Research report on free IT monitoring tools, including Solarwinds, CA Nimsoft Snap, Nagios XI

1. Comparative Analysis of
Free IT Monitoring
Platforms
Review of SolarWinds, CA Technologies, and
Nagios IT monitoring platforms
The new CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap solution offers users broad
access to monitor and manage up to 30 devices for free. The
following analysis compares Snap to similar free or trial IT
monitoring platform versions: SolarWinds’ free trial versions
of four IT monitoring modules as well as Nagios XI.
Apprize360 Intelligence, INC.
October 15, 2013
A Special Report Commissioned by CA Technologies

2. Overview and Summary
CA Nimsoft Monitor is a premier IT monitoring solution that has
Key Study Findings
deep monitoring functionality in a single, unified architecture.
 Snap is free: no time limitations on
CA Technologies now offers a free version of Nimsoft Monitor,
usage
appropriately named CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap, or Snap for
short. What is unique about this offering is that it is not a trial
 Snap is a single, unified solution: not
version. CA Technologies offers customers usage of Snap for up
several point products integrated
to 30 devices. This includes monitoring of servers, applications,
together with a common GUI
databases, websites, and network and storage devices with
 Snap supports unlimited monitoring
unlimited monitoring frequency. There is no automated
of 30 devices
discontinuation of the platform 30 or 60 days post-installation.
Snap makes it easy for a company to evaluate the Nimsoft
monitoring technology without a set time limitation. Or, if you have 30 devices or less, you can use Snap
as your primary monitoring tool without a paid license.
Snap offers users the following:








Free usage
Monitor up to 30 devices, with unlimited monitors per device
Server, application, network, database, storage & website monitoring
No limit to the frequency device monitoring
Easy-to-deploy installation, configuration and a “directed user experience” (i.e. Snap Tips, howto videos, etc.)
Email notifications
Intuitive dashboards, reports & alarm views
Community support
To better understand how Snap stacks up to other free IT monitoring platforms, Apprize360 Intelligence
reviewed the installation and configuration processes of the following six platforms:






CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor (SAM)
SolarWinds Virtualization Manager
SolarWinds Storage Manager
Nagios XI
The comparative analysis was performed using a Dell PowerEdge T620 Server with 768GB of memory
across 24 DIMM slots and 64 TB of disk space. For Snap and the four SolarWinds platforms, the
operating system used was Microsoft Server 2012. For Nagios XI, we used the same server partitioned to
run Linux Red Hat Enterprise. In all cases, configuration and discovery was completed on a network with
30 devices. Downloads occurred using 40 MBPS Internet speeds.
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3. Snap Configuration & Installation Process
Snap’s installation process is fundamentally different from the other
products reviewed. True to its name, Snap is a “snap” to install and
configure. CA Technologies made sure that everything, from the product
download to the installation process of Snap, is seamless and easy to
perform. CA Technologies used the InstallAnywhere platform for Snap
installation, which makes the installation and execution of Snap quick and
easy. During the installation process, Snap displays on-screen hints to
prepare you for configuration and device discovery. Nagios and SolarWinds
utilize a flat transfer of a ZIP file, which requires separate execution and
manual file extraction. While no download or installation errors occurred
with any of the platforms, the Snap download and installation process was by far the easiest to
use of all the platforms assessed.
After the initial installation, configuration
of Snap continues to be true to its name.
Out of the 6 platforms reviewed, Snap was
by far the easiest and quickest to
configure. The out-of-the-box automated
discovery process took only a few minutes
to identify and log all 30 devices. After the
automated discovery process was
completed, Snap immediately began
monitoring devices for performance,
highlighting any network latency and
individual device performance issues. It is one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces
we have ever experienced for an IT management platform.
The Snap Unified Service Manager dashboard gives you a complete view of your environment,
allowing you to drill-down into specific areas of concern or interest. Within the dashboard, you
can also identify device performance issues by geography, overall performance, and the latest
alarms. The single dashboard provides a full unified view of your infrastructure and is easy to
access throughout if you want to proactively review network performance. However, if you
want to take a more reactive approach, the Snap alarms allow you to set specific thresholds for
device and network performance. Snap will alert you through an alarm or email notification of
any performance related alarms.
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4. Reporting is one the most
significant strengths of Snap.
Reporting
is
completely
interactive, allowing you to dragand-drop specific devices onto
the
reporting
screen
for
immediate graphing. Reporting
can be initiated by a specific
device (or group of devices) or
the quality of services (QoS). The
advanced filtering capabilities
enable granular reporting down
to the specific probe level.
Comparative Benchmark Results
Apprize360’s assessment discovered several differences in the installation and configuration
processes as well as in overall operations between the six platforms researched. Snap led with
overall ease-of-installation, configuration, and operations as well as speed of download and
installation. Snap, compared to SolarWinds and Nagios, is not a time limited trial. SolarWinds
only allows you 30 days free use of their respective platforms while Nagios has a 60-day trial
period.
The full quantitative results can be found in Appendix A of this document beginning on page 8.
Snap vs. SolarWinds
All four assessed SolarWinds platforms use the same download and installation methods.
SolarWinds requires users to download a ZIP file containing an auto-extractable application that
requires manual activation. Unlike Snap, there is no guided installation wizard to help the user
through the installation process. In addition, the SolarWinds platforms require several different
steps to complete the installation. It took 43 minutes to download, install, configure, and
discover devices with Snap. However, it took more than double the time to complete the same
installation process with the Solarwinds platforms. Solarwinds Virtualization Manager and
Solarwinds NPM both took the longest to deploy, requiring two hours before active network
monitoring could begin.
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5. Download
Installation
Configure
Discovery
Total Time
to Monitor
CA Nimsoft
Monitor
Snap
Solarwinds
NPM
Solarwinds
Storage Mgr
11 min
22 min
5 min
5 min
10 min
65 min
30 min
15 min
9 min
45 min
45 min
15 min
43 minutes
120 minutes
114 minutes
Solarwinds
Virtualization
Mgr
Solarwinds
SAM
15 min
75 min
45 min
25 min
9 min
45 min
40 min
20 min
120 minutes
114 min
After the file is downloaded and the installation process ends, configuration of the various
SolarWinds platforms differs slightly due to their individual purposes. One issue that was
quickly apparent is that SolarWinds requires four separate platforms to meet the functionality
found in the single instance of Snap. Having to deploy four separate platforms is not a very
compelling value proposition. Rather than having to load, navigate, and analyze data from four
separate platforms – none of which in the trial versions are integrated together for dashboard
analysis or reporting purposes – Snap offers a single, unified dashboard. It is this type of easyto-use navigation that gives Snap a marked advantage over SolarWinds.
While SolarWinds does offer a very robust support community (called “Thwack”), the Snap
community, called Snap Central - while currently small - is growing quickly. However, for
immediate assistance, you can use Snap’s embedded video support to learn best practices for
installing, configuring, and monitoring with Snap with HD videos that are 1-2 minutes in length.
Snap vs. Nagios XI
Nagios XI is an open-source network monitoring platform that runs on Linux servers. Similar to
SolarWinds, Nagios offers a free 60-day trial period with a fully functional license to Nagios XI.
After 60 days, the user must then decide to pay the license fee to keep XI functional. Nagios XI
is licensed on a per-monitoring server basis. License pricing is determined by the number of
hosts (nodes) the user intends to monitor. There are no restrictions on the number of services
that can be monitored with XI. Pricing starts at $1,995 for up to 100 hosts and includes email
support for 5 incidents.
While Nagios XI is a relatively inexpensive solution, you have to be an experienced IT
administrator to deploy and manage XI. Downloading Nagios XI was a multi-step process that
lacked the guided process that Snap offered. After installation, the configuration process was
highly technical, requiring manual development of discovery queries and manual alert
generation without on-screen guidance. It took a total of 3 hours (180 minutes) to download,
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6. install, configure, and discover devices with Nagios XI compared to 43 minutes total with Snap
for the same routine.
Download
Installation
Configure
Discovery
Total Time
Monitor
CA Nimsoft
Monitor Snap
to
Nagios XI
11 min
22 min
5 min
5 min
15 min
20 min
120 min
25 min
43 minutes
180 minutes
Reporting is another area where Nagios XI is inferior to Snap. Report generation in Nagios
requires the use of a report writer to generate reports on specific devices, alerts, and
performance analysis. It is a multiple screen, multi-step process that takes time to set up and
then generate the report. Nagios XI reports are heavily focused on node availability. Users can
run a “report summary” of specific host availability as well as run nine pre-canned available
reports, including a summary, event log, notification log, and bandwidth usage report.
Nagios’ dashboards are another area where Snap has a comparative advantage. The main
dashboard does provide information on the overall network performance state and alerts on
performance issues. However, Nagios has no single, unified dashboard to understand network
health on one screen. Instead, Nagios utilizes multiple dashboards that are categorized by the
specific host or service group.
Summary and Conclusions
CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap is an easy-to-use and quick-to-deploy IT monitoring solution. Of the
six solutions assessed, the Snap installation and configuration process was the easiest and
quickest to get monitoring.
There are several things that make Snap unique:

Monitoring functionality is hosted in a single, unified platform. It takes four SolarWinds
products to equal the functionality in a single Snap platform.

Snap is free. Unlike the other vendors’ offerings, there is no 30 or 60-day time
limitation.

