[c-nsp] MPLS service provider monitoring tools

[James Bensley]

I'm not sure if this is the correct mailing list for this question,
but if it is acceptable then my response is below.

Observium is definitely worth it in terms of "just works". I like to
have the paid-for version of Observium running which you can point at
an IP/Hostname and it will automatically graph everything it supports
for that device. In addition to this I like to have Cacti also running
as Cacti will graph "anything" so we can use it to make bespoke graphs
for anything no in a MIB, and also stuff like stacked and aggregate
graphs. Having two NMS’s also provides backup if you bill from them
for example.

They both support the free weather map plugin. Also a new major
version of Cacti just came out to help with scaling issues so I'm very
happy with that: https://github.com/Cacti/cacti

We’ve had loads of problems with some paid for systems which I don’t
think I can name on-list. Both of these open source projects are
scaling better than our paid for system and both support a wider
ranges of devices that our paid for system. Considering these two are
both free (except for the very minimal cost of Observium support which
is optional) for people with an NMS budget, I highly recommend either
one of them and spend that budget on man hours customising your
deployment and writing and bespoke plugins you need, drop RANCID or
https://github.com/ytti/oxidized on the box and you’ll be laughing.


Cheers,
James.