Netscout Extends Visibility to Virtual Environments

Netscout Systems is looking to put that situation to right with the release of nGenius Virtual Agent software that extends the performance-monitoring capabilities of its tools to virtual machine software. Here's a look at a typical monitoring interface:

Although the people that manage virtual machines have a plethora of options available to them, network managers tasked with monitoring application performance are frequently left blind when it comes to being able to correlate application activity on a virtual machine with network performance.

However, when the performance of applications running on virtual machines comes into question, it’s frequently the network manager that takes the heat. In addition, virtual machines can now dynamically move across multiple data center environments, which could have significant implications for network managers each time such a move occurs.

With the addition of agent software designed specifically to connect to the virtual switch on the hypervisor of a virtual machine, Netscout can now effectively monitor application performance on the network from end-to-end using its existing deep-packet inspection technology.

The Netscout nGenius Virtual Agent is available for free now, but it does require a dedicated license port that effectively creates a cost of $1,000 per deployed agent. The agent software also requires a dedicated core processor and consumes 2GB of memory.