Leveraging the OpenAPI Framework to Expand Network Observability

It may be an obvious thing to say, but it’s true: every organization is different. DX NetOps is very much designed with that reality in mind.

At Broadcom, the DX NetOps product team’s goal is to provide smart default dashboards and reports, but also to give customers all the capabilities they need to tailor views to their specific environments, personnel, objectives, and goals.

The solution gives you complete flexibility to create custom data sets, dashboards, and visualizations. Teams can establish dynamic and custom dashboards for a range of personas and roles in the organization. The DX NetOps Portal provides many ways to customize and build your own dashboards to ensure your teams have the right visibility for triage. This includes the ability to create dashboards that leverage AppNeta data.

OpenAPI framework extends visibility

Teams can add new visualizations to the DX NetOps Portal using the OpenAPI framework. Leveraging this framework, customers can create their own apps. In addition, they can use existing apps available from a GitHub repository. Today, the repository features apps from Broadcom product management as well as members of the community. This OpenAPI framework helps establish an ecosystem that makes it easy to create new apps, leverage existing apps, and modify them as needed.

Here are a few examples of the types of apps available:

• Device-specific metric collection. This app collects all supported metrics available from a specific device. Users can see all metric families and drill down to see all metrics within a specific family.
• Dashboard for polling health. This app enables operators to track the health of SNMP polling.
• Interface utilization dashboard. Users can see utilization, including traffic in and out. Teams can select from three layouts and view utilization for different time windows, such as during days, weeks, and months.

Process: How to add new apps

With the OpenAPI framework, users can add new apps with two clicks and three steps. First, users go to our GitHub site, view the apps available in the repository, and, with a single click, download the file of the app desired.

Then, users deploy apps into the portal using app deployment functionality. (Note, a user must have administrator privileges to deploy apps.) Users can review the app information section on the GitHub site to understand how to customize or tailor the application based on its unique functionality. Users can then add and configure the views of the app in their dashboards and context pages.

Key advantages

With its support for the OpenAPI framework, DX NetOps offers several key advantages:

• Ease of use. DX NetOps provides a range of capabilities that help streamline the process of adapting and adding functionality. Users can easily download and start using new apps immediately. Users can upload a new version of an app, simply by selecting the appropriate checkbox. In addition, the solution offers a range of safeguards that help prevent errors. For example, when deploying an app, the solution will warn users if the app has already been deployed. The solution also makes sure apps are only added to the right area of the product. For example, if the new app is for interfaces, DX NetOps won’t allow a user to add it to a device view.
• Flexibility. DX NetOps users can customize views of third-party apps, just as any other views in the portal, using an easy, drag-and-drop process. Apps typically feature well-documented readme files. Teams can modify parameters that have been included within the app code. For example, an app may come with established threshold ranges, while enabling users to modify those thresholds, if and when needed.
• Stability and resilience. Many of the apps available have been running in production in customer environments for years, with a proven track record of reliability. Many apps ship with JSON files that offer sample data, so users can immediately test and verify if the app is working in their environment. All libraries are independent, so there’s no risk of conflicts or overlap. Further, these apps maintain backward compatibility, so DX NetOps updates don’t create app compatibility issues.

Conclusion

Through its support for the OpenAPI framework, DX NetOps gives customers great flexibility in adapting and expanding their monitoring capabilities. Customers can develop their own apps, and easily download and use apps from Broadcom product management and third parties. To learn more, be sure to watch our Small Bytes session, How to Use NetOps OpenAPI to Expand Performance Visualizations.

Our Small Bytes series are short, practical webcasts that offer practical examples on getting the most from Broadcom solution investments. Visit our Small Bytes page to see a complete list of upcoming sessions and dozens of on-demand presentations in the series.