Monitoring with Central
The HPE Aruba Networking Central application provides a modern, data-rich network management platform with AI-augmented operations for an efficient and comprehensive operator experience. This version of Central includes many user interface updates and improvements to increase the accessibility of endpoint and infrastructure performance data from both a global network perspective, as well as by site or device.
This chapter details the robust monitoring capabilities available within the Central application. It includes an exploration of the Network Overview (NOC View), the Site Dashboard, and the various operational views such as Health Metrics and Topology. In addition, an overview of the integrated Insights and Alert Management system provides information on gaining deep operational insight into network and security infrastructure managed with Central.
Table of contents
Network Overview
The Network Overview (NOC View) screen displays a summary of the state of the entire managed infrastructure. This is the first view the operator sees upon logging in to Central .
Each card within the Network Overview presents a unique set of data related to the organization. Most cards within this view contain a two-way arrow in the upper right corner for expansion of that card, which offers a different data visualization specific to that card’s function.
Many of the data elements in bold case can be selected for more information. For example, in the image above, Clients in the Alerts card, or Access Point Firmware Recommendation in the Insights card provides more detailed context of the selected object.
Clicking on the house icon in the upper left hand corner always returns to this Network Overview page.
Sites Card
Working from left to right within the Global Network Overview page, the Sites card lists the first 10 sites in an organization and provides summarized health state for each site. To see all sites for this organization, click on the two-way arrow to expand the card. Upon expansion, a new sites view is presented, with the ability to scroll through the whole site list:
Use the table menu in the upper right corner to customize the columns displayed in the table.
From this Sites page, perform the following actions:
- Click a site name to open the site’s dashboard and learn about specific monitoring and operational details related to that site.
- Click on a Device Health number for a specific site to learn more about the devices at that site. The operator is presented with insights regarding device status, reasons for poor health , their MAC and IP address, their model, serial number and uptime.
- Click on a Client Health number for a specific site to learn more about the clients at that site. The operator is presented with client status, wireless or wired connectivity, the client MAC and IP address, and client VLAN/role.
Each of these more detailed screens provide the ability to customize the columns displayed in the table. Table column customization is cookies-based, and may persist differently depending on the browser.
Hover over a particular row for a site, turning the row gray. Click anywhere within the grey to produce an overlay side panel for further information about the site:
Configuration Health
The Configuration Health card provides information regarding the status of configuration syncronization between the devices and the HPE Aruba Networking Central cloud platform. Clicking on any of these three bolded keywords will show details about devices in that state:
- Out of Sync provides further insight when the configuration on the device itself does not match what is on Central. Clicking on this data element will offer recommended actions to remedy error conditions.
- Synchronized signifies a healthy device where configuration is properly synced between the device and Central.
- Update in Progress, while not visible in this card, is a transient state that may appear when devices are in the process of being updated. For larger networks, this state may persist for a longer period of time, but still should be transient/temporary.
- Synced with Limitations indicates the synchronization completed, but certain limitations were encountered that should be reviewed and addressed, resulting in incomplete network configuration. Clicking on this bolded statement reveals the following screens and hones in on the cause.
Client Health
The Client Health card summarizes the number of clients connected to the network, indicates the quantity of both wired and wireless, and the status of their general health. For additional information, expand this card using the two-way arrow. From the expanded card, further explore client information per site by clicking on the site name, or on an individual number for the wired or wireless clients.
Device Health
The Device Health card displays the summarized health status for all devices in the organization according to device type.
Expanding the card shows a table with detailed site, device type, and device health status information.
Click the site name to open the site dashboard, or click on any number from the above screen in Central to show the devices that match the selected device type, status, and site criteria.
Device Inventory
The Device Inventory card displays a visualization of the device types deployed in the organization. Click the number above Devices inside the ring to open the Device table for the organization. Click the number below Require Site Assignment to open the Device table, filtered for unassigned devices.
Alerts
The Alerts card aggregates active alerts by categories. Use the two-way arrow to view a full display of all active alert types, and how many sites they affect. Or, click on any category from the Alerts card to assess the specific alerts for that category.
Client Onboarding
The Client Onboarding card is a very powerful tool with many insights relating to the initial connectivity of devices across the organization. It breaks down the connectivity steps as potential areas of success/failure for onboarding. This tool is also featured in the Site Dashboard section providing the same level of detail on a site basis. Note the timeframe in the upper right hand corner of this card - it can be adjusted from 3 hours to a full day, 7 days, or 30 days of history.
The above card notes an association or authentication problem is present.. Clicking the expansion arrow further aids in troubleshooting. In this scenario, the power of this tool is in play to further drill into the failed associations. The screen below shows one site is largely responsible for the high number of association errors (Bengaluru BLR - Branch site):
Clicking on the Go To Trend View in the bottom right hand corner illustrates another view that shows the failed attempts are associated with a specific set of users/MAC addresses, while another specific set succeeds. This provides only an introduction to the type of information that could be useful to a Network Operator.
Insights Card
The Insights card displays a summary of recommendations for performance optimizations, based on AI-driven insights informed by HPE’s high-scale data lake, which is sourced from thousands of networks managed by Central.
Expanding the card shows a global view of the insights currently available for the organization.
Insights are listed and summarized in the left column. Click an insight to display a site list on the right showing the sites affected by this particular insight. Click on a site name to open the insights page for that site and view the details of each recommendation.
Licenses
The Licenses card provides information about the license consumption across the organization. Click on each license type for details about the subscription keys and the license usage associated with each key.
