Our international mining client operates four mines across Western Australia. The distributed network infrastructure supporting the mining operations and the metro headquarters demands close monitoring to ensure any downtime is kept to a minimum. Techniche Statseeker Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) is an important tool for monitoring network availability across the organisation.
“The mines don’t stop; they are a 24/7 operation. Consequently, the network must also be ‘on’ 24/7. Statseeker plays an important role in monitoring our links and devices at these sites.”– Network Engineer
For many years the network team had been using the open-source graphical network mapping tool, Network Weathermap (PHP Weathermap), to stay on top of their critical links from the mines back to the head office. However, pressure from the business to shift from end-of-life products, coupled with the overhead of a separate server, meant the team was acutely aware this set-up needed improvement.
“We wanted one system to do everything. Our open-source tool was out-of-date, and so from a security perspective we needed to move.” – Network Engineer
Statseeker NPM Image Map panel allows users to upload a network schematic or to create a specific network topology view by adding nodes and link lines. Users can choose the data connected to these entities for near real-time data changes, and then manage how changes appear using icons and threshold colouring rules. (For more detail click here)
A project was initiated to migrate the live network diagrams to Statseeker NPM Image Map panels.
The main requirements were to have the ability to display:
- CPU load on nodes for site-specific device health, and
- Link lines between devices showing critical transmitted bits per second (Tx Bps) throughput and link outages.
One of the benefits of Statseeker NPM Image Map is the ease of editing the Image Map panels. Nodes and links can be easily rearranged, saving the network team time when editing.
The team set up important workflows between panels to use both in their NOC and by regional teams. User controls give management and site users the ability to drill down to their relevant data quickly.
“We now have a series of Image Map panels with drilldown links. This means a site is represented by a single node with a drilldown to that site map. We’ve also given the IT staff at each site access to their own custom, site-specific dashboard and maps. This helps a lot with local troubleshooting.” – Network Engineer
Having a central reporting, mapping and alerting solution means the network team can respond quickly to link outages or issues.
The node icons have also proven useful during an upgrade to fibre to indicate where microwave links are still in place.
After a period of transition, the network team has now fully adopted the Statseeker NPM Image Map panels as a key component of their network monitoring operation.
“We have switched off our previous tool and have fully migrated to Statseeker NPM Image Map. The network mapping functionality within Statseeker NPM is delivering what we had before, and much more, with greater ease of use and a quicker reaction time to link issues.” – Network Engineer
Next steps …
Techniche Statseeker NPM helps MSPs, businesses and government organizations meet their real-time network performance requirements.
Read how Statseeker NPM helps one customer monitor their network performance in remote locations and harsh climate conditions.
If you’d like to try Techniche Statseeker NPM for 45 days at no cost, request a trial here.