Is Dynatrace a good solution for network monitoring?

[JonhBk201]

I'm looking at all the possibilities that Dynatrace offers when it comes to network device monitoring. And I wonder if Dynatrace is really a good tool to be able to obtain as much information as possible from network devices (load balancers, switches, routers...). There are other solutions that compete directly against Dynatrace in this regard. 

What limitations does Dynatrace have in this area?

In the event that other solutions need to be used to integrate with Dynatrace, which would be the most optimal and how would they be integrated?

Thank you very much for your help, 

Greetings.

[pawel_harbuz · Accepted solution]

Hi @JonhBk201,

Dynatrace is not a platform designed for network monitoring, but thanks to its extensibility you can use various extensions (designed by Dynatrace) which will provide you ability to add various areas which you want to monitor. For instance you can integrate the platform using the following extensions:

• Generic Cisco Device
• Cisco Firepower
• F5 BIG-IP
• Generic network device

There are many other possibilities. You can also ingest your own SNMP metrics using Extension 2.0: SNMP Extensions. It is also possible to write your own Python code that will monitor devices basing on your needs: Dynatrace Extensions Python SDK.

In case of limitations, everything is described here: Limits. Basically, metrics ingested by Grail  (SaaS) are almost limitless (limits are really high). I think the most optimal way to itegrate it is using publicly available extensions for the most of cases. In other cases we could integrate monitoring using SNMP and Python Extensions 2.0.

Paweł

[Peter_Youssef · Accepted solution]

Hello @JonhBk201 

• Simply Dynatrace platform isn't a pure network monitoring platform but Dynatrace extends it's observability capabilities through the OOB developed extensions by Dynatrace team.
•  Refer to the attached Dynatrace hub : https://www.dynatrace.com/hub/?query=network&filter=all to delve into the supported features, capabilities and limitations as per the current releases for each network technologies.

BR,

Peter 

[Peter_Youssef · Accepted solution]

Hi @JonhBk201 

• The optimal integration or monitoring setup is decided according to the supported network technologies as per the Dynatrace hub
• It depends on the solution architecture components and how these building blocks will be presented in Dynatrace.

BR,

Peter

[Peter_Youssef · Accepted solution]

Hi @JonhBk201 

• Another important point to consider in addition to the provided illustration by @pawel_harbuz, reaching out to Dynatrace extensions team in case the required integration isn't listed or stated either on Dynatrace Hub, or documentations.
• Just share the integration details, and they will do the best to deliver the custom extension addressing the monitor requirements.

BR,

Peter

[blourdelet · Accepted solution]

Hello,
Recently, Dynatrace introduced a number of network monitoring capabilities through the I&O app.

With an increasing number of network extensions available on the Hub , Dynatrace is covering more and more network observability use cases. Stay tune for more.

BR

Benoit

[adam_gardner · Accepted solution]

You can also retrieve metrics using hte OpenTelemetry collector receivers and send them to Dynatrace. For example, using the SNMP receiver or netflow, sflow or ipfix data using the netflow receiver (which is available in the officially supported Dynatrace collector distribution of the OTEL collector).