SolarWinds NPM Reviews

I work with multiple customers using NPM to monitor the performance and the vital status of network devices, making sure to take care of network security devices by monitoring them with NPM. NPM provides real-time data on the overall CPU and health of network boxes, which is helpful when needing to check specific devices. This includes the interface traffic and vital states of the devices.

NPM helps me by offering a comprehensive view of network device health, supporting the SMS gateway, which allows receiving SMS alerts on my mobile. It also supports Outlook for email alerts, API support, and meets several requirements for financial and ISP environments.

The most valuable feature is the vital states of the devices as it provides overall CPU and device health information. Interface traffic monitoring is also beneficial. NPM is user-friendly and supports the SMS gateway and Outlook for alerts, which are essential in financial and ISP environments.

It would be beneficial if NPM offered support for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), as currently, it does not support this and we are migrating our services there. Improving customer control for opening and escalating support tickets would also be advantageous.

I have been using NPM for almost seven to eight years.

Initially, there were some stability issues where SolarWinds NPM stopped working with the database, making it difficult to access the interface. However, it has improved and is now more stable.

Scalability is not an issue with NPM, and it is suitable for small, medium, and enterprise environments. It offers reliable scalability.

The current model requiring engagement through a local partner to escalate issues to SolarWinds takes time and could be improved. Customers should have direct access to open and prioritize tickets in the customer portal.

I have used OpManager and other solutions, but NPM provides accurate data and supports necessary integrations, making it a preferable choice.

The initial setup of NPM is simple and user-friendly, with presentable data and a user-friendly interface.

In Pakistan, the pricing for SolarWinds is high compared to other vendors. Despite this, customers are satisfied with the product because it meets their needs.

I evaluated competing products like Orion and OpManager, but choose NPM for its accuracy and features.

I recommend NPM if the customer has the budget for it, as it is a high-quality solution with comprehensive features.

I use SolarWinds NPM because no other tool has the capabilities that it does. The solution is user-friendly and has many options for customized monitoring that other tools don't have. SolarWinds NPM is an easy tool because it supports both servers and the network at the same time.

The solution's database performance could be improved. The data performance is a little slow and scattered for clients who use the solution for a bigger infrastructure. You can't keep a hold of one-year data if you want to because it doesn't give you the capacity to hold that much information at your end. You have to keep the retention period very minimal.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for seven years.

SolarWinds NPM is a stable solution.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

We currently use SolarWinds NPM for bigger clients, and I didn't see any problems with that. It totally depends on how many licenses you can purchase or afford. The solution has options for people with a small budget and enterprise businesses. It completely depends on the client's needs and budget.

Anyone can use the solution to monitor hundreds or thousands of servers in the network, as well as 10,000 to 30,000 servers. The number of servers it can monitor isn't limited.

I rate the solution’s scalability a seven out of ten.

The solution's technical support doesn't support any customization. If you want a customized script or a customized solution, they don't support that. Otherwise, the technical support team has really good and knowledgeable people.

Positive

The solution's initial setup is straightforward. You just need to know what you need and, accordingly, use the guide to set up proper hardware for your servers. It's a pretty straight installation, and it is not very complicated.

The solution's pricing is low compared to a lot of other tools in the market.

I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.

The solution's alerting system is fine. However, we face a few challenges that we can see in the alerting system that we cannot modify as per our needs. There are some restrictions, but SolarWinds is working on clarifying those challenges. Apart from that, it seems fine to me.

We are currently using the solution on-premises. However, you can also use it on the cloud as it has both options.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

I use NPM for traffic monitoring in my network. It monitors all my traffic.

It is good for notifications and monitoring traffic, especially since most of them are remotely done.

The abnormal traffic notifications are good. Most of them are remote, and it is very good for notifications and monitoring for the traffic.

The price could be better. The maintenance or upgrade system regarding the payment is not good. It must be upgraded and is not related to the additional support payment. 

Also, if I need to make a feature enabled, I have to buy another edition and include support, which is unnecessary for me.

I have been working with the product for six or seven years.

There are points where the system drops, and you need to restart or monitor the system itself. It is not a SaaS system; it is an on-premises system.

It is pretty scalable. I would rate scalability as eight out of ten, with no issues.

Customer service is linked to payments. If you do not have a license or renewal supported, it is not supported for you.

Positive

I also use Microsoft Defender as it is good. However, the user needs a license for any additional user in SolarWinds.

