TruView Reviews

What is our primary use case?

How has it helped my organization?

What is our primary use case?

What is most valuable?

What is most valuable?

What needs improvement?

What is most valuable?

How has it helped my organization?

Our network includes more than 650 switches, 650 access points, 275 virtual servers, 75 physical servers, 3,800 desktop computers, and hundreds of other client devices. Historically, we didn’t have great visibility into application performance in our data center or on other client devices. We previously were very reactive to performance problems and used a variety of complex tools like packet sniffers to analyze problems. We needed a solution that could immediately tell us how applications were performing and help us quickly solve problems if they emerge.

Visual TruView enables us to gather key data sets—including packet storage, application response time, transactional decode, flow and SNMP—to highlight performance metrics for key applications. It delivers this information through a centralized console and provides us with a clear picture of performance. When issues arise, it helps quickly isolate the root cause by allowing us to immediately drill down into packet-level detail, and its integration with OptiView XG allows us to conduct real-time, inline packet capture for more sophisticated transactional analysis.

TruView allows us to ensure application performance by collecting and correlating all of the application information and presenting that information through a central monitoring dashboard. If a problem arises, we’re just a click or two away from diving into packet level details, so we can troubleshoot instantly.

Visual TruView allows us to:

• Evaluate bandwidth utilization
• See bottlenecks
• Track latency
• Troubleshoot DHCP server issues
• Hunt down unused IPs
• Determine if problems are originating from the network or application side of IT

For example, our team was recently called in to troubleshoot a database connection issue with Oracle. We were trying to transfer large amounts of data from physical servers to virtual ones, but it kept failing. Because of the data center’s history, our first assumption was that the core was the problem, but we could not isolate the issue. Using TruView we immediately identified the problem as a setting in the Oracle application, not with the data center core, so we modified the setting and quickly resolved the problem.

We had another issue with our SMTP server being hit by an attack, telling it to flood another server with emails. The security team locked down the firewall and claimed the attack was coming from inside the network. We created an application that could capture the SMTP traffic to the server and then analyzed it to find out the attack was coming from an IP in Amsterdam, not internally as initially assumed.

TrueView is very intuitive, and because it gives you real-time visibility and historical data, our troubleshooting flexibility is very robust and amazingly accurate. If a user complains about an issue, we can look at historical data to isolate the problem fast. We couldn’t do that before. If application performance is slow, we can instantly isolate the domain and identify whether it’s a network or application issue. Again, we couldn’t do that before.

We provide services to 82 remote service centers and our network supports 4,000 - 5,000 applications developed in-house, as well as several third-party applications. Most of our application users reside at remote locations, accessing the application via VPN or wireless clients. We have up to 1,000 concurrent VPN users during peak hours along with 1,500 users accessing the network via wireless clients. This distributed environment, along with the interactive nature of the applications, requires network and computer services with consistently low latencies.

We installed a Visual TruView 4800 at our datacenter and have found that it leverages key data sets, such as:

• stream-to-disk packet storage
• application response time
• transactional decode
• IPFIX (NetFlow)
• SNMP

TruView presents network and application performance analytics through a single reporting interface which depicts network performance visually to demonstrate when and where problems occur, allowing us to dive into the data and isolate issues to the application, server interface/device, transaction, or event packet level. As it processes network performance analytics, it time correlates the results providing cross-functional IT teams – such as network engineering, application, and server teams – with an increased ability to work more collaboratively and solve problems fast.

TruView acts as a window into our network and applications, telling us if and when performance issues arise and helping us identify the proper fix before it causes service interruptions.

We’ve been especially pleased about how the appliance has impacted how we manage our network bandwidth. We use it to identify, monitor, and reduce network traffic surrounding “chatty” and “background” applications, such as SQL server pings and distributing virus updates, as well as rogue devices connecting to the network.

In one example, it identified an excessive number of SQL updates requested by a third-party application. We tweaked the application as soon as the TruView system identified the issue, reducing the load on both our network and our SQL server.

It also allows us to analyze captured packets to dig into individual client sessions and solve problems reported through the help desk. The appliance consolidates information that we previously accessed from multiple sources and adds to it. It allows us to find all of the information needed that we previously had to gather from multiple tools. It has made troubleshooting issues faster and easier.

Due to the nature of our business, we require continuous operations with zero tolerance for network performance delays or downtime. Performance expectations are high for our IT team and network.

We rely on optimal network response times to our auction applications and databases to present, track, and sell plants and flowers as quickly as possible. As soon as one product is sold, we need to be able to showcase the next item immediately. Time is of the essence, and we can’t waste it with unnecessary troubleshooting steps.

In an auction clock environment, plants and flowers are brought into a room to be bid on by both in-person and online buyers. A database pushes information to the clock, which displays the product, quantity, price, and time left at auction. Bidders push a button to purchase flowers based on the price displayed on the clock at that particular time. As soon as the product is sold, a new product is displayed as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, we recently encountered a response time delay between the database and the auction clock. The delay slowed the clock display information by up to two seconds between each auction, which is far too long in our environment. We needed a mechanism to pinpoint the issue and determine if the root cause lay with the database, application, or network. That was easier said than done at the time, given our organization’s complex, homegrown databases and applications.

