SolarWinds NPM Reviews

I love the GUI. Almost everything is accessible through the web interface. It is very user-friendly. It is easy to drag and drop resources wherever you want them.

NPM also includes additional features that come in handy, such as a web SSH console, SYSLOG and trap collectors, and Wireless Heat Maps.

A new feature has now been included called NetPath. This allows you to see the status of a path all the way to an endpoint, even through the internet. This is awesome!

I like having the ability to add custom pollers for anything.

I also like how SolarWinds is integrating all of their products together so you don't have to go different places to get to each monitoring solution.

HA was also added, but there is still a little way to go with that.

I have been able to customize so many things using SolarWinds. I have set up baseline configurations and quickly remediated devices against them. I am using the SYSLOG and trap functions for my non-priority devices. I have NetPath set up to cloud services, so that I know who is at fault when something is down, such as a website, email services, and SaaS.

SolarWinds has also allowed us to be proactive, because now we can spot issues before the user tells us.

I think there needs to be more granularity in the permission sets in almost all of the SolarWinds products. I want to be able to specify almost everything that a specific user group can do. I am being a little picky with this, as there are some permissions that can be set. I just want more.

The reporting is good, but I want it to be a little easier when creating custom reports. The reports are all on the website now, but it takes some know how to get some to display the way you would like.

I have been using SolarWinds products since the implementation of the Engineer's Toolset in one of my environments in 2004.

The latest release was the smoothest deployment I have ever done. I have now installed NPM 12.0.1 in 6 different environments and all went very well.

The only times I have had issues with stability have been when I did not apply adequate resources. There is no real all-inclusive recommendation to go by. You really need an experienced consultant to look at your specific environment to spec out what would work best for you. If you don't, you will probably have issues.

I have NOT encountered any scalability issues. I have always speced out at least double of what was required at that time. This has allowed me to add more and more to the SolarWinds architecture. SolarWinds does scale very easily with additional pollers.

Customer service has gotten a lot better. They recently revamped that area.

Some tickets take longer than I would like to get resolved, but compared to other vendors, it is very good. I usually have a major fix done in a few days. Minor things are fixed the same day. Then there is always the Thwack community that can be used to find answers to almost anything. I use that way more than tech support.

The techs in tech support are very knowledgeable. I have almost always had good experiences with them.

I have used numerous other products to do some of the same functions. I have used WhatsUp Gold, LogicMonitor, HPE OpenView, CiscoWorks, LMS, Spiceworks, PRTG, ManageEngine OpManager, Splunk, CA Spectrum, Zenoss Service Dynamics, etc. Nothing really compares to the cost-effectiveness that SolarWinds gives you. Their cost structure and customization ability is what sways me to SolarWinds. There are some areas that are done better in other products but overall, SolarWinds is better.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward, as long as all of your devices are set up properly to talk to SolarWinds. However, it does get complex when you start configuring customizations for your environment. You have that with any product. The great thing is that SolarWinds ALLOWS you to customize.

I did implementation in-house, but I am not an average user. I have been using this product in various places for years. I would recommend a SolarWinds consultant to get the most out of the product.

I feel that you see your ROI in the first month. SolarWinds gives you a place to look to find your problems. It eliminates a lot of the guessing when troubleshooting. It gives you historic and real-time data. Alerts are your friend and you get alerted BEFORE the user calls to complain.

The price points are more than competitive when compared to other vendors. You get so much more for, in most cases, so much less. You can buy the level of license that you need and upgrade very easily when you need to. The support is also included for 1 year after you purchase the license, even when upgrading. Maintenance costs after that are pretty normal, at around 20% of the cost of the product.

Before choosing, I did an extensive evaluation against 9 other products. Most are listed elsewhere in this review. This was by far the most cost-effective solution that met all of our monitoring needs.

Make sure you have a very good machine for your database server. It will most likely use the most resources. As you add more modules, the database will grow and there will be more transactions being written with each module. You want to use RAID 10.

Ensure you have the correct resources allocated to the SolarWinds server, as well. When you spec out your machines, double that for growth. Once you start using SolarWinds, you will want to invest in other modules.

