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NMS Team Leader at KORE Telematics Inc.
Real User
Easy to use and deploy with helpful technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is pretty stable."
  • "The pricing has recently risen. I know they've changed what is covered under the license, however, it doesn't change the way we use it and adds nothing to our experience, and yet we now have to pay more."

What is our primary use case?

The company used to use ManageEngine, however, it was not delivering what we were really trying to produce. The benefit of Nagios is, as we are an MVNO company, an MVME company actually, we actually had to deliver monitoring based on in-house solutions. We needed to write code over our own monitoring solution. Nagios has provided us a little bit of that help as, in our proof of concept, it proved to be useful due to the fact that it's easier also for the network operations center to understand the type of monitors that are being raised. I recall we had a number of POCs at the time, and Nagios seemed to be the perfect candidate and therefore we kept using it.

What is most valuable?

It's easy to use. You provide what you want and you can monitor what you really want. 

As long as you develop your own codes, it is fine. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

The solution is pretty stable.

Technical support is helpful. 

What needs improvement?

The pricing has recently risen. I know they've changed what is covered under the license, however, it doesn't change the way we use it and adds nothing to our experience, and yet we now have to pay more.

An optional delivery from their end in order to greatly produce some sort of a HA, high availability solution, would be ideal. At present, if I have a solution and Nagios is instanced in a particular data center and another Nagios solution in another data center, when you buy the license, you can eventually have different types of licenses. One will be a stand-by and the other will be a disaster recovery solution. What's missing from the Nagios side is the idea of having some sort of synchronization between the two instances. 

If I have a stand-by solution and I need ticketing as an active solution, I need to do many things manually. For example, I need to manually do ticketing on the backup and restore it on the other. It would be a good idea for some sort of mechanism, like a sort of clustering, which can help a lot for people out there who need something in an active-standby solution. I'm not sure this will be available out there even on other solutions, like Zabbix, for example, That said, I don't think they're really digging into this kind of scenario.

When you start deploying thousands of monitors, especially in a big company, for example, you have to take care, as that you cannot keep on pushing into one solution. It can become inefficient. They say it's specifically that when you skip an X amount of monitors, Nagios starts behaving differently. 

I really don't like the idea of the certification provided by them. As a company and as a team lead, I have other people who were interested in doing some certifications, coming from the management. However, they did not provide any sort of training, which gives you the independence to do an exam. It's like they just provide a simple document for you to read and then just to apply in the exam, just to be Nagios certified. On top of that, that kind of document is very old. I asked them if they had anything up-to-date. They told me that's what they have even though it's clear it's very old quality for the current engine that Nagios is currently built on. There were quite a number of upgrades - at least five. At the same time, Zabbix certification offers you training beforehand and then you can opt for either a certification or an exam.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution since about 2018. It's been about three or four years at this point.

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Nagios XI
October 2024
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

For the most part, the solution is stable. There were some cases with stability, especially, for example, unexpected issues that you are not aware of at first. All of a sudden you notice that just as an example, the graphs are not actually graphing, all of a sudden. That said, it's very, very, very minimal. We don't experience big issues with Nagios. And yet, it is why we introduced the idea of having a geo-redundancy solution, so that we can also, if something happens, immediately switch and then concentrate to work efficiently on the one having issues.

How are customer service and support?

We use the support forum. In fact, it's part of the license. Even if you're just a member of the forum, you can still receive quick responses. We use it a lot and we ask questions. I can say that I'm happy with the way they eventually reply to you as they at least help, in any case. We had situations where we used support while we debugged everything ourselves. Through the years, and in 2008, we started merging all of our stuff onto the Nagios platform. Truthfully, in the last three to four years, I haven't seen that many massive issues. The platform is quite stable. Therefore, we don't use support too much.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used ManageEngine.

I'm also familiar with Zabbix, for example, as it's quite the same concept. The difference is that maybe Nagios was a little bit easier for deployments.

We did a POC with DataDog as well and have begun to work with BigPanda.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not overly complex. It's pretty straightforward. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is the Nagios Core, which is free. Then, of course, you have the Nagios XI, which is paid.

I found that lately when we went to renew the license, the difference was a little bit higher. It was around a higher percentage different than last year. That made us a little bit concerned. For a point in time, I was just checking to see if there is something that might go head to head with Nagios and maybe be a little bit cheaper. While browsing and checking out a few, I met also with the Pandora MS and looked at it as a less expensive option.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I've been looking at this solution in comparison to Pandora.

