SolarWinds NPM Reviews

The valuable features are SNMP monitoring of servers, CPU utilization, as well as memory and disk-space utilization.

Without NPM monitoring, we would be in a world of hurt and constantly responding to outages and unexpected downtime. NPM allows us to be proactive and fix things before they cause downtime.

On a fairly regular basis, we have servers whose disk drives begin to run low on available space. NPM alerts us when disk space is getting low. We are then able to free up space or add additional storage to avoid a problem that would be caused by running out of available space on the disk.

I would like to see NPM become better able to create dependencies automatically so that we won’t receive alerts for all devices.

For instance, if the power goes out at one of our locations, it would be nice if we could receive a summary alert. The alert could describe the possible causes of a power outage because NPM ‘saw’ our UPS at the site go into battery mode and then eventually it ran out of power. Intelligence like this would be a HUGE addition to an already great product.

I can’t really think of any else. SolarWinds is constantly improving and updating the product and we LOVE every aspect of it.

We have never experienced any stability issues with NPM.

We did hit the maximum number of resources for a single poller. However, all we had to do was purchase an additional poller to scale out NPM to support our growing environment.

I would rate technical support as top notch.

The setup is simple and straightforward. It walks you through everything that needs to happen and is very clear and easy.

SolarWinds is a bargain for the price. You can spend a LOT more on “more sophisticated” monitoring systems, but all you really get is added complexity and an inferior product.

Before this solution, we evaluated IBM Tivoli and WhatsUp Gold.

Go online, download a free trial, and give it a spin for yourself before buying.

• Extensible REST API
• Excellent technical support
• Mature product, strong brand, Gartner awards
• Custom MSSQL scripting support in both alerting and reporting.
• Support for a wide variety of makes and models of network equipment/appliances.
• Support for monitoring Windows, Linux, Unix, and some other server OSes.
• Consistent and constant application improvements.

• Our ability to locate the source of a network issue has dramatically reduced our mean-time-to-resolve.
• Helped us to consolidate different network and server monitoring needs under one product.
• Low administrative maintenance compared to alternatives. The system simply 'works' most of the time. Our previous tools required constant maintenance by admins just to keep them running.

• Failover functionality does not exist without the purchase of the "Fail Over Engine (FoE)" license.
• Software upgrade and installation procedures are time consuming, especially for large/multiple site installations. Consulting the support matrix for software versions and modules is critical.
• Multiple server software upgrades still require a planned downtime outage window for the entire NPM instance regardless of the size of installation even if using the Failover Engine module.
• Each NPM polling server require a full Windows Server with GUI operating system to install and administer.

5 years

Yes. Remember to do your homework on required ports, especially for when installing a polling engine server across the WAN in a different domain.

Yes, multiple times. Some of the areas of stability had to do with 'monitoring capacity' per polling server several versions ago. Official documentation claimed each server can handle monitoring for up-to 10,000 elements (i.e. ports, volumes, nodes, etc.). In reality this number was more like 5,000. However, monitoring capacity improvements have been made with each software release and we are now back up to the 10,000 element.

Another area of stability issues we have experienced are with the dependency on MS SQL. There were a few times where we had stability issues with SQL server, which in turn impacted NPM performance. When there are issues with the SQL database NPM doesn't make this known and is up to the admin to figure it out.

Yes, every once in a while. SolarWinds defines 'scalability' in the same manner as 'monitoring capacity' --- which is incorrect. This is a huge issue and is one of the hits against the rating I gave NPM.

Excellent. Customer support is knowledgeable about the product line and will engage with technical resources if needed.

Excellent. Technical support is responsive, knowledgeable, and friendly. My team and I do not hesitate to contact support if we have a question or need immediate assistance. They will also escalate to a higher support tier if the issue is not resolved in a timely manner, or if we request them to do so.

Yes, multiple products were used previously including Microsoft MOM 2005 (current versions are System Center Operations Manager) and What's Up Gold. Switch was made to attempt to consolidate various monitoring tools into a single space.

Initial setup of the application servers were very straightforward. It is possible to get started with one app server and the main SQL server then add more polling engine servers as your monitoring needs increase.

In-house installation was done. The product is designed for self-installation and self-maintenance in an on-premise mode.

Unknown at this point.

Always contact your sales rep for best pricing. There are multiple times per year where the vendor will make special licensing offers that you can take advantage of.

The official North America pricing list is available at solarwinds.com. Use that as your pricing baseline for your monitoring project.

NPM licenses by "element" you want to monitor, not by device as a whole. Take this into account while you evaluate monitoring software vendors.

