NMS & APM - unified network, application and infrastructure management

• Operating systems
• Databases
• Web browsers

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• Built-in support for over 3000 network devices, computers, applications and data center infrastructure elements.
• Support for SNMP v1, v2 and v3 and other management protocols such as WMI, RMI, IPMI, telnet/CLI, SQL, MODBUS, shell scripts and others.
• Wide range of built-in sensors including: PING, SNMP PING, SNMP OID, FTP, HTTP/HTTPS, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, WMI, TCP port, DNS, SSH, LDAP, RADIUS, DHCP, NTP, JMX, JDBC and others.

List of supported devices, hosts and applications

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• Automatic discovery of network elements, hosts, applications (e.g. Oracle) and services (e.g. FTP server).
• Default counters, sensors and event processing rules created at discovery.
• Support for partially discovered elements (e.g. a detected Oracle database that requires additional credentials to be fully discovered and managed).
• Multiple network element discovery mechanisms (IP network scan, SNMP scan) with an ability to provide custom, user-defined discovery methods.
• Support for importing devices for discovery from CSV or UNIX hosts files.
• Operator-initiated and background discovery and re-discovery.
• Hierarchical discovery (e.g. when a multi-interface device is discovered all sub-nets on the interfaces are scanned).
• L3 topology discovery based on IP addresses and ARP cache.
• L2 topology discovery based on BFD (Bridge Forwarding Database), CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) and STP (Spanning Tree Protocol).
• Discovery exclusions (e.g. a subnet).
• Discovery of multiple objects on a single IP (e.g. interface, operating system and applications).
• Configurable discovery policies/options, such as discovery of backbone interfaces only, subnetwork scan, discovery of interfaces in down state as unmanaged interfaces, etc.
• Scanning networks with multiple credentials (e.g. multiple SNMP read communities).
• Support for IP multinetting (i.e. multiple IP addresses configured on a single interface).

• Inventory of discovered networks, hosts and applications with compound device support (e.g. a host with interfaces, FTP service and MySQL database server application).
• Network interfaces inventory (managed and unmanaged interfaces, naming interfaces, tracking history of interface status).
• L2, L3 and logical connections and backbone devices.
• Installed software packages for Windows, UNIX (including Linux) and select networking gear (e.g. MRV OptiSwitch firmware).

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• Multiple, user-configurable dashboards - instantly visualize and update status of managed systems.
• Hierarchical view of managed elements such as logical blocks of a service: databases, static content, physical nodes, virtual machines and others.
• Business aspects: logical groupings of other managed objects (hosts, applications, services) making up a business service, with user-defined status calculation rules and access privileges.
• Visualization of L2, L3 and logical connections.
• Visualization of backbone devices.
• Compound devices (e.g. a host with interfaces, a host with applications running).
• Flexible, user-configurable rules for status calculation for compound devices.
• Per node/compound device dashboards in hierarchy views.
• Map views with user defined map backgrounds, zoom, panning, maximizing, icon scaling, alarm tooltips, connection visualization, GPS coordinates and more.
• Auto layout of objects on maps.
• Drag and drop support to build hierarchy and assign elements to view aspects and maps.

• Wide range of built-in sensors including: PING, SNMP PING, SNMP OID, FTP, HTTP/HTTPS, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, WMI, TCP port, DNS, SSH, LDAP, RADIUS, DHCP, NTP, JMX, JDBC and others.
• Custom (module defined) sensors: Oracle instance, MySQL instance, JMX and others.
• Shell script based sensors and counters for creating custom, user-defined sensors. Compatibility with Nagios and Cacti formats allows reuse of Nagios/Cacti scripts/plugins, including support for multiple monitors in a single script.
• Multiple sensor thresholds.
• Multiple levels of response times aggregation.
• Graphical presentation of sensor responses.
• Scheduled and on-demand (operator initiated) sensor probing.
• Per-device intervals for sensors.
• Ability to define custom descriptions of sensor states (e.g. 'Loss of output signal on transmitter' instead of 'Unexpected value') with description propagation to events and alarms.
• Option to temporarily exclude selected devices from monitoring (i.e. disabling all monitors) from the NMS console.
• Ability to duplicate monitor (sensor and counter) configuration to multiple devices via XML file configuration export and import.

• SNMP and syslog collectors.
• RFC 3584-compliant translation of SNMPv1 to SNMPv2 traps.
• Support for SNMP Inform messages.
• User-defined and built-in event processing rules.
• Default device- and application- specific event processing rules automatically configured after discovery.
• A number of built-in event correlation rules such as:
  • De-duplication
  • Pair-wise matching
  • Event dropping
  • Generate/clear alarm
  • Create/resolve incident trouble ticket
  • Execute external command
  • Scheduled maintenance
  • Event transformation (e.g. change severity)
  • Connector down (this rule enables root cause analysis)
• Compound event support (i.e. a user may define conditions on a number of simple events and correlate them into a single one).
• Support for root cause analysis.
• Time rules support such as event frequency.
• Filtering, blocking and event thresholds.
• Conditional monitors to build complex, many-to-many monitor relationships across the network (e.g. stop probing of dependent monitors if master monitor reports a failure).
• Ability to execute automated actions on events in order to implement fault correction or network recovery actions.
• Rule order priority setting.

• Alarm generation based on system events (e.g. traps).
• Fault detection and alarm generation from availability sensors, high/low performance counter thresholds and deviations from baselines.
• Alarm filtering and isolation.
• Diagnostic testing via diagnostic sensors (e.g. Oracle sanity check sensor).
• Automatic calculation of uptime and error statistics for devices, applications and business aspects.
• Ability to execute automated actions on alarms in order to implement fault correction or network recovery actions.
• Rules-based alarm forwarding/handling.
• Alarm notifications (e-mail, SMS, console, sound).
• Alarm forwarding to and synchronization with master Verax NMS systems (umbrella monitoring) and/or Verax Service Desk.
• Full case manager functionality.
• Assignment of alarms (or their groups) to responsible users.
• Automatic clearing of alarm statuses.
• Support for severity levels and escalation chains.

