 915,341 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS Manager

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

29th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Icinga

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

50th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (44th), Server Monitoring (17th), Cloud Monitoring Software (34th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the IT Infrastructure Monitoring category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS Manager is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Icinga is 1.3%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Infrastructure Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco UCS Manager	1.4%
Icinga	1.3%
Other	97.3%

IT Infrastructure Monitoring

Featured Reviews

Rob-Croxford

Consultant at rcnss

A market leader with an enhanced user interface for seamless experience

There is room for improvement in terms of cost and complexity to set up. It doesn't work straight out of the UCS, so someone who knows what they're doing is needed immediately, and it can be quite confusing. Some settings are still fairly well hidden, even the basic ones. Companies don't really understand how long it takes to set up. Also, when changes are pushed, it can take their phone line off the system for twenty minutes to half an hour. Out-of-the-box functionality is an issue, too. I know that my company is different, however, the basics are always the same. You do your tap lines, zip lines, and stuff like that, then you get your internal phone line system. That can all be automated and scripted, and it's probably part of the automation process. However, I haven't really seen it.

Read full review

reviewer2292201

Innovation Service Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have but average multi-tenancy aspect

It's supported by the community. We use Icinga, which is not part of the Open-Source platform but is wrapped into a commercial solution from another provider, a local provider in Italy. Icinga is an open-source platform, so it is supported by the community. It's quite easy to use, and it's possible to customize the product as per the needs we may have. So it's not expensive, and it's quite a general purpose. We can easily monitor any kind of infrastructure we encounter. The ability to customize scripts and build your own queries to request information from the infrastructure elements you want to monitor. This level of personalization and customization is highly appreciated. The alerting is the same as any other monitoring platform. It's not a "wow" feature that has changed our lives, but it's perfectly adequate.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Cisco UCS Manager is a very useful product for managing our entire ecosystem for Cisco products."

"The flexibility and the ease in which the features can be expanded are the solution's most valuable aspects."

"It is more robust than other solutions. So, the stability is good."

"It's robust."

"We can configure the Cisco UCS Manager, the profiles and interactions with the resource we manage."

"The solution is highly scalable, mainly because of the templates that make it easy for you to actually edit on the system."

"Usually, we are called by clients specifically about product suggestions, and I often personally recommend Cisco UCS because of the high availability."

"What I like most about Cisco UCS Manager is the ease of administration. It also allows the central management of maintenance, installation, and configuration activities."

More Cisco UCS Manager pros

"I would recommend Icinga; it's an open-source solution, it's quite easy and simple to use, and checks can be run with Python code and Shell Script code."

"Icinga2 was designed to delegate, distribute and balance tasks between several nodes."

"The most valuable feature is one that not many are even aware of, as Icinga has a self-healing event handler where if the service is down, it is automatically restarted, and you can configure the handler to take action after the critical alarm without human interaction."

"There's a module called Icinga Director, which helps us configure the product using an intuitive interface through clicks instead of creating a text configuration. It's very helpful for us."

"The value of Icinga is that it has hundreds of plugins, so it's really easy to monitor pretty much anything."

"It is really easy in Icinga to create your own plugin and integrate it without any fuss. And it works just perfectly fine."

"The drafts are easy but what I like about Icinga is that there are many add-ons that you can download."

"If you have a small infrastructure or a small number of devices that you want to monitor, then I think it's a good solution."

More Icinga pros

Cons

"The interface and the way it is constructed is very complex. They should work to simplify it."

"The automation within the solution needs to be simplified."

"I would like to see improved visibility into the operating system, enabling us to identify issues directly from the operating system itself."

"For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks."

"I found it a bit of a challenge to get training on UCSM. I've been trying to get that for some time now. I feel like I have to figure it out a lot of things myself. For years I've to log calls with support whenever I've got challenges that I cannot resolve. If I had some training or more manuals, I'd be better able to handle more things on my own."

"Improving functionalities similar to InterSite within UCS Manager would be beneficial."

"We faced issue with Nexus vem licensing issue which makes our complete DC went isolated in connect"

"The interface and the way it is constructed is very complex. They should work to simplify it. It's quite difficult for somebody who doesn't know the product very well. Users should be able to get proficient with it faster. There's definitely room for improvement there."

More Cisco UCS Manager cons

"One thing that Icinga lacks is the capability to create advanced and customized dashboards within the tool itself."

"There is room for improvement in multi-tenancy. It's not perfect, not even really good. It's average, but it should be improved."

"At this time, the layout of the website is a bit difficult. It should be more user-friendly for changing the background and logos."

"One of the areas that are frustrating is remote monitoring for more than one machine."

"I think the software is quite good, but we have had problems with getting it to recognize certain areas and amend certain checks, where we needed so we would have to create backend scripts for those checks. Though, being open source, it has the support to create backend scripts, it would be better to have these scripts in-built."

"Icinga’s automation could be improved."

"Sometimes, it is very hard to keep an overview of what's happening."

"The solution lacks many features important to higher-level IT management and network support."

More Icinga cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cisco UCS is more expensive than Dell and HP, but it is more reliable. I see less issues and it's quite stable."

"The pricing for Cisco UCS Manager is okay for its market, so it's a four out of five for me."

"With product discounts which can be negotiated, the product is a great value."

