SolarWinds NPM Reviews

We used SolarWinds for network switches, routers, firewalls, and servers, and to collect performance data for items on a global scale. We have 1,000 to 1,500 users.

The ability to customize the views and dashboards is nice. SolarWinds also allows us to access the data via the API. That's probably the feature I liked the most.

It would be nice to have a test to check if you can access a particular device via API without installing it and waiting for a poll cycle. You should have the capacity to initiate a test to see if it was reachable and get the results almost immediately.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for four or five years.

SolarWinds was pretty stable.

SolarWinds NPM is scalable.

SolarWinds provides good support.

Setting up SolarWinds NPM was relatively straightforward. There is always some complexity, but it's usually pretty straightforward. Two technicians were able to set it up.

We set up SolarWinds NPM in-house. 

I rate SolarWinds NPM eight out of 10. I recommend taking advantage of the online training that's available. Get an account on THWACK, the online user group. It's good for getting help.

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.

We use it for network monitoring, internet monitoring purpose and server monitoring purposes.

It allows me to see a summary of the network being monitored at a glance.

SolarWinds dashboard is very fast. Also, their interface is very good, it looks very user-friendly.

The time monitoring could be improved from every five seconds to every second. If they can move to an every-second basis, then it will improve the monitoring analysis.

I would also like to see the security system updated to prevent virus attacks.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for around 10 to 12 years.

We have found it is definitely stable.

This product is scalable by purchasing extra modules for more servers.

They're one of the most responsive companies when it comes to support.

Positive

The initial setup wasn't complex, but not as easy as some systems either. It requires someone with experience with the network monitoring system. 

It was implemented in-house.

The charge is currently made per module for the product, and there is no option to buy it as a full system bundle which makes it costly. Also, charges are made annually, it's not a perpetual purchase.

It would not be affordable for SME level organizations.

The other solutions I evaluated were:

• PTRG
• Cisco
• WhatsUp Gold.

I would rate this product at 7.5 out of 10.

We are customers of SolarWinds and I'm the corporate IT infrastructure manager.

SolarWinds provides a good enterprise level of tools and covers the essential components. I like the new GUI. 

The solution could be enhanced. It currently lacks integration with SMS services which is something we need. A cloud-based option would also be helpful so we can monitor at any time and from anywhere; for now, we need to VPN to our environment. 

I've been using this solution for six years. 

The solution is generally stable although there are occasional bugs when updating to the latest version. 

The scalability is good, we currently have around 2,000 users. 

The initial setup is simple.

Compared to other products, SolarWinds is not expensive. 

We evaluated Zabbix and Nagios but SolarWinds is better for enterprise organizations. Other solutions are on a smaller scale and only provide basic monitoring; SolarWinds has a better engine.

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

If there's a connectivity issue, the packets have dropped, or the traffic is going through any of the routers, you can see where that is just stuck.

The individual’s bandwidth we do not know. For monitoring purposes, we can find the exact amounts through this NPM, Network Performance Monitor, and Network Traffic Analyzer. We can see who is using how much bandwidth and where the traffic is stuck. It provides visibility to show what the issue is in our network.

The solution is very good. Previously, in the solution, there was no more option for customizing the reports and the alerts. However, they’ve improved. Now, in the last two years, since 2021, they have had a new release, a new version, and there are a lot of options for customization of the dashboard, alerts, and reports. 

Over the last couple of years, they have introduced features like NetPath and PerfStack. That is very helpful for any of the admins to troubleshoot issues to know precisely what is going on in nodes.

If we go for the NT license, then we have to purchase the NPM, Network Performance Monitor. That is a dependency. In all of the SolarWinds products now, there are only these products. For example, Net Traffic Analyzer is a product. If we go for the licensing, then we have to purchase a Network Performance Monitor. There's dependency there. If they could combine everything into one product, that would be very helpful.

The NT is the enhanced version of the NPM. They have not put a license on the different monitors of the NT. However, they have to include in the same manner in the NPM itself.

For NetPath services, right now, we have to manually install the events in the nodes. If there was something from the console side, we could post the event to the nodes. If there was automation, that would be helpful. Already there's automation for other types of things or in other features, like for communication of the nodes. However, for the NetPath feature, if we could automatically move the event from the console side to the application side, that would be a great feature.

I’ve been using the solution for the last five years.

It’s stable.

In 2020, as most people know, there was an attack on SolarWinds. At that time, there was a problem. However, in 2021, everything was good. If it wasn’t, we would have been looking for another solution. Everything has been stabilized.

We are using one in five total devices connected to that SolarWinds. We are using an AP, Additional Polling engine that will scale the solution. Scalability is there.

Only the licensing part is different. We have to purchase more licenses on that part. Currently, we are monitoring 12,000 nodes. If we want to go to the 13,000 nodes, then we have to purchase one additional license, the Additional Polling license.

We have about 50 people using the solution. They are system admins. In the North, the solution is used vastly. In the South, the solution is used by the different departments. I'm not part of the South. I'm part of the North.

We do have plans to increase usage.

For L2 or L1 problems, we are giving the support. For the L3 level, if the issue is beyond our reach, then we contact the support team from Solarwinds.

