[c-nsp] Network monitoring / NMS software

[Scott Granados]

I know this question comes up from time to time and I’ve myself asked it before but it was a while ago and some recent googling seems to indicate the landscape has changed a lot.

I’m looking for recommendations for monitoring software.  Basic alerting, SNMP polling, trap handling, reporting, auto discovery and the other general features.  Server monitoring would be a nice plus or at least a method of adding on that functionality.
Open NMS is grabbing my interest so far but I’m wondering about commercial packages and the advantages of having a vendor to call on especially considering we’re a small startup operation so far.  Wonder what people are using, what open source or commercial platforms have you tried?  The only real requirement I have in terms of environment is that the platform runs under Linux and not windows only.  We’re a non windows shop so can’t and won’t install a single instance of Windows server just to run monitoring.  Any pointers and advice folks have would be greatly appreciated. Also anyone using open NMS specifically who has any real world experience and comments would be appreciated but I’m interested in anything being used and your opinions.

Thanks
Scott