Nowadays, information flow and data services are critical to business operations. That’s why, the importance of a strong and efficient network cannot be overstated.
You may know, a well-functioning network is the backbone of any organization. It simplifies easy communication, collaboration, and data-driven decision-making.
And, to make sure optimal network performance, businesses rely on network monitoring systems (NMS). This is because it goes beyond simple fault detection. Rather, NMS offers a bold approach to maintaining network availability and performance.
Keep reading the article to explore the concept of network monitoring. Here, we will discuss its types, use cases, and the various benefits it brings to businesses.
What is Network Monitoring?
Network monitoring is the ongoing process of keeping an eye on a computer network to spot and fix problems. Those are like sluggish traffic or malfunctioning components. Unlike network security or intrusion detection systems, network monitoring is primarily focused on internal network problems that could obstruct the smooth flow of data and services. The goal is to detect and resolve issues before they increase. It is basically to ensure uninterrupted business operations.
Network monitoring tools operate by constantly scanning the network. It automatically notifies administrators when any problems occur. These tools are required for troubleshooting issues, due to improving network performance and preventing downtime. A proactive network monitoring solution can initiate failover mechanisms to remove problematic devices or circuits from operation until the issue is resolved.
Types of Network Monitoring Tools
There are three primary types of network monitoring tools, each with its specific approach:
1. SNMP-based tools: These tools utilize the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to interact with network hardware. It provides real-time information on resources such as CPU usage, memory consumption, and bandwidth usage.
2. Flow-based tools: These tools monitor traffic flow to offer insights into protocols and user behaviour. Some can inspect packet sequences to identify performance issues between two IP addresses, capturing data for analysis.
3. Active network monitoring solutions: These solutions inject packets into the network to measure end-to-end reachability, round-trip time, bandwidth, packet loss, and more. By simulating real-time transactions, they enable swift detection of outages and performance degradation.
How Network Monitoring Works?
The functioning of networks allows the exchange of information between two systems, such as two computers or applications. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model studies the essential functions that computer systems depend on for transmitting and receiving data.
Data must use unique protocols to go over each OSI layer in a network, starting at the physical layer and ending at the application layer. Network monitoring offers insight into a network’s diverse elements. It ensures that engineers can diagnose issues at any layer where they manifest.
Monitoring Network Hardware
For enterprises running on-premises workloads or managing data centres, it is crucial to validate the well-being and functionality of the physical hardware that reduces network traffic. This typically includes layers 1, 2, and 3 of the OSI model, which involves the physical, data link, and network layers. Using a device-centric monitoring strategy, businesses examine network equipment like routers, switches, and firewalls as well as data transmission components like cabling. A network device may have multiple interfaces connecting it with other devices, with potential network failures occurring at any interface.
How to Monitor Network Hardware
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) standard is supported by the majority of network devices. By using SNMP, one may keep an eye on incoming and outgoing network traffic as well as other crucial network telemetry. Especially those that are necessary to guarantee the functionality and operation of equipment located on-site.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a ubiquitous standard providing an addressing and routing system for devices across nearly all networks. Network engineers use monitoring tools to collect metrics from network devices, including uptime, CPU utilization, bandwidth usage, throughput, interface errors/discards, and IP metrics, such as time delay and hop count.
Note that in cloud environments, companies procure compute and network resources from cloud vendors, shifting the responsibility of managing physical hardware onto the cloud vendor.
Monitoring Live Network Traffic
Beyond the hardware layers, the software layers of the network stack come into play when data travels a network. This primarily involves the transport and application layers of the OSI model (layer 4 and layer 7). Monitoring these layers lets teams oversee the health of services, applications, and underlying network dependencies during communication over a network.
Key protocols to monitor include:
Application Layer (Layer 7)
– Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): Metrics include request volume, errors, and latency. HTTPS offers a more secure, encrypted version of HTTP.
– Domain Name System (DNS): Metrics include request volume, errors, response time, and timeouts.
Transport Layer (Layer 4)
– Internet Protocol (IP) – Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): Metrics cover packets delivered, transmission rate, latency, retransmits, and jitter.
– User Datagram Protocol (UDP): A faster protocol without guaranteed delivery or packet sequencing.
How to Monitor Live Network Traffic
Applications for network monitoring use a variety of techniques, such as advanced technology like the extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF). It is to keep an eye on communication protocols. With minimal overhead, eBPF traces network data packets as they flow between dependencies. It translates the data into a human-readable format.
Primary Use Cases for Network Monitoring
The following specific use cases highlight how versatile network monitoring is:
1. Datacenter Monitoring: Engineers can collect real-time data from data centres. They can set up alerts for device failures, temperature spikes, power outages, or network capacity issues.
2. Cloud Network Monitoring: Companies hosting services on cloud networks use network monitoring to ensure smooth communication between application dependencies. It also helps in analyzing cloud network costs.
3. Network Monitoring for Containerized Applications: Teams using containerized applications, whether on-premises or in the cloud, rely on network monitoring to ensure proper communication between app components.
Conclusion
Network monitoring is a critical element of maintaining a resilient and high-performing network infrastructure. Network monitoring technologies give businesses the visibility, early problem detection, and proactive solutions they need to guarantee continuous operations. All in all, it improves application performance and maximizes network resources. As technology continues to advance, the role of network monitoring will remain pivotal. Especially those managing the complexities of hybrid environments will need to implement this.