Switches are the backbone of your LAN. Any problem in your switches affects a large proportion of your LAN users. Switch monitoring is essential to maintain your network in a healthy state.
It is crucial to monitor the hardware as well as the traffic through the switch. Network switch monitoring consists of switch port monitoring and mapping, switch perfromance monitoring, and switch traffic monitoring.
There are separate tools available for each of these functions such as switch port monitoring software, switch traffic monitor, switch port mapper, etc.
However, using multiple tools for monitoring switch becomes an annoying task for the IT admins as the tools require: Constant management Additional resources for continuous monitoring Substantial amount of time for learning It is always better to have a unified switch monitoring software or switch monitoring tool that can accomplish all these tasks.
Monitor Port utilization and traffic with threshold alerts. Detect potential Broadcast Storms and pro—actively prevent the same. Identify highly utilized and under-utilized ports. Switch Port Mapper ». Video Zone. IT Admin from "Royal flying doctor service", Australia. Jonathan ManageEngine Customer. But in general, there are two primary monitoring components. First, you will need to ensure the devices you intend to monitor are active and their operational parameters are appropriate.
Second, you may also want to monitor the traffic being managed by these devices, which is a useful way of monitoring operational performance and efficiency.
Network traffic is frequently compared with road traffic. In this analogy, network circuits are the highways and the cars are data being transported. While car traffic is visible to the human eye, and congestion is readily apparent, achieving comprehensive network visibility can be challenging. Network traffic is invisible, so observing and monitoring it is complicated. Some switch management software can be used to poll devices and achieve visibility into operational metrics.
This visibility can be invaluable when it comes to identifying the root cause of issues and devising appropriate solutions. A range of network switch management software and switch monitoring software is available. Some tools are more versatile than others, while some focus on specific metrics. Bandwidth utilization monitors, for example, are among the most basic network switch monitoring tools.
These monitors read the operational parameters of network switches, like memory loads and CPU, and measure how much data is being transported across each device interface. Another monitoring tool worth knowing about is a flow analyzer. This type of network switch management and monitoring tool can give you greater insight into the data being transported by your network.
SNMP-enabled network switches make several parameters available for monitoring. Bandwidth usage monitoring is more complex. A standard network bandwidth utilization monitoring tool will poll each device at five-minute intervals. The initial counter value will then be subtracted from the most recent counter value, revealing the number of bytes transferred over during the five-minute period. This number will then be multiplied by eight to get the number of bits.
Lastly, this value will be divided by , revealing the bandwidth value in bits per second. Many network management and monitoring tools rely on SNMP to poll devices. SNMP reads the operational metrics and monitors the amount of traffic passing through their interfaces. This data can then be used to create graphs and charts representing how the monitored parameters have changed over time.
Monitoring tools of this nature usually allow you to drill down into the graph to view a specific period. For instance, you could view a section of the graph providing you with an insight into average traffic in a minute period. Alternatively, you could zoom out to view a longer period i. Daily and weekly averages are also provided. It uses this built-in software to send in-depth usage data, like top talkers, network usage by protocol, network usage by application, network usage by source or destination address, and much more.
A flow analysis tool can help you achieve much deeper insight into your network. As its name suggests, network monitoring is used to monitor the overall health and performance of your network, in addition to tracking and identifying any changes indicative of a problem.
Network configuration management tools typically facilitate network switch management and monitoring as part of their service offering. Network configuration management is a process every single network device is subjected to over the course of its lifecycle.
It covers inventory maintenance, device discovery, configuration backup, monitoring configuration changes and compliance, tracking user activity, and more.
You can download the software for free. Related post: Nagios vs Zabbix. Icinga is an open-source network monitoring tool that monitors the performance of your network, cloud-service, and data center. Having the choice between the two gives you the power to monitor however you want.
You can log in to the GUI and use the dashboard to view an overview of performance management. The dashboard displays whether there are any problems with performance or availability and color-codes them according to severity. Critical or Down network devices are marked in red.
Extensions or Icinga Modules , allow you to add more functions to the program. For example, the Icinga Module for vSphere allows you to monitor virtual machines and host systems. There is a range of community-created plugins you can download for free from the Icinga Exchange.
Overall, Icinga is a scalable solution that gives you control over how you manage your environment. You can download the free trial version. Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard is a popular free network monitoring software. Through the web-based GUI, you access the dashboard and monitor the availability of your network infrastructure in real-time.
The software also comes with integrations with Spiceworks Inventory and Cloud Help Desk so that you can monitor your network inventory more effectively. The alerts system lets you know about any performance fluctuations so you receive notifications via emai l. Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard is ideal for smaller enterprises that are looking for an affordable network performance monitoring solution. You can download the software for free to install on Windows.
It is common in many IT departments to combine the functions of server, application, storage, and network management, because all of these elements are interdependent on ensuring successful delivery of services to end-users. Combined software packages containing monitoring tools can cover all of these elements of company infrastructure.
A network monitoring tool can be a small command-line utility, or a vast suite of services. Networking technology involves many different specialist functions.
