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Network Fault Management

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by randycrews

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Everyone may want to look at Trap Analyzer from Compendia Solutions (www.compendiasolutions.com). Trap Analyzer analyzes SNMP traps to isolate the root cause of network problems faster, quickly identifies device-level problems, defines how these problems impact the network, and gives clear, easy-to-understand resolutions.

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by oldefar

Having an online reference tool to explain the SNMP traps in common language is useful to less experienced technicians and the inclusion of simple drawings will aid in their understanding.

A root cause analysis tool? Hardly. It simply defines received traps and offers common causes. To be a true root cause analysis tool it would have to do relational analysis based on the particular network design, which it does not do.

The demo shows the limitation of NMS based solely on SNMP traps over the production infrastructure. Only the last accessible interface reports via trap. In the case of the demo example of an ethernet outage, the trap explanation suggests a hub or switch problem. An alternate path for SNMP in the network would report other possible traps - a power outage reported via SNMP by UPS, a port or card error reported by the hub or switch, or a cable removed reported by an intelligent patch panel. Of course, this could overwhelm the staff that cannot interpret the relationship between devices.

I would be careful to implement Trap Analyzer as what it is - a reference tool for trap definitions. Nothing more.

by derekhyps

I need a tool to monitor traffic flow over T1, graph bandwidth, chart peaks in lan activity, smtp trap management, etc. I tried the 30 day trial of Anasil which I was quite pleased with. The cost is 600.00+. Before I buy it, is there anything out there you recommend?

by oldefar

Before finding a solution you have to understand what your business needs are. Take for example the monitoring of traffic flow over a T1. That may sound like a defined need, but I immediately want to know a bit more. To begin with, what is the business requirement behind the monitoring? Is this for validating that the carrier is meeting SLA? Is it for capacity planning? Are there issues with source and destination addresses or content, and are these policy or legal issues? Is the monitoring simply for problem resolution? Different requirements are met by different tools.

I have seen many organizations spend a great deal of money, time, and effort only to discover that they still do not have the information they really need. I have seen a few organizations spend next to nothing and have all the information they need. It all starts with having a clear understanding of what you are trying to accomplish.

by derekhyps

Since there are so many tools out there I figure getting a had full of them would be redundant and generate to much traffic. What I would like is a program that monitor bandwidth over a T1 link to our corp headquarters. They connect to our AS/400 and also go thru us to get to the internet. We are incorporating an Exchange server, but only at our location and want to get some bandwidth reading before deciding on adding another exchange server on the other side of the T1 to distribute the mailboxes. Also I want to be able to generate tables of all devices on the network including protocols usage for identifying network problems or configuration problems or for tweaking router configs to measure performance and latency time. A tool that does more than reformats syslogs or reads arp tables.

by oldefar

If you are looking for detailed monitoring of a circuit, the best I have found is WAN/QC from EMCOM (www.emcom.com). With it you get 100% of the circuit traffic by both circuit and higher protocols, by time, by source and destination, by specific protocol, and with a trend capability that on a frac DS-3 covered months with no problem. It can handle multiple circuits from a central location. Outputs include both Web access management graphics, and tables suitable for challenging telco billing.

This is purely a circuit traffic monitoring device, however. It does no device monitoring. Traffic that remains on site is not monitored either.

Since circuits are your small pipe in the network and also have a recurring cost, it may pay to get the detail to insure you are leasing what you need and getting what you are paying for.

If you use NAT or VPN, or encryption, the level of detail will decrease. Circuit protocols/time/volumes will still be captured, but source and destination and the higher protocols hidden.

Performance analysis is another issue entirely. Knowing all traffic by device and protocol is probably overkill. Better to baseline the performance metrics of specific tasks and profile user types, and then look for variances on an ongoing basis.

Configuration issues is still another unique requirement, further determined by whether end device, shared resource, or communications device.

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