AsItHappens 0.34 review

AsItHappens is a real-time network performance monitor

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 2970K Developer: Mark Abrahams

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AsItHappens is a real-time network performance monitor. AsItHappens project collects data from devices over a network and displays them on a graph, optionally storing collected data in a database for later retrieval.

Current collection types include network response, bandwidth, Cisco NBAR, and Cisco NetFlow. AsItHappens polls data in regular intervals, which can be as low as every second, to give immediate feedback on network performance.

Here are some key features of "AsItHappens":
Granular collection of data to the point of collecting every second
Real-time graphing of collected data
Response data collection via ICMP or TCP/UDP echo
Inbound and outbound bandwidth data collection via SNMP
Cisco NBAR (Network-based Application Recognition) Top-N collection via SNMP
Cisco NetFlow Top-N collection via SNMP with flow grouping and match criteria options
Optional database storage of collection sessions
Retrieval of user-defined time intervals within a stored collection session
Resizable graphing window with automatic scaling of graph data to fit
Options to define how to aggregate or interpolate data when graphing e.g. to show maximums instead of averages
The ability to add text labels to the graphing panel to explain desired areas of the graph

Requirements:
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK) version 5.0 or higher.

Installation:

1. Unpack the install file into any destination directory e.g. unpacking in /opt will create the application directory /opt/asithappens

2. [OPTIONAL] If MySQL is installed, then run the script "mysql -u root sql/db-create.sql" (you will need to supply password if necessary)

3. Change the JAVA_EXE variable to the path to your JRE 1.5 executable (e.g. /opt/jdk1.5.0_01/jre/bin/java) in the script "bin/asithappens.sh"

4. Change the ASITHAPPENS_HOME variable to the install directory (e.g. /opt/asithappens) in the script "bin/asithappens.sh"

Use the "bin/asithappens.sh" script to start the application.

What's New in This Release:
This release changes the units for some collection graphs to milliseconds to allow more aggressive polling.
It also adds a progress bar and backgrounding of some intensive tasks that previously froze the GUI.
It fixes a crash due to the incorrect parsing of the graph top value in the options dialog.