# Data Center Networking Monitor data center network and its components with OpManager ![Data Center Networking - ManageEngine OpManager](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/best-free-network-monitoring-thumbnail.png) ## The Core Pillars of Data Center Networking - Network, Server and Storage Infrastructure In data center networking architecture, three fundamental components form the core of a data center network — the network, server, and storage infrastructure. These components must fit and work together to deliver faster and more reliable data center networking services. To ensure high performance of data center networks and assure service delivery per the service level agreements (SLA), an integral part of data center operations are data center networking solutions, i.e., a comprehensive data center infrastructure monitoring solution (DCIM). These **data center networking solutions** help a NOC/ network data center technician to track, monitor, diagnose, and troubleshoot network devices, physical and virtual servers, and storage devices. ## Basics of Datacenter Networking A **data center networking in computer networks** is a complex arrangement of network devices such as routers, switches, interfaces, etc., that interconnects the various computing and storage units in a data center's resource pool to ensure a high level of performance. In addition, increased network usage and migration of businesses towards data center services present a unique challenge where it is important to deploy a data center network manager (DCNM)/ DCIM software such as ManageEngine OpManager for effective data center network management. Data center network infrastructure management with OpManager allows you to manage, upgrade, and monitor your data center in a networking platform for optimal service delivery with complete visibility into data center networking configuration and individual networking data center components and dependencies. In a data center network, the following are some of the important areas that need to be monitored regularly: ![Data Center Networking Solutions - ManageEngine OpManager](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/wan-link-availability-monitoring1.png) ![Data Center Network - ManageEngine OpManager](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/interface-monitoring-metrics.png) ![Data Center Networking in Computer Networks - ManageEngine OpManager](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/network-compliance-reporting.png) ### Real-time availability: ManageEngine OpManager's data center networking solution provides comprehensive network health and availability monitoring to ensure peak performance round-the-clock for your data center network. It provides complete visibility into all of your [network devices](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/availability-monitoring.html?dcn) and [associated interfaces/ ports](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/availability-monitoring.html?dcn) and [WAN links using Cisco IP SLA](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/availability-monitoring.html?dcn). It has in-built data center network monitoring tools that provide real-time dashboards and a multi-level threshold-based alerting system to instantly identify and resolve network issues based on early indications before it causes a network outage. ### Bandwidth monitoring: In **data center networking**, it is also essential to analyze bandwidth usage patterns, track application growth and a number of connections, and control excess bandwidth consumption. This helps identify and allocate optimal bandwidth to avoid wasting it or causing traffic congestion that hinders network performance. Datacenter networking with OpManager enables you to monitor over 230 different interface types out-of-the-box to track [interface performance](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/interface-monitoring.html?dcn) using metrics such as traffic speed, errors, discards, packet loss, etc., with advanced bandwidth and flow analysis. You can also use the in-built Netflow module to get further insights and actions on capacity planning, anomaly detection, traffic shaping using ACLs, etc. ### Network configuration management: Network configuration management is a process that is carried out throughout the entire life cycle of an asset in the data center network (DCN) and a simple misconfiguration due to human error can cause an outage, loss of revenue, and failure to meet service level agreements (SLA) might incur legal repercussions. ManageEngine OpManager, a reliable data center networking software, along with its in-built network configuration module provides comprehensive network device life-cycle and data center networking configuration management. It handles initial configuration during device additions, change management with authorization and configuration backups, bulk or complex operations via configlets with scheduling, and enables you to meet various compliance requirements such as PCI DSS, Sox, HIPAA, etc. ## Datacenter server management: Monitor computing resources for efficient data center networking ![Data Center Networking Software- ManageEngine OpManager](https://cdn.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/proactive-monitoring1.png) At the heart of all data center operations, is a platform of computing resources that serve as a backbone for various mission-critical enterprise or business applications and services. This includes a variety of servers such as database servers, core application servers, caching servers, web servers, and virtualization such as VMware, Hyper V, and Xen environments. OpManager's data center networking solution provides hardware-agnostic real-time-server monitoring to track server health and availability, server system resources (CPU, memory, disk usage, I/O, processes, etc.), data loss, server responsiveness, server capacity, and user load. It also helps prevent server issues proactively with the help of multi-level thresholds and instant notifications via email or SMS. Explore more of OpManager's data center server monitoring capabilities: - [Real-time server performance monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/server-monitoring.html?dcn) - [Server health and availability monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/server-health-monitor.html?dcn) - [Multi-level threshold-based monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/fault-monitoring.html?dcn) - [Monitor application performance](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/apm-plugin-overview.html?dcn) - [Monitor VMware ESX servers and Guest OS performance](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/vmware-esx-host-monitoring.html?dcn) - [Exchange server performance monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/exchange-monitoring.html?dcn) - [Service monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/windows-service-monitoring.html?dcn) - [Server process monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/process-monitoring.html?dcn) - [Event log monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/eventlog-monitoring.html?dcn) - [Website & URL monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/url-monitoring.html?dcn) In addition to these, you can also explore individual monitoring capabilities for data center networking virtualization via [VMware](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/vmware-monitoring.html?dcn), [Hyper V](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/hyperv-monitoring.html?dcn), and [Xen](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/citrix-xenserver-monitoring.html?dcn) or [Hyperconverged Infrastructures](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/hyperconverged-infrastructure.html?dcn) (HCI). ## Datacenter storage networking: Monitoring data center storage components The world is producing much more data than it was just a decade ago. A data center network hence has to commission extensive network storage architecture to accommodate the massive in-flow of data from data-intensive applications such as analytics or data processing tools. It also emphasizes the need to monitor and manage the data center network storage infrastructure with dedicated data center network storage solutions. This ensures that the applications or services that are hosted by businesses or enterprises function without interruptions due to storage failure. OpManager's [data center