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REVIEW DATE: 23.07.07 |
| By Fahmida Y. Rashid |
SolarWinds LANSurveyor 10
LANSurveyor 10 placed a very close second to WhatsUp Gold. It scored equally high on features and scalability but couldn't match WhatsUp Gold in reports. However, LANSurveyor 10 offers small and midsize businesses a simple and easy-to-use interface jam-packed with enterprise-level management features.
With its acquisition of Neon Software, the company added the network management tool LANSurveyor 10 to its product offerings. While SolarWinds has seen most of its momentum in the managed-services market, LANSurveyor strengthens its network management portfolio and enhances its scalability. LANSurveyor complements Orion, SolarWinds' suite of Windows-based network monitoring, discovery and management software.
Engineers were pleased to see the latest version of LANSurveyor retained the automatic network maps, asset management reports and remote administration functionality that distinguished the product in previous versions.
Deployment went smoothly. As soon as the software was installed, engineers were able to create a basic network map. LANSurveyor uses NetBIOS, SNMP and ICMP (ping) for device auto-recovery. In a dialog box, engineers entered the range of IP addresses to scan. All the devices, even the switches, were correctly discovered within minutes. In the same dialog box, engineers were able to specify multiple ranges of different subnets to scan. LANSurveyor found machines on different subnets and generated a large map with each distinct subnet's components connected properly. To make the large map easier to view, filters were applied to see Layer 1, 2 or 3 components, and to hide small subnets.
LANSurveyor deploys client probes, called Responders, to collect asset information such as the names of all installed software packages and the kinds of installed hardware, including chips, memory and hard drives.
While WhatsUp Gold edged out LANSurveyor by collecting data without relying on probes, LANSurveyor uses them well. Responders are deployed directly from LANSurveyor; no visits to each individual machine are required. Authentication boxes pop up when they are deployed.
The LANSurveyor Responders can be purchased as an optional add-on. The product can get basic operating-system information, along with machine name and IP address. The Responders flesh out the details, such as how many hard drives there are, their size and free space available. On the software side, Responders can discover installed fonts and what programs are installed in the Startup folder. Most of the reporting takes advantage of the data collected by these deployed Responders. The asset information is all stored in a database repository, making it easy to implement a configuration management database strategy. While SolarWinds said Responders also can collect information on Linux and Apple Macintosh devices, engineers only tested them on Windows devices.
LANSurveyor offers troubleshooting and vulnerability assessment through its Continuous Scan feature. This monitoring tool identifies rogue nodes across an entire network. The scans can be scheduled, and several criteria can be selected to determine when a node has changed its configuration and is considered a rogue. The options include looking at the SIP or NetBIOS names, the Timbuktu Screen-Sharing Name or changes in the device's MAC address. This feature also logs information about node connections in a Session Log to document network usage, threats and system availability. Once a rogue is detected, LANSurveyor can disable the device's network access and isolate it.
The TCP Port Monitor examines the availability of application and services for up to 20 different nodes. For the various nodes, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, HTTPS, Telnet and DNS can be monitored. Statistics and detailed information about each TCP server are available.
The remote administration features differentiate LANSurveyor from its peers. Once the probes are deployed, the software can send a variety of commands to other computers on the network. Along with the basics such as sending out system messages or forcing a shutdown and restart, LANSurveyor can launch an application remotely, copy a file or folder to a specific destination, change a password, or even synchronize all the clocks. Remote distribution makes it easy to push out a script, a patch or a new software package onto all the machines in the network.
For even more thorough remote administration, LANSurveyor also comes with the open-source VNC remote-control viewer application. PCs running VNC can be remotely accessed from inside the LANSurveyor interface for any manual tweaking the remote administration features do not cover.
There are several pre-defined reports in this package for software and hardware inventories. LANsurveyor's comprehensive reporting capabilities are also important for organizations struggling to meet the asset management requirements of regulations such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and PCI.
LANSurveyor makes data easy to share. With a click of the mouse, engineers exported the network map to Microsoft Visio for editing and distribution. All the reports also can be exported to Microsoft Excel for further data analysis and sharing. LANSurveyor maps also can be integrated with Orion.
LANsurveyor is available as a Standard edition and as an Enterprise Bundle. Both versions can map an entire WAN with an unlimited number of nodes. Partners are categorized on sales volume and order frequency. The average margin is 30 percent. Pre- and post-sales support, joint customer calls, and toll-free technical support are available. Training is offered by phone and on the Web. Following the Neon Software acquisition, SolarWinds is in the process of integrating its channel program to support Neon partners.
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