SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager Reviews

We have more than 200 devices in our network. We use the product to check all the changes in the configuration and keep a base configuration. If we have new routers or switches, we have to compare them with this standard configuration.

The product is simple. Sometimes it gets difficult to remember the standard we have to keep for our configuration. When you have new devices or even critical issues in your network, you have to review the configuration. Also, it acts as evidence if the change made by someone causes a problem. The solution helps us find who made the configuration and which command changed it. You can also download and upload the configuration in one click without entering the command line interface.

The solution's view is very nice, and they have a great customized dashboard. You can add the maps, import any pictures you need, and see all the information in the dashboard. Also, the solution is simple from the management side because, for each menu, you can see the same structure.

Adding an AI feature would allow me to add the configuration by sentence instead of writing the command on the devices. This would be useful if you don't know everything about the command line. For instance, AI can help me to name a router if I don't know how to write the command line to name the device.

Also, it would be good if the product could give me alerts in case of any configuration change. If the product could send me a notification when there is a configuration change in any device, I wouldn't need to check the console every time.

The network flow is a problem for this solution. The network flow in other solutions is better for each device, and you can see the bandwidth or the traffic for each interface. I'm unsure if SolarWinds currently has this feature because I don't have the latest update.

I have been using SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for more than eight years.

The solutions’ stability is good.

The solution is scalable because you can add any number of devices using a legal license. Also, the integration gives us more information even though we didn't ask for it. For instance, the system automatically gives us information about wireless network configuration, controller configuration, and connected ADs.

We have not needed customer support's help as the solution runs smoothly.

Previously, I have used Nagios and Cacti.

The initial setup is easy. The deployment process is very fast. I did that in the past. SolarWinds has a good graphical interface that allows users to save the credentials if they enable the SNMP credential or community strings. The software provides instructions for the configuration and all the needed features. Also, users can test their credentials before finalizing their configuration. So it's very simple. It's good.

It's more expensive than other products, but the solution's benefits and value are good.

I don't remember the pricing because we bought it a long time ago, more than eight years ago, to be specific. The price of the solution is high compared to other solutions. Most of the local market prefers low-price solutions.

We use the SolarWinds NPM module and SolarWinds IPAM for many IP addresses. We also use SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. My organization is the end user of the product. I am currently not working with the latest version of the product.

A single person can handle the solution’s deployment. Sometimes we face issues with the solution’s database.

I like SolarWinds because you see all the features live, even on real devices. Even before I buy it, I can see all the features. So you can connect to any set of devices and see all the features live.

I recommend SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager because it gives me full visibility of our network.

Overall, I rate SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager an eight out of ten.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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 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.

I use it for monitoring the entire network for the company. We oversee nodes, we oversee devices heading up to crossing the threshold for CPU usage. We oversee power, we oversee if they're down or if they're failing. We oversee any node down or any router from any vendor. We have MPLS, so we have a lot of those MPLS routers on the node. We can see when those routers are down. 

SolarWinds can give us not only that, but we can also create running tasks. It can schedule backup for the devices. We can do active jobs, we generate reports and oversee and look for any peaks of ranges or network slowness or network interruptions. These events trigger immediate alerts and the alert brings up the attention to the NOC that brings up the troubleshooting with whoever is local, depending upon who manages the network in that place. It's a helpful tool and I really like it.

The network logs could be improved. When the error logs come across with those false positive alarms in the error logs. We see days or weeks on those error messages. I think this needs to be addressed or they need to mitigate the house cleaning or the housekeeping of those errors or those logs. I mean that's one of the things that I will say that can be a little challenging sometimes. I'd like to see when you look for the node, via IP or via the name of the product, a quicker response in the search for the node. Sometimes when I search it, I have to look three times for the node in a different way. The search for that particular device or search for that particular product, I have to sometimes dig in on my own DNS and find the IP. Then I go to SolarWinds copy and paste it the IP. It's a pain. Let's say the search or the browse for any particular note needs to be improved for the GUI.

I have worked with SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager for about a year.

I think so far stability is going great.

They need to improve their response time. Sometimes they take longer than expected. They need to respond quickly after a ticket is opened. I will email them and I won't see the response for another two or three hours. I have to give them a call and it's a pain. It's a nightmare. I keep bringing that up to them all the time. I would improve that.

Just make sure you only put the nodes that you need to monitor and make sure whoever needs to have nodes in SolarWinds, keep the people besides your team or your group, who want their own nodes there. Make sure you set up the right rules and the standards and the thresholds where you need to get communication for error messages or CPU alerts or power heat or any type of alerts. The alerts, they need to be very clearly addressed in order for you to monitor your devices. We have faced some problems in the past that the alerts are not really set up properly. We have to randomly change the thresholds and the numbers and the ranges. I would recommend that you make sure you monitor only what you need to monitor. Make sure if you need to trigger those alerts, make sure that you have somebody or a team to respond. And, they can have a group responsible for whatever they need to troubleshoot. 

I would rate it at a seven out of ten.