Network Instruments Observer Core Features

Observer exists to help you better know, optimize, and repair your complex network. To do so requires complete visibility into your network and the devices residing on it. Observer Standard delivers just that: full network visibility.

What's New in Observer 15

Download Observer 15 New Features

The newest Observer platform brings together the latest in application monitoring on the technologies that you care about. From complete video monitoring support, to tracking end-user experience without adding agent weight, Observer 15 has it all.

Take advantage of these new features:

• Ensure great video experiences whether monitoring desktop, conference room, or telepresence calls
• Validate performance for Microsoft UC
• Simplify tracking of end-user experience with out-of-the-box reports
• Debug, resolve, and monitor IBM WebSphere MQ
• Verify multicast streams as well as gauge the impact of microburst
• Enhance capture and monitoring performance, flexibility, and scalability with the newly redesigned Gen2 capture cards
• Reduce overhead and bandwidth by completely shifting analysis from the console to the probe
• Simplify application discovery and monitoring with centralized application maps
• Export selected captures within Observer and GigaStor to external analysis and security solutions

Video Visibility

Observer VoIP analysis ensures stellar voice performance. Network Instruments has done it again with their incorporation of video and new grading system. Observer can verify desktop video, larger video conferencing tools, and high-end telepresence systems. Use Observer 15 to monitor activity, confirm quality, and troubleshoot issues while replaying the actual video call. Quantify video application health and grade video traffic.

• Validate video and telepresence performance
• Make sense of video traffic and quantify user demand independently and within the context of other network traffic
• Immediately resolve issues impacting video quality
• Ensure maximum ROI for your most important video deployments

Unify UC Visibility and Management

Is precedence set correctly? Are there call manager issues? Is network contention impacting VoIP? Observer 15 now provides support for Microsoft UC.

• Get complete Microsoft UC visibility
• Quantify end-user experience and optimize service delivery
• Complement with monitoring of MS Lync Server and related UC devices via OI 3.0

Get the User's Perspective

Observer 15 stays a step ahead of end users. Take advantage of high-level views and detailed out of box reports to manage end-user experience. Drill down to specific conversations and event details for immediate problem resolution. Observer 15 also completes the analysis without the use of agents, saving bandwidth and overhead.

• Quantify the health of apps from the user's perspective
  
• Use out-of-the-box reports that are ready to go
  
• Quickly assess problem severity and users impacted
  
• Navigate to the source problem with logical workflows
  
• Proactively resolve problems before they impact users

Manage IBM WebSphere MQ performance

Observer 15 now provides monitoring for IBM WebSphere MQ that brings together the largest multi-tier applications at enterprise companies.

• Monitor MQ health to validate and optimize MQ performance
• Achieve full visibility of middleware apps
• Improve overall service health by understanding how MQ runs within the app environment
• Complement with monitoring of IBM Websphere MQ via OI 3.0

Milliseconds is Money

For IT teams dealing with high-frequency or automated trading, knowing and ensuring what is happening is critical to operations. Observer 15 now includes multicast analysis as well as enhanced microburst detecting, reporting, and alarming.

• Confirm multicast streams are properly sent and received
• Summarize streams or market feeds and perform analysis using GigaStor
• Understand impact and frequency of microburst activity
• Baseline microburst activity and be alerted to degrading performance

Optimized Architecture

Network Instruments’ signature Gen2 capture card leads again by providing the highest port density available. Gain greater capture flexibility, investment protection, and superior scalability. Benefit from unparalleled scalability with one system that can go from 2 to 12 ports.

• Faster and more flexible 1 and 10 Gb packet capture and retrospective network analysis
• Synchronized hardware-accelerated filtering for up to 12 ports
• Flexible hardware deduplication (100% dedup efficiency, no latency introduced)

Analyze at the Probe

The Observer platform has always treated the network with respect by sending only the minimum amount of traffic required for analysis. With Observer 15 our development team has made an architectural leap by virtually eliminating all analysis traffic from the network. This reduces infrastructure overhead and simultaneously provides more scalability. Observer platform users can now add more points of visibility without impacting network traffic.

This allows for:

• Increased scalability in enterprise environments
• 97% reduction in overhead and bandwidth
• Ideal for the world’s largest analysis deployments

Too Many Apps, Too Much Confusion?

Let us do the work for you. Make sense of the apps on your network by using Observer to create a corporate app map. We use predictive discovery to find apps and provide a confidence level score.

• Streamline the process of managing apps across the network
• Easily customize maps to include internally-designed apps
• Import app list into NIMS to propagate to all analysis devices

Third-Party Analysis

Using multiple tools to manage and investigate performance issues on the network? Observer 15 now supports third-party analysis capabilities by exporting captures from Observer and GigaStor to external analysis and security solutions.

• Mine data and automatically launch analysis of data within third-party tools alongside Observer analytics.
• Observer and GigaStor captures can be sent to IPS/IDS and security devices, compliance and forensic tools, and other network analyzers

Superior Packet Capture and Decode

• Decode over 610 protocols and countless sub-protocols (including wireless)
• Nanosecond resolution provides precise analysis
• Schedule automated packet captures to solve recurring issues

Network Reporting and Trending

• Collect and store data for long-term reporting and analysis
• View and analyze Internet traffic over time
• Justify capacity upgrades with Comparison Analysis Reports

Complete Vital Signs Display

• Comprehensive snapshot of error conditions ranked by severity
• Wireless-specific errors (e.g. retries, CRC, short PLCP, transmit errors)

Powerful Packet Filtering Features

• Include/exclude packets by address, address range, protocol offsets and presets; use Boolean logic to create complex filters
• Design filters visually with enhanced graphical interface
• Instantly create protocol filters selected from Protocol Distribution list
• Execute multiple filters concurrently
• Share complete filter libraries with other Observer users
• Utilize data mining capabilities to search multiple files for any user-defined filter

Over 30 Real-Time Statistics for Deeper Understanding

• View comprehensive snapshot of network health with Network Summary
• Use Internet Observer to track conversations of interest
• View access point utilization with Wireless Access Point Load Monitor
• See all protocols and applications with Protocol Distribution
• Predict imminent slowdowns with Network Activity Display
• Scan wireless channels continuously with Wireless Site Survey
• Use Router Observer to display utilization rates
• See bandwidth usage by host with Top Talkers