OpManager - Network Monitoring & Management

AIOps for Modern IT Operations: Automating Monitoring, Reducing Noise, and Preventing Outages

2026-01-20T19:38:21+11:00

The days of relying solely on static monitoring dashboards and manual firefighting are long gone. Today’s environments demand automation-first operations, real-time observability across every layer, and AI-driven intelligence that can make sense of the massive volume of telemetry and logs modern systems generate.

With organizations accelerating their move to cloud-native architectures, virtualization, edge computing, and hybrid infrastructures, IT operations teams now manage ecosystems that are more distributed, interconnected, and unpredictable than ever before. Traditional tools simply can’t keep up with the scale or speed.

This is exactly where AIOps is redefining the game. By combining machine learning, advanced analytics, and automated remediation, AIOps empowers IT teams to detect anomalies earlier, correlate events across domains, and resolve issues proactively—long before users feel the impact. For technical teams, it’s not just an upgrade; it’s a fundamental shift in how operations are executed, optimized, and scaled.

Key Topics

The Evolution of IT Operations – From Reactive Monitoring to Intelligent Automation
How Does AIOps make it all easier?
How Modern IT Challenges Push Teams toward Unified Monitoring
- Alert Noise
- Limited Visibility Across Tools
- Slow MTTR (Mean Time to Resolve)
- Fast-paced, Constantly Changing Environments
Where OpManager Plus Fits in this AIOps Era
The Benefits of a Unified, AIOps-Powered Platform
- End-to-end Visibility
- Reduced Noise
- Faster Incident Resolution
- Operational Efficiency
- Future Readiness
Summary

Download your copy of OpManager Plus Now

The Evolution of IT Operations - From Reactive Monitoring to Intelligent Automation

In the early days of IT, operations were largely reactive. IT teams would wait for a system to fail—whether it was a server crash, network outage, or application hiccup—and scramble to fix the issue. As technology advanced, the industry shifted towards more proactive approaches. Monitoring tools emerged to detect problems before they escalated, but as IT environments grew in complexity, so did the landscape of tools. Each tool specialized in a different layer: one focused on the network, another on servers, and yet another on applications. This specialization, while useful, led to tool sprawl—multiple disparate solutions with siloed data, leaving IT teams with fragmented insights. Worse, there was no unified system to correlate these insights, resulting in a disjointed view of the infrastructure.

The result? Longer Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) as teams struggled to connect the dots between alerts and incidents.

Optimizing Cisco Router Performance: Best Practices for Effective Monitoring & Network Management

2025-03-27T14:15:28+11:00

Effective monitoring and management of Cisco routers and network devices are essential for ensuring a robust and efficient network infrastructure. In this article, we explore the key features and best practices for effectively monitoring and managing Cisco routers and other network devices in real-time. By incorporating these strategies into your IT management plan, you can enhance efficiency, boost performance, and ensure the smooth operation of your entire network infrastructure.

Key Topics

Routers are the backbone of every network, playing a crucial role in directing traffic and ensuring that data reaches its destination efficiently. They connect various parts of a network and optimize performance by selecting the best possible route for every data packet. With a significant 34.7% market share, Cisco stands out as the leader in the router market, making its devices a common and vital part of modern network infrastructure.

Despite their importance, managing these routers can be challenging. Traditionally, network administrators must connect to each router manually using console cables and retrieve data via Secure Shell (SSH) or Telnet. This process is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, especially in large enterprise environments where hundreds of devices require regular monitoring and maintenance.

Modern IT operations management software offers an effective solution to these challenges. By automating monitoring and management tasks, such software provides a single-pane view of the entire infrastructure, simplifying operations and reducing manual workloads. This automated approach enables organizations to quickly identify issues, streamline routine tasks, and maintain optimal network performance.

Take a peak at the market's leading IT infrastructure management & performance monitoring solution

In-Depth Real-Time Monitoring Your Network Device Performance

Elevate your network management: Maximizing efficiency with ManageEngine Network Configuration Manager

2024-08-28T10:52:40+10:00

As technology evolves, so do our networks. Today's sprawling network infrastructures are intricate ecosystems, demanding more from IT teams than ever before. Configuration management, compliance enforcement, and firmware & software updates are just a few of the growing requirements that strain manual processes.

While manual network management might have sufficed in simpler times, it hinders scalability in complex environments. It can also introduce security vulnerabilities and leave your network prone to human error.

To navigate this new reality, organizations need a better approach—they need to leverage a network configuration management tool.

Now, let's explore how a network configuration management tool can help revolutionize your modern network, unlocking a new era of scalability and security.

