Top tools of the trade for Network engineers: These are the latest releases

Infrapedia, Paessler PRTG, NetCrunch and Zabbix are some of the latest buzz words among leading network engineers.

Every industry comes with a toolbox that makes life easier for even the best of operatives. For the worlds’ leading network engineers, it is certainly no different. We take a closer look at the latest trend in vital engineering tools for the data and telecoms industry

Infrapedia: a free global map service with the most extensive coverage

This free global map service aims “to give people a global near-realtime visibility and connect buyers and sellers directly to get the internet infrastructure at the best value possible and help connect next billions to the internet cheaper and faster” (Mehmet Akcin, CEO, Infrapedia). There is no other service in the world with such a unique blend of features: open, free and partnering with the entire industry. In fact you can try out Infrapedia here.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor

This is a software used for monitoring of networks. It enables the user to detect, diagnose and come up with solutions for network performance issues in a quick way. This tool is affordable and easy to use. It provides an easy to understand system management interface, which gives a detailed view of physical and virtual server performance problems, which enables quick detection of impending issues, which is then followed by quick troubleshooting. Take a free test-drive of the performance monitor here.

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor

This tool is essential in the optimization of the network. It is one of a kind monitor that looks into uptime and bandwidth. It supports many kinds of sensors and has NetFlow sensors and packet sniffer, which are essential in monitoring and giving an analysis of consumption of bandwidth. This analysis is then decided into small units based on the protocol or the IP address. The tool also can be used to monitor virtual servers and convert PRTG to Hyper-V and VMware monitor.

NetCrunch Monitoring Suite

This is a software for monitoring networks. It looks into topology, devices, traffic, logs, systems, and services requested. It is made in a manner that allows for easy management of many nodes. Further, it generates layer 2 maps, automatically and manages other monitoring dependencies. This tool supports multiple systems like the major operating systems, cloud systems, and virtual platforms.

ManageEngine OpManager

This software is an end-to-end tool used in the management of network systems that are heterogeneous and ones that have multiple vendors. It gives a systematic approach in the management of distributed system infrastructures, gives advanced management of system issues and management of performance of critical IT system parts and other network devices. These devices include the servers; both virtual and physical, MS SQL, Domain controllers, WAN links and many other information technology system components.

SolarWinds Flow Tool Bundle

This tool s often used by the network engineers and architects to distribute, configure and test NetFlow traffic analyzer in organizations. It has a number of tools like the NetFlow replicator, generator, and configurator. These tools help replicate the IPv4 and IPv6 flow data to many termini, generate a simulated traffic flow, which is essential in the troubleshooting of the flow tool and also in the testing and configuration validation, which is done remotely, which configures NetFlow v5 quickly and also activates it and finds the bandwidth hogs, respectively. It can be used on Windows 7 operating system onwards.

Zabbix

This is an open-source tool for monitoring different devices and components in the IT systems. These include servers, networks, and virtual machines; inclusive of the cloud servers. The software gives metrics concerning the use of networks, disk space usage, and the CPU load. Its monitoring configuration can be established through XML templates. Further, this tool monitors operations on different operating systems like the Hewlett Packard Unix (HP-UX), Linux, Mac OS X, and many other OSes.

Observium

This is a low-maintenance network monitoring tool with an auto-discovery system. It supports many device types, OSes and platforms, which include Windows, HP, Linux Cisco, Dell, Netscaler and many others. The developer of this software recommends it being used on Ubuntu, however, it still works on others like the Red Hat/CentOS.

Icinga

Icinga is a powerful monitoring tool. It is cloud-based with numerous features for monitoring applications and integrates the data obtained to help formulate a custom solution to system hitches. It also enables SSL to secure data it contains. It also gives an appealing detail concerning the manner in which the hosts and other services are monitored. It also allows for the customization of the software in that the user is able to specify the frequency of checking the system, kind of alerts raised, how and who is to receive the alerts.

Spiceworks Network Monitor

This tool helps in the provision of real-time data from the monitoring of servers and the SNMP-capable network devices. The software can run on any version of Windows OS and on the Windows Server 2008 R2 onwards.

Advanced IP Scanner

This is a dependable tool for scanning and analyzing LAN. It is free. It indicates all networks in a device and allows the user to share files and folders. It also allows the user to remotely control computers. It is easy to use and is executed as a portable edition.

Conclusion:

As this industry gathers peak momentum, expect the toolset to increase vastly. Watch this space for more updates soon.