[81724] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: [OT] network monitoring/visibility appliance
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aaron Glenn)
Sat Jun 25 04:50:23 2005
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2005 01:49:52 -0700
From: Aaron Glenn <aaron.glenn@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Aaron Glenn <aaron.glenn@gmail.com>
To: Daniel Golding <dgolding@burtongroup.com>
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <BEE24391.CAD5%dgolding@burtongroup.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On 6/24/05, Daniel Golding <dgolding@burtongroup.com> wrote:
>=20
> Just to ignore your wishes and reply on-list :)
>
OK, I'll bite. (-:
> Other folks may be interested. The general area is known as "route
> analytics". The box you are talking about may be from Packet Design (the =
HP
> solution is OEMed from them, I believe) or Ipsum networks. This is separa=
te
> from modeling and simulation tools like Cariden, Opnet, and Wandl which a=
ll
> offer some greater or lesser degree of routing protocol support.
After hitting send, of course, I came across both Packet Design's and
Ipsum's product; neither of which are the manufacturer I had in mind.
However they do perform the same functions.
> I believe the original idea for these boxes was to target service provide=
rs,
> but enterprises are also quite interested in the field, especially with t=
he
> growth of RFC2547 VPNs. A box like this can help an enterprise keep track=
of
> the BGP advertisements and any OSPF/EIGRP redistribution at their sites
> (which can number in the thousands).
The box I'm referring too was marketed towards MPLS, traffic
engineering, and QoS visibility and monitoring. Had a handsome
visualization tool as well.
> My personal opinion is that questions about Internet/WAN technology vendo=
rs
> on a _high_ level are perfectly appropriate for NANOG - at least as much =
as
> "is xyz down?" :) More in-depth stuff ("how do I configure my GSR to danc=
e
> the lambada") belong on the appropriate NSP lists...
While I agree wholeheartedly, I started actively following NANOG less
than a year ago, during which nearly every discussion had someone
questioning it's relevance and on-topic-ness; which, frankly, was and
still is, off putting.
I apologize being so vague about all this - a fuzzy photographic
memory is both a blessing and a curse. I don't remember the
manufacturer, or what I was even looking for when I came across it.
All I recall is a limegreen-ish box in the datasheet pdf; a mention of
how, by being able to speak MPLS and it's ilk, the appliance didn't
have to poll devices, nor was it a point of failure; and a strong
focus on its traffic engineering and QoS visibility features. After
looking at Packet Design and Ipsum, neither is the product I'm trying
to "rediscover".
Many thanks for the off-list replies. If anyone has any clue what I'm
referring too, on or off list replies are welcomed.
Regards,
aaron.glenn
