How much bandwidth does SolarWinds NPM require for monitoring?

10/25/2018 10:48 AM

6/8/2023 7:25 AM

Using default polling intervals, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) requires roughly 1.0 Mbps for every 10,000 monitored objects.

Network Performance Monitor

N/A

SolarWinds requires roughly 1.0 Mbps for every 10,000 monitored objects. 

Note: The following sections do not cover additional technologies you can poll with NPM, such as wireless, topology, or multicast data. If you enable pollers for these technologies, NPM will consume more bandwidth than stated in these examples.

Total Traffic per Monitored Object (SNMP+ICMP, inbound+outbound) 

Poll Type	Data per Poll	Default Polling Interval	Default Polls per Hour
Ping (ICMP) - Response Time and Status	1 KB/poll	120 s	30
Statistics Poll (SNMP)	1.5 KB/poll	600 s	6
Interface Rediscovery (SNMP)	2.7 KB/poll	1800 s	2

Monitoring 1 interface for 1 hour requires 

To calculate how much bandwidth is required for monitoring 1 interface for 1 hour, multiply the number of polls per hour by the data per poll required by individual poll types.

(30 ICMP x 1 KB) + (6 SNMP Statistics x 1.5 KB) + (2 SNMP Rediscovery x 2.7 KB) = 44.4 KB

SolarWinds NPM requires 44.4 KB/hr to fully monitor 1 interface, using default polling intervals.

An environment with 20,000 monitored objects 

The conservative assumption is that all devices are interfaces. In a typical environment, not all objects would require rediscovery.

To calculate how much bandwidth NPM requires to monitor a typical 20,000 object environment every hour, multiply the number of elements by the bandwidth required by one interface per hour.

20,000 x 44.4 KB/hr = 888,000 KB/hr = 0.888 GB/hr = 0.247 MBps = 1.973 Mbps

This article applies to all versions of SolarWinds NPM.