Path Visualization
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When you are diagnosing a network issue with the ThousandEyes platform, you will likely use the Path Visualization view. The ThousandEyes Path Visualization shows all network paths between the selected agents and the target URL or IP. This tool offers a visual representation of the path trace data collected for a test round. To learn more about how path trace data is collected and used by the Path Visualization view, see How Path Trace Works.
Interface Components
The screenshot below shows the Path Visualization view for an Agent-to-Server test. For more information on controls located in the upper half (around the timeline), see Getting Started with Views. This article covers the Path Visualization section pictured in the bottom half of the image below.
Show - Select data for which agents is visualized in graph and whether to show or hide IP address labels.
Group - Configure grouping of objects in visualization:
Agents: Group agents based on
Agent: Individual path for each agent is visualized.
Network: Aggregate paths based on agent network.
Network & Location: Aggregate paths based on each combination of an agent's network and geographical location.
Location: Aggregate path based on agent's geographic location.
Interfaces: Group interfaces by
IP Address: Aggregate paths based on an interface IP addresses.
Device: Aggregate paths based on device being monitored in ThousandEyes.
Network: Aggregate paths based on interface network.
Network & Location: Aggregate paths based on each combination of an interface's network and geographical location.
Location: Aggregate path based on geographic location of interfaces.
Destinations: Grouping destination nodes by
IP Addresses: Aggregate paths based on destination IP address.
Network: Aggregate paths based on destination's network.
Network & Location: Aggregate paths based on each combination of a destination's network and geographical location.
Location: Aggregate path based on geographic location destination exists in.
The path visualization in the snippet below has agents grouped by Location; Interfaces grouped by Network; and Destinations grouped by Network & Location:
Highlight Highlight nodes that match by Network, Country, IP address, Prefix or Title, based on text entered in search field. Configure thresholds to identify:
Nodes with Forwarding Loss above specified threshold.
Links with Link Delay higher than specified threshold.
Select - Click on nodes to add them to the Select dropdown. Selected nodes are outlined with a dotted blue line. Use the Info dropdown to display nodes that meet the listed criteria.
Agent and Endpoint complexity controls: This control is also present in the path visualization view, but it effectively allows simplification of the Path Visualization by collapsing routes between various nodes on the Path Visualization. The further apart the controls on the slider are, the less complex the visualization.
Interacting with the Path Visualization View
Hover over any agent/node/link on the path visualization to pop up detailed information. Agents show the name, IP address, prefix, network, location and destination IP, as well as metrics statistics (#6 above). Hovering on the nodes gives information on IP address, prefix, network, location and average response time. Links show their respective source and destination IP address, number of routes using that link, MPLS information and average link delay where possible.
Click a node or a link to select it. Multiple objects can be selected at once. Once an object is selected, it will show a moving dashed line surrounding the object. Entire paths can be selected by double-clicking a node or a link. All objects which traverse the object which is double clicked will have selection toggled on or off, based on the selection status of the object when it is selected.
Once one or more objects are selected, the Selected field is populated based on the selection. The field displays X nodes or Y links, as appropriate. Click the expansion icon to display a list of selected objects.
All nodes can be repositioned by clicking and dragging the node to a new location in the Path Visualization. Note that the new placement does not persist when the Path Visualization is redrawn due to a change of round or display options.
Legend
Object Image
Description
Comments
Agent location
The agent changes color based on the metric selected. The color scale goes from dark green (no loss, latency, jitter, etc.) to red (severe loss, latency, jitter, etc.)
Enterprise Agent
The color of a Enterprise Agent is double-ringed, and changes color according to the same scale as a ThousandEyes Cloud Agent.
Identifiable node
A blue node indicates that IP information is available.
Unidentifiable node
A white node indicates that IP information is not available.
Node in local network
A dark blue node indicates that a node was identified inside the agent's source network.
Node in destination network
A node shaded in green indicates a node that was identified as inside the destination network, as specified by the Autonomous System of the customer.
Highlighted node
A node can be highlighted using the Network, Country, IP address, Prefix or Title selector, while the other nodes are greyed out. This helps to quickly identify nodes based on their information.
Node with loss
A node circled in red indicates that loss is occurring at that point in the path, meeting the percentage threshold specified by the loss slider.
Endpoint node
A node circled in black, and showing an IP address beside it, is an endpoint (or target) of the test.
Selected node
A node circled in a moving blue dashed line indicates that the node is selected.
Selected link
A link represented as a moving blue dashed line indicates that the link is selected.
Collapsed path
A path showing a dotted line indicates a path that was simplified for visualization purposes. Expand using the complexity slider, or by clicking the label indicating the number of hops that were collapsed.
Split path
A path showing a split is an indication that there are multiple routes to the destination. All path visualization is based on a minimum of three tests running from each agent. When a path splits, the thickness of the line representing the link between the nodes shows how many of the tests traversed each link.
Link with high delay
A red link indicates a delay that meets the threshold specified by the latency slider.
Loop in the traffic flow
A node with a circle indicates an identified routing loop. To avoid this traffic loop, routing table changes must be applied.
Unknown number of hops between nodes
A dotted link with a question mark indicates insufficient data to determine the number of hops separating these nodes. Typically indicative of differing numbers of unresponsive nodes (* characters) between responsive nodes, or an indication of path trace being unable to reach the destination when the end-to-end measurement was performed successfully.
Unable to reach target node
A dotted link with an X symbol indicates a trace that was unable to be completed to the target due to 100% forwarding and 100% end-to-end loss.
Routing Loop
A red loop encircling a node indicates a shared NAT interface, such as a firewall, router, or load balancing device may contain nodes that are unreachable due to NAT restrictions. This can also indicate a route redundancy. Due to the complexity of monitoring these kinds of interfaces, this can sometimes show up as a false positive.
