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SNMP, which stands for Simple Network Management Protocol, is often viewed as a legacy protocol, with SNMP not being actively worked on anymore, which led to both Microsoft and Google pronouncing that SNMP was dead. Yet, SNMP is still commonly used by numerous industries as the advantages of SNMP, especially for network monitoring, are profound. Practically, all network components across all vendors possess built-in SNMP capability.
With SNMP being so commonly used by various organizations, the need for an effective SNMP monitoring tool is evident. SNMP monitoring is easy to implement and configure as setting up SNMP agents on devices and configuring SNMP management systems is simple, which reduces deployment complexity. As well as this, SNMP monitoring is efficient in terms of bandwidth and resource usage. Therefore, SNMP monitoring provides numerous benefits in addition to the expected benefits of conducting monitoring activities such as issue detection, alerting, and analysis. To help you with this, this article will outline precisely what SNMP monitoring is and present a list of the leading SNMP monitoring tools.
Contents
What is SNMP Monitoring?
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) monitoring is the process of monitoring and managing network devices, systems, and applications. SNMP is a standard protocol utilized for network management and monitoring, enabling administrators to gather performance data, track device health, and manage network configurations remotely. SNMP monitoring enables administrators to execute a variety of tasks including, tracking device performance and health metrics in real-time, collecting historical data for trend analysis, capacity planning, and troubleshooting, and remotely managing network devices by altering configurations, updating firmware, or restarting services, as well as others.
SNMP Monitoring Tools
The need for an SNMP monitoring tool is evident but the broad variety of tools available can make reaching an informed decision difficult. So, we’ve listed 10 of the leading SNMP monitoring tools to assist you in making the appropriate choice for your organization.
AdRem NetCrunch
Beginning with AdRem’s NetCrunch, a monitoring platform built on the premise of modularity. The solution enables you to conduct SNMP and essential monitoring by tracking devices and services uptime using over 70 built-in protocol monitors and SNMPv1,v2c,v3 equipped with over numerous Monitoring Packs and MIB modules. NetCrunch SNMP Views can present data in a clean human-readable form.
Cacti
Cacti is an open-source web-based network monitoring tool. Data collection for this tool includes built-in SNMP support and built-in device templates for generic SNMP. This makes Cacti appropriate for use as an SNMP monitoring tool. With Cacti you can view devices, graphs, and trees, as well as the option to extend the tool further through the use of plugins via its intuitive interface. This allows for efficient SNMP monitoring and analysis.
Logit.io
Using Logit.io for SNMP monitoring is an appropriate choice as the solution is cost-effective and the configuration is seamless. An example configuration to highlight how simple the process is would be to set up Stormshield or SonicWall devices to ship SNMP traps Logit.io. Additionally, with Logit.io you can make adhering to compliance requirements painless, Logit.io understands and enforces stringent security protocols and compliance regulations as required by CTOs and DevOps leaders.
Paessler PRTG
Paessler PRTG offers an SNMP monitoring tool that aims to be the complete solution for SNMP monitoring. Paessler PRTG comes with multiple preconfigured SNMP sensors, the SNMP Custom sensor also lets you track numerous other devices from a variety of different manufacturers via SNMP. As well as this, PRTG includes a customizable notification system that you can outline according to your own needs and requirements.
LiveAction LiveNX
Another tool that makes our list is LiveNX, a network monitoring solution from LiveAction that aims to make it simpler to manage multi-vendor network performance. This tool can be utilized to understand where traffic comes from and access a broad variety of network telemetry, including SNMP. This enables LiveNX to be utilized as an SNMP monitoring tool to examine on-premises, SD-WAN, hybrid, and cloud environments.
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor can be utilized for SNMP monitoring. With this solution you can you can track network fault, availability, and performance of all compatible devices with the ability to design a customer monitor to poll an object identifier (OID) for devices that are not supported out-of-the-box. Lastly, the tool aims to be simple to install and roll out on your network with the Network Performance Monitor.
ManageEngine Applications Manager
The next tool on our list is ManageEngine Applications Manager which supports SNMP monitoring and enables administrators to track additional applications and devices. The full capabilities of this SNMP monitoring tool include collecting data from any SNMP resource, reporting and configuring thresholds on any SNMP object (OID) data collected, support for SNMP table and SNMP scalar objects, and sending SNMP Traps and processing SNMP Traps.
PathSolutions TotalView
PathSolutions TotalView is a network monitoring tool that is designed for advanced network monitoring and troubleshooting. The tool is PathSolutions’s core product and can be effectively utilized as an SNMP monitoring tool. TotalView includes an SNMP trap receiver to trigger alerts for received event traps and can highlight the root-cause of network issues anywhere by monitoring and evaluating all SNMPs.
N-Able
With N-Able’s SNMP monitoring tool, you can monitor network performance and devices with SNMP functionality. The tool includes the NetPath feature which enables you to promptly troubleshoot hot spots across the entire delivery chain. By collecting node and hop information with advanced probing, this feature makes it simple for technicians to highlight exactly where, when, and why a node may be impacted. As well as this, you can attain full visibility to view end-to-end network performance.
Tanzu
The final tool that completes our list of the leading SNMP monitoring tools in Tanzu. Tanzu provides an observability platform, that combines the three pillars of observability, logs, metrics, and traces. You can monitor SNMP devices via Wavefront. This is conducted by installing and configuring Telegraf to send SNMP agent metrics into Wavefront. This integration also installs a dashboard, displaying critical SNMP metrics for monitoring and analysis.
If you've enjoyed this article why not read our article on The Top 8 Network Monitoring Tools or What is Network Monitoring next?