Key Topics:

Manual Configuration Challenges: Leveraging Configuration Management Tools
- Scalability Hurdles
- Backup Maintenance
- Configuration Tracking
- Firmware Vulnerability Management
- Adherence to Compliance Standards
- Streamlining Mundane Tasks
- Report Maintenance
Selecting the Right Configuration Management Tool for your Network
- Vendor Versatility
- Backups
- Change Management
- Compliance Management
- Vulnerability Management
- Automation
- Reporting
- Device Onboarding
Network Configuration Manager: Your All-In-One Configuration Management Tool
Summary

Related articles:

Manual Configuration Management Challenges: Why a Configuration Management Tool is a Game-Changer

Maximizing Network Security: A Deep Dive into OpManager's Firewall Analyzer Add-on

2024-07-05T13:35:21+10:00

In the rapidly evolving landscape of cyber threats, network security has never been more crucial. With the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks escalating, organizations are under constant pressure to safeguard their networks. According to Sophos' The State of Ransomware 2023 report, 66% of organizations were hit by ransomware in 2023, and this trend is only going to keep growing with time. Additionally, Top10VPN estimates that VPN-related vulnerabilities increased by 47% in 2023. These statistics highlight the urgent need for robust network security solutions.

Traditional Network Monitoring: A Growing Inadequacy

Historically, network monitoring solutions have focused on tracking performance metrics, bandwidth usage, and basic security alerts. While these tools have been effective to an extent, the current cyberthreat landscape demands more advanced capabilities. Traditional monitoring is often reactive, identifying issues after they occur, which is no longer sufficient. As cyberthreats become more complex, there's a clear need for proactive, comprehensive security measures.

Introducing ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer

To address these growing challenges, a network security management tool like ManageEngine Firewall Analyzer is indispensable. Firewall Analyzer is a powerful tool designed to enhance firewall management and bolster network security. It provides detailed insights into firewall activity, monitors traffic, detects anomalies, and ensures compliance with security policies. By integrating seamlessly with ManageEngine OpManager, Firewall Analyzer serves as a comprehensive security management solution.

How Firewall Analyzer Bolsters OpManager

Firewall Analyzer is available as both a standalone product and an add-on for OpManager. When combined, these tools offer a powerful synergy that significantly enhances network security. Here is how:

Comprehensive Traffic Analysis: Firewall Analyzer provides detailed visibility into your network traffic. It analyzes inbound and outbound traffic to detect unusual patterns, potential threats, and bandwidth usage. This detailed analysis is crucial for preventing security breaches and optimizing network performance.

Boost Network Security and Efficiency with Intelligent Notifications and Automated Fault Handling. Unified IT Operations Management Tool

2024-06-14T10:27:45+10:00

Network alerts are vital for maintaining your network's health, efficiency, and security, ensuring seamless daily operations. They act as an early warning system, alerting you to potential issues before they escalate into major problems. These alerts provide crucial insights into the performance and security of your network, enabling proactive measures to address minor faults before they turn into significant disruptions.

Ignoring the importance of a reliable network & security alerting system can lead to frequent disruptions, degraded network performance, compromised business operations, and security vulnerabilities, driving customers away or creating major problems in the smooth operation of your organization. Frequent disruptions can cause downtime, affecting productivity and leading to financial losses. Compromised business operations can damage your company's reputation, making it difficult to maintain customer trust and loyalty. Security vulnerabilities pose a risk of data breaches, resulting in the loss of sensitive information and legal consequences potential.

By implementing a dedicated system to monitor, manage, alert, and, your company can run smoothly and securely. This system ensures that any irregularities are promptly identified and addressed, minimizing downtime and resolve faults maintaining operational efficiency. It also enhances security by detecting and mitigating potential threats before they cause harm.

Key Topics

The Significance of Network & Security Alerts
Impact Caused by a Lack of Appropriate Alerting Systems
- Performance Degradation
- Security Vulnerabilities
- Operational Inefficiency
- Financial Loss
What Makes a Network Alerting System Ideal?
- Prioritized Alerts
- Intelligent Alerts
- Minimal Human Intervention
- Alarm Suppression
ManageEngine OpManager Plus: Highly Reliable, Proactive Alerting Capabilities
Summary

Discover how OpManager can transform and fully automate your network monitoring.

The Significance of Network & Security Alerts

A robust alerting system empowers your IT team to manage the network more effectively, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives rather than constantly troubleshooting issues. For customers, it means a reliable and uninterrupted service experience, which is essential for building trust and satisfaction. Ultimately, a seamless, hassle-free experience for both your team and customers translates to improved business performance and a stronger competitive edge in the market.

OpManager's Robust Alerting System - Click to enlarge

Let's consider a practical scenario involving a social media platform:

Event 1: Users experience sluggish app loading and multiple page crashes.
Event 2: IT admins see a significant boost in incoming traffic but nothing alarming or unusual.
Event 3: Users begin to send in reports and complaints once they observe an outage.
Event 4: The organization finally decides to look into the issue and ends up finding an anonymous malware attack that has been extracting the data of the platform's users.
Event 5: The attack intensifies, causing a loss of customer trust, data loss, a bad reputation, and more.
Event 6: The issue gets addressed, and normalcy is restored. However, the damage to the platform's reputation, reputation management, and getting the system back up have cost the company millions of dollars.

