Introduction to DMF and Overview

This chapter introduces the DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) and the user interfaces for out-of-band monitoring and configuration.

DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) is a cloud-first Network Packet Broker (NPB) that provides a single pane of glass with an integrated visibility fabric. The DMF solution includes NPB functionality with the DMF Recorder Node and the Analytics Node for deeper monitoring and pervasive security of out-of-band workloads in hybrid cloud deployments.

DMF leverages an SDN-controlled fabric using high-performance, open networking (white box/brite box) switches and industry-standard x86 servers to deploy highly scalable and flexible network visibility and security solutions. Traditional, box-based, hardware-centric NPBs are architecturally limited when trying to meet the evolving security and visibility demands of Cloud Native data centers. DMF addresses the challenges of traditional NPB solutions by enabling a scale-out fabric for enterprise-wide security and monitoring, a single pane of glass for operational simplicity, and multi-tenancy for multiple IT teams, including NetOps, DevOps, and SecOps.

Out-of-band Monitoring with DANZ Monitoring Fabric

As data center networks move toward 40/100G designs, cloud computing, hyper scale data analytics, and 5G mobile services, traffic monitoring must transition to next-generation designs. To manage the modern data center, much network traffic must be copied and aggregated from TAP or SPAN ports and forwarded to monitoring and analysis tools. These tools, used in managing network performance, application performance, security, and compliance, leverage other systems such as data recorders, intrusion detection systems, data leakage detectors, SLA measurement devices, and other traffic analyzers like Wireshark.

DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) uses high-performance open-networking switches to deliver an open, production-grade, and scalable monitoring solution based on Software Defined Networking (SDN) technology. The centralized DMF Controller provides flexibility, simplifies policy management and monitoring fabric configuration, and supports cost-effective monitoring of data centers and remote sites or branches with up to several thousand TAP and SPAN ports.

DMF architecture, inspired by hyper scale networking designs, consists of the following components:

  • HA pair of SDN-enabled DMF Controllers (VMs or hardware appliances), enable simplified and centralized configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
  • Arista Networks SDN-enabled Switch Light OS is a production-grade, ONIE-deployable, lightweight OS that runs on DMF Ethernet switches.
  • Open Ethernet switches (white box/brite box) use the same merchant silicon ASICs used by most incumbent switch vendors and are widely deployed in production data center networks. These switches ship with an Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) for automatic and vendor-agnostic installation of third-party network OS.
  • DANZ Service Nodes (optional), a Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK)-powered, x86-based appliances that connect to the DMF singly or as part of a service node chain. The service node provides advanced packet functions, such as deduplication, packet slicing, header stripping, regex matching, packet masking, UDP replication, and IPFIX/NetFlow generation.
  • DANZ Recorder Nodes (optional) are x86-based appliances connected to the DMF and are managed via the DMF Controller to provide petabyte packet recording, querying, and replay functions.
  • Analytics Nodes (optional) are x86-based appliances that integrate with the DMF to provide multi-terabit, security, and performance analytics with configurable, historical time-series dashboards.
Figure 1. Out-of-Band Monitoring with DANZ Monitoring Fabric
DMF lets a network operator easily deploy data center-wide monitoring with the following benefits:
  • Organization-wide visibility: delivers traffic from any TAP to any tool at any time across one or multiple locations.
  • Flexible, scale-out fabric deployment: supports a large number of 1G, 10G, 25G, 40G, and 100G ports (thousands per fabric).
  • Multi-tenant tap and tool sharing: supports monitoring by multiple teams to enable Monitoring Fabric as a Service.
  • Massive operational simplification: provides a single pane of glass for provisioning, management, monitoring, and debugging through a centralized SDN Controller. This feature eliminates needing a box-by-box configuration.
  • Centralized programmability: a REST-based API architecture enables event-based, centralized policy management and automation for integrated end-to-end IT work flows. This feature leverages DMF Service Nodes, Analytics Nodes, and Recorder Nodes.
  • Dramatic cost savings: Achieving a significant reduction in the total cost of ownership by using open Ethernet switches in combination with industry-standard x86 servers, optimized usage of tools, and SDN-enabled operations and automation.

