netoptics: a review

 network administration, security  No Responses »
Oct 132011
 

recently i was asked to implement a solution to mirror a massive amount of traffic (2-8Gbps of sustained traffic) to several different locations for further analysis.

after comparing gigamon, netoptics, and network critical, i opted for netoptics to fill the roll (because of time i could not do a proof of concept, so the evaluation through reading specs, talking to a few techs, and some googling).

i have spent time over the last few weeks configuring the netoptics and thought it would be worth sharing my experience for someone else’s benefit.

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network monitoring

 network administration  No Responses »
Feb 232010
 

a few months ago i was looking for a network monitoring tool for reporting and alerting reasons.

for example, if a servers ping response time was over 70ms, i wanted an email. or if i wanted to be alerted if a windows service crashed but the box stayed up, something that would sms/text me to let me know. all that and have a nice, pretty heads up display (hud) for management.

i did not find it hard to find software to do this. i did find it hard to get software that would do this for a reasonable price that was easy to set up.

i did try and go the free route at first. one free solution that was free was a tool called “the dude” (http://www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php, bonus points for a good name). if you are running a small shop or can get no budget, it does a lot of things pretty well.

other free options that will do what i was looking for, are open source (which i like and try to support), but require more time and setup that i was interested in investing were:

a good example of why i opted not to use either was the wmi plugins. i tinkered with using wmi to monitor some things, and while it was possible, it was a headache and the thought of doing that on the scale i was looking at was not at all appealing.

so i moved on and decided to look at paid versions and see what they could offer.

after searching around and comparing my options, i ended up testing out and ultimately purchasing a tool called prtg network monitor 7.2.6 by paessler (http://www.paessler.com/prtg)

here are a few of the things i use prtg for.

  • wmi monitoring of cpu, memory, and disk utilization
  • monitors network throughput via snmp (for what i was looking for, just as effective and easier than netflow)
  • ping response times
  • windows service monitoring through wmi (great if a box stays up but a service crashes)
  • vmware esx/esxi/virtualcenter monitoring
  • file/folder/process monitoring via wmi
  • http monitoring (deeper than just “is the page up?”, lets you look for error messages, authenticate, etc.)
  • microsoft sql/oracle/mysql monitoring
  • microsoft exchange monitoring
  • port availability
  • graphing & historical data (again, pictures for management)
  • setup and population of information/devices was *very* good

and, if something you need isn’t there, you can write your own plugins.

prtg did everything i needed and more, and at a fraction of the cost of other tools like ipswitch’s whats up gold or solarwinds orion network monitor

two things i can mention that i don’t like about prtg

  • the windows app – it looks like paessler put together a web app (and one i like) then decided to write a windows app just so they could say they had it. its kludgey, feature-less, and way less practical to use than the web interface. at this point a waste of time to use.
  • the mapping features – one thing i really wanted was to be able to do a heads up display to have something bright and shiny to show management, and something that was easy for us as administrators to see quickly where the problem was. ultimately i was able to accomplish getting together a good hud for this purpose, but not without quite a bit of effort. so much effort in fact, that i felt compelled to email mr. dirk paessler and tell him “hey, love the product, hate the cumbersome mapping”. he did respond, and said that yes, the mapping leaves a lot to be desired, but it would be improved in the next major version. all ceo’s would say that, i image. i hope he backs it up.

obviously prtg has a lot more features that i am not mentioning, but those have been the ones that i can speak for.

in conclusion, after running prtg for 3+ months in production, i am very happy with it. i does everything we need as a company, and all at a reasonable price. while i can live with the sketchy windows app, the mapping really should be straitened out, but even with that drawback i can recommend prtg to others without reservations.

here is some propaganda from the prtg website (although i can say its true in my experience): http://media.paessler.com/common/files/pdf/NWC-test-2009-EN_r805.pdf