This could have been averted if only a network alerting tool was in place to detect, analyze, and fix the issue before it had disruptive impacts.

Let's discuss the impacts in detail.

Live discussion: Learn to assess and accelerate your enterprise's digital transformation

2022-04-23T16:43:15+10:00

ManageEngine has joint hands with IDC's Stephen Elliot, a group vice president, to discuss the truth behind organization's digitally transforming IT, the pitfalls involved in the journey, the latest technologies to take advantage of while shaping the future of their organizations, and how ManageEngine solutions can play a part in making the transition smoother. Join us during the live discussion and take home useful insights.

What you'll learn:

How IT is a catalyst to digital transformation
Reasons why digital transformation is beneficial
Technology trends vital for today's organizations
IT's role in accelerating adoption of digital technology
ManageEngine's ITOM solutions enabling digital transformation

Claim your Free seat now!

Free Webinar: Clients' network configuration and compliance management

2022-03-28T17:47:24+11:00

Defending your client's network from faulty configuration changes, poor compliance, and bringing the network back quickly from downtime can be challenging. It requires a lot of effort and time, a fail-safe strategy, a credible tool to bolster you up.

Are you an MSP who is looking for a tool or a strategy to handle configurations and compliance of your client networks better? Here is your solution, join ManageEngine's free webinar to learn useful insights and techniques to resolve your clients' network configuration woes rapidly.

Highlights of the webinar:

Necessities of network configuration and compliance management.
5 potential roadblocks to look out for.
How can OpManager MSP back you up?
Solutions for real-life problems of an MSP.
Q&A session with our product experts.

Can't wait to meet in the free webinar on April 07, 2022 at 6am GMT and 11am EDT to unwrap the solution to your client configuration and compliance issues.

Claim your Free seat now!

Free Webinar: Enterprise-Grade Security and Management for Samsung Mobiles, Tablets, Smartwatches and other Devices

2022-03-16T14:28:37+11:00

The hybrid work culture has resulted in workforces increasingly using their mobile devices for work, further adding to the complexity of ensuring security across all endpoints within organizations.

The majority of IT professionals believe that mobile devices are just as vulnerable to security threats as any other endpoint, making it crucial to bring them under the umbrella of management and have the requisite security measures applied.

Tune in to this joint webinar by ManageEngine and Samsung to learn how you can apply enterprise-grade security on all your Knox capable devices, and centrally manage endpoints from one single console.

Highlights of this webinar:

Samsung Knox and its benefits.
Leveraging ManageEngine's partnership with Samsung for advanced device management and security.
Managing devices in remote work and frontline worker scenarios.
Uncovering the bigger picture: UEM for all-inclusive device management.
A live Q&A session with experts from ManageEngine and Samsung.

Tune in to this webinar on: 23 March 2022 at 11 AM EDT | 24 March 2022 at 12 PM IST

Click here to claim your spot now

Free Webinar: Learn How Zero-Trust & Cloud Technologies Secure Your Network

2021-08-10T13:41:00+10:00

Work transformation is not 'one and done,'" says IDC's vice president, Holly Muscolino. Most enterprises understand that a hybrid workforce is the future, but they are finding the transformation difficult. To make it easy for the enterprises, IDC has come up with Branch of One - a concept that will last long beyond the pandemic.

To explain the concept to you, ManageEngine is conducting a webinar with IDC's Mark Leary. His insights on preparing your IT for the future will cover key aspects of Branch of One, such as devising robust connectivity, improved collaboration, enhanced security and ease of cloud migration in a hybrid work culture. Leary will also be revealing how technologies like SD WAN and Zero Trust will have a major impact on the future of IT.

Webinar highlights

Resolving existing IT challenges to improve business outcomes
Understanding Branch of One to enhance IT operations management
Minimizing migration and implementation risks in enterprise cloud adoption
Predicting advancements in digital IT to prepare enterprises for the future
Deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to ease tasks and to improve remote staff productivity
Introducing new technologies predicted by analyst firms to improve hybrid work
Building a secure IT infrastructure even with a majority of remote workers

The date to save : August 17, 2021

Keep yourselves free at : 11.00 AM EDT

Speaker from IDC : Mark Leary, Research Director for Network Analytics and visibility

Speaker from ManageEngine: Suresh Bagavathy, Senior Technical Evangelist, ITOM

Join our webinar to know more about Branch of One, and optimizing your IT!

Free March 2021 Training/Seminars: Endpoint Management & Security / IT Operations Management

2020-11-09T21:49:27+11:00

ManageEngine continues its commitment to help IT staff around the globe manage their organization's endpoints and the IT operations for the remote and on-site workforce.

