Northstar is a valuable network map troubleshooting tool in your toolkit, which highlights the network path of a node to the Internet and also surfaces key health and performance metrics of each hop along the way.
Northstar is available at every site. Auvik customers will see the Northstar icon appear in the top left area of the topology map just under the Search bar. If a device is not selected, it will be disabled.
Once you select a device on the map, the Northstar button will be enabled.
If you click the Northstar button, the Northstar panel will open on the left, and a path from the selected device to the Internet will appear in the main viewport.
Walkthrough of the Northstar panel
Northstar removes all the other nodes on the map except the nodes that appear in the direct path connected to the device you selected. You’ll see an overview of each device and connection along the path. You can easily see if there are any status problems or alerts along the way.
To view more details about each step along the path, you can expand each section. You may want to check devices and interfaces with alerts first.
If the path is long, you may need to scroll in the Northstar panel to see all the data.
Clicking on any device in the path draws your attention to that highlighted device section in the panel.
Default collapsed device section
The device overview section includes basic information about the device, its online and managed status, and a quick overview of any alerts on the device. You should be able to quickly glance at the overview and determine if you need to investigate further. In this case, there’s an alert on this device, so you might choose to expand it.
Expanded device section
The expanded device section includes min/max/avg values for CPU and Memory for the page’s time period selected, and a detailed list of alerts (up to 10) on the device.
Note that you can click on the device name to select the device in the path, and to update the device dashboard at the bottom of the page to that device. If you need to see even more data, you can always scroll down the page to the device dashboard.
Default collapsed connection section
The connection section overview includes basic details about the connection, including its admin and operational status, as well as its negotiated speed. Note that some connection types, such as VPN or inferred connections, may have a slightly different data set.
The expanded connection section includes min/max/avg values for Rx/Tx packets, Rx/Ts errors, Rx/Tx discards, and Rx/Tx utilization for the page’s time period selected. It also includes a detailed list of alerts (up to 10) on each interface.
You can scroll down the page to see the device or interface details for the selected object.
Device and interface names are clickable. If clicked, the details dashboard at the bottom of the page will update, and the device will be highlighted in the path.
To exit Northstar, close the panel. The device currently selected in the Northstar path will remain selected when the Network map redraws.
Additional Notes:
- The map search and left-hand buttons are not available when Northstar is active.
- Cloud controllers are not included in Northstar paths, as they are not classified as devices in Auvik.
Additional Resources:
Got feedback? Visit Northstar BETA Feedback and let us know how we can make Northstar even better!
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Customer Reviews:
“Northstar is a gamechanger.”
“Wow, this makes troubleshooting much quicker.”
“Northstar is awesome.”
“Looks like Northstar will help a lot.”
“An increase in pay everytime I solve issues with it.”
“I think it’s very [intuitive] and it shows every point to point connection from every device and the schematic works really well in my opinion.”
“Easily filtering out the devices down to the network path as Auvik sees it is FANTASTIC for quickly cutting down the noise when troubleshooting a device.”
“It seems to be a faster troubleshooting tool for seeing how a device is connected to a network without having to look at ARP or FDB.”
“Being able to see usage of cpu/memory and data is great.”
“Very nice visual of what's unreachable and at what layer.”
“Every device I selected and clicked the Northstar button appeared to work well.”
“Easier to navigate hops.”
“It's easy.”
“Simple info panel.”
“It all seems to be working well, allowing for a direct path view of the node I'm looking at.”
“I have many users with laptops that come in and start working and complaining about speed, now I can see if they are connected to the docking station and hardwired or if they are wireless.”