Using the DANZ Monitoring Fabric CLI

Before connecting to the DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) Controller, ensure the DMF application is running. Log in to the DMF Controller using the local console or SSH to the address assigned to the DMF Controller during installation.
Note: Make all fabric switch configuration changes using the Controller CLI, which provides configuration options in the config-switch submode for each switch. Do not log in to the switch to make changes directly using the switch CLI.
Mode and sub-modes divide CLI commands, which restrict commands to the appropriate context. The main modes and their available commands are as follows:
  • login mode: commands available immediately after logging in, with the broadest possible context.
  • enable mode: commands that are available only after entering the enable command.
  • config mode: commands that significantly affect system configuration and can only be entered after entering the configure command. The user can also access submodes from this mode.

Enter submodes from config mode to provision specific monitoring fabric objects. For example, the switch switchname command changes the CLI prompt to (config-switch)# and lets the user configure the switch identified by the switch name.

When the user logs in via SSH to the Controller, the CLI appears in login mode, where the default prompt is the system name followed by a greater than sign (>), as shown below:
controller-1>
To change the CLI to enable mode, enter the enable command. The default prompt for enable mode is the system name followed by a pound sign (#), as shown below:
controller-1> enable
controller-1#
To change to config mode, enter the configure command. The default prompt for config mode is the system name followed by (config)#, as shown below:
controller-1> config
controller-1(config)#
To change to a submode, enter the command from config mode, followed by any object identifier required, as in the following example:
controller-1(config)# switch filter-switch-1
controller-1(config-switch)# interface ethernet54
controller-1(config-switch-if)#
To return to enable mode, type end, as shown below:
controller-1(config)# end
controller-1#
To view the path to the current CLI prompt, enter the show this command from any nested submode, as in the following example:
controller-1(config-switch-if)# show this
! switch
switch filter-switch-1
interface ethernet54
To view details about the configuration, enter the show this details command, as in the following example:
controller-1(config-switch-if)# show this details
! switch
switch filter-switch-1
!
interface ethernet54
no force-link-up
no optics-always-enabled
no shutdown
To view a list of available commands in the current or submode, enter the help command.
controller-1> help
For help on specific commands: help <command>
Commands:
%<n> Move job to foreground
debug
echo Print remaining arguments
enable Enter enable mode
exit Exit submode
help Show help
historyShow commands recently executed
logout Logout
no Prefix existing commands to delete item
ping Send echo messages
ping6Send echo messages
profileConfigure user profile
reauth Reauthenticate
setManage CLI sessions settings
show
supportGenerate diagnostic data bundle for technical support
terminal Manage CLI sessions settings
topicShow documentation on topic
upload Upload diagnostic data bundle for technical support
watchShow output of other commands
whoami Identify the current authenticated account
workflow Show workflow documentation
controller-1>
To view detailed online help for the command, enter the help command followed by the command.
controller-1> help support
Support Command: Generate diagnostic data bundle for technical support
Support Command Syntax:no support skip-switches skip-cluster skip-service-nodes 
 skip-recorder-nodes sequential support [[skip-switches]
 [skip-cluster] [skip-service-nodes]
 [skip-recorder-nodes] [sequential]]
Next Keyword Descriptions:
sequential:Use sequential (non-parallel) fallback collection mode, which will be slower 
 but use fewer resources.
skip-cluster:Skip cluster information from the collection.
skip-recorder-nodes: Skip recorder nodes information from the collection.
skip-service-nodes:Skip service nodes information from the collection.
skip-switches: Skip switches information from the collection.
Support Command: Generate diagnostic data bundle for technical support
Support Command Syntax:no support skip-switches skip-cluster skip-service-nodes
 skip-recorder-nodes sequential support [[skip-switches]
 [skip-cluster] [skip-service-nodes] [skip-recorder-nodes] [sequential]]
Next Keyword Descriptions:
sequential:Use sequential (non-parallel) fallback collection mode, which will be slower
 but use fewer resources.
skip-cluster:Skip cluster information from the collection.
skip-recorder-nodes: Skip recorder nodes information from the collection.
skip-service-nodes:Skip service nodes information from the collection.
skip-switches: Skip switches information from the collection.
controller-1>
To display the options available for a command or keyword, enter the command or keyword followed by a question mark (?).
controller-1> support ?
<cr>
sequential Use sequential (non-parallel) fallback collection mode, which will be slower
 but use fewer resources.
skip-cluster Skip cluster information from the collection.
skip-recorder-nodesSkip recorder nodes information from the collection.
skip-service-nodes Skip service nodes information from the collection.
skip-switchesSkip switches information from the collection.
controller-1>
To view any command's permitted values or keywords, enter the command followed by a space and press the<Tab> key. The command completion feature displays a concise list of permitted values, as in the following example:
controller-1> support <TAB>
<cr> sequential skip-cluster
skip-recorder-nodes skip-service-nodes skip-switches
controller-1>

For information about managing administrative access to the DMF Controller, refer to the DANZ Monitoring Fabric 8.6 Deployment Guide.

