Did you know SolarWinds Engineers Toolset integrates with Network Topology Mapper ?

If you have used Network Topology Mapper, you know it’s of great use for visually seeing and tracking changes of your network, onto a map.

In past blogs we have highlighted how NTM integrates with NPM. If you missed it you can check out my blog post here.

For this blog, we will see how SolarWinds Engineers Toolset integrates with NTM and how it can make your life easier.

Before we do. Let's perform a quick recap on what these tools can help you with.

Network Topology Mapper (NTM)

Network Topology Mapper automatically discovers and produces a comprehensive network diagram of your network. Some other features that will make your life easier are:

1. Builds comprehensive Layer 2, Layer 3, Layer 2/3, VLAN ID specific and Virtual environments network maps

2. Tracks changes in your network environment

3. Export to Microsoft Office Visio, PDF, Network Atlas and PNG formats

4. Visually track changes in the network, with the help of the schedule discovery.

5. Fulfillment of information security requirements of PCI/DSS, HIPAA, or other regulatory standard

Engineers Toolset (ETS)

Engineers Toolset is composed of over 50 network tools ranging from network diagnostic, discovery, monitoring, configuration management, security etc. These tools are easy to use and effective to troubleshoot your network.

Engineers Toolset Integrates with Network Topology Mapper.

If you have ETS and NTM on the same system, you can take advantage of the integration of ETS into NTM. Below are the six tools that will work out-of-the-box with just a right-click.

• TraceRoute
• Enhanced Ping
• Lookup IP Address
• Lookup Hostname
• CPU Gauge
• Switchport Mapper

Are these the only tools which are integrated ? What about the rest ?

Fear not, we have added a function called Custom Tools, which gives you the ability to add specific tools depending on your needs and requirement.

My personal favorite is the Neighbor Map tool, I have heard users who have asked for, the ability to perform crawl discovery of a specific node in NTM. Neighbor Map integration from Toolset addresses this request.

• Right click the selected node. Integration with Custom Tools - Add Custom Tools
• Give a name for the custom tool (in this case Neighbor Map). Provide the path to the NeighborMap.exe file, which is found in your Toolset installation folder.
• Under Command line arguments, enter the following arguments /host: (to enter the selected node into the Neighbor Map tool) and click on ${IP} under TIP: Command line Macro Commands (which will pull the IP address of the selected node).
• Click on Save Changes and the OK button and you are good to go.

Other interesting tools like Bandwidth Gauges (provides real time traffic and bandwidth utilization monitoring), Real Time Interface Monitor (to display interface statistics from routers and switches ) and more can be called from NTM.

If you're an Engineer's Toolset customer and you haven't tried the NTM, you can learn more about it here.

Last updated on 2/20/2014, by Cliton Godinho