ManageEngine OpManager: Network Application Management

ManageEngine OpManager is an end-to-end software for managing multi-vendor and heterogeneous IT networks. It offers powerful monitoring features, real-time bandwidth usage tracking, automatic discovery of fabric switches, and more. This article discusses the network performance management, real-time availability monitoring, network traffic analysis, and compares ManageEngine OpManager with SolarWinds.

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Network application management
ManageEngine OpManager
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Network application management
ManageEngine OpManager
Introduction
ManageEngine OpManager can be described as an end-to-end software meant to
manage Information Technology networks for enterprises which are multi-vendor and
heterogeneous. Various salient features contribute to the popularity of the ManageEngine
OpManager as powerful monitoring software. Apart from visualizing and resolving WAN or
the router problems, the software tracks the real time usage of the network bandwidth.
Another salient feature is its ability to discover the fabric switches contained in a SAN
environment automatically. While identifying the performance problems and network
outages, ManageEngine OpManager automatically maps the L2 and L1 networks [1]. Also, it
provides the required details about Citrix XenServer performance after monitoring it. There
are other features associated with ManageEngine OpManager including but not limited to its
use of SNMP/CLI/WMI to gather important data and also to manage the processes running
on the discovered devices.
PART 1
ManageEngine OpManager Network performance management
Every organization’s Information Technology infrastructure is characterized by
computer networks which utilize the benefits of computer-based applications. It is, however,
essential to note that the networks are usually prone to error issues that can affect the end
users. This is where the monitoring and improvement of network performance become
significant. The ManageEngine OpManager is one of the best alternatives in offering pro-
active network performance and monitoring solution since it is loaded with strong and

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powerful features which assists the IT administrators to not only control the networks but also
to resolve any network outages. ManageEngine OpManager helps the IT administrators to
monitor the health of all the network devices, to automate the network change and
configuration management and also to troubleshoot and monitor the VoIP performance [2].
Additionally, ManageEngine OpManager allows the IT administrators to troubleshoot and
analyze the WAN issues besides the gaining of visibility in traffic patterns. The errors which
attack a network have an impact on its performance. Proactive monitoring gives rooms for
detection of network performance challenges and prevention of the mishaps. This ensures
that critical applications are functioning smoothly. The troubleshooting and diagnosing of
network issues together with active elimination of network threats before they are evident to
the end user is what comprises of proactive monitoring. This ensures the maintenance of
service level agreements prompting the smooth and swift delivery of the critical solutions for
the business. A deeper analysis of ManageEngine OpManager reveals that is a perfect fit for
network monitoring. This is because it offers a proactive network monitoring solution besides
having the essentials features that promptly resolves network challenges and enhance
effective control of the networks.

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Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting process [2]
As illustrated in [2, Fig.1), the following is the network monitoring and troubleshooting
process.
Part 2
ManageEngine OpManager Real Time Availability Monitor
In the contemporary business set up, the business landscape has demanded a 24/7 operation.
This has created the need for high availability of network and services. This means that in the

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event of systems, applications or network downtime, the business will report huge loss in
terms of revenue. Information technology experts argue that the typical network availability
should be at a minimum index of 99.9999%. A comprehensive network uptime monitoring is
provided by ManageEngine OpManager which ensures that all the services and network
devices remain running continuously 24/7 [3]. The real-time views of availability statistics
are provided by ManageEngine OpManager interface. Additionally, the ManageEngine
OpManager interface provides a detailed analysis of data and monitoring from servers,
routers and switches and other SNMP-enabled devices. The various availability monitoring
provided by ManageEngine OpManager includes the interface, website, windows services,
device, process and the WAN link availability monitoring with the use of Cisco IP SLA. The
entire network uptime and availability is continuously monitored through the device
availability monitoring service. After every two minutes, a ping is received by the monitored
devices sent by the ManageEngine OpManager. The ManageEngine OpManager records an
unavailability status of the device after two consecutive pings with no response. The business
needs to determine the frequency of pings together with their time intervals. The ICMP ping
is used by ManageEngine OpManager to poll devices for availability.
In the absence of ICMP environment, telnet can be used as an alternative. The polling
interval can be customized to a particular device or a specific device group. However, five
minutes is the recommended default availability polling interval. For every element in the IT
infrastructure and enterprise network, a port availability monitoring together with an SNMP
based interface availability is provided by ManageEngine OpManager [4]. The availability
report provided indicates interface availability on a real-time basis. This is meant to ensure
SLA compliance and also to measure the network level availability. By the use of newly
introduced real-time monitoring functionality in the ManageEngine OpManager, the network
administrators are only required to launch the real time graphs which remotely gives them up-