Using the DANZ Monitoring Fabric GUI

The DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) Graphical User Interface (GUI) performs similar operations to the CLI using a graphic user interface instead of text commands and options. The DMF GUI is compatible with recent versions of any of the following supported browsers:
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Internet Explorer
  • Apple Safari

To connect to the DMF GUI, use the DMF Controller IP address. Use the virtual IP (VIP) assigned to the cluster if configured during deployment. Using the VIP ensures that the user connects to the current active Controller, regardless of any failover that may have occurred.

Use the active Controller for all configuration operations and to obtain reliable information when monitoring DMF. The standby Controller is provided only for redundancy if the active Controller becomes unavailable. Do not perform any configuration using the standby Controller, and any information displayed may not be accurate. The figure below illustrates connecting to the DMF GUI using HTTPS (port 443) at the IP address 192.168.17.233
Figure 2. Connecting to the DANZ Monitoring Fabric GUI
Connecting to the Controller for the first time may result in a security exception prompt (message) because the Controller HTTPS server uses an unknown (self-signed) certificate authority.
Note: When using Internet Explorer, the login attempt may fail if the system time is different than the Controller time. To remedy this, ensure the system used to log in to the Controller is synchronized with the Controller.
After accepting the prompts, the system displays the login prompt, shown in the figure below.
Figure 3. DANZ Monitoring Fabric GUI Login Prompt

Use the admin username and password configured for the DMF Controller during installation or any user account and password configured with administrator privileges. A user in the read-only group will have access to options for monitoring fabric configuration and activity but cannot change the configuration.

Figure 4. DANZ Monitoring Fabric GUI Main Menu
When logging in to the DMF GUI, a landing page appears. This page shows the DMF Controller Overview, dashboard, and a menu bar (pictured above) with sub-menus containing options for setting up DMF and monitoring network activity. The menu bar includes the following sub-menus:
  • Fabric: manage DMF switches and interfaces.
  • Monitoring: manage DMF policies, services, and interfaces.
  • Maintenance: configure fabric-wide settings (clock, SNMP, AAA, sFlow®*, Logging, Analytics Configuration).
  • Integration: manage the integration of vCenter instances to allow monitoring traffic using DMF.
  • Security: manage administrative access.
  • A profile page that displays or edits user preferences, the ability to change the password or sign out.
The newly designed dashboard displays information about the Controller, including switches, interfaces, policies, and Smart Nodes.
Figure 5. DMF Controller Overview
The header displays the following basic information about the Controller:
  • Active IP address
  • Standby IP address
  • Virtual IP address
  • Redundancy Status - The status contains an informational tool tip that can be hovered for more details.
Four cards control the type of content displayed on the main section of the page. The cards are:
  • Controller Health
  • Switch Health
  • Policy Health
  • Smart Node Health
Note: This dashboard is on by default in the Settings page under the Navigation section. Toggling off displays the previous dashboard, as illustrated below.
Figure 6. Legacy Dashboard

DMF Features Page

To navigate the DMF Features Page, click on the gear icon in the navigation bar.
Figure 7. Gear Icon

Page Layout

All fabric-wide configuration settings required in advanced use cases for deploying DMF policies appear in the new DMF Features Page.

Figure 8. DMF Features Page

The fabric-wide options used with DMF policies include the following:

Table 1. Feature Set
Auto VLAN Mode Auto VLAN Range
Auto VLAN Strip Control Plane Lockdown Mode
CRC Check Custom Priority
Device Deployment Mode Global PTP Settings
Inport Mask Match Mode
Policy Overlap Limit Policy Overlap Limit Strict
Retain User Policy VLAN Timestamp Settings
Tunneling VLAN Preservation
Each card on the page corresponds to a feature set.
Figure 9. Feature Set Card
The UI displays the following:
  • Feature Title
  • A brief description
  • View / Hide Detailed Information
  • Current Setting
  • Edit Link - Use the Edit button (pencil icon) to change the value.