What other advice do I have?

We are a customer of Nagios, actually. We provide the monitoring solution within the company.

It's a virtualized solution, however, it's not really on a cloud as we typically have our own data centers. We applied it on a Hypervisor platform. It's a virtualized solution. Then, of course, we opt for the redundancy part by having different data centers. 

It's the same setup as Zabbix as well. Typically, you have a number of data centers globally, and then you concentrate it, for example, in our case, to various data centers and we usually do redundancy for. Therefore, we have the active solution and the standby solution, just in case there is a disaster.

If you are a mid-sied company with an eye on expansion, this solution is very good. I'd recommend it to others. it's easy to use and to deploy.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1088403 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT, Projects and Organization at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Collects large amounts of data to monitor our network, switches, and firewall
Pros and Cons
  • "An excellent solution that is easy and intuitive to implement."
  • "They need more documentation for the plugins."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution in order to collect large amounts of data to monitor our network, switches, and firewall.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides an easy and powerful solution to network monitoring so I can pay attention to other concerns.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the setup wizard. The wizard just asks you for simple details and automatically starts collecting logs. It will give you some hints to configure your login on remote devices.

What needs improvement?

For enterprise users, the product would be better if it came with dedicated plugins. It has an online store for plugins and additional features, but most of the plugins we have are mostly open source. These open source plugins do not have a lot of documentation. We have to try to figure out how to use them on our own. They have good documentation for their own products and because of that, we have details to easily use their product as they have a guide. There is no documentation on the plugin site. They need more documentation for the plugins.

Besides that, there's nothing more that I would add as the product covers my current needs. Maybe I would like a lower price. That is maybe a problem they could fix.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the product for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have absolutely no problem with the stability of the solution. I have no problem with the system or the setup. I want to do more to master the system and harness its capability, but that is my limitation.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is very good but is very expensive. It is becoming more and more expensive just like the upgrade. The incredibly high prices are a very bad move on their part. I know everything is got to go up but this seems too much at a time. They also have some requirements for the support licensing that is very complicated. You have to have a password and you pay for a limited number of calls. For the price they are selling it, It should be okay to call them anytime.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was very straightforward. We did not have to create a complicated strategy. We just installed the server and add the devices that were most urgent for me to monitor. I just added the devices and it was as simple as that.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it on our own in a very short period of time.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The license and support are very expensive. You pay separately for each and the licensing is a little complicated. With a company like Cisco which may be expensive, the support is included. This product costs more than even Cisco. The support is not as easy to contact.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

It is hard not to consider other solutions now because of the advice of other CIOs and their experience with open source products that save them a lot of money. It may not always save time because they can be more difficult to use. That can be a trade-off.

What other advice do I have?

The price of the licensing is very high, even for a big company. There are good open source products in the market that we could use for free and other companies I know are using them because of the price. Mostly because of the price of the product and the cost of tech support, I would rate this an eight out of ten. The product itself is very good.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
William Linn - PeerSpot reviewer
William LinnEnterprise System Management at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Top 20Consultant

I've installed it in my cloud environments, unfortunately, I cannot render the GUI back to my Mac or Windows system. Definitely doesn't work for use with my Termux. Wouldn't consider it as enterprise-level software.

Buyer's Guide
Nagios XI
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Nagios XI. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Assistant Director at unpa
Real User
Monitors all of the necessary statuses for our servers and provides email notification for errors
Pros and Cons
  • "This is a very good solution and it is simple to use, for any company."
  • "I would like to see support for notification via SMS."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for monitoring the status of our hard drives, as well as bandwidth utilization. Essentially, we monitor all of the necessary statuses for our servers.

What is most valuable?

This solution is very good for monitoring infrastructure. It is simply to use, and you can receive notifications by email.

What needs improvement?

This solution would be improved with the inclusion of additional services. Monitoring streaming services is an example of something that is not currently supported, so in order to handle this, I would have to write a script. Scripts like this should be included in the next version of the solution.

I would like to see support for notification via SMS. 

For how long have I used the solution?

Eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable, although sometimes we have had problems with the database in cases where we had a large number of roles and services. There have been cases of database corruption that had to be repaired.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is very good, and I have no problem with it. The configuration is such that you can add hosts or monitoring services very easily.

We have four security administrators who use this system.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not needed to contact technical support. There are webinars and other information available that I have made use of. If you have a problem then you can copy and paste the error into a search engine and find the solution easily.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used other solutions from vendors such as McAfee, but Nagios XI is the best solution when compared with others.

How was the initial setup?

I feel that the initial setup is difficult for a beginner. You must be skilled at using the Linux operating system to install and start up the solution.

What about the implementation team?

I performed the installation myself, learning about it from a webinar that was available online.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am in the process of testing a large number of solutions, and this is the best one.

What other advice do I have?

This is a very good solution and it is simple to use, for any company. It is also very stable and you can monitor a large number of services with no problem. You can also create many users and have them receive notification by email. It's very good.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1467417 - PeerSpot reviewer
reviewer1467417IT-OSS Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Real User

Scalability of this solution can be done by several ways:


1. Using Nagios Fusion: You can install several instance of Nagios (XI or Core) and then you can add them to Fusion. Now you can see all the results of all instances in a single panel. You can use several Nagios Core without any payment and just buy this product from Nagios, now you can have a good UI include single panel for your monitoring systems. (This solution includes payment to Nagios for Fusion product)


2. Using Mod Gearman: You can install Mod Gearman module on your server an install Mod Gearman Workers on other servers as Worker (Poller) server. Now Nagios (XI or Core) can spread all the Host and service monitoring checks to Worker servers. This solution used to distribute the monitoring solution and suitable for large scale (more than 4K Hosts include their services). I'm using this solution now for more than 24K Hosts and 16 services for each host on a single instance of Nagios XI. (This Solution is free of charge)


3. Federated Monitoring: In this model, remote networks and their elements are monitored by dedicated Nagios servers. Each remote Nagios server may be managed by central NOC staff or by the client. Notifications, reports, and configuration is generally handled by each remote Nagios server. Now Remote Nagios servers can be configured to transfer check results (status information) back to a central Nagios XI server at the NOC. This allows NOC staff to have a birds-eye view of the entire network, and provides them with centralized reporting and optional notifications. This Solution is suitable for the infrastructure that located on several Geo locations and need to monitor from a central NOC. (This solution is free of charge)

DevOps consultant at Africa4Data
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A good monitoring solution that has multiple plugins and scripts
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution has a lot of plugins and scripts integrated with it."
  • "The product does not have SAP monitoring."

What is most valuable?

The solution has a lot of plugins and scripts integrated with it. It is very good for monitoring.

What needs improvement?

The product does not have SAP monitoring. When I was using the solution, it did not have a dashboard. We had to manually connect to the database, collect information and create the visuals.

For how long have I used the solution?

I used the solution in my previous organization.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is not scalable. Less than twenty people were using the solution in my previous organization.

How was the initial setup?

The product's initial setup is more complex than that of Elastic.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment process depends on the version we use. To deploy the solution, we must install the package on the server, put the correct syntax, point to the correct scripts, and download the monitoring scripts. Based on the data we collect, we can build a basic dashboard.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Operational Lead at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Adapts well in any environment but needs to improve its incident prediction feature
Pros and Cons
  • "The technical support is good."
  • "The tool's AI model needs to be fixed."

What needs improvement?

If you make the whole monitoring tool agentless, it would be a really good addition since it is currently one of the pain points in this product.

The tool's incident prediction is not too good, as it gives too many false positives.

The tool's AI model needs to be fixed.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Nagios XI for two years.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support is okay. I am always with the people on the support side.

What was our ROI?

Considering the task force that I use for my support team, I can provide much more time in their hands so that they can do other things, which is something that has been a nice addition.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think it is a little on the expensive side. The technical support is good. As it is not an agentless tool, I think it is expensive. The tool does offer useful features.

What other advice do I have?

In terms of the satisfaction levels with the tool, I can say I am okay with the product.

In terms of the network size or complexity, it has not impacted anything on our side. I would say that the tool is good at adaptation but can be really bad for the team.

The tool is not the best to be recommended to others. Datadog is a better tool than Nagios XI.