Yes. We looked into Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2, What's Up Gold, ManageEngine, AppDynamics, NewRelic, and Nagios.

Our company specializes in the development of a SaaS site. Often times, we look for solutions to complement our existing tool based on customer's needs. 

We recommended the solution to a customer as an infrastructure configuration and monitoring tool that combines multiple domains in a single platform. The customer also wanted issue notifications to be provided in a real-time, viewable format. 

The solution ranks as one of the top five monitoring tools.

KPIs should correlate and combine in one simple report.

The solution does not offer much customization so is somewhat inflexible. 

I have been using the solution for one year. 

The solution is stable.

Our customer does not have broad scaling needs. They have fifteen users and the solution works fine with no issues in this small environment. 

The initial setup can take time because it requires proper security access from the customer side. Setup and implementation took our customer one week. 

Our customer utilized an internal team of four technicians to handle implementation themselves. 

Our customer reports that the solution is somewhat costly and licensing is a bit complicated. 

I recommend the solution if it is the best alternative for a customer's environment. It is one of five tools that I suggest for assessment of fit. 

I rate the solution a seven out of ten. 

We used SolarWinds for network switches, routers, firewalls, and servers, and to collect performance data for items on a global scale. We have 1,000 to 1,500 users.

The ability to customize the views and dashboards is nice. SolarWinds also allows us to access the data via the API. That's probably the feature I liked the most.

It would be nice to have a test to check if you can access a particular device via API without installing it and waiting for a poll cycle. You should have the capacity to initiate a test to see if it was reachable and get the results almost immediately.

I have been using SolarWinds NPM for four or five years.

SolarWinds was pretty stable.

SolarWinds NPM is scalable.

SolarWinds provides good support.

Setting up SolarWinds NPM was relatively straightforward. There is always some complexity, but it's usually pretty straightforward. Two technicians were able to set it up.

We set up SolarWinds NPM in-house. 

I rate SolarWinds NPM eight out of 10. I recommend taking advantage of the online training that's available. Get an account on THWACK, the online user group. It's good for getting help.

One of my clients is a bank. SolarWinds is primarily used in banking to limit network downtime to less than one or two minutes. All the ATMs are connected with SolarWinds, so the bank can respond quickly when the network is down. You only need about three or four people monitoring this software at a time. SolarWinds is deployed on-premises for security reasons. Banks do not allow cloud solutions for this purpose. 

Network performance is the main issue clients are facing. SolarWinds checks if a node is down, and we can set thresholds for performance metrics. For example, we set it up to get an alert automatically if a value is over 80 percent. It has a full dashboard that covers CP, hard disk, and node monitoring.

Each model has different features, so clients need to purchase a separate model for SQL monitoring, database monitoring, network traffic analyzer, HTTP traffic, etc. So each feature they need is in a different model, but customers would prefer an all-in-one solution.

I have been working with SolarWinds NPM for two years.

SolarWinds is stable. We sometimes have crashes here and there because we are monitoring so many features and routers.

SolarWinds is easy to scale.

We don't use technical support because we handle everything in-house. We already make customized dashboards, reports, notes, etc. ourselves.

I used PRTG, but it's not used in any banks. About 80 percent of banks I know use SolarWinds. PRTG is mostly popular in manufacturing companies. It's cheaper, so manufacturers can easily afford it. 

Setting up SolarWinds is somewhat complex because the data is encrypted and banks require so many policies. The reporting and dashboards are also complex. 

SolarWinds is expensive. That's why it's primarily banks using the solution. Small businesses can't afford it. Due to its pricing, most smaller enterprises like manufacturing companies are not interested. For example, we have a client who is also interested in traffic monitoring, but they are not purchasing SolarWinds because of the cost. 

I rate SolarWinds NPM seven out of 10. 

What I've found most valuable about the solution is that it's scalable.

An area of the solution that needs improvement is the multitenancy. I'd like to see more features that deal with multitenancy in the next release.

I have been using the solution for a couple of years. 

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. 

There are issues with newer features so it can take a long time to adjust. The solution is in bad shape because of software hacks.

The installation takes about one day. However, it can take more than a couple of days to work with SolarWinds NPM or other products. The integration is part of the project.

We have specialists that take care of the installation. Usually you need two or three technicians to implement, depending on the company's experience. The main part is integrating the customization.

To get the positive business case within ROI, return on investment, sometimes also use the NCV, the net constant value.