View Detailed Information

Each configuration option has detailed information. For more details, click the View Detailed Information link on each card.
Figure 10. View Detailed Information

Feature Settings

Auto VLAN Strip

  1. A toggle button controls the configuration of this feature. Locate the corresponding card and move the toggle button.
    Figure 11. Toggle Switch
  2. A confirm window pops up, displaying the corresponding prompt message. Select the Enable button to confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to cancel the configuration. Conversely, to disable the configuration, select Disable.
    Figure 12. Confirm Enable
    Figure 13. Confirm Disable
  3. Review any warning messages that appear in the confirmation window during the configuration process.
    Figure 14. Warning Message - Changing

The following feature sets work in the same manner as the Auto VLAN Strip feature described above.

  • CRC Check
  • Policy Overlap Limit Strict
  • Custom Priority
  • Retain User Policy VLAN
  • Inport Mask
  • Tunneling

Auto VLAN Mode

  1. Control the configuration of this feature using the Edit icon by locating the corresponding card and clicking on the pencil icon.
    Figure 15. Auto VLAN Mode Config
  2. A confirmation edit dialogue window appears, displaying the corresponding prompt message.
    Figure 16. Edit VLAN Mode
  3. To configure different modes, click the drop-down arrow to open the menu.
    Figure 17. Drop-down Example
  4. From the drop-down menu, select and click on the desired mode.
    Figure 18. Push Per Policy
  5. Alternatively, enter the desired mode name in the input area.
    Figure 19. Push Per Policy
  6. Click the Submit button to confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
    Figure 20. Submit Button
  7. After successfully setting the configuration, the current configuration status displays next to the edit button.
    Figure 21. Current Configuration Status

The following feature sets work in the same manner as the Auto VLAN Mode feature described above.

  • Device Deployment Mode
  • Match Mode

Auto VLAN Range

  1. Control the configuration of this feature using the Edit icon by locating the corresponding card and clicking on the pencil icon.
    Figure 22. Edit Auto VLAN Range
  2. A configuration edit dialogue window pops up, displaying the corresponding prompt message. The Auto VLAN Range defaults to 1 - 4094.
    Figure 23. Edit Auto VLAN Range
  3. Click on the Custom button to configure the custom range.
    Figure 24. Custom Button
  4. Adjust range value (minimum value: 1, maximum value: 4094). There are three ways to adjust the value of a range:
    • Directly enter the desired value in the input area, with the left side representing the minimum value of the range and the right side representing the maximum value.
    • Adjust the value by dragging the slider using a mouse. The left knob represents the minimum value of the range, while the right knob represents the maximum value.
    • Use the up and down arrow buttons in the input area to adjust the value accordingly. Pressing the up arrow increments the value by 1, while pressing the down arrow decrements it by 1.
  5. Click the Submit button to confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
  6. After successfully setting the configuration, the current configuration status displays next to the edit button.
    Figure 25. Configuration Change Success

Policy Overlap Limit

  1. Control the configuration of this feature using the Edit icon by locating the corresponding card and clicking on the pencil icon.
    Figure 26. Policy Overlap Limit
  2. A configuration edit dialogue window pops up, displaying the corresponding prompt message. By default, the Policy Overlap Limit is 4.
    Figure 27. Edit Policy Overlap Limit
  3. Adjust the Value (minimum value: 0, maximum value: 10). There are two ways to adjust the value:
    • Directly enter the desired value in the input area.
    • Use the up and down arrow buttons in the input area to adjust the value accordingly. Pressing the up arrow increments the value by 1, while pressing the down arrow decrements it by 1.
  4. Click the Submit button to confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
  5. After successfully setting the configuration, the current configuration status displays next to the edit button.
    Figure 28. Policy Overlap Limit Change Success

