NetCrunch 6

NetCrunch Editions

NetCrunch comes in two editions: Premium and Premium XE. NetCrunch Premium is recommended for small networks with a couple of hundred nodes. NetCrunch Premium XE meets the increasing demand for an enterprise network monitoring. For such networks, the monitoring performance and scalability are critical areas in network management. The Premium XE edition is designed to run on a dedicated machine with Windows Server. The XE edition monitors the availability of larger networks and enables an administrator to extensively monitor the performance of servers as well as to handle a larger number of SNMP devices. In this edition, the resource usage on the dedicated machine is optimized to ensure that all nodes and services are being monitored within the requested time.

Premium XE

This edition ensures that administrators of enterprise networks can locate problems without a delay. The XE edition is equipped with additional algorithms. As such, it recognizes critical devices in a network, e.g. routers and switches, and monitors them prior to the non-critical ones. The XE edition also recognizes the nodes local to the monitoring workstation and treats the LAN nodes differently from the nodes connected over WAN links. This mechanism is also used for the Event Suppression process which is responsible for alerting about the actual source of the problem. Specifically, an administrator will receive only one alert when an intermediate node fails.

As service level agreements (SLAs) are becoming stricter in terms of acceptable network down-time, administrators need to have the right tools to identify problems before they cause any serious damage. The XE edition can be integrated with other applications by automatic data exports. The edition supports scheduled exports to external databases and it can share the monitoring statistics with help desk systems or industry standard analysis solutions. This process is done automatically and allows for a smooth implementation of the proactive network management system.

Common Premium XE Usage Scenarios

As network resources are widely used for critical applications, network professionals need to provide the highest level of network availability and performance. Below you can find the network estimates for the NetCrunch Premium XE deployment:

  • To monitor the availability of network with more than 1000 nodes
  • To monitor the availability of network with more than 1000 network services
  • To monitor the performance of network with more than 100 servers and routers
  • Network with sub networks
  • Network with external servers connected over WAN Links
  • Network with Cisco or Nortel switches
  • Mission critical MS SQL, Exchange application performance monitoring and trending
  • Complex analysis and trending