Quick Guide: How to Get Secure Traffic Management With NMIS

Streamline your traffic management and boost your network efficiency with our easy step-by-step guide to using Secure Traffic Manager with NMIS.

In September 2023, FirstWave acquired a company called Saisei, including its flagship platform, Secure Traffic Manager (STM), for network traffic shaping and deep packet inspection.

This tool is a powerful way for telcos and large enterprises to monitor and manage network traffic, allowing certain applications or services to have greater Quality of Service (QoS) than others.

There are several benefits to using STM:

• Prevent bandwidth hogs with fair use host equalization
• Save on bandwidth costs without impacting customer experience
• Optimise streaming, even during peak times
• Prevent OS updates and other low-priority traffic from negatively impacting your network
• Always-on solution providing key metrics for proactive management and reduction in Mean Time to Innocence
• Security augmentation

Using STM with FirstWave’s open-source network management solution, NMIS, gives you full visibility and control over this traffic so you can set rules to automate traffic management, orchestrate alerts, and more.

This quick guide’ll show you how to monitor your Saisei STM appliance with NMIS.

Install NMIS

First, ensure that NMIS is installed and configured properly in your environment. Follow the installation instructions provided by FirstWave here. FirstWave offers a 20-node free license to get you started.

Configure SNMP on your STM appliance

Enable SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) on your STM appliance. Configure SNMP settings such as community strings and SNMP versions according to your security policies and requirements.

Add STM appliance to NMIS

In NMIS, add the STM appliance as a device to be monitored. You’ll need to provide the IP address or hostname of the STM appliance, SNMP community strings, and any other necessary authentication details.

Configure monitoring parameters

Specify which parameters and metrics you want to monitor on the STM appliance. This could include things like bandwidth usage, network traffic, or CPU and memory utilization.

Set up thresholds and alerts

Define threshold levels for monitored parameters to trigger alerts when certain conditions are met. This allows you to proactively manage and respond to potential issues on the STM appliance.

Test monitoring

Once configured, test your monitoring setup to ensure NMIS is successfully collecting data from the STM appliance and that alerts are working as expected.

Schedule regular maintenance

Periodically review and update your monitoring configuration as needed. This ensures that your monitoring remains effective as your network and infrastructure evolve over time.

That’s it! Now you can get all the benefits of STM combined with all the benefits of NMIS. Throughout this process, you can refer to FirstWave documentation for specific guidance on integrating STM appliances with NMIS.

Need further assistance? Reach out to the FirstWave support team.

Are you tired of paying too much for your network management software? Look no further than NMIS. In this article, we will compare the licensing frameworks of NMIS and SolarWinds, two popular network management solutions, and show you how you can save big by switching to NMIS. 

Licensing Structure 

One of the major differences between NMIS and SolarWinds is their licensing structure. While SolarWinds charges based on the number of interfaces, NMIS licenses per node/device. Even the most simple of devices has multiple interfaces, with network infrastructure having hundreds of variables worth monitoring. This means that with SolarWinds, you could end up paying for multiple interfaces on a single device, driving up costs unnecessarily. With NMIS, however, you only pay for each device you want to monitor, no matter how many metrics you are collecting from it, making for a more cost-effective solution. This avoids situations where important metrics have not been collected from monitored devices due to licence limitations and means IT teams are always able to have a complete and unrestricted view of their network.  

Database Licensing 

Another significant cost difference between the two solutions is their database licensing. SolarWinds uses Microsoft Windows Server and MS SQL Server, which can be expensive to license. NMIS, on the other hand, uses a NoSQL database (MongoDB) that is much less expensive to license. This can result in significant savings for customers, especially for those with large networks. 

Total Cost of Ownership 

In addition to the licensing costs, it’s essential to consider the total cost of ownership when choosing a network management solution. SolarWinds may have a lower initial cost, but its licensing fees, coupled with the high cost of maintaining a Windows Server and MS SQL Server environment, can drive up the total cost of ownership. In contrast, NMIS’s licensing fees, combined with its lower infrastructure requirements, result in a significantly lower total cost of ownership over time. 

Scalability 

Another benefit of NMIS is its scalability. With SolarWinds, adding more devices to your network can be troublesome – not only in the cost of servers to host the platform, but also limitations in functionality when deployed at significant scale. With NMIS, however, the platform infrastructure requirements are estimated to be nearly 10x more efficient, and more importantly the software has been design with extreme scale in mind. This makes NMIS an excellent choice for large enterprises, telecommunications carriers, or organizations that plan to expand their networks in the future. 

Flexibility 

Finally, the NMIS Suite is a flexible solution that can be customized to meet your organization’s specific needs. It has been developed to suit any environment, and provide insights at any scale. There is an old saying in the organization that “if it has an IP address, NMIS can manage it, and even if it doesn’t NMIS probably still can!” From its early open-source days, the software has been developed with this attitude in mind, making it the ultimate in flexibility for network management systems.  

In conclusion, if you’re looking for a cost-effective, flexible, and scalable network management solution, NMIS is the way to go. Its per-node licensing structure, use of a NoSQL database, and lower infrastructure requirements make it a more affordable option compared to SolarWinds. Not to mention, its open-source roots provide you with the flexibility you need to customize the software.