Network Information & Monitoring Appliance User's Guide for Version 1
Installation
Adjusting System Settings
Network Information Programs
Network Monitoring Programs
Introduction
The Nework Information & Monitoring Appliance provides quite a few powerful features to keep an eye on your network. However, it is imperitive that you know how to use these tools in order to get the full benefit out of NIMA (as well as not inadvertantly causing problems). This manual will attempt to "cover all of the bases" when using and implementing NIMA into your network. Please note that this is currently only a "draft" document and will be updated regularly as time permits.
Installation and Setup
To get NIMA up and running, simply extract the Zip file and start the Virtual Machine. However, for proper usage it is imperitive that you "place" the host computer properly on your network. NIMA is built to provide Network Monitoring abilities, in order for this functionality to work, it must be able to "see" all of the traffic coming into and going out of your network. You can do this in a few ways, depending upon your network setup.
The biggest obsticle in monitoring your network is dependant upon whether you are using switches or hubs to connect your computer. Switches, because they are "smarter" won't allow you "monitor" your network (unless you have expensive ones). Before I go on you should know that a Network switch does not "broadcast" it's traffic across all of its ports like a network hub does, if you need any information on Network Hubs vs. Network Switches check out this wikipedia article.
Note: NIMA was built with Microsoft Windows users in mind, some of the functionality might not work if you are using a GNU/Linux host. This is due to some security issues in switching the "virtual network adapter" into promiscuous mode.
Using a Switch that provides monitoring features
Some network switches provide the ability to have all of the traffic going through certain ports to be "mirrored" to another port. This provides an easy way to setup NIMA to be fully functional.
Enabling a monitor port using an HP Switch
When using these types of switches, it is important to know which ports to monitor. Many people just set their switch to monitor every port, this can create quite a bit of information to be passed to your computer, most is probably something you do not want to monitor (unless you are troubleshooting). For instance, if you monitor every port, you will see all traffic on your network, including any Windows traffic, such as logons and shares, as well as any NFS or LDAP traffic. Most of the time you will not want this, so to filter all of this out it is recommended that you only monitor the port that your Firewall or Router/Gateway is connected to. That way the only traffic you are monitoring is what is leaving or coming into your network.
Using a Network Hub with Switches
To get around the inablity of owning a switch that does not provide a "monitoring port", you can incorporate a network hub into your infrastructure to get NIMA's monitoring functionality to work.
To do this simply place a Network Hub between your Firewall/Router/Gateway and your high speed network hub.
Adding a Network Hub to your Infrastucture
When implementing this setup, you will only monitor traffic going into and out of your network through the Firewall/Router/Gateway device. (Which is probably what you want)
Next - Adjusting System Settings
