Delivers affordable, easy-to-use configuration management that stands alone or seamlessly integrates with Orion NPM
Orion® Network Configuration Manager (NCM) delivers affordable, easy-to-use network configuration and change management. Orion NCM can be used standalone or can be integrated with Orion Network Performance Monitor (NPM) to provide a unified, intuitive view into enterprise-wide network health that displays configuration health indicators alongside performance statistics. You’re going to love having a complete solution that accelerates troubleshooting and ensures a stable, high-performing network — no matter how large or small.
Orion NCM simplifies managing network configuration files in multi-vendor network environments with a highly intuitive web interface that offers point-and-click simplicity and easy access to configuration data. Plus, Orion NCM continuously monitors device configurations and provides immediate notification of configuration changes to help you resolve problems before they impact users.
With Orion NCM, you can quickly fix issues without having to manually Telnet or SSH into devices to change configuration parameters. Orion NCM also makes it easy to generate and analyze compliance reports to confirm that your devices are meeting regulatory and corporate standards.
Orion NCM Highlights
- Quickly troubleshoot network issues with immediate visibility into the cause-and-effect relationship between configuration management errors and network performance
- Manage and centrally control network configuration changes across multi-vendor networks via a highly intuitive web console
- Schedule automated backups of all device configurations in complex network environments
- Instantly inventory network device hardware with just a few clicks including out-of-the-box reports for assets and serial numbers
- Quickly identify which device is wired or wirelessly connected to which end host resource.
- Enable network devices for Cisco® EnergyWise energy management and activate specific EnergyWise policies on capable network devices
- Visualize enterprise-wide configuration health indicators alongside network performance data
- Receive real-time alerts when network configuration changes occur to protect against and quickly respond to unauthorized, unscheduled, or erroneous changes
- Detect configuration policy violations to ensure compliance with federal regulations and corporate standards
- Save time with config change templates and wizard like interface or by leveraging shared device command templates, custom scripts, and configuration snippets created by other network engineers
- Simultaneously modify configurations, change community strings, update ACLs, and block MAC addresses across many devices
- Compare start-up and running configuration files to troubleshoot device configurations issues
Orion NCM Features
Seamless Orion NPM Integration
Orion NCM integrates seamlessly with Orion Network Performance Monitor (NPM) to deliver a comprehensive solution for managing configuration, fault, and performance across complex, multi-vendor networks. Through a single web console, now you can download configs and access real-time availability statistics and configuration change history for all of your network devices, providing the complete network management solution that you’ve been searching for. You can even execute configuration management actions based on Orion NPM alerts.
Intuitive Point-and-Click Interface
Orion NCM’s intuitive point-and-click interface enables you to visualize and actively manage the health and status of enterprise-wide configurations, including device details, configuration backups, policy violations, and event history. With Orion NCM, detailed device configuration information is only a few clicks away in the highly evolved web console. Configure your network devices remotely by uploading, downloading, and executing scripts directly from Orion NCM’s web interface.
Real-Time Change Notifications
Orion NCM detects changes to the configurations of monitored devices in real time and notifies you instantly of these changes – giving you more control, instant visibility, and improved security in your network environment. You can quickly and easily set up alerts on configuration changes using Orion NCM’s built-in Syslog Server and SNMP Trap Server. This enables you to quickly determine if a configuration change caused a network problem.
Multi-vendor Device Support
Orion NCM provides built-in configuration management support for network devices from Cisco Systems®, Nortel Networks®, Motorola®, Extreme Networks®, Dell®, HP®, Adtran®, Riverbed®, 3Com®, Aruba Networks®, Juniper Networks®, Foundry Networks®, and many more. Additionally, users can easily modify or build device templates, enabling Orion NCM to scale to highly heterogeneous environments.
Config Change Templates & Community Content Exchange
Now you can save time by running advanced network scripts made from simple, predefined config templates. With an intuitive graphical user interface you can change interface descriptions and configure VLANs, switch port security, NetFlow, IP SLA, CBQoS, QoS, EnergyWise, and other common and advanced network device features! If you have more advanced scripting or CLI knowledge, you can create advanced config change templates with the ability to add logic (such as: if, then, else).
