How to View Metrics and Audit Logs

Purpose

Netmaker Tutorial: Network Analytics and Auditing Overview

Monitoring Node Performance and Connectivity

Netmaker provides a dedicated Analytics pane to help administrators monitor the health, performance, and reliability of their network nodes in real-time. This interface is essential for identifying connection failures and tracking data throughput across the overlay network.

Accessing the Analytics Dashboard

To begin monitoring your devices, navigate to the Analytics section by clicking the corresponding icon located in the bottom-left sidebar of the Netmaker dashboard. By default, the interface opens to the Metrics tab, which serves as the primary hub for node-specific performance data.

Evaluating Peer-to-Peer Metrics

To view detailed telemetry for a specific device, select a node from the Nodes list on the left-hand side (for example, 'cloud-linux'). This will populate the dashboard with metrics relative to its peer connections, allowing you to audit the following:

• Connectivity Status: The Connectivity column provides an immediate visual indicator of connection health. A green checkmark indicates an active, live connection, while a red 'X' signals a connection failure between peers.

• Data Throughput: Monitor the Bytes Sent and Bytes Received columns to track the volume of traffic moving between specific devices, which is useful for identifying high-bandwidth consumers or network bottlenecks.

• Reliability and Uptime: Review the Uptime column to evaluate the percentage of time a connection has remained stable. This metric is critical for assessing the overall reliability of your network infrastructure.

Visualizing Network Topology and Geography

Netmaker provides several ways to visualize the structure and physical distribution of your network nodes. These tools allow administrators to verify network configuration at a glance and understand the physical and logical relationships between devices.

Accessing Network Configuration

To review the foundational settings of your current network, navigate to the Network Info tab within the Analytics pane. This section displays essential metadata including the network name, assigned IPv4 ranges, and IPv6 configurations.

Geographic Device Mapping

Introduced in version 1.0, the Graph tab provides a geographic visualization of your infrastructure. By selecting this tab, you can view a global map that plots the physical locations of your network devices based on their connection data.

Legacy Connection Topology

For a more technical view of device interconnectivity, use the Switch to Graph button located in the top-right corner of the map view. This legacy graph displays a traditional network topology diagram. This visualization is particularly useful for identifying which specific devices are establishing peer-to-peer connections and verifying the overall health of the mesh network architecture.

Auditing Platform and Connection History

Netmaker provides a dedicated suite of auditing tools designed to help administrators monitor both configuration changes and the real-time connectivity status of the network. This ensures high visibility into who is accessing the network and what changes are being made to the platform infrastructure.

Visualizing Device Connections

To understand the current state of your network before reviewing historical logs, navigate to the Graph tab within the Analytics pane. This visualization allows you to identify the physical and logical topology of your network, showing exactly which devices are currently connecting to one another.

Accessing the Activity Logs

For detailed auditing, switch to the Activity tab located next to the Graph tab. This section serves as the primary ledger for all significant platform events.

The Activity page provides a timestamped record of platform interactions, allowing you to audit the following:

• Administrative Actions: Review the creation of tags, updates to access policies, and other high-level configuration changes to see "what was created, by whom, and when."

• Connection History: Track user and device connectivity, including specific timestamps for when a device joined or left the network.

• System Events: Monitor general platform actions to ensure compliance and security standards are maintained across the network.

External Data Export and Advanced Monitoring

While the Netmaker dashboard provides built-in tools for real-time monitoring, advanced users may require external tools for long-term data retention, custom alerting, and complex visualization. Netmaker supports exporting network analytics data to industry-standard monitoring stacks.

Prometheus Integration

For comprehensive server-side monitoring, you can export your network analytics to Prometheus. This allows you to collect and store time-series data related to your network's health and performance. Because this feature is configured on the server side, it provides a centralized way to aggregate metrics from all nodes across your overlays.

Advanced Visualization with Grafana

To complement the Prometheus data export, Netmaker offers a pre-configured Grafana dashboard. By using the provided metrics exporter, you can gain deeper insights into network activity through detailed charts and graphs that go beyond the standard dashboard views. This is particularly useful for identifying trends in data transfer or connection stability over long periods.

Implementation and Setup

To implement advanced monitoring, follow these high-level requirements:

• Consult Documentation: Refer to the official Netmaker Documentation for the specific configuration parameters required for the metrics exporter.

• Server-Side Configuration: Ensure you have access to the server environment, as Prometheus exporting is handled at the infrastructure level rather than through the client UI.

• Import Dashboards: Use the default Grafana dashboard templates provided by the Netmaker team to quickly visualize your exported metrics.