NetCrunch licensing and architecture sizing
See how NetCrunch measures and helps you adjust your licensing needs, depending on the monitoring scenario.
Understanding the Node/Interface licensing metric
NetCrunch licensing refer to nodes or interfaces - which number is higher. Nodes mostly represent network interfaces but are not limited to them. Monitoring switch interfaces do not require adding all nodes to the Atlas, however. So if you have one stacked switch with 48 ports, this would be one node only but monitoring it requires 48 interfaces. Regardless, if the node (interface) is in the Atlas or not, it takes a single license count to monitor it.
- Node
- It's an Atlas entity, a group of services usually representing network endpoint (interface). This definition includes servers, switches, routers, etc.
No limitation to non-interface monitored metrics are placed on a node. So if a node is a server with four network interfaces (link aggregate/trunk), a single node license covers it unless each interface is represented by a separate node. - Interfaces
- the total number of SNMP-monitored (IF.mib) interfaces on a given device, typically switches and routers. These metrics are controlled via interface monitoring policy, located in the device node settings, under the SNMP section.
By default, NetCrunch monitors All active interfaces on the networking devices (switches and routers). All active interfaces are interfaces whose operational status is set as Up and their type is different than Loopback/Other.
If previously inactive interface becomes Active (cable is plugged in, or interface is set to Up), then NetCrunch will detect the change, the interface will become monitored, and it will take one additional license. When active (monitored) interface goes down, it will not decrease the total license count because its status will still be tracked - it will be reported as Down (interface will be color-coded as red).
The router displayed before uses two licenses (two interfaces are monitored and counted for the licensing) - these licenses are color-coded depending on their status. Non-monitored interfaces of this router are grey.
By right-clicking on any SNMP-enabled node, you will see the Interface settings in the Node Settings window (as below).
This effectively describes your NetCrunch use case and allows you to control your license by either number of devices or number of monitored switch/router interfaces.
Take higher number - it's not a sum
Estimating your required NetCrunch license.
Your NetCrunch license is determined by the greater of Nodes or Interfaces configured for monitoring.
Example:
Network includes:
-
1 router/firewall with WAN/LAN interfaces active = 1 device, 2 interfaces
-
1 switch with 2 devices and uplink to router firewall = 3 devices, 3 interfaces
Strategy 1
Monitor all devices and active switch interfaces:
4 devices, 5 interfaces = 5 interface licenses
Strategy 2
Monitor all devices and uplinks, monitor device bandwidth via device network interfaces:
4 devices, 2 interfaces = 4 node licenses
By effectively tuning your monitoring strategy, you can control all aspects of you NetCrunch license and eliminate redundant monitoring of device network interfaces and device switch interfaces (the same).
