In this article we will see how it works and what are the main features of the new OMS solution called Network Performance Monitor (NPM). This solution is able to check the status of your network even in the presence of hybrid architectures allowing you to quickly identify any network segment or device at any given time is causing or has caused outages or performance problems network side. This new service makes the network monitor application centric and this feature makes it different than conventional monitor solutions on the market that tends to have a particular focus on the control of network devices.
Figure 1 – Overview of solution NPM
Using the solution Network Performance Monitor OMS you can have total visibility in terms of availability, latency and performance of their network infrastructure. The activation process and operation is as follows:
- By accessing the portal who adds the solution "Network Performance Monitor (NPM)"in the gallery of the solution of OMS. To do so you can follow the steps that are documented in the following article: Add Azure Log Analytics management solutions to your workspace (OMS)
- The solution requires the agent OMS installed on the machines on each subnet that you want to monitor. This is the traditional agent who is not prompted to install any additional part.
- The cars carrying the agent who will download by who of Network Monitoring Intelligence Pack which is used to detect the subnet on which stood the machine and upload this information to the workspace who.
- The agent retrieves in turn from who and network configurations are made of probe to detect packet loss and network performance. Network Performance Monitor (NPM) uses synthetic transactions to calculate how many packets are lost and the latency in mind for the various network links. Probe packets that are sent between various agents who carry out the assessment and to monitor the status of your network can be TCP (packages TCP SYN followed by a TCP handshake) or ICMP (messages ICMP ECHO as those generated by traditional utility Ping). Using the ICMP protocol to carry out the probe is useful in environments where network devices because of certain restrictions are not able to respond to TCP type probe.
- All data is sent to the workspace who and are aggregated to show in clear and understandable terms the network status. In fact, thanks to the Topology Map provides a graphical view of all network paths exist between the various endpoints that helps quickly locate network problems. The topology map are interactive and allow you to drill down on various network links this hop-by-hop topology details. Also you can set filters based on the State of health of link, zoom on network segments and customize the topology.
Figure 2 – Network Topology
The main features of the solution are as follows:
- The solution is agnostic in terms of the network devices and related vendor and is able to monitor any IP network.
- The solution is able to monitor connectivity between:
- Data-center located at different sites and connected via public or private network.
- Public clouds like Azure and AWS, on-premises networks and user stations.
- Virtual networks present at public cloud and on-premises.
Figure 3 – Components monitored by solution NPM
- NPM helps identify accurate and detailed the network path that is causing a malfunction or degradation of performance, regardless of the complexity of the network, monitoring model adopted:
Figure 4 – Monitoring model
- Thanks to a feature called Network State Recorder can not only see the current state of health of the network, but to evaluate it even at a certain time in the past, useful for investigating reports of transitional issues.
Figure 5 – Network State Recorder
- Using alerting functionality included in who you can configure sending e-mail alerts to problems encountered by solution NPM. Also you can trigger remediation actions through runbook or set up webhooks to integrate with an existing solution for service management.
Figure 6 – NPM alerting
- The solution not only supports Windows Server but the agent also works for client operating systems (Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7) and there is also support for Linux operating systems (servers and workstations).
Regarding the cost and licensing model the solution Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is part of OMS Insight & Analytics. On page Prices for Microsoft Operations Management Suite find all the details related to pricing of OMS.
Conclusions
In IT environments they see increasingly complex architectures it is useful to have a tool to effectively monitor the status of your network and allows you to isolate with precision the source of any problems. Using the solution Network Performance Monitor (NPM) OMS you have full visibility of the network even in hybrid architecture and you can act proactively identify potential problems. NPM is also a suitable tool not only for network administrators, but thanks to its features can be very useful and easy to use even by those who manage the infrastructure and applications. For those interested to further deepen this and other features of the who remember that you can try the OMS for free. For more information about solution Network Performance Monitor (NPM) you can see the official documentation.