The initial setup is simple. Sometimes I do it by myself, yet at other times, I do it with a consultant from SolarWinds teams.

I did the setup with the help of SolarWinds teams at times and by myself at other times.

The price could be better, and the system has a payment structure linked with upgrades, which I find unnecessary.

I use Microsoft Defender at times due to licensing restrictions with SolarWinds.

I can recommend the product, especially for small or medium-sized companies.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Our company uses the solution to monitor NPM for 100 large accounts that typically have 40,000 interfaces. 

Basic monitoring includes CPU memory, errors, and interfaces. Advanced monitoring includes F5 load balancers, in-depth tunnels, and AP alarms. 

We also monitor CM for backup parts and integrate monitoring with Azure. 

The solution's interface is very user friendly and easy to navigate. We provide customers with access and they have no issues learning and exploring the solution. 

Monitoring capabilities are at a high level and it is easy to see utilization, access ports, and CPU memory in real time or through a lens for long-term visualization. 

The solution always includes new features in their releases. 

The solution needs to integrate with additional SDN technologies that are part of the hyper market. The solution supports many vendors by default and just included Meraki SDN with the new release, but continued expansion is important. We created a custom method to pair with unsupported vendors but that can produce a lag in performance so future releases should expand SDN support. 

The solution does a good job of automating features but could expand that even more. 

I have been using the solution for five years.

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable but dependent on appropriate licenses. 

We reach out to technical support when we need assistance with issues. 

I rate support a seven out of ten. 

Neutral

The initial setup has been made very easy over the last few years because all functions of the server become available on the solution's console upon installation. There is no longer a need to log in on the server side when performing routine tasks.

Deployment takes less than 30 minutes to run on a single machine if pre-requests, servers, databases, and ports are readied in advance. Errors or troubleshooting might add a bit of time to deployment. 

We implement the solution for our customers. Each of our technicians manages a group of 20 accounts for NPM and other services such as SAM, PM, NPA, and NTM for backup.

The pricing is based on a licensing model with bulk discounts offered annually. 

Licenses start with a low-cost option for 100 devices that runs between $2,000-$3,000. With 400 devices the cost is $4,000. With thousands of devices the cost can reach $50,000. 

All license levels come with technical support. Engineers are available to assist with challenges and there are no extra fees for that support. 

The solution provides comprehensive monitoring that includes proactive items such as advance notifications and engineer tickets for code breaks. This allows engineers to quickly resolve issues before major outages occur.  

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

SolarWinds NPM is used in our organization as a monitoring tool for network devices. As a network administrator, I use this solution to monitor devices like switches, routers, interfaces, and tunnels. 

The tool monitors tunnel utilization, interface status, UBS, data center humidity and temperature. 

It's a highly reliable product. SolarWinds NPM is one of our company's most valuable products. SolarWinds NPM immediately notifies via email in case of any downtime situations. 

The response time of the support team needs to improve. Sometimes, there is a wait time of three or four hours to obtain a response from SolarWinds NPM. The consistency of support also needs to improve, in some cases a quick response can be noticed from the support team of SolarWinds NPM. 

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for one and a half years. 

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. The solution is highly stable. SolarWinds NPM has showcased the utmost stability for one and a half years of usage in our company. 

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. SolarWinds NPM adapts well enough to the workflows in our company. The solution is used in our organization to monitor more than 200 nodes. At our company, we are already using the maximum user license of SolarWinds NPM.  

The customer support is satisfying for SolarWinds NPM. I would rate tech support a six out of ten. Quicker responses are expected from the support team. 

Neutral

I would rate the initial setup a nine out of ten. Our company team effortlessly deployed the solution. Only a few free resources, like YouTube, were utilized by our organization's professionals to learn the product installation process.

The deployment of SolarWinds NPM took one or two hours in our organization. After the primary installation of SolarWinds NPM, every node needs to be restarted, it takes time to add the nodes at the monitoring end. Only one or two professionals from our company were needed to deploy SolarWinds NPM. In the post-deployment monitoring, only one professional is required.  

The product was implemented in-house. 

We have realized ROI in terms of saved time in our organization. The product has also contributed towards ROI through accurate and reliable downtime alerts. For instance, the exact number of down switches is notified by email. I would rate the solution's ROI a ten out of ten. 

