SOLUTIONS

Network Monitoring

Network monitoring is essential if you want to ensure the optimal performance, security, and reliability of your network.

Network monitoring tools and platforms, like OpenNMS Meridian, help your IT teams detect, diagnose, and resolve issues proactively to prevent downtime and improve end-user experience.

What is Network Monitoring?

Network monitoring is the practice of monitoring and analyzing network traffic, devices, and systems to ensure performance and security. It involves the collection and analysis of data from network devices like routers, switches, servers, and applications.

Network monitoring tools collect data on network traffic, bandwidth utilization, errors, and other metrics to identify and troubleshoot problems. IT teams can proactively detect and resolve issues before they impact end users.

This helps to improve network performance, increase uptime, and reduce downtime.

Types of Network Monitoring Tools

There are various types of monitoring tools—with varying focus and capabilities—for IT teams. These tools can be categorized based on their functionality, deployment, and monitoring approach.

SNMP-based tools use Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to interact with network hardware and track the real-time status and use of resources, such as CPU stats, memory consumption, bytes transmitted and received, and other metrics. SNMP is one of the most widely used monitoring protocols, along with Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) for Windows servers—accessed by either DCOM or WinRM—and Internet Control Message Point (ICMP) for error reporting.
Flow-based tools monitor traffic flow to provide statistics about protocols and users. Some also inspect packet sequences to identify performance issues between two IP addresses. These flow tools capture traffic flow data and send them to a central collector for processing and storage. Flows provide the deep-dive details that are missed in SNMP-based tools. SNMP gives you "how much," but not what was using it. That "what" is identified by the size, protocol, source, and destination of a flow. This is useful when you need to look back on an issue reported for the last day or, even worse, last week.
Active network monitoring solutions inject packets into the network and measure end-to-end reachability, round-trip time, bandwidth, packet loss, link utilization and more. By conducting and measuring real-time / synthetic transactions from a user’s perspective, these solutions enable faster and more reliable detection of outages and performance degradation.
Log analysis / aggregation tools analyze logs generated by network devices, servers, and applications to identify issues and potential security threats. Log analysis tools help IT teams troubleshoot issues quickly, identify root causes, and prevent future occurrences. Log analysis tools also provide insights into user behavior and application usage, enabling IT teams to optimize application performance and user experience.

There are also both agent and agentless network monitoring methods. Agent-based monitoring involves installing the agent (a small application or piece of software) onto the monitored device. Agent-less monitoring (using SNMP and WMI via WinRM protocols) requires no installation. Instead, network monitoring software talks directly to the monitored device.

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How Do Network Monitoring Tools Work?

Network monitoring tools work by collecting data from network devices and analyzing it to provide insights into the performance and health of the network. The collected data can be visualized using dashboards with graphs, charts, and alerts. This enables IT teams to identify issues and take corrective actions proactively.

Data collection. Network monitoring tools collect data using various techniques such as SNMP, packet sniffing, flow analysis, and log analysis. The tools collect data on network traffic, bandwidth usage, device availability, and application performance, among other metrics.
Data analysis. Once the data is collected, network monitoring tools analyze it to identify trends, patterns, and anomalies. Network monitoring tools use advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to analyze the data and identify potential issues. The tools also provide insights into network performance and security, enabling IT teams to make data-driven decisions. The data can be used for capacity planning as the usage of your network changes to being more remote work or more cloud focused.
Data visualization. Network monitoring tools visualize the data using dashboards, graphs, charts, and alerts, making it easy for IT teams to identify issues and take corrective actions proactively. The visualization tools also provide historical data, enabling IT teams to track network performance and identify trends.

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Benefits of Network Monitoring

Network monitoring offers numerous benefits to organizations of all sizes. Here are some of the benefits of network monitoring:

Improved network performance. Provide real-time visibility into the network, enabling IT teams to detect and resolve issues proactively.
Increased network security. Detect security threats such as malware, DDoS attacks, and data breaches. This helps increase network security and reduce risks of data loss or theft.
Reduced downtime. By proactively monitoring the network, IT teams can detect and resolve issues before they lead to downtime, reducing the impact on business operations. This helps improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs.
Cost savings. By detecting and resolving issues proactively, organizations can save money on IT support and maintenance costs. With the data collected, you understand how under- or over-utilized your resources are. This helps you right-size your equipment, expensive carrier circuits, and other aspects of your infrastructure to deliver a cost-effective solution. And you can budget and plan more accurately, preventing emergency expenses when you reach capacity.
Improved IT team productivity. Automate many of the tasks associated with network monitoring and free your IT teams to focus on more strategic tasks. This helps improve IT team productivity and efficiency.

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How Does OpenNMS Work?

OpenNMS Meridian is a powerful network monitoring solution that provides comprehensive visibility into the network. OpenNMS works by collecting data from network devices and analyzing it to provide insights into the performance and health of the network. OpenNMS uses various monitoring techniques such as SNMP, flow analysis, and log analysis to provide comprehensive visibility into your network.

OpenNMS provides a range of features that help IT teams monitor their network, including:

Real-time monitoring of network devices and interfaces, including bandwidth utilization, packet loss, and latency.
Network traffic analysis to identify patterns, anomalies, and potential security threats.
Application performance management to monitor the performance of individual applications by analyzing metrics such as response time, error rates, and transaction volume.
Log analysis to analyze logs generated by network devices, servers, and applications to identify issues and potential security threats.

OpenNMS also provides data visualization tools like graphs, charts, dashboards, and alerts, making it easy for IT teams to identify issues and take corrective actions proactively.

A typical OpenNMS deployment (click to enlarge)

Benefits of Using OpenNMS for Network Monitoring

OpenNMS offers numerous benefits to organizations of all sizes. Here are some of the benefits of using OpenNMS for network monitoring:

Scalability: OpenNMS can monitor networks of all sizes, from small networks to large enterprise networks.
Customizability: OpenNMS is highly customizable, allowing IT teams to tailor the solution to their specific needs.
Comprehensive visibility: OpenNMS provides comprehensive visibility into the network, enabling IT teams to detect and resolve issues proactively.
Improved network performance: OpenNMS helps IT teams improve network performance by providing real-time visibility into the network.
Open source: OpenNMS is an open source solution, meaning it's free to use and modify. This makes it an affordable option for organizations of all sizes.
Community: The OpenNMS community is devoted and knowledgable, providing helpful insights and support, as well as helping guide product direction, features, and improvements.
Increased network security: OpenNMS can detect security threats such as malware, DDoS attacks, and data breaches.
Reduced downtime: By proactively monitoring the network, OpenNMS can detect and resolve issues before they lead to downtime, reducing the impact on business operations.
Cost savings: OpenNMS helps organizations reduce costs associated with emergency repairs and downtime, leading to cost savings.

Conclusion

Network monitoring is an essential process for any organization that wants to ensure the optimal performance, security, and reliability of its network. Network monitoring tools help IT teams detect, diagnose, and resolve issues proactively to prevent downtime and improve end-user experience.

With the right network monitoring tools, organizations can enjoy improved network performance, increased security, reduced downtime, cost savings, and improved IT team productivity. Contact us today to learn how our network monitoring solutions can help your business achieve these benefits and more.

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