Network Monitoring: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

In today's interconnected world, computer networks have become an integral part of businesses. With this, companies can communicate with their customers, share information and access resources. However, with increasing reliance on technology, network performance has become crucial. Any failure or deficiency in the network can result in downtime, loss of data and money. This is where network monitoring comes into play.

What is network monitoring?

El Network monitoring is the practice of constantly monitoring a computer network for faults or deficiencies to ensure continuous network performance. Network monitoring tools such as Atentus are always scanning the network and are designed to automatically notify network administrators via text message or email when a problem occurs.

Network monitoring collects and reports on a variety of data from a computer network, including routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, and even endpoints, such as servers and workstations. The collected data is filtered and analyzed to identify a variety of network problems. These network problems can include the following:

• device failures
• Link cuts
• interface errors
• Lost package
• application response time
• configuration changes

What is network monitoring for

Here are some of the key features and benefits of network monitoring:

Problem detection: Network monitoring allows you to identify and diagnose network problems, such as connection failures, equipment failures, traffic congestion, configuration errors, and others. By detecting these problems early, corrective action can be taken before they affect network availability and performance.

Performance optimization: By analyzing the collected data, network monitoring provides information about device performance and bandwidth utilization. This allows you to identify bottlenecks, optimize network configuration, and make informed decisions to improve overall network performance.

Network Security: Network monitoring helps detect suspicious or malicious activities on the network, such as intrusion attempts, denial of service (DoS) attacks, malware propagation, and other security threats. By quickly identifying and responding to these threats, you can protect your network and the data that travels through it.

Capacity planning: By analyzing bandwidth usage and device performance data, network monitoring makes it possible to effectively forecast and plan network capacity. This is especially useful for adapting to changes in network needs, such as traffic growth or the addition of new users or services.

How to monitor a network

To monitor a network, you can take the following steps:

1. Set objectives: Define the objectives of network monitoring. What aspects of the network do you want to monitor? What metrics or parameters are relevant to you? For example, you might want to monitor bandwidth usage, availability of network devices, application performance, network security, and more.

• Select monitoring tools: Research and choose the right network monitoring tools for your needs. There are numerous options available, both commercial and open source. Some solutions such as Atentus, Nagios and Zabbix, among others.
• Define monitoring points: Identify the key points in the network where you will be collecting data. This can include switches, routers, firewalls, servers, network links, and other devices. Make sure you cover both traffic entry and exit points and critical network nodes.
• Configure the monitoring parameters: Configure the parameters and metrics you want to monitor at each monitoring point. These can include bandwidth usage, latency, packet loss, service status, application performance, and more. Adjust alert thresholds to receive notifications when established limits are exceeded.
• Implement data collection: Configure monitoring tools to collect data from monitoring points. You can use protocols such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to obtain information from network devices. In addition, you can use monitoring probes distributed in different locations to get a complete view of network performance.
• Visualize and analyze data: Use the control panels and the interfaces of the monitoring tools to visualize and analyze the collected data. This will allow you to have an overview of the state of the network, identify problems or anomalies, and make decisions based on data.
• Generate alerts and notifications: Configure monitoring tools to generate alerts and notifications when problems are detected or established thresholds are exceeded. This will allow you to proactively respond to events and resolve problems before they affect users or network availability.
• Perform continuous analysis and monitoring: Regularly review the reports and analyses generated by monitoring tools. It analyzes trends, identifies patterns and continuously monitors network performance. This will help you make informed decisions and maintain optimal network performance.

Remember that network monitoring is an ongoing process and must be adapted as your network needs evolve. Stay up to date on new technologies and best practices.

Why is network monitoring important?

Network monitoring is important because it allows you to maintain optimal performance, resolve problems quickly, improve security, plan capacity and meet regulatory requirements. It provides crucial visibility into the state of the network and allows proactive actions to be taken to keep it operating efficiently and safely.

How does network monitoring work?

