This has evolved over time as unified communications has evolved. To really be accurate it should be done with a solution that uses packets as its data-source. This is really a not a good play for NetFlow or SNMP polling and traps. Some log companies will also throw their hat in this ring by collecting CDR {Call Data Records} from call manager servers on their opinion of the quality of the call by something called MOS {Mean Opinion Score}.
Each manufacturer/vendor will have some kind of tool to investigate at least the signalling {SIP, Skinny, etc} and maybe the signalling {RTP, etc} but that is also the constraint, many don't support other vendors. Most vendor-agnostic tools from NPM {Network Performance Managers} products can at least do Jitter and Out of Sequence and Packet Loss on the media {RTP} streams of a call, which network teams need to prove their innocence. Example vendors would be Riverbed, Extrahop, Viavi, NetScout. But these same vendors lack the Signalling correlation to the call. Then, today there is the SaaS aspect too. Like WEBEX, Zoom, 8x8, Teams, etc. and this traffic the media {RTP} is usually encrypted and often the signalling {SIP} is encrypted as well.
The only vendor I have tested and monitor as of today, right now, is NetScout. Their product is vendor agnostic, supports all versions of signalling and media, including video. Also, they have the ability to decrypt the HTTPS traffic going out to any SaaS vendor, even TLS 1.3. It even has the ability to "listen" to the calls and flag things like echo, tinny like sounds, soft voice, loud voice, background noise, and correlate to factors like QoS mapping, Jitter, Loss, OOS, etc. It also monitors and alerts on One Way Calls, DTMF mistakes, Voice Mail, Conference Call stitching, Call forwarding following, path latency and network error hop by hop. A very long list of other features. They even know what each CODEC can tolerate in the aspect of network errors and call quality as far as sound goes. This means if the CODEC can absorb the issues it will log and baseline the behavior but not Alarm on it unless you want it too.
The last point I will make is really about privacy laws worldwide. Replayability in any investigation only or investigation & monitoring solution has to be tightly controlled and logged and if that is not possible then do not save the packet payload on the media.
Search for a product comparison in Network Monitoring Software
NetVoice from NIKSUN is the best. As NIKSUN has Full Packet Capture technology coupled with Google, like a search engine with user-friendly GUI and reporting abilities.
My recommendation using Nagios XI. they easy to implement and easy to administrating.
Nagios XI also have the Plugin for VoIP
Nagios Plugin to check Call Quality in SIP VoIP (compatible with checkmk, etc) sipnagios implements the Nagios plugin API for monitoring and performance data. sipnagios.c is a modification of the original siprtp.c sample in pjproject distribution
Network Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
2020-06-25T19:56:51Z
Jun 25, 2020
You can use the IP SLA feature running on Cisco routers. As so, you can define many protocols to monitoring. You have to confogure a router as IP SLA sender and many routers or devices as IP SLA responders. Depending of the feautures of the responders, you can see ICMP, UDP, TCP responders. If you have VoIP responders, you can monitor also the jitters and the MOS values.
All of this results are loaded in the IP SLA sender router. The you can see theses statistics (history, graphs) with monitoring tools, as PRTG or WUG. Are you working with Cisco devices? If yes, this is a great and powerful way.
Learn what your peers think about IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2023.
User at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
User
2020-06-24T21:47:20Z
Jun 24, 2020
Nagios XI is the commercial, easier-to-use version of the Nagios core open source version, but still has the extensibility of core. Tends to be very price competitive too.
PRTG is the best that I have used ever, Check its sensors and If you didn't find the sensor that you are looking for you can create your own one meanwhile you can request it from the development team.
Hello Peers,
I am looking for the best network monitoring software.
Which product would you choose: Nagios XI, PRTG Network Monitor, or SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor? What are the pros and cons of the solution?
Thank you for your help.
Senior Software Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Dec 7, 2022
Hi, Please share your complete monitoring requirement along with No. of devices for monitoring with their type (Unix/Linux Server, Web Server, Routers, etc.).
Hi community,
I work as the Regional Manager at a Tech Services company.
Currently, I'm exploring open-source Network Analyzer and Network Configuration managers.
Which one would you recommend and why?
Hello,
For Network Analyzer, you can use Elastiflow. It's pretty complete even though its development has stopped lately (we have recently deployed it in production for a customer). It is still just as good as it was a few years ago.
For Network Configuration Management, it really depends on the sets of features you're looking for. But, you can use the Ansible & Gitlab combo. We've written a full tutorial for it on our website: https://www.zen-networks.io/ne...
Good luck!
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Modern-day servers are robust enough to accommodate as many applications and processes as possible. Still, there is a limit to how much load a server can handle.