Site Dashboard
The Site dashboard provides an overview of health and performance state for a site managed by Central. It is the starting point for most monitoring or troubleshooting activities and provides summary status for all the site’s critical operational attributes.
On the left side of the site dashboard is the Solar System, a unique and efficient visualization of the summary state of the network, associated clients, application performance, security state, and related alerts. Each set of data is organized as a “planet” while the site itself is represented as the “Sun”.
Tools
Within the site or “sun” of the solar system is a wrench and screwdriver icon for accessing the Tools menu for further troubleshooting. This Tools menu provides access to testing tools such as ping, traceroute, and speedtest. It also contains remote console for devices, as well as access to more traditional show command output for advanced troubleshooting.
Site Specific Cards
From the main Site Dashboard for any given site, cards similar to the Global Network Overview Dashboard are present, with data specific for that site. The Health card combines Device Health and Client Health for a site, and offers a brief snapshot regarding the overall health:
The Client Onboarding card is similar to the Global Network Overview Dashboard card, but with data focused for the selected site. This card is equally as powerful as its global counterpart, and proves very useful in troubleshooting site problems.
The Insights card is expandable, itemizing important network information for the site in focus. Below illustrates the expansion of this card to view detailed site-specific recommendations related to improving efficiency, performance, and function on the network.
The Usage card provides a snapshot of the site network usage via both Throughput and Clients. Hover anywhere in the graph to obtain specific details at a point in time.
The Properties card contains the address and timezone for this site:
Planets
Click a planet within the Solar System to go to a dedicated dashboard presenting data related to that specific topic. Clicking any planet repositions that planet to the center of the Solar System, revealing additional section-specific planets.
The Network planet opens the Devices table, which displays a unified list of network devices assigned to the site.
To obtain a summary view of the devices, select the arrow icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This view offers additional information such as the top access points in use at the site, the radios activated, and assigned WLANs. Hover over any element on this summary view to provide knowledge enrichment of the active site state.
The Clients planet opens the Clients table showing a unified list of the site’s associated clients.
Similar to the Network Devices output above, select the arrow icon in the upper right hand corner for additional client information at this site.
The Applications planet lists all the applications accessed by clients connected to network devices in the site.
More detailed application usage is displayed by clicking the arrow in the upper right hand corner. Doing so produces the following insights regarding the applications in use at this site. Another useful feature regarding the application usage is the ability to adjust the timeframe to either 3 hours, 1 day, 7 days, or 30 days.
The Security planet displays data related to the current security state of the clients and devices in the site. While not illustrated here, the filter feature, combined with the appropriate timeline, provides focus on specific security anomalies.
The Alerts planet lists all client- and device-related alerts for the site.
Alerts can make use of the filter feature, combined with specific timelines:
Each table accessed from the site dashboard planets is customizable. Use the table menu to customize the table columns. Populate and sort the table dynamically with the criteria selectors, filter tool, and search capabilities.
View Selector
Central provides many useful site views accessed from the View Selector located in the upper right hand corner of the Site Dashboard.
The views include:
- Site Dashboard are described in detailed throughout this page.
- Health Metrics provide a health timeline for the site, with access to the Events recorded, as well as other data views.
- Location utilizes GPS to configure a physical location for the site.
- Topology is a network diagram of the devices on the network and their physical/logical relationship to other devices.
- Configuration is the starting page for configuration element profiles.
Note: Some of the views are still a work in progress for Central. In particular, the Health Metrics, Location, and Topology are in active stages of development, and further functionality will be incorporated as it becomes available.
The Site Dashboard view was described in detail above. Brief descriptions of the other views follow.
Health Metrics
Health Metrics is the gateway to overall Health visuals of the site. The views can be adjusted for timeframes, including 30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, 1 day, 7 days, and 30 days. Additionally, there is a custom time range feature. Of key importance to the Health Metric view is access to the Events viewer for the site, illustrated below.
For the monitoring and troubleshooting of larger sites or longer timeframes, the Filters feature is a powerful tool to focus on a particular alert or set of alerts. The filters can be selected by Event Name, Category, Source Type, Event ID, or any combination of those fields. Perform additional timeline tuning at the Filter page as well.
Location
The Location view provides location details such as address and assigned devices. Additional features will be added to this view to provide a comprehensive summary of site state.
Topology View
The Topology view presents the devices in the network based on their physical and logical connectivity to other devices. The visualization provides additional information by hovering over devices. Other useful features include a hand to move the topology image, or a +/- for zooming in and out. Clicking on a specific device in question opens a side bar with insights regarding that device. Clicking on the Layers icon in the bottom right hand corner, symbolized by 3 small layered squares, allows for further customization of the view, including the ability to toggle between device function and health, speed and health, and the preference for showing access points and/or device names.
Configuration View
The Configuration view opens the configuration library at the site level. When working with Central configuration profiles, it is important to recognize the working level of the hierarchy. Configuration view and the Central configuration element profiles are detailed in the Central Configuration Model chapter.
Alert Management
Alert Management is accessed by clicking on the two-rectangle icon in the upper left hand corner of either the Network Overview Dashboard, or from any Site Dashboard.
In the Alerts Management card, click Manage to change system alert settings or create new custom alerts. Hover the mouse cursor over a row to access the edit, disable, and reset commands for existing alerts. Click the Create Alert button to create a new, custom alert.
Refer to Configuring Alerts in the online help for details on alert configuration parameters.