enterprise business unit solutions explore reporting user

Sensitivity: Confidential

Enterprise Business Unit Solutions

Explore Reporting – User Guide

Date 01/03/2021

Sensitivity Confidential

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Table of contents

Table of contents ........................................................................................................................................... 2

1. Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 4

2. Accessing the Explore Network reporting .................................................................................... 5

2.1 How to ?............................................................................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Screenshots ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5

3. Change log .............................................................................................................................................. 8

4. Reporting generic description .......................................................................................................... 8

4.1 Home .................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

4.2 Dashboard .......................................................................................................................................................................... 9

4.2.1 Browse .................................................................................................................................................................................. 9

4.2.2 Library.................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

4.2.3 Drill down .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11

4.3 Alert ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

4.4 SD-WAN Flow ................................................................................................................................................................. 12

4.5 Report ................................................................................................................................................................................. 13

4.6 Notifications ..................................................................................................................................................................... 13

4.7 Settings .............................................................................................................................................................................. 13

4.7.1 Application ....................................................................................................................................................................... 13

4.7.2 Cluster ................................................................................................................................................................................ 15

4.7.3 Exporting the data........................................................................................................................................................ 15

5. Reporting Flavours ............................................................................................................................ 16

5.1 Some definitions ............................................................................................................................................................. 16

5.2 Explore Basic reporting ............................................................................................................................................... 17

5.2.1 Reporting Content ........................................................................................................................................................ 17

5.2.2 Available Dashboards ................................................................................................................................................20

5.3 Advanced reporting ...................................................................................................................................................... 21

5.3.1 Extra Reporting Content ........................................................................................................................................... 21

5.3.2 Available Dashboards ................................................................................................................................................ 24




5.4 Netflow reporting .......................................................................................................................................................... 25



5.5 Application (performance) reporting .....................................................................................................................28






1. Introduction

The Explore Performance reporting is an on-line reporting tool enabling the customer to get a view on the utilization & performance of his Explore network.

There are 4 commercial flavors the customer can choose from

• Basic reporting (Network parameters like bandwidth and volume consumption)

• Advanced reporting

Network performance indicators (delay, packet loss, jitter)

CPE performance (CPU/memory usage)

• Netflow reporting (Application visibility)

• Application reporting (Application performance)

This new reporting is integrated into MyProximus , besides other reportings.

Remark : Using Microsoft Internet Explorer as a browser can cause troubles for accessing the reporting. It

is advised to use another browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge)




2. Accessing the Explore Network reporting

2.1 How to ?

The Explore Network reporting is accessible via MyProximus.

After logging into MyProximus, the customer will select “Integrated Reporting Portal”.

A list of available reporting is displayed and the customer will select “Network Reporting”.

Finally, the customer will select the “Contract Number”.

2.2 Screenshots

Log in into MyProximus.




Click on products and select the Integrated Reporting Portal under fixed connectivity

On the integrated Reporting portal first select the correct customer by clicking on the cdbid




On the next page select “Explore Performance Reporting “

You arrive on the home screen of the New Explore Reporting.

At your first visit you will see this user guide.

You can then change to the appropriate home screen in the library.




3. Change log

04/2020

- Generic counters were created for Cisco and One access so that there is one generic CPU load and Memory load counter

- New home templates o Merge of capacity events in and out into 1 event list Access o Merge of CPU and memory events into 1 event list CPE o New threshholds IPSLA events and 1 event list IPSLA

- Real available bandwidth on VDSL is shown next to theoretical upto profiles (“available BW in” and “available bandwidth out”). These values will now be used to calculate the load and the capactiy events

- New calculation capacity alerts : they become critical only when present during longer period (1 hour)

10/2020

- New cloud reporting : Throughput and volume on connections towards Proximus datacenter and external cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS and Google

- Percentile reporting : available on request - Performance improvements

03/2021

- Introduction of External IP for Netflow and Application profiles

4. Reporting generic description

The Explore network reporting tool delivers Explore customers with a powerful

application-aware management system, helping them to monitor application performance on the WAN.