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Here are some s...
Collecting as many metrics, statuses, and logs about the servers is indeed the first step, you never know what data you will need to solve a particular problem. The second step is to process and correctly pinpoint where the network performance/behavior differs from the expected range/baseline.
Can your network monitoring software automate the obvious (execute remote corrective actions in response to alerts) and notify the IT person about only critical situations where the human needs to make a decision about the resolution options? We expect the network monitoring software today to do just that.
I would say NetCrunch can do it, but do you have any experience with other monitoring products that provide a similar type of monitoring experience for IT teams?
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Download our free IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2023.
This has evolved over time as unified communications has evolved. To really be accurate it should be done with a solution that uses packets as its data-source. This is really a not a good play for NetFlow or SNMP polling and traps. Some log companies will also throw their hat in this ring by collecting CDR {Call Data Records} from call manager servers on their opinion of the quality of the call by something called MOS {Mean Opinion Score}.
Each manufacturer/vendor will have some kind of tool to investigate at least the signalling {SIP, Skinny, etc} and maybe the signalling {RTP, etc} but that is also the constraint, many don't support other vendors. Most vendor-agnostic tools from NPM {Network Performance Managers} products can at least do Jitter and Out of Sequence and Packet Loss on the media {RTP} streams of a call, which network teams need to prove their innocence. Example vendors would be Riverbed, Extrahop, Viavi, NetScout. But these same vendors lack the Signalling correlation to the call. Then, today there is the SaaS aspect too. Like WEBEX, Zoom, 8x8, Teams, etc. and this traffic the media {RTP} is usually encrypted and often the signalling {SIP} is encrypted as well.
The only vendor I have tested and monitor as of today, right now, is NetScout. Their product is vendor agnostic, supports all versions of signalling and media, including video. Also, they have the ability to decrypt the HTTPS traffic going out to any SaaS vendor, even TLS 1.3. It even has the ability to "listen" to the calls and flag things like echo, tinny like sounds, soft voice, loud voice, background noise, and correlate to factors like QoS mapping, Jitter, Loss, OOS, etc. It also monitors and alerts on One Way Calls, DTMF mistakes, Voice Mail, Conference Call stitching, Call forwarding following, path latency and network error hop by hop. A very long list of other features. They even know what each CODEC can tolerate in the aspect of network errors and call quality as far as sound goes. This means if the CODEC can absorb the issues it will log and baseline the behavior but not Alarm on it unless you want it too.
The last point I will make is really about privacy laws worldwide. Replayability in any investigation only or investigation & monitoring solution has to be tightly controlled and logged and if that is not possible then do not save the packet payload on the media.
NetVoice from NIKSUN is the best. As NIKSUN has Full Packet Capture technology coupled with Google, like a search engine with user-friendly GUI and reporting abilities.
You can use PRTG Network Monitor. It has the built-in ability to monitor VoIP between end points.
Feel free to contact me in case you want to discuss more on that.
My recommendation using Nagios XI. they easy to implement and easy to administrating.
Nagios XI also have the Plugin for VoIP
Nagios Plugin to check Call Quality in SIP VoIP (compatible with checkmk, etc) sipnagios implements the Nagios plugin API for monitoring and performance data. sipnagios.c is a modification of the original siprtp.c sample in pjproject distribution
You can have it at github.com/gmaruzz/sipnagios
You can use the IP SLA feature running on Cisco routers. As so, you can define many protocols to monitoring. You have to confogure a router as IP SLA sender and many routers or devices as IP SLA responders. Depending of the feautures of the responders, you can see ICMP, UDP, TCP responders. If you have VoIP responders, you can monitor also the jitters and the MOS values.
All of this results are loaded in the IP SLA sender router. The you can see theses statistics (history, graphs) with monitoring tools, as PRTG or WUG. Are you working with Cisco devices? If yes, this is a great and powerful way.
I have seen Nagios, PRTG and ManageEngine
These are all appropriate tools. Just adding my own experience as having the opportunity to have worked with all.
Nagios , easy to implement, agents easy to install, interface management for alerts: good
PRTG , easy to implement, agents very easy to install, interface management for alerts: good
ManageEngine is more modular to implement, agents easy to install, interface management for alerts: very good
Using LogicMonitor, you can monitor network equipment and servers, I think this depends on your equipment,
Nagios XI is the commercial, easier-to-use version of the Nagios core open source version, but still has the extensibility of core. Tends to be very price competitive too.
PRTG is the best that I have used ever, Check its sensors and If you didn't find the sensor that you are looking for you can create your own one meanwhile you can request it from the development team.
https://www.paessler.com/prtg
I kindly suggest Manage Engine Opsmanager.