management](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/datacenter-management.html?data-center-netw) provides in-depth network [storage monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/storage-monitoring.html?dcn) for Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAIDs), Tape Libraries in Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) or Network Attached Storage (NAS), and Fiber Channel (FC) or Storage Area Network (SAN) switches with topological storage visualization and storage capacity forecasting based on machine learning algorithms. Monitoring your storage devices with OpManager's data center networking solution provides increased visibility into your storage environment and avoids downtime related to storage issues. It is also a comprehensive solution to monitor your entire IT infrastructure saving costs on any independent storage solutions. This is unlike other networking data center solutions that miss out on key features for effective data center infrastructure management (DCIM). Learn more about data center storage components here: - [RAIDs](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/storage-raid-management.html?dcn) - [Tape Library](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/tape-library-management.html?dcn) - [Fabric switches](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/san-switch-management.html?dcn) ## Data Center Network Visualization In data center networking, visualizing your data center's network, server, and storage infrastructure with a potent data center networking tool, plays a key role in identifying network issues and performance bottlenecks. It provides a holistic view of your entire data center network architecture, allowing you to approach network troubleshooting or capacity additions fully informed of all dependencies. ManageEngine OpManager's data center networking capabilities enable you to visualize all the components in your data center network to pinpoint network issues or outages and locate performance degradation at a glance. You can quickly drill down to the root cause of a network issue and troubleshoot it with [in-built Workflow automation](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/it-workflow-automation.html?dcn) and [network troubleshooting tools](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-troubleshooting-tools.html?dcn). Some of the features it offers include [business views](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-diagram-software.html?dcn), [map views](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-diagram-software.html?dcn), [3D rack and floor views](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/datacenter-visual-modeling.html?dcn), and [layer 2 maps](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-diagram-software.html?dcn). **Business Views**: This view allows visualization of network devices, servers, and storage that belong to a particular business. It shows the health and availability of these devices with the interface state. **Map Views**: The view allows visualization of network devices, servers, or DB clusters and storage devices on Google/ Zoho maps. It also displays the status of the device with quick drill-down options. **3D Rack and Floor Views**: This allows you to recreate your server room and view the racks and servers in a 3D form factor. It shows you the status of servers and ports, and allows for quick identification and easy troubleshooting. In other words, you view a live representation of your server room from the network operations center (NOC). **Layer 2 Maps**: This view provides a detailed representation of data center network topology, all the nodes, interconnected layers, and port-to-port connectivity of your data center network devices from a seed/core router. **CCTV Views**: This view allows you to project your dashboards to a larger screen for NOC monitoring purposes. It gives you complete visibility into your data center's network performance from the NOC room. ## Datacenter networking basics ### What is data center networking? Data center networking is the provision of network, storage, and computing resources to execute a broad range of workloads for business/ enterprise data center tenants. These workloads require diverse hardware or high-end network components to compute, store, retrieve, and transmit data from the workloads across local and wide area networks. ### What is a data center in networking? A data center in networking is a physical entity that houses critical applications and data to enable their shared access across network and storage infrastructure and computing resources. The components that constitute data centers are servers, routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems and application-delivery controllers. ### What protocol is used in datacenters? Out of various network protocols available, Transmission Control protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) are the most widely used protocol in datacenters. TCP's ability to break down data into packets enables faster data transmission to the destination across networks. ### What are the requirements of a datacenter? Datacenter network should be highly available with low latency and high bandwidth. It should also be able to isolate different types of traffic and ensure QoS. Energy efficiency, support for virtualization, compatibility with hardware and software components are the other must-haves along with meeting security and compliance standards. ### What are the benefits of data center networking solutions? Data center networking solutions help monitor an organization’s data center networks for performance, health, and availability. Data center networking solutions also help visualize data center networks in various graphical formats for effective management. ### What are the network devices in a data center? A data center in networking consists of various networking components, such as switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, gateways, and security appliances. These devices work together to provide network administrators with the means to process and store applications and data. ### What are the types of data centres? There are four primary types of datacenter network. They are: - **Managed data centers** - Managed by service providers. - **Enterprise data centers** - Owned by individual companies. - **Colocation data centers** - Shared data center for multiple businesses. - **Cloud data centers** - Operated by cloud service providers. ## Discover more on Data center networking ### Featured - [Datacenter visual modeling](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/datacenter-visual-modeling.html?dcn) - [Server health monitor](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/server-health-monitor.html?dcn) - [Network performance monitoring templates](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-performance-monitoring.html?dcn) ### Quick links - [Blogs](https://blogs.manageengine.com?dcn) - [E-books](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/ebooks.html?dcn) - [Videos](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/videos.html?dcn) - [Case studies](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/customer-recommends.html?dcn) - [Awards and Recognitions](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-software-review.html?dcn) ### Blog [Achieve data center agility](https://blogs.manageengine.com/network/opmanager/2014/12/11/achieving-data-center-agility-with-converged-infrastructure.html?dcn) ### E-book [Ensuring high availability](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/monitoring-clusters-loadbalancers-wp.html?dcn) ### Help [Storage monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/storage-monitoring-introduction.html?dcn) ## Related Products - [Network Monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/?relPrd) - [Bandwidth Monitoring & Traffic Analysis](https://www.manageengine.com/products/netflow/?relPrd) - [Network Configuration Management](https://www.manageengine.com/network-configuration-manager/?relPrd) - [Switch Port & IP Address Management](https://www.manageengine.com/products/oputils/?relPrd) - [Firewall Management](https://www.manageengine.com/products/firewall/?relPrd) - [Network Monitoring Software for MSPs](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring-msp/?relPrd) - [IT Operations Management](https://www.manageengine.com/it-operations-management/) - [Application Performance Monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/?relPrd)