For all the traffic and applications going through the WAN, and for thousands of business

customers, it leverages several vendors’ features to provide, in a single scalable

instance a client mode to visualize, browse, troubleshoot and report customers’ networks

and end-user experience issues.

The network management environment or client mode, is dedicated to a specific endcustomer.

Home pages, dashboards, and reports use the same dashlets component with

different purposes:

• the home module is a single page, synthetic updated network visualization for both

specialist and non-specialist;

• the dashboard module troubleshoots the network using various perspectives from

network to interface, application and CoS;




• the report module is a static view of network and application SLA for executive

meetings or daily status.

4.1 Home

The home page provides a summary view of the network for non-expert and IT managers. It displays the main network metrics to visualize the status of connectivity services and application performance. According to their profile, end-customers can display one or several home pages which are available in their home library. From the home page, end-users can

(1) Access the library to choose another home page.

(2) Drill down to dashboards modules for more details.

Remark : when choosing Week, the granularity changes to 1 hour and when choosing Month it changes to

day. This aggregation hides short peeks in these home views.

4.2 Dashboard

4.2.1 Browse

The dashboard module lets you visualize the network from several perspectives: network load, application health-check, DSCP consistency, etc. across the network or for a specifc site. The management bar, at the top of the dashboard, helps you choose the site, application or device, filter on a period and update all dashlets according to the selected scope. You can add new dashboards in your multi-tab environment by browsing the library or by drilling down a network element for more details (see section for more details).




(1) Use “+” to add a dashboard from library

(2) Include several dashboard tabs in your personal workspace; a lock indicates you

cannot edit the dashboard (because you are not the author).

(3) Filter and select network elements you want to visualize.

(4) Select observation period and zoom in on timeline for more details; dashlets will be

updated according to the network selectors and time period.

(5) Update dashboard.

(6) Adapt reported timeframe and granularity

(7) Use the arrow to expands more options on dashlets, such as export your table in

CSV fle format or your dashlet to a PNG fle format.

Remark : If you see the message “Your widget can not be processed. Check its configuration” or “Too much data for this

widget, please refine your request”.” pls check the selected filters. Too many elements or “All” in a filter could cause the widget not to load all data. It could also caused by “Granularity”; “auto” could return too many “5’ samples”, try to use “1 hour” sampling or grather.




4.2.2 Library

(1) Name and context of the available dashboard helps you choose dashboards according to your needs.

(2) Description and preview help you to choose dashboards according to your needs

(3) Open dashboard.

4.2.3 Drill down

When you detect unusual spikes of traffic or high end-to-end latency for a specifc

application, you might need more details to understand the issue. The drill down feature

will help you deep-dive, step-by-step by displaying the relevant dashboards. When you

need more details on a site, DSCP, device or application, click on the magnifying glass

beside the legend. You will automatically get a list of relevant dashboards.

(1) Click on the selected element you want to drill down on (site, device, application, etc …). (2) Choose the new dashboard to open to display more details.




Note: Permalink

Using drilldown to dashboard and modifying often the filters, you maybe want to retrieve a default

flavour like Site= Datacenter fixed in.

Permalink is designed for that purpose by saving dashboard AND selection(s) in“favorite” within your

browser

Click on , then

Click “COPY”; open a new tab in your browser and paste saved URL.

Save to your “Favorite”.

Next session, you can recall dashboard from your Favorites and adjust time slots like via “Ctrl+R” or

“Refresh” buttons of your browser.

4.3 Alert

This section is not available for Basic reporting customers

Alerts are shown whenever an event occurs like high Router usage, high bandwidth usage, Interface

down or bad performance

4.4 SD-WAN Flow

For future use with SDWAN reporting




4.5 Report

(1) Choose the report template (2) Open the report to visualize it.

