Network Instruments® | Observer Expert

Observer Expert tracks applications, VoIP traffic, transactions and more across LAN, wireless, gigabit, token ring, and FDDI networks. Being the only analyzer built from a unified code set, engineers can rely on one analyzer to address their long-term network monitoring needs. When topologies or technologies are integrated into Observer, the integrated support applies to every console and probe across the entire Observer family.

Have 570 Network Experts at Your Disposal
Predict network bandwidth and response time impacts, track and solve application problems, view application session flows graphically, reconstruct data packets, and isolate transaction delay with Observer Expert. Key features are automatically included with Observer Expert:

Observer Expert includes all the benefits of Observer Standard plus additional key features for identifying network issues and offering immediate solutions.

Expert Events
Expert is about solving network problems efficiently and effectively. Observer Expert displays protocol and application problems in real time and provides an effective means of discerning between application and network issues. It includes over 570 Experts designed to isolate problems and suggest possible solutions.

Expert Event features:

Local traffic judged differently than WAN/Internet traffic
No false readings
Common services tracked and organized
Response performance sorted and flagged by severity
Tracks all port-based protocols for slow response and other issues
Measures delay to differentiate between network and application problems

See Expert Event list:

Connection Dynamics
Connection Dynamics is unique to Observer and provides a graphical view of system conversations for instant identification of long latency and response times. Retransmissions and lost packets are flagged in red for quick identification. Connection Dynamics is a simple way to easily pinpoint network impediments.

Expert VoIP Analysis
We conveniently include in Observer Expert what other companies charge thousands for. But don’t discount our VoIP analysis—with over 70 VoIP-specific metrics it’s one of the most robust features within Observer. Monitor VoIP connections, save or play voice and video, gather actionable detail and diagnostics, gain high-level traffic summaries and more.

Use the VoIP system to monitor at an aggregate level and drill down to optimize individual communication from one seamless interface.

Application Analysis
Observer Expert’s Application Analysis tracks application communications to easily identify application problems. Obtain statistics on errors, monitor application response time, perform automatic server / application discovery, and obtain up to-the-minute application performance. Observer Expert eliminates your need to purchase a separate application monitoring system.

New Within Application Analysis, you can now create multiple profiles, which allow you to select and monitor a group of network servers and devices within a designated subset.

See a list of supported applications:

All Observer products view and analyze virtual machines exactly as it would any physical device.

MPLS Analysis
Use Observer to stay on top of migrations to MPLS. Observer gives you a detailed breakdown of your MPLS network so you can pinpoint MPLS problems and measure performance.

MPLS benefits:

Time Interval Analysis
Time Interval Analysis provides granular reporting on specific connections over time, displaying performance statistics down to the millisecond. Display Time Interval Analysis statistics, like response time and retransmissions, graphically over time. If an end-user complains about the accounting systems acting slow, the administrator can use Time Interval Analysis graphs to quickly scan connections from the Oracle database for any spike in response time.

MultiHop Analysis
MultiHop Analysis answers the critical question “Is it the access layer, the core, or my service provider…?” Observer Expert solves network issues caused by network congestion, fragmentation, and packet loss by isolating and identifying transaction problems, delay, and intermittent connectivity. MultiHop Analysis is automated—Observer can start simultaneous packet captures from different network segments and automatically synchronize the buffers to find delay and packet loss.

MultiHop benefits:

Track conversations through multiple segments, hops, and routes
Pinpoint and eliminate delay quickly
Supports up to 10 hops
Easily see across routers ever time
Pinpoint bottlenecks
Verify if 3rd party service providers are performing to their SLA
Isolate if slowdowns are due to network delay or system processes
Identify packet loss and location
Measure one-way, round-trip, and individual hop delay
Utilize Connection Dynamics to show packet-by-packet, hop-by-hop
View delay in aggregate with Hop Summary
Obtain a textual summary display with Summary Statistics
Can be used across WAN, Ethernet, wireless, and gigabit networks

Stream Reconstruction
Enterprise administrators concerned with forensics, compliance, and security use Observer to capture traffic and recreate communication in an easy-to-read format. Rebuild web pages (including images), reconstruct e-mails, documents, and instant messaging communication to gather hard evidence on network activity. Stream reconstruction can help maintain corporate Internet usage policies, assist law enforcement, and contribute toward Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Leverage Observer's 64-bit Core
Observer Expert also includes a 64-bit core to maximize 64-bit processing. A 32-bit version is also included.

Complete NetFlow Integration and Data Collection

NetFlow monitors routed traffic on the backplane of Cisco switches and routers. Any Advanced Expert Probe can be configured to aggregate flows from various NetFlow devices on the network and send updated information to an Observer console. The console then displays the NetFlow data, providing Top Talkers, pairs matrix, bandwidth usage, long-term trending, VLAN analysis, and application awareness. Learn more about Observer’s NetFlow and sFlow® data collection capabilities.

Take Advantage of the Industry’s Largest Memory Buffer

Observer offers the largest memory buffer in its class. For 32-bit Windows, use a 4 GB memory buffer. For 64-bit Windows, the buffer expands up to 24 GB. This allows for increased captures and extended time frames for Expert analysis. A user-defined memory mode is available to fine-tune individual usage.

Make Informed Decisions with “What-If” Analysis

Use Observer’s “What-If” Analysis to predict how network changes will affect response times. Track bandwidth capacity changes (e.g. 100 Mb to gigabit), review variable changes (i.e. packet size, packet ratio, users), measure based on actual client, peer-to-peer, or server conversations. “Live-modeling” lets you assess the impact of network or application changes.

Over 50 Wireless Experts for Precise Troubleshooting

Observer monitors wired and wireless networks simultaneously. With more than 50 wireless-specific Expert conditions, Observer isolates and provides solutions to WLAN issues. Receive instant alerts on unknown stations, spoofed MAC addresses, whether an Access Point is using an open system or shared key authentication, whether encryption is enabled or disabled and more.

Protect Your Data with Security Decode Controls

For security reasons, Observer allows you to control the decode screen to limit access to confidential data. Limit captures to only a set number of bytes and password protect access to protect your network data from outside consultants or unauthorized users.

Break down conversations into individual connections

TCP/UDP connection drill-down presents the correlation between individual connections and their relationships to specific logical conversations. The network engineer can isolate logical conversations and drill into the actual connections that facilitated them.