Also, you should really get a SolarWinds consultant a least for your initial install. SolarWinds is great out-of-the-box, but you really need some expertise to get the most out of it for your environment. SolarWinds is a great product that can do a lot. Customization is almost limitless.

The most valuable features are ease of implementation, strong out-of-the-box reporting, and the ability to customize the GUI.

From a platform standpoint, the integration of NPM with the other SolarWinds modules is very strong, seamless, and valuable in presenting a single pane of glass for network, application, and database performance and availability.

We're a small enough company that it would be difficult for a single person, or even a small team, to attempt to tie data together from different software products in the way that SolarWinds does.

We no longer have to ask questions about who is using bandwidth/CPU, what application is driving that usage, and how our databases perform as a result of that usage. We have completely eliminated any blind spots in the operation of our core networks, applications, and platforms.

I would like to see stronger integration with SolarWinds LEM. This would be a nice-to-have integration at this point. This is really the only product with which it is not integrated.

When one looks at the entire suite of SolarWinds products, what we've seen
over the past several years is an ongoing theme of integration - as
modules like SAM, NCM, IPAM, VMAN, DPA, and others benefit full integration
into the base NPM product - allowing a user to leverage
application/database-specific performance metrics into views, reports, and
alerts.

When I say that LEM would be a nice addition, that's precisely what I mean is
- right now, there is no method for view integration, correlation, or cross-platform data sharing between the LEM appliance and our NPM
installation.

In other words, say I'm looking at the Node Details view on one of my domain controllers. It would be excellent to have one of the
widgets in that node details page pull in the last XX events LEM has on
the node in question.

I have used NPM since 2004 and have leveraged it at multiple workplaces since.

We have not had any stability issues. It's been a predictably solid platform across software revisions, even with the jump from 11.x to 12.x. That upgrade also included a complete graphical update for the console.

We did not have any scalability issues. We're monitoring thousands of elements across three continents with one poller and we have had no scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of 7 out of 10. When I get on the phone with a support engineer, I'm usually impressed with their level of knowledge in providing a timely resolution to customer issues. The secret is to get on the phone first if you need something solved the same day.

I've used HPE OpenView and PRTG in the past. My reason for switching was a combination of ease of use, customizability, and integration between network/application/DB monitoring and measurement.

The setup is straightforward almost to a fault. If you can follow directions, you can set this platform up in a day and start getting usable information.

It's not as cheap as some solutions, but the value you get is excellent. Licensing increases are largely painless and are easy to accomplish.

Identify the business/organizational problems you're looking to solve. Build your graphs and reports with an eye toward those problems. This creates business value almost immediately.

The SolarWinds product is easy to deploy and the product features are quite granular. We can dig deep into the infrastructure and at the data level, or we can aggregate and come higher up and look at all the trends and analysis of what it provides.

The integration with the APIs and the web servers deployed can definitely be improved.

I've been using the solution for three years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

It is a highly scalable product. Users can use something like F5 or load balancing. That gives you failover and similar infrastructure for disaster recovery as well. It's very, very scalable and stable product.

Usually, NPM users will be fewer as they're all network engineers. The solution doesn't require hundreds of users. We have about eight to nine. However, we deploy SolarWinds with a lot of clients. If you look at our clientele and our own user base in NPM, we must have had more than 100 users on this product between clients.

Technical support is excellent. 

SolarWinds wants its partners and resellers to succeed. They give you all the support, all the training for free. It's really, really, really good.

One of the competing products for this solution is Cisco SecureX. We have used it in the past.

The setup and deployment are quite simple. 

It's straightforward, however, you need to have networking knowledge. If you have knowledge of the network, then it's straightforward. It's a great product.

On a medium-sized enterprise, for one of our clients, we deployed it in three hours.

We've got our own engineers to handle the setup. However, whether we set IP up or not all depends on the client. If they define everything properly, the delays are not with the product. The product actually answers a lot of the client's questions and helps the client determine what they should be doing.

You've got the annual license, and then you've got a perpetual license as well. The pricing is very affordable.

There is no extra cost beyond the licensing. 

It is the latest version. The latest version comes with observability as part of the package. It's SolarWinds attempt to bring all its products under one platform. We've kind of become quite an expert in the area.

We are a provider of SolarWinds. We are an MSSP and also a reseller. It depends on what the client wants. 

We want to launch it as an MSSP for SMEs, and small companies who can't really afford a full install. We just doing a SaaS model so they can deploy it at cost to SMEs.

I'd advise potential users to use the one-month free trial and get a company like us to do a proof of concept and then do the NPM, application monitoring, log monitoring, et cetera. One by one, pick up all the products and integrate them.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

I use SolarWinds for monitoring. We have around 300 people at my company. 

I like the NPM and SAM features. 

The integration with video apps could be better.

I have used SolarWinds NPM for one year. 

SolarWinds NPM is stable.

SolarWinds NPM is scalable.

I rate SolarWinds support nine out of 10. SolarWinds support is excellent. 

Positive

The SolarWinds deployment was straightforward and took about two weeks. One support engineer can handle it. 

SolarWinds is reasonably priced. 

We considered Dotcom-Monitor, but we went with SolarWinds for financial reasons. 

I rate SolarWinds NPM eight out of 10. Before implementing SolarWinds, do your homework and compare it with other products. Contact the technical accounts manager and find out the latest features so you can see the pros and cons. 

We use the solution for our network. It's for P2P networks or our servers to our network.

It can be a monitoring tool that just monitors for us at the moment, checking what the issue is or where the issue is. It is managed by a third party. Basically, it just gives us a view of what the site is. We can see our server connection and whether it's up or not. It's just checking if the servers are up or not and if the network is up or not. It's not doing too much else.

The solution is very user-friendly. 

When it pinpoints something, I will get an email alert. I'll immediately know what the problem is and be able to do something. 

The pricing is great. 

We were looking for some sort of endpoint monitoring as well. it would be nice if that was covered. We'd like to have more security when it comes to ADR. 

We'd like to see a bit more automation in the future. 

Sometimes, if the problem isn't on our side, it doesn't provide a very clear problem in terms of what the issue is. 

I've been using the solution for about two years. 

It's been very stable and reliable. I'd rate the stability ten out of ten. It doesn't crash or freeze. There aren't bugs. 

We just have one user on the solution who monitors it. Three of us can cover it at any given time. It's web-based. 

A third party helped with the initial setup, and they handled everything. I'm not sure how the deployment worked. 

The initial setup was done by a third party. 

The pricing is decent. We chose to use it based on the price. I can't speak to the exact cost, however, I can say it is very reasonable. 

I'm a customer and end-user.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using. 

As a user, I would recommend the solution as it is user-friendly and easily understandable. It will tell you exactly what the issue is and where. It's quite useful. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

• How easy it is to get good metrics out of it.
• How extensible it is.
• There are many different ways to customize it to fit your environment.

Compared to many products, SolarWinds is very simple to use. When you add a node in NPM, it is easy to get it to start monitoring everything it supports and you very quickly see the results of this in the graphs and such. When you want to get some special things out of a box, let's say the number of connections on a ASA firewall, you can very easily add a UnDP, add it as a graph to your screen, and see the results right away. This is a real-world example, because the company I worked with was having Internet problems with our main firewalls due to maxing out the number of connections going through the box. Having it graphically presented makes it easy, though.

That was one way of customizing it, via UnDPs. Another, that I did a bunch of at my previous job, and ended up making generic versions of and posting on THWACK, is the ability to add new resources. Any given page within NPM can be customized by clicking "Customize" and you can add quite a few prepackaged resources to a page or change their order around to better fit you. You might even want to delete some. But, if you get to be a SW geek like myself, you start realizing that SW doesn't always display every bit of info that it has by browsing through the SQL tables and seeing what’s there. Nowadays, you can do this either directly with SQL, or via SWQL, which is a bastardized SQL that has pre-built relationships between the tables set up in a way that is very easy to leverage without complex joins and such in SQL. From that, you can do some very simple to very complex things.

