RE: Open-Source Network Management Tools

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1

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I'm looking for open-source alternatives for network management,
such as Nagios or Big Brother. We are currently using WhatsUp Gold,
and would like to move to something more flexible (and not running
on a Windows platform). Something that has email/paging
capabilities, and can process SNMP traps would be a plus for us as
well.
>
Recommendations?

Thanks.

I'd like to expand the question by asking, what Open-Source
applications do people use for SNMP Trap collecting and alarming?
We're very happy with Nagios for polling, but we have a lot of
optical components that send information via Traps that then needs to
be culled, trimmed and analyzed.

Thanks,

Mike

2

I always tried to avoid any deal with SNMP TRAPS as most unreliable and
unconvenient way of alerting (unfortunately, it can not be avoided totally).
We use 'syslog' (syslog-ng + home written syslog analyzers + copmmercial
soft, sometimes) when possible.

3

Since several folks showed interest in this, I have posted the slides
for the design talk at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nexb

4

Just curious, what kind of commercial/opensource software do you use for
syslog analysis and alerting?

I also run syslog-ng and have some filters written to ignore some of the
more mundane syslog messages. Also have swatch half implemented and
semi working, but I'm looking for a cleaner, and more manageable tool
for syslog based alerting.

5

What makes syslog so much more reliable in your opinion? There's no ability
to find lost messages or have guaranteed delivery. At least not on 514/udp.
If you can toss a trap, you can toss a syslog message.

That is, unless I've lost my mind this morning and need to go get more
coffee.

6

Chris Allermann wrote:

Just curious, what kind of commercial/opensource software do you use for
syslog analysis and alerting?

http://www.l0t3k.net/tools/Loganalysis/lire-1.4.tar.gz

http://www.sawmill.net/features.html

7

Nothing good exists (I tried all opensource I could find). We are developing
(improving) our scripts, and I hope to make it the same quality as CCR or
snmpstat and post on the sourceforge, but now it is just
set of scripts - on one server, and MySQL database + set of scripts - on
another, without documentatikn etc.

Problem is that it should not be simple filterts; system should:
- assign recipients to the host;
- allow user to set up temporary BLACK and WHILE filters;
- send alert first time, when it see something, and do not send it if
messages are repeated (until time expired or number of messages will be to
great);
- allows filkters such as _too many messages of this kind_ or _logfile size
too big_;
- etc etc.

We have CA (99% junk!) and tried ProactiveNetwork (very good, but syslog and
eventlog analizers are still very primitive). I do not need software _write
your own filters_, I need written filters, it is difference.

(Anyway, we post all syslogs on monitoring web, in a few groups:
- all todays messages in a big heap;
- access logs;
- errors;
- logs per host;

all logs are saved separately for every date (we generate web links every
night, so making unnecessary file rotation) and are gzipped after some time.
As a result, I have ull 2 years history of syslog on the web, easy to
analyze, and have 'search' script allowing to find anything.

8

Syslog is a text protocol, so system developer can always write any message.
SNMPTRAP is '1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 'something happen blablabla' type of messages.
They are the same in other properties, I do agree - that;s why we detect
everything we can by 'polling'.

There are many tools, converting one to another, so take it easy -:).

9

I'm looking for open-source alternatives for network management,
such as Nagios or Big Brother. We are currently using WhatsUp Gold,
and would like to move to something more flexible (and not running
on a Windows platform). Something that has email/paging
capabilities, and can process SNMP traps would be a plus for us as
well.

Recommendations?

Thanks.

Have a look at http://www.itprc.com/nms.htm - I put together a list of open
source/free NMS tools a while ago, hopefully it is still somewhat current.

irwin