Or, you can leverage the SolarWinds online community, Thwack, by implementing device command templates, custom scripts, and configuration snippets created by other users. Orion NCM’s interactive web console offers direct links to browse, download, and share templates and scripts on Thwack, making it easy for community members to benefit from each other’s resources and saving everyone valuable time. Thwack will even alert you when new resources are posted, so you can easily expand your config management capabilities!
User Tracking
When integrated with Orion Network Performance Monitor (NPM), Orion NCM’s user tracking feature allows you to identify which device is connected to which port in your network using our integrated wired and wireless switch port mapping.
Cisco EnergyWise Configuration Management
Cisco® EnergyWise focuses on reducing the energy consumption of all devices connected to a Cisco network ranging from Power over Ethernet (PoE) devices, such as IP phones and wireless access points, to IP-enabled building and lighting controllers. EnergyWise technology gives you a framework for discovering, monitoring, optimizing, advising, and regulating energy needs for your business. Cisco EnergyWise encompasses a highly intelligent, network-based approach to communicate messages that control energy between network devices and endpoints.
Policy Violation Detection
Orion NCM’s network configuration policy management enables you to ensure that device configurations comply with federal regulations, as well as your organization’s internal standards. The Orion NCM Policy Reporter helps organizations automate the policy compliance process with scheduled reports that identify devices that have configuration violations, that could be accessed by unauthorized users, or that pose a security risk. Several out-of-the-box policy reports were designed specifically for the standards and regulations set forth in HIPAA, SOX, CISP, and Cisco® Security Audit.
With Orion NCM’s streamlined device remediation feature, you can also automatically remediate policy violations directly from your reports. By simply right-clicking on a policy violation within the report interface, it’s easy to immediately apply a remediation script to repair any devices that were found to be in violation with policies. In doing so, Orion NCM streamlines configuration policy verification and remediation
Configuration Backup Scheduler
One of the most popular features in Orion NCM is the ability to automatically backup network device configurations on routers, switches, firewalls, access points, and other network devices. Backups of network device configurations are performed based on naming convention, machine type, or other custom groups. Even better, these backups can be scheduled to run whenever you would like them to – whether that’s everyday, every other Monday, or every two hours.
Network Discovery
Orion NCM scans your entire network and imports discovered devices into the Orion NCM database. This feature saves you valuable time by eliminating manual configuration and makes deploying Orion NCM faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can also import devices from third-party configuration management solutions to ease migration. Orion NCM was designed for do-it-yourself deployment that gets you up and running in less than an hour – without the need for expensive consultants.
Global Configuration Search
From Orion NCM’s advanced web console, you can perform a global search for specific text in any of your configuration files or find any node with matching text, making it easy to track down a specific configuration or node in seconds.
Inventory Reporter
Orion NCM is not only a comprehensive configuration management solution, but is also a device management solution. Orion NCM creates a detailed network inventory of all managed devices. Serial numbers, interface and port details, IP addresses, ARP tables, installed software, and many other details are included in Orion NCM’s configuration management database.
Configuration Rollback & Archive
Orion NCM includes rollback functionality, enabling you to immediately “rollback” to a previous “known good” device configuration. This enables you to quickly repair unauthorized network configuration changes or recover devices from failed configuration changes, eliminating unnecessary downtime and security risks.
Configuration backups are archived by Orion NCM to facilitate rollbacks. With a few mouse clicks, you can automatically export all device configurations in text file format; data is also stored in a Microsoft® SQL Server database for safe keeping.
Remote Firmware & IOS Transfers
Orion NCM enables IOS/firmware updates to be performed in real time or to be scheduled to run at a future time. With the enhanced grouping capability of Orion NCM, images can be uploaded to devices based on a specific grouping or combination of grouping properties, allowing you to easily manage each type of network device separately.
User Activity Tracking
With Orion NCM, you can view who made configuration changes, who backed up configurations, and when users logged in and out of Orion NCM. This user activity tracking ability ensures compliance with federal regulations, such as HIPAA and PCI, while also enabling you to provide necessary documentation for external and internal audits. Additionally, activity tracking makes it quick and easy to determine who made what changes when diagnosing a network problem.