Path Visualization for Cloud Networks
ThousandEyes offers IP-address enrichment for cloud-based targets in collaboration with major cloud providers. IP addresses can be more accurately identified across the global AWS edge network, increasing overall path visibility. ThousandEyes also offers the following additional data sources to path visibility: AWS IP ranges, AWS Geolocation data, and the Amazon Global Accelerator diagnostic API.
This enriched path visualization offers the following features:
Identify the cloud service being used (eg, AWS S3)
Identify the AWS region being traversed
Compare observed TCP latency with expected TCP latency to any AWS Global Accelerator network targets
Nodes displaying a cloud provider icon, such as AWS, indicate when an IP address is enriched. A verified info icon indicates nodes that are enriched with data verified by a cloud partner.
See the sections below for more information about the different cloud provider nodes.
For cloud native monitoring, including detailed topology views, see the Network & App Synthetics section of Cloud Insights: Views.
Supported Cloud Providers
Logo
Cloud Provider
Azure
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Topology
A cloud icon in path visualization indicates that an additional topology view for a cloud provider is available. The cloud icon is overlaid with the cloud provider's logo. For more information about cloud insights, see Cloud Insights.
Object Image
Description
A view of the topology within the cloud provider's network is available.
Service Nodes
AWS
Object Image
Description
Comments
AWS Elastic Compute Node
A load balancer, an EIP, or an EC2 instance that belongs to the AWS Elastic Compute service.
AWS Global Accelerator Node
A node that has been enriched with additional Amazon Global Accelerator information.
AWS Global Accelerator Node with Latency
A yellow ring surrounding the icon indicates a higher than expected response time, when there is a discrepency between the expected and the observed latency. See below for more information on diagnosing this.
To bring up more information about a reported discrepancy, select a node that is displaying the yellow ring.
Clicking on View Details opens a side panel that is titled Agents with higher than expected response time. This panel shows a list of all agents pointing to the Global Accelerator node that is experiencing a higher response time, compared to what is advertised by the AWS Global Accelerator diagnostics API.
Standalone Nodes
Standalone nodes are targets that are owned by the cloud provider, such as AWS. In the case of AWS, these targets can be an Amazon Node or an Amazon Border Node. An Amazon Node is fully owned and operated by Amazon and is in the Amazon IP block.
These nodes are overlaid with the specific cloud provider's logo. For example, an Identified Node in an Azure network will have the Azure logo overlaying a blue circle.
Object Image
Description
Comments
Unidentified Node
A standalone node that is owned by a cloud provider with unavailable IP information.
Identified Node
A standalone node that is owned by the cloud provider with available IP information.
Identified Local Network Node
A cloud provider-owned standalone node identified inside the agent's source network.
Identified Local Network Node with Loss
A cloud provider-owned standalone node identified inside the agent's source network that shows traffic loss. This example shows an AWS node.
Identified Destination Node
A cloud provider-owned standalone node identified inside the destination network, as specified by the configured Autonomous System.
Identified Destination Node with Loss
cloud provider-owned standalone node identified inside the destination network that shows traffic loss. This example shows an AWS node.
Verified Node
This blue checkmark alongside any node icon indicates node information is enhanced from cloud provider data, such as the AWS diagnostic API or border dump data.
Grouped Nodes
The icons below indicate when all nodes in a group are identified in the cloud provider network, such as AWS. The number on the bottom half of the icon reports the number of nodes identified within each group.
These are overlaid with the specific cloud provider's logo. For example, Grouped Interface Nodes in an Azure network will have the Azure logo overlaying a light blue circle.
Object Image
Description
Comments
Grouped Interface Nodes
The grouped interface nodes show when nodes are grouped by network or by network and location.
Grouped Destination Nodes
Grouped nodes that were identified inside the destination network, as specified by the configured Autonomous System, show the cloud provider logo when nodes are grouped by network, by network and location, or by IP.
Grouped Local Nodes
Cloud provider nodes identified inside the agent's source network show the cloud provider logo when nodes are grouped by network, by network and location, by IP.
Grouped Nodes with Loss
A bold red border around the grouped nodes icon indicates that node group is experiencing loss. This example shows an AWS node.
Grouped Nodes, Selected
A dotted blue border around the grouped nodes icon indicates that node group is currently selected. This example shows an AWS node.
Grouped Nodes with Loss, Selected
A dotted red border around the node group icon indicates that node group is both currently selected and is experiencing loss. This example shows an AWS node.
Meraki Data Enrichment
The Meraki Data Enrichment integration enriches the ThousandEyes path visualization, helping pinpoint failures in your enterprise environment and streamlining efforts to identify issues when troubleshooting.
To set up the integration, see the Meraki Data Enrichment integration guide.
Once the integration is configured, navigate to the Network & App Synthetics> Views tab of the ThousandEyes web application. In the Path Visualization, hover over a Meraki Agent to see the hosting Network name, MX name, number of connected clients, and the WAN application score:
To drill down further into potential issues, you can navigate to the Meraki platform by clicking the "Go to Meraki Assurance Overview" link. The link will take you directly to a view of the same network, where you can see details about multiple network health measurements ranging from connected clients, Meraki devices, and applications. Our WAN appliance score is calculated using the following formula, to indicate the WAN appliance, MX's health parameter.
if MX utilization >= 90%, then MX device health score = 10%;
else if 80% <= MX utilization < 90%, then MX device health score = 20%
else, MX device health score = 100%.For more information on how this integration works on the Meraki side, see the Meraki Assurance Overview Page
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