1. If You've Got a Problem, Yo I'll Solve It: Using Tools to Solve Network Problems Derek Engi Network Management Engineer North Carolina State University

2. Agenda

Network Monitoring and Management Tools

Making the Most of Free / Open Source Software

Real World Problems, Real World Tools

Questions and Discussion

3. Network Monitoring's Greatest Hits

NetDisco Discovery & Inventory

Cacti Graphing & Alerting

Splunk Reporting & Analysis

4. NetDisco

Network Discovery Engine

Mix of Perl and PostGreSQL

CDP / SNMP Mappings of Topology

VLAN and Port Up/Down Manipulation

Our Authoritative DB for Other Applications

API! - Woohoo!

5. 6. Cacti

Generate Graphs for Network Devices

PHP with MySQL Backend

Round Robin Database (RRDs)

Device / Interface Statistics

Plugin Architecture

Pseudo-API! - Pseudo-Woohoo!

7. Splunk

Fancy Log Indexer / Analyzer

Free Version and Commercial License

Applications / Plugin Architecture

Scalable and Awesome

Awesome API!

8. It Goes to 11...err Making Things Proactive 9. Case Study #1 Trending Traffic

Conserving While Leveraging Building Fiber

Targeting Upgrade / Problem Child Area

Open Source Solution!

My internet/backups/imaging software/$application doesn't run so hot.Can we get some additional bandwidth? 10. Case Study #1 Trending Traffic

Thresholds to the Rescue!

Easy to Configure and Template Cacti Plugin

Alerting Functions

Endless Possibilities

Allows Tracking, Trending, and Review

Port-Channels Cheaper Than Hardware

11. 12. 13. Case Study #2 Wide Scale Anomalies

Is Something Weird Happening in the DC?

We've Been Adding Port-Channels....

Whoa, Check the WeatherMaps!

So why does it take our backups so long to complete? 14. Case Study #2 PHP Weathermaps

Open Source Cacti/Other Data Source App

Generate Large or Small Scale Snapshots

Integration w/ NetDisco

Getting back to our problem...Dude, something seems wrong.

15. 16. 17. Case Study #2 Solution

HSRP Between DC Cores, equal cost paths advertised through OSPF

Arp Cache, set to 2 hours

I think I will forward this frame out all switch ports..yeah......

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Changing the Arp and CAM timers to match fixes the problem.

18. Where Are We Going?

Utilizing NetDisco for Inventory, Idle Port Reports, VLAN Management, etc.

Extending Cacti Graphs down to the LAN Admins, thresholding more stuff, (IPTV,UPS')

Weathermaps Unicast and Multicast Representation down to the end-user

Splunk Providing firewall access logs to appropriate parties via Firewall Config Tool

19. Extending Management to the End User

Switch Admin Tool VLAN Config, Port Descriptions, Duplex/Speed Settings.View MACs on a port.Uses NetDisco, Cacti.

Firewall Config Viewer Extending visibility into the security side of the network.

Extending tool functionality to other OIT groups via an API.

20. LinksNetDisco -www.netdisco.org Cacti -www.cacti.net Splunk -www.splunk.com Cacti Plugins www.cactiusers.org PHP Weathermaps - www.network-weathermap.com 21. Questions? Comments?Other Cool Tools You Can't Live Without? Thank You! Derek Engi [email_address]