Critical Applications Monitoring

Sahil Katira
29 steps
3 minutes

Netbraintech

**Objective:**\ Learn how to troubleshoot issues in critical application paths across multi-vendor networks using NetBrain Runbook Templates. Then, create a Critical Application Monitoring Dashboard to proactively track and alert on application-wide network issues.

***Scenario:*** Several users are reporting slowness while accessing the database application. The Application Team believes the issue lies within the network, and we have been tasked to validate this assumption. We will begin by traversing all network devices—switches, routers, and any intermediate infrastructure—that the application traffic flows through. Using Runbook Templates, we will then verify the application's health across key parameters such as performance, security, and next-hop stability to identify any alerts or misconfigurations that could be contributing to the slowness. After reviewing all logs and diagnostic data, we will generate a final report demonstrating that **“It’s Not the Network.”** As a proactive step, we will also place these devices under continuous monitoring and surface any future alerts through a dedicated dashboard. ### **In this lab we will be:** - **Using the Application Path to visualize end-to-end traffic flow** and clearly identify every network device involved in delivering the targeted application. - **Leveraging a Runbook to automate multiple health and configuration checks** across all devices on the path, helping surface performance anomalies, misconfigurations, or alerts that may impact application behavior. - **Generating an automated report consolidating all checks performed**, including logs, timestamps, and diagnostic outputs, ensuring complete traceability for review or escalation. - **Using the Dashboard to monitor these application checks over the next several days**, providing ongoing visibility into health trends and enabling proactive issue detection. ### **By the end of this lab,** You'll see how NetBrain Runbook Templates streamline health validation for critical applications, offering a real-time, bird’s-eye view of application status across the network—empowering teams to detect issues early, prevent downtime, and maintain consistent service reliability.

Navigate to <https://class.netbraintech.com/desktop.html>

Let's begin by visualizing all the Critical Application Paths—including the Database application path where access issues have been reported—and pinning them onto a new map. We'll use the Path Browser for this, which stores all applications and their corresponding paths.

Click "Path"

Navigate to the Top Critical Applications and then use the drop-down to Draw All Paths in Application on Map.

Click "Runbook"

Now that we have the application path mapped, we’ll begin troubleshooting the reported access issue using Runbook-based automation. This approach mirrors the same experience-driven workflow an engineer would normally follow manually. The idea is simple: **we apply the same CLI-based troubleshooting logic, but NetBrain allows each step to be converted into an automated node.**\ To save time in this lab, **we’ll start with a pre-built Runbook template.**

Click "Template"

Choose the "Critical App Testing" template under Critical Application folder and then click "Add".

Once the Runbook Template is loaded, use the hamburger icon on the right and click "Run All" to execute all the nodes of the template in one go. This will run the various checks under the template and generate the diagnostic results.

The first node in the Runbook is the Performance Check. It checks for CPU and Memory readings from all the path devices and alerts in case of threshold breach.

We can also view the results from any of the Runbook Node directly over on the Map. Click "Action" button and then click on "Show Result on Map" to view the findings of the Performance Check for each device.

Once done, you will find the detailed results of the Performance Check for each of the Path devices and any corresponding alerts (if found).

The next node in this execution is the Security Check, where we compare all ACL entries across the path devices against the baseline configuration. Any deviations are flagged as alerts. This step helps determine whether changes in access lists could be contributing to traffic drops.

We can take this a step further and can also view the diagnosis logs and detailed results for each device for the ACL check to complete our analysis.

Click "View by Device" tab on the top to segregate the findings for each Path Device.

The next node is added as a placeholder, allowing you to include additional checks based on your own troubleshooting workflows. For example, in our instructor-led class, you’ll learn how to quickly create and replicate a new Intent that checks for next-hop instability across all path devices for your application.\ \ Click on Results node after this.

The Results Node allows us to automatically generate structured documentation of the troubleshooting process — including the steps taken, the results of each diagnostic node, and the identified root cause. With documentation, NetBrain can intelligently summarize these findings, create readable narratives, and even format the information into a ticket-ready report. For instance, it can automatically include the network path diagram, health status summaries, Diagnostic Logs for each Check— all presented in a concise, professional format. This eliminates the need for manual note-taking or after-action reporting, ensuring that every investigation is fully documented and auditable.\ \ Click "Create"

Before generating the document Netbrain will prompt you to save your Map. You can name the Map and save it under your Private Folder. \ \ After renaming Click "OK"

Click "Download" once the document is generated and analyze the results.

Now that we’ve validated the performance of the underlying network for this application—and confirmed that *“It’s definitely not the network”*—let’s quickly look at a SOC-style Application Monitoring dashboard . The dashboard in this example, continuously monitors and tracks the health of all applications (Voice, CRM, Video, and more) and provides proactive notifications whenever issues arise. To learn how to build these dashboards, join our instructor-led class here:\ [https://success.netbraintech.com/netbrain-solution-library](https://success.netbraintech.com/netbrain-solution-library/)\ \ Click "Dashboard"

Under Published Dashboards open the "Daily Application Monitoring" dashboard using the drop down.

Observe how the dashboard is organized into multiple sections, each providing valuable insights—such as “Top Devices with Alerts,” “Geolocation of Alerts,” and the results of various checks including performance, security, QOS etc., across different applications.

Click on any alert under any application to view the diagnostic data for that benchmark. For example, under the Voice application, we see four alerts for the Latency benchmark. Selecting this benchmark displays the underlying reasons for these alerts.

Now you can see all historical alerts generated for the Latency Check on the Voice Application. Click on any of the Intents to drill down further and view the detailed diagnosis performed by NetBrain.

Next, let’s share this Dashboard URL via email with an external audience. This not only makes the diagnosis centrally accessible, but also enables management to continuously monitor the health of critical applications across the network.\ \ Click the Hamburger Icon on Top Right to access Dashboard Menu.

Click "Share Dashboard"

We can choose whether to grant full access to the dashboard or share it in read-only mode. Next, enter the recipient’s email address. You may also add contextual details or explanations in the email body, and then click “Share” to complete the process.

### **Conclusion** This lab demonstrated how **NetBrain** helps track **critical application paths** across a **hybrid network** and streamlines application assessments across multiple benchmarks such as **performance, latency, and security** using **runbook templates**. Within seconds, we validated that the underlying devices carrying application traffic were operating as expected and efficiently documented the findings to confidently establish that *“it’s not the network.”* We further explored a **multi-application dashboard** that proactively monitors applications across the network along with their underlying paths on various parameters, generating alerts **before issues escalate into outages**. NetBrain makes it easy to understand what’s happening across your applications and the underlying network—helping teams quickly validate issues, identify the real cause, and maintain reliable performance before problems impact users.