Summary:

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution verifies network connectivity to devices and application services revealing accessibility and network latency. The solution auto-discovers network interfaces, monitors interface traffic and calculates bandwidth utilization.

Interface variables are polled for status data and the solution receives unsolicited SNMP traps. Syslog monitoring is supported for non-SNMP devices. Status data is analyzed and displayed in graphical alarm consoles, performance reports and SLA reports.

Download our Network Monitoring Solution Overview Whitepaper

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution provides complete network visibility to assure that the highest levels of business service quality are achieved. 360° network visibility is critical given today's network driven business - anything less can have costly bottom line implications.

Primary Features:

Monitors access and response time to all network devices, application and service ports
Monitors interface traffic for bandwidth utilization and error status
Monitors SNMP enabled devices with polling and trap reception
Monitors device Syslogs
Graphical alarm console, performance and SLA reporting

Additional Features:

Broad network device support
Drag-and-drop solution configuration and deployment
Network path definition and link failure root cause analysis
Flexible and reliable off-network alert notification
"Profile-based" polling and monitoring definition
Device interface auto-discovery
SNMP poller, browser, listener, and sniffer
Realtime network alarm console
Network performance trend reporting
Network SLA creation, monitoring and reporting

NimBUS for Network Monitoring - Specialized Probes and Gateways

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution is comprised of a set of specialized probes and gateways, which provide automated and GUI driven access to the device status information. All solution probes have their own graphic interface to facilitate Administrative and Operations activities

Network and Application Connectivity Monitoring

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution includes connectivity monitoring for network devices such as routers, switches, servers, applications, printers and practically any other device. A specialized probe verifies network connectivity between the host where the probe resides and the targeted remote system. The probe will also test connectivity to TCP based services such as telnet, http, etc., or any other application with a designated service port.

Through the process of connectivity monitoring, the network connectivity probe will record response times to and from network devices, services and applications to aid in pinpointing areas of excessive network latency.

Router and Switch Interface Traffic Analysis and Status Monitoring

A specialized probe utilizes SNMP to measure and report on inbound, outbound and aggregate bandwidth utilization. MIB objects are queried and analyzed both in real time and over time for alert generation and bandwidth utilization trend reporting. The probe may be configured to monitor the network interfaces on PCs, Windows and Unix Servers, routers, switches, and other SNMP enabled devices. The probe monitors and reports on the following interface parameters:

"Dead" lines (no traffic)
Discarded packets
Error packets
Queue length
Interface status
Average traffic in/out
Average errors in/out

SNMP Management

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution offers robust SNMP management capabilities. The solution comes equipped with specialized probes that provide the following SNMP management functionality: SNMP MIB Poller and Browser, a Trap Listener and SNMP Trap Sniffer.

The MIB Poller probe can query any standard or proprietary MIB object from any SNMP compliant device. The trap receiver probe will listen to port 162 for any incoming SNMP traps and will covert the traps into NimBUS formatted events. Out-of-the-box support is available for COMPAQ Insight Manager and Dell Open Manage traps. The SNMP trap receiver probe also provides a realtime trap 'sniffer' function. The probe watches the network in promiscuous mode to see all SNMP traps on the network wire.

SNMP Event Gateway and Syslog Gateway

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution provides an SNMP Gateway that will transform NimBUS alarm messages to SNMP trap messages that are readable by any SNMP based event manager. Predefined SNMP Gateway solutions are available for HP OpenView Network Node Manager, CA Unicenter-TNG and BMC Patrol Enterprise Manager (PEM).

The Syslog Gateway serves as a gateway from the Syslog "world" into the NimBUS environment. Network-devices, such as routers, switches, firewalls and servers report events using SNMP as well as using the well-known Syslog format. The Syslog Gateway will listen to port 514/udp when running in a receive mode and covert messages to NimBUS event formats.

NimBUS for Network Monitoring - Realtime Alarm Console

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution offers a web-based alarm console. The NimBUS Alarm Console can be applied to create and customize user specific network monitoring "dashboards". Alarm dashboards can show up to the minute status of critical network links, bandwidth utilization, network latency, response times and other critical network issues.

Click the image below to see an example NimBUS Network Dashboard - the dashboard view includes a national map with network connectivity and bandwidth usage statistics - the color-coded status indicators support drill down for additional details:

Click the image below to see more Network Dashboard examples from our NimBUS Dashboard Gallery:

NimBUS for Network Monitoring - Performance Trend Reporting

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution offers a performance reporting solution that will allow businesses to track and trend network availability and performance parameters such as network interface utilization, error rates, connectivity failures, latency and any other technical items. All network availability and performance data collected by the NimBUS for Network Monitoring probes can be utilized for Quality of Service and Performance report generation.

Click the images below to see live network performance reports - the first report shows bandwidth utilization for our T1 line and a critical ethernet interface - the second report shows network connectivity response time for an in-house server - click the filter menu across the top of the live reports to see daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly views:

Router Interface Traffic

Server Network Response Time

NimBUS for Network Monitoring - SLA Creation, Monitoring and Reporting

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring Solution offers a robust SLA creation, monitoring and reporting solution. Quality of Service and performance data collected by the NimBUS for Network Monitoring probes can be leveraged to calculate and report on service level compliance and breaches. All SLA and performance reports are viewable in HTML format via web-browser.

The NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution requires minimal effort for implementation, training, and will not require extensive ongoing maintenance.

If you would like to request a free trial of NimBUS, please click here. For free white papers or additional information click here.

"While building the world class NOC at IBBS, we were determined to find a network monitoring solution that addressed all of our needs, and most importantly, it was easy to install and was priced competitively.

The Nimsoft solution was quite simply a perfect match. It is rich in functionality, easy to get installed and competitively priced. Already, our service level reports have yielded tremendous success and customer satisfaction."

Cedric Brown, Network Operations Director, IBBS.