Trend
Trending network issues is really about seeing patterns in the traffic and working out whether issues are. These tools differ from the analysis tools by storing the data in time (graphs for days, weeks, months etc) but offer less detail than the analysis tools.
The main aim of these tools is to look at network capacity issues and answer questions such as:-
• Do I have enough bandwidth?
• Where is my bandwidth going?
• Is my bandwidth being used for business or “social” applications?
• Are bandwidth issues causing my performance issues?
Basic Utilisation and Error statistics can be provided by SNMP tools. These gather their information from SNMP enabled Switches, Servers and Routers. More detailed layer 3 information comes from technologies such as NetFlow/SFlow/IPFix which can look at the IP layers in the traffic.
Mutiny provides a map of your network hardware and alarms you in performance and availability issues.
Solar Winds (link to follow) provides a detailed of all the SNMP data available for each device and allows you plug in modules for more detail on Server, Wireless, VoIP and TCP/IP (via netflow/SFlow etc) issues.
Crannog looks at network issue using Netflow/SFlow technologies to store details on top IP addresses and protocols being used. Crannog stores every layer 3 conversation hence offers a more forensic view of the traffic patterns.