The below Free seminars running during 24th-30th March 2021 are designed to help IT Professionals, and IT Managers identify and solve simple or complex challenges in Endpoint Management and IT Operations Management. Learn about the strategies used by large and small organizations worldwide to efficiently manage their remote workforce while simultaneously taking on problems like remote security, infrastructure preparation, upgrades, mitigating existing issues, and much more.

Seminars are repeated throughout March 2021 to cover different time zones and allow participants to attend both tracks.

Seats are limited, so make sure you register now!

Track 1: Endpoint Management & Security

Endpoint Management trends of 2021 and beyond.
Uni-dimensional approach to endpoint management and security.
Managing the plethora of devices in your IT landscape both on & off-network from Cloud-based solutions.
Know-hows to orchestrate your cyber hygiene routines and adapting to the new work environment.
Discuss on-going challenges with product experts.

Track 2: IT Operations & Management

Address complications in managing a network remotely.
Resolve security, bandwidth, VPN and configuration challenges.
Prepare your infrastructure to meet the requirements of a dual work force model.
Learn to mitigate existing issues and foresee impending dangers.
Discuss on-going challenges with product experts.

Special Free Podcast Series: IT Operations Management, Secure VPN & Metrics, Network Compliance, BYOD Strategies, Vulnerability Assessments and more

2020-08-09T10:39:55+10:00

Learn how IT Experts and Managers take on their organization’s challenges while working remotely. How do you continue your IT Operation Management Strategy while at the same time ensuring Network Compliance, properly securing your VPN infrastructure and delivering seamless end-user experience?

Ever thought about VPN metrics, tracking network bandwidth consumption and how to avoid unwanted bottlenecks for your remote users? How about performing necessary vulnerability assessments designed to highlight weaknesses in your organization’s security posture but also secure business continuity?

All the above critical topics plus much more are covered in ManageEngine’s Special Free 6-part IT Expert Podcast podcast series starting on the 12th of August.

Here’s what’s in store:

Episode 1: VPN 101: A run through on all things VPN for remote work. In the first episode of our podcast series, our host discusses the increasing importance of VPN and the subsequent need for businesses to ramp up their VPN infrastructures.

Episode 2: Importance of VPN encryption in the age of remote work. Join us in the second episode of the podcast series as our host shares tips on choosing the right VPN strategy and the importance of VPN encryption.

Episode 3: Boost productivity by tracking VPN metrics that matter. Join us as we discuss the metrics you need to keep tabs on to improve business productivity. Find out how tracking network bandwidth consumption will help plan your resources better.

Episode 4: Ways to secure IT assets and implement BYOD policies. With the majority of employees now working remotely, our host shares how performing regular vulnerability assessments and implementing the right BYOD policies will help maintain business continuity.

Episode 5: Tackling the complexities of network compliance in the remote era. Join us as our host addresses the complexities of network compliance management and shares tips on how to overcome them.

Episode 6: Strategies to deliver seamless end user experience. Tune in to understand the strategies you can implement to ensure your business critical applications run perfectly even during these uncertain times.

Free Webinar - Dealing with Remote VPN Challenges, Performance, Security & Monitoring

2020-05-14T14:32:05+10:00

With a lot of enterprises switching to a work-from-home model, it is critical for admins to have a strategy in place to avoid poor performance and ensure secure access. This webinar will help you understand how you can effectively manage the security and performance of various components of your IT infrastructure even while working remotely.

Click here to register for this Free Webinar

Topics covered:

Why its critical to keep tabs on the availability and performance of servers and networks in your data center.
Effective ways to address and resolve real-time VPN monitoring challenges.
How to analyze and correlate network statistics to manage your networks better.
Threat factors IT admin need to be aware in order to ensure smooth transition to the new routine.
The need for application performance monitoring at the end-user level.

Preparing and Managing your Network for the Remote VPN Workforce

2020-04-29T06:18:49+10:00

Times have changed now and HOME is the new office. Now, everyone works at their comfort and in fact online all throught the day and night. This mandates the IT infrastructure to be up and running 24/7. As an IT Manager, administrator or systems/network engineer you would have done a lot of changes on your network to ensure all your employees could work from home like they used to do from office. You would have opened up your VPN access to larger amount of users, modified network configs frequently, scaled up and down services based on their criticality, and so on. All these could have potentially expose your network to a lot of threats and performance issues. Attend this FREE webinar to learn how you can incorporate such changes efficiently and run your IT better and safer. Click Here to Register.

In this webinar, we will discuss how to:

Monitor, measure and plan your VPN capacity ensuring productivity
Secure your IT operations for a remote workforce and thereby protect your network form attacks
Securely deploy BYOD for your remote employees
Manage configuration changes in your network from a remote location.
Adhere to compliance mandates and address the latest changes in these mandates.

