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Jean-PierFlag for Canada

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best network/server monitoring software ?

I'm looking for a the best software for monitoring my servers and my network.

I would like to:
ping switches
ping servers
check disk space on servers
check ram and cpu usage on servers
check novell groupwise if working
check if SQL database are up

send e-mail allert
send text message to cell phone
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bhnmi

Adventnet has great products.

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knightrider2k2

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Look at Numera Network Monitor.
http://www.numarasoftware.com/
I use Nagios: http://www.nagios.org/

It's open source, aka free; easy to use and quick!  I'm not sure about the Novel monitoring, or text messaging because I don't use those features...  

To monitor Windows servers I recommend this plug-in:  http://nagios-wsc.sourceforge.net/

Cheers,
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ZENOSS. Includes Google Maps Mashup capability
http://www.zenoss.com

AutoNOC
http://www.autonoc.com/benefits/

OpenNMS
http://www.opennms.org/index.php/Main_Page

Just for Fun NMS
http://www.jffnms.org/

TheDude is pretty cool for a freebie...
http://www.mikrotik.com/thedude.php

MRTG is the defacto standard for free tool
http://www.mrtg.org

PRTG is a little more refined version
http://www.paessler.com/prtg

I'm very partial to Solarwinds Orion and the Engineer's Toolsets
http://www.solarwinds.net

Neon Software to diagram/document/monitor your network
http://www.neon.com/map.shtml

What's up gold:
http://www.ipswitch.com

I like the interface of Netcrunch:
http://www.adremsoft.com/netcrunch/index.php

Argus Sofware (looks just like What's UP Gold, only for Linux - and free)
http://argus.tcp4me.com/shots.html

Manage Engine by OpManager (can restart services on Windows servers)
http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products/opmanager/index.html?tb

Cacti  for all you Linux gurus:
http://www.cacti.net/

If you have unlimited budget - Fluke Supervision products are expensive, but good
http://www.flukenetworks.com/us/LAN/default.htm

Then there's the "Gold Standard" Sniffer Pro (couple of good whitepapers here)
http://www.networkgeneral.com/Solutions_Network.aspx
If anyone's interested, there's a little known product called Serversaurus Rex which is awesome for Windows server monitoring. It's available from http://www.nocturnalware.biz
I would recommend steering away from Nagios as someone else has recommended, as many people I talk with say it's a fine product, but not all that easy to use.  Yes it's free, but that doesn't make it good.
For what you are looking for, it's worth doing a search on Google for "server monitoring software".  Add the word "windows" if that is the OS you are looking to monitor.