© 2004-2012 NetBrain Technologies Inc. All rights reserved NetBrain In Action Real World Use Cases:

© 2004-2012 NetBrain Technologies Inc. All rights reserved

NetBrain In Action

Real World Use Cases:

Step 1 » Map Application Flows.Identify the source and destination of a slow application and enter them into the traffic path wizard.

Step 2 » Monitor From the Map.Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s floating menu, and launch performance and connectivity diagnosis.

Step 3 » Analyze the History.Click the “Compare” button to discover what’s changed in configuration and routing

for the relevant devices. Congested WAN links High CPU/Memory

utilization of routers Unstable routing Asymmetric flows Speed/duplex mismatch

Performance metrics for an application are visualized in real-time

Challenges:

Solutions:

Common Causes:

Lack of documentation and historic data for applications

Difficult to visualize network slowness

Use Dynamic Diagram to map out application flows

Diagnose from a map

Troubleshoot Slow Applications

Step 1 » Map L3 Connectivity.Enter the IP address of a server in the “Search” dialog, and click the “Map” button in the search results.

Step 2 » Map L2 Connectivity.Click the red “+” sign near the switch icon and extend the neighboring switches and routers in the same VLAN.

Step 3 » Launch Diagnostic Monitoring.Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s floating menu, and launch performance and connectivity diagnosis.

Broken cable Switch port in disabled

mode by spanning tree or error-disable

Server plugged into wrong port

Gateway Router not functioning

Misconfiguration Link down/flapping

A L2 Heat Map

No up-to-date documents about servers’ physical and logical connectivity

On-demand document automation

Challenges:

Solutions:

Common Causes:

Troubleshoot Network Connectivity

A L3 Heat Map

Step 1 » Map Out Core Network.Search the core devices by name and group them into a device group. Map the device group via the right-click menu.

Step 2 » Discover Flapping Routes.Benchmark the routing tables of all core devices. Then compare new routing tables against the baseline. Discover modified routes by smallest age.

Step 3 » Trace to the Source.Drag-and-drop the route entry to the Q-map, and trace to the source of instable routes hop-by-hop.

Link flapping Router CPU overload Routing peer reset Network worm attack

Route flapping is transient in nature – difficult to catch and pinpoint root cause

Use routing table analyzer

Drag-and-drop the entry to a Q-map

Challenges:

Solutions:

Common Causes:

Troubleshoot Route Flapping

Step 1 » Map a MPLS Cloud Network.Drag-and-drop an MPLS cloud into a map and extend key devices around the cloud.

Step 2 » Monitor From the Map.Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s floating menu, and launch performance and connectivity diagnosis.

Step 3 » Detect Packet Loss via IPSLA

For advanced performance diagnosis, right-click on hub routers and select the IPSLA menu.

QoS classification errors Physical errors at Demac Congested MPLS core Mismatch of CE-PE

configuration

No visibility into a service provider’s MPLS cloud

Map-driven IPSLA Toolkit

Challenges:

Solutions:

Common Causes:

Troubleshoot Packet Loss Across MPLS

Step 1 » Map Problem Area

Identify the source and destination of a slow application and enter them into the traffic path wizard.

Step 2 » Monitor to Identify Over-utilized Links.Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s floating menu, and launch performance and connectivity diagnosis.

Step 3 » Drill-Down the Top-Talkers

Right-click on the utilization label, and select “IP Accounting” to discover the top-talkers (assuming IP accounting is turned on in the router).

Unauthorized network use

Looping traffic caused by misconfiguration

Virus attack

Difficult to pinpoint congested links

Time-consuming to setup probes to track down bandwidth-hogging devices

Heat Map along with IP Accounting

Challenges:

Solutions:

Common Causes:

Troubleshoot Bandwidth Hogging

Step 1 » Map the Existing Network.Search devices to be modified and drag them into a map. Right-click on the map’s “Auto Link” menu to connect all devices.

Step 2 » Model the Future Network By Importing Configuration Files

Drag new or modified device configuration files into a map to model and visualize the future network design.

Step 3 » Document the Design

Click the “Document” button in the map’s floating menu and build an automated design document in Word format.

Analyze new network design with Design Reader

Highlight routing to visualize design

Very time-consuming to document the network before migration

No visual help to plan network migration

Model network migration based on configuration files

Drag and drop

Add a new network device

New

Document automation dialog Challenges:

Solutions:

Related Features:

Plan Network Migration

Step 1 » Map the Change Area.Search devices to be changed and drag them into a map. Extend all neighbors of the devices.

