Follow the packet · Illustrative simulation Pick a problem and what you can see, then watch one packet become a ticket.
An illustrative network. The addresses, records and minutes are made up to show the idea.
Choose what is happening and which visibility you have (a network tap, a packet broker, flow records), then press Start. You will see what each source can see, a sample of what is collected, how it is used, and whether anyone is notified.
What the simulation shows
This piece needs scripts to run. In plain terms, you pick a problem and the visibility you have, and it follows one packet:
- What each source sees: a network tap copies every packet on a link; a packet broker removes duplicates and sends each tool only what it needs; flow records from switches say who talked to whom and how much, but not how fast.
- What was collected: a sample of the records, such as time, source, destination, port, round-trip time, retransmissions and bytes. Flow records have fewer columns.
- How it is used: a record becomes a metric, and a metric above a threshold becomes an event.
- Who is told: the event enters the event pipeline and becomes a ticket for the owning team. With no visibility, the problem is found only when users complain.
Read the background: Packets don’t lie: where network taps fit in modern observability. Want to plan this for your own network? Talk to us.
Illustrative simulation. Everything shown, including the addresses, records and minutes, is invented to explain the idea and is not measured data.