The rise in digitization around the world has created a situation where organizations vastly depend on their IT infrastructure, much like we depend on our nervous system. We can equate it to a nervous system because an IT infrastructure enables effective control, coordinates all functions, and ensures that each task is fulfilled efficiently and smoothly.
If an integral part of an organization experiences bottlenecks, the impact could wreak havoc. Bottlenecks surface in the form of network faults, unauthorized configuration changes, network slowdowns, downtime, and more. The IT infrastructure management environment is undoubtedly dynamic, and every IT admin directs their efforts towards reducing bottlenecks as much as possible. To minimize any chance of network issues, a mechanism is needed for IT admins to get to the bottom of every issue, deeply analyze it, resolve it, and store the information in a knowledge base to avoid repetitions of similar instances.
Root cause analysis (RCA) is a methodology used in IT operations management to identify the underlying cause of a problem or incident that occurs in an IT infrastructure. It is a systematic approach to identifying the root cause of an issue and developing a permanent solution to prevent it from happening again.
The goal of RCA is to find the true origin of the problem rather than simply addressing its symptoms. RCA helps IT teams understand how and why a particular problem occurred so they can take steps to prevent it from happening again in the future.
Helps you proactively detect and address network outages: If a network outage occurs, RCA can be used to identify the underlying cause of the issue. For example, the outage might be caused by a misconfigured network device or a network topology issue. By identifying the root cause of the outage, network monitoring teams can take steps to prevent the issue from recurring and to improve the overall reliability of the network.
Resolves system faults, prevents their recurrence, and maintains availability: If a system fault occurs, RCA can help you identify the specific cause of the fault. For example, the fault might be caused by a hardware failure, a software bug, or a configuration error. By identifying the root cause of the fault, fault management teams can take steps to resolve the issue and prevent similar faults from occurring in the future.
Enables strengthened firewall and security measures to prevent breaches: If a security breach occurs, RCA can be used to identify the root cause of the breach. For example, the breach might be caused by a vulnerability in a firewall rule or a misconfigured security setting. By identifying the root cause of the breach, firewall and security teams can take steps to address the issue and prevent similar breaches from occurring in the future.
Improves configuration management and minimizes configuration errors: If a configuration error occurs, RCA can help you identify the root cause of the error. For example, the error might be caused by a misconfigured device or a configuration setting that is incompatible with other devices in the network. By identifying the root cause of the error, configuration management teams can take steps to resolve the issue and prevent similar errors from occurring in the future.
Optimizes network traffic flow for improved performance: If there is an issue with network traffic flow, RCA can be used to identify the underlying cause. For example, the issue might be caused by a misconfigured routing protocol or a network topology issue. By identifying the root cause of the issue, NetFlow monitoring teams can take steps to address it and optimize network traffic flow for better performance.
Efficiently manages IP address allocation and resolves IP address conflicts: If there is an issue with IP address allocation, RCA can be used to identify the underlying cause. For example, the issue might be caused by IP address conflicts or a lack of available IP addresses. By identifying the root cause of the issue, IP address management (IPAM) teams can take steps to address it and optimize IP address allocation for better resource utilization. Additionally, if IP address conflicts are identified as the root cause, IPAM teams can take steps to prevent future conflicts by implementing IP address reservation policies or performing regular IP address audits.
OpManager Plus offers real-time observability of infrastructures with in-depth tracking of network components. This is enabled through device health monitoring, network traffic analysis, and full network topology discovery to facilitate proactive network outage detection and resolution. In the event of a network outage, RCA can be used to analyze the underlying issue within the network topology so you can troubleshoot and prevent the outage from happening again.
You can get started with advanced troubleshooting by first creating an RCA profile. An RCA profile is a common platform where all the relevant data from multiple monitors is shown, letting you compare, analyze, and arrive at a conclusion.
When creating an RCA profile, you have to determine the modules and the entities that will fall under each module. The modules are devices, interfaces, and URLs. The entities are the lists of devices, interfaces, or URLs that are to be displayed for selection.
Represent performance data graphically
Once the RCA profile is created and entities are added, all you need to do is drag and drop the relevant monitors you want to track the performance of. This way, you can analyze up to 20 monitors in one window.
Àll in all, OpManager Plus' RCA capabilities helps achieve observability by providing a common console for collecting and analyzing data from multiple monitors. This data can be used to identify trends and patterns in infrastructure usage, which can then be used to troubleshoot and prevent outages.The result is easy problem resolution in the network, ensuring quick reaction times to bottlnecks which at business-level translates into best user experience, availability and business continuity. Learn more about OpManager Plus.