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Good Network Monitoring Tool

Hello All,

I work in a network that is poorly managed. Really POORLY MANAGED (9 sites, no documentation, disatater recovery no backup). The new mangers are doing their best to clean up the network.

What is the best monitoring tool in the market other that Solarwinds?

Regards

Mike

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Accepted Solutions

Agree with the previous poster on everything except Prime.  It's my understanding that if you don't already have LMS you can't get it and you must purchase Prime Infrastructure (feel free to verify that, but that's what I've been told).  Prime infrastructure pales in comparison to any of the aforementioned monitoring tools.  It's just not ready. 

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My theory is buy PI because that's how LMS is purchasable right now. Keep your SASU support current and if/when PI pulls ahead in functionality and stability, migrate. It's actually a good Wireless management product, being essentially the latest version of the well-established products from Cisco in that lineage. PI 2.0 from what I saw has some cool new features that LMS doesn't have although I agree there's likely a good number of gochas that would argue against upgrading with eyes closed. Certainly the documentation and body of knowledge around LMS is far superior.

LMS was just patched to 4.2.4 a couple of weeks ago so even if they stopped new development today (which they haven't - yet) it would have another year plus of package updates etc. We still see people here on occasion running LMS 2.x and 3.x to manage production networks successfully.

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7 Replies 7

Marvin Rhoads
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Well first thing is to generate some sort of layout or inventory. There was a good thread on how to do that over on Solarwinds' Thwack user forum earlier this year. It's not SolarWinds-specific so have a look there for starters.

Once you've bounded your problem you can make a more informed decision with respect to tools to use going forward. For instance, if it's all Cisco, Prime LMS is a great tool. For small Cisco networks, Cisco Network Assistant and Cisco Configuration Professional offer some nice (and free) capabilities. For multivendor shops, SolarWinds Orion family (NPM, NTA, etc.) and IPSwitch What's Up Gold are two commonly used commercial products. If you're a bit Linux-savvy, you can pretty easily deploy a set of open-source tools (Nagios, Cacti and RANCID for fault, performance and configuration management respectively).

With the exception of SolarWinds, the above are primaily network-focused. If you want to add servers and applicaitons, that's a bigger discussion.

Agree with the previous poster on everything except Prime.  It's my understanding that if you don't already have LMS you can't get it and you must purchase Prime Infrastructure (feel free to verify that, but that's what I've been told).  Prime infrastructure pales in comparison to any of the aforementioned monitoring tools.  It's just not ready. 

If this posts answers your question or is helpful, please consider rating it and/or marking as answered.

If this posts answers your question or is helpful, please consider rating it and/or marking as answered.

Christopher,

I completely agree that PI 1.3 is not ready as a full-feature (FCAPS) wired management product. I even have my doubts about PI 2.0 based on what I've seen so far. PI 2.1 might address them - we'll see.

You're correct that new customers cannot purchase Prime LMS separately. However, Prime Infrastructure 1.2 (Lifecycle base plus optional Compliance licenses) includes the right to use (license) for LMS 4.2. All the classic LMS features are included with the PI Lifecycle purchase and Compliance adds full use of the range of regulatory and industry compliance reports introduced in LMS 4.1. Without the Compliance license you get a 90-day trial of those features but still have the base capability (PSIRT and EoS/EoL reports).

Thanks for clarifying Marvin - although I don't see how it would make sense to buy PI just to get LMS when LMS is being phased out.  My experience with PI thus far is that it's extremely buggy and very clunky .  Just my opinion though.

If this posts answers your question or is helpful, please consider rating it and/or marking as answered.

If this posts answers your question or is helpful, please consider rating it and/or marking as answered.

My theory is buy PI because that's how LMS is purchasable right now. Keep your SASU support current and if/when PI pulls ahead in functionality and stability, migrate. It's actually a good Wireless management product, being essentially the latest version of the well-established products from Cisco in that lineage. PI 2.0 from what I saw has some cool new features that LMS doesn't have although I agree there's likely a good number of gochas that would argue against upgrading with eyes closed. Certainly the documentation and body of knowledge around LMS is far superior.

LMS was just patched to 4.2.4 a couple of weeks ago so even if they stopped new development today (which they haven't - yet) it would have another year plus of package updates etc. We still see people here on occasion running LMS 2.x and 3.x to manage production networks successfully.

Good info, Ty.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

If this posts answers your question or is helpful, please consider rating it and/or marking as answered.

Hello Marvin,

Thanks for the info provided

Thankx for your input as well Christoper.

Regards

Mike

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