A delay of even a few seconds is unacceptable when we’re auctioning more than 50 million items each day to on-site and international bidders. Time literally translates to money, so we do everything possible to mitigate delays.

We evaluated multiple technologies before implementing a Visual TruView unified network and application performance monitoring and troubleshooting solution from Fluke Networks. We deployed Visual TruView to monitor and troubleshoot both our backbone and marketplace networks. The backbone network is made up of two core switches, two connected server switches, and five distribution switches. This infrastructure powers the organization’s home-grown applications and databases. The backbone network is connected to the marketplace network, which powers all auction bidding through numerous connections to in-person bidding devices and online bidding applications.

Visual TruView uses key data sets (including packet storage, application response time, transactional decode, NetFlow and SNMP) to highlight performance metrics through a single dashboard. The comprehensive overview of both network and application performance provides us with a clear picture of where issues originate across both our backbone and marketplace networks.

TruView tracks the networks and devices for all auction activities. It doesn’t make any difference what the issue is or where it originates, giving us immediate access across our entire infrastructure. The response-time savings are phenomenal.

We used Visual TruView to troubleshoot our delays between auctions. The solution monitored performance from the application data query across the network to the database and back. TruView immediately identified the database as the root cause, taking an extra second or two to process the query and respond. We optimized the database and fixed the problem without wasted effort scrutinizing the entire network and application since the issue was isolated immediately.

Visual TruView provides visibility into the our network, applications, and databases from a single solution so we don’t waste time unnecessarily pinpointing where issues originate. The result saves us two hours of accumulated delays each year, equaling €200,000 in annual savings, along with an improved image for our operations.

Before utilizing Visual TruView, we were forced to take a reactive approach to client problems. Any incoming issues would be investigated through a limited platform we had, providing only basic network and application information. While we could identify if an application was running and see generic network information, any real intelligence was absent and required hours of manual testing and analysis before our consultant or engineer could find and resolve the problem (if they could resolve the problem at all). We wanted to expand our presence in the network monitoring field, but to do so, we needed a network and application performance monitoring solution that could provide a complete view and detailed analytics. This would allow our team to strategically identify, track and remediate problems for its customers – essentially delivering a powerful and reliable service.

When working with large enterprise clients, you really have to be able to address, diagnose and resolve issues quickly, which can be a huge challenge when you’re working with such complex networking structures. Our toolset was too limited. We were only able to see basic network information. We needed better visibility to dive into the real root cause of issues, so we could resolve them, move forward and really establish a solid value in our services.

In addition to proactive problem detection and resolution, our team also wanted a solution that could provide data that validated when the network was working properly, so they could eliminate false network accusations.

In many cases, it’s just as important to prove the network is working properly when people begin pointing the finger at perceived network outages. Especially if you’re providing services, because at some point, that finger may point at us. We needed a solution that could quickly provide accurate data that clearly showed if an outside source or provider was impacting the overall network or application delivery ecosystem.

We chose Fluke Networks’ Visual TruView to provide real-time network and application visibility for our clients. The appliance delivers an integrated monitoring platform with a unified view of both network and application performance, quickly locating lurking issues and making troubleshooting a more efficient process. With TruView, we are able to monitor large client networks in real-time and pinpoint any network or application problem efficiently.

Fluke Networks’ Visual TruView has been a godsend for us and for our customers. It allows us to immediately deliver exceptional value and knowledge to the client by not only informing them of a network or application problem in real-time, but also being able to isolate the source of the problem so they can immediately take steps to resolve the issue on their end.

Fluke Networks’ Visual TruView has provided valuable insights to us and our client base, and has led to the resolution of many performance issues since its deployment. Most notably, a large retail client was experiencing degradation in its end-user performance, which was consistently blamed on the network. By using TruView, we were able to analyze the network and its applications, and noticed the customer had deployed an anti-virus system that was trying to update all signatures to all users at once. This was consuming 99 percent of the available bandwidth at certain locations during the day, which had a profound impact on other network operations that were key to business.

Within 10 to 15 minutes of receiving the initial troubleshooting phone call, TruView helped us quickly identify the massive bandwidth issues surrounding the anti-virus system. Without TruView quickly isolating the problem, it would have continued to be a recurring phantom issue that impacted the system. Because we were able to identify the cause immediately, we had the ability to pause the update, schedule it for another time, and return the company to its normal performance standards quickly.

On the business side, TruView also allows us to establish greater credibility with our customers by providing real, actionable data that helps reduce network finger pointing.

The big deciding factor for selecting TruView was that it gives us the ability to see all levels of the network and applications through one single management console. Resolution time with this tool is phenomenal – it succinctly highlights and helps us solve issues we probably would not have discovered without it. With Visual TruView, we can see the full picture, which lets us provide a level of service that is invaluable to our clients.