Network Instruments Observer - Manual (Page 16)

Getting Started with Observer Modes and Tools
10 Observer® Quick Start Manual
Network Trending
Network Trending is probably the single most important collection and
predictive tool. By collecting and analyzing data on a historical basis,
Network Trending permits the network administrator to create a baseline of
network performance, by collecting, storing, viewing, and analyzing network
traffic statistics over long periods of time. The network administrator can
often identify problems before they occur by examining this data.
Most acute problems are associated with sudden changes; the baseline
Network Trending provides can help to point toward those.
Network Trending can also give advance warning of impending chronic
problems and help to spot opportunities. For example, if the network’s
bandwidth utilization has been steadily rising over a period of months, it
may predict a need to upgrade to a faster network. An upward trend in the
use of the WWW protocol may indicate increased recreational use of the
World Wide Web—or it may signal an increased load on the company Web
server and predict the need to upgrade the present Internet connection to a
faster one.
Most of Observer’s real-time troubleshooting modes have an associated
trending statistic that can be used as a baseline to compare to current
statistics, as a way of helping to isolate problems.
You can run Network Trending continuously, start it automatically every
time you start Windows, or both. The statistics data is stored in a format that
can be easily compressed and passed for viewing to any site that has a
Network Trending viewer installed. This practice permits a network
administrator on one site to easily confer with a colleague on another one—
provided, of course, they both have copies of Observer.
Many network administrators will choose to keep Network Trending
running constantly as a way of generating a continuous historical baseline.
The simplest way to assure this is to put a shortcut to Observer in the
Windows Startup group:
1. Check the “Run Network Trending continuously” checkbox under the
Data Collection tab of Network Trending Properties. (To do this, click on
the icon on the Network Trending toolbar and then click on the Data
Collection tab.)