There's standard licensing, and then it depends on the size of the customer. I have customers that pay anywhere from 25K up to 200K, depending on the subscription model.

The competitors can be PRTG in combination with, for example, log monitoring features. There are lots in that space.

If you look at SolarWinds, it's a very traditional brand, and there are a couple of competitors who are far more modern, also in the layout. Some of the competitors have better visibility, and also have licenses more suitable for some customers.

We have a couple hundred customers using this solution.

Whether the solution is right depends on the customer's needs. What does he want? What is the company's strategy? What expertise does he have? Does the company have its own technicians? Does higher management have the strategy to help their specialists or not? 

I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution to try to monitor all of our AWS services, including the servers and the cloud. We use both, and this actually helps us with monitoring and certain applications.

The best part of the solution is the sharing display. It gives a general public ID wherein everyone can link to a public display. That's a good feature.

I expected more from the solution. I thought it would be just like the Orion Platform. On Orion, for example, you can spot all the different widgets and everything from the dashboard. This solution is less simple. There are charts and lines and numbers. It might be helpful if the solution offered some more extensions, like a log that could add up your display on the dashboard.

I have mixed feelings about the solution. I started off thinking that this would be a replacement to all of our other dashboards, like Cloudworx. However, it didn't show me that promise. I wouldn't want to replace the other dashboards that we started with because it wouldn't generate reporting. It would be helpful if it would help visualize information better.

There needs to be more integration of widgets, especially for reporting purposes.

The solution would benefit enormously from more automation, especially around reporting.

SolarWinds NPM has been in our company for two years now, but we have just recently started to utilize the solution effectively. We've begun to get the full effect of the product, I would estimate, only in the past few months.

The stability is weak in comparison to other solutions. CloudWatch is far better in the stability aspect. The solution is a bit slow.

The solution has the potential to scale. I'm not sure if my company has tried to do so or if they plan on doing so, so I can't speak from any personal experience.

We are actually in the process of replacing a lot of items. This solution didn't do the things we expected, so don't know the likelihood of scaling it in the future, or continuing to use it.

For the most part, our IT teams are the ones that are on the solution. Not everyone in the company is on it.

Technical support has always been great. They are very responsive. We've been satisfied with their level of support.

We didn't previously have any other hybrid platform to monitor. We were just using CloudWatch for our AWS services. With SolarWinds, we have the potential to take a look at everything across the board. 

The initial setup was straightforward. It was really smooth.

I personally did not handle the deployment part, however, the rest of the team who supported me had handled the process and it was my understanding that they didn't have any issues.

I don't deal with licensing or pricing, so I wouldn't be able to guess how much we pay for the services or if they are monthly or yearly. I'm not sure what our license agreement looks like.

We just use the product. We're not consultants or resellers.

I'm not sure of which version of the solution we are currently using. It may be the most recent.

I do believe that in the future, users will gravitate towards using one solution for monitoring all the servers and applications. However, right now this product needs a lot of plugins. Currently, a lot of improvements are needed before the solution gets to a good place in terms of usability.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

The simplicity of this product is a valuable feature; everything you need is easily accessible and the maintenance is low. In addition, it is customizable which makes it possible to do anything you want with little work.

NPM gets information out fast, so troubleshooting time is reduced.

I enjoy their latest revamp of the alerting feature. However, I still think there is a little more that can be done there.

I have used this product for around 12 years.

We are currently using:

• Orion Platform 2016.2.100
• WPM 2.2.1
• NCM 7.5.1
• NPM 12.0.1
• DPA 10.2.0
• QoE 2.2.0
• IVIM 2.1.2
• SAM 6.3.0
• NetPath 1.0.1

I have encountered issues only with the Microsoft OS that it lays on.

NPM has scaled in pace with my business.

I would give their technical support a 7/10 rating.

As their customer base has increased, they have been walking through more basic troubleshooting. Thus, it takes longer to get through the basic checklists of questions that I have no doubt solve many of the other issues experienced by their customers and may not even be related to their product.

Initially, we used a home-grown solution. Since it was not scaling/developing with the rate of technology, we moved onto this product.

The initial setup was simple. I have also used Whatsup Gold and open-source Nagios; they were either too simplistic or too difficult to get actionable data.

The only thing I don’t like is that NTA license size is tied to NPM’s license size, since my organization's need for NTA is lower than our need for NPM.

We looked at other solutions, namely WhatsUp Gold, TNT software and Nagios.

Keep your imagination open and keep looking around Thwack; there are lots of great ideas in there.

It is an awesome production, I just haven’t found a way to do all my work yet.