Recommendation of NMS product for topology discovery?

[gwhuang5398]

I have a LAN/WAN environment where majority of devices are Catalyst 3750 and 4500 switches, and 2800 and 2900 routers. There are some ASA firewalls, UC servers, WLC, and Dell EqualLogic storage arrays as well. Future plan may include Nexus switches as core data center switches (mostly on LAN side, not SAN side).

Currently I'm using SolarWinds to monitor link utilization. We are trying to find a management product that can do the following, hopefully for all the devices mentioned. What are your recommendations? Thanks in advance.

- automatic discovery of network topology;

- link utilization monitoring;

- device utilization monitoring;

- device inventory;

- configuration backup;

- software upgrade.

[AFROJ AHMAD]

Hi ,

Check these post, it will help

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12102126/monitoring-tool-suggestion

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12102926/cisco-network-discovery-tool

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12082171/cisco-device-monitoring-software

Thanks-

Afroz

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[Marvin Rhoads]

Since you already have SolarWinds (I'm guessing Orion NPM from how you describe it), you would be best off just adding their Network Configuration Manager (NCM) product.

NPM already covers the first three items on your desired functions list; NCM will cover the second three.

UC servers (if they're Cisco UCS) are best upgraded using the UCS Manager - not any third party tool. Similarly your Equalogic Array is best managed with the PS Group Manager tool.

[gwhuang5398]

The SolarWinds I have is an older version called IP Monitor v10.8.2. Not sure if it's similar to Orion NPM. Any advice with either one?

How is CiscoWorks compared to SolarWinds suites?

[AFROJ AHMAD]

as per my knowledge ,Ciscoworks  is far far better then solarwinds

check the below conversation:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/9806776/solarwinds-tools-any-good

Thanks-

Afroz

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[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

Wow Afroz that's a link to an 8-year old thread!

I've used SolarWinds' various products and Cisco's products (Prime LMS, Prime Infrastructure and many others) quite a bit. I have to say each has its strengths. I've not used the entry level SolarWinds products like IP Monitor or Cattools much at all.

The strength of SolarWinds is generally speaking, it's a bit easier to setup and use. It is also multi-vendor from the start. Cisco's multi-vendor support is recent and much more limited. On the other hand, Cisco is the most advanced as far as leveraging the Cisco technology solutions like NBAR, Medianet, etc. (Although SolarWinds NTA does a really good job at helping you deploy IP SLA).

SolarWinds NCM is both more advanced and easy to use (in my opinion) than the equivalent functions in either Cisco Prime Infrastructure or LMS.

Either vendor has free trial versions - check them out and make the best decision for your needs.