THE "ULTIMATE NETWORK MANAGEMENT DASHBOARD" - PART IV: Network Mapping

As promised in a previous post, I'm back, bearing pretty colors and fancy lines. Specifically, I want to talk about generating informative maps that you can then include in your "ultimate network management dashboard".

Reviewing the Ultimate Network Management Dashboard, So Far

This is the fourth in a series of posts providing steps to create a network management dashboard using SolarWinds NPM:

Part I gave an overview and the source of the series:

I want to send you over to the SolarWinds Resource Center, and, since network monitoring is sort of my bailiwick, I'd like to direct your attention to one whitepaper in particular: "How to create the Ultimate Network Management Dashboard" (pdf, 971kb).

Part II provided information about restricting user access to your network management dashboard:

Look at your staff. If you want to do so, SolarWinds can help you define the view that each one of your people gets to see. Once you've determined who gets to look at your dashboard, you need to figure out how each user is going to log on and what they'll see when they get there. Our documentation can walk you through the process of defining user accounts, but we've also got a great video on the process, too, that I'd highly recommend.

Part III discussed the necessity of organizing your network so it makes sense when you run your network discovery.
And in Part IV--this post--I want to direct you to some further guidance in completing Step 4 of our source whitepaper, "How to Create the Ultimate Network Management Dashboard":

Step 4
Create topology maps layered out with nodes of devices or groups of devices to suit viewing convenience. These maps will present the high-level status of the node and provide the ability to drill-down for additional details.

Creating Maps for your Ultimate Network Management Dashboard

Network Atlas is the network mapping utility we provide with all SolarWinds Orion products. If you aren't sure, you've got Network Atlas if you've got an Orion Web Console. Network Atlas was designed to be pretty straightforward: you create maps by placing (click-and-drag) node icons onto a map. You can use virtually any image--including live weather maps--as your custom map background. The map above, from our live demo, was, in fact, created using Network Atlas. Check out our Network Atlas documentation and the videos provided on our Using Network Atlas page for more specific details about creating and using network maps.