Step 2 » Benchmark Network Before and After Changes

Click the “Benchmark” button, and collect routing, configuration and L2 data before and after changes.

Step 3 » Verify the Impacts

Click the “Compare Config & Routing” button, and compute routing table and config changes for all devices.

The comparative analysis of routing, configuration and traffic path should be run after most network changes – because 3 out of 4 network outages are caused by seemingly benign changes

A small change may cause major impacts across the entire network, but it is difficult to check all changes manually

Automate impact verification after each network change

Detect routing changes after configuration modification

Challenges:

Solutions:

When to Use:

QA Network Changes to Prevent Outages

Step 1 » Discover a Data Center.Enter a seed router’s IP address in the discovery dialog and execute a data center discovery.

Step 2 » Map Device Groups by Automation

By combining dynamic search criteria, routers, switches and servers can be grouped in many ways to map a data center automatically.

Step 3 » Build Diagrams and Inventory Reports

Click the “Export to Visio” and “Asset Report” buttons in the menu bar, and create Visio diagrams and inventory reports.

Before and after a data center upgrade

Data center assessment

It takes weeks or months to discover and document a data center with tracing cables, show commands and Visio

Advanced discovery and document automation

Challenges:

Solutions:

When to Use:

Document a Data Center Network

Apply diagnostic monitoring to VoIP paths

Automate documentation for VoIP assessment

VoIP is very complex and depends on many advanced technologies to work properly

Automate the analysis of network design and performance

IPSLA Measurement

Map VoIP traffic path instantly

Challenges:

Solutions:

Related Features:

Assess a Network for VoIP Readiness

Step 1 » Map Key VoIP Traffic Flows.Enter IP addresses of IP-phones and voice gateways into the traffic path wizard, and map out L3 and L2 traffic flows for VoIP.

Step 2 » Measure Delay, Jitter and Packet Loss Along Paths

Launch IPSLA from the map to measure advanced performance metrics.

Step 3 » Analyze QoS Design

Launch “Design Reader” from the map to decode QoS and VoIP configuration.

Step 1 » Discover Each Network Independently

Build two workspaces – one for each network by importing configuration files or through discovery. Create two asset reports.

Step 2 » Analyze Overlap

Compare the asset reports to find overlapping subnets and overlapping routing protocols. Build maps to describe each conflict.

Step 3 » Merge Two Networks Virtually

Use one workspace as the base, open each Q-map created in step 2 and design migration steps one map at a time.

Analyze the new network design with Design Reader

Use Search to find the information needed

Two networks were built without knowledge of the other, and everything has to be reevaluated to avoid conflicts

Plan the network merge in a virtual environment

Compare the inventory data of two networks

Challenges:

Solutions:

Related Features:

Merge Two Independent Networks

Solutions:

To visualize a denial-of-service attack to the network and servers

To analyze suspicious traffic from a vague host

To isolate virus-infected end hosts

Network attacks can come from anywhere, and they are difficult to visualize

Use Dynamic Diagram to map out attacks and take defensive action in real-time

Map the attack from the outside

Challenges:

When to Use:

Defend Against Network Attack

Step 1 » Identify the Offending Hosts

Get the top-talkers from Netflow, IP accounting or intrusion-detection software.

Step 2 » Map Out the Attack

Use A/B path mapping or one-IP table to map out the attack flow, whether it is from the inside or outside.

Step 3 » Monitor the Traffic Flow

Launch the diagnostic monitoring on the map and visualize the attack pattern.

Map the attack from the inside

Solutions:

To prepare for CCIE To prepare for CCNP To prepare for CCNA

It takes a long time to become Cisco certified. People can forget things learned if not reinforced properly

Use NetBrain to document practice labs automatically and review past labs visually

Challenges:

When to Use:

Become Cisco Certified - CCIE/CCNP/CCNA

Step 1 » Use NetBrain for Practice Labs .Use NetBrain to automatically document practice labs step-by-step. It’s easier to learn new skills in a map-driven environment.

Step 2 » Review Essential Skills Through a Map

Along the journey towards certification, users can review details of past labs without re-building them.

Step 3 » Form a Visual Study Group

Form a study group to share practice labs through Q-maps so that everyone can save time. Visit network-diagram.com for examples.