An example of a simple thing I did, was I built a "CDP Neighbor" resource, which, if you click on the Node Details page, it tells you what devices are directly connected to it via the CDP protocol. Plus, SolarWinds made it simple for me to link to those nodes and you can basically traverse from node to node within SolarWinds looking at stuff.

Before NPM, we had to spend quite a bit of time using freeware tools, because there wasn't anything that offered the features we needed at a price point we were willing to pay. Most were far too expensive. Because of this, we only monitored some key devices and links. With SolarWinds, it’s easy to monitor everything and, with a little setup, everyone can help out. NTA brought things up a notch. Rather than seeing there was too much bandwidth being used and trying to guess what it was through diagnostics on the device and guesswork, we can see what is consuming all the bandwidth and easily relate it back to a specific user or device.

The module UIs can have different features based on what module you're in. I'd love to see feature parity between them. Selecting nodes, for instance. In NPM, you can use one criteria for grouping, while in NCM, you can group in multiple levels.

More granular permissions! I'd like to see a role-based system where you can granularly apply permissions for administrative tasks and be able to assign these roles to people. Just because you need to edit a node doesn't mean you should have full admin permissions!

Stability depends on the module/version. In general, it is very stable if you wait a bit before upgrading to the latest version and let some patches come out. There has been a problem in NCM when you deploy compliance remediation jobs to a large number of nodes that use config blocks that has persisted through a couple updates. But this is a pretty advanced feature.

We haven’t had scalability problems so far. The different jobs I've been in have had very different environments in terms of scale and this solution works at any level.

Technical support is very good. It might take a bit of time for initial contact, if you don't classify the severity high enough and don't call them. But a phone call will always rectify that.

At the different jobs I’ve had, it was a mishmash of different freeware tools and things like CiscoWorks/Prime or WhatsUp Gold.

Basic setup is a breeze for most folks!

In general, pricing is pretty good. Although, the jobs I've been at have usually had unlimited licenses. I have heard some people have issues with the pricing and licensing of another module (SAM).

We evaluated WhatsUp Gold and Cisco brand tools.

Download a demo and have fun! It’s easy to use and gives great outcomes.

I work as a technical consultant, and I suggest customers use SolarWinds NPM for cybersecurity monitoring purposes. We deploy it to monitor all network equipment, such as routers, switches, firewalls, and NetFlow within the network.

SolarWinds NPM is a very effective solution for monitoring. The interface is user-friendly, deployment is easy, and the support from SolarWinds is great, especially within India.

The most valuable feature is the user-friendly interface and the ease of deployment. Additionally, the support from SolarWinds has been very helpful.

SolarWinds NPM should be more flexible to accommodate specific customer requirements quickly. It would be beneficial if their development team could develop solutions within a limited time, like three to five months. This flexibility is sometimes missing compared to local developers in India.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for two years.

The stability of SolarWinds NPM is very good; I would rate it 7.5 out of ten.

The scalability of the solution could be more flexible. I would rate it around 6.5 to seven out of ten.

Customer service is good, but there is room for improvement. Sometimes, customers look for on-premises support directly from SolarWinds rather than through third parties or partners.

Neutral

The initial setup is relatively easy. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it eight to 8.5.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We use SolarWinds NPM for network monitoring.

The most valuable features of the solution are its graphical interface and reports.

The solution's customer service is not very good because the support takes too long. The solution needs to provide better training videos, especially on creating individual reports. It would be good if reporting were made easier with SolarWinds NPM.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for five years.

SolarWinds NPM is a very stable solution.

I rate the solution ten out of ten for stability.

I am the main user of SolarWinds NPM in our organization.

I rate the solution a five out of ten for scalability.

The solution’s customer support is not very good.

Negative

The solution’s initial setup is easy.

SolarWinds NPM is very expensive, and we pay ten thousand yearly.

The solution’s maintenance is easy. The solution can be easily integrated with other services like Cisco. There are issues with the solution's updates, and our security team has not approved them. So, we are waiting for the new version to be approved.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.