VLAN Preservation

  1. Control the configuration of this feature using the Edit icon by locating the corresponding card and clicking on the pencil icon.
    Figure 29. VLAN Preservation Feature Set
  2. A configuration edit dialogue window appears displaying the corresponding prompt message. The VLAN Preservation defaults to:
    • Preserve User Configured VLANS: Off
    • Preserve VLAN: No VLAN Configured
  3. To configure Preserve User Configured VLANs, toggle on the switch.
    Figure 30. Edit VLAN Preservation Configuration
  4. To configure Preserve VLAN, click the Add VLAN button to add a configuration area for preserving the VLAN value.
    Figure 31. Preserve VLAN - Add VLAN
  5. Click the drop-down button. There are two ways to configure the preserved VLAN value (minimum value: 1, maximum value: 4094) and a method to delete an entry.
    Figure 32. VLAN Single Example
    • Add Single: Choose Single in the VLAN drop-down menu, and type in the value in the input area.
      Figure 33. Add Single VLAN
    • Add Range: Choose Range in the VLAN drop-down menu, and type in the input area's minimum and maximum values.
      Figure 34. Add VLAN Range
    • Delete: Since there must be a corresponding number in the value input area when submitting the configuration, when accidentally adding multiple redundant VLAN configuration areas, delete the corresponding rows by clicking the red trash can icon .
    Note: The feature supports combinations of any number of single values and any number of range values.
  6. Click the Submit button confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
  7. After successfully setting the configuration, the current configuration status displays next to the edit button.
    Figure 35. Preserve VLAN Configuration Change

Global PTP Settings

  1. Control the configuration of this feature using the Edit icon by locating the corresponding card and clicking on the pencil icon.
    Figure 36. Global PTP Settings
  2. A configuration edit dialogue window appears displaying the corresponding prompt message. By default, these features are not configured. Enter the desired configuration value in the corresponding input area. Hover over the question mark icon to obtain additional explanatory information.
    Figure 37. Edit PTP Settings
  3. Click the Submit button to confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
  4. After successfully setting the configuration, the current configuration status displays next to the edit button.
    Figure 38. PTP Timestamping Configuration Change

Feature Setting Notification Message

Successfully configuring a feature results in a success notification message pop-up with specific details.
Figure 39. Success Message
Whenever an error occurs during the configuration of a feature, an error notification message pops up along with specific details about the error.
Figure 40. Failure Message

Control Plane Lockdown Mode

Enable or disable the Control Plane Lockdown Mode feature.
  1. A toggle button controls the configuration of this feature. Locate the corresponding card and click the toggle switch.
    Figure 41. Control Plane Lockdown Mode
  2. Click the Enable button to enable Control Plane Lockdown Mode or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
    Figure 42. Enable Control Plane Lockdown Mode
    Note: Changing the Control Plane Lockdown Mode may cause some service interruption during the transition.
  3. On enabling Control Plane Lockdown Mode, a success notification message pops up with specific details.
    Figure 43. Success Message

Timestamp Settings

  1. Control the configuration of this feature using the Edit icon by locating the corresponding card and clicking on the pencil icon.
    Figure 44. Timestamp Settings
  2. To configure different header modes, click on the drop-down arrow. There are two ways to edit the timestamp settings - Replace Source MAC or Add Header after L2.
    Figure 45. Edit Timestamp Settings
  3. For Add Header after L2 Mode, choose the header format as 48-bit or 64-bit.
    Figure 46. Add Header after L2
  4. Click the Submit button to confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
    Figure 47. Submit Timestamp Changes
  5. Select Replace Source MAC Mode and Click the Submit button to confirm the configuration changes or the Cancel button to discard the changes.
    Figure 48. Replace Source MAC
  6. On enabling Timestamp Settings, a success notification message pops up with specific details.
    Figure 49. Success Message

Dashboard Layout

The dashboard data displays four tabs:
  • Controller Health
  • Switch Health
  • Policy Health
  • Smart Node Health
Each tab has health indicators for that category, and accessing the tab displays the relevant data below.
Figure 50. DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) Controller Tabs
If a category contains errors or warnings, clicking on the message in the tab opens a details window. It displays the number of errors or warnings filtered by tab category.
Figure 51. Filtered by Category
Review errors by clicking the bell icon on the right side of the Navigation bar, and it will list all fabric errors and warnings instead of filtering by an individual tab.
Figure 52. Notification Bell

Controller Health

DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) Interface Utilization

This widget displays the utilization of each DMF interface as follows:

  • DMF Interface Name
  • Interface Role
  • Traffic Direction
  • Current Utilization (%)
  • Peak Utilization (%)
Figure 53. DMF Interface Utilization

The bar indicates the current utilization and shows peak utilization with a vertical line. The color of the bar and percentage changes depending on the utilization:

  • Red means the utilization percentage is greater than 95%.
  • Yellow means the utilization percentage is greater than 70%.
  • Green means the utilization percentage is less than 70%.

