Elusive search for a good network monitor
Importance of network monitors
How network monitors work
Why enterprises need network monitors
Network monitor requirements
Network monitor challenges
Enterprise networks are becoming increasingly complex everyday to meet the rising needs and demands in the digital business world. A business needs to ensure that its network is performing at the speed and efficiency required of it for which you need an efficient network monitor.
The best network monitoring tool is the one that:
Network monitoring tools play a vital role in the following aspects:
Network monitoring works by performing these three steps:
One standard way a network monitor uses to connect to the network devices is through the SNMP protocol. Network monitor also uses ICMP ping function to keep devices' availability in check. WMI, CLI, and Telnet are also other options.
Once connected, network monitors perform threshold-based monitoring to instantly alert you on network issues or violated thresholds. For example, you can perform latency monitoring and get alerted on which devices need to be checked on when the set threshold reaches.
When a network fault is detected, network monitor helps you drill down to the root cause of an issue, informing you whether the fault is due to hardware or software issues, bandwidth issues, and configuration issues. You can also perform troubleshooting with pre-loaded scripts and automate certain actions like restarting a service, shutting down a device, and more.
An efficient enterprise network management software will go beyond basic threshold-based alerting and manage a flood of unnecessary network alerts due to dependencies and the like.
With enterprises spanning geographies, you need a robust network monitor solution that provides centralized control of network updates or changes over different branch offices, and remote sites.
The network monitoring tool records all the information related to data utilization and growth in the form of reports. You can analyze the growth trends, predict storage needs, and make judicious storage decisions.
A network monitor solution with support for multiple vendors and device types eliminates the need to toggle multiple vendor- specific tools. For example, OpManager extends its support to over 450 vendors such as Dell, HP, IBM, and more.
Network monitor tools must have high scalability to support the growth of the business/organization and intuitive enough to get you started without the hasssle of going through pages and pages of documentation.
When a business or organization grows, network monitor solutions must be viable to change and expand without compromising on reliability. Network visibility across multiple locations with real-time data sync is a game-changer for networking tools.
Data is valuable and can be interpreted accurately only when it is presented meaningfully to the right audience. An actionable intelligent network monitor dashboard with customizations can help achieve this.
The network monitor tool has to be affordable and light on the pocket to maintain.
Apart from actively monitoring the network in real-time for a quicker fault resolution, you also need to passively monitor your network architecture and simulate performance bottlenecks to immunize the network to further potential threats or outages. Finding a balance between the two plays a major role.
Arriving at a nominal baseline for any performance metric is difficult since you need to keep tabs on factors influencing resource usage by analyzing historical data, user behavior, major application updates, and sudden business trends.
To ensure effective network management, network admins need to repeatedly perform certain mundane tasks manually such as clearing logs, restarting services/processes, etc.,
Networks keep expanding and resource usage keeps changing. Keeping track of growth patterns and taking a call on whether to upgrade systems or purchase a new one is crucial.
Simplified network monitoring
Multi-vendor support
One-tool network monitoring
Advanced troubleshooting
Network visualization
Reports
OpManager's network software supports reliable industry-standard monitoring protocols such as SNMP, Telnet, SSH, and WMI and has a simple-to-use point-and-click install and setup function. This helps monitor the network within minutes. OpManager's server monitoring supports multiple operating systems and is an agentless network monitor solution - due to this, you can skip the entire hassle of agent installation. Post-installation, the device template feature enables you to quickly apply pre-defined monitoring configurations and start monitoring your device right away.
OpManager offers multi-vendor support with over 11000 device templates out-of-the-box with the option to add your own templates in case you ever need them. There are interface templates that can be applied in bulk, templates for file/folder monitoring and, also for process monitoring. The Quick Configuration Wizard allows you to apply the configuration to multiple devices on the go quickly. In addition to OpManager's default network monitors, you can also create your own monitors for the SNMP-enabled devices in your network.
OpManager, the advanced network performance monitoring software leverages the monitoring protocols like NetFlow, sFlow, and IP SLA in addition to the ones mentioned above (SNMP, SSH, etc.) for monitoring networks and servers. With OpManager's network performance monitor, you can monitor CPU, memory, and disk usage on mission-critical servers and easily identify the application/processes that consume the most resources. This helps you perform effective capacity planning and hardware upgrades.
OpManager offers a plethora of features to help you get to the root of a network issue. With an advanced fault management system, OpManager consolidates alerts from Windows Event logs, SNMP Traps, and Syslog. It enables you to set custom performance thresholds for proactive monitoring and avert potential network downtime. These alerts can be configured to be sent as an email, SMS or can be accessed on your smartphone. Another highlight is the provision to execute self-healing scripts to suppress unnecessary alarms or perform level 1 troubleshooting.
Network monitor with advanced visualization techniques - network maps, Layer2 maps, category-wise device maps, and list views offer instant visibility into a network or device outage. OpManager's Business View allows you to visualize WAN links across locations with options to restrict user access to selected Business Views thereby taking care of your user management and security needs. To top all of this, OpManager also offers over 100 widgets that can be used in customizable Dashboards (with CCTV views) - tailored to suit the admins' network monitoring needs.
