Introduction
Networks are becoming critical components of business success
- irrespective of whether you are small or BIG. When network
fails, customers and employees cannot communicate, employees
cannot access critical information or use basic print or email
services, resulting in productivity loss and revenue loss.
Network monitoring software tools reduce network outages and
allow businesses to operate more fluently, cut costs, and
prevent revenue loss. And for those who are small and are
not allowed to think of a budget for network monitoring software,
a better alternative is to start with opensource and freeware
network monitoring software that reduce the time and money
spent on network administration and management. This paper
talks about the top freeware and opensource network monitoring
software available today.
4 Critical Network Elements that
Need Monitoring
Businesses depending on their size buy various networking
infrastructure elements. Some of the basic network elements
that need continuous monitoring are:
Email Servers: Every organization will have an Email
server which distributes emails to all LAN users. If the email
server fails, users are disconnected from the external world
and key functions such as customer support takes a hit. IT
Managers need to monitor their email servers for availability,
mails in queue, size of mails received etc.
WAN links: Small Enterprises can save money by optimizing
the WAN links. If over subscribed, it costs heavily and if
under subscribed it chokes the network. Hence IT administrators
should carefully balance the throughput, committed information
rate (CIR) and burst rate with congestion, response time,
and discards to optimize the link utilization. IT Managers
should also find out whos using the most bandwidth to
make necessary arrangements. Apart from bandwidth monitoring
(discussed above), routers need to be monitored for availability
and performance periodically. If a router fails it halts the
entire LAN and hence IT Managers should set thresholds on
various parameters on routers and attend problems immediately.
Business Applications :
- Servers & Services: Servers run critical applications
and hence should be monitored for CPU, memory, disc space,
services running on them (FTP, DNS, ECHO, IMAP, LDAP, TELNET,
HTTP, POP, etc.) and their response time. Moreover the traffic
utilization trends of these servers should also be monitored.
- Server logs: Small businesses running windows machines
should also monitor the server logs for failed logon, account
lockouts, bad passwords, failed attempts to secure files,
security log tampering etc. Monitoring these logs gives
clear picture of security loop holes existing inside the
organization.
- Applications, Databases, & Websites: Small
businesses run several mission critical applications, websites,
and databases which need to be monitored periodically. Applications
can be monitored for availability, response time etc. URLs
should be monitored for availability.
LAN Infrastructure: Your LAN infrastructure devices
such as switches, printers & wireless devices.
Top 3 Network Management Requirements
For Small Networks
Small businesses have different network management needs
and expectation because technical expertise and staff are
limited. They want tools that are low cost, easy to install
and use, and feature rich.
- Low Cost : The network monitoring software should
be affordable.
- Easy to install and use: The network monitoring
software should be intuitive enough to get started without
reading that dry boring documentation.
- Feature rich: The network monitoring software
should be able to monitor all your resources - both what
you have today as well as what you might have tomorrow.
Open Source Network Monitoring
Software for Small Networks
Open Source offers many tools for various IT needs including
network monitoring, bandwidth monitoring, network discovery
etc. Most popular opensource tools for network management
are:
- Nagios: Network Monitoring Software
- MRTG: Traffic Monitoring Software
- Kismet: Wireless Monitoring Software
Nagios: The Open Source Network Monitoring Software
Nagios® is a host and service monitor designed to inform
you of network problems before your clients, end-users or
managers do. It has been designed to run under the Linux operating
system, but works fine under most *NIX variants as well. The
monitoring daemon runs intermittent checks on hosts and services
you specify using external "plugins" which return
status information to Nagios. When problems are encountered,
the daemon can send notifications out to administrative contacts
in a variety of different ways (email, instant message, SMS,
etc.). Current status information, historical logs, and reports
can all be accessed via a web browser.
MRTG: The Open Source Traffic Monitoring Software
The Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) is a tool to monitor
the traffic load on network links. MRTG generates HTML pages
containing PNG images which provide a LIVE visual representation
of this traffic like this:
Kismet: The Open Source Wireless Discovery / Intrusion
Prevention Software
Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer,
and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any
wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode,
and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g traffic.
Kismet identifies networks by passively collecting packets
and detecting standard named networks, detecting (and given
time, de-cloaking) hidden networks, and inferring the presence
of non-beaconing networks via data traffic.