We have an online number. We have to call that number, and we’ll get support. They will support you, for example, if the system is down. Otherwise, you can open a support ticket, and they will help.

Overall, the support is good.

Now we are using Tripwire also for some of our customers. It is also good.

I am not using any other products. However, there are some solutions that are free tools.

The initial setup is straightforward. We have to just go to NetPath and just connect to the database. Once the connection is established to the database, then we will be up on both devices. There are a lot of options for onboarding the devices. It is easy. Anyone can do it.

There's an admin guide. There's a very helpful guide that SolarWinds has provided on their customer portal. There are training options too. You are well prepared.

The deployment took two to three hours to install the product and five to six hours for the entire deployment. It’s pretty fast if you have a good strategy.

While one person is enough to deploy or manage the solution, it would depend on how many devices you are dealing with.

If you are going to monitor 2,000 devices, one person is enough. If you're going to monitor a large number of devices, you might need two managers for all devices.

We are the third-party vendor for the bank. We deploy the solution, and we support them. We provide professional services as well.

The basic ROI is the fact that the client is happy, and that’s all that matters.

I’m only a technical person. I don’t have access to the pricing.

Extra costs come under support and maintenance. Obviously, we always consider support and maintenance under the same licensing cost. They'll only provide one year of support and maintenance.

We had to go for the SolarWinds. We are not able to work with any other solution.

Once the solution is implemented, we'll populate whatever the dashboard is. However, some of the things will not populate. There is a need for services there. We can use the NetPath services feature. We can export that feature to the dashboard. However, it will be easy for any of the system admin to troubleshoot the issue.

I’d rate the solution ten out of ten.

We use SolarWinds as a monitoring platform.

It monitors all of our network gears for up-down status, for the most part. We can also see utilization being high at a given location.

The alerting has been the biggest aspect we appreciate. In regards to utilization, it can be proactive in regards to addressing situations before some cases arise before the users even see them.

The initial setup is simple.

It integrates really well with the Cisco platform. We are a Cisco shop. I don't know how well it's going to integrate with us moving to Aruba or going with other vendor hardware, how well it's going to integrate, I guess we'll find out.

It is scalable.

Technical support is helpful.

The stability is good. 

The only real caveat that we have or that I have an issue with is when I go on vacation, it's a little hard for me to go and modify alerts so that I don't get alerted about things when I'm on vacation. There's not a way to turn me off from alerts easily.

There really hasn't been anything that we've needed that it hasn't been able to provide. 

I've used the solution for at least 17 years. 

The solution is stable. there are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

We've got about nine different Sys admins that use it on a day-to-day basis, at different locations, to check on different things.

Contact support was great. They're very knowledgeable. They knew what we needed, once we explained our problem. In some cases, they helped us figure out a different solution than what we were looking at. They knew the product pretty well for everybody that we've dealt with.

Positive

We didn't use a different solution. That's what was here when I started 17 years ago and that's what we've stayed with.

The setup was pretty straightforward. We just went through a complete redeployment part of upgrading to the latest and greatest as we upgraded servers and databases and the whole nine yards. We just simply did a fresh install. It was pretty easy.

It probably took us about a couple of days. We had to go back in and once we re-added the location, we had to go back and tweak what we wanted to monitor, and that kind of stuff. We didn't simply just do a migration. It was a little bit of doing the network re-discovery and then going in and tweaking the individual locations. 

The one thing we did migrate over was the alerts. We didn't have to recreate alerts from scratch, however, it took us a while. We've got 400-plus devices that we monitor. It took a little while to get all of the devices back in the way they originally were.

We did everything in-house. We did not use consultants or integrators. 

I don't know anything about pricing. It's not an aspect I deal with.

We deal directly with Solarwinds. 

We have been keeping the solution updated. 

I would recommend the solution. A lot of our colleagues use it and we like the way it works. I'd rate it ten out of ten. 

I'd advise potential new users to give it a good rundown and see if it really fits what they need. Don't just try it with one or two things. Do the 30-day evaluation. I have folks that have used it and try to find some way to break it really. Load it up the way that you want to run it and actually take time to dig down into it. So far, there hasn't been anything that it hasn't been able to do for us. However, it's designed for that Cisco environment and that's what we've always been. I can't really talk about it outside of the box.

We are using SolarWinds NPM to monitor our network. For example, we monitor Cisco Meraki for WAN, and other Cisco routers, and for LAN we monitor Cisco switches and firewalls.

There are a lot of valuable features with SolarWinds NPM. We can receive a lot of detailed data from the monitoring that can use useful for investigations, especially when you are troubleshooting. It is very helpful. Overall it was a very good experience.

SolarWinds NPM could improve the graphics of the interface and more customized reporting.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for approximately one year.

SolarWinds NPM is stable. We haven't faced any major outages.

The scalability of SolarWinds NPM is good, and it is simple. We have approximately 5,000 nodes.

The support we have received from SolarWinds NPM has been very good. Initially, there were some issues with the solution but the support help us figure it out.

I rate the support of SolarWinds NPM a four out of five.

