nCompass

IT organizations and service providers face increasing challenges in managing networks, including

high rates of growth and change, heterogeneous technologies and services, cost constraints, and

the pressure to accelerate new application and service deployments. Consequently, operational

risks are increasing.

The traditional approach to network manage-

ment involves multiple point tools, each

providing insight into a limited part of the net-

work or a single process such as perform-

ance management or event management.

Consequently, network operators find it diffi-

cult to quickly assess the impact of

performance bottlenecks and network out-

ages, inhibiting rapid diagnosis and trou-

bleshooting.

nCompass™ for Enterprises and nCompass™

for Service Providers (“nCompass”) provide a

real-time, graphical visualization of heteroge-

neous production networks, including devices,

their interconnectivity, traffic, events, and sta-

tus. nCompass unifies data from a broad

range of network devices and management

tools, providing consolidated views to acceler-

ate problem resolution and ensure service

availability and network performance.

nCompass Return on InvestmentImprove Service AvailabilityWhen critical network outages occur, valuable time is wasted correlating information from numerous

management tools to determine the source and impact of the problem. By unifying the knowledge

of management tools, nCompass enables you to rapidly identify, troubleshoot, and repair network

issues to improve service availability.

Increase Staff ProductivitySubject matter expertise is commonly possessed by a small number of key individuals in the organ-

ization. nCompass captures their expertise allowing it to be leveraged by a larger audience to

enhance team effectiveness and productivity.

OPNET Technologies, Inc.

Key Capabilities

• Real-time situational awareness of topology, configuration, traffic, and status

• Automated data collection directly from the network and third-party management systems

• Configurable dashboards displaying numerous Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• “One-click” access to operational data

• Automatic response to network events through e-mail, pager notification, trouble ticket system

integration, and more

• Contextual launch into third-party management systems from a common interface

• Direct access to devices to execute commands, as well as collect and display results

• Dual-mode operation through a rich console interface or a streamlined web interface that is

accessible from local and remote sites

• Rapid access to advanced analytics for troubleshooting network issues

Event Management

Systems

Configuration Management

Systems

Performance Management

Systems

Visualize Real-Time Topology, Traffic, and Status in a Single ViewTroubleshoot Network Issues More Rapidly

nCompass unifies data from a broad range of networkmanagement systems, providing a real-time, unified view of topology, traffic, and status

OPNET Technologies, Inc.

Visualizing Topology and Traffic

nCompass presents network topology and traffic in a geographical context. Elements in the topolo-

gy view are hierarchically organized to facilitate visualization. The birds-eye-view display allows for

easy navigation to geographically disparate areas in the main view. Links are color-coded to repre-

sent current utilization. Topology and traffic information is collected directly from the production

network or from popular third-party tools by Alterpoint, CA, Cisco Systems, HP, IBM, MRTG,

NetScout, Opsware, Statseeker, and others.

Dashboards are updated in real-time to rapidly assess KPIs including device interface status, CPU

utilization, and link utilization history. Dials, gauges, LEDs, and time-varying graphs are among the

many possible dashboard items that you can select. Event and status information is collected

from popular third-party tools such as HP Network Node Manager and IBM Tivoli Netcool.

Communicating Status and Responding to Events

To increase situational awareness,

nCompass responds to abnormal

network conditions. The Event Rule

Browser is used to define operating

thresholds for monitored KPIs. When

a threshold is surpassed, nCompass

triggers an event. You are notified of

events by visual icons in the console

and audio alerts. Notifications can

also be in the form of emails, pager

messages, SNMP traps, or Remedy

trouble tickets.

Gauges monitoring aggregatedCPU utilization for key networkequipment

LEDs displaying the up/downstatus of important device inter-faces

Time-varying graph showinginterface utilization

Graphical display of networktopology, circuits, and link uti-lization

Comprehensive log of keyevents

Configure nCompass’s response to a list of critical events using visual, audio,email, pager, or log notifications

nCompass identifies a failed interface connecting Europe to the MPLS backbone

Logically organize network devices using subnets

View CPU utilization for a device

OPNET Technologies, Inc.

