Keeping the performance of your network devices high is challenging. With more connected devices, services and users, networks are being put to the test on a constant basis. It’s important to have monitoring in place so you can catch problems before they spiral out of control.
These challenges become even more apparent when you consider the many different types of network devices out there. For example, routers, switches, and firewalls are all important network components that do specialized jobs. It’s very easy for something to go wrong with any one of these devices at any given time—which is why it’s so important to monitor your network devices and their usage closely.
In this blog post, we will explain the importance of monitoring network devices and share three tips that will help keep your network running smoothly
What is monitoring?
Monitoring refers to the process of collecting information about network devices. There are many different types of monitoring tools. Monitoring is often broken into two categories: Real-time monitoring and historical monitoring. Real-time monitoring refers to monitoring tools that collect data in real time and send it to a central location for review. Historical monitoring refers to data that has been collected at different points in time and stored for future review.
Real-time monitoring systems are designed to quickly flag issues as they arise. This can be a great way to catch a minor network problem before it becomes a major outage that disrupts your customers’ experience. Historical monitoring is best when you want to see and analyze trends over a period of time. For example, you might use this kind of monitoring to see how much bandwidth your network devices are using or which devices are generating the most traffic.
Why is it important to monitor network devices?
Network devices are the gateways for all of your devices on the network. Keeping them running smoothly is key to providing a consistent experience for your users and mission-critical apps. You want to be able to catch network issues before they cause a full-on outage or affect the performance of your network significantly.
If you’re able to catch an issue in its early stages, you can often correct the problem before it becomes a bigger problem. Historical monitoring allows you to look back in time and see how your devices were operating in the past. This can help you identify potential causes and find trends that might help you correct issues in the future. Historical monitoring also lets you see how your network devices are performing in real time. This lets you be proactive about finding problems as opposed to reactive when you’re notified that there’s an issue that needs to be addressed.
3 Tips for Monitoring Network Devices
Choose the right network monitoring system – When you’re selecting a monitoring system for your network, it’s important to choose one that can handle the number of devices you have and the types of devices you have. For example, you may have a mix of routers, switches, firewalls, and other network devices. These devices all have different protocols, data formats, and ways they send information to a monitoring system. Make sure the monitoring system you select can handle the type of data your network devices send.
Keep track of device changes – Be sure to keep track of any device changes that take place on your network. This can include new devices being added, old devices being removed, or device settings being changed. A change in device settings can be an indication that there is a problem with the device. And a new device added to the network may not be authorized.
Know what data to monitor – Different network devices will send different types of data to your monitoring system. Make sure you’re monitoring the right data to get the most value from your network monitoring system. For example, your firewall may send data about network traffic. A switch may send data about network congestion. And a router may send data about latency.
Different tools for different monitoring tasks
There are a variety of tools that can help you monitor different aspects of your network. This list is not exhaustive, but it represents some of the most important tools you should consider when monitoring your network.
- Network monitoring tools – These tools are designed to monitor a network’s health and traffic. This can include monitoring bandwidth, logging network events, and network traffic.
- Firewall monitoring tools – This includes monitoring firewall rules, firewall events (like an alarm going off), and logs.
- Router monitoring tools – This includes monitoring router interfaces and router logs.
- Switch monitoring tools – This includes monitoring switch interfaces, ports, and switch logs.
- Endpoint monitoring tools – This includes software agents that are installed on your endpoints. This data is then sent to a centralized monitoring system.
Conclusion
Monitoring network devices is an important function that can help you spot problems before they become big issues. It can also help you identify potential causes of problems so you can be proactive in correcting them before they become bigger issues.
Real-time network monitoring can help you catch issues quickly, while historical network monitoring allows you to look back at how devices were operating in the past. There are many different tools you can use to monitor your network devices, including network monitoring systems, firewall monitoring tools, router monitoring tools, switch monitoring tools, and endpoint monitoring tools.
