Network Analysis and Visualization with NinjaProbe

“Knowing what’s on your network” is goal number one for many network operators. But achieving this goal has been difficult. While Wireshark has traditionally served as the industry’s leading protocol analysis application, with more than 900 decoders already available, this open source solution has lacked an intuitive user interface and served mainly in stand-alone “sniffer” deployments. With Endace’s NinjaProbe deployed as a multi-function probe and sensor, network operators not only enjoy the opportunity to consolidate their monitoring infrastructure, but also the chance to integrate Wireshark into an enterprise-grade analytical solution – all courtesy of the NinjaProbe CACE Pilot Network Analysis. application. The NinjaProbe CACE Pilot Network Analyzer meets the challenges of “knowing what’s on your network” through a consolidated probe and intuitive graphical user experience that supports drag-and-drop filtering of live and captured data, for ready and thorough analysis of all network traffic.

At the heart of the solution, a CACE Pilot Network Analysis server is installed on the NinjaProbe appliance. Seamlessly communicating with the windows-based CACE Pilot Network Analysis client, the NinjaProbe CACE Pilot Network Analyzer provides metadata summaries of large captured files, for immediate graphical analysis of network traffic characteristics. For deeper-dive analysis, the NinjaProbe CACE Pilot Network Analyzer client can request .pcap file transfers for the data being analyzed. This data is transferred from the NinjaProbe appliance to a Wireshark instance, thereby providing filtered packet captures for immediate dissection and forensic analysis. This avoids the costly and time-consuming alternative of transferring large raw packet captures across the internal network.

Complementing NinjaProbe’s high-density data storage, in-built replay mechanisms, and the openness to drive multiple 3rd party applications, NinjaProbe CACE Pilot Network Analyzer provides an out-of-the box network visualization application that raises the bar for intuitive interfaces and yet refuses to lock customers in to a proprietary vendor solution.