While the event date has passed, it has been recorded and is available for viewing. All material are available as direct downloads. Click here to access the event.

Network Management Systems Help Businesses Accurately Monitor Important Application Performance, Infrastructure Metrics, Bandwidth, SLA Breaches, Delay, Jitter and more

2017-08-29T23:56:40+10:00

Accurately monitoring your organization’s business application performance, service provider SLA breaches, network infrastructure traffic, bandwidth availability, Wi-Fi capacity, packet loss, delay, jitter and other important metrics throughout the network is a big challenge for IT Departments and IT Managers. Generating meaningful reports for management with the ability to focus on specific metrics or details can make it an impossible task without the right Network Management System.

The continuous demand for businesses network infrastructure to support, uninterrupted, more applications, protocols and services has placed IT departments, IT Managers and, subsequently, the infrastructure they manage, under tremendous pressure. Knowing when the infrastructure is reaching its capacity and planning ahead for necessary upgrades is a safe strategy most IT Departments try to follow.

The statistics provided by the Cisco Visual Networking (CVN) Index Forecast predict an exponential growth in bandwidth requirements the coming 5 years:

These types of reports, along with the exponential growth of bandwidth & speed requirements for companies of all sizes, raises a few important questions for IT Managers, Network Administrators and Engineers:

Is your network ready to accommodate near-future demanding bandwidth requirements?
Is your current LAN infrastructure, WAN and Internet bandwidth sufficient to efficiently deliver business-critical applications, services and new technologies such as IoT, Wi-Fi - 802.11n and HD Video?
Do you really receive the bandwidth and SLA that you have signed for with your internet service provider or are the links underutilized and you are paying for expensive bandwidth that you don’t need?
Do you have the tools to monitor network conditions prior to potential issues becoming serious problems that impact your business?

All these questions and many more are discussed in this article aiming to help businesses and IT staff understand the requirements and impact of these technologies on the organization’s network and security infrastructure.

We show solutions that can be used to help obtain important metrics, monitor and uncover bottlenecks, SLA breaches, security events and other critical information.

Key Topics:

Network Performance Metrics and their Bandwidth Impact
New Applications and Bandwidth Requirements
High Definition (HD) Video Bandwidth Requirements
BYOD and 802.11n Bandwidth Requirements
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Bandwidth Requirements
Cloud IP Traffic Statistics
Application Bandwidth Requirements and Traffic Patterns
Network Monitoring Systems for Bandwidth & Metric Monitoring
ManageEngine OpManager12 NMS features
- Bandwidth Monitoring
- Router Traffic Monitoring
- Cisco AVC Monitoring
- Advanced Security Analytics
- Cisco IPSLA Monitoring
- Cisco NBAR Reporting
ManageEngine OpManger12 trial version installation
Summary

Finally, we must point out that basic knowledge of the Networking and Design concepts is recommended for this article.

Click to Discover how a Network Management System can help Monitor your Network, SLAs, Delay Jitter and more.

Network Performance Metrics and their Bandwidth Impact

Network performance metrics vary from business to business and provide the mechanism by which an organization measures critical success factors.

The most important performance metrics for business networks are as follows:

Connectivity (one-way)
Delay (both round-trip and one-way)
Packet loss (one-way)
Jitter (one-way) or delay variation
Service response time
Measurable SLA metrics

Bandwidth is one of the most critical variables of an IT infrastructure that can have a major impact to all the aforementioned performance metrics. Bandwidth over saturated links can cause poor network performance with high packet loss, excessive delay, and jitter which can result in lost productivity and revenue, and increased operational costs.

New Applications and Bandwidth Requirements

This rapid growth for bandwidth affects the Enterprises and Service Providers which are continually challenged to efficiently deliver business-critical applications and services while running a network at optimum performance. The necessity for more expensive bandwidth solutions is one of the crucial factors that may have a major impact on a network and applications performance. Let’s have a quick look at the new technologies with high bandwidth needs which require careful bandwidth and infrastructure planning:

High Definition (HD) Video Bandwidth Requirements

This surpassed standard definition by the end of 2011. User demand for HD video has a major impact on a network due to the demanding bandwidth requirements as clearly displayed below:

DVD, 720p HD and 1080p HD bandwidth requirements:

(H.264) 720p HD video requires around 2,5 Mbps or twice as much bandwidth as (H.263) DVD
(H.264) 1080p HD video requires around 5Mbps or twice as much bandwidth as (H.264) 720p
Ultra HD 4320p video requires around 20Mbps or four times as much bandwidth as (H.264) 1080p

BYOD and 802.11ac Bandwidth Requirements

802.11ac is the next generation of Wi-Fi. It is designed to give enterprises the tools to meet the demands of BYOD access, high bandwidth applications, and the always-on connected user. The 802.11ac IEEE standard allows for theoretical speeds up to 6.9 Gbps in the 5-GHz band, or 11.5 times those of 802.11n!

