SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Reviews

I implemented SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for one of the large service providers in my building. The solution is used for troubleshooting network or device issues, such as the device not receiving the correct data.

The most valuable Real-time fault detection is beneficial as it enables the identification of changes made to a device's configuration through the SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. This makes it easy to pinpoint which configurations were added or removed, potentially causing network issues. Such changes are saved in logs for future reference.

The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates.

I have been using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for approximately three years.

The stability of the solution is good. However, it was not always the best. There was an issue where the National Security of the USA was hacked through the solution.

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is scalable.

We have more than 60 clients using the solution.

The documents for setting up SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager are straightforward, but configuring the monitored device is a challenge because our support team lacks the necessary knowledge. It's crucial to assess the impact of these configuration changes on the integration with the NCM module, such as high resource utilization or other potential issues. It's essential to evaluate the effects of these changes on both sides.

The deployment tool one to two days because we had to verify the setup and configure the devices. We have to add the devices through the SSMP We are not only doing one device, we are doing more than 20. The more devices added to the solution will add more time. 

There is a license needed to use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager a ten out of ten.

We use the solution in our organization. We also implement it for our customers. The tool is used not only for monitoring purposes but also for device management. We can back up the running and startup configurations for all vendors. It’s the main use case of the tool.

The product is also used for network automation. If we want to configure the network devices, we can put the configuration in thousands of devices through the tool. It enables automation. The client mainly uses the automation features.

Sometimes, we have to push the configuration into 50 to 100 devices. We usually configure it on one device and check its compatibility for one to two days. If everything works well, we make rules and push the configuration into 1000 devices.

If we want to check something available out of the box, we create rules using the command in a policy. These rules can then be embedded in the policy, and the policy runs against the node. It will help detect vulnerabilities or check anything particular in the devices.

The backup and configuration-pushing features are valuable. We also use the product for vulnerability management. It provides out-of-the-box vulnerability policies. It provides a list of CVEs and helps us understand which CVE is more vulnerable. The tool is useful for security purposes.

I started working with compliance six to seven months ago. I have worked on compliance reports for some Cisco devices. The compliance features are fine. The product detects compliance well. If we find any compliance or vulnerability issues in the devices, we can correct them from the SolarWinds console. We can create some rules to detect issues. If there is a need for alteration, we can do it directly from the console.

The vendor recently introduced AI features to detect alerts. The AI features do not work well. It would be good if the vendor developed the AI feature so that we could understand what patterns the AI is detecting and what changes we can make to our environment to avoid such alerts in the future. The AI feature must be enhanced. I have already raised the concern with the support team, and the vendor is working on it.

I have been using the solution for seven years.

I rate the product’s ease of use and scalability a nine out of ten.

I always recommend the product for network automation and backup of network devices. However, it's only for the network devices, not the server. I have worked with other tools, too. SolarWinds has most of the functionalities.

Many customers use it for monitoring and security purposes. SolarWinds NPM’s NetPath feature has some limitations. We cannot add the cloud broker firewall. It would be great if the vendor could add the feature to NPM. They are working on it, and we can expect it in the next release.

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

At our company, we use the solution for remote network configuration. As part of our organization, we configure the database to all the branches; the solution helps in auto-detecting all the branches through a simple command. From the head office of our organization, we can detect branches of remote offices using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. 

The network performance monitoring of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is a vital feature. The vendor has recently introduced IP SLA management with direct UL or device lifetime users.

The aforementioned feature is able to provide information related to health check management. For instance, if multiple devices go beyond the iOS version, then specific reports will be generated, and obsolete versions can be identified. 

There are certain limitations of node-related monitoring in SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. One probe is limited to around 10,000 elements in the solution, if the need arises to monitor beyond the limit, another probe or module needs to be deployed. If multiple probes of the solution are used in a project, often SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager operates slower than usual. 

At our company, we face some communication issues with the tool because there are no local distributors of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager around the country. 