Remark : When creating a report, a PDF generator is available from a Proximus server. The call to this

service can take a longer time. If possible, you can use your own local PDF generator by typing

Ctrl+Shift+P in your browser.

4.6 Notifications

You can make a request to proximus to schedule a report that will be sent via e-mail

4.7 Settings

4.7.1 Application

The Explore reporting tool embeds several application dictionaries as well as custom applications locally created. Applications are described by name and can be grouped by category (browsing, net-admin, etc.) and group (business, leisure, unclassifed, etc.). End-users can define custom applications based on the IP address, port, URL, etc. using several criteria for a unique custom application. Custom applications always prevail over the applications in the dictionary (for example, if a flow reports a NBAR2 protocol pack ID “HTTP”, but also matches criteria for the custom application “Cisco Website”, the latter will be kept. If the criteria overlap with the NBAR2 application ID, the custom application flows will be retrieved from the NBAR2 traffic in order to keep a consistent overall trafficc metric. A new application can be created by clicking “New” in the application dictionary title bar.




(1) Name and describe your application. (2) Classify your new application among existing categories and groups. (3) Specify at least one application criteria among: IP address, transport port, server name etc. You can use a combination of criteria, such as a union of criteria of the same type (OR) and an intersection between criteria of diferent types (AND). For example: IP address = 1.2.3.4 OR 12.3.4.5 AND port = 443. “Slashed” IP address is also possible (1.2.3.4/24)




4.7.2 Cluster

When an end-customer network includes hundreds or thousands of CPEs, it may be useful

to group the CPEs into clusters. These clusters are used as filters to easily find specific

sites when displaying a dashboard. They can also be used to build reports based on area or

business units.

Remark : A “Default” cluster can be present populated with latest components refreshed. You can

choose to remove this group.

Group sites into clusters by clicking “New” in the cluster menu. (1) Name your cluster. (2) Select sites to be added to the cluster.

4.7.3 Exporting the data

The “EXPORT” option that you can find in the dropdown beneath the dashoard name refers to the template only and not to the data itself. To “export” data useable in another application like a spreadsheet app, you can use “Download as CSV” available on every table in a dashboard.

Note: refer to the template of view itself. It is mainly used when an issue occurs and a case is to report to Proximus.




5. Reporting Flavours

There are 4 level of reports which are explained in the next chapters :

- Basic reporting - Advanced reporting - Netflow reporting - Application reporting

The retention period of the data is:

• 5 minute samples : 32 days

• 1 hour samples : 3 months (92 days)

• 1 day samples : 1 year (365 days)

Note: Choosing granularity 5 minutes in a report return “no Data” if the time slot is older than 32 days or,

for 1 hour sample, on a aged period > 3 months

5.1 Some definitions

- a WAN link is a network element for which load, throughput,… can be shown. It is either a full interface or a subinterface (linked to VLAN/VRF). An access can be built up with several WAN links

- a Viewpoint is a network element where applications are linked to.

- Network is a parameter used to identify the network being reported on :

o Explore : full interface o Intranet xxx : subinterface (linked to VRF xxx) o Internet : subinterface (linked to VRF Internet), this is your internet access

- Speed Profile is the bandwidth profile documented in the contract

- Available Bandwidth comes from various technical sources within Explore and gives the actual

available bandwidth




5.2 Explore Basic reporting

5.2.1 Reporting Content

5.2.1.1 Access bandwidth usage in/out (%)

This graph represents the load percentage compared to the total available bandwidth for that element in

the in and out direction.

5.2.1.2 Access throughput (bits/sec + packets/sec)

This graph shows the measured throughput for a selected element in bits per second or packets per

second




5.2.1.3 Average packet size (Bytes)




5.2.1.4 Packet discarding

This is the packet discarding in the router on the selected WAN link in the out (upstream) direction.The

reason for packet discarding can be when:

1. it exceeds the capacity of the transfer capability of the Network equipment 2. There is no destinationIP route in the routing table 3. The packet matches the Null routes existing in the routing tables 4. The packet size is larger than the MTU value 5. The TTL ( Time To Live ) becomes 0

5.2.1.5 Volume In/out (Bytes)

5.2.1.6 Inventory Site/access

An overview is shown of all sites & access present in the reporting




5.2.1.7 Cloud reporting

If you have a cloud connect in your contract, Volume & Throughput of “cloud connect” connection to

Proximus DC or other providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS or Google is shown.