The knowledge base of the support could improve. However, every organization has its own use cases. Sometimes it's not a common use case and the support has not seen the particular problem. We might have something unique, which other clients never faced.

We have used Centreon previously. We have evaluated it for some time. It was very easy to use but the requirements we had, were not fulfilled. We have engaged with some Centreon providers, and the support was not great. We bought a license for one year for Centreon, and the support from France was not great. That's why we decided that we cannot go with it for a longer time and on a larger scale. Additionally, we have used Alaloop for quite some time, and it was good.

We switched to SolarWinds NPM mainly because we were expanding, and in Alaloop we were mainly using it for WAN only, not for the LAN. Additionally, Alaloop was much more expensive compared to SolarWinds NPM.

The initial setup of SolarWinds NPM was not straightforward. We had some difficulty configuring some of the new features for the devices properly. However, this was because we were new to the solution. We had the documentation which was helpful.

The full implementation took approximately one month.

I rate the initial setup of SolarWinds NPM a three out of five.

We used third-party support for the implementation. The solution requires maintenance but we have not had any issues.

SolarWinds NPM has different pricing models available. The cost of the solution is less than some competitors.

I would recommend SolarWinds NPM to others but it depends on how complex the network they have is and how large it is. Based on that information, you need to make a decision if the solution is the best fit. If their infrastructure is quite large, the good thing is they can expand it, even for the server infrastructure, not only for network infrastructure. 

I would recommend the solution for a larger organization.

I rate SolarWinds NPM an eight out of ten.

One of my clients is a bank. SolarWinds is primarily used in banking to limit network downtime to less than one or two minutes. All the ATMs are connected with SolarWinds, so the bank can respond quickly when the network is down. You only need about three or four people monitoring this software at a time. SolarWinds is deployed on-premises for security reasons. Banks do not allow cloud solutions for this purpose. 

Network performance is the main issue clients are facing. SolarWinds checks if a node is down, and we can set thresholds for performance metrics. For example, we set it up to get an alert automatically if a value is over 80 percent. It has a full dashboard that covers CP, hard disk, and node monitoring.

Each model has different features, so clients need to purchase a separate model for SQL monitoring, database monitoring, network traffic analyzer, HTTP traffic, etc. So each feature they need is in a different model, but customers would prefer an all-in-one solution.

I have been working with SolarWinds NPM for two years.

SolarWinds is stable. We sometimes have crashes here and there because we are monitoring so many features and routers.

SolarWinds is easy to scale.

We don't use technical support because we handle everything in-house. We already make customized dashboards, reports, notes, etc. ourselves.

I used PRTG, but it's not used in any banks. About 80 percent of banks I know use SolarWinds. PRTG is mostly popular in manufacturing companies. It's cheaper, so manufacturers can easily afford it. 

Setting up SolarWinds is somewhat complex because the data is encrypted and banks require so many policies. The reporting and dashboards are also complex. 

SolarWinds is expensive. That's why it's primarily banks using the solution. Small businesses can't afford it. Due to its pricing, most smaller enterprises like manufacturing companies are not interested. For example, we have a client who is also interested in traffic monitoring, but they are not purchasing SolarWinds because of the cost. 

I rate SolarWinds NPM seven out of 10. 

SolarWinds NPM is used to monitor our devices' to see uptime, availability, and performance.

SolarWinds NPM has helped our organization by proactively indicating if we are low on resources for a particular server.

The most valuable feature of SolarWinds NPM is the performance monitoring to see the memory, and CPU utilization.

SolarWinds NPM can be very slow at times. The database optimization can be done to improve the product performance.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for approximately 10 years.

SolarWinds NPM is very unstable. We often have website loading issues. We have to call support, and they fix it. Then a month later, we're going to have the same problem.

SolarWinds NPM can be used at multiple locations, and increase the capacity as needed with additional licensing. It's very scalable. 

We have three people using this solution. It's used globally at all our sites and we plan to increase our usage in the future.

SolarWinds NPM technical support is very responsive. They're available by phone, which is a plus.

I did not use a solution previously.

SolarWinds NPM's initial setup was straightforward. It took about a year to complete the full process of the implementation. The strategy we used was we worked on the setup of vCore and Microsoft Azure, and then for each of our sites, we did afterward.

We did the deployment in-house.

I have not seen a substantial return on investment with SolarWinds NPM.

We pay approximately $4,000 annually for SolarWinds NPM. There are no additional fees required other than the standard fees.

I rate the price of SolarWinds NPM a three out of five.

I have evaluated other solutions, such as PRTG Network Monitor and WhatsUp Gold. We choose SolarWinds NPM because it had better licensing and architectural options.

My advice to others is to follow the best practices.

I rate SolarWinds NPM a seven out of ten.

The solution has good support they're constantly improving it.

We are a mining company, and we use this solution to monitor our system operations. We monitor the truck service, and we have the network devices installed onto the equipment.

Their support team is efficient, and it is easy to set up.

The root cause analysis and installation faults are not clear.

I have been using this solution for two years.

It is stable.

Their support is good.

It was easy to set up. It took less than a month.

I would recommend this solution. I would rate it an eight out of 10.