UK Netcom Ltd Network Management Solutions

Observer Expert

Observer Expert speeds network troubleshooting by proactively identifying network issues and offering immediate solutions. Pinpoint difficult problems through real-time or post-capture Expert analysis.

Observer Expert tracks applications, VoIP traffic, transactions and more across LAN, wireless, gigabit, token ring, and FDDI networks. Observer Expert includes a 64-bit core to maximize 64-bit processing. A 32-bit version is also included.

The Network Instruments’ Distributed Network Analysis architecture, (NI-DNA™), makes Observer unique in network analysis. It’s the only analyzer built from a unified code set, offering scalability and seamless integration across the entire Observer product family. Network administrators need only learn one interface to monitor across multiple topologies, locations, and technologies.

Have 610 Network Experts at Your Disposal

Predict network bandwidth and response time impacts, track and solve application problems, view application session flows graphically, reconstruct data packets, and isolate transaction delay with Observer Expert. Key features are automatically included with Observer Expert:

• VoIP Analysis
• Application Analysis
• Expert Events
• Stream Reconstruction
• NetFlow Data Collection
• Server Analysis
• Wireless Experts

Observer Expert includes all the benefits of Observer Standard plus additional key features for identifying network issues and offering immediate solutions.

Expert Events

Expert is about solving network problems efficiently and effectively. Observer Expert displays protocol and application problems in real time and provides an effective means of discerning between application and network issues. It includes over 610 Experts designed to isolate problems and suggest possible solutions.

Expert Event features:

• Local traffic judged differently than WAN/Internet traffic
• No false readings
• Common services tracked and organized
• Response performance sorted and flagged by severity
• Tracks all port-based protocols for slow response and other issues
• Measures delay to differentiate between network and application problems

Expert Event list:

• TCP
• UDP
• ICMP
• IPX
• NetBios
• Wireless
• VoIP
• NetBeui

Connection Dynamics

Connection Dynamics is unique to Observer and provides a graphical view of system conversations for instant identification of long latency and response times. Retransmissions and lost packets are flagged in red for quick identification. Connection Dynamics is a simple way to easily pinpoint network impediments.

Expert VoIP Analysis

We conveniently include in Observer Expert what other companies charge thousands for. But don’t discount our VoIP analysis—with over 70 VoIP-specific metrics it’s one of the most robust features within Observer. Monitor VoIP connections, save or play voice and video, gather actionable detail and diagnostics, gain high-level traffic summaries and more.

Use the VoIP system to monitor at an aggregate level and drill down to optimize individual communication from one seamless interface.

Application Analysis
Observer Expert’s Application Analysis tracks application communications to easily identify application problems. Obtain statistics on errors, monitor application response time, perform automatic server / application discovery, and obtain up to-the-minute application performance. Observer Expert eliminates your need to purchase a separate application monitoring system.

Application Performance metrics:

• SQL (TDS)
• Oracle (TNS)
• MS Networking (SMB)
• VoIP
• DNS
• FTP
• HTTP
• POP3
• Telnet
• SMTP
• SNMP
• Exchange
• Citrix
• IMAP
• FIX

Observer Standard views and analyzes virtual machines exactly as it would any physical device.

MPLS Analysis

Use Observer to stay on top of migrations to MPLS. Observer gives you a detailed breakdown of your MPLS network so you can pinpoint MPLS problems and measure performance.

MPLS benefits:

• Report on performance before, during, and after the transition
• Isolate MPLS issues quickly
• Track varying MPLS priorities
• Scrutinize SLAs by creating MPLS-specific alarms
• Segment MPLS data by label, CoS (Class of Service), and embedded protocol type

SSL Decryption

Observer decrypts Secure Socket Layer (SSL) data. SSL is used to secure Internet communications, and is also utilized in TCP ports and can transfer files using SFTP or SCP connections. Configure Observer with SSL certificates to decrypt secure data and troubleshoot problems by accessing packet-level detail.

MultiHop Analysis

MultiHop Analysis answers the critical question “Is it the access layer, the core, or my service provider…?” Observer Expert solves network issues caused by network congestion, fragmentation, and packet loss by isolating and identifying transaction problems, delay, and intermittent connectivity. MultiHop Analysis is automated—Observer can start simultaneous packet captures from different network segments and automatically synchronize the buffers to find delay and packet loss.

