Four types of network monitoring
Network monitoring can take many forms, depending on what
needs to be monitored. Let's take a look at the four types of network
monitoring, as well as the specific mechanisms and protocols that can provide
the appropriate level of visibility that enterprises need.
Network monitoring can take many forms, depending on what
needs to be monitored. As network architectures become more software-centric
and decentralized-from a hybrid cloud and multi-cloud perspective, network
teams may find it difficult to understand various types of network monitoring
methods and tools.
Let's take a look at the four types of network monitoring,
as well as the specific mechanisms and protocols that can provide the
appropriate level of visibility that enterprises need.
Availability monitoring
Availability monitoring is the easiest way for the network
team to know whether the equipment is operating normally. Some availability
monitoring tools do more than just monitor whether the device is completely
online or offline. Specific interface status notifications and network device
hardware checks usually fall into this category.
Examples of commonly used protocols for monitoring network
availability include:
•
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). ICMP ping is a simple verification test
used to show whether the device can be accessed on the network.
• Simple
Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SNMP monitors the status of equipment and
interfaces.
• Event
log (syslog). When an uplink, interface, or route becomes unavailable, the
Syslog collection server can trigger an alarm.
Configuration monitoring
For those who manage traditional network components that use
local configuration files, configuration monitoring checks are very important.
From a performance and IT security perspective, automated tools are essential.
These tools can compare similarly configured devices for inaccuracies.
These tools usually take the command line output of the
device configuration file and compare it with other files on the network that
perform similar tasks. The network team can investigate the differences between
the configurations to ensure that all network components are set to the same
operation.
The main functions of configuration monitoring include:
•
Real-time monitoring of network configuration changes and who made the changes;
•
Automatically roll back the configuration when unauthorized changes occur;
•
Comparison of configurations between network devices to find configuration
errors.
Performance monitoring
Although there is some overlap between network availability
monitoring and performance monitoring, there are obvious differences between
the two.
Availability monitoring pays more attention to the operating
status of the components that make up the network infrastructure, as does
performance monitoring, but places more emphasis on the end user's performance
experience. Therefore, performance monitoring focuses more on network
utilization, delay, and suboptimal path selection.
Examples of performance monitoring protocols include:
• SNMP.
This will send an alert when the interface, switch CPU, and memory are
overused.
• Event
log (system log). When utilization reaches a certain threshold or unexpected
routing changes occur, the system log triggers an alert.
•
Flow-based monitoring. This provides visibility into specific network stream
conversations and the amount of bandwidth consumed by each stream.
• Packet
capture analysis. This provides in-depth analysis of network conversations,
which often reveal low-level transmission problems, which are not recognized by
upper-level monitoring tools.
•
Streaming telemetry. This is the collection and analysis of real-time network
operating conditions and performance data, which is used to quickly identify
and solve complex problems.
Cloud infrastructure monitoring
In many cases, for private cloud and public cloud instances,
companies can deploy the same type of network monitoring tools on the corporate
network. However, many cloud service providers provide their own built-in
network monitoring tool suite. Although these cloud monitoring tools are
usually free, these tools often cannot be integrated into other third-party
tools that companies are using.
Enterprises must weigh the pros and cons, and consider
whether to manage multiple distributed network monitoring services or spend
more time and effort to concentrate monitoring on a few tools. The requirements
for deploying these tools may be higher, but they help provide full visibility
into the enterprise network and the cloud.
Improvements in modern network monitoring
Several significant advancements in network monitoring can
help ease the management and support burden on ITOps employees. For example,
many network architectures can be configured and managed entirely through a
centralized cloud portal. In many cases, the central control plane is pre-built
with countless network monitoring tools and alarm functions, which means that
separate third-party tools are no longer needed.
Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, other popular
improvements are hardware or software agents that can be used to monitor the
network performance of home office employees and micro-branch offices. These
hardware and software-based tools enable ITOps employees to monitor the network
performance of remote users, no matter where they work.
Finally, the use of AI and machine learning in network
monitoring tools can help eliminate many manual processes and speed up the
identification and repair of network-related issues. Whether it's performance
or security related, facts have proven that artificial intelligence is of great
value in finding problems, determining root causes, and in some cases automatically
repairing network incidents.