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to-the-second information regarding the performance of the device together with its health.
The ManageEngine OpManager real-time graphs allow the network administrator to get the
device CPU’s and memory utilization’s real-time statistics. The administrators can also
access the devices’ performance metric up-to-the-second information. The interface/port real-
time bandwidth/traffic can also be gotten from the ManageEngine OpManager real-time
graphs. To ease its usability, the real-time performance graphs can be reconfigured as
dashboard widgets so that as soon the network administrator login, they will see the live
performance trends [5].
ManageEngine OpManager network traffic analysis
The network traffic analysis of ManageEngine OpManager tends to answer three pertinent
questions. One of the questions focuses on the cause of network congestion by determining
whether it is user based or application based. The other question is whether the business-
critical applications are being supplied by enough bandwidth. The third question I whether
the network flooding is being propagated by an attack [6]. The bandwidth utilization and
network traffic patterns visibility are provided by the ManageEngine OpManager NetFlow
monitoring module. The ManageEngine OpManager NetFlow application gives a summary
of the network traffic and identifies the top conversations, applications, protocols and QoS by
bandwidth. The application gives a detailed report on the applications in and out traffic. Also,
the IN and OUT traffic produced by the application indicates the top sources and
destinations. The application produces the app-wise and shapes traffic which is used by
network administrators to monitor the bandwidth. The ManageEngine OpManager NetFlow
application monitors the bandwidth consumed by BYOD.it also tracks the bandwidth usage
by the applications accessed by the end-users. Also, the application identifies the access ports
connected by end-users [7]. The ManageEngine OpManager utilizes its Cisco IPSLA
monitoring feature in monitoring the metrics affecting the video performance and the VoIP. It

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also uses WAN RTT monitoring to ensure seamless WAN connections. There are those
applications that use an array of dynamic ports in a network, ManageEngine OpManager
recognizes them using Cisco NBAR. The in-depth analysis of the bandwidth used by each
application is produced via Cisco AVC monitoring. The general bandwidth monitoring is a
component of ManageEngine OpManager network analysis tools which tracks the bandwidth
usage in real time while at the same identifying and keeping track of top bandwidth. The
bandwidth monitoring allows the network administrators to use the flows in monitoring
switches and routers to enhance balancing the network bandwidth usage.
Part 3
Comparison between SolarWinds and ManageEngine OpManager
The ManageEngine OpManager and the SolarWinds have revolutionized the management of
enterprise level networks by the network administrators. These two products have been able
to blend simplicity and versatility to popularize their names. Both ManageEngine OpManager
and SolarWinds offers a straightforward setup process. Whereas the ManageEngine
OpManager uses SNMP, Telnet, ICMP and WMI to discover widespread devices, the
SolarWinds uses SNMP to poll each device as it logs the information received. Users of
ManageEngine OpManager monitor devices based on their metrics including traffic, CPU,
memory, availability and performance. In addition to these metrics, SolarWinds monitors
other factors including power supply, fan speed and temperature. The ManageEngine
OpManager bandwidth monitoring and NetFlow analysis are more advantageous as compared
to SolarWinds in that the latter needs SolarWinds NetFlow analyzer to conduct NetFlow
analysis whereas the former does not require an additional tool to conduct flow analysis for
Netflow, IPFIX, jFlow and sFlow [8]. The other area of comparison is visualization,
SolarWinds have a visual monitoring feature called NetPath critical path visualization which

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assists the user to view dynamic network traffic paths. The visualization features for
SolarWinds covers a wide range. These features include dials, charts and graphs. Whereas the
ManageEngine OpManager shares a similar visualization vein with SolarWinds, the former
has an outstanding network map while the latter outstands due to the additional feature of
NetPath. The following table summarizes the comparable features outlining the similarities
and differences of SolarWinds and ManageEngine OpManager.
FEATURE SolarWinds ManageEngine
OPMANAGER
Autodiscovery Yes (with SNMP) Yes (with SNMP, ICMP, WMI
and Telnet)
Bandwidth monitoring and
flow support
Needs SolarWinds NetFlow
analyzer
Yes (for NetFlow, sFlow,
jFlow and IPFIX)
Alerts Email or SMS Email or SMS
VoIP monitoring Needs SolarWinds VoIP
network quality manager
Yes
IPAM Needs SolarWinds IP
address manager
Yes
Conclusion
In the introduction section, this study has outlined the various salient features and uses of
ManageEngine OpManager that has influenced its popularity. The first part of the study has
discussed the ManageEngine OpManager network performance management where a
deduction was made that the software offers a proactive network performance and monitoring
solution which makes it fit for monitoring. This part continues to analyze the network

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monitoring and troubleshooting process diagrammatically. In the third part of the study, a
discussion on how the ManageEngine OpManager provides a real time availability monitor is
discussed and analyzed. The role of ManageEngine OpManager interface and real-time
graphs in providing real-time availability monitor is emphasized. Additionally, the section
discusses and analyses how ManageEngine OpManager performs network traffic analysis. Re
role of ManageEngine OpManager NetFlow monitoring module in network traffic analysis is
dissected. The study closes at part three where the comparison between ManageEngine
OpManager and SolarWinds is made outlining the various similarities and differences
characterizing the two products.

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References
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