MultiHop benefits:

• Track conversations through multiple segments, hops, and routes
• Pinpoint and eliminate delay quickly
• Supports up to 10 hops
• Easily see across routers ever time
• Pinpoint bottlenecks
• Verify if 3rd party service providers are performing to their SLA
• Isolate if slowdowns are due to network delay or system processes
• Identify packet loss and location
• Measure one-way, round-trip, and individual hop delay
• Utilize Connection Dynamics to show packet-by-packet, hop-by-hop
• View delay in aggregate with Hop Summary
• Obtain a textual summary display with Summary Statistics
• Can be used across WAN, Ethernet, wireless, and gigabit networks

Stream Reconstruction

Enterprise administrators concerned with forensics, compliance, and security use Observer to capture traffic and recreate communication in an easy-to-read format. Rebuild web pages (including images), reconstruct e-mails, documents, and instant messaging communication to gather hard evidence on network activity. Stream reconstruction can help maintain corporate Internet usage policies, assist law enforcement, and contribute toward Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Complete NetFlow Integration and Data Collection

NetFlow monitors routed traffic on the backplane of Cisco switches and routers. Any Advanced Expert Probe can be configured to aggregate flows from various NetFlow devices on the network and send updated information to an Observer console. The console then displays the NetFlow data, providing Top Talkers, pairs matrix, bandwidth usage, long-term trending, VLAN analysis, and application awareness. Learn more about Observer’s NetFlow and sFlow® data collection capabilities.

Take Advantage of the Industry’s Largest Memory Buffer

Observer offers the largest memory buffer in its class. For 32-bit Windows, use a 4 GB memory buffer. For 64-bit Windows, the buffer expands up to 124 GB. This allows for increased captures and extended time frames for Expert analysis. A user-defined memory mode is available to fine-tune individual usage.

Make Informed Decisions with “What-If” Analysis

Use Observer’s “What-If” Analysis to predict how network changes will affect response times. Track bandwidth capacity changes (e.g. 100 Mb to gigabit), review variable changes (i.e. packet size, packet ratio, users), measure based on actual client, peer-to-peer, or server conversations. “Live-modeling” lets you assess the impact of network or application changes.

Utilize Server Analysis for Measuring Server Response Time

Observer’s Server Analysis displays server response times charted against the number of simultaneous requests. It also charts response time for recorded request sets and as request loads increase.

Is the Problem Sporadic? Find Out with Time Interval Analysis

Use Time Interval Analysis to display network errors according to a time frequency. This helps identify if a problem is sporadic or consistent and shows if a slow response is due to network load.

Stay on Top of Errors with Expert Summary

Expert Summary is an excellent way to track all error events in a single, concise display. It offers the ability to quickly drill-down for further analysis and displays what errors occurred at what time.

Over 50 Wireless Experts for Precise Troubleshooting

Observer monitors wired and wireless networks simultaneously. With more than 50 wireless-specific Expert conditions, Observer isolates and provides solutions to WLAN issues. Receive instant alerts on unknown stations, spoofed MAC addresses, whether an Access Point is using an open system or shared key authentication, whether encryption is enabled or disabled and more. Protect Your Data with Security Decode Controls

For security reasons, Observer allows you to control the decode screen to limit access to confidential data. Limit captures to only a set number of bytes and password protect access to protect your network data from outside consultants or unauthorized users.

System Requirements

Minimum and Recommended System Requirements

The following chart displays recommended Observer Standard, Observer Expert, Observer Suite, and Observer Reporting Server minimum and recommended hardware requirements. As with any high-performance network analysis product, the more RAM, and the faster the processor the better.

The minimum system requirements are:

• Dual core Pentium class processor
• 2GB RAM
• Windows XP

The recommended system requirements are:

• Quad core Pentium class processor
• 8GB RAM
• Windows 64-bit operating system

Observer may run on systems with less power and RAM than those listed above, but Network Instruments does not support configurations with less than the minimum stated requirements.