I'm about to embark on a deployment of solarwinds to manage an international network of 5000+ users, ~30 sites, 300+ devices, etc. We've made a pretty significant (to us) investment with SolarWinds: NPM, NCM, NTM, and UDT. Our systems team is doing SAM, but we're planning on a separate deployment for that (with EOC if we find out we need a single pane of glass).
I've got a background in open source network management: nagios, cacti, mrtg, etc.. I've got a strong background in Linux and associated scripting, though our current network is mainly windows and Cisco.
My question to you is: What do you wish you'd known when you were starting out with Solarwinds? Any piece of sage advice you heard that you'd like to pass on? Anything you wish you'd done to prepare for or on your initial deployment?
Some thoughts:
* What type of device groups have saved you the most time overall?
* What did you chase your tail doing that you could have done easier?
* Any changes that you would have made to your devices (e.g. set interface descriptions, set snmp locations) that would have improved your deployment?
Any advice is welcome.