Applications to monitor cisco devices?

[Vignesh Ekanathan]

Hi all,

I am new to the world of Cisco and I was hoping if anyone can help me out with applications to monitor cisco devices.

Basically, we have 7 to 10 cisco devices which includes routers and switches. I have used Solarwinds NPM, Manage Engine Net-Flow analyzer software to monitor the devices.

However, I just want to know if there are any more applications out there that could monitor the network performance of these devices as we go. We also want these application to send us an alert email in case of any downtime.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Vignesh.        

[stephen.stack]

To plug my own open-source and free community based software - You can use rConfig for configuration backups.

Regards

==========================
http://www.rConfig.com 

A free, open source network device configuration management tool, customizable to your needs!

- Always vote on an answer if you found it helpful

[SOcchiogrosso]

There is also PRTG Network Monitor & Nagios are other good ones.

--
CCNP, CCIP, CCDP, CCNA: Security/Wireless
Blog: http://ccie-or-null.net/

[sangra]

You can have a look at Cisco Prime Network

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11879/index.html

[Marvin Rhoads]

When folks ask about monitoring in a non-specific way, it's often useful to step back and look at the bigger context. Network management is often defined in terms of an FCAPS model - Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security.

For a small network such as the OP desribes, an enterprise level product such as Cisco Prime (either Infrastructure or LMS) may be a bit of overkill.

Depending on the product types involved, Cisco offers a few tools (such as Cisco Network Assistant and Cisco Configuration Professional) that address some of these elements. They are mostly realtime performance thought and do not archive or trend data.

If you want to stitch together a couple of point solutions you can use something like Stephen's rconfig (or the more widely used RANCID) for configuration management. The most popular and relatively easy to use tool for performance monitoring is Cacti. Nagios, mentioned above, is good for fault management. Note here that Fault and Performance are two different domains.

[Don Jacob]

With Solarwinds NPM and ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, I believe the basic monitoring requirements of any network has already been accounted for.

NPM can give you information on the device health, CPU and memory utilization, errors, discards, and also alert you when a link or even the device itself is down. ManageEngine NetFlow covers performance aspects from the traffic side. You get information on traffic speed, utilization, top talkers, top applications, etc.

Other than these, you can consider adding QoS policy monitoring, IP SLA monitoring for VoIP, WAN and even Video (This is Cisco specific and only if you need to see branch to branch performance), some tools for configuration management, compliance and auditing and finally something for switch port monitoring and unrelated to the devices, you could consider IP Address management.

Do remember that my suggestions of other tools/monitoring is mostly not needed for a small network and you would be fine with NPM and NetFlow for a long time. But when your network starts growing, then those are the tools you will mostly need.

Regards,

Don Thomas Jacob

www.netflowanalyzer.com

NOTE: Please rate posts and close questions if you have got your answer.

[CARL VON HASSEL]

Another good tool is ManageEngine OpUtils. Great for IP address and switchport management. It has other tools as well. If money is a concern then there are numerous Linux tools. Of course these typically require more work to setup and manage.

[stephen.stack]

Carl,

I am afraid you are incorrect in one thing. Linux tools are not typically more work to setup and manage. My last installation of Solarwinds NCM took 3.5 hours to completed. I needed a windows OS install, SQL, various Dotnet services packs then the NCM install and configuration. Take rConfig for example. A novice Linux user can have it up and running in a little over an hour. Cacti is the same as well as many other comparable network tools for Linux.

Linux troublshooting on the whole is a lot easier than windows application an OS troubleshooting also. And you dont even need to be a pro.

Regards

==========================
http://www.rConfig.com 

A free, open source network device configuration management tool, customizable to your needs!

- Always vote on an answer if you found it helpful

[CARL VON HASSEL]

Stephen,

My apologies if I caused some confusion. I didn't intend to say all Linux tools take longer to setup and manage. What I should have said were the "freeware" Linux tools took me longer to setup and manage. In truth when I purchased a Linux tool they typically were quicker to setup and manage than other OSes. In my opinion these applications are usually more customizable as well. I am not endorsing one OS over any other this has just been my experience. I also think it would be expected that a freeware version of an application (ex. syslog-ng) would ttake more time to get up and running.

Carl

[stephen.stack]

No apologies needed. And i agree with your comments Just needed to make my point also my friend.

Regards

==========================
http://www.rConfig.com 

A free, open source network device configuration management tool, customizable to your needs!

- Always vote on an answer if you found it helpful