1. © 2004-2012 NetBrain Technologies Inc. All rights reserved
NetBrain In Action
 Document Automation
 Visual Troubleshooting
 QA Network Changes
Real World Use Cases:

2. Step 1 » Map Application Flows.
Identify the source and destination of a
slow application and enter them into the
traffic path wizard.
Step 2 » Monitor From the Map.
Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s
floating menu, and launch performance
and connectivity diagnosis.
Step 3 » Analyze the History.
Click the “Compare” button to discover
what’s changed in configuration and
routing for the relevant devices.
 Congested WAN links
 High CPU/Memory
utilization of routers
 Unstable routing
 Asymmetric flows
 Speed/duplex mismatch
Performance metrics for an application are visualized in real-time
Challenges:
Solutions:
Common Causes:
 Lack of documentation
and historic data for
applications
 Difficult to visualize
network slowness
 Use Dynamic Diagram to
map out application
flows
 Diagnose from a map
Troubleshoot Slow Applications

3. Step 1 » Map L3 Connectivity.
Enter the IP address of a server in the
“Search” dialog, and click the “Map”
button in the search results.
Step 2 » Map L2 Connectivity.
Click the red “+” sign near the switch icon
and extend the neighboring switches and
routers in the same VLAN.
Step 3 » Launch Diagnostic Monitoring.
Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s
floating menu, and launch performance
and connectivity diagnosis.
 Broken cable
 Switch port in disabled
mode by spanning tree
or error-disable
 Server plugged into
wrong port
 Gateway Router not
functioning
 Misconfiguration
 Link down/flapping
A L2 Heat Map
 No up-to-date documents
about servers’ physical
and logical connectivity
 On-demand document
automation
Challenges:
Solutions:
Common Causes:
Troubleshoot Network Connectivity
A L3 Heat Map

4. Step 1 » Map Out Core Network.
Search the core devices by name and
group them into a device group. Map the
device group via the right-click menu.
Step 2 » Discover Flapping Routes.
Benchmark the routing tables of all core
devices. Then compare new routing tables
against the baseline. Discover modified
routes by smallest age.
Step 3 » Trace to the Source.
Drag-and-drop the route entry to the Q-
map, and trace to the source of instable
routes hop-by-hop.
 Link flapping
 Router CPU overload
 Routing peer reset
 Network worm attack
 Route flapping is
transient in nature –
difficult to catch and
pinpoint root cause
 Use routing table
analyzer
Drag-and-drop the entry to a Q-map
Challenges:
Solutions:
Common Causes:
Troubleshoot Route Flapping

5. Step 1 » Map a MPLS Cloud Network.
Drag-and-drop an MPLS cloud into a map
and extend key devices around the cloud.
Step 2 » Monitor From the Map.
Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s
floating menu, and launch performance
and connectivity diagnosis.
Step 3 » Detect Packet Loss via IPSLA
For advanced performance diagnosis,
right-click on hub routers and select the
IPSLA menu.
 QoS classification errors
 Physical errors at Demac
 Congested MPLS core
 Mismatch of CE-PE
configuration
 No visibility into a service
provider’s MPLS cloud
 Map-driven IPSLA
Toolkit
Challenges:
Solutions:
Common Causes:
Troubleshoot Packet Loss Across MPLS

6. Step 1 » Map Problem Area
Identify the source and destination of a slow
application and enter them into the traffic path
wizard.
Step 2 » Monitor to Identify Over-utilized Links.
Click the “Monitor” button in the map’s floating
menu, and launch performance and connectivity
diagnosis.
Step 3 » Drill-Down the Top-Talkers
Right-click on the utilization label, and select “IP
Accounting” to discover the top-talkers (assuming IP
accounting is turned on in the router).
 Unauthorized network
use
 Looping traffic caused by
misconfiguration
 Virus attack
 Difficult to pinpoint
congested links
 Time-consuming to setup
probes to track down
bandwidth-hogging devices
 Heat Map along with IP
Accounting
Challenges:
Solutions:
Common Causes:
Troubleshoot Bandwidth Hogging

7. Step 1 » Map the Existing Network.
Search devices to be modified and drag them
into a map. Right-click on the map’s “Auto Link”
menu to connect all devices.
Step 2 » Model the Future Network By
Importing Configuration Files
Drag new or modified device configuration files
into a map to model and visualize the future
network design.
Step 3 » Document the Design
Click the “Document” button in the map’s
floating menu and build an automated design
document in Word format.
 Analyze new network
design with Design Reader
 Highlight routing to
visualize design
 Very time-consuming to
document the network
before migration
 No visual help to plan
network migration
 Model network
migration based on
configuration files
Add a new network device
New
Document automation dialog
Challenges:
Solutions:
Related Features:
Plan Network Migration

