User: "The Network is so slow"
Me: <eyeroll>
In most cases, it's a bad idea to leap to the conclusion that more bandwidth is required without a thorough investigation into how bandwidth is currently being consumed.
Tell us about your techniques and experiences tracking down the elusive "bandwidth beast", and earn Thwack points in the process!
- How do you assess bandwidth consumption?
- How do you know when a bandwidth capacity issue is causing slow performance?
- What stories do you have where bandwidth really was the culprit?
Working with low-level tools only gives you one small part of the piece of the puzzle at a time. And then you have to keep a mental model of how everything fits together. Unfortunately, the human brain doesn't scale to encompass large data sets.
We all know that monitoring tools let you visualize the flow of bandwidth and spot bottlenecks. But how you get that job done is the heart of the matter. Do you start with a "top 10" list and drill in? Do you wait for an alert? Do you review NetFlow reports every week? Check for significant deltas? Just dig into specific wheels when they (or their users) start to squeak?
What do you think are best ways to see what’s really going on with network bandwidth? Are there any stories you can share about what was causing slow performance or acting as a bandwidth hog?
We've included a few true stories and best practices in a new whitepaper “Is It Really the Bandwidth? Three Steps to Diagnose Bandwidth Complaints.”
What other stories do you have?