[c-nsp] PRTG OR ZABBIX MONITORING TOOL what is your opinion

[A.L.M.Buxey at lboro.ac.uk]

Hi,

> NAGIOS needs a lot of tunning to be useful, I think, a serious NAGIOS
> deployment with several devices and/or changes on the network (as for
> example probes for several SLAs...) needs someone dedicated to
> maintain it with some experience.

depends on how you do things. most of our NAGIOS configuration is created
from database and flat files of information. there was some time spent on
those scripts and insertions etc but now its all automated and only minimal
'maintain it' is required - eg patching to new version...looking for better plugins.
certainly less than 1 day a month.  because we havent just plonked for some bespoke
commercial solution which only lets you do what they want, we can add extra things.
like integrate it to our DNS - so when an entry is added to a particular DNS
range, its automatically added to NAGIOS monitoring for that class of device.

there are other NAGIOS-based solutions around that have far more funkier interfaces
etc...and observium is very nice (we havent spent time looking at the integration
for that one just yet) .  couple NAGIOS with NetDISCO and some MRTG and you've got yourself
the makings of all the tools.  I'd like to go down the bricks/mortar route - 
those tools are the bricks...your knowledge and skills are the mortar... you're 
building your own customisable house.  the alternative? a non customised pre-fab build
that might be made of steel/concrete...very difficult to change/alter to your requirements
though could be robust and survive more knocks.

alan