Assisted Troubleshooting

nCompass’s contextual launch provides

one-click access to the underlying network

management tools for specialized trou-

bleshooting. Contextual launch is invoked

manually or automatically triggered in

response to a network event. Built-in sup-

port is available for CA eHealth,

CiscoWorks, HP Network Node Manager,

IBM Tivoli Netcool, and MRTG. Contextual

Launch can be also configured to support

custom tools.

Terminal scripting is a second form of assist-

ed troubleshooting available in nCompass. Use this feature to create a set of commands that can be

executed on network devices. An example command set could include a login to the device, followed

by a show running config and a show interfaces summary command. The output is displayed in a text

editor within the console or for certain commands (e.g. traceroute) it is overlaid on top of the topology.

nCompass users are granted privileges to execute certain scripts, making terminal scripting more

secure than direct device access.

Contextual launch, terminal scripting, and

optional OPNET analytics can all be config-

ured to run in response to an event.

nCompass Architecture

VNE Server®

Collects and stores configura-tion, topology, traffic, andevent information pertaining tothe production network. Thisinformation is collected directlyfrom the network and from avariety of third-party datasources by Cisco Systems, HP,CA, and others.

nCompass ConsoleLeverages data provided byVNE Server and delivers uni-fied views and situationalawareness. It is also the start-ing point for the contextuallaunch into third-party tools forassisted troubleshooting.

nCompass Web Server Provides remote visualizationof the nCompass Console via aweb browser with nCompassWeb Clients.

nCompass Web ClientsProvides access to thenCompass Web Server for con-current users.

Execute a traceroute or other commands ona device to quickly diagnose and remedy aproblem

nCompassConsole

Production Network

VNE ServerReal-time data

nCompass Web Server

nCompass Web Clients

Configuration, topology, traffic, and events

Contextual Launch

Third-Party Tools forAssisted Troubleshooting

and more

Third-Party Data Sources

OPNET Technologies, Inc.7255 Woodmont Avenue

Bethesda, Maryland 20814phone: (240) 497-3000email: info@opnet.com

NASDAQ: OPNT

www.opnet.com

© 2008 OPNET Technologies, Inc. OPNET and OPNET Technologies Inc. are registered trademarks of OPNET.All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used herein for identification purposes only.

nCompass Solutions

nCompass™for EnterprisesSolution for real-time views and situational awareness

nCompass™for Service ProvidersSuperset of nCompass for Enterprises, additionally including support for service provider components

such as MPLS and ATM

Complementary OPNET SolutionsIT Sentinel® and SP Sentinel® are software appliances for ensuring network integrity, security, and policy-com-

pliance. They perform systematic configuration audits, analyzing an up-to-date model of the production network

to diagnose device misconfigurations, policy violations, inefficiencies, and security gaps. The analyses offered by

these solutions extend the nCompass assisted troubleshooting capability to further expedite problem resolution.

IT Guru® Network Planner and SP Guru® Network Planner automate analysis and planning of multi-layer, multi-

vendor networks. They enable accurate planning for growth, survivability, consolidation, technology migration,

and new application deployments, including Voice-over-IP (VoIP), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and IPv6. The

analyses offered by these solutions extend the assisted troubleshooting capability to further expedite problem

resolution.

About OPNET TechnologiesOPNET Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of solutions for managing networks and applications. OPNET's best-in-class solutions

address application performance troubleshooting, application deployment planning, systems capacity planning, network configuration

auditing, network capacity and resiliency planning, and network technology R&D. OPNET solutions have been operationally proven in

thousands of customer environments worldwide, including corporate enterprises, government and defense agencies, network service

providers, and network equipment manufacturers. For more information about OPNET and its products, visit www.opnet.com.