Network monitoring collects massive amounts of data and analyzes it to identify real or potential network problems that need to be investigated. One way to reduce the volume of data is to establish the classification of exceptions to the analysis rules using the top N reports, for example, the top 10. Examples include the following for each of the architectural elements:

• Events. The devices that report the most events or the events that occur most frequently.
• NCCM. The most important devices with configuration changes or the devices with the most configuration changes.
• Performance. Highest utilization interfaces, interfaces with the highest number of errors by count or percentage of packets or devices with the highest CPU or memory usage.
• Address Management. Subnets that have almost no available addresses.
• Topology. Devices with the highest number of neighbor changes.

Tracking the digital experience. The systems that report the slowest applications or the routes that show the most problems.

Organizations often require a different tool for each architectural element. Consolidating reports in one place provides a concise view of network operation. Reports must support links to collected data to allow network administrators to perform detailed troubleshooting.

Examples of this type of monitoring

A good example system depends on requirements, such as the volume of events and the number of device interfaces that will be monitored. Large networks have different requirements than the needs of a small organization. Complex multi-cloud, SaaS, co-located and on-premises data centers require systems of Monitoring more complex.

A network is a large, complex system where many things must work properly to achieve optimal network health and application performance. It should be monitored as a complete system, not as a collection of devices. A word of caution: organizations should not skimp on comprehensive coverage. Monitoring a subset of active data center interfaces and key interfaces is a recipe for undetected failure.

Network link monitoring

Network link monitoring refers to the monitoring and analysis of physical or logical links that connect network devices, such as routers, switches, or wireless links. The primary purpose of network link monitoring is to ensure the availability, performance, and efficiency of the connections used to transmit data between devices on the network.

Network link monitoring involves monitoring several key aspects of links, such as:

1. Availability: It checks if the links are active and working properly. This involves monitoring if the links are “up” or “down”, that is, if they are connected and available for data traffic.
2. Latency: It measures the time it takes for data to travel from one end of the link to the other. High latency can indicate congestion problems or network delays.
3. Bandwidth: Bandwidth usage on the link is monitored to identify if there is congestion or if the link limits are being reached. This is especially relevant for links shared by multiple devices or users.
4. Packet loss: The number of packets that are lost or discarded on the link is recorded. Packet loss can indicate connectivity problems or network congestion.
5. Transmission errors: Transmission errors that occur on the link are monitored. These errors can be caused by physical problems, interference, configuration problems, or equipment malfunctions.
6. Use of the link: The amount of traffic that passes through the link in a given period of time is recorded. This helps identify usage patterns and plan network capacity.

What are the types?

Different devices and protocols are used in network monitoring.

The packet analyzers of Networks examine the data in every packet that moves across the network, and the information within the packets can determine if they are being routed correctly, if employees are visiting prohibited websites, or if sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and social security number, is being exfiltrated from the network.

Monitoring applications and services focuses on those systems and devices necessary to maintain network integrity to ensure that they operate within normal limits, as well as to indicate which applications are being used by which business units across the organization.

Overseeing access management ensures that intruders do not have access to network resources, for example, if an employee suddenly logs in from an IP address on another continent. This can quickly detect network vulnerabilities and help to remedy them and detect intruders before they can cause damage.

What are network monitoring systems?

Network monitoring systems can vary in their complexity and characteristics, but they generally offer the following functionalities:

1. Device Discovery: identify and map devices connected to the network, allowing for an up-to-date inventory of network elements.
2. Traffic monitoring: analyze the flow of data in the network to identify usage patterns, bottlenecks, congestion and abnormal behavior.
3. Performance monitoring: They measure metrics such as bandwidth used, latency, packet loss, and resource utilization to evaluate network performance.
4. Alerts and notifications: generate automatic alerts when problems are detected or predefined thresholds are exceeded, allowing network administrators to take corrective action in a timely manner.
5. Registration and reporting: they keep a history of events and generate detailed reports on network performance, uptimes, usage trends and other relevant data.
6. Network security: monitor network activity for threats, cyberattacks, intrusion attempts, and suspicious behavior, which helps to strengthen network security.

Network monitoring systems are especially useful for businesses and organizations that rely on reliable and efficient network infrastructure. They provide visibility into network health, help proactively detect and resolve problems, optimize performance, and ensure service availability.

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