IP Group Management

The IP groups feature lets you monitor departmental, intranet or application traffic exclusively. You can create IP groups based on IP addresses and/or a combination of port and protocol. You can even choose to monitor traffic from specific interfaces across different routers. After creating an IP group, you can view the top applications, top protocols, top hosts, and top conversations in this IP group alone.

This section will help you understand IP Groups and walk you through the steps needed to create and later delete an IP group if needed.

• Understanding IP Groups
• Defining an IP Group
• Operations on IP Groups

Understanding IP Groups

To further understand how the IP grouping feature can help in understanding exclusive bandwidth usage, consider the following two scenarios:

Enterprise Network Scenario

A typical enterprise setup where the main servers and databases are located at a central office, and all branch offices are given appropriate access privileges to these servers.

Problem: You need to track bandwidth used by each branch office while accessing an ERP/CRM application

Solution: Create an IP group for each branch office, along with the port and protocol of the ERP/CRM application running in the central office.

 

The traffic reports for each IP group will then show details on bandwidth used by the branch office while working with the ERP/CRM application. This information is very useful during traffic accounting and usage-based billing.

 

End Note: If the IP addresses in the branch offices are NATed (network address translated) by the web server, you can view overall bandwidth usage for the branch office, but not that of individual hosts within the IP group.

Campus Network Scenario

A typical campus network with several departments. Here IP addresses are usually not NATed by the web server.

Problem: You need to analyze bandwidth used by each department

Solution: Create an IP group for each department (IP address or address ranges), without specifying any port/protocol values.

 

The traffic reports for each IP group will then show bandwidth usage by that department along with information on top talkers, and top conversations within that department.

Defining IP Groups

IP groups can be defined based on IP address and/or port-protocol combinations. In addition, you can filter IP group traffic based on interfaces. The following matrix shows the different combinations possible, along with a typical example usage for each combination.

Creating an IP Group

The IP Group Management link in the Admin Operations box lets you create, modify, and delete IP groups. Click this link, and then click Create to create a new IP group. Fill in the following information and click Add to add the new IP group to the current list of IP groups.

If you add a new combination of ports and protocol, a popup opens stating that this combination of ports and protocol has not been mapped to any application. Add the combination as a new application in the same popup, and click Update to update the Application Mapping list with the new application.

Managing IP Groups

Click the IP Group Management link in the Admin Operations box to view the list of IP groups currently active. Select the IP group that you want to modify, and click the Modify button to edit its settings. Once you are done, click Add to save and activate the new changes.

To delete an IP group, select the IP group and click the Delete button. Deleting an IP group removes the IP group from the list of IP groups managed. All users assigned to this IP group will not see this IP group listed on their Dashboard.