Territories of Naught

Thoughts from the Void

Monitoring the Network

29th-Jan-2008 11:21 am

So I've been evaluating network monitoring software for the last little while.

We started by installing the SolarWinds Orion demo and seeing how it works. It's pretty slick, auto-detected our network and I've got it reporting on CPU and Memory usage on most of our servers. However, it's a bit on the expensive side, especially when you throw in the fact that they've taken some otherwise basic snmp functionality and moved it into $1000-$2000 (per server) add ons.

So I'm looking at a few of the altneratives to try and make sure that we really want to use Solarwinds. So far the contenders are:

SolarWinds Orion	Review
ManageEngine
Nagios
Zenoss	Review
Hyperic HQ	Review
Groundwork	Review
OpenNMS

Right off the bat, after checking out the demos on their web sites, I decided to drop ManageEngine from the running, I found the displays confusing and unhelpful when compared to the other products. With so many to choose from, it's an easy elimination to make.

Now out of these products, Solarwinds and ManageEngine are closed source projects. The others are all openSource or hybrids (meaning there's an open source version, and an enterprise version with additional features).

The 5 Open Source contenders have download metrics available from SourceForge and according to this blog entry, Zenoss and Nagios are the most popular downloads. The same guy also did a Google Trends analysis.

[Update: 2208/01/30 4:46 PM]

The strongest looking candidates are Hyperic HQ and Zenoss. I never added mrtg to the list because it's old technology that is widely reported to be out classed by the newer offerings. Also, I'm eliminated Groundwork for similar reasons, according to Network World the basic version lacks features that are in the free versions of Hyperic HQ and Zenoss (like automated discovery of network switches?). I'm skeptical of Nagios, especially since GroundWork appears to be a fork of it, but version 3.0 of Nagios is almost ready for release, so I'm not eliminating it immediately.

Based on the evidence so far, we're going to try out a Zenoss install. That's something we decided yesterday and I've spent most of the day installing Centos 5 on a new server and bolting the hatches down. I've just finished downloading the Zenoss installer and I'm running it now. Unfortunately, I couldn't run the Zenoss installer on our regular network monitoring machine because it wanted to replace some of the MySQL libaries under Centos 4. If Cacti weren't currently using them, that wouldn't have been a problem. One thing I liked about both Zenoss and Hyperic is that they both allow you to skip the registration forms, and go straight to the download page. I find those forms tedious especially when trying out new software. I will be adding more stuff as I find it.

Tags:it
Mood:geeky

Comments

30th-Jan-2008 07:44 pm (UTC) - Good Luck

mrhinkle.myopenid.com

Neosis, I wish you the best with your evaluation.

If I can be of any help let me know.

You can download the Open Source version or the complete a no-risk Enterprise Trial here: www.zenoss.com/download (www.zenoss.com/download/)

Mark Hinkle
Zenoss Community
mrhinkle@zenoss.com

30th-Jan-2008 10:30 pm (UTC) - Re: Good Luck

neosis

Hi Mark. Thanks for posting. This may sound like complete newbishness, but that's just because it is. I ran into a few things about Zenoss during the install that I didn't like:

1) Setting the MySQL passwords caused the start up script to spew some errors. I can't tell if password protecting the MySQL root user (as directed by the MySQL install) will make it not work, and if does, how to make it work. I checked the FAQ, no mention of this.

2) The start script spews two errors every time it's run:
Daemon: zeoctl /opt/zenoss/bin/zenoss: line 99: /opt/zenoss/bin/zeoctl: No such file or directory
Daemon: zopectl /opt/zenoss/bin/zenoss: line 99: /opt/zenoss/bin/zopectl: No such file or directory

Sure enough, those files aren't there, but I don't know what they do and why they're missing.

3) The install doc has a big "What next?" moment at the end. It should direct tell the installer where to go to see what there is to see. I assume it's supposed to be visible at http://myserver:8080/, but I'm not getting anything. Possibly because of the earlier errors. I found the quick start guide now. I'd still put a plug for that at the bottom of the install guides, it'd help keep a newbie's momentum going.

It looks like the answer to 1 and 2 is "Yes, having a password on the MySQL root user screws up the initial install". Go edit "$ZENOSS_HOME/bin/zenoss_init_pre" and insert the root password, and run that script again.

Of course, now I get Python and permission errors from zeoctl. Looks like it was just the wrong permissions on a single log file.

And finally, there it is! It's up and running.

Edited at 2008-01-31 02:36 pm (UTC)

31st-Jan-2008 09:25 am (UTC) - RE: Monitoring the network

Anonymous

I suggest you add Intellipool Network Monitor and What's Up Gold to your eval list on the commercial side. Good luck with the eval.

31st-Jan-2008 06:40 pm (UTC) - RE: SolarWinds Orion

joshstephens

Neosis,
If I can be of any help with your research/testing of Orion please don't hesitate to ping me. From what I've read, I'd say you have a great list of products to base your evaluation on. Obviously, we could talk about the pros and cons of using open source vs. commercial products but with regards to the products in each category you have some strong representatives here.

Josh Stephens
headgeek@solarwinds.com

7th-Feb-2008 09:23 pm (UTC)

Anonymous

I just updated the latest pt360 beta (PacketTrap). This tool works great! I had minor issues with sizing the graphs properly on a single dashboard tab but that was about the worst of it. Cisco tool that has all functionalities in one is great but at one point I couldn't see all interfaces. I love the interface, it is incredibly easy to add items to the dashboard and select credentials. They really hit the nail on the head from the user friendliness perspective. I’ve worked in IT for the last 14 years and haven’t seen such a small lightweight tool perform so well. The product worked great for network diagnostics. I personally think they should add in some sort of packet sniffer as well something like ettercap and they would have an invaluable tool for IT staff.

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