• Performance data collection using various protocols such as SNMP, WMI and others.
• Shell script based performance counters, including support for Nagios and Cacti formats (allows creating custom and reusing plugins/scripts from these systems).
• High and low threshold exceeded alarms, with user configurable thresholds.
• Rich, built-in performance counter template library for typical performance counters such as utilization and error rates.
• Automatic creation of default performance counters for a device type upon discovery.
• Ability to add performance counters from any MIBs loaded.
• Support for 64-bit counters (SNMP and non-SNMP) required for monitoring of high-speed links such as Gigabit Ethernet.
• Graphical representation of performance measurement results.
• Multi-charts for comparing various counters on a single graph.
• GUI management of performance counters (create, delete, modify, suspend and others).
• Multiple aggregation levels for performance data.
• User-configurable retention times for historical data.

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• Individual collection intervals for each defined counter.
• Arithmetic and bitwise operations on performance counters (e.g. link saturation = link speed / bytes transferred).
• Baselining and baseline-triggered alarms (e.g. for ensuring consistent performance levels).
• Predefined and user-configurable usage and performance reports.

• On-screen messages and sound notifications.
• SMS (via gate or modem), e-mail, IM and user-defined notifications with user-defined severity and frequency criteria.
• Notification manager for easy notification configuration.
• Message templates for easy customization of e-mail and SMS notifications.
• Flexible sound configuration:
  • Volume (e.g. various volume levels for alarm severities and types),
  • Ringtone (any MP3 can be used),
  • User-configurable custom sounds for specific alarm types (by OID) or hosts (by address).

Multiple Verax NMS & APM instances can be configured in a tree-like, master-slave, federated umbrella monitoring structure. Umbrella monitoring can be used by:

• Managed service providers for managing their clients' infrastructure with:
  • No client firewall configuration,
  • Low bandwidth required for management,
  • No monitoring agents required on managed client infrastructure,
  • Ability to handle duplicate private IP addresses/networks (e.g. 192.168.x.x at two different client locations).
• Geographically distributed enterprises with multiple branch offices.
• Telecommunications operators to manage regional, state and national networks.

Features:

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• A single master can monitor multiple slaves.
• Monitoring of all or selected objects on a slave (devices, interfaces, applications and/or business aspects).
• A single slave can be monitored by multiple masters; each master can monitor different objects on the slave.
• Unlimited hierarchy depth level.
• Ability to monitor slave systems behind NAT/firewalls with no configuration required on a firewall (P2P firewall traversal functionality).
• Object status, event and alarm forwarding with fully configurable rules (e.g. forward only critical alarms).
• Alarm status synchronization between master and slave (i.e. when an alarm is cleared on a slave, it is also automatically cleared on a master).
• Password-secured master-slave connection.

• Configuration file database (per each device type).
• User or system initiated, configuration save and load operations on a single or a group of devices.

Overview

Verax NMS & APM provides a built-in reporting engine supporting:

• Generation of reports in PDF, CSV or XLS formats.
• Graphically designed report templates.
• Scheduled report generation times (e.g. every Friday at 5PM).
• Configurable report retention times.
• Automatic report distribution via email to configured user groups.
• Support for passing parameters to generated reports such as device lists, time ranges, etc.

Predefined reports

Verax NMS & APM comes with a rich set of predefined report templates (listed below). These reports can be further modified and customized by the end-users.

Sample reports

Please click on the images below to view sample reports.

• Access to Verax NMS & APM views can limited on a user group/aspect basis allowing for:
  • Multi-tenancy: support for many customers each with visibility limited to their own devices.
  • Limiting NOC personnel to view only parts of managed infrastructure they are responsible for.
• Credential manager for secure management of login credentials such as SNMP passwords, WMI logins and others.
• Security profiles associated with each user defining: password strengths, session timeouts, idle timeouts and others.
• Security audit log providing full information on user logins (timestamp, host IP address, success, failure), logouts and denied operations with a graphical interface.
• Event log for tracing system and user events (e.g. new object added, object deleted, etc.).
• Runtime configurable logging & tracing.
• Secure communications bus between client and server, ensuring that all exchanged data is encrypted.

• Software Development Kit (SDK) for custom plugin development. The SDK contains:
  • SDK Guide for developers
  • JavaDoc API documentation
  • Libraries (Java .jars) required to build a plugin
  • Examples (Java source code ready to be compiled)
• Scripted, user-defined rules across the system for elements such as: event correlation, status checking, automated actions and others.
• Open for integration and SOA-ready via RMI and SOAP interfaces.
• Seamless integration with Verax Service Desk for incident- and SLA management.
• Out-of-the-box integration with Verax Workflow for advanced IT automation scenarios.
• Predefined network management and application performance KPIs (key performance indicators) for the Verax KPI Dashboard.

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• Mobile apps for Google Android and Windows Phone.
• HTML interface for Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, Google Android and other smartphones and tablets.

• Easy installation and configuration: no coding/scripting knowledge required.
• Customizable look and feel.
• User friendly, rich GUI based on Rich Internet Application technology.
• Support for full screen mode, high-resolutions, multiple displays and panel hiding - ready to be deployed at Network Operations Centers (NOCs).
• Sound and animation operator feedback.
• Online, contextual help system.
• Multilingual user interface changeable at runtime.
• Filters, incremental search, mini-dashboards, statistics in each main view for maximum operator productivity.
• System log and configurable tracing levels for easy troubleshooting and support.
• Smartphone/tablet access.

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