I was recently on a call with a customer who wanted to know which applications use the most bandwidth during working hours—i.e. their top talkers. This gave me a great opportunity to review a specific feature of Flexible NetFlow and AVC integration. I’ve decided to build a small lab with a simple network configuration where I could set up a couple of VLANs, a trunk communication between L2 and L3 devices, and couple of devices. The end goal is to define what host under what VLAN is using what application the most.
Read moreCategory: Network Operations
Monitoring applications with Plixer Scrutinizer
Posted on - by Dylan Mclaughlin
Monitoring applications is a useful tool in the network administrators tool belt and I’d like to go over how Scrutinizer can help monitor your network in both the realm of bandwidth utilization and security alerting. This blog will cover why it is important to monitor applications and the different ways we can gather and report on that information using Scrutinizer.
Read moreIntegrating Plixer and Aruba: sFlow, IPFIX, and ClearPass
Posted on - by Stephen Tutterow
This blog will focus on Plixer’s current capability to extract flow from the different solutions Aruba has to offer today. I will go over the integration steps with Aruba ClearPass and the role we play in an automated role-based access monitoring setup using ClearPass.
Read moreHow to get the best ROI for your SIEM: Tips on picking the right NDR
Posted on - by James Dougherty
Has management made enhancing your network monitoring toolset with an NDR component a priority for the new year? Have the demands of the pilgrimage to a fully remote office shed some light on dark places on your network? Are you concerned that the one thing your significant other wanted for Xmas won’t be available on Amazon? Don’t worry about it—seems like everyone is facing these issues nowadays.
Read moreThe importance of monitoring Windows 10 updates
Posted on - by Timothy Morris
Microsoft has redone their release cycle format, and although it makes things easier for the end user, it can prove difficult to ensure your environment is running the most up-to-date or minimally supported operating systems. Microsoft is now only releasing major feature updates to Windows 10, as opposed to releasing a “Windows 11” or a “Windows 10.1.” Thus it is no longer obvious if an end user is running an outdated operating system. This is a challenge for systems administrators who need to make sure endpoint machines are on the latest Windows 10 update.
Read moreFirst look: Plixer’s machine learning engine explained
Posted on - by Stephen Tutterow
The purpose of this blog is to de-mystify the hype around machine learning (ML) by exploring three topics:
- What kind of ML is Plixer using and why?
- What insights or predictions can be drawn out of NetFlow, IPFIX, and metadata?
- Once applied, how do the results reduce the strain on network and security operations teams?
Returning to normal: monitoring the reintroduction of the workforce
Posted on - by James Dougherty
When this pandemic started and nearly the entire workforce went remote, our focus was to maintain the quality of service outside of what was then normal operations. Although it seems like we still have a long road to travel, we are starting to see signs of progress. Globally, many companies are opening up their offices and giving their employees the choice of working in the office or from home. For network administrators, this adds another layer of headache.
Read moreHome network quarantine project: Ubiquiti NetFlow
Posted on - by Stephen Tutterow
A few years back, Jake Bergeron, one of Plixer’s Sr. Solutions Engineers, wrote a blog about Ubiquiti NetFlow support and how to enable it. This was one of the first things I read as I started to beef up my home lab, because consumer-grade Ubiquiti gear is going to be 3 things:
Read moreHow to avoid NetFlow sampling
Posted on - by Scott
As resource demands and bandwidth speeds in many of today’s network infrastructures continue to increase, many network administrators believe that NetFlow sampling is the only way to deal with the high flow volume sent across the network. In fact, setting a NetFlow sample rate of 1 in 100 can cut flow volumes as much as 50%.
Read moreVeloCloud metadata monitoring in 2020
Posted on - by Stephen Tutterow
I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside two completed VeloCloud deployments over the past 6 months. This blog covers what I’ve learned about the setup and prerequisites within VMware’s VeloCloud interface and Plixer’s Scrutinizer interface for metadata/IPFIX analysis via flow collection. Once setup is complete, I will highlight how Plixer’s Scrutinizer platform uses that data to demystify the process of bandwidth allocation for carrier and edge selection.
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