Network Monitoring Comparison – Solarwinds and Netmon – Netmon

Functionality Comparison

Solarwinds NPM (Version 11.5)

The Solarwinds network performance monitor application typically targets enterprise-level environments rather than small and mid-sized companies. The product is primarily designed to monitor the performance of network devices. If a company needs to monitor actual network traffic, application monitoring, or other forms of monitoring such as eventlog / syslog monitoring, they would need to use a different product and / or purchase additional modules within the Solarwinds suite. These include Netflow Traffic Analysis, WAN and VoIP QoS performance monitoring, Log & Event Manager as well as several other modules. Although Solarwinds provides network packet analysis with their Quality of Experience module, this feature requires a sensor to be installed on each individual servers or dedicated machine / network device to provide traffic analysis. When tested, the configuration for the QoE module requires the user to configure every type of network traffic (network protocol) that they wish to monitor / analyze on a per device basis. In a large network environment, configuring sensors for ALL different types of network traffic for hundreds (/ thousands) of devices would be a daunting and time consuming task. Support for Netflow Traffic analysis – Solarwinds has an additional module / application called the Netflow Traffic Analyzer (currently at version 4.1.2) available for an additional cost that can be integrated with the NPM product to provide a more enriched level of traffic analysis. This software supports Cisco® NetFlow, Juniper® J-Flow,sFlow®, Huawei NetStream™ & IP FIX flow data. The data collector captures and analyzes the flow data that is integrated into most routers and converts that data into easy-to-interpret charts and tables that quantify how the network is being used, by whom and for what purpose. Network Availability & Performance Monitoring – Solarwinds monitors network device and interface availability, performance indicators such as bandwidth utilization, packet loss, latency, errors, discards, CPU, and memory for SNMP and WMI-enabled devices. Syslog Monitoring – Solarwinds has an additional module / application (Kiwi Syslog Server) available for an additional $295.00 per install cost that receives syslog messages and SNMP traps from network devices (routers, switches, firewalls, etc.), and Linux®/Unix® hosts. You can filter and view these messages based on time, hostname, severity, etc., and set up custom alerts. Solarwinds Home Dashboard Solarwinds Event Viewer Solarwinds Top 10 Lists Solarwinds Environment Dashboard

The Solarwinds network performance monitor application typically targets enterprise-level environments rather than small and mid-sized companies. The product is primarily designed to monitor the performance of network devices. If a company needs to monitor actual network traffic, application monitoring, or other forms of monitoring such as eventlog / syslog monitoring, they would need to use a different product and / or purchase additional modules within the Solarwinds suite. These include Netflow Traffic Analysis, WAN and VoIP QoS performance monitoring, Log & Event Manager as well as several other modules. Although Solarwinds provides network packet analysis with their Quality of Experience module, this feature requires a sensor to be installed on each individual servers or dedicated machine / network device to provide traffic analysis. When tested, the configuration for the QoE module requires the user to configure every type of network traffic (network protocol) that they wish to monitor / analyze on a per device basis. In a large network environment, configuring sensors for ALL different types of network traffic for hundreds (/ thousands) of devices would be a daunting and time consuming task.Solarwinds has an additional module / application called the Netflow Traffic Analyzer (currently at version 4.1.2) available for an additional cost that can be integrated with the NPM product to provide a more enriched level of traffic analysis. This software supports Cisco® NetFlow, Juniper® J-Flow,sFlow®, Huawei NetStream™ & IP FIX flow data. The data collector captures and analyzes the flow data that is integrated into most routers and converts that data into easy-to-interpret charts and tables that quantify how the network is being used, by whom and for what purpose.Solarwinds monitors network device and interface availability, performance indicators such as bandwidth utilization, packet loss, latency, errors, discards, CPU, and memory for SNMP and WMI-enabled devices.Solarwinds has an additional module / application (Kiwi Syslog Server) available for an additional $295.00 per install cost that receives syslog messages and SNMP traps from network devices (routers, switches, firewalls, etc.), and Linux®/Unix® hosts. You can filter and view these messages based on time, hostname, severity, etc., and set up custom alerts.