Filter interfaces display only RX traffic, while delivery interfaces display only TX traffic. Other roles with bidirectional data can have one item for each direction of traffic, RX, or TX.

The Show All button leads to the DMF Interfaces page.

On hover, the bar shows the interface’s Bit Rate, Peak Bit Rate, and Speed in bits per second.
Figure 54. DMF Interface Utilization Hover Details

Sort interfaces by Interface Name or Current Utilization. The interfaces are sorted by current utilization (descending order) by default.

Display the interfaces by filtering using Role, Traffic Direction, and Current Utilization.
Figure 55. Sort Roles

Top DMF Interfaces by Traffic

This visualization displays each DMF interface's traffic (bit rate and packet rate).
Figure 56. Top DMF Interfaces by Traffic

The widget shows each interface's traffic direction, DMF Interface name, bit rate, and packet rate. The Show All button leads to the DMF Interfaces page. Sort interfaces by Bit Rate and filter by Metric and Role. By default, DMF sorts the data in descending order of bit rate.

On hover, the widget shows the DMF name, bit rate, and packet rate.
Figure 57. Top DMF Interfaces by Traffic Hover Details

Top Policies

The widget displays the top policies in DMF. For each policy, traffic is determined by totaling the traffic of each of its configured filter interfaces.
Figure 58. DMF Top Policies

For each policy, the bar chart shows the following:

  • Policy Name
  • The sum of the bit rates of all filter interfaces associated with the policy.
  • The sum of the packet rates of all filter interfaces associated with the policy.
On hover, the bar displays the policy name, bit rate, and packet rate.
Figure 59. DMF Policies Hover Details

Sort policies by Bit Rate and filter by Metric. By default, DMF sorts the policies in descending order of bit rate.

The Show All button leads to the Policies page.

Switch Health

Interface Usage Summary

This widget displays the usage statistics for all DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) interfaces. The interface utilization groups all active interfaces:
  • Red means that the utilization percentage is greater than 95%.

  • Yellow means that the utilization percentage is greater than 70%.

  • Green means that the utilization percentage is less than 70%.

Figure 60. DMF Interface Usage Summary
There are three other categories for DMF Interfaces with no traffic. These appear beneath the Usage Bar:
  • Admin Shutdown
  • Link Down
  • Unknown - when Interface Speed is undefined or not known
  • Total Capacity Used displays with Total Capacity defined as the number of Active DMF Interfaces divided by the Number of Total DMF Interfaces
On hover, the number of interfaces in each category appears in the respective usage bar.
Figure 61. DMF Interface Usage Hover Details

Switch Usage Summary

This widget displays the usage statistics for each switch. All switches are grouped by:

  • Active (Green)
  • Admin Shutdown (Yellow)
  • Down (Red)
  • Quarantined (Grey)
Figure 62. DMF Switch Usage Summary
The total number of switches is displayed.

Three list items display the number of:

  • Switches Admin Shutdown
  • Switches Down
  • Switches Quarantined
On hover, the number of switches in each category appears in the respective usage bar.
Figure 63. DMF Switch Usage Hover Details

TCAM Usage Summary

This widget displays the usage statistics for the TCAM of each switch and groups all active TCAMs by usage:

  • Red means that the utilization percentage is greater than 95%.
  • Yellow means that the utilization percentage is greater than 70%.
  • Green means that the utilization percentage is less than 70%.
  • Grey means that the utilization is Unknown.
    • A switch is grouped in the Unknown category when no TCAM usage statistics are available, generally from a switch being shut down or disconnected.
Figure 64. DMF TCAM Usage Summary

The View Details link leads to the TCAM Utilization tab of the Switches page.

Below the Usage Bar, there are three list items displaying:
  • Switch Usage 71% - 95%
  • Switch Usage 96% - 100%
  • Unknown
On hover, the number of switches in each category appears in the respective usage bar.
Figure 65. DMF TCAM Utilization Hover Details

DMF Interface Utilization

DMF Interface Utilization is similar to the data displayed in the Controller Health tab. Please refer to its description for more information.