Taking into consideration the growing trend and adoption of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) access, it won’t be long until multi-gigabit Wi-Fi speeds will become necessary.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Bandwidth Requirements

Each desktop delivered over WAN can consume up to 1 Mbps bandwidth and considerably more when employees access streaming video. In companies with many virtual desktops, traffic can quickly exceed existing WAN capacity, noticeably degrading the user experience.

Cloud IP Traffic Statistics

The Annual global cloud IP traffic will reach 14.1 ZB (1.2 ZettaBytes per month) by the end of 2020, up from 3.9 ZB per year (321 ExaBytes per month) in 2015.
Annual global data center IP traffic will reach 15.3 ZB (1.3 ZB per month) by the end of 2020, up from 4.7 ZB per year (390 EB per month) in 2015. These forecasts are provided by the Cisco Global Cloud Index (GCI) which is an ongoing effort to forecast the growth of global data center and cloud-based IP traffic.

Application Bandwidth Requirements and Traffic Patterns

Bandwidth requirements and traffic pattern are not common among various applications and need careful planning as displayed below:

Data, Video, Voice and VDI bandwidth requirements & traffic patterns

An effective strategy is essential in order to monitor network conditions prior to potential issues becoming serious problems. Poor network performance can result in lost productivity, revenue, and increased operational costs. Hence, detailed monitoring and tracking of a network, applications, and users are essential in optimizing network performance.

Network Monitoring Systems (NMS) for Bandwidth Monitoring

An NMS solution needs to keep track of what is going on in terms of link bandwidth utilization and whether it is within the normal (baseline) limits. In addition, network and device monitoring helps network operators optimize device security either proactively or in a fast, reactive approach. Standard monitoring protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and NetFlow make the raw data needed to diagnose problems readily available. Finally, historical network statistics is an important input to the calculations when planning for a bandwidth upgrade.

SNMP can easily provide essential network device information, including bandwidth utilization. In particular, the NMS can monitor bandwidth performance metrics such as backplane utilization, buffer hits/misses, dropped packets, CRC errors, interface collisions, interface input/output bits, & much more periodically via SNMP.

Network devices can be monitored via SNMP v1, 2c, or 3 and deliver bandwidth utilization for both inbound and outbound traffic. XML-API can be used to monitor and collect bandwidth statistics information from supported devices such as the CISCO UCS Manager. In addition, Network maps with bandwidth utilization graphs can visualize the flow of bandwidth and spot bottlenecks at a glance.

Bandwidth issues reported by users regarding delays and slow response to applications cannot be identified with only SNMP based information. It needs technologies such as Cisco NBAR, Netflow, Juniper J-Flow, IPFIX, sFlow, Huawei NetStream or CBQOS to understand the bandwidth utilization across applications, users and devices. With these technologies, monitoring is possible to perform in-depth traffic analysis and determine in detail the who, what, when and where of bandwidth usage.

Finally, performance thresholds and reporting topN devices with specific characteristics (TopN reporting) are useful, both for noticing when capacity is running out, and for easily correlating service slowness with stressed network or server resources. Those metrics can be the first indication of an outage, or of potential SLA deterioration to the point where it affects delivery of services.

ManageEngine OpManager12 NMS Features

OpManager is the NMS product offered by Manage Engine. OpManager can be easily installed and deployed, and provide all the visibility and control that you need over your network.

In brief, it offers the following main features:

Physical and virtual server monitoring
Flow-based bandwidth analysis
Firewall log analysis and archiving
Configuration and change management
IP address and switch port management

The tools mentioned below are needed for insight visibility of the bandwidth network performance. They can assist you to prepare your network for the deployment of new technologies and to measure the network performance indexes that we discussed in the previous sections. In particular, it offers the following tools to achieve complete network bandwidth visibility:

Bandwidth Monitoring: Tracks network bandwidth usage in real-time and provides info for the topN users consuming bandwidth on a network.

Router Traffic Monitoring: Continuously monitors networking devices using flows and generates critical information to ensure proper network bandwidth usage.

Cisco AVC Monitoring: in-depth visibility on the bandwidth consumption per application. Ensure business critical applications get maximum priority. Forecast future bandwidth needs and prepare your network before deploying new services and technologies.

Advanced Security Analytics Module: Detect threats and attacks using continuous Stream Mining Engine technology. This ensures high network security and a method to detect and eliminate network intruders.

Cisco IPSLA Monitoring: Monitor critical metrics affecting VoIP, HD Video performance, VDI and ensure best-in-class service levels. Ensure seamless WAN connectivity through WAN RTT monitoring.

Cisco NBAR Reporting: Recognize a wide variety of applications that use dynamic ports. Classify and take appropriate actions on business critical and non-critical applications.

ManageEngine OpManager-12 Trial Version Installation

The installation of OpManger12 trial version is discussed in this section. The installation is very simple and fast. We didn’t take more than 5 minutes to install it.

Two options are provided during the installation:

30 days trial without any limitation to the number of the devices and interfaces
Free edition where you can monitor up to 10 devices

We installed the 30-day trial version. You can easily uninstall the trial version in less than 2 minutes after the product evaluation, by following the OpManager uninstall wizard. Let’s rock!

We start by downloading the Windows or Linux installation file of OpManager from the following link:

Downloading OpManager for Windows or Linux systems (Click to download)

Once downloaded run the file to initiate the Install Wizard which guides us through the installation process.

After accepting the license agreement it is necessary to select the installation mode to test the ManageEngine OpManager 12. We selected the 30 days trial version, which is more than enough for evaluation:

Selecting between OpManager 30 Day Trial or Free Edition

Next, we select the language and path for the installation followed by the recommended ports required for OpManager. In particular, port 80 is the default server port of OpManager and port 9996 is the default port to listen for netflow packets. The ports can be easily changed during the installation.

Selecting and changing OpManager WebServer and NetFlow ports

Next, we skip the Registration for Technical Support since we don’t require it for the evaluation of the product. OpManager will now commence its installation process.

When the file copy process is complete, we are prompted to select whether we are installing a Primary or Standby server. Redundancy is not required for our product evaluation:

Selecting between Primary and Standby OpManager Installation

The next option allows the installation of OpManager using MSSQL or POSTGRESQL which is the fastest installation option. POSTGRESQL is bundled with the product and is a great option for evaluation cases:

Selecting between OpManager with PostgreSQL or MSSQL

We managed to complete the installation process in less than 3 minutes!

As soon as we hit the Finish button, the initialization of the modules starts. Meanwhile we can take a quick look at the Readme file which includes useful information about the product.

OpManager launches in less than a minute after completing its initialization. The welcome tour introduces us to the main functionalities of the product:

OpManager’s welcome tour

We are ready now to start working and discover this product. You can start by discovering your network devices. It is a powerful tool with plenty of capabilities.

OpManager Network Device Discovery

Selecting the overview tab from the left column we see (screenshot below) useful information about Network, Server, Virualization, Netflow, Network Configuration Management (NCM), Firewall and IP address Management (IPAM). All the essential components that should be monitored in a network:

NOTE: The single discovered device shown is by default the Server where OpManager is installed.

OpManager discovered devices and network view

All installed features and application add-ons enabled for the 30 day evaluation period are shown:

OpManager installed options and product details

Summary

Bandwidth availability is a critical factor that has a major impact on a network and also affects application performance. The introduction of new IT technologies & policies, such as BYOD and HD-Video etc, requires careful planning, provisioning and monitoring by a sophisticated reputable NMS. The NMS should not only monitor bandwidth utilization but also perform in-depth traffic analysis and determine in detail the who, what, when and where of bandwidth usage. OpManger12 is the NMS solution that includes all the tools for bandwidth and application monitoring by utilizing NBAR, Netflow, SNMP and XML-API technologies, helping IT Departments and IT Managers get centralized visibility of their network that was previously impossible.

Ensuring Enterprise Network Readiness for Mobile Users – Wi-Fi, Bandwidth Monitoring, Shadow IT, Security, Alerts

2016-05-17T19:18:11+10:00

Demands for Enterprise networks to properly support mobile users is on a continuous rise making it more than ever necessary for IT departments to provide high-quality services to its users. This article covers 4 key-areas affecting mobile users and Enterprise networks: Wi-Fi coverage (signal strength – signal-to-noise ratio), Bandwidth Monitoring (Wi-Fi Links, Network Backbone, routers, congestion), Shadow IT (Usage of unauthorized apps) and security breaches.

Today, users are no more tied to their desktops/laptops. Now, they are mobile. They can reply to important business emails, access their CRM, collaborate with peers, share files with each other & much more from cafeteria or car parking. This implies that it's high time for network admins at enterprises to think or give equal importance to wireless networks similar to wired networks. Wireless networks should be equally faster and secure.

Though the use of mobile devices for business actives is a good thing to happen for both enterprises and its customers, it also has some drawbacks on the network management side. The top 4 things to consider to make your network mobile ready are:

Wi-Fi signal strength
Bandwidth congestion
Shadow IT
Security breaches and attacks

Figure 1. OpManager Network Management and Monitoring - Click for Free Download

Wi-Fi Signal Strength

A good Wi-Fi signal is a must throughout the campus. Employees must not feel any connectivity problem or slowness because of poor signal quality. The signal should be so good and similar to the ones provided by the carriers. However, it’s not quite easy to maintain good signal strength all throughout the building. Apart from Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) and Wireless Access Point (WAP), channel interference also plays a major role in ensuring a good Wi-Fi signal strength.

