Comparison Of Network Monitoring Systems - Network Monitoring Software

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of network monitoring systems. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.

Features

Legend

Product NameÂ

The name of the software, linked to its Wikipedia article.

IP SLAs ReportsÂ

Support of Cisco's IP Service Level Agreement mechanism.

Logical GroupingÂ

Supports arranging the hosts or devices it monitors into user-defined groups.

TrendingÂ

Provides trending of network data over time.

Trend PredictionÂ

The software features algorithms designed to predict future network statistics.

Auto DiscoveryÂ

The software automatically discovers hosts or network devices it is connected to.

AgentlessÂ

The product does not rely on a software agent that must run on hosts it is monitoring, so that data can be pushed back to a central server. "Supported" means that an agent may be used, but is not mandatory. An SNMP daemon does not count as an agent.

SNMPÂ

Able to retrieve and report on SNMP statistics.

SyslogÂ

Able to receive and report on Syslogs.

PluginsÂ

Architecture of the software based on a number of 'plugins' that provide additional functionality.

Triggers/AlertsÂ

Capable of detecting threshold violations in network data, and alerting the administrator in some form.

WebAppÂ

Runs as a web-based application.

No: There is no web-based frontend for this software.
Viewing: Network data can be viewed in a graphical web-based frontend.
Acknowledging: Users can interact with the software through the web-based frontend to acknowledge alarms or manipulate other notifications.
Reporting: Specific reports on network data can be configured by the user and executed through the web-based frontend.
Full Control: ALL aspects of the product can be controlled through the web-based frontend, including low-level maintenance tasks such as software configuration and upgrades.

Distributed MonitoringÂ: Able to leverage more than one server to distribute the load of network monitoring.
InventoryÂ: Keeps a record of hardware and/or software inventory for the hosts and devices it monitors.
PlatformÂ: The platform (Coding Language) on which the tool was developed/written.
Data Storage MethodÂ: Main method used to store the network data it monitors.
LicenseÂ: License released under (e.g. GPL, BSD license, etc.).
MapsÂ: Features graphical network maps that represent the hosts and devices it monitors, and the links between them.
Access ControlÂ: Features user-level security, allowing an administrator to prevent access to certain parts of the product on a per-user or per-role basis.
IPv6Â: Supports monitoring IPv6 hosts and/or devices, receiving IPv6 data, and running on an IPv6-enabled server. Supports communication using IPv6 to the SNMP agent via an IPv6 address.