OpManager provides over 200 reports on various network metrics with exclusive Top 'N' reports that show the top 10 resources (high/low) to quickly gain an understanding of the network. There are various network monitor reports for WAN health, ESX VMware servers, Active Directory, MSSQL servers, Exchange servers, and many more that can be scheduled on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis or for a custom period with an option to email or publish the reports. Monitor network, server, and other devices and generate custom reports based on your network monitoring needs.
Optimize bandwidth allocations and ensure high network availability by constantly monitoring routers with OpManager.
Learn moreKeep track of switch health, port availability, port-wise traffic and more and ensure high switch performance with OpManager.
Learn moreMonitor critical printer performance parameters, toner levels, cartridge levels and more with OpManager's scalable printer monitoring software.
Learn moreMonitor and manage storage RAIDs, tape libraries and fabric switches effectively with OpManager's storage monitoring and forecasting capabilities.
Learn moreEnsure high availability of mission-critical applications with OpManager's edge-to-edge WAN performance monitoring.
Learn moreAnalyze VPN tunnels and related entities effectively with OpManager's VPN performance monitoring.
Learn moreTrack UPS performance, audit power management events, and avert unforeseen power outages to ensure uninterrupted network operations.
Learn moreEnsure seamless wireless networking experience with OpManager's comprehensive wireless network monitoring.
Learn moreEnhance server performance by ensuring service availability with OpManager's service monitoring.
Learn moreLeverage OpManager's proactive process monitoring for critical processes running on Windows, Linux, Solaris, Unix, HP UX, IBM AIX, ESX VMware servers etc. through SNMP/WMI/CLI.
Learn moreKeep URLs, virtual hosts and intranet under control with OpManager's real-time URL monitroring.
Learn moreTrack changes made to any file/folder in a jiffy with OpManager's file/folder monitoring systems.
Learn moreGain real-time insights of network's performance by tracking network event logs from time to time with OpManager's event log monitoring.
Learn moreMonitor multiple VMs from a centralized console. OpManager provides comprehensive virtual server management for your VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Citrix Xen host and associated virtual machines in real-time.
Learn moreMonitor availability status of interfaces and monitor traffic speed on the interface, errors, discards, etc. using OpManager.
Learn moreA self-reliant network monitor solution that does not mandate consulting.
Transparent pricing options, multiple editions to choose from, including a free edition and free trial with the advantage to migrate seamlessly to the commercial versions.
Options to integrate with software from the ManageEngine suite for monitoring each and every aspect of the network.
With recognition from Gartner, Network World, Infotecg, etc., OpManager is the choice of over 1 million IT admins over the world.
Constant upgrades and feature releases at no extra cost.
24x5 technical support.
A network monitor is a system designed to monitor and troubleshoot issues raised in the network. It pings the devices present in the environment and gathers information on various performance metrics like availability, traffic, bandwidth utilization and much more.
To monitor the network performance, various network performance tests are carried out. This can be done effectively with the help of a specific network monitoring tool that assigns specific performance monitors for the critical operations in the network.
A network monitor is essential for the following reasons:
Network monitor discovers network devices with the help of various protocols such as SNMP, WMI, etc., and adds them to the inventory. With a wide range of performance monitors available, network monitor scrutinizes the performance of every critical network metric with the set thresholds. When the threshold value is breached, the network monitor sends alerts to network admins via email, SMS, web alarms and more, indicating faults.
Reviewer Role: Infrastructure and Operations
Company size: 500M - 1B USD
We have been using OpManager since 2011 and our overall experience has been excellent. The tool plays a vital role in providing the value to our organization and to the customers we are supporting. The support is excellent and staff takes full responsibilities in resolving the issues. Innovation is never stopping and clearly visible with newer versions.
Reviewer Role: Infrastructure and Operations
Company size: 5,000 - 50,000 Employees
I have a long standing relationship with ManageEngine. OpManager has always missed one or two features that would make it truly the best tool on the market, but over it is the most comprehensive and easy to use the product on the market.
Reviewer Role: Program and Portfolio Management
Company size: 500M - 1B USD
The vendor has been supportive during the implementation & POC phases providing trial licenses. Feature requests and feedbacks is usually acted upon swiftly. There was sufficient vendor support during the implementation phase. After deployment, the support is more than adequate, where the vendor could make some improvements.
Reviewer Role: CIO
Company size: 1B - 3B USD
ManageEngine provides a suite of tools that have made improvements to the availability of our internal applications. From monitoring, management and alerting, we have been able to peak performance within our data center.
Reviewer Role: Enterprise Architecture and Technology Innovation
Company size: 250M - 500M USD
ManageEngine support was responsive to all our queries.
“OpManager helps me monitor all aspects of the data-center and equipment like servers, switches and routers. It is fast, intuitive and centralized and you do not need to be an expert to deal with OpManager.”
NGHA
“Donald Stewart, IT Manager of Crest Industries is happy with ManageEngine OpManager for its end-to-end network monitoring software. It is easy-to-use and offers fault and performance management for router.”
IT Manager, Crest Industries
“John Rosser, MIS Manager of Yale Chase talks about the proactive nature of ManageEngine OpManager & how his organisation gained value from it.”
MIS Manager
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