RF interference is the noise or interference caused by other wireless & Bluetooth devices such as phones, mouse, remote controls, etc. that disrupts the Wi-Fi signal. Since all these devices operate on the same 2.4GHz to 5 GHz frequencies, it disrupts the Wi-Fi signal strength. When a client device receives another Wi-Fi signal it will defer transmission until the signal ceases. Interference that occurs during transmission also causes packet loss. As an effect Wi-Fi retransmissions take place which in fact slow down throughput and result in wildly fluctuating performance for all users sharing a given access point (AP).

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A common metric for measuring the Wi-Fi signal strength is the Signal-to-Noise (SNR) Ratio. SNR is the ratio of signal power to the noise power and expressed in decibels. SNR of 41db is considered excellent and 10-15db is considered as poor. However, as soon as interference is experienced SINR is the metric to look for. SINR is the Signal-to-Interference plus Noise Ratio which provides the difference between the signal level and the level of interference. Since RF interference creates disrupts the user throughput, SINR provides the real performance level of the Wi-Fi systems. A higher SINR is considered good as it indicates higher data rates.

Figure 2. OpManager: Network Analysis – Alarms, Warnings and Statistics - Click for Free Download

Shadow IT

Employees making use of third-party apps or services without the knowledge of IT, to get their job done is known as Shadow IT. Though it makes employees to choose the apps or services that works form them and be productive, it also leads to some conflicts and security issues. Using apps that are not verified by the IT team may cause serious security breaches and may even lead to loss of corporate data.

It's tough to restrict shadow IT because employees keep finding ways to find apps and services that they feel comfortable or easy-to-work with. And satisfied users use word-of-mouth marketing and increase the adoption of such apps/services among their peers. Sometimes, this creates conflict with existing IT policy and slows down the operations itself. However, the adoption of Shadow IT is on the rise. According to a study, shadow IT exists in more than 75% of the enterprises and expected to grow more.

Security Breach & Attacks

Public Wi-Fi hotspots are favorites for hackers. They try to steal data from the mobile devices that connect to the hotpots. Few years back The Guardian, a UK based journal deployed a mock Wi-Fi hotspot at an airport to demonstrate how critical information such as email ID, passwords, credit card data, etc. can be hacked via the Wi-Fi connection. Many travelers connected to hotspot and entered their details, which fraudsters could have misused in case of a real hack.

Figure 3. OpManager: Network Bandwidth, QoS and Policy Utilization - Click for Free Download

It's highly impossible for employees or as a matter of fact for anyone to refrain themselves from connecting to public Wi-Fi when they travelling or in public places. However, hackers use public Wi-Fi to inject malicious code that acts as Trojans, which in turn helps them steal corporate data.

Bandwidth Congestion

Admins have no control when it comes to employees accessing their mobile devices for their personal use also, which includes accessing sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, etc. They cannot totally restrict them as the world is becoming more social, at least online, and have to allow them to use such apps. However, it should not take a toll on the employees accessing business critical apps.

Buying additional bandwidth is the usual approach followed to solve the bandwidth crisis. However, that’s not an effective way to manage bandwidth in enterprise networks. Most enterprises spend heavily on bandwidth. According to a survey done by us with the Cisco Live US, 2015 attendees, 52% of them spend more than $25,000 per month for bandwidth.

Effective Wireless Network Management Is The Need Of The Hour

Wireless LAN Controllers (WLC) and Wireless Access Points (WAP) form the backbone of wireless network. It's very imperative to monitor them proactively so that any performance issues can be resolved before it turns big and impacts the users. Critical metrics such as SNR and SINR has also to be monitored in real-time so that any degradation in signal strength can be quickly identified and fixed. Heat-maps play a critical role in visually representing the signal strength across the floor. Make use of such heat maps and display it on the NOC screens so that any signal problem can be found out in real-time.

Having strict firewall and security policies combined with effective firewall management prevents enterprises from attacks and hacks caused due to hackers and shadow IT. For solving bandwidth related issues, network admins can make use of traffic shaping techniques to prioritize bandwidth for business critical apps. This avoids buying additional bandwidth often and helps providing adequate bandwidth for business critical apps and minimum bandwidth for non-business critical apps.

Doing all these manually would be highly cumbersome. Look out for tools or solutions that offer proactive monitoring of wireless networks, provide heat maps to identify and measure Wi-Fi signal strength, manage firewall configurations and policies, and troubleshoot bandwidth related issues. With such a solution and strict security policies in place, you can make your network ready for mobile devices.

ManageEngine OpManager is one such network management software that offers increased visibility and great control over your network. It out-of-the-box offers network monitoring, physical and virtual server monitoring, flow-based bandwidth analysis, firewall log analysis and archiving, configuration and change management, and IP address and switch port management, in one single exe. You can monitor WiFi signal strength