Switch Utilization

This widget contains two tabs:
  • Switch Usage
  • TCAM Usage

Switch Usage

The Switch Usage tab of the Switch Utilization displays essential information for each switch, including the use of each switch interface and alerts for any warnings or errors.
Figure 66. DMF Switch Usage Tab

 

The widget displays the following data for each switch:

  • Switch Name (contains a link to the Switches page for that specific switch).
  • Switch Usage: Each section represents the number of interfaces with a specific role.
  • Total Usage: Displays the Number of Interfaces with an assigned role divided by the Total Number of Interfaces on the switch.
  • Alerts: This column displays any alerts related to interfaces.
    • The yellow badge indicates the number of warnings, while the red badge shows the number of errors.
The Switch Usage column contains the number of interfaces for each role:
  • Filter
  • Delivery
  • Filter and Delivery
  • Core
  • Recorder Node
  • Service
  • PTP
  • MLAG Core
  • MLAG Delivery.
Three columns can sort the table:
  • Sort the Switch Name column in alphabetical order.
  • Sort the Total Usage column by percentage (%) usage (# used interfaces / # total interfaces).
  • Sort the Alerts column by the total number of alerts (# warnings + # errors).

The default sort order for this table is the Alerts column in descending order, which ensures the switches with the highest number of alerts are initially at the top.

On hover, the number of each interface appears.
Figure 67. DMF Switch Usage Filter Interfaces Hover Details

While hovering over the warnings or alerts badge, a table appears and displays Warnings for the yellow badge and Errors for the red badge, and it will also show the switch name.

Each row of the table contains the following:

  • Interface name (includes a link to Interfaces/[INTERFACE-NAME] page)
  • Interface role
  • Alert type (e.g., Down Delivery Interface)
Figure 68. DMF Interface Warnings
When data is unavailable for a switch (C1), there will be a yellow badge under the Switch Name that says Data Not Available. The Switch Usage column will have an empty usage bar, the Total Usage Column will show 0 (zero) for the number of currently used interfaces, and the Alerts column will be empty.
Figure 69. DMF Switch Usage - Data Not Available
When a switch is down, a red badge appears under the Switch Name that says Switch Not Connected. The other columns will be empty in the same way as the Data Not Available case.
Figure 70. DMF Switch Usage - Switch Not Connected

TCAM Usage

The TCAM Usage widget displays the current utilization of the TCAMs for each active switch. A switch can have a TCAM for IPv4, IPv6, or both. Each TCAM has a guaranteed maximum usage and current utilization. This table compares the current utilization of each TCAM to its guaranteed maximum.
Figure 71. DMF Usage (Policy Usage Only)

This widget displays a TCAM Usage chart for each switch:

  • The purple bar shows IPv4 Current Utilization and Guaranteed Maximum.
  • The cyan bar shows IPv6 Current Utilization and Guaranteed Maximum.
  • Each row will display Current Utilization (IPv4 + IPv6 Current Utilization)
  • Sort by Switch Name and Current Utilization.
  • Sort the Switch Name column alphabetically (descending and ascending).
  • Sort the Current Utilization column in descending and ascending order (IPv4 + IPv6 Current Utilization).
  • The default sort order for the table is the Current Utilization column in descending order, ensuring the switches with the highest current utilization display first.

Top DMF Interfaces by Traffic

The visualization shows DMF interface traffic (bit rate and packet rate) color-coded by interface role. The roles displayed are:
  • Core
  • Delivery
  • Filter
  • Filter and Delivery
  • MLAG Core
  • MLAG Delivery
  • Recorder Node
  • Service
Figure 72. DMF Top Interfaces by Traffic
For each interface, the chart item shows:
  • Interface role
  • Traffic direction
  • DMF interface name
  • Bit rate
  • Packet rate

The Show All button leads to the DMF Interfaces page.

Sort the interfaces by bit rate, which, by default, are sorted in descending bit rate order. Filter interfaces by interface role using the drop-down.
Figure 73. DMF Sort Interfaces by Bit Rate

Policy Health

Policies Usage by Traffic

This widget displays policy traffic. For each policy, the bar chart shows:

  • Name of the policy
  • Bit rate
  • Packet rate
Figure 74. DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) Policies Usage by Traffic
On hover, similar information displays.

Sort policies by Bit Rate.

The Show All button leads to the Policies page.

