Foglight for Infrastructure 5.9.2 - Infrastructure Utilities User Guide

Tracing data packets between monitoring locations and network devices

When you monitor a network device from a monitoring location, the monitoring agent sends a configured number of data packets to the device. The complete path of each data packet, from the monitoring location to the network device, represents a route. On the way to its destination, a data packet often runs through a number of other devices, so the route consists of one or more hops, where each device it passes through is counted as one hop.

The Trace Result view allows you to trace a route between a monitoring location and a network device, and review the time a data packet spends at each individual hop. This can help you investigate signs of performance degradation. For example, if your system reports higher than usual response times and frequent time-outs, you can trace the route of data packets to determine what is causing the bottlenecks.

Another example is when a device ping times out, this may be related to a possible wrong network route which can be seen on this page. For instance, if the expected trace route consists of ten hops, but the trace route in the chart appears to consist of five hops, you can identify the IP address associated with the broken hop in the chart. This can help you to quickly identify the root cause of a broken network.

For complete details about the data appearing on this view, see Trace Result view.

IMPORTANT: If the trace route option is disabled in the device settings (see Viewing and editing individual network device details), this page is not populated with data. You can quickly execute a trace route in real time on this page by clicking Trace Route Now.

Exploring the FAQ tab

The FAQ tab available on the Performance Browser allows you to look at frequently asked questions about your monitored devices and review the answers. The Categories view shows several question categories. Selecting a category shows the questions belonging to that category in the Questions pane. From there, clicking a question shows the answer on the right.

Generating reports

Foglight Net Monitor supports the report generation ability. This allows you to create reports using a set of predefined templates to report on the various aspects of your monitored environment. Foglight Net Monitor includes a collection of predefined report templates.

You can generate, copy, and edit reports using the Reports dashboard included with the Foglight Management Server. For more information about this dashboard, see the Foglight User Help.

Configuring the agent properties

The Net Monitor Agent collects data about monitored network devices and sends it to the Management Server. Monitoring agents keep track of resource utilization metrics and alert you when certain pre-defined thresholds are reached.

When an agent connects to Foglight, it is provided with sets of properties that it uses to configure its correct running state. Each agent is provided with a combination of two types of properties: agent properties and shareable properties.

Default versions of these properties are installed with Foglight for Net Monitor. However, you can edit the default shareable and agent properties, configure agent properties that apply only to a specific agent instance, and create edited clones of shareable properties that are used by a subset of agents of a certain type.

For complete information about working with agent properties, see the Administration and Configuration Help.

IMPORTANT: Another way of editing agent properties is through the Agent Properties dashboard. The properties you specify on this dashboard apply to all instances of the selected agent type, excluding any of the existing agents. To be certain that you are editing the properties of a particular agent instance and to prevent overwriting of properties of another agent instance, use the Agent Status dashboard instead of the Agent Properties dashboard.