11-21-2008 03:46 AM
I need advice from folks with extensive experiences in the network management
field
I have network with about 300 routers and switches across the United States.
They are mostly Catalyst 6500, ISR 3845 Cisco routers, VXR7206 routers, ASA
firewalls, VPN concentrators and plenty of Windows servers & Linux/Solaris
servers. Furthermore, we also manage Checkpoint and Juniper firewalls.
I need an appliance that can do the following:
a- monitor these devices for CPU, memory, interfaces utilization. Errors
on the interfaces, bandwidth utilization, etc... If any of these values
exceed a certain threshold, an alert via SMS, email, jabber will be sent out
the correct personnel,
b- the ability to monitor every switchports on the switch in term of bandwidth
utilization, packets errors,etc.. and send out notification if exceed certain
threshold. If a particular switchport or interface goes down/up, a notification
will be sent. If too much errors/collison appears on a switchport,
a notification will be sent.
c- ability to track down mac addresses and IP addresses of any devices the network.
in other words, let say I want to find out where host 192.168.0.1 is connected
on the network, that can be done with a single click. Let say if you know
a MAC address of a particular device, it can be found in a single click.
Furthermore, those information will be saved in the database for archiving
in case it needs to be search again.
d- ability to measure latencies between between any two devices on the network.
e- ability to monitor services up/down such as telnet, ssh, http/https, sqlnet, etc...
f- ability to monitor disk-space on the server, CPU utilization, memory utilization,
free memory, etc...
g- ability to backup Cisco routers, switches, ASA, VPN concentrators configuration
in a safely manner such as SSH,
h- ability to querry for VLAN, port description and CAM table, and that the
information will be in real-time,
i- ability to track down IOS, ASA, vpn3k IOS version on the devices for inventory
management,
j- any changes in the routers, firewalls, switches configuration, a notification
will be sent and it details the personnel who made the changes,
- Ability to accept tacacs/radius accounting commands and ability to search these records,
ALL OF THIS CAN BE DONE FROM A SINGLE APPLIANCE. In other words, I need an
appliance that is Plug and Play and ready
to go within an hour of configuration.
Everything is done and view from a
browser.
I can build the box myself but I am
looking for a comercial appliance that
can do this.
Thanks in advance.
11-21-2008 06:59 AM
Not really an appliance, but a single server with Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor, Application Monitor, and Network Configuration Monitor can meet all of your objectives. An experienced person in Solarwinds could easily set this up in an hour or two. They have an online demo you can check out as well.
http://www.solarwinds.com/products/index.aspx
Hope that helps.
11-21-2008 07:15 AM
I use Solarwinds and frankly I am not very
impressed with it. I do not like to run my
critical application on a Windows OS. If
something go wrong, I am sure I don't want
to get caught in a middle of a finger-pointing
between Microsoft and Solarwind.
Did you read my entire thread? Are you sure Solarwinds can do this:
- Ability to accept tacacs/radius accounting commands and ability to search these records,
- ability to track down IOS, ASA, vpn3k IOS version on the devices for inventory
management,
any changes in the routers, firewalls, switches configuration, a notification
will be sent and it details the personnel who made the changes, (for Juniper and Checkpoint
firewalls)
- tracking IP SLA
- making configuration changes from the browser
11-21-2008 09:46 AM
Yes it can do those. Where in your original post did it state that it had to run on open source? AFAIK there is no complete package of open source tools so you'll probably have to build your own.
11-21-2008 10:13 AM
would you mind forwarding the document in solarwinds for Checkpoint and Juniper supports
in Network compliance and backup. I couldn't
find them.
If solarwinds can do all this, then I will
present it to management.
01-13-2009 10:06 AM
We use a free tool called Zabbix.
Its an excellent tool for monitoring network devices AND servers. (you can use the zabbix agente for the servers and snmp for the devices).
Best Regards.
Laimer
01-15-2009 06:58 AM
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