I have been using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for five years. 

The solution is majorly aimed at large enterprises, and other small and medium companies would often choose an open-source tool over SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. 

On behalf of our organization, we have contacted the support team a few times, and they have been helpful enough. I would rate the customer support a seven out of ten. 

Neutral

Recently, our company adopted the Dynatrace tool for POC purposes, and we have received demonstrations of the solution. Our company is planning to switch because of the poor application performance monitoring in SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. 

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is available at a moderate price. 

Network configuration monitoring is related to managing the network pipeline and users, for which SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is most suitable, but Dynatrace is better suited for application performance monitoring. Our company has a large infrastructure and network for applications, and we are looking for a tool that can handle both network configuration and application performance monitoring. 

The solution is capable of handling the latest monitoring and implementing configurations by integrating other configuration management tools to provide storage center locations. In addition to SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager, we have another similar tool as a backup in our organization so that operations are not disrupted and dependency on a single tool can be minimized. 

If any remote unit or device belonging to our company goes down, we can easily restore the device for the backup standalone device's configuration. I would recommend SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager to others, but I would also suggest they compare similar and more capable solutions in the market. I would rate the solution a seven out of ten overall. 

With NPM, I've created a couple of dashboards because I have a SOC view. I also have a few device groups because we provide services to customers. We're like a small ISP. So I've set up groups with alerting and maps. Visually, we have screens in the office, so if anything happens on the network, we can see it on our three or four SOC pages. We have all the top ten interfaces, so, at any given time, we can see if there's a lot of bandwidth traffic before it becomes an issue. That's where I use NPM most of the time.

NCM is for backing up the configs, checking compliance, and running backup jobs every night. That's also very helpful. There aren't many tools in the market with configuration backups and conformance checks. What's nice with NCM is you can set up policies that you can then check against the configs to make sure that your device configs are adhering to a baseline or standard that you've set in place. This way, you can get a sort of order to port, which is quite nice.

For me, the most valuable features include backing up the config. And being able to compare contexts every day, so you don't have to make any changes to your config.

The only thing that requires some experience, and training doesn't fix, is how to set up your custom policy-based reports to check compliance. But, other than that, NCM is the one product that I wouldn't change because it works well.

For the next release, I can only think that it would be helpful to have a visual indicator on the dashboard to see if a device fails to back up quickly. A small icon next to the device could indicate that it was not backed up successfully the last time. It would help me catch any backup issues since the system works so flawlessly that I don't check it every day.

I've been working with IPAM for more than ten years now since I started with NPM, IPAM, and NTA, all at the same time.

It's stable. I've had an issue once or twice, but it's more related to Microsoft updates than anything else. I've had it happen once or twice over a period of a year or two, where one of my jobs got stuck.

So I back up my configs most every night and split my backups into multiple sessions so that I don't back up all the devices at once. I back up the core, or back up the edge, or back up the age, all different stations at different times. And then I found one of the jobs got stuck, which I'm not sure why, but I never did it before. So I suspect it's either another .NET update or a Windows security patch. And it's very inconsistent. As I said, it's so small and insignificant that I haven't worried about it because it doesn't present itself often.

I would give the scalability a nine out of ten because I don't give high ratings easily, but it scales very easily. I recently went through a network upgrade project and added forty devices to my network without any issues.

Whenever I've had issues, they were able to help me. I had once upgraded from an old version to the current version, and the base wasn't happy. They walked me through the steps to rectify and fix it, and we didn't lose any data. So, the times I had to deal with technical support, I think, were very good. So I can't complain. The response is pretty quick and efficient.

The initial setup is simple. I deployed the solution on-prem and have used the on-premises version for over ten years.

SolarWinds is sitting between two out of ten, where one is a high price and ten is a low price. Because they are quite expensive compared to other products in the market, it's like Cisco - it's a good product but comes at a premium, and you pay the price for it, and it's not the cheapest option out there.

