We’re excited to announce the next phase in the continued evolution of IBM SevOne Network Performance Management (NPM) as we prepare to launch SevOne NPM version 7 in 2024!

Since being acquired by IBM nearly 2 1⁄2 years ago, the SevOne NPM team, as part of IBM Software Networking, has continued to improve the software that hundreds of network operations and engineering teams around the world rely upon daily to monitor and assure continuous performance of the world’s largest and most critical enterprise, telecommunications, and managed services provider- based networks.

Over this time, the SevOne NPM team has released several new industry-leading features, such as native support to monitor Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure-based environments, extending network and performance visibility into the public cloud. We’ve enhanced the breadth of our SD-WAN monitoring solutions, releasing support for Cisco, Fortinet, and VMware network observability. 

Furthermore, we’ve introduced several features enabling an application-centric approach to network analysis, all while delivering numerous enhancements to the Data Insight user interface to enable the transformation of SevOne NPM into an application-centric, hybrid cloud, network observability solution. 

Over the next 6-9 months, we plan to deliver a series of releases designed to further modernize SevOne NPM to ensure it can continue to provide the capabilities required to manage the largest networks of tomorrow. To support this vision, we will be modifying the underlying database and operating systems used in SevOne NPM products.

Planning your upgrade

Reference the table below to see the changes we are making to SevOne NPM’s database and operating system to best plan your next target version. Both versions 6.8.0 and 7.0.0 will come with two years of base support included for clients with an active service and support contract.

*Dates are subject to change. Prior to SevOne NPM 6.5, SevOne components (NMS, Data Insight & Solutions) were individually versioned. When planning your upgrade, please focus on your NMS release version. 

Database 

The database used by SevOne NPM recently reached the end of support. In SevOne NPM 6.7, released November 2023, this is resolved as MySQL is migrated to MariaDB. 

Operating System

The operating system (OS) used by SevOne NPM (CentOS) has announced an End of Life (EOL) on May 31, 2024. As a result, SevOne NPM will be transitioning to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) as the core OS for SevOne NPM, first becoming available in version 6.8.0, which is targeted for release in February 2024.

Recommended upgrades

    Figure 2 - * Two years of IBM base support included for clients with active service and support contracts

Some additional considerations for planning your upgrade: 

• Self-service upgrader/installer is supported for standard implementations. If your deployment includes customizations and add-ons, self-service upgrader may not support these. It’s best to check with your IBM support team. 

• If you are running customizations created by IBM Expert Labs (formerly known as SevOne Professional Services), Resident Engineers, Partners, or homegrown, you should test them first in a lab or staging environments to identify and resolve any potential compatibility issues before upgrading. 

• If required, IBM Expert Labs can provide fee-based service offerings to support a successful upgrade process.

We’re excited about this journey to SevOne NPM version 7. If you have any questions about the next steps as you plan your upgrade path, please contact your IBM account team. 

Regards,

IBM SevOne NPM Product Team

IBM Software Networking