Other Open Source Tools That Are Worth Giving A Try: |
Network Management
- Nagios - Network monitoring
- OpenNMS - Network management
- JFFNMS - Network management
- BigBrother - Systems management
- BigSister - Systems management
- Genesys - Network and systems management
- NetDisco - Network management
- REMSTATS - Network monitoring software
- Sysmon - Network monitoring software
- Cricket Router monitoring
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Others
- MRTG - Traffic monitoring
- Ntop - Traffic monitoring
- Nessus Remote security scanning
- PIKT Systems monitoring and configuring
- RRDTool Analytical graphing
- Webmin Unix system admin
- Cacti Network and systems performance graphing
- Cfengine Network configuration
- Kismet -Wireless scanning
- NeDi - Network discovery
- Nmap - Network discovery
- Syslog NG Log file analysis, consolidation,
and filtering
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Commercial Freeware Network Monitoring
Software For Small Networks
Another alternative for SME's is to use freeware versions
of popular commercial software like ManageEngine. The main
advantages of this approach are obvious - SMEs get the same
high quality software that is used by their larger counter-parts.
These commercial software are also easy to install and use.
There is also an active user community to turn to when they
need help. The only disadvantage is that, there are some restrictions
on the number of devices you can manage. However, the good
news is, you can start with the freeware versions and later
when your network grows you can conveniently upgrade to the
affordably priced paid versions. ManageEngine offers free
versions of the following tools :
ManageEngine OpManager
OpManager is a popular network monitoring software used by
thousands of IT administrators worldwide. Using the Free version
of OpManager, you can monitor 10 of your most critical
devices like Routers, Servers, switches, Mail-servers,
firewalls, printers etc. OpManager actively monitors these
critical devices for availability and health and immediately
alerts you by email or SMS, when it detects a problem. OpManager
also generates useful charts and reports to analyze performance
of your devices over a period of time. Download
Free Edition >>
Screenshot:
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ServiceDesk Plus is an integrated IT helpdesk and Asset Management
tool. Using the free version of SDP, you can run an efficient
helpdesk to provide IT support to your end-users and also
keep track of accurate hardware and software details of upto
25 workstations. A simple email from your end-users requesting
help can automatically be converted into a ticket in SDP.
Download Free
Edition>>
Screenshot:
ManageEngine Applications Manager
Applications Manager allows you to gain in-depth visibilty
into how your applications are performing. Using Applications
Manager you can monitor Application Servers, Database Servers,
web-sites and Systems and alerts you instantaneously when
it detects availability and health problems. Download
Free Edition >>
Screenshot:
ManageEngine WiFi Manager
ManageEngine WiFi Manager is enterprise-class software for
centralized management and security of Wireless LANs. It enhances
the availability and security of your WLANs by continuously
monitoring the network as well as the airspace. WiFi Manager
can detect almost all major wireless threats including rogue
attacks, intrusions, sniffers, DoS attacks, and vulnerabilities.
It can also save your time by enabling you configure hundreds
of access points at one click. With WiFi Manager you'll have
complete control over your wireless devices as well as your
airspace, and more time to focus on core IT operations. Download
Free Edition >>
Screenshot:
ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer
ManageEngine Eventlog Analyzer, a web-based event management
solution that collects, analyzes, and reports on event logs
from enterprise-wide Windows and UNIX systems. EventLog Analyzer
improves security and reduces downtime of critical servers
on your enterprise network. And generates graphs and reports
that help in analyzing and troubleshooting system problems
with least impact on network performance. Download
Free Edition >>
Screenshot:
Next Generation Integrated Yet Affordable
IT Management Solutions From ManageEngine
ManageEngine offers a broad range of network monitoring software,
wireless network monitoring software, bandwidth monitoring
software, application monitoring software, eventlog monitoring
software, firewall monitoring software, and helpdesk software
at affordable price points. Their free tools cater to small
networks. Those who start with free tools from ManageEngine
can later migrate seamlessly to the commercial versions.
With it's simple and powerful architechture of colloborating
point products, ManageEngine offers SMEs the option to build
an integrated Network Monitoring software (or solution) at
highly affordable prices.
For more details on ManageEngine network monitoring software,
please contact sales@adventnet.com. For comments on this article
contact devanand@adventnet.com
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