8. Step 1 » Map the Change Area.
Search devices to be changed and drag
them into a map. Extend all neighbors
of the devices.
Step 2 » Benchmark Network Before
and After Changes
Click the “Benchmark” button, and
collect routing, configuration and L2
data before and after changes.
Step 3 » Verify the Impacts
Click the “Compare Config & Routing”
button, and compute routing table and
config changes for all devices.
 The comparative analysis
of routing, configuration
and traffic path should be
run after most network
changes – because 3 out
of 4 network outages are
caused by seemingly
benign changes
 A small change may cause
major impacts across the
entire network, but it is
difficult to check all
changes manually
 Automate impact
verification after each
network change
Detect routing changes after configuration modification
Challenges:
Solutions:
When to Use:
QA Network Changes to Prevent Outages

9. Step 1 » Discover a Data Center.
Enter a seed router’s IP address in the discovery
dialog and execute a data center discovery.
Step 2 » Map Device Groups by Automation
By combining dynamic search criteria, routers,
switches and servers can be grouped in many
ways to map a data center automatically.
Step 3 » Build Diagrams and Inventory
Reports
Click the “Export to Visio” and “Asset Report”
buttons in the menu bar, and create Visio
diagrams and inventory reports.
 Before and after a data
center upgrade
 Data center assessment
 It takes weeks or months
to discover and document
a data center with tracing
cables, show commands
and Visio
 Advanced discovery and
document automation
Challenges:
Solutions:
When to Use:
Document a Data Center Network

10.  Apply diagnostic
monitoring to VoIP paths
 Automate documentation
for VoIP assessment
 VoIP is very complex and
depends on many
advanced technologies to
work properly
 Automate the analysis
of network design and
performance
IPSLA Measurement
Map VoIP traffic path instantly
Challenges:
Solutions:
Related Features:
Assess a Network for VoIP Readiness
Step 1 » Map Key VoIP Traffic Flows.
Enter IP addresses of IP-phones and
voice gateways into the traffic path
wizard, and map out L3 and L2 traffic
flows for VoIP.
Step 2 » Measure Delay, Jitter and
Packet Loss Along Paths
Launch IPSLA from the map to measure
advanced performance metrics.
Step 3 » Analyze QoS Design
Launch “Design Reader” from the map
to decode QoS and VoIP configuration.

11. Step 1 » Discover Each Network
Independently
Build two workspaces – one for each network
by importing configuration files or through
discovery. Create two asset reports.
Step 2 » Analyze Overlap
Compare the asset reports to find overlapping
subnets and overlapping routing protocols.
Build maps to describe each conflict.
Step 3 » Merge Two Networks Virtually
Use one workspace as the base, open each Q-
map created in step 2 and design migration
steps one map at a time.
 Analyze the new
network design with
Design Reader
 Use Search to find the
information needed
 Two networks were built
without knowledge of the
other, and everything has
to be reevaluated to avoid
conflicts
 Plan the network merge
in a virtual environment
Compare the inventory data of two networks
Challenges:
Solutions:
Related Features:
Merge Two Independent Networks

12. Solutions:
 To visualize a denial-of-
service attack to the
network and servers
 To analyze suspicious
traffic from a vague host
 To isolate virus-infected
end hosts
 Network attacks can come
from anywhere, and they
are difficult to visualize
 Use Dynamic Diagram to
map out attacks and
take defensive action in
real-time
Map the attack from the outside
Challenges:
When to Use:
Defend Against Network Attack
Step 1 » Identify the Offending Hosts
Get the top-talkers from Netflow, IP
accounting or intrusion-detection
software.
Step 2 » Map Out the Attack
Use A/B path mapping or one-IP table to
map out the attack flow, whether it is
from the inside or outside.
Step 3 » Monitor the Traffic Flow
Launch the diagnostic monitoring on the
map and visualize the attack pattern.
Map the attack from the inside

13. Solutions:
 To prepare for CCIE
 To prepare for CCNP
 To prepare for CCNA
 It takes a long time to
become Cisco certified.
People can forget things
learned if not reinforced
properly
 Use NetBrain to
document practice labs
automatically and
review past labs visually
Challenges:
When to Use:
Become Cisco Certified - CCIE/CCNP/CCNA
Step 1 » Use NetBrain for Practice Labs .
Use NetBrain to automatically document practice labs
step-by-step. It’s easier to learn new skills in a map-
driven environment.
Step 2 » Review Essential Skills Through a Map
Along the journey towards certification, users can
review details of past labs without re-building them.
Step 3 » Form a Visual Study Group
Form a study group to share practice labs through Q-
maps so that everyone can save time. Visit network-
diagram.com for examples.