In This Edition:
We know that a network engineer's job is never done. There's always a new device to configure, tickets to troubleshoot, pesky end users to deal with, and network slowdowns to diagnose. Just once it would be nice to slip out a few hours early to hit the links and relax!
But before you attempt your great escape, we can help you set some traps for a menagerie of network mischief makers and ensure you can focus on your strokes instead of network woes.
It's too bad you weren't running Orion® Network Performance Monitor (NPM) before that crucial router lost its lid!
With Orion NPM, you can easily configure alerts to respond to hundreds of different network scenarios, including multiple condition checks. These alerts help you recognize and correct issues — before a troublemaker causes a major meltdown! And with alerting support for correlated events and sustained conditions, Orion NPM ensures that you don't get paged for a non-critical issue just as you're 1 over par and about to beat your big-mouth brother-in-law!
In addition to monitoring, alerting on, and analyzing performance statistics for routers, switches, wireless access points, servers, and other SNMP-enabled devices, Orion NPM simplifies investigating issues with drill down maps and Top 10 views of your global network.
Try Orion NPM for Free >
Learn More About Orion NPM >
Conflicting configuration changes are one of the leading causes of network downtime. Orion Network Configuration Manager (NCM) detects changes that occur to the configurations of monitored devices in real time and notifies you instantly of these changes — enabling you to quickly respond to unauthorized, unscheduled, or erroneous updates.
With Orion NCM, you’ll never have to guess who changed what and when, so that you can stop network troublemakers in their tracks. Plus, you can rest easy and save time with features like nightly config backups and bulk config changes!
Try Orion NCM for Free >
Learn More About Orion NCM >
Manually tracking IP addresses on a spreadsheet is about as efficient as using a pitching wedge from the tee box on a par 5! Plus, how do you know when a troublemaker is hoarding all of your IP space?
Orion IP Address Manager (IPAM) delivers an easy-to-use, centralized IP address management solution that doesn't break the bank. Orion IPAM makes it easy to:
- Create, schedule, and share reports showing IP address space percent utilization
- Prevent your subnets and DHCP scopes from filling up with preventative alert notifications
- Periodically scan your network and Microsoft® DHCP servers for IP address changes
- Scan and track unused IP addresses and tag them as available
Try Orion IPAM for Free >
Learn More About Orion IPAM >
Around here, our engineers consider Cisco® IP SLA technology as wicked cool as an x2 Golf Segway®! Well maybe not quite that cool, but it can help you keep your WAN free and clear of bottlenecks.
Orion IP SLA Manager provides valuable insight into site-to-site performance issues across your WAN and delivers alerts on critical IP SLA statistics that can indicate a troublemaker is on the loose. You'll know immediately if thresholds are violated, indicating that parameters are outside of what is considered "good" for a given WAN link, and can immediately start troubleshooting.
Try Orion IP SLA Manager for Free >
Learn More About IP SLA Manager >
Is there anything worse than the sound of angry end-users complaining about missing email?
Download a free trial of Orion Application Performance Monitor (APM) and, in less time than it takes to sing the first stanza of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts, you can be monitoring virtually any Windows® application — including Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010. Finally, you can track down the troublemaker who made off with those critical emails.
Add other applications simply by choosing from pre-built application templates or explore templates created and posted on thwack® by the SolarWinds community. You can even browse the templates directly from Orion APM, without ever leaving the application.
Try Orion APM for Free >
Explore the Templates on thwack >
Learn More About Orion APM >
Now it's easier than ever to keep your finger on the pulse of the thwack community — all from a single dashboard-style view! We rolled out a new home page that gives you an at-a-glance view of what's happening in the virtual clubhouse for you IT-loving types.
Kick back with a frosty beverage and check out all of the new posts from the last 24 hours. See a consolidated view of your recent posts, the community's top downloads, recently answered questions, blog posts, product ideas, new members, and more!
Join the Fun on thwack >
We were all aflutter when we saw a post by thwack member ljenkins explaining how to use Twitter® to distribute Orion NPM network alerts and events. (Obviously you wouldn't want to send the tweets to the entire Twitterverse, but it's easy to control access through privacy settings.)
thwack member DThorne commented, “Did this yesterday... awesome!! You can also get twitter to txt you alerts.”
Get the Complete Instructions on thwack >
Try Orion NPM for Free >
And speaking of Twitter, are you following our Head Geek, Josh Stephens? Tune into his tweets today at
http://twitter.com/sw_headgeek!
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