Nagios XI Reviews

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.

The most valuable feature is the monitoring of processes.

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

The interface could be more user-friendly.

I think that stability is quite good. 

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.

We have not been in contact with technical support.

We are currently using Zabbix.

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.

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.

We are using the free version of this solution.

We are testing out this solution in addition to Zabbix.

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.

Though I downplayed the administrative NCC GUI, this is by far the strongest aspect of the Nagios XI product. In my early days of exposure to Nagios, I was using the Nagios Core product which was configured by manually editing system configuration files and then performing a system configuration verification step. This was a very cumbersome method of configuration of the respective Nagios functions. It was like the old days of software compilers where one would troubleshoot a code set by trial and error, solving source-code issues one error at a time. This was an exacting approach for Nagios system configuration, but very slow.

Nagios XI allows my customer to monitor literally thousands of network and computing endpoints (both hardware and software) in real time, including custom derived SNMP polling and traps. One can even write custom scripts that are embedded as part of the Nagios monitoring footprint.

The product could be optimized to improve the administrative user experience via the Nagios Core Configuration (NCC) GUI module.

I have been immersed in this solution for the past eight months.

The NCC does have issues where it locks up or an admin cannot be sure if the system configuration was exact. I end up saving the system configuration from the Nagios XI native MySQL DB storage paradigm to the old Nagios Core flat file paradigm to confirm proper configuration of the Nagios system.

The new Nagios XI product has been designed from the ground up to support a highly scaleable paradigm.

In general, tech support is available as needed but it is not inexpensive. Response times are generally within 24 hours, but there are times when this is not the case.

I originally used the Nagios Core solution (first one out of the gate many years ago) which had no GUI for system configuration. One had to manually edit system configuration files to customize the Nagios system for specific functional needs.

Configuring the Nagios engine is not a trivial task. Functional components build on top of each other as one defines the system configuration. One has to define the atomic components and then build moiré complex functions on top of those atomic components. This is cumbersome, but it also gives a system designer much flexibility in customizing their own solution.

Considering I come from the software engineering world, it reminds me of the power of the original C software compiler, where respective language easily enabled one to flip individual bits in a data stream. Today’s software compilers are much more simple and one can build high-level projects much quicker, but they do not provide easy access to low-level “bit-flipping” tricks. This is my opinion of the older Nagios Core product versus the newer Nagios XI product.

I recommend that my customer start at the low end of the cost spectrum to determine if a Nagios solution is a good fit for their organization. That customer can then grow into the higher-priced scale as they learn how to utilize the features for Nagios XI.

I am familiar with other pricey pay-for network monitoring solutions. The Nagios Core solution is an open source and free product and allows customers to get their feet wet without doling out tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars for a product they may not like. The pay-for solutions provide ample customer support, but if one is willing to pull up a chair and learn the Nagios solution from the ground up, it is well worth the time, versus extensive dollars, investment. And Nagios is highly customizable by the end-user.

As I stated above, I would recommend getting one of the Nagios “for Dummies” configuration books (Nagios: Building Enterprise-Grade Monitoring Infrastructures for Systems and Networks (second edition)) and start with the free/open-source Nagios Core product. Once one gains a basic understanding of said solution they can then graduate up to the Nagios XI Enterprise product for a fraction of the cost of other pay-for network monitoring solutions. By taking this approach one learns the basic building blocks of the Nagios paradigm before being immersed in the Nagios XI Enterprise world. Like I stated previously, the time investment up front is well worth the dollar savings in the end.

We are using Nagios XI for system-level monitoring. For example, hardware and memory storage monitoring. Additionally, we use the solution for built-in operating systems and database services, such as Postgres and MySQL, and some custom services that we use a custom script to fetch the data and feed the Nagios XI for alerts and notifications.

The most valuable features of Nagios XI are you can customize it based on your use case and requirements. It is flexible and easy to integrate with our systems. You can customize the solution by adding additional features using code.

I have been using Nagios XI for approximately two years.

Nagios XI is stable.

The scalability of Nagios XI is scalable. However, it is not easy to do.

We have approximately 12 system engineers and system administrators using the solution.

The support from Nagios XI is good and the response time is good. However, it can take some time to reach the right agent to support the problem. Overall the support is good.

Nagios XI is very easy to install in our PE plugins to start monitoring the servers.

Our team maintains Nagios XI in-house.

I would recommend this tool to others.

I rate Nagios XI a seven out of ten.

We must separate the 2 parts of this product :

Monitoring Core (Nagios Core) -

Possibilities to manage Nagios Core and Nagios Client configurations by Service Manager like Ansible, Puppet etc. For big environment's, it's the simplest way for industrialisation

• Correct and scalable Dashboards for management
• Easy way to view you entire production ( more complete than Nagios Core interface)

My customer choose this product because he previously worked with Nagios Core 3 and didn't know other tools. His principal argument for him is that the Dashboards correctly present their work.

