OpManager - overview and features of the network performance monitoring software
The following resource gives you detailed information on network monitoring software – OpManager. The network management is a not that easy without the help of software interface. Read the following article to know how this software helps the network administrators/managers.
OpManager Software :
The task of managing a network for all 24 hours and 7 days of the week is not an easy job for handful of network administrators and few technical assistants. It is practically impossible at times to manage every single PC of the network which has several interfacing devices like switches, routers, physical servers, domain controllers, WAN Links and many other network devices that can be attached to the workstation. Hence, this time consuming job where such wide range of devices needs to be kept running and up at all times, OpManager is the only software which can help reduce the workload.
In case of network management, the expensive and critical parts are WAN links and the routers and their usage and allotment is a big challenge for every network administrator. Any company which needs swift internet connectivity at each of their workstation has to spend a large amount on those telecom services. Also it is the fact that every workstation does not need such high speed internet access and some of them need it but they are deprived due to bulkier network setup. Therefore, OpManager software designed by ManageEngine Company is the one which can help a lot in such situations. As shown in the image below, this software can help in five different ways.
Network Performance Monitoring :
As the OpManager software can monitor each WAN link in the network, it can also help in allocation and optimization of bandwidth at all the workstations. Therefore, the network administrator or technical assistant can monitor and allocate the bandwidth to a specific workstation as and when required. In this way, there will be not extra usage of bandwidth at a workstation which requires limited internet connectivity.
The non working stations and faulty workstations or WAN links are detected as soon as they function improperly. Hence, this software will help to monitor erroneous devices of the network and this will help network managers to provide efficient workstation services at all the times. The errors are generated by this monitoring software in the form of reports and email notification. Also the text messages are displayed at the faulty workstation which ensures high network availability at all times.
The WAN networks are critical to manage and at times the error lie either at the workstation or at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) end. Hence, the OpManager provides a graphical representation of every WAN link in the network and this helps to spot out the error which might be in the network end or in the faulty ISP connection. Therefore, everything problem can be visualized and the WAN link problems can be fixed as early as possible.
As it is possible to monitor traffic and assign bandwidth to the specific workstation of the network, the administrator can get detailed report on current traffic trends, plan future capacity with respect to bandwidth allocation and it will help to determine whether there should be increase or decrease in the ISP services. For this purpose the ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer tool can be used along with OpManager software.
The OpManager is designed to check routers performance on various parameters like its voltage supply, CPU utilization, collisions, memory utilization, errors and discards through out the network. Hence, the erroneous routers are highlighted in the software itself which helps to save a lot of time. Therefore, as the problem is detected at the earliest, the Network Performance monitoring seems to be an easier job only because of this revolutionary software which is developed by ManageEngine Company.Other features of OpManager software :
The OpManager software can also be used to monitor SQL server, Exchange Server, Windows Server, active directory services and Cisco network management as well. Using this software the switches in the LAN can also be mapped graphically and if those switch ports are faulty then the notification will be generated in this monitoring software. In case of switch management, Switch Port Mapper is incorporated within this monitoring software and it tracks them in the real time mode. Therefore the admin can view the bandwidth, IP address and DNS of any workstation in LAN or WAN network and that too at the port address level. Also the ports which have no any connectivity will be indicated with red color as shown in the image below. 
Next feature of OpManager software is the Network Mapping. Now a days, the IT and business companies have several offices across various locations in the city and at times the network management of two different locations is quite a challenging job for the same administrator. Hence, if OpManager is used at both the locations then this software automatically maps the existing LAN network and it displays all the workstation, devices and the network topology in graphical format as shown in the following image. Also the addition of new business services, workstation or devices in the network can be performed within few clicks. 
The next feature is Custom Network maps and Map maker tool. There is a necessity to create maps between the network and locations of the Company. Here the OpManager can be used to create Global Network Map, Private Network Map and Wide Area Network (WAN) Map. This feature helps to keep all the devices and business services of a network up and running at all times and the map maker tool can be used to create custom maps if the admin needs to track locations of their choice. Likewise the datacenter maps can be created in three types as Network map, Datacenter Network map and Rack view map.
Here outstanding feature of OpManager is the WAN RTT monitoring where RTT means Round-Time-Trip. The connectivity between two or more locations in the WAN network needs to be maintained at high data rates. In this case if there is sloppy or low network connectivity, then the alert notification is sent on the smartphone of network administrator. After this, the admin has to just login and check if the error resides at the ISP (Internet Service Provider) end or in the network infrastructure. Most of the times the WAN connectivity is lost just because of faulty ISP and if this error is not discovered at the earliest, then the two business locations could incur heavy losses just because of sloppy connectivity within the network.
Therefore, the bottlenecks and poor WAN links of the network can be detected even before the onsite users start complaining about connectivity issues.
In this way, the WAN RTT monitoring also informs the errors on IP basis and all these reports are saved for future reference. The following image shows the dashboard view of WAN RTT monitoring module in which the network admin can check Top RTT paths, business views, and graphical representation of bandwidth as well as traffic utilization. The facility of troubleshooting the network workstations is available and the admin can also get the alarm notifications in the form of email and text messages.
Another feature of OpManager is Network Traffic analysis which displays exact information about the data usage. The data charges of ISP are very high for the corporate users and it is important to keep the data charges as low as possible. In this case a NetFlow Plug-in can help you track which device is consuming large amount of bandwidth and internet access. All the routers can be tracked even if they are of manufactured by different vendors and also the applications can be tweaked to know if they are using the bandwidth beyond the assigned download limit. Sometimes, even applications like Skype can consume a lot of bandwidth and it results into massive data downloads as well as increased data charges.
For such extra data downloads and bandwidth usage, there is a billing add-on which can be used with NetFlow plug-in to verify the data charges with respect to data download or bandwidth of the network. In this billing add-on there is a facility to check the downloaded data and calculate the data charges as per data downloaded. This helps to distinguish between the actual data/bandwidth charges and the charges of ISP. Likewise the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) add on is available which can help to rectify the errors or poor call quality. Apart from the above features the OpManager monitoring software can also be helpful in network configuration management, IP address management and switch port mapping purposes.Clients of OpManager Software :
ManageEngine Company has been successful in providing Real Time IT services since from the year 1996. The company is right now offering services to more than 200 countries where the client count goes beyond 72,000 happy customers around the globe. All those clients are from various sectors like Automation/Aviation, Banking and almost every sector where real time IT services are required. Right now the Indian clients using OpManager software are IndusInd bank, Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), HCL Technologies, Wipro (Western India Products Limited), Bharat Forge, Uttam Galva Steels, India Air Force (IAF), Bharti Airtel Limited, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Microsense Private Limited and Net4India.
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The tool you have presented here looks superb and it it able to monitor a lot of things, but does it offer any troubleshooting which is really necessary when you are not able to solve a case? I am using Anturis which offers troubleshooting for clients, but I am ready to consider the variants.