The product price can be considered to be affordable in economically strong countries like the US but it appears as a bit expensive in Egypt. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten. Our company pays for the license on a yearly basis. The price of the solution is fixed and can be checked by anyone on the vendor's website. 

I would definitely recommend the solution to others. SolarWinds NPM has also helped improve our organization's network performance. The alerting and reporting capabilities of the tool are impressive and can be customized easily. The alerts or reports can always be obtained via email. I would overall rate the solution a ten out of ten. 

We are using Solar NPM to send alerts to the NOC and SOC teams. Some reports are used for our network to link to the router for internet utilization. We are also monitoring wireless access points using SolarWinds. Our network, security and system teams use this solution and its dashboards. 

This solution offers a very good view of our network and allows us to effectively monitor performance.

The dashboards for this solution could be improved. We would like to divide the dashboards to give a clear view to our management team to show what we have and what deficiencies exist in our network. We would also like to show the number of devices which we need to improve our service.

I have been using this solution for ten years. 

It is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. A few months ago I had a problem with the number of nodes on the system itself. We have the SLX NPM license which is unlimited and I can add an unlimited number of nodes. It seems there was a limitation on the one server. When I contacted support, they told me that I either need to delete some nodes or add another server to scale.

Whenever I have a problem or I need to ask a question, I contact the SolarWinds support team. I would rate their support a four out of five. 

Our company decided to change to SolarWinds due to a security breach they experienced. Other solutions that were considered were more expensive than Solarwinds. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

To install the SolarWinds for the first time, you need a virtual machine to install the demo or trial version of SolarWinds. You can then add some devices, monitor and try to use whatever dashboards or reports you think you will need. Installing NPM itself and adding the nodes took us three months.

We implemented this solution in house with the help of a third party who were Solarwinds experts. 

We have seen a return on our investment using this solution. We are now working on a re-innovation project for the whole organization's network because our network is very old. Some vendors offered us a management solution for network performance monitoring but their devices offer the same functionality as SolarWinds. Based on what other solutions charge, the $700 we pay for this solution is fair. 

We pay approximately $700 per year for renewal of the license.

I would advise others to test the environment before deploying the whole solution.

I would rate Solarwinds an eight out of ten. I would give a higher rating if I could use root cause analysis to point to one device in the stack to understand which device has a problem. In general, I think SolarWinds is one of the most stable solutions and it has a lot of useful features for network performance monitoring.

SolarWinds NPM was used for everything. For interface monitoring, load balancing checking interface uptime and device status. 

We had the full suite of products, not just NPM.

It is simple to use.

It can be agentless.

The nice thing about SolarWinds is that it's kind of all-in-one. I can manage the status of my networking devices, whether they are up or down, I can see how much traffic is going across an interface, and I can run a report that tells me exactly what that traffic is.

Their IPAM component is severely lacking. The process is extremely manual. It just doesn't get in there if you don't manually enter it. 

It is not particularly DNS-aware. When it comes to DNS names, you pretty much have to configure everything manually. It will not grab anything on its own. 

They need to work on their automation and automatically discover devices. They are not very good at automatically discovering devices.

I am been using SolarWinds NPM for 15 years.

I believe that we are working with version nine.

SolarWinds NPM is a stable solution, aside from the fact that they had a major hack a couple of years ago and effectively allowed the Russian government to completely hack their code, making everyone vulnerable.

SolarWinds NPM is not very scalable.

We had 10 users.

There was only an IT engineer that was responsible for upgrading.

There was only one administrator. The rest were read-only.

Technical support is very good. You always got a live person.

The initial setup is straightforward. It is easy to set up.

The initial configuration is simple. Because, they did not use a backend SQL database, their initial setup was extremely simple. 

As they grew, they began to use SQL, which made things a little more complicated. 

It was extremely simple at first.

It probably took me a week to get it all set up and running, and another month to get everything in it. 

The initial configuration to the point where it was up and running took me about a week.

We installed it in a central data center and then began implementing it. We had to manually discover devices, pull them in, and manually add them one at a time.

It was implemented in-house.

We have seen a return on investment.

It was inexpensive when we installed it and gradually became more expensive, but it was a very inexpensive product at first.

It is significantly less expensive than Infoblox.

I don't recall the exact amount, It was approximately 20 years ago, but I recall it being relatively inexpensive to install. The initial part was really cheap, but the licensing cost became really expensive over time.