Snap’s guided installation and configuration process was a breeze, allowing for the
correct decisions to be made once at the time during initial configuration.

Snap’s drag-and-drop reporting made deep device reporting easy and quick to perform.

Of all 6 platforms analyzed, Snap’s discovery process was the quickest to identify
devices and begin active monitoring.
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7. Minutes
Download
Installation
Configure
Discovery
Total Time
to Monitor
CA Nimsoft
Monitor
Snap
11 min
22 min
5 min
5 min
43 minutes
Table: Total Time to Monitor
Solarwinds
NPM
Solarwinds
Storage Mgr
10 min
65 min
30 min
15 min
9 min
45 min
45 min
15 min
Solarwinds
Virtualization
Mgr
15 min
75 min
45 min
25 min
120 minutes
114 minutes
120 minutes
Solarwinds
SAM
Nagios XI
9 min
45 min
40 min
20 min
15 min
20 min
120 min
25 min
114 min
180 minutes
Graph: Total Time to Monitor
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Snap
SW NPM
SW Storage
Download
Install
SW VM
Configure
SW SAM
Nagios XI
Discovery
7|Page

8. Topics
Description
Appendix A: Comparative Benchmarking Results
CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap
Installation
Configuration
Ease of Use
Performance
Diagnosis &
Resolution
Integration
Reporting
Self Guided
Support
Support
Community
Notes
Score
Method of Delivery
Trial Limitations
Download time
Installation Time
Download Size
Level of Installation
Difficulty
Total number of
installation errors
Total Time to
Configure
Ease of configuration
5
3
4
5
4
Unlimited for life
Limited to 30 devices
11 min
22 min
1.8 GB
5
Overall Ease of Use
Availability
Score
SolarWinds SAM
Notes
Score
3
5
4
3
5
30 day trial
Full version, no limitation
10 min
65 min
540 MB
3
5
4
3
5
30 day trial
Full version, no limitations
9 min
45 min
314 MB
EASY; Wizard-based
3
Multiple steps
3
Multiple Steps
5
Zero
5
Zero
5
Zero
5
5 min
4
30 minutes
4
40 min
5
EASY; Wizard-based
4
4
5
EASY
4
“Intelligent” alert configuration
MEDIUM; Prior IT mgt experience
needed
Manual, time consuming
MEDIUM; Prior experience
with IT mgt needed
5
EASY
4
MEDIUM
4
MEDIUM
5
5 MIN
4
15 Min
3
20 min
5
HIGH VISIBILITY
5
HIGH VISIBILITY
5
HIGH VISIBILITY
5
HIGHEST PERFORMANCE
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
5
HIGHEST PERFORMANCE
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
5
IMMEDIATE
5
IMMEDIATE
5
IMMEDIATE
5
STRONG
2
PARTIAL (In Comparison)
2
PARTIAL (In Comparison)
5
5
5
Single, unified platform
HIGH NUMBER OF REPORTS
SINGLE DASHBOARD
1
4
5
4 separate platforms
Several pre-canned reports
OOTB Dashboards
1
4
5
4 separate platforms
Tabular reports
Static dashboards
Guided support during
installation
5
STRONG Wizards
3
Limited Installation Guidance
3
Limited guidance
Support Community
3
Fast growing support community
5
Large & active “Thwack” support
community
5
Large & active “Thwack”
support community
5
Fastest time to monitor at 43
minutes (170% faster than
Solarwinds)
3
120 (two hours) minutes from
register to monitoring
4
114 minutes from register to
monitoring
95%
109 Out of 115
79%
91 out of 115
79%
91 out of 115
Ease of reporting
performance of
components
Network Discovery
Performance
Visualization
Overall performance
Dashboard
performance
Performance issue
identification
Guided workflow for
problem discovery
Level of unification
Quantity of Reports
Dashboards
Total time required for
Total Time To register, download,
configure, discover, &
Monitor
TOTAL
SolarWinds NPM
begin monitoring
Score
Table Legend: 1= Least, 5=Highest
4
Notes

