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SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager (NCM) aims to ease this burden by providing centralised backup, restore and rollback of device configurations, plus real-time change management. It can alert you if it spots any unauthorised changes being made and also validate device configurations to ensure their continued regulatory compliance.

The latest NCM v7.2 delivers plenty of new features including end-of-life management, which keeps track of all devices and advises when they're due for replacement or when their support contract is expiring. Global connection profiles streamline management of multiple devices and scheduled updates can be subject to an approval system and NCM has now been fully integrated into the Orion web GUI.

We found installation straightforward and although you can run it in standalone mode we opted to integrate NCM with our existing Network Performance Monitor (NPM) and NTA (NetFlow Traffic Analyzer) setup. This allowed us to use the results of previous Sonar discoveries to view devices which we could select and add to the NCM as required.

NCM snaps in neatly with the Orion console and adds a new tab for direct access to all functions. The intuitive LUCID (logical, useable, customisable, interactive and drill-down) web interface provides an NCM summary page with a wealth of information concerning managed devices. The views can be easily customised to suit so that you can see at a glance which devices have had their configurations backed up and those causing policy violation. Graphs show devices with matching or mismatched running and start up configurations, any that have been recently updated, and those approaching the end of their support contract.

From the Configuration Management tab you can compare configurations across multiple devices to ensure consistency, view changes made between specific time periods and directly execute bulk scripts. The global connection profiles make light work of accessing devices as they store login credentials, define enable levels and use Telnet or SSH to download, request or transfer configurations and execute scripts.

To use the real-time change detection feature, devices need to send Sylog data or SNMP traps to the NCM host. For this the Orion Syslog or trap viewer must be configured with alert and filter rules; you decide whether start up or running configs should be monitored and add email addresses for notification of detected changes.

Templates add extra levels of flexibility to NCM as they use scripting with conditional logic to streamline device configuration changes. This is probably the most complex part of NCM but SolarWinds has a thriving thwack! community, allowing you to view, post and share scripts for an extensive range of devices and manufacturers.

Full job scheduling is included so that you can create tasks that regularly backup device configs, execute scripts on selected devices or reboot them. Reporting is good because NCM can create them for a wide range of criteria including backup status, IOS versions on Cisco devices, boot times and general device information. These extend to compliancy as NCM can query devices and see if they comply with regulations such as SOX, HIPAA and CISP. You can also enforce an approval system so scheduled tasks will only be released once an NCM administrator reviews the changes and confirms their permission.

NCM simplifies and takes the hard work out of device configuration management and it is really good value. Full integration into the Orion web GUI makes it much easier to use and it's clearly capable of scaling from tens to thousands of devices. NC

Product: Network Configuration Manager 7.2
Supplier: SolarWinds
Tel: 0800 028 6782
Web site: www.solarwinds.com
Price: From £1,780 excluding VAT for 50 nodes