Your network architecture is the backbone of your infrastructure, allowing data to be routed and internal and external users to access services.
Network monitoring is essential to ensure that there are no problems accessing services and that no failures occur. A network analysis tool assists you in optimizing your network infrastructure and increasing the efficiency of your network by identifying bandwidth and resource usage.
ServiceNav provides tools that allow you to monitor your network at two points:
- Technical analysis and failure detection
- Bandwidth usage analysis
Technical analysis and failure detection
A technical failure of the network can be fatal and block or degrade access to services.
The following service models allow the feedback of technical indicators linked to an interface:
- SWITCH-Network_Plus
- SWITCH-Network_traffic-InterfaceName_Plus
- SWITCH-Network_traffic-InterfaceName_Plus_SNMPV3
- SWITCH-Network_traffic_Plus_SNMPV3
These models measure the network traffic usage for an interface, indicate the throughput and volume of data transmitted/received since the last system boot, notify when thresholds are exceeded. They collect interface status, number of packets in error, number of packets dropped, actual card speed, and notify when thresholds for number of packets in error, number of packets dropped are exceeded, or when the actual card speed is different from the expected one.
Configuration and use :
- Interface number or name : ID or name of the interface depending on the model used
- Traffic alert threshold IN : IN traffic alert threshold expressed as a percentage.
- IN traffic critical threshold : critical threshold of IN traffic expressed as a percentage.
- Traffic alert threshold OUT : IN traffic alert threshold expressed as a percentage.
- Critical threshold for OUT traffic : critical threshold of IN traffic expressed as a percentage.
- Unit: output unit, k for kilobits, m for megabits.
- Bandwidth : allocated bandwidth. If the field is filled in, it will be used to calculate the IN and OUT traffic utilization rate in percentage. By default, the plugin uses the detected interface speed to calculate the utilization rate, when the field is not filled in.
- Threshold for packets in error : alert threshold in number of packets in error, critical alert when threshold is crossed.
- Discarded packets threshold : alert threshold in number of discarded packets, critical alert when threshold is crossed.
- Interface speed : this field allows to monitor the interface speed, critical alert in case of detected speed different from the one given in this field.
- Speed unit of the interface: k for kilobits, m for megabits.
After instantiation, the service will return a status and information on the interface as well as graphical metrics for each of the indicators.
Weather services
The service weather is configured after setting up the network devices and interconnection interfaces. Below is an example of service weather from a network architecture based on the three-layer hierarchical model.
Network architecture:
The proposed weather system uses this hierarchical architecture by supervising the redundant interconnection interfaces at all levels:
The advantage of such a model is to be able to identify which equipment and network interfaces are at the origin of a degradation or a failure of the network. The picture below illustrates a network degradation due to a general problem at the DIST_2 distribution switch.
Dashboards
Configuration of a cartographic dashboard with the elements of the service weather forecast associated with a list of status and indicators on the interfaces:
Bandwidth usage analysis
ServiceNav provides a detailed view of your network traffic to identify the users, applications and protocols that consume bandwidth. This visibility then allows you to configure bandwidth usage policies, optimize your return on ISP costs, and ensure adequate bandwidth for your mission-critical applications and services.
Depending on the technology, use the service models NetFlow or sFlow and set up dashboards to monitor your bandwidth usage.
