Network management software doesn’t have to be a headache. Follow along with this tutorial of Auvik’s comprehensive network monitoring software.
Auvik allows you three quick, easy installation options. You’ll have immediate access to network topology mapping along with key performance indicators. Create custom, automated alerts based on your business’s needs. Auvik offers bandwidth stats that allow you to keep your networks up and running through traffic spikes.
Auvik’s cloud-based software simplifies and automates network monitoring and management to boost your IT team’s efficiency and capacity. The next 7 minutes will change the way you view managing the network forever. Let’s get started. Auvik is fast and easy to install on new networks. You can choose from three install options: a virtual machine, a physical appliance, or a lightweight Windows service. Once Auvik is installed, it immediately goes to work. Your network is automatically discovered and fully inventoried. The first thing you’ll see after discovery is the network topology map. It shows you how everything on the network is physically connected at Layer one, and it can also be used to visualize the logical Layer two and Layer three topologies. Once you’ve got the map, you can rollover anything to see some quick details. You can click on any device to drill down, wondering if the device is still supported? Quickly see what’s covered under support contracts and if critical security updates are still available for the device.
As part of its network monitoring functionality, Auvik keeps track of performance metrics and key performance indicators of every device it detects. These are tailored to each entity type. Here we’re looking at a firewall, so we’re seeing things like current uptime, online interfaces, and if you’re approaching a licensing or physical limit on remote access VPN usage.
If you go back to our map and click through on hypervisor, for example, you see things like open alerts, total virtual CPUs, total allocated memory, and visibility into any failed hardware components. Underneath the high-level KPIs are detailed performance and health statistics for the device. You can also roll over the charts for quick detailed data points. You can change the time frame. You’re looking at the date selector up here. Right now we’re looking at the last 10 minutes, but we can change that to, say, the last month. Stats are kept for as long as you have your account. So over time, you build an extremely rich data archive.
Need to dive deeper? You can do that in Auvik too. ISP performance metrics? Yup. Interface bandwidth stats? You bet. Dreaded packet loss? No problem. Historical VPN usage? For sure. Wireless clients buy access points? Absolutely. It’s all here. Another big timesaver is Auvik’s alerting, which comes with more than 50 pre-configured and customizable alerts directly out of the box. You can easily see all the alerts that are enabled. If you want you can edit any of these alerts to better match a specific site. You can also create your own custom alerts. There’s no limit to the number of alerts you can create and define. Receive your alerts however you’d like: through email, Slack, or Microsoft teams or through your favorite ticketing systems like ServiceNow, ConnectWise, Autotask, or Freshdesk.
Of course, automated configuration backup can save your team a lot of time and effort. Let’s go back to a switch for a minute and click on the configuration tab. Auvik automatically captures and documents the configuration of nearly every network device. You can see this is the running config of our switch right here. It automatically detects configuration changes, makes it back up, and stores the version history. You can go back and look at any of these past versions just by clicking on them. Want to see what’s changed? It’s easy. You can also type configurations really quickly, like this. Need to rollback a config change? Click on the version you want to restore, head over to managed configurations and select restore, or simply export the configuration from Auvik and follow the devices restore process. Done. Auvik configuration features make it dead simple to follow best practices about infrastructure backups. And because everything is automated, it takes no technician time to do it.
Another place Auvik can save you a tonne of time is troubleshooting, especially remote troubleshooting, so you can really cut down on unscheduled onsite visits. Starting at the map, you can quickly zero in on devices, interfaces, whatever you need to see to kick start your troubleshooting process. In Auvik, you have the option to use Auvik TrafficInsights for network traffic analysis, which gives you even more information to help you troubleshoot network performance issues.
Auvik analyzes network flow data using machine learning to show you which applications like Dropbox, Netflix, or Slack are being used on the network and who is using it. In the timeline chart along the bottom, you can see when network traffic was spiking and which applications were behind the spike. You can also view this data in real time or retroactively investigate a spike. In the Top End view, you can see the top addresses, conversations, and ports contributing to your network traffic. With the geolocation view, you can see where in the world traffic is coming from or going to. This data is visualized as a world map. You can narrow down the source or destination to a specific country by applying a filter. Here I’m selecting Canada. I can now see traffic details specific to that country. Auvik also centralizes syslog data for all your devices across all your sites.
From the device dashboard, you can easily search and filter logs to identify the root cause of a network issue, and you can export logs to a CSV file and send them to the device manufacturers technical support team or attach the file to a ticket in your PSA or ITSM. If you find you need to log into a device to address an issue, no problem. You can remotely access just about anything on the network without leaving Auvik. SSH or TELNET-enabled devices can be accessed through the in-app terminal. We do a quick check to make sure it’s still you at the keyboard, then issue a blind log in with a known device credentials. You’ll note that we didn’t even need to set up a VPN or know the IP address of the device. It’s all point and click. Devices with a web interface can be accessed through the remote browser feature. And with remote tunneling, you can access any service on any port, on any device managed by Auvik without being in the same room.
Are you like most network admins and have many sites to manage? Auvik has you covered here too. The multi-site dashboard in Auvik is where you can see all the networks you manage in a single glance. The rollup dashboard and a map-centric view of each site lets you quickly switch between networks and orient yourself to each environment in seconds. You can dive into a specific site with one simple click. Need to keep an eye over all your managed networks simultaneously? Auvik has global views to do just that. With Auvik’s global alert view, you can view, search, filter, and manage alerts centrally without having to drill into individual sites. With one click, you can access alert details and navigate to the specific device. With Auvik’s global inventory view, you can search and filter for devices across sites. This view is especially useful when a vulnerability is discovered, as you can quickly identify all devices of the affected make and model across all sites.
And that’s it for this video, this quick tour of Auvik’s network management software. We looked at how Auvik’s automatic mapping and inventory, alerting, troubleshooting, and remote access features can save you a ton of time to try all of Auvik’s features for yourself. Sign up for our free 14-day trial.