Assimilation Network Management provides a broad set of features and advantages for understanding and managing your network. Below you’ll find both the current set of network management features and those from our roadmap. As with all Assimilation products, Assimilation Network Management integrates closely with the other members of the Assimilation suite and with our comprehensive, always-up-to-date and scalable CMDB.
| Feature | Description | Notes |
| Tight CMDB integration | All our data is stored in the CMDB and our capabilities are tightly integrated with it. | |
| IP address discovery | We discover all active IPv4 addresses on our subnets without pings, other packet transmission, or external programs. A device only needs to be active on the network for seconds for us to discover it. | [2] |
| MAC address discovery | We discover all active MAC addresses on our subnets without pings or other packet transmission. A device only needs to be active on the network for seconds for us to discover it. | [2] |
| System IP and NIC configuration | We discover all interfaces, IP addresses, MAC addresses, and details of interface settings including duplex and MTU settings – on agent systems. | |
| LLDP Discovery | Our integrated receive-only implementation of the IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP) protocol allows us non-invasively discovery of details of switch configuration of host-connected switch ports including VLAN, duplex and MTU settings. | [1] |
| CDP Discovery | Our integrated receive-only implementation of the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) allows us non-invasive discovery of details of Cisco switch configuration of host-connected switch ports including VLAN, duplex and MTU settings. | [1] |
| Host/Switch connectivity | We create a map of switch interconnections for every agent host port. | |
| No promiscuous mode | Our discovery techniques do not require promiscuous mode on Linux. We do not listen to packets which do not belong to us. No packet sniffing, traffic analysis or special network privileges are required. | |
| Command line API | We provide a variety of canned queries from the command line. New canned queries are easily added with basic knowledge of Cypher. This interface is ideal for interfacing with a ChatOps chat bot. | |
| REST query API | We provide a JSON-based REST interface to all our canned queries (shared with the command line). | |
| Event API | We provide an event API to receive notifications of changes to discovered objects and statuses – for example, changes in NIC or switch connectivity or settings. | |
| Host/Switch compatibility audits | Scripts can be written to query the database to audit switch port settings against host port settings in things like duplex and MTU. When duplex mismatches occur they are normally hard to diagnose when working back from the symptoms. MTU mismatches are also hard to discover if working from the symptoms back. | |
| Notes | ||
| [1] | Not usually available in virtual machines including clouds. | |
| [2] | Not usually available to cloud-hosted agents. |
Network Roadmap Features
| Roadmap Feature | Description |
| Host/Switch compatibility audits | Provide audits of switch port settings against host port settings in things like duplex, MTU, and so on, and create alerts on potential difficulties. |
| Nanoprobes in switches | Provide versions of nanoprobes for a number of switch vendors, so that we discover detailed switch settings just like we discover host configuration. |
| Invasive switch discovery | Use SNMP+LLDP to fully map switch interconnects and configuration information, for switches which can’t accommodate nanoprobes. |
| Switch connectivity visualization | Visualize switch connectivity graph – between switches, and to hosts. |
| GUI | For understanding and drilling down on network-related details with a desktop and mobile-aware interface. |
| Switch port map | Tablet/phone interface to show you what systems, IP addresses and services are on each port of a switch to minimize errors in switch interconnect changes. |
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