Troubleshooting with Central
This chapter provides a practical example of how to use the powerful troubleshooting capabilities of HPE Aruba Networking Central to identify, analyze, and resolve issues on a campus network. Using real-time alerts, event correlation, and targeted diagnostic tools, network operators can accelerate root cause analysis and improve user experience.
Table of contents
Troubleshoot User Experience
The most important function of a modern network management platform is to empower the operator to efficiently and accurately identify the cause of any reduction in the quality of user experience on the network.
Alerts
Data-rich alerts provide event correlation that greatly enhances the speed and efficiency of triaging the alert for follow-up actions. Events are grouped under an alert based on properties such as time of day, frequency, source, and source description. In this example, DHCP-related alerts are shown to identify if clients at a specific site are experiencing IP assignment failures.
Step 1 On the Network Overview page, use the Sites card to select a site for investigation. Expand the card if needed to see the full list of managed sites.
Step 2 On the Site dashboard, click the Alerts planet.
Step 3 Search the Alerts table for incidents involving DHCP.
Step 4 Click an Alert name to open the dashboard.
Step 5 On the Alert dashboard, expand the Events card and review the correlated events.
Step 6 On the Alert dashboard, expand the Troubleshooting card and check the troubleshooting tools for failed tests.
Step 7 On the Alert dashboard, expand the Actions card and perform the recommended actions as appropriate.
Natural Language Search
A more modern approach to troubleshooting user experience uses the natural language search capability to query the AI database for a list of clients exhibiting poor health and then drill down to understand what the contributing issues are.
Step 1 On the Network Overview page, type “show clients with poor health” in the search bar and press ENTER.
Step 2 Use the Search Scope menu to select a specific site for investigation.
Step 3 Click the MAC address or hostname of a client to open the Client dashboard.
Step 4 If investigating a client with current health status of “good” or “unknown”, use the Timeline tool to display data from the past and find the point in time when failures were observed.
Step 5 Review the current or historical Experience summary and Connectivity indications.
Step 6 Use the Alerts planet to investigate the details of client-related alerts that correlate with the poor user experience.
Client Name or MAC Address
The most common approach to troubleshooting user experience is to receive a client device name, user authentication name, or device MAC address with a request for investigation.
Step 1 On the Network Overview page, use the Sites card to open the dashboard of the site from which the client issue was reported.
Step 2 On the Site dashboard, click the Clients planet.
Step 3 Above the Clients table, enter the client name, authenticated user name, or client MAC address in the search field.
Step 4 Click the MAC address or hostname of the client to open the Client dashboard.
Step 5 On the Client dashboard, use the Timeline tool to display data from the period of the reported issue.
Step 6 Review the Experience summary and Connectivity indications as seen at the time of the issue report.
Step 7 Click the Network planet to investigate connectivity further.
Step 8 Observe Device, Connections and client-specific performance cards to identify the client performance issue.
Insight-Driven Optimization/Maintenance
AI Insights provide recommendations to improve overall network performance, security, or reliability with changes to configuration that optimize for observed usage patterns, implement recommended firmware upgrades, or enable performance enhancing protocols.
Step 1 On the Network Overview page, use the Sites card to select a site for investigation. Expand the card if needed to see the full list of managed sites.
Step 2 On the Site dashboard, click the Insights card.
Step 3 Select an insight to display relevant details. In this example, the Roaming Recommender is displayed.
Step 4 On the Roaming Recommender, click the View button in the Actions frame to further investigate the impact of the recommended change.
Step 5 Explore additional Insight based functions such as View Floorplan, View Topology, or View Impacted Clients, depending on the specific Insight being investigated.
Troubleshoot a Device Alert
Step 1 On the Network Overview page, enter “show offline aps” in the search bar.
Step 2 On the Devices tab, select an offline AP.
Step 3 On the Health card, click the Go to Last Seen Time button.
Step 4 Click the Alerts planet and note any alerts that immediately preceded the AP going offline.
Step 5 Open the most relevant alert and review the provided details. Evaluate if proposed actions on the Action card are appropriate to perform.
Alternatively:
Step 1 On the Network Overview page, expand the Device Health card.
Step 2 Click the number indicating access points in a degraded state for the investigated site.
Step 3 Click the name of the offline AP in the Devices table.
Step 4 Click Go to Last Seen Time in the Health card and proceed with the investigation including evaluation of recommended actions.
Use the Audit Trail
The Audit Trail in Central provides a searchable record of administrative activity across the network. This tool is essential when investigating issues that may stem from recent configuration changes—such as updates to VLANs, DHCP scopes, or switch uplinks.
Step 1 From anywhere in the Central interface click the menu icon.
Step 2 Click View on the Audit Trail Card.
Step 3 Use the filters to narrow the results:
- Set the Category to Configuration.
- Adjust the Time Range to align with when the problem was first reported.
- Optionally, filter by Device Type or User to isolate relevant changes.
Step 4 Review the list of changes for recent modifications that may have affected DHCP behavior or client onboarding.
Step 5 Click any entry, click the ellipse at the end of the row, then click show show difference.
Step 6 If a change appears related to the issue, use this information to validate with the change management process or initiate a rollback as appropriate.
Refer to the Troubleshooting section in the online help for more details.