5.2.2 Available Dashboards

Basic Analysis – Access to Explore

Basic Analysis – Volume Distribution

Basic Summary – Reporting Inventory

Cloud Analysis – Traffic In/Out Overview (contains data only if cloud connections is active in contract)




5.3 Advanced reporting

5.3.1 Extra Reporting Content

5.3.1.1 Capacity events (critical at 80% load, warning at 60% load)

A capacity event is shown when during 1 hour the bandwidth utilization of a WAN link goes over 80%

(critical) or over 60% (warning). The number of samples during 1 or more events for the top 5 sites are

shown on the homescreen.




5.3.1.2 Quality of Service KPI’s (IPSLA)

The QoS KPI’s are measured using IPSLA probes in the routers.

Following KPI’s are measured for the class of service used by the customer :

- one way transit delay (msec) from member site(s) to main site - packet loss (%) - jitter : variation in delay




5.3.1.3 Class of Service (Volume & Throughput)

The volume of traffic as well as the throughput are shown for the different class of services.

5.3.1.4 CPE parameters (CPU load /Memory load)

CPU load and memory load are measured in %.

When CPU or memory load go over 80% (critical) or 60 % (warning) during 1 hour, CPE events will be

created.

An overview of the number of samples during 1 or more events for the top 5 sites will be shown on the

home screen.





Advanced Analysis – Access to Explore

Advanced Analysis – Volume Distribution

Advanced Analysis – Router

Advanced Analysis – IPSLA Performance

Advanced Analysis – CoS Throughput

Advanced Analysis – Site


Advanced Summary – Access to Explore

Advanced Summary – IPSLA Performance

Advanced Summary – Reporting Inventory




5.4 Netflow reporting


5.4.1.1 Application visibility

For all applications that are detected going over the access line the volume and throughput is measured.

For application recognition NBAR2 ( =Network Based Application Recognition ) is activated on Cisco

routers.

Unknown applications can be added to the database through the settings in the reporting tool.




5.4.1.2 Throughput per Application

The measured throughput for an application is compared to the total throughput on a site.

5.4.1.3 Top 10 internal IP’s using the recognized application

These are the top 10 IP’s of users on the selected use that are sending the most traffic for the selected

application.

When clicking on the glass in picture above you will be able to see all details about unknown applications that are not recognized by the application library. This can help you to define inhouse developped applications.




5.4.1.4 Class of Service used per application

The Class in which the traffic of the selected application is being sent.


Netflow Analysis – Access to Explore

Netflow Analysis – Volume Distribution

Netflow Analysis – Router

Netflow Analysis – IPSLA Performance

Netflow Analysis – CoS Throughput

Netflow Analysis – Site

Netflow Analysis – All Applications

Netflow Analysis – Application


Netflow Summary – Access to Explore

Netflow Summary – IPSLA Performance

Netflow Summary – Reporting Inventory




5.5 Application (performance) reporting


E2E response times per application (LAN+external network+Application)

The response times are measured in the Router by monitoting the TCP handshaking process.

The split between network and application response times is visible and can help to identify which one

represents biggest part.

As such it only works for applications running over TCP.


Application Analysis – Access to Explore

Application Analysis – Volume Distribution

Application Analysis – Router

Application Analysis – IPSLA Performance

Application Analysis – CoS Throughput

Application Analysis – Site

Application Analysis – All Applications

Application Analysis – Application


Application Summary – Access to Explore

Application Summary – IPSLA Performance

Application Summary – Reporting Inventory

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