For me, none of the competitors come close to SolarWinds in terms of backup configuration. Some may require using Python scripts and NetMeco, or platforms like Ansible, but they don't provide the same dashboard and GUI as SolarWinds. So, I don't think many products in the NCM space offer what SolarWinds does, and that's why we're still using it.

I'm using SolarWinds, including Network Performance Manager, IPAM, Configuration Manager, and Network Traffic Analyzer. I also have the toolkit and the Network Topology Mapper.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We are using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for managing network configurations of our network devices. It helps with configuration management, network visibility and automation, and compliance and reporting. Additionally, the solution can help in mapping out network topology.

With SolarWinds NCM, you have a clear understanding of what's happening within your network as regards configuration changes, the status of the network devices, backup status, and compliance. You can generate a comprehensive report of all these.

Our experience has shown that most of the problems we've had with SolarWinds NCM are related to software issues.

I have been using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) for approximately three years.

The solution is stable.

I rate the stability of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager a seven out of ten.

SolarWinds NCM is scalable.

We have three clients and roughly 30 users using this solution. The users are mostly network support engineers.

The response times could improve for the support team from SolarWinds NCM.

In the past, we've encountered bugs and other issues with SolarWinds NCM software and reached out to their support team for resolution.

There is still room for improvement in their software. 

I rate the support from SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager a seven out of ten.

Neutral

The setup of SolarWinds NCM can be difficult in a large environment. However, if you have a small environment with a few nodes, the process is easier and faster.

The deployment typically takes two days.

The cost is fair.

If you want to manage your network configurations, SolarWinds NCM is easy to understand compared to Cisco Prime, HP, NNMi, and other configuration managers out there.

For those who are new to the field and don't want to delve into technical materials, I recommend SolarWinds NCM as it is easier to understand.

I rate SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager a nine out of ten.

They are four areas that we use the Network Configuration Manager for

1. Automate configuration backup. 

2. Configuration compliance. We have created checklists for different types of devices and check for configuration compliance as per our config guidelines.

3. Security vulnerability detection for Cisco devices. Identify open CVE's with devices.

4. Firmware upgrades / IOS upgrades of Cisco devices. This feature has seen one major improvement in the ability to perform parallel upgrades.

NCM has provided for the following benefits - Mainly to to with audit readiness on 3 fronts - regular configuration backups, configuration hardening and Vulnerability management.

The features we find most valuable are the configuration backup automation, configuration compliance, security vulnerability detection, and upgrading devices.

The Network Configuration Manager needs to improve the access control list compliance.

We have used SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for more than six years now. We are on the near latest release 2020.2.5 HF1 as of June 2021. We have adopted an N-1 version deployment policy.

Platform stability is extremely good. A few areas of improvements required - better handling of NCM jobs failing - for example if an NCM job has multiple devices to be backed up, a detailed report/log of the success or failed status is required.

SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is very scalable. We have a deployment that covers over 12,000 network devices.

We have used technical support many times. They're good if you escalate properly. It is an area that needs a bit of improvement in terms of helping prioritize the ticket. Whenever we open a ticket with them, I think by default it lands up in an open bucket. So I don't have the option of saying that there is an absolutely critical requirement and I need some urgent help. I can't classify that when opening up a ticket for the first time.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. The initial setup did not take very long. I think the base platform was set up in a day's time. But I think configuration compliance policies, which is actually more of writing the policies rather than anything to do with SolarWinds, are slightly more time-consuming. The creation of policy is time-consuming. That has more to do with the organization policy, i.e., do I need Telnet enabled, do I need Telnet disabled, etc.

I would highly recommend SolarWinds Network Configuration Management to other customers. I rate this product at a nine out of ten.

We really did not evaluate many other options. We were actually using the Kiwi CatTools version which is also a part of SolarWinds. But I think SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is a big brother of Kiwi CatTools and I think since we were already familiar with Kiwi CatTools the migration to NCM was pretty easy.

