SolarWinds NPM Reviews

The features I find most valuable are--

• Reliability
• Security
• High-tech development
• Collateral
• Essentially they deliver what they promise for the end-user

We use it to create guides for end-users. We install SolarWinds on cloned virtual machines and offer free access to partners of my company.

I've used it for four years.

I had a customer who had a problem adding to a database for DAP-end integration with Orion. Simple details were needed to resolve with correct passwords and the release of ports on a firewall. Also, a deployment problem was failing in some versions of Windows and Meso. After all updates were performed, the Orion installation package did not work. We restarted it and worked.

I have no problems with the support of SolarWinds. When my client has a problem, our support always uses the documentation immediately. As we also have a lot of training and always test a lot of tools in our environment, when the client asks for something we know exactly where to go. Our SLA is five minutes for the first call, and to solve problems one-and-a-half hours.

We did, and we switched because the interface is more user friendly and easier to configure.

It's very simple. Anyone can install and configure SolarWinds with a step-by-step guide, even if that person is a layman when it comes to IT.

We used a vendor team.

It's the best of platform for IT management. It shows statistical data in a very detailed manner, where the user can customize the entire platform and input any information from the database through a fully-customized report.

CRC monitoring for each port is a valuable feature for us.

Today, the webapps are getting worse for showing all items. Sometimes your browser will not respond.

My recommendation is to create separate console-based applications, especially for network operation centers.

The security information and event management could be improved.

I used it for five months, then removed it from my system.

I had issues with the SQL database, and I would suggest they add MySQL.

There was slow performance after adding 100 devices with 400-500 elements with 10 second interval pooling.

There were issues with scaling it.

0/10 as there were no knowledge base articles when I used it, and every new patch required customer login to apply.

The product I am still using, PRTG, was very simple, so I never had experience with technical support.

I am still using PRTG.

Initial setup was a simple process.

I worked with the partner, and honestly, we did not require any support after the initial installation.

For small customers, it's good.

• PRTG
• Nagios

They should change the database and OS.

Alerts, reports, overview of network, graphical picture of WAN for support team, port level visibility, and ease of use.

By finding out about problems or potential problems quickly and having a great view of my entire network.

The admin web site could be a lot faster.

8 years

No issues encountered.

Yes, but that was due to using just a recommend server size. Moved to a better server and all was well.

Yes, the more items I added the slower it became. But this was corrected once I split the servers apart. I had NPM and NCM on the same server.

10 out of 10

Any time I contacted support they were knowledgeable and fast.

No other solution used before, but looked at many.

Pretty straight forward if you know your environment.

In-house implementation.

I never put a dollar amount on it, but it sure saved me some big heartaches!

Setup cost and ongoing was just my time.

Yes, HP, Nagios, Cisco, Spiceworks, GFI, and Manage Engine.

SolarWinds makes a great product and their support is second to none! They continue to acquire/develop new software that rolls in nicely with their entire solution.

It gives us an insight on what we need to monitor on our network. We get granulated data on where issues are occurring in regards to traffic latency and bandwidth utilization. Also we can monitor the health and functionality of our nodes on the MPLS.

Both the NPM and the NTA modules. We are able to track down information in regards what kind of traffic is being generated on our network and also help us determine what applications we can allow and what not to allow.

We were able to determine if end users were using the network to do work related stuff or otherwise and reduce bandwidth hogging for non-business related activities on the network.

So far I am satisfied with the result but I am still learning how it works.

One year

No it was very straight forward. You have understand the concept of networking to apply the tool. If you do then implementing it is easy. There were some version releases that had stability issues but the support team was very good at letting us know what we needed to do to fix the issues.

There were some version releases that had stability issues but the support team was very good at letting us know what we needed to do to fix the issues.

Scalability was not a problem. We only monitor nodes that matter most on the environment. This makes managing the environment easier. Less is more`

They have always been helpful when we needed support I have no complaint at all.

I would rate it at an 8 out of 10

We used network instruments. For what we were trying to accomplish it was not just doing it to the level we needed and it was not very straight forward to use either.

The initial set up was very straight forward. I think complication comes with differences in environment.

It was an in house implementation and I did it myself.

ROI on this has been fantastic. It was supposed to be a very expensive investment. We got a good deal and the product did not disappoint it has definitely help us dodge several bullets on several occasions.

Product including support was about $6000 but I would say for what its able to help us do its more than that.

Yes I was able to go through a whole bunch of options such as managed engine but I was not very impressed with the licensing scheme. Also most products were SAAS and we wanted independence and ownership over the product.

I would say understand your environment and what you want to see. Also know what you deem important to your business and policies that guide your network usage. Not everyone one would find this particular product to their liking but for those who want to get to the granular level of assessment this is definitely a product to look at.

Also they have now added a feature where the traditional style of setting up monitoring reports is no longer necessary. Initially you had to create complex alerting to know what happened at a particular time. Now you just have to filter by date and time and you can choose what network protocols to filter by to see what happened at a particular point and time in real time stats.