9. Topics
Description
CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap
SolarWinds Virtualization Mgr
SolarWinds Storage Mgr
Installation
Configuration
Ease of Use
Performance
Diagnosis &
Resolution
Integration
Reporting
Self Guided
Support
Support
Community
Notes
Score
Notes
Score
Notes
Method of Delivery
Trial Limitations
Download time
Installation Time
Download Size
Level of Installation
Difficulty
Total number of
installation errors
Total Time to
Configure
Ease of configuration
5
3
5
5
4
Unlimited for life
Limited to 30 devices
11 min
22 min
1.8 GB
3
5
4
3
4
30 day trial
Full version, no limitations
15 min
75 min
1.42 GB VMware/ 1.4 GB Hyper-V
3
5
5
4
5
5
EASY; Wizard-based
3
Multiple Steps
4
30 day trial
Full version, no limitations
9 min
45 min
314 MB windows
Multiple Steps but straight
forward
5
Zero
5
Zero
5
Zero
5
5 min
4
45 min
4
45 min
5
EASY; Wizard-based
4
Highly Manual, time consuming
4
Overall Ease of Use
Availability
Score
5
EASY
4
Multiple screens with dashboards
4
5
EASY
4
5
5 min
4
Data is there, overwhelming &
difficult to scale back
25 min
Manual, time consuming
MEDIUM; Prior experience
with IT mgt needed
5
HIGH VISIBILITY
4
5
HIGHEST PERFORMANCE
5
Ease of reporting
performance
Network Discovery
Performance
Visualization
Overall performance
Dashboard
performance
Performance issue
identification
Guided workflow for
problem discovery
Level of unification
Quantity of Reports
4
MEDIUM
4
15 min
Can force view into graphic format
5
HIGH VISIBILITY
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
HIGHEST PERFORMANCE
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
5
HIGH PERFORMANCE
5
IMMEDIATE
4
5
IMMEDIATE
5
STRONG
5
2
PARTIAL (In Comparison)
5
5
Single, unified platform
HIGH NUMBER OF REPORTS
1
4
1
3
4 separate platforms
Tabular reports
Dashboards
5
SINGLE DASHBOARD
4
3
Static dashboards
Guided support during
installation
5
STRONG Wizards
3
Limited guidance
3
Limited guidance
Support Community
3
Fast growing support community
5
Large & extremely active “Thwack”
support community
5
Large & extremely active
“Thwack” support community
5
Fastest time to monitor at 43
minutes (170% faster than
Solarwinds)
3
160 minutes (2 hours & 40 minutes)
4
114 minutes from register to
monitoring
95%
110 Out of 115
78%
90 out of 115
80%
92 out of 115
Total time required for
Total Time To register, download,
configure, discover, &
Monitor
TOTAL
begin monitoring
Score
Took 5 min before data storage
capacity was alerted
Provides recommendations to
remediate alert
4 separate platforms
Canned reports; lots of data
Includes Benchmarks; Too much
data on one screen
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10. Topics
Availability
Installation
Configuration
Ease of Use
Performance
Diagnosis &
Resolution
Integration
Reporting
Self Guided
Support
Support
Community
Description
Score
Nagios XI
Notes
Score
Method of Delivery
Trial Limitations
Download time
Installation Time
Download Size
Level of Installation
Difficulty
Total number of
installation errors
Total Time to
Configure
5
3
5
5
4
Unlimited for life
Limited to 30 devices
11 min
22 min
1.8 GB
4
5
5
5
5
60 day trial
Full version, no limitations
15 min
20 min
634 MB MSFT VM | Source Installer=36mb
5
EASY; Wizard-based
3
Multiple Steps
5
Zero
5
Zero
5
5 min
3
120 minutes
Ease of configuration
5
EASY; Wizard-based
3
Overall Ease of Use
Ease of reporting
performance of
components
Network Discovery
Performance
Visualization
Overall performance
Overall dashboard
performance
Performance issue
identification
Guided workflow for
problem discovery
Level of unification
Quantity of Reports
Dashboards
5
EASY
4
5
EASY
3
Requires a report writer, multiple steps, slow report
generation
5
5 MIN
4
25 min
5
HIGH VISIBILITY
3
LIMITED VISIBILITY of all Components
5
HIGHEST PERFORMANCE
4
RESPONSIVE
5
HIGHEST PERFORMANCE
4
Limited dashboard but responsive
5
IMMEDIATE
2
Slow to identify; Example took 10 min for alerting
5
STRONG
2
LIMITED
5
5
5
Single, unified platform
HIGH NUMBER OF REPORTS
SINGLE DASHBOARD
2
2
3
Requires additional modules (Fusion, XI, & Core)
Uses report writing engine for all reports
Limited dashboard to include system behavior
Guided support during
installation
5
STRONG Wizards
3
Limited guidance
Support Community
3
Fast growing support community
5
Strong & active support community
5
Fastest time to monitor at 43 minutes
(318% faster than Nagios)
2
180 minutes (3 hours) from register to monitoring
95%
110 Out of 115
70%
81 out of 115
Total time required for
Total Time To register, download,
configure, discover, &
Monitor
TOTAL
CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap
begin monitoring
Score
Notes
Requires manual query development; manual alert
generation without guidance
Fairly easy to use
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11. A Special Report by Apprize360 Intelligence for CA Technologies
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2013.
Apprize360 Intelligence, INC.
www.apprize360.com
San Francisco, CA
Info@apprize360.com