Irrespective of the nature of business, be it offline or online-based, internet has become a crucial tool to nurture collaboration, access resources and streamline workflow across departments. As a result, monitoring the status of internet network has become a pivotal component of a company\u2019s daily functioning. To effectively manage the entire network, companies can use open source network monitoring tools for Windows or Linux to detect threats, leaks and issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Network monitoring software<\/a> is used by IT teams to supervise a computer network & identify issues. The software can detect changes in server performance and notify users of the same. It offers an in-depth view and analytical insight into a network\u2019s real-time status on a centralised dashboard, which helps in preventing network delays and downtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Open Source Network\nMonitoring: An Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Open source network monitoring software is designed to identify network problems that cause frequent errors. You get a clear picture of the applications and services that run on your network and track easily the performance of these devices. Open source network monitoring tools thus helps in monitoring applications and individual nodes for indicators of outages that could reduce the performance of your network systems. The software provides complete protection to connected systems and ensures the best network functioning experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is Open Source & Free Network\nMonitoring Tool Safe to Use<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To prevent an outage of any kind in the network supply, a free network monitor scrutinizes the shortcomings that may hinder the network services. These are safe mechanisms for companies as most of the free monitoring software efficiently predict the shortages that may cause threat to a networking system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Open source network monitor tools quickly raise an alarm through emails, pager, and other notifications. You can never be sure if the security devices on the networking system are working efficiently in the absence of monitoring <\/strong>software. Network monitoring software assesses the problems occurring in your hardware and software system to prevent outages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With numerous free and open source network management tools available in the market, it might be difficult to choose the one that suits your business requirements. Therefore we present a list of 12 best Free Open Source Network Monitoring Tools available in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Platforms Supported: <\/strong>Windows, Linux, Unix, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, and Mac operating systems<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Nagios is an open source & free network monitoring application which monitors network systems, and entire infrastructures. It\u2019s a solution which monitors servers, switches & applications and, and alerts users in case of network changes or threats. Originally called NetSaint, Nagios was originally designed for Linux servers, but has since been programmed to run across platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nagios IT infrastructure monitoring<\/a> can be integrated with other third-party platforms at your company. Integration capability allows you to expand on its benefits and use it to its full potential. Since Nagios is open source, users are free to make adjustments & changes, as per their network requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only downside to Nagios is that upon increasing the host number in a network, updates take longer, leading to system delay. Additionally, Nagios is best utilised by someone with coding experience, as a layman would face challenges while installing & using the application in its raw form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nagios Monitoring Software USP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nagios is an excellent tool for companies\nto manage their network thoroughly. It allows users to stay aware of each\nnetwork component\u2019s status, whether it\u2019s active, malfunctioning or shut down.\nNagios comes with different types of alerts which informs users of various\nfailures within the network. This allows users to identify and solve issues\nquickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Features of Nagios Monitoring Software:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price to Upgrade: <\/strong>Nagios is available in two different editions: Standard<\/strong> priced at \u20b9 1,42,819 and Enterprise<\/strong>, which is priced at \u20b9 2,50,201. You can also look into the best Nagios Alternatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Platforms Supported: <\/strong>64-bit Windows OS, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Spiceworks Network Monitor<\/a> is a free software that allows system admins to monitor network devices through a centralised dashboard. With Spiceworks Network Monitor, users can stay vigilant about device and server performance, including SNMP-enabled devices such as switches & routers. Aside from network monitoring, the software also comes with free IT management tools and has over six million IT admins and developers in its network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spiceworks assures that users will have total visibility over their IT network, so issues can be identified and resolved quicker. Email alerts are sent by the software in case of issues & problem, for quick resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the downside, Spiceworks works on Windows servers only. If you use a different operating server, you won\u2019t be able to use Spiceworks. Also, Spiceworks features ads so it might be distracting for some users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spiceworks Network Monitor USP<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spiceworks Network Monitor can be used to\nmonitor servers, SNMP devices, switches, and services. Lastly, users can also\nconnect this solution to other free tools like Blacklist Checker, Connectivity\nDashboard and IP Lookup, to improve efficiency and functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Features of Spiceworks Network Monitor:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price to Upgrade: Along with the free version, <\/strong>Spiceworks Network Monitor is available in four different premium plans as per one\u2019s requirements – Individual, Team, Enterprise and Custom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Supported Platforms: <\/strong>Linux<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Zenoss is a network monitoring platform<\/a> which is used by enterprises to effectively monitor every component of a network, including storage, compute, network, converged infrastructure, and unified communications systems. Zenoss Intelligent Application and Service Monitoring gives customers the ability to gain insights on IT performance and to map out their IT ecosystem using real-time analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, this network monitoring tool can only work for users with up to 1,000 functioning devices. For those needing more, Zenoss offers a paid version with added features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zenoss USP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With Zenoss, customers can readily adapt to\nconstantly changing data centres and infrastructures, thus allowing them to\neliminate issues and accelerate business outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Features of Zenoss:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price to Upgrade: <\/strong>Zenoss networking monitor is available in two different versions – Professional and Enterprise. Their price is available on request. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Supported Platforms:<\/strong> Observium Community supports around 458 different operating systems and devices.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Observium is a network monitoring platform which provides administrative support for a range of devices, platforms, servers and operating systems. Observium works on operating systems powered by Cisco, Linux, Windows, HP, Dell, Juniper, FreeBSD, Netscaler, Brocade, NetApp and more. With this tool, users get a powerful yet intuitive interface to assess the health and working status of their IT network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Observium is very low-maintenance and comes with auto-discovering capabilities. Every six months, software updates are deployed to fix patches & commonly reported problems. Observium also comes with a paid edition, which means that certain key features are missing from its free version. Real time software updates, support, traffic accounting system and an alerting system, are some of the features that are missing from Observium\u2019s free version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Observium USP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Observium can be used by users to map out\ntheir entire IT networks using discovery protocols. This is particularly easy\nas Observium Community is capable of automatically recognising hundreds of\ndevices. Observium network monitoring tool is best suited for small companies\nor by companies with non-critical IT assets & networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Features of Observium Software:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price to Upgrade: <\/strong>Observium network monitoring and management tool is available under the following three plans- Community, Professional and Enterprise. The Community Plan<\/strong> is a free plan whereas Professional plan<\/strong> is priced at \u20b9 19,217. The Enterprise plan<\/strong> is available for \u20b9 94,163.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Supported Platforms: <\/strong>Linux, Windows and Unix.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Icinga 2 is an open source free network monitoring solution which tracks the performance of your network resources, informs users in case of outages and, auto-generates reports highlighting performance data. It uses both MySQL<\/a> and PostgreSQL<\/a> and is also Nagios backwards compatible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Icinga 2 is highly scalable, extensible and can fit into any company\u2019s IT infrastructure. The solution is capable of monitoring large, complex network environments that are spread across multiple locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because it\u2019s open source, it\u2019s advised to have it accessed by someone with coding experience. Such a person can access the software & customise it to its full capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Icinga 2 USP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What makes Icinga 2 a very suitable network\nmonitoring tool is that the interface is constantly being updated by the\ndevelopers. Icinga 2 comes with a configuration format which is highly\nintuitive to write, executes effectively and can easily adjust to your\ncompany\u2019s changing & developing network environment. This makes it a highly\nuser-friendly solution for IT admins and teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Features of Icinga 2: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price to Upgrade: <\/strong>Icinga 2 is available in four premium versions- Starter, Basic, Premium and Enterprise. You can contact us for getting information related to Price to Upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compatibility OS: <\/strong>Linux, Unix and Windows<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Zabbix is a free open source network monitoring solution that can be used to keep an eye on IT networks, virtual machines (VMs), servers<\/a>, and cloud management services<\/a>. Zabbix gives users discernible metrics to properly monitor network components including utilisation, CPU load and disk space consumption. Its monitoring capability can be configured using XML based templates that contain the elements which help with effective monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zabbix supports devices running on Linux, Mac OS X, Hewlett Packard Unix (HP-UX), Solaris and other operating systems. Monitoring Windows powered components is possible using Zabbix Agent. An added disadvantage is that it\u2019s a software made for enterprise-level organisations so small companies can\u2019t use Zabbix to its full potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zabbix USP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Zabbix is capable of using MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB<\/a>, SQLite<\/a>, IBM DB2<\/a> or Oracle<\/a> to store data. While Zabbix has been developed for enterprise-level businesses, it offers high scalability and can easily process over 3,000,000 checks per minute. It does so by using mid-range hardware and by collecting gigabytes of historical data regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Features of Zabbix: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price to Upgrade:<\/strong> The price is available on request. This network monitoring tool is available under five different plans- Silver, Gold, Platinum, Enterprise and Global.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compatibility OS: <\/strong>Unix and Windows servers<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Pandora FMS is an open source and free\nnetwork monitoring software for Windows and Unix servers that helps businesses monitor\nand analyse their IT infrastructure. Apart from this, this tool can also be run\non virtual interfaces for reinforcing networks on miscellaneous platforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pandora FMS provides useful features such\nas SNMP support, latency monitoring, ICMP polling, network overload and system\nbreach. IT professionals can use these tools to monitor other physical factors\nsuch as temperature of the connected devices and create logs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pandora FMS comes with a plethora of\nfeatures for IT professionals to efficiently keep track of multiple devices,\napplications and servers. It also helps in setting up various parameters and\nprotocols for automation of the processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pandora FMS USP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be used as a free home network\nmonitoring software as well as businesses and can be seamlessly integrated with\nother plug-ins through eHorus. eHorus enables users and professionals to control\nservers and network remotely, through any machine or console. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Features of Pandora FMS:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Price to Upgrade:<\/strong> There are three premium versions- NMS, Enterprise and Corporate. NMS is available for \u20b9 208 and the Enterprise version is available for \u20b9 297. For the Corporate version, you need to place a request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>List of 12 Best Free Open Source Network Monitoring Tools<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>Nagios<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>Spiceworks Network Monitor<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>Zenoss<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>Observium Community<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>Icinga 2<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>Zabbix<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>Pandora FMS<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/span>LibreNMS<\/span><\/h3><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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