The important separation between Interface and Core to maintain historical plugins and methods generate complexity that makes Nagios unusable for repeat work. You must choose a way to manage your configuration, by interface or by files in Core, and never change your rules. If you choose files, you lose the dashboard advantage instead of importing them manually, and, for the moment, there are no APIs for managing hosts/services are present. If you choose Interface, you must configure hosts/services manually, and again there are no APIs for managing hosts/services are present.

Nagios Core has a big advantage in that has been lost in Nagios XI. Another way you could manage is by having three different databases

1. Postgres for Nagios XI's hosts/services définitions
2. MySQL with ndo2db for metrology
3. Rrd for the Nagios Core

This is not easy to maintain and High Availability becomes complex. The simplest way is by VMware HA modifications preconfigured by Nagios.

I've been using it for the last six months.

It's very easy to install it and manage it with Nagios XI's interface.

There have been no issues with the stability.

I only have 50 hosts and haven't needed to scale beyond that.

Nagios responds quickly when you need them, and the community is really big.

I previously used HP SiteScope, Nagios Core 3, Xymon and Zabbix. I didn't choose Nagios, my customer choose it and I implemented it. My prefered tools is Zabbix for the moment.

It's very easy for the basics features, but, like others tools, when you need plugins, it becomes more complex.

We did it in-house.

No ROI was requested by my customer, only visibility by their management and using their knowledge on Core 3.

Your architecture must be conceived prior to implementation as each error must become complex to change.

This solution is being used to monitor hundreds of servers at startup. It checks disk usage, services, memory usage, and more.  

It has improved the task of network monitoring.

The most valuable feature is the dashboard, where I can have a single screen that provides a summary for hundreds of servers. I get red and green indicators that help me to quickly check for and rectify problems.

When you monitor a lot of things it creates a lot of events and logs. I would like a much easier GUI so that I can delete events and logs, which will free up a lot of space. I would also like a better GUI for dashboard viewing.

A better interface would allow this solution to be used as a single point of monitoring.

When the database is in need of repair, perhaps due to corruption caused by an improper shutdown, then it should happen automatically, rather than having to run a command.

The stability of this solution is quite good.

If the machine crashes and it goes down, without properly shutting down the virtual machine, then I get an error that requires the database to be repaired.

There are four or five people that browse the dashboard.

I dealt with technical support for a few months, but because I do not have a support contract I have not used it in several years. A support contract can be purchased separately.

If problems arise then you are able to fix things on your own. If you can't, then just leave it.

I am also using KS-Soft Advanced HostMonitor, but only for monitoring the up or down status of the machines. It has a much better icon view of the dashboard. When our customer wants to look at their data center and see the status of all branches and all servers, it shows a much better, color-coded graphical form. I am in the process of purchasing additional licenses for HostMonitor so that I can have multiple dashboards running from a single machine.

I did not switch solutions, but I am always open to products that offer a better user interface.

The initial setup for this solution is quite easy. I am running it on a VM platform.

The deployment happens over time as the environment changes, but the initial deployment took one or two days. For the server to monitor, you just have to set the SNMP and add it onto the Nagios platform. As more servers are added, you add them to the platform.

We took care of the implementation in-house. One person is sufficient for deployment and maintenance.

This solution is very expensive, at approximately $5,000 USD when I purchased it, which is why I haven't upgraded my version in several years.

I am using the original version of the software that I purchased because I do not have a support contract. This means that I have not received support or updates in several years.

While this solution works, I think that it can be improved in terms of maintenance, support, and price.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

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

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

All of them, but mainly: 

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

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

Network monitoring and topology: Network monitoring and topology are important for my job rules, because I'm a system and network administrator. I need to have information in real-time about the topology of the network and monitoring of the switches, routers, and servers.

Nagios XI helped me to draw the network and check for system failures.

The Configuration Wizard needs improvement, because not all vendors are present.

About 1 year.

No.

No.

• The integration with the alerting software 
• Automated maintenance windows 
• The ability to set up templates and groups of checks, as well as customize the checks themselves.

We receive alerts for services and servers experiencing problems throughout the day and night, so we can maintain 24/7 monitoring.

Improve the documentation, examples, and best practices, therefore users can understand how to do things. Luckily, I had someone teach me the ropes, but to newcomers without someone to train them, it would be very difficult to learn.

Around two years.

Generally, it is very stable platform. Occasionally, we have to restart the monitoring engine, but it is very easy to do.

Adding new servers and passive checks (which require setting up agents and NRDS) on servers are a little difficult to do properly when employees don't understand the process. Since documentation is lacking, it's a matter of trial and error before things work properly. So yes, scalability could be improved.

We did not purchase support, therefore building the entire platform in-house. This has probably led to us not using best practices.

It's generally good, but lacks documentation.