Enhance Network Performance Management With Next-Gen AIOps: Configuring Integration of DX Spectrum With DX Operational Observability

To unlock the power of observability and advanced analytics of AIOps, teams need to collect exceptional monitoring data, establish connections and correlations between the data, and understand context with the help of robust and current topological maps.

Because modern networks often span on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, monitoring their performance and troubleshooting issues can be difficult. These complex infrastructures often lead to observability gaps for network teams. And, when monitoring responsibilities are spread across different groups, collaboration gaps can also arise.

Teams that rely primarily on traces for managing network performance often don’t see the full picture. With network topologies, nodes are solely responsible for routing packets. Service topologies, on the other hand, are responsible for processing transactions. As organizations transition to managing digital services—not simply managing separate IT domains—service topologies have emerged as an important construct to support service observability.

By combining network observability tools with next-gen AIOps, teams benefit from enhanced analytics, cross-domain data correlation, and capabilities that help foster cross-team collaboration. The result is vastly improved observability that provides critical insights and context for network teams. This combination allows IT professionals to see how different components interact and identify issues before they have an impact on service quality.

Challenges in network observability

1. Lack of standardization: The lack of standardized protocols and formats for network monitoring data can result in inconsistencies and gaps in observability.
2. Data volume and variety: Signals from network devices can overload teams with data that exceeds the analytical or processing limits of traditional tools.
3. Latency and performance: High latency links and varying performance across different parts of the network can obscure the root cause of issues, which makes troubleshooting difficult.
4. Network complexity: Modern networks are complex and often incorporate a mix of on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. This scale and complexity can make it difficult for teams to gain a comprehensive view of the network.
5. Integration issues: Different tools and systems may not integrate well, leading to fragmented data and incomplete observability across the network.
6. Dynamic environments: Networks are constantly evolving with new devices and configurations being added continuously. Keeping up with these changes and maintaining observability is an ongoing challenge.
7. Security concerns: Ensuring comprehensive observability without compromising security is a delicate balance. Sensitive data needs to be protected while still providing enough information for effective monitoring.

Network topology maps

Topology is fundamental to comprehensive observability. Using a combination of protocols and algorithms, DX Spectrum creates the topology by discovering and modeling network connections. The solution offers these capabilities:

• Device discovery: DX Spectrum discovers network devices using protocols like Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), and vendor-specific protocols, such as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and Extreme Protocol.
• Connection mapping: DX Spectrum maps connections between devices by analyzing data from device Management Information Bases (MIBs) and protocols like Spanning Tree which provides information about network bridges and their connections.
• Layer 2 and layer 3 mapping: For layer 2 devices (e.g., switches), DX Spectrum uses Source Address Tables (SAT) and Spanning Tree information to determine connectivity. For layer 3 devices (e.g., routers), it uses routing tables and other relevant data.

A single pane of glass: Integrating DX Spectrum and DX Operational Observability

This integration provides numerous advantages, particularly when dealing with network devices. By aggregating data from various sources into a single unified view, this integration provides teams with a comprehensive understanding of network performance. This eliminates the need for users to switch between multiple tools to monitor performance or to investigate issues when problems arise.  Users can see important context they need for both domain-specific and cross-domain understanding. They also benefit from an interactive topology map that explains complex network infrastructures.

Getting started

Integration architecture

Integration overview

You can find detailed documentation on the DX Operational Observability (DX O2) and DX Spectrum integration here.

Please proceed by checking the Compatibility Matrix and Considerations.

1. Configure the integration:

1. Login to the DX 02 interface
2. Go to Settings, Connector Parameters
3. Save the Cohort ID, Ingestion URL (TAS end Point), and the Tenant token.

• Identities
  • Cohort ID
  • TAS end point
  • Bear Token ID

Cohort ID, TAS URL, and Tenant Token

2. Connect to DX Spectrum One Click

1. Click on the Install DX Operational Intelligence Connector to begin the download
2. The file name is SpectrumDataPublisher.jar also called Spub

Download the Spub (DX Operational Intelligence Connector)

You can install Spub at any server that will have access to the DX Spectrum server and the DX 02 SaaS environment.

Execute the installation by following the steps detailed in the documentation here.

3. Configure the SpectrumDataPublisher

1. Go to the SpectrumDataPublisher folder; config; and open the ConnectorConfig.xml. For additional information, refer to this document.