You also have to ensure that the network is secure and that the environmental conditions in the building are suitable for your equipment. In all, you need to keep on top of potential problems on the network and head them off. If failure does occur, try to catch it and fix it before it impacts the work of the users of the network. If all measures fail, the help desk enables you to receive alerts from users to identify undetected problems. The tool has all the essential features you need to start monitoring your network including autodiscovery, dashboards, network maps, bandwidth monitoring, and an alerts system.
Network monitoring is concerned with the performance of the devices that operate the network, such as switches and routers. This activity is called network performance monitoring. The other main task of network monitoring examines traffic flow, this is called network traffic analysis. While some network traffic analysis tasks involve identifying the applications that generate or receive traffic, those monitoring functions are not concerned with whether the applications are running properly.
Application performance monitoring watches whether applications are able to get all of the resources they need in order to function properly. One of those resources is access to the network. All of the tools listed in this review are capable of monitoring networks remotely, that is, they can connect over the internet to another site and monitor all aspects of network performance. Remote monitoring can be performed just as easily by software resident on a cloud server as it can by software resident on a server in the same building as the network administrator.
There are two types of network monitors: packet sniffers, which sample network traffic, and network performance monitors, which collect network device reports. There are seven types of network monitoring systems:. Traffic monitoring tools are called traffic analyzers or NetFlow monitors.
While network performance monitors query network device statuses, traffic analyzers examine throughput data from network devices and also extract the headers of passing packets to quantify traffic by protocol, source, and destination.
An SNMP agent needs to be resident on each device. All network device manufacturers ship their products with an SNMP agent already installed. All that is lacking is the SNMP manager and this is the role that the network performance monitoring tool provides. It depends on your needs. Unless I misunderstood, SpiceWorks Network Monitoring has not been under development for several years. This was from a support person at SpiceWorks. We have been pretty happy with it but are looking for something else due to the lack of development.
Thank you for your comment. Thanks Tim, good list of tools. Thank you, Tim. It is the most complete list I saw. We actually tried many of the above. Some of them are pretty hard to use. Some become too expensive when your network grows… Some do not have important features we needed. This one had all the features we needed out-of-box, also was easy to use. Yes, they have real-time monitoring, visualization and user defined alerts. We started using it as simple desktop application for small size network and the same installation gradually grew into multi-user distributed system monitoring thousands of nodes including secure monitoring of our remote sites.
The most cost effective solution They have free version as well. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Comparitech uses cookies. More info. Menu Close. We are reader supported and may receive a commission when you make purchases using the links on our site. Network monitoring is something that every connected organization should be doing.
However, with such a huge range of network monitoring software and tools, choosing the right one for your environment and budget can be challenging. In this post, we compare and rank the best network monitoring tools. Tim Keary Network administration expert. Most network security issues arise when configurations are changed and SolarWinds NPM identifies these and can automatically resolve many.
Alongside solid vulnerability scanning and advanced options to create and monitor policies, this is by far the top choice for network monitoring systems.
Get a day free trial. Helps you get to the bottom of DNS, app and infrastructure issues. Runs on Linux or a physical appliance. Installs on Windows Server.
Nagios Core One of the top open-source network monitoring tools. Includes a dashboard view, alerts system, community plugins, and more.
Includes an alerts system and community plugins. Icinga Open source network monitoring system with a DSL. Includes extensions. Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard Free network monitoring software with a high-quality dashboard and simple alert system.
What should you look for when choosing network monitoring tools and software? We reviewed the network monitoring tools and software market and analyzed the options based on the following criteria: An autodiscovery system to log all network devices A network topology mapper The ability to collect live network devices statuses by using SNMP A facility to analyze network performance over time Graphical interpretation of data, such as charts and graphs A free trial period, a demo, or a money-back guarantee for no-risk assessment A good price that reflects value for money when compared to the functions offered.
Pros: Designed with large and enterprise networks in mind Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps and inventory lists in real-time based on devices that enter the network Has some of the best alerting features that balance effectiveness with ease of use Supports both SNMP monitoring as well as packet analysis, giving you more control over monitoring than similar tools Uses drag and drop widgets to customize the look and feel of the dashboard Robust reporting system with pre-configured compliance templates.
Cons: This is a feature-rich enterprise tool, small LANs and operations may find it overwhelming. Key features: Live network mapping and protocol analysis Alerts on performance thresholds that are adjusted through machine learning Correlation with data from SNMP and other sources. Pros: Has one of the most intuitive interfaces among other network monitoring tools Cloud-based SaaS product allows monitoring with no server deployments or onboarding costs Can monitor both internally and externally giving network admins a holistic view of network performance and accessibility Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps on the fly Changes made to the network are reflected in near real-time Allows businesses to scale their monitoring efforts reliably through flexible pricing options.
Cons: Would like to see a longer trial period for more advanced testing. Pros: Designed to work right away, features over customizable widgets to build unique dashboards and reports Leverages autodiscover to find, inventory, and map new devices Uses intelligent alerting to reduce false positives and eliminate alert fatigue across larger networks Supports email, SMS, and webhook for numerous alerting channels Integrates well in the ManageEngine ecosystem with their other products.
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