ISPPlanet NMS Series - MG-SOFT NetInspector and MIB Browser

Network Monitoring with Trap Ringer 3.5

We did not evaluate MG-SOFT's Trap Ringer 3.5 ($289) because it would have nudged us over the $1K limit established for this series. However, because some will confuse this standalone product with the basic Trap Ringer found in the MIB Browser, we summarize the differences here. Superficially, the standalone product's console (below, left) looks much like the basic MIB Browser trap window. But the standalone product provides extensive filters (below, right) that can be applied to the console, log files, automated commands, email notifications, and HTML reports. For example, use the standalone Trap Ringer to take corrective action and send email when a linkDown TRAP is received—tasks you cannot automate with the basic MIB Browser trap handler.

MIB Browser's Trap Ringer is an integral part of that product and cannot be replaced by the full-featured Trap Ringer product. However, MIB Browser and Trap Ringer products can be used simultaneously (i.e., MIB Browser does not prevent Trap Ringer from receiving traps). Unfortunately, Net Inspector 1.5 cannot receive traps at the same time as MIB Browser or Trap Ringer. These applications can be used concurrently if Net Inspector is invoked last, but then Net Inspector will not receive any traps. This conflict will be corrected in Net Inspector 2.0. If we had our druthers, we would replace both Net Inspector and MIB Browser trap handlers with Trap Ringer's filters and a common event manager.

Reporting

MIB Browser Professional Edition includes basic performance reporting. Polled objects (raw values) are easily graphed on a continuous basis (right). A graph snapshot can be saved or copied (for example, embed the graph in a report). But to view or log the data behind the graph, you must use a separate Info window. If you need performance analysis, crunch logged data yourself—or use a different product.

NetInspector generates both statistics and email/web reports. For example, a TCP object can compute the average response time and percent availability for a web page. On-going stats are maintained in object attributes for ad hoc viewing. Net Inspector can also be configured to create daily, weekly, monthly, or urgent reports (left), made available through email or web access.

These Mail and Web Messengers uses common vectors to meet two different needs: Urgent reports notify the administrator about events in near real-time, while periodic reports track events over time, in summary or detail. For example, we sent mail for critical events, but recorded critical and warning events in an HTML report, refreshed daily. At first, multi-level settings led us to overwrite reports; each critical event replaced the previous "urgent" HTML report. Once we got the hang of it, Messengers proved quite useful. Net Inspector also lets you know when it sends mail—and when it cannot reach the mail server. This is important to spot lost notifications (i.e., did anything important happen yesterday that I didn't hear about?)

During our evaluation, MG-SOFT's support crew responded to most problems within a day—but we also experienced several unexplained access violation faults during user/GUI interaction. One worrisome side effect: We lost a few events when the application to fault was Net Inspector.