"You buy the hardware and then you get Cisco UCS Manager for free."

"Cisco UCS Manager’s annual licensing fee is expensive."

"We need to take a license for each port, which amounts to a big sum."

"It is cost-effective, and the return on investment can be very interesting because the price is low."

"The product is inexpensive compared to other DBM products."

"This is an open-source solution with paid support."

"It's an open-source solution."

"The solution is cheap."

"The solution is free to use."

"Even though Icinga's financial cost is low, it is an expensive product regarding the resources required to maintain and operate it."

"We're using the free version of Icinga."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Infrastructure Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

14%

Comms Service Provider

13%

University

12%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS Manager?

My experience with the pricing of Cisco UCS Manager ( /products/cisco-ucs-manager-reviews ) is that it is reasonable. Recently, we acquired an excellent bundle with significant discounts, with offe...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS Manager?

For improvements, while the current graphical user interface is satisfactory, it could be further simplified for different tasks. While it has been improved from using Java to HTML, simplifying the...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco UCS Manager?

Our primary use case involves working with Cisco UCS B-Series ( /products/cisco-ucs-b-series-reviews ), specifically the UCS X modular deployment. We are setting up a new deployment shortly.

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

Cisco Intersight vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 58% of the time

HPE OneView vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 4% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 4% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

Splunk Observability Cloud vs Cisco UCS Manager

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco UCS Manager Competitors

Zabbix vs Icinga

Compared 8% of the time

Checkmk vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

Nagios XI vs Icinga

Compared 5% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs Icinga

Compared 4% of the time

Nagios Core vs Icinga

Compared 3% of the time

More Icinga Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager

October 2026

Download Cisco UCS Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Icinga

September 2026

Download Icinga product report

Also Known As

No data available

Icinga Cloud Monitoring

Overview

Cisco UCS Manager enables streamlined operations through unified storage, networking, and computing management, offering enhanced reliability and flexibility.

Cisco UCS Manager provides enhanced management capabilities for infrastructures, simplifying server deployment and operations. Its user-friendly interface aids in easy configuration and visibility, including robust reporting. UCS Manager supports efficient firmware and OS updates for large deployments, ensuring smooth operations across physical and virtual environments.

What key features does Cisco UCS Manager offer?

Hardware Profile Association: Ensures seamless hardware configurations.
Unified Management: Centralizes control of storage, networking, and computing resources.
Service Profiles: Simplifies server deployment and management.
User-Friendly Dashboards: Provides intuitive interface and strong reporting.
High Availability: Facilitates resource expansion and stability.

What benefits are important when considering Cisco UCS Manager?

Operational Efficiency: Reduces downtime and enhances deployment speed.
Centralized Control: Streamlines management across blades and configurations.
Scalability: Supports mass deployments and expansion.
Visibility and Reporting: Improves infrastructure monitoring and analytics.

In industries managing extensive IT infrastructures, such as healthcare and finance, Cisco UCS Manager is crucial for optimizing server and network operations. It enables efficient creation of server profiles, integration with networking systems, and comprehensive monitoring, ensuring high availability and reduced setup time for complex environments.

Cisco

Icinga is a robust tool for monitoring IT infrastructure, known for its distributed monitoring capabilities and seamless integration with multiple platforms. It efficiently observes servers, network devices, and environments like Linux and Windows, enabling proactive issue identification and resource management.

With a focus on task delegation and clustering, Icinga offers an intuitive interface through its GUI and Icinga Director, simplifying configuration. The extensive plugin library supports diverse technologies, while the API allows automation with tools like Terraform and Ansible. Despite its strengths, users report challenges with data display in the GUI, a need for improved dashboards, and complex configuration processes. Users benefit from its SNMP alerts, email notifications, and automated incident handling, making it essential for managed service environments and enterprises.

What are the key features of Icinga?

Task Delegation: Streamlines monitoring tasks across distributed systems.
Event Handler: Enables automatic service recovery with minimal intervention.
Plugin Library: Offers extensive support for integrating diverse technologies.
API Accessibility: Facilitates automation with popular tools like Terraform.
Custom Plugins: Allows easy creation and personalization for monitoring needs.

What benefits should you consider in Icinga reviews?

Flexibility: Tailors monitoring to specific requirements with community support.
Scalability: Successfully manages growing infrastructure demands.
Proactivity: Enhances issue identification and resource allocation.
Integration: Seamlessly works with existing IT operations platforms.

Icinga is widely adopted in IT environments for monitoring servers, networks, and applications across industries such as finance, healthcare, and technology. Its ability to integrate with various operating systems and automation platforms makes it a versatile choice for industries prioritizing comprehensive surveillance and proactive management of their infrastructure.

Icinga

Sample Customers

Management Science Associates, Peak 10, Virtual Consulting Professionals

Puppet Labs, Audi, Spacex, Debian, Snapdeal, McGill, RIPE Network Coordination Centre

Buyer's Guide

Cisco UCS Manager vs. Icinga

September 2026

Free Report: Cisco UCS Manager vs. Icinga

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco UCS Manager vs. Icinga and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco UCS Manager vs. Icinga report.

See our list of best IT Infrastructure Monitoring vendors.

We monitor all IT Infrastructure Monitoring reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.