Active Interfaces by Policy

The table displays DMF interfaces associated with policies. DMF interfaces that are not affiliated with a policy are not displayed.
Figure 75. DMF Active Interfaces by Policy

The table contains the following columns:

  • DMF Interface Name: The DMF name of the switch interface.
  • Role: The role of the interface.
  • Policy Name(s): A list of the policies associated with the interface.
  • Bit Rate: The bit rate of the interface.
  • Packet Rate: The packet rate of the interface.

The Show All button leads to the DMF Interfaces page.

Sort the table by each column; DMF sorts the items in descending bit rate order by default.

Two filters, Roles and Interfaces, allow data sorting by interface role and DMF interface name.
Figure 76. DMF Active Interfaces by Policy - Roles
Figure 77. DMF Active Interfaces by Policy - Interfaces

Smart Node Health

Recorder Node

The Recorder Nodes table displays Recorder Node health and the following columns:
  • Recorder Node Name
  • IP Address
  • MAC Address
  • Recording
    • Indicates the status of the Recorder Node recording configuration, either Yes or No.
  • Storage Utilization
  • Index and Packet disk storage utilization % (percentage) using the following colors:
    • Red means the utilization percentage is greater than 95%.
    • Yellow means the utilization percentage is greater than 70%.
    • Green means the utilization percentage is less than 70%.
Figure 78. Recorder Nodes
On hover, various details appear depending on the column selected. These include:
  • Free and Total Disk Usage
  • Backup Storage Utilization

  • Index and Packet backup disk storage utilization % (percentage) using the following colors.

    • Red means the utilization percentage is greater than 95%.

    • Yellow means the utilization percentage is greater than 70%.

    • Green means the utilization percentage is less than 70%.

  • Virtual Disk Health

  • Status of Index and Packet virtual disks:

    • Green means the virtual disk’s health is good.

    • Red means the value of the virtual disk’s health is bad.

  • Recorder Node Fabric Interface

    • Shows the DMF interface name and its status where the Recorder Node connects to the DMF Fabric.

  • Switch, Interface, and status
  • Zero Touch State

  • Alerts

  • Errors and warnings for the Recorder Node - Hovering over an error displays additional information about the errors and warnings.

The following are examples of detailed information when hovering.
Figure 79. Example - Index Disk Storage
Figure 80. Example - Index Backup Disk Storage
Figure 81. Example - Recorder Node Fabric Interface

 

Figure 82. Example - Errors

The View All link leads to the Recorder Node page.

Service Node

The Service Nodes table displays Service Node health and the following columns:
  • Service Node Name
  • IP Address
  • Service Node Interface Load
  • Zero Touch State
Figure 83. DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) Service Nodes
Hovering over the Service Node Interface Load column displays:
  • Interface Name
  • Service Name
  • Action
Figure 84. DMF Service Nodes Hover Details

The View All link leads to the Service Node page.

Analytics Node

The Analytics Node table displays Analytics Node health and the following columns:
  • IP Address: The configured Analytics Node IP address.
    • Clicking on the IP Address opens the Analytics Node UI.
  • Redis Status
    • Displays the status in green if healthy, along with the last updated timestamp.
    • Displays the status in red if unhealthy, along with the latest updated timestamp.
  • Replicated Redis Status
    • Displays the status in green if healthy, along with the latest updated timestamp.
    • Displays the status in red if unhealthy, along with the latest updated timestamp
Figure 85. DMF Analytics Node

The View Details link leads to the Analytics Node details page.

Refreshing Data

Data automatically refreshes every minute, and interface topology data automatically refreshes every 10 seconds.

Manually refresh dashboard data using the Refresh button.

Empty State

When there are no provisioned switches, DANZ Monitoring Fabric (DMF) Interface Utilization and Top DMF Interfaces by Traffic will display an Empty Component.

Each empty component contains a link to provision a switch. The system prompts the user to create a DMF interface if there are provisioned switches but no assigned DMF interfaces.
Figure 86. DMF Controller Overview - Empty State

Top Policies will display an Empty Component if no policies exist.

Use the Create Policy button to go to the Create Policy page.
Figure 87. DMF Switch Health - Empty State
The Usage Summary components will display Unused or No Switches Connected for the usage bar legend.
Figure 88. DMF Policy Health - Empty State

Policies Usage by Traffic displays the same Empty Component as Top Policies.

*sFlow® is a registered trademark of Inmon Corp.