• Overall simplicity
• Solarwinds development of the product line

• It's provided us with a quicker turn around time for diagnosing and remedying a failure or issue
• The pre-built templates for Windows are outstanding
• If you're new, they tell you what the metrics mean and the possible solutions
• You can also modify baselines it to your environment.

It needs group views with performance metrics. They do certain ones well, but not filters to a custom group view.

I've used NPM and SAM for five years.

No issues encountered.

Data collection can be an issue so you have to maintain that accordingly.

None yet.

Customer service is pretty good.

Tier 3 is excellent they know how to repair a problem.

We had Openview for the network side but the cost forced us to switch and it has actually ended up better for us in the long term.

It's very straightforward and super easy to deploy, 15 minutes tops. It's documented well what you need, or there's an option you can do if you're on a limited budget. Also, the support engineers are always there to help with specific questions.

We implemented it in-house.

It paid for itself within six months, when compared to our previous solution.

We did not track it but it was less than four hours worth of total effort. Day to day cost of using the product US$273 given our current licensing model.

No other options evaluated.

Get the trial download to use its all the features for 30 days. Its automation/DevOps is outstanding for its software development kit.

• Polling
• Automatic ticket creation of server resources (CPU, Memory, Reboots etc.)

We can sometimes fix a problem before it is even recognized by our user community based on the thresholds we set up for various resources on a production server.

They could make the process of adding various devices easier and more intuitive.

I've used it for nine months.

No issues encountered.

It's very scalable and customizable.

They have good customer service.

They have good technical support.

I haven't used another solution like NPM before.

It's significant in my opinion.

You can and should put the not so obvious devices onto SolarWinds. An example would be a server's back-up power supply. Otherwise you won't realize when the back-up is not functioning until the main power supply goes down and it's too late at that point.

• Polling engines
• Alerts
• Backup configuration

Basically, it helps in monitoring the device status. It helps locate in which region the network is down so that we take immediate action to restore it.

All the software has room for improvement, nothing is perfect.

I've used it for about five to six years alongside NCM v7.0.2.

We do see issues, but not so many major ones.

No issues encountered yet.

At least an 8/10.

At least a 7/10.

We implemented with a mix of an in-house team and a vendor one.

If your infrastructure is big, and requires a good kind of reporting tool, then SolarWinds fulfills all these requirements.

• Real-time netflow data
• Highly customizable alerting & reporting
• Very large base of information, further customized by high compatibility with MIBs from many, many vendors, resulting in very customizable UnDPs

Being a global company with many highly-sensitive manufacturing lines and process control environments, SolarWinds consistently delivers real-time and accurate views into the deepest parts of our environment. Though my role is 100% network-side, SolarWinds has greatly benefited our team of systems-side admins as well.

Because SolarWinds is built upon a SQL database, some level of SQL query knowledge is necessary if one really wants to take customization of alerting/reporting to a deeper level. This is really difficult for someone who

1. Doesn't have the time to devote to this
2. Doesn't have a strong background in any sort of software development/coding

I've used it for three and a half years.

I was not around for the initial deployment, but I've been responsible for maintaining the environment over the last three and a half years, including product upgrades and migration(s) to new VMs.

At times, we've had trouble with lost data within the database. These were largely resolved by moving to a more stable database server. I don't recall any recent issues now that we're on 11.x.

Yes, but only due to our own willingness (or unwillingness) to deploy additional polling engines. We're actually researching this feasibility right now, so that we can support a greater number of devices globally while maintaining a centralized "pane of glass" for administration.

This is one area where SolarWinds can do better. Customer service, in terms of account renewals, and licensing, and so on, is very quota-based. They need to make their sales/transaction quotas, and that's about all that matters. They can be very pushy when it comes to the purchasing process. I think this is probably due to SolarWinds being THE solution for network/systems monitoring, and they know they have some level of a monopoly on the industry. SolarWinds is also not a cheap product -- it's very expensive under a CapEx consideration, and annual renewals are about 10-20% of the initial CapEx. So, it's not inexpensive.

This is also an area where SolarWinds could do a lot better. Every time I've opened a case, they agree to a screen-sharing session (GoToMeeting/WebEx, etc) as an absolute last-resort. Sending me KB articles and other suggestions is always the first three to four emails, until I can formally get them to agree to take a look "in-person". I greatly enjoy working with Cisco TAC mainly because of their complete willingness to dive head-first into the issue by STARTING with a screen-sharing session. It gives me, as a customer and end-user, a much greater appreciation for Cisco's interest in resolving the issues, and making sure our production-affecting problems are no longer present.

In-house implementation.

As far as I know, SolarWinds was really the only option at the time.

It was an in-house implementation.

As far as I know, SolarWinds was really the only option at the time.

Don't assume SolarWinds is the right choice. Evaluate LOTS of other alternatives. These days, SevOne is a very promising competitor. But if you choose SolarWinds, dive into it as deeply as you can. Take advantage of their free online classroom training sessions (it's thousands of dollars for you to pay for from a third-party training vendor).