Microsoft's Network Device Monitoring Management Pack

[Gunilla]

Microsoft System Center Network Device Monitoring Management Pack provides the ability for System Center Essentials 2007 to monitor network devices.

Overview

The Microsoft System Center Network Device Monitoring Library Management Pack provides System Center Essentials 2007 with the ability to identify and monitor network devices such as routers and switches. This update resolves an issue where Essentials is unable to monitor network devices that report an interface speed greater than 2147483647. Please note that it is necessary to delete the existing Network Device Monitoring Library Management Pack before importing this updated version.

Feature

• Monitoring for SNMP v1 and SNMP v2c devices such as routers and switches
• Performance monitoring for network devices
• Health monitoring and alerting for network devices
• Topology for network devices

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2008; Windows Small Business Server 2003 ; Windows Vista Business; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows XP Service Pack 2
• Other Software - System Center Essentials Service Pack 1

[sergioKomic]

There is one known issue which Microsoft have accepted. Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) does not monitor network devices that report an interface speed that is greater than 2,147,483,647 Gbps (2 GB per second). When a network device reports an interface speed that is greater than 2GB per second, the MonitoringHost.exe process exits unexpectedly.

[Blazej]

The term network monitoring describes the use of a system that constantly monitors a computer network for slow or failing components and that notifies the network administrator in case of outages via email, pager or other alarms. Network devices includes switches, routers, and firewalls. There are a lot of software which allow you to monitor your network. Some of this are discussed over here: Which network monitoring software to go for.