We use the solution to manage the configuration for different vendors.

They should enhance the solution's visibility for features. There should be an easier way to have the topology of our network. Also, they should include more automation features.

We have been using the solution for one and a half years.

It is a stable solution.

The solution is scalable. It is most suitable for small and medium enterprises.

The solution's technical support service response could be faster.

Positive

The solution's initial setup process is moderately complex. Before starting the deployment, the network engineer must take specific training for the tool.

The solution's cost depends on the deployment requirements. It ranges from $3 to $30,000. We have to pay additionally for support and maintenance.

We evaluated Zabbix, PRTG, DNA Center, AirWave, etc. In comparison, SolarWinds is low-cost and has integration with different vendors.

I advise others to find the right business partner to help them with the solution. I rate it as a seven.

We are using the solution mainly for running backup jobs and comparing integrations. 

NCM is a very good tool. We can use it to compare configurations, for example, and download configurations to see whether something is running configurations. It is good for managing Cisco devices and managing their configurations. 

It is pretty straightforward to set up.

The solution is stable.

It is scalable. 

Nowadays, since last week, I've been facing one issue with the NCM jobs.

When we run the SolarWinds NCM jobs at the cellular line, it runs in the morning. They're just not finishing. We're getting false processing. They're just stuck at a point and just showing me post-processing is happening. So it's not completing, and whenever I cancel it and run it again, it gives me the error. However, not all the time. It gives me the connection refused or a time-out. And when I go to the device, only the job is running. I find the connection profile is running fine and there is no blocking, and there is nothing at the network devices level. However, when I run the job, it's just giving me the connection refused by that particular device. I have raised one case with the vendor about this issue. However, they are just looking at it now, and they will respond to me when they identify something. I haven't gotten an answer on what the issue is.

I've been using the solution for three to four years.

We have been using NCM for a long time, and many of the clients are using it. It's been stable for us. If my client is happy, I'm all happy.

This is a scalable product.

I'd rate the scalability at a seven or eight out of ten.

We're using the solution across multiple projects. I'm not sure how many users are on it in total. It's likely more than 1,000.

I just recently raised an issue with support. 

Apart from that, I haven't had any issues with NCM. I had issues with other modules, just not with NCM. With relation to NCM, this new ticket is my first experience with SolarWinds vendor support and I'm expecting them to give me me some sort of valuable resolution.

I'm not sure why we chose this solution. 

It was not my decision. The stakeholders and my sales team took that decision. They just purchased it and asked me to deploy it. If it was in my hand, I would go for another tool also to explore options. I'm not sure what the other tools are, however, I would have explored a bit more before choosing. 

I've been using SolarWinds for a long time. I'm using NBM, NTA, and other models also. For me, it was not a tough task to set up the solution. That said, I only am familiar with the ORM platform and its features. 

If someone does not have any knowledge of ORM or SolarWinds and they just start with the NCM, then they may face issues and may consider it difficult to deploy. 

Therefore, while deployment is easy, whenever someone is new, they may face some issues running the jobs, and figuring out the jobs and configurations and it all works. For me, it was easy since I already have certain experience and certifications.

NCM deployment takes the usual amount of time as compared to other modules. I deployed on two to three instances and along with other modules. It doesn't take much time. I would not say it's unresponsive. It just takes time.

I'm not from the sales team. I don't handle licensing. The cost structure might be available on their website. 

We are a partner.

I have different projects. I'm not working on a single project. Some of the clients are using a cloud-based instance. Some of them have physical on-premises setups. Most of them are on the cloud.

Before using anything, I would advise new users just go look at the requirements. For example, what are the requirements that you have to monitor? If you have just some devices by which you want to monitor the status of and need only some of the statistics, then NCM is not needed. Companies should not purchase anything blindly; they should understand the infrastructure and requirements.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.