NetCrunch

NetCrunch

Developer(s)	AdRem Software, Inc.
Stable release	9.0 / 3 Nov 2015
Available in	English, German, French, Japanese, Polish
Type	Network Management, Network Monitoring, Server Monitoring, Application Monitoring, Web Monitoring, Log Monitoring
License	Commercial
Website	AdRem Software

AdRem NetCrunch is a commercial software product for agentless, cross-platform network monitoring developed by AdRem Software, Inc. The program monitors 65 network services, Windows applications; Windows, Linux, NetWare, BSD, Mac OS X systems and SNMP (v1-3) devices without agents; centralizes fault management by collecting and alerting on events from sources including Windows Event Log, syslogs, and SNMP traps; presents physical and logical network topology as automatically updated dynamic graphical views.

Features

AdRem NetCrunch key features:

• Auto-discovery- initial and scheduled discovery and classification of network resources
• Network views - physical and logical network topology including predefined views like: IP networks, Routing Map, Physical segments, Servers, Maps with Issues, and others.
• Automatic monitoring dependencies (incl. ESX hosts) - view dependent nodes, and prevent cascading alerts from dependent nodes.
• Network Self-Healing - set corrective actions to be taken in response to an alert
• Event management - events from Windows, Syslog and SNMP traps
• Monitoring policies - sets of rules defining events to be monitored and data to be collected for later reporting, including predefined policies for:
  • Operating system - Windows (Active Directory, Network Services Health, Security Audit, Terminal Services, Windows Server, Basic Windows Monitoring), Linux, Mac OS, BSD, Netware, Other (AIX, AS/400, MIB-II host resources).
  • Hardware – Network devices (Nortel, Alcatel OmniSwitch, Cisco), IBM Director, Dell OpenManage, HP Systems Insight Manager, APC PowerChute.
  • Applications – Microsoft (Exchange 2003, IIS 5.0/6.0, ISA Server 2000, ISA Server 2004, MS SQL Server 7.0/2000, MS SQL Server 2005), APC Windows Events, ARCServe, CA eTrust Alert Manager, Lotus Notes 6, McAfee AlertManager, Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition, Oracle 9i, Sophos Enterprise Manager, Trend Micro ServerProtect, Veritas Backup Exec.
• Availability monitoring - network devices and services (HTTP, POP3, SMTP, etc.)
• Performance monitoring - real-time statistics, multi-server charts, and performance trends (devices, systems, and applications)
• Long-term trend analysis – reports generated on demand or delivered on schedule via email.
• Remote access – remote administration console and access via web browser.
• User experience monitors – advanced monitoring of crucial network services. The program simulates user's action e.g. sends an email for POP3 service monitoring, etc.
• Smart monitoring - limiting monitoring traffic for specific sub networks.
• Inventory - ability to gather the basic inventory information of Windows machines (i.e. mainboard, processor type and memory), with options to schedule inventory audits to be performed, automatically discover and view installed software
• Localization - language versions of AdRem NetCrunch include: English, Japanese, Polish, German, French, Spanish and Italian.
• TLS encryption - support for sending emails to external SMTP servers
• SNMPv3 encryption - DES, 3DES, AES 128, AES 192 and AES 256 keys
• Automatically sets monitoring dependencies - prevents alert floods when one node goes down
• IP SLA monitoring

Platform

Recommended platforms for NetCrunch Server are Windows 2008 x32/x64 or Windows 2003 SP2 x32/x64. AdRem NetCrunch Remote Administration Console runs on Windows 7/Vista SP2/XP SP3 or Windows Server 2003/2008 (x32/x64).

Editions

There are two editions: Premium and Premium XE. The Premium XE edition is designed for large networks and intended to run on a dedicated Windows 2008 server.

Common Premium XE usage scenarios include:

• Network with more than a 1000 nodes for availability monitoring
• Network with more than a 1000 network services for availability monitoring
• Network with more than a 100 servers and routers for performance monitoring
• Network with sub networks
• Network with external servers connected over WAN Links
• Network with CISCO or Nortel switches
• MS SQL, Exchange application performance monitoring and trending

Technology overview

• Client-server architecture—User manages NetCrunch server using Remote Administration Consoles.
• Multithreading—NetCrunch Premium XE uses multithreading to take advantage of multi-core x64 machine.
• Prioritized monitoring—The program automatically sets up node monitoring order and time upon monitoring dependencies hierarchy.
• Event suppression—In case of failure of an intermediate node, the program suppresses alerts from nodes located beyond that node.
• SQL event database (up to 128GB)
• Web access—By implementing AJAX technology the server/browser interactions run asynchronously without reloading the Web page.

External links

• AdRem Software’s Website

Reviews

• "Gartner Monitoring Technology Pick, 12 May 2014"
• "WindowsNetworking.com Gold Award, 8 Jan. 2014"
• IT Professional, December 2013, "Product of the Year 2013"
• Network World Magazine, November 2013, "Product of the Week 11/11/2013"
• Network World Magazine, September 2013, "Product of the Week 9/23/2013"
• Network World Magazine, May 2013, "Hottest products from Interop 2013"
• LANline Magazin Germany, Dr. Werner Degenhardt, July 2013, "Netzwerk-Monitoring in Seide gekleidet"
• Bjoerns Windows Blog, December 2010, "Netzwerküberwachung mit NetCrunch 6"
• LanLine Magazine, November 2010, Werner Degenhardt, "Netzwerküberwachung für viele Plattformen"
• Networld Magazine, Michał Witkowski, February 2010. "Spokojnie, to tylko awaria"
• Processor Magazine, Robin Weisman, January 2010. "Straightforward Network Server Management"
• LANline Magazin Germany, Dr. Werner Degenhardt, June 2008. “Der neue Netzwerkatlas”
• Processor Magazine, May 2008. “Easy Network Monitoring”
• PC Magazine Russia February 2008. “AdRem Software выпускает систему мониторинга и управления сетью NetCrunch 5”
• Datamation, Cynthia Harvey, February 2007. “Datamation Readers Name NetCrunch Number One”

News

• "AdRem Software Launches NetCrunch 8 Monitoring Platform"
• "Agentless Monitoring: AdRem's NetCrunch 8 Released"