I rate the tool a six and a half out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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IT CIO at Kimfay
Real User
Our pre-production testing and evaluation has gone well, but the installation is hectic
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the monitoring of processes."
  • "The interface could be more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

We are planning to use this solution for network server monitoring. We have had training for deployment on our end, but it is not yet in production use.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the monitoring of processes.

What needs improvement?

I think that the process of installing this solution can be improved because it is quite hectic.

The interface could be more user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

We are still in pre-production.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I think that stability is quite good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are still in the pre-production stage and have only two IT administrators using the solution. There will be six users once it moves to production.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not been in contact with technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are currently using Zabbix.

How was the initial setup?

The installation of this solution is a bit complex, and it requires that you are running it fully.

One of the issues that we experienced was getting the source to a computer where we could deploy it. That took some time.

What about the implementation team?

We are handling the implementation in-house. There are two of us who took care of the pre-production deployment and will continue with the implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the free version of this solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are testing out this solution in addition to Zabbix.

What other advice do I have?

We will soon be moving this solution into production. However, it is a bit complex and difficult for a first-time user.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1088403 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user1088403Head of IT, Projects and Organization at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User

Hello...
Appreciate your review....
The Enterprise or probverdion will be valuable for your requirements.
Simple install (binaries available for one command install)
Improved GUI

PeerSpot user
Analyst at Cablevisión Fibertel
Real User
Highly-efficient server performance monitoring engine

What is our primary use case?

For monitoring HFC network from the headend to end-of-line, mainly power supplies (transponders).

How has it helped my organization?

Integrating events and performance data between multi-vendor network elements and management systems.

What is most valuable?

All of them, but mainly: 

  • Highly-efficient server performance monitoring engine
  • Configuration wizards
  • Infrastructure management
  • Configuration snapshot.

What needs improvement?

  • Developing a tool for KPIs and KQIs
  • WebUI should be improved (visual aspect) and should incorporate non-relational databases.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT-OSS Manager at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Powerful monitoring that is easy to use and install
Pros and Cons
  • "Nagios is stable and it's easy to use the monitoring software, which is why we chose this product."
  • "The installation and monitoring need improvement."

What is our primary use case?

I use Nagios to monitor LTE modems. We have more than 24,000 modems on a single instance of Nagios.

We also use this software to monitor several KPIs regarding to CPE devices, and items in our IT department infrastructure when we started eight years ago.

How has it helped my organization?

We use plugins provided by Nagios XI to monitor our infrastructure equipment, OS, Databases and Services from easy to use wizards in monitoring panel. Also, we add some additional features to this monitoring system based on our organization needs. 

What is most valuable?

Nagios is stable and it's easy to use the monitoring software, which is why we chose this product. There is no limitation exist to monitor every measurable parameters and KPIs. Every known devices and services parameters has own plugins in this monitoring system and for special cases, it`s possible to write script and monitor results.

What needs improvement?

1. Reporting items needs more improvement and need to be more flexible based on customer needs

2. Clustering feature need to be implemented for large environment. Some solutions introduced in official website such as Mod-Gearman and Nagios Fusion but the first one implemented by third party and second one is not include management control and just a central view from several instances. I think Nagios should implement an official solution for clustering for enterprise and large scales that should be included database solution as well. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have eight years of experience working with Nagios XI. I have a lot of experience using this monitoring software.

We are using the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution. We have not had any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have more than 100 users and plan to continue to use this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don't have technical support for Nagios because we are living in Iran and we have embargoes, so we cannot use the technical support from Nagios. We use local support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I use Solarwinds and CACTI before using Nagios but both of them has some concerns.

We cannot add any feature to Solarwinds because it is none open source

CACTI is graphing tool and it cannot help us to alerting issues. Some plugins are implemented for this purpose for CACTI such as Thold plugin but it has not complete feature such as Nagios. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It's easy to install, but you need some information about the Linux operating system.

It took less than one hour to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

I completed the implementation myself.

We have a team of three engineers to maintain this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Nagios Core does not have any payment, but Nagios XI requires payment for the license and support.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Solarwinds

CACTI

PRTG

What other advice do I have?

For anyone who is interested in using this solution, I would recommend it. This monitoring software is easy to use and is very powerful. 

This monitoring system has a powerful engine. I have many devices being monitored by a single instance, and it can show that this software works well.

I would rate Nagios XI an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nagios XI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Nagios XI Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.