MG-SOFT Net Inspector Fault and Performance Manager
Screen Shots
MG-SOFT Net Inspector Java Client main window displaying the network topology and active alarms (left section)
and several performance management windows showing the device performance and system resource utilization
charts and data (right section).
The Discovery Panel dialog box lets you discover all devices on the network that respond to SNMP
or ICMP Ping requests, automatically add subnet maps with devices and their connections to
the Net inspector workspace (a particular user view) and start monitoring the discovered network,
all in a highly productive way.
The discovery operation can be performed on a local subnet, on the user-specified address range
or as the SNMP-based network scan. More than one discovery operation can exist and run
at the same time in Net Inspector. Furthermore, discovery operations can be scheduled to run
daily at the specified time.
The maps window graphically displays the network topology and nodes on the network.
This presentation is based on a principle of organizing devices into maps and sub-maps.
Devices and maps are presented as icons on the Net Inspector workspace. Device icon colors
reflect the current status of devices, while the small balloons above device icons indicate
the number and severity levels of active alarms associated with devices.
The General view of the device's Properties window lets you view and configure device's basic properties
(device name, address, description), and set the polling engine that will poll the device (when two or
more polling engines are used). It also displays all active (open) alarms associated with the given
device and lets you manage them (acknowledge, manually clear, comment, etc.).
The Services view in the Properties window lets you monitor the status of a number of
standard network services (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, DNS, SMTP, IMAP, IMAPS,
POP3, SSH, Telnet, NNTP, NNPTS, LDAP, LDAPS, IPP, LPD, MsSQL, MySQL
and Oracle service), and lets you add and configure other, user-defined services for monitoring.
Net Inspector continually monitors and displays the status and system performance information
for all devices providing this information through SNMP. For systems supporting the
HOST-RESOURCES-MIB (e.g., computer hosts) and for Cisco devices, this includes also
memory, CPU, and storage volume utilization rates. Additionally, status, memory and CPU usage
of any process running on the monitored computers can be monitored, as well as arbitrary,
vendor-specific OIDs.
Net Inspector continually monitors the status, utilization rates, bit rates, packet rates,
error rates and discard rates for selected network interfaces on a given device.
The software triggers and display alarms whenever significant network
events occur (e.g., if a monitored service stops responding, if an SNMP variable
crosses the threshold value, if a device reports an event via SNMP Trap message, etc.).
Alarms are displayed in a separate window, which lets you view, acknowledge
and sort alarms by any attribute (e.g., severity level, date and
time, source, etc.). Alarms are colored according to their severity
levels (critical, major, minor, warning, etc.) allowing network operators to
have a clear overview of open alarms. Net Inspector can notify users about alarms
via e-mail, SMS or by launching external applications.
Net Inspector now supports NetFlow monitoring and generates detailed IP traffic statistics
identifying the applications that generate the most traffic (in packets and bytes),
endpoints (IP addresses) that receive and send the most data, protocols that are
used most, etc. This information is obtained by collecting, analyzing and
aggregating NetFlow packets exported by up to 10 NetFlow-enabled devices. By clicking
an item in the TopN reports (e.g., Top10 Conversations, Top20 Applications,
Top15 Transmitters, Top5 Receivers, etc.) displayed in the main NetFlow report page,
a more detailed report page about the clicked item (conversation, application, protocol,
endpoint, etc.) is displayed.
Integrated performance manager module lets you monitor
the VoIP Quality-Of-Service metrics (e.g., MOS, jitter, latency,
packet loss, etc.) on devices implementing the IP SLA VoIP jitter
functionality (e.g., Cisco routers).
Net Inspector can load any number of standard and private MIB modules that were
previously compiled with the enclosed MG-SOFT MIB Compiler. Loaded MIB modules let you
perform SNMP configuration and monitoring activities in a user-friendly manner
(e.g., query particular OIDs, resolve queried OIDs to names, identify and display SNMP
Trap and Inform notifications messages by their names, etc.).
In addition to sending e-mails
and running arbitrary commands, Net Inspector can now notify
users about important alarms also by sending SMS (Short Message Service)
text messages through the attached mobile phone with a built-in modem.
Supported are 3 different methods of sending short messages (through GSM modem
directly or through SMS center via UCP or TAP protocol).
Arbitrary alarm details can be included into e-mail and SMS messages by
using the reserved words. Furthermore, the software lets you configure
and set up filters in order to notify you only about
those event and alarms that match the filter criteria.
Net Inspector lets you configure and assign different user views to users.
A user view is a specific view of the network that can include either
all managed objects in the supervised network (e.g., an administrator user view),
any subgroup of those objects, or even individual devices
(e.g., user views assigned to users with limited access rights).
This principle facilitates the division of
the supervised network into smaller units and enables efficient
delegation of the network supervision activities to different staff
members or even end-users (e.g., in case of ICT infrastructure and
services providers).
The included Net Inspector HTTP server
enables users to download and launch Net Inspector Client from
anywhere in the network by clicking the relevant link in a Web
browser. This mechanism significantly simplifies the deployment
process, as the software only needs to be installed on the server
computer. The Client software is then distributed to individual
users on their request through the Java Web Start mechanism.
Furthermore, Net Inspector HTTP server provides also a Web-based
access to Net Inspector documentation in electronic form.
The new Ping and Traceroute Console window provides a convenient interface for
performing the standard Ping and Traceroute operations on arbitrary network devices.
Besides, the integrated MIB Browser window lets you explore the graphical MIB tree
and query arbitrary OIDs, parts of, or the entire MIB tree on SNMP devices.
