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Device & Port Utilization Heatmap Widget

 

The Device & Port Utilization Heatmap widget provides a graphical view of device port utilization percentage. The heat map represents each device as a color-coded box. The color coding indicates the overall level of port utilization on a device. Cooler colors (for example, green) indicate lower port utilization , while hotter colors (for example, red) indicate higher port utilization.

You can view the utilization level for each port on a device by clicking on the box representing the device. A heat map is displayed that represents each port on the device as a color-coded box, with the color coding representing the level of port utilization.

Using the Global Controls

Use the controls in the upper right corner to make global changes to how the device and port heat maps are displayed. You can:

  • Select the time period over which device utilization and port utilization are shown.

  • Display information about the devices or the ports in either graphical heat map or tabular format by clicking either (graphical) or (tabular).

  • Select how to organize the heat map by clicking the Settings icon (), and then selecting an option from the Group Devices By list. Each option creates a different view of the heat map, with device boxes grouped according to your selection.

Interacting with the Heat Maps

You can interact with the device and port heat maps as follows:

  • If you have grouped the devices by location, you can drill down into the heat map’s hierarchy by clicking one of the device container names (for example, a site or building). To move back up the hierarchy, click the navigation arrows above the heat map.

  • Mouse over a device box to see detailed device-level port utilization information in a pop-up window. In the pop-up window, you can click the View top 5 ports link to view the top five ports that use the most bandwidth on the device.

  • Click on a device box to display a heat map of the ports on the device. In this port-level heat map, each port is represented by a box that is color-coded to show its level of utilization. To return to the device view, click the navigation arrows above the heat map.

  • Mouse over a port box to display information about the port—such as port name, status, speed, and percent utilization—in a pop-up window. For ports on devices that support Cloud Analytics Engine, you can view any existing flow analysis results on flows through the port by clicking View active flows through this link. See Viewing Active Flows on a Port for more information.

  • Slide the circular controls along the bar under the heat map to Filter the devices or ports shown in the heat map by degree of port utilization..

Viewing Active Flows on a Port

For devices that support Cloud Analytics Engine, you can view the results of the most recent flow analysis traces on application flows on the port by mousing over the port and clicking View active flows through this link. The Current Active Flows window is displayed.

The Current Active Flows window lists only application flows for which flow analysis traces exist—there might be other active application flows on the port that are not shown. Each flow is uniquely defined by source IP address and TCP/UDP port, destination IP address and TCP/UDP port, and transport protocol. Table 1 describes the fields in this window.

Table 1: Fields in the Current Active Flows Window

Field

Description

Source IP

Source Port

Source IP address and source TCP/UDP port for the flow. In the case of a flow between two VMS, the IP address is the source VTEP address.

If the port is associated with a well-known service, the service name is also shown.

Destination IP

Destination Port

Destination IP address and destination TCP/UDP port for the flow. In the case of a flow between two VMS, the IP address is the destination VTEP address.

If the port is associated with a well-known service, the service name is also shown.

Protocol

Either TCP or UDP.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth used by the flow. This is a count of the number of packets through the port for the flow up to this point in time.

For a value to be displayed in this field, flow analysis must have been performed on flow with the Capture Bandwidth option enabled.

Flow Analysis

Click View Results to see the results of the most recent flow analysis trace. The Flow Analysis Details window opens.

Note: The View Results link is not available for VM to VM flows.

Flow Analysis Details Window

The Flow Analysis Details window provides detailed information about a flow trace.

The Flow Analysis Details window is divided into three sections:

  • The flow path diagram—This diagram shows the path taken by a probe through the network. By default, the path shown is the path taken by the probe that experienced the highest per-hop latency in the trace. You can change this diagram to reflect the path taken by a different probe by selecting the probe from the top Latency Trend chart.

  • Latency Trend charts—These charts show the change in latency experienced by the probes during the trace. The bars in the top chart are grouped by completed probes, with each bar in a probe group representing the latency experienced by the probe at a hop. By clicking on a probe group, you can change the flow path diagram and the Analysis Results section to reflect the results of that probe. For traces of long duration, the bar chart shows only a portion of the trace results.

    The bottom area chart graphs the highest latency experienced by each probe over the entire duration of the trace. You can use the provided controls to focus on a portion of the trace—the portion you choose is reflected in the top bar chart. By default, the focus is on the portion of the trace that had the highest latency. If the trace is ongoing, a rotating circle appears at the end of the plotted area and the chart is periodically refreshed to show new results.

    Both charts display a path change icon () when the path a probe takes through the network differs from the path taken by the previous probe.

  • Analysis Results—This section provides details about the overall trace results and about the selected probe:

    • The Latency table provides overall latency information for the trace: the highest and lowest latency experienced at a single hop and the average latency of all hops.

    • The Latency for Selected Path table shows the latency experienced by the selected probe at each hop.

You can perform the following actions in the Flow Analysis Details window.

General actions:

  • For bidirectional traces, you can select the direction for which you want results by clicking one of the arrows at the top of the window (these arrows do not appear for unidirectional traces).

  • To stop an active flow analysis, click Stop Flow Analysis at the bottom of the window. When you stop an active flow analysis, the results up to the time you stopped the flow analysis are retained and the previously active trace is marked as complete.

On the flow path diagram, you can:

  • Reposition the topology diagram by dragging it or reposition devices by dragging them.

  • Zoom in or out by clicking the plus or minus signs on the left.

  • Mouse over the link connecting two devices to get the connecting port names. The names are displayed in green if the link is up and in red if the link is down.

  • Mouse over a device to view details about the device, such as name, connection state, and IP address. The details shown depends on the device type.

    If a device in the flow path does not support Cloud Analytics Engine, it is shown in the diagram in light grey color and minimal details, such as IP address, are available.

  • Display the traffic statistics for switches by mousing over the device to display the device details and clicking the Show Traffic Data link. If you selected the Capture Bandwidth option when you started the flow analysis, the flow bandwidth is also displayed along with the traffic statistics.

  • Display the active flows associated with a VM, BMS, or virtualized host by mousing over the device and clicking Show Active Flows in the details box.

On the Latency Trend charts, you can:

  • Mouse over a bar group in the top bar chart. A pop-up box displays the latency figures for each hop taken by the probe.

  • Click a bar group in the top bar chart. The flow path diagram and the Analysis Results change to reflect the information for the probe.

  • Mouse over a path change icon in the top bar chart. Information about the old and new paths is displayed.

  • Change the span and position of the focus indicator on the bottom area chart:

    • To increase or decrease the time span of the focus—in other words, to zoom in or zoom out on a portion of the trace—click on one of the handle controls () and move it in either direction.

    • To change the focus to another time period, click on the arrows at either end of the slider bar.