[f-nsp] using

[Bruce Rodger]

> :  So you always have a copy of all current configs, can roll back to any
> :  previous version, and it's obvious when any config changes get made.
>
>
> There is also the IronView Network Manager...
>

Enough said :-)

I looked at Ironview, and wasn't impressed. Perhaps it has improved....
but we thought it was a lot of money for not a lot of functionality.

It's definitely NOT a network management package - more of a router/config
management tool. We decided not to buy it - it had some nice features, but
didn't give us anything that we didn't already have via various other
freeware tools (rancid, netdisco, mrtg).

On the other hand, we DID buy Inmon traffic server (a Sflow analysis package)
and are very impressed with it. The "fan-out" report is one of the most
useful reports I've obtained from any network management tool.


Another tool which is worth a look is netdisco (www.netdisco.org). It's
very cisco-centric, but I've been working on a patch to get it to use
FDP rather than CDP. Without that patch, you need to enter topology
information manually, which is tedious, but once set up it polls all
routers and switches regularly, retrieving arp and bridging tables, and
storing it in a database. So you can very quickly find out which
devices (by mac or ip) are connected to each switch port. You can also
enable/disable ports via netdisco. Definitely worth a closer look.

Bruce.
-- 
Bruce Rodger                      |Bruce.Rodger at strath.ac.uk  PGP key available
Network Manager, IT Services      |http://www.strath.ac.uk/IT/People/bruce.html
The University of Strathclyde     | +44 (0)141 548 3300
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