I would advise people to only use it for monitoring or viewing traffic flows. Don't use the IPAM section, the DHCP section, or the DNS section.

I would rate SolarWinds NPM a seven out of ten.

We've been using SolarWinds for our network monitoring. It's basic advanced network monitoring, up-down of Rogers switches, as well as metrics, latency, wireless metrics, where users are, errors on interfaces, route cables, and things of that nature. We're just pulling as much data from our network devices as possible to present that in an easy pane of glass.

I find the NetPath to be very valuable. It visualizes that traceroute that you can share with anyone in the business. For example, when they say, "Hey, what's going on? The network's slow because my application or my server's having issues" you can show them this nice graph that visualizes where there may be congestion or if there isn't any congestion at all.

Its initial setup is simple. 

So far, it's been pretty good, however, due to the whole solar flare thing that happened two years ago, a lot of cybersecurity and leadership's kind of looking to replace it with something else. We're currently just trying to find other info or anybody else who's comparable in terms of other network monitoring solutions.

Wireless monitoring needs improvement. We need to get a little bit more information from the thin clients or wireless LAN controllers than we already do. It's very minimal at this point and getting more information would be pretty vital.

There should be a little bit more integration in some of the other tooling and utilizing the APIs of devices or tools could be a little bit better. It would help to present information - rather than trying to get the highest level of administrative access to present minimal information. There are a lot of aspects where they give you base information, however, for other necessary gleams of information, you may need to have high-low. For instance, for Linux servers, you need to have pseudo access to get the necessary information to monitor and that's kind of a hassle.

We've been using the solution for about three years. 

The stability is fantastic. We haven't personally had any issues other than a few gripes about the lack of information. However, as far as it being stable, for me, it's been pretty solid.

It's possible to scale, however, it comes at a cost. You have to go through them and there's a whole nother license piece that costs a large lump sum to grow your polers to start importing more if your initial server is getting towards a limit. It's scalable, with the caveat of it's going to cost you.

We have about ten to 20 users. It's a mix of network analysts, CIS admins, storage administrators, and application administrators.

We do not plan to increase usage at the moment, mainly as we're pretty much utilizing it as much as we need to, however, it is pretty much monitoring our entire environment or maybe couple hundred switches, some routers, couple hundred servers, and applications and things like that. We pretty much monitor our whole environment and our environment's not really growing anymore. We're pretty good right now.

Technical support is pretty good. In the few cases we have reached out for any support, they've been pretty responsive. Also, their online resources and knowledge bases are very extensive as well.

Positive

We actually didn't use anything before this product.

The implementation process is pretty straightforward. They give you an MSI and once you have your servers and databases set up, it's just a couple of clicks and it's set up.

For overall importing of everything may have taken a couple of weeks to have things up and running due to how our organization is structured and how we can gather information to pull into SolarWinds and our implementation strategy. For example,  who set up servers and applications. We start getting with the appropriate aims to get whatever monitor or whatever polling method we need, whether it was S and NP strings or accounts for any server monitoring with administrative access or whatnot. Then we look at the network and do those automatic scans from there. Once we start pulling in that information, we start actually organizing all the nodes in there to properly alert and monitor. It takes maybe a month or so to get it to a baseline.

For deployment and maintenance, honestly, it's just me by myself doing it. It would be easier with a few more people.

The setup was done in-house. We did not use any third party, like an integrator, reseller, or consultant.

As far as assisting in being proactive in our network, it's been a great help in helping us maintain a healthy environment and being proactive and making sure things are up to date and upgraded.

The standard licensing fees are what we're paying. It's about $20,000 a year for all our licensing.

There weren't any other options were evaluated. We saw SolarWinds and noted our other sister companies use that. We just went with it to be standardized within our entire conglomerate.

We are a customer and end-user.

I would definitely advise others to do their homework. There are a lot of different modules you can buy with different licensing. You need to understand what you're looking to monitor, and what you're trying to present to your business, and then do the homework on the solution itself and see how that fits your needs before just going and buying it or even talking to a sales representative.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. It's pretty good at its job. I haven't really delved into too many other things. I've tried to look at other tools recently and in my opinion, solutions like Nagios or Zabbix aren't the best. I haven't really looked into other things like Datadog or LogicMonitor yet, however, I'd say this solution is kind of a leader in the pack for what it's doing. Still, there's definitely room for improvement.