4. Configure the One click Server Configuration on the ConnectorConfig.xml

1. Note: The placeholder text below in red must be updated with appropriate values.

<!-- DX Spectrum OneClick Server Configuration -->
    <SpectrumConfiguration>
        <!-- give OneClickServerUrl. example: http://spectrum-w2k8-123.net:8080/ -->
        <OneClickServerUrl>http://10.252.xxx.xxx:8080</OneClickServerUrl>   #########
        <ConfigFile>SpectrumConfig.xml</ConfigFile>
        <!-- give webapp url. example: http://spectrum-w2k8-123.net/spectrum/webapp -->
        <WebappLaunchUrl>http://10.252.xxx.xxx:8080/spectrum/webapp</WebappLaunchUrl>  ########
        <!-- give NetOps PC url. example: http://capc-w2k8.net:8181/pc -->
        <NetOpsUrl></NetOpsUrl>
    </SpectrumConfiguration>

Configure the destinations

<Destinations>
        <!-- For CA Digital Operational Intelligence details -->
        <DestinationConfiguration>
            <DestinationType>DOI</DestinationType>
            <!-- give Tenant Id -->
            <DestinationDefaultTenant>312FCDD8-493C-xxxx-935E-58E07E7C2C1B</DestinationDefaultTenant>  ######## Cohort Id
            <!-- give OI ingestion endpoint. (e.g "https://apmgw.dxi-na1.saas.broadcom.com/") -->
            <DestinationUrl>https://apmgw.dxi-na1.saas.broadcom.com</DestinationUrl> ######## TAS end Point
            <DestinationEntitiesPerPayload>200</DestinationEntitiesPerPayload>
            <ProxyHostForDestination></ProxyHostForDestination>
            <ProxyPortForDestination></ProxyPortForDestination>
            <ConfigFile>DOIConfig.xml</ConfigFile>
            <!-- give value : true or false -->
            <Alarms>true</Alarms>
            <!-- give value : true or false -->
            <Ncm>false</Ncm>
            <!-- give value : true or false -->
            <Tas>true</Tas>  ######
            <!-- give value : true or false -->
            <Services>true</Services>  #####
            <!-- give value : true or false -->
            <HealthMetadata>true</HealthMetadata>
            <!-- Clears the stale alarms in DOI during service startup. -->
            <AlarmReconcileConfiguration>
                <Enable>false</Enable>
            </AlarmReconcileConfiguration>
        </DestinationConfiguration>
    </Destinations>

5. Start the SpectrumDataPublisher.

You will need the following information available to you:

• Cohort ID
• TAS end point
• DX Spectrum user
• DX Spectrum pass
• Generated/get the token

To initiate the SpectrumDataPublisher, navigate to the directory specified during your installation and run the command as below.

[root@spectrumss SpectrumDataPublisher]# ./run.sh start
Enter OneClick username:spectrum
Enter OneClick password:xxxxxx
Enter username for destination proxy -- if applicable :
Enter password for destination proxy -- if applicable :
Enter OI Tenant Bearer Token:eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJpbnQiOnRydWUsInRpZCI6Njg4LCJqdGkiOiJhNzM1YzFmMC01NzM0LTRlNWIt123456789TY1NzVlMmNkMDcifQ.JTyfdCVzHCNRbEo5G8qGGFwef9AKDvFUSDhYnGeslmLvawXj5z-P_9j6TT9KlfMfzCt-K7AwM8jPJ9q9n-gxSA
Validating connections...
Validating connections...
Spectrum   : SUCCESS
TAS        : SUCCESS
NASS       : SUCCESS
Jarvis     : SUCCESS
OIUrl      : DISABLED
Starting the service...
Service started

6. Validate!

• Open DX O2
• Go to the Inventory on the left and confirm DX Spectrum appears as a source.

DX Operational Observability Sources

DX Spectrum Source

If you see all the sources from DX Spectrum listed under Source in DX 02, your integrations worked well. If you encounter issues, review the logs located at $SpectrumDataPublisher/logs.

• SpectrumDataPublisher.log
• Topology.log.

Summary

By integrating network devices into observability solutions, teams can gain a comprehensive understanding of network health, topology, and performance. With these insights, teams will be more efficient and effective at managing network performance. These benefits can be realized quickly and, over time, have an outsized impact for network teams and IT operations:

• Unified view: A single-pane-of-glass view into the entire network infrastructure ensures better coordination and management across different devices and systems.
• Reduced downtime: Early detection and rapid resolution of issues result in higher network availability and reliability.
• Proactive monitoring: By continuously collecting and analyzing data from network devices, teams can detect anomalies and potential issues before they affect the network.
• Enhanced security: Observability helps teams to identify suspicious activities and potential security threats in real-time—enabling faster incident response and mitigation.
• Improved performance: With real-time insights into network traffic and device performance, teams can optimize configurations, balance loads, and reduce latency.
• Root cause analysis: When an issue arises, observability tools can quickly pinpoint the root cause, whether it's a device malfunction, network congestion, or misconfiguration.
• Capacity planning: Observability provides detailed usage patterns and trends, which helps to plan network expansions and avoid over- or under-provisioning.
• Compliance and auditing: Continuous monitoring and detailed logs help to maintain compliance with industry regulations and ease the auditing process.