Visual NMS

Description: Visual NMS (Network Management System) is an integrated system for network discovery, monitoring, support and automation. It uses expert knowledge from fields like IP networking and underlying telecommunication technologies (Ethernet, SDH, DWDM), together with advanced programming concepts, including SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and Graphviz algorithm for graph layout and virus-like hop-by-hop network crawling, for an accurate L1/L2 discovery. And by using efficient multi-processor programming, full network scans & processing of ~3000+ (three thousand and more) pieces of active equipment were completed in less than few minutes (<10 min. / SPARC T5)

Skip to Demo - Hover & click on links and nodes once scan is done (Redraw button appears near close button of map window). Click to console works only in Firefox (SVG directives are more-to-the-standard in Firefox)

News ('19): Visual NMS (public release) is now halted, while it might be integrated into a blue chip company's products. Legacy open source version stored on Downloads sources is still available.

Implemented successfully in medium to large networks: GL Trade (now Sungard) Australia (2008), Mobistar (now Orange) Belgium (2010), Oracle's C@C network (2019)

More information

Some information in the various pages might be inaccurate as the development ceased few years ago (2016), however there are plans to restart the development (2026)

Software

Visual NMS is developed using:

Perl for backend scripts (crawler, snmp proxy, etc.)
SVG for graphical representation (map, real time graph, etc.)
JavaScript for client dynamics
XML HTTP request for client retrieval of data (including real time data)
PHP for persistency of custom layouts
MySQL for statistical data persistency and not only
Other open source software

Some of the components for the software are used under an open source license (i.e. SNMP_Util library).

Server Information

Visual NMS software was created on top of Linux operating system and the distro of choice was Debian.
However, due to portability of programming environments, the server OS is not that important.
Visual NMS software works even on Windows provided a recent Perl interpreter is available. A micro HTTP daemon script specifically developed for Visual NMS is provided in the downloadable demo archive.
There are few caveats when using the software with generic http daemon software - i.e. real time compression needs to be disabled for data to be received by the the client browser instantaneously.
Parts of software split in multiple forked processes for some tasks (get bulk cli data), so one or multiple multi core processors are to be used. This way the server can handle thousand equipment pieces per minute (bulk snmp data).

Client Engine

As SVG is a standard technology for rendering graphics, there no proprietary software used on the client. A standard web browser should be all that is needed to access the frontend of the Visual NMS software.

However, reality is sometimes different than theory so only few browsers support a sufficient set of directives from the SVG specification so Visual NMS is only supported on Firefox ~~and Chrome~~ browser.

Historically, the most appropriate engine was Adobe's SVG Viewer in Internet Explorer, however support was dropped by Adobe long time ago and, in the meantime, Firefox and Chrome browsers implemented much more directives from the specification.

Depending on particular needs, if Firefox or Chrome browsers are not accepted due to policy restrictions, a solution will be found. Please contact us for more information.

Protocols Used and/or Supported

SNMP - for quick & structured data retrieval
Telnet / SSH - for CLI data retrieval wherever SNMP data is not supported (lack of MIB support or SNMP not available)
Network Transmission Protocols & Technologies: data can be retrieved starting with Layer 2 protocols like PPP, HDLC and technologies like Ethernet, up to Layer 7 protocol data information, wherever supported also by the equipment
IP Routing Protocols: most of the routing protocols, including BGP, support data retrieval via SNMP
Protocols are [to be] displayed layered and/or in different topology maps

Supported Technologies

Visual NMS is not limited to IP Networking only. Through partnership with other companies like Gear Systems, transmission technologies like DWDM, SDH, MicroWave, etc. can be added to the system, or Visual NMS itself can be integrated into other tools (like automation tools).

Even more: the SVG/AJAX interface of Visual NMS can be ported to all sort of systems which have changing networks of data (think road traffic with nodes being cities and links being roads). In time, guides to port the frontend to other data reporting networks will be made available so you could try it also on non-IP-networks

Contact

Please drop an email to

info@visualnms.com

for any enquiry you might have

Standalone Visual NMS Demo Software

The standalone version of the NMS is meant to show basic capabilities of the Visual NMS software. Try out the following:

Web2CLI - Click on a device. Except R1, all other devices will give you access to a VTY so you can type commands.
RealGraphs - Real Time Graphs of link traffic, 1s poll time - just hover over the links
StayRealGraphs - Make those hovered graphs stick in the workspace so we can track several graphs at a time
InfoNow - Hover over equipment to see instant information (i.e. Vlans on switches) - this is just an example, a RealGraph with Memory & CPU utilisation can be shown as well
MoveMe - Drag equipment to modify toplogy as you wish
VLANwhat? - An incipient display of VLAN's (colored/thiked links - check them yourselves in the Web2CLI consoles)
Redraw - Click the top right button of the Map window so you'd have a fresh new layout graphed automatically for you
FlexWindows - Drag windows to your favorite position. Just click and drag the top bar (different color).
WinUnder - Send windows underneath the other visible windows, to access hidden information
MuchMoreToCome - As the main product gets ahead in development phases, the little bro' (the standalone free version) will also get enhancements/bug corrections. Check regularly here ;)

Skip and try the DEMO site!

Please watch the video before heading straight to the demo site, you might get a hint on how to work with the system:

One more thing: please change the persistent connections number in the settings/config of your browser to be able to use the Web2CLI (i.e. picture for FireFox below)

Change the number of parallel HTTP connections

LIVE DEMO!

BE WARNED: This software is provided as is. You are the only one responsible on how to use it. It might lead to severe security concerns when used inappropriately. If in doubts, check the Support page

Work in Progress

The multi-threaded version of the NMS will have the Demo accessible through this link soon.

What's included in the MultiThreaded version:

Parallel Retrieval of Data - by manipulating the TCP/IP stack of the server, few milliseconds are needed to issue the SNMP requests
Synchronous Data Representation - multiple users across separated Clients are seeing synchronous representation of link status/real time graphs (try to open two graphs of the same link and you'll see what this is about)
Customized POE Data Proxy - when multiple clients are requesting/retrieving the same data from the server, there's only one SNMP request sent by the server due to caching
Data Persistency & 3rd Party Integration - MySQL DB, RRD Tool, NetFlow, etc.

Software Downloads

09/Jan/2019: Software is outdated. To Be updated soon...

Visual NMS Standalone Demo is available for download on SourceForge:

Included: server.pl - a dedicated forking mini web server wherever a standard web server is not available. It can also run non privileged

Please note - vnms.conf file needs to be configured, at least with the following parameters:

SNMPCommunity - the SNMP community you use for v2c SNMP in your network
Host - Start point for scanning process
SNMPSrcAddr - if your network accepts packets only from particular IP Addresses or if you have source routing (iproute2, etc.), you should configure this address accordingly. Delete/empty if not used (you have to delete/empty field as it is filled in by default - this archive is the actual running demo)

Standalone Demo Live Debian Setup

This is a video mini how to, showing how to get & install Debian Live + Visual NMS Standalone. Please note there's no extra package neeeded to be installed inside the VM and this makes possible also offline instalation

You only need Debian Live ISO image + VirtualBox install package + VisualNMS archive to be able to perform offline installation.

Get Debian - Here: Debian Live CD

Get VirtualBox - Here: VirtualBox Download

Create VM - Depending on your network setup, steps might be different:

Configure & Run VisualNMS - Including some iproute2 source routing configuration, particular to my setup: