Documentation forEngineer's Toolset for the Desktop

Network Sonar tool

The Network Sonar tool in ETS for the Desktop is a high-performance network discovery tool you can use to build a database of the structure and devices on a TCP/IP network.

Open the Network Sonar tool

  • To launch the tool from the Toolset Launch Pad, locate the Network Sonar tool tool and click Launch.

  • You can add the tool to a tab in the Workspace Studio, and access it from there.

  • To launch the tool from the Windows Start menu:

    1. Click Start > All > SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset.

    2. Right-click Network Sonar, click More, and click Run as administrator.

Complete the Network Sonar Discovery Wizard

The Network Sonar Discovery Wizard walks you through discovering your network.

You can stop the Discovery at any time. The next time you start it, Discovery will begin where it stopped.

  1. Click File > Network Discovery Wizard.

  2. To create a new database, click Create a New Discovery Database, and then complete the following steps:

    1. Enter a name and then select the database to be created in the Save as enter field:

      • Sonar Database
      • Access Database

    2. Click Save.

  3. To use an existing database, click Open an Existing Database, select your database, and then click OK.

  4. Click Next.

  5. In the Add field, enter your SNMP community strings, and then click Add.

    The more community strings you add, the longer Network Sonar may take to discover your network. Use the arrows to arrange the order of the strings with the most frequently used community strings first in the list.

  6. Click Next.

  7. Click Specify a Seed Router and Discovery Network Topology.

    A seed router is any router in your network. A server, switch, or workstation that supports SNMP can also be used. For best results, use a core router.

  8. Enter an IP address or host name in the Host name or IP address field, and then click Add.

  9. Click Discover Network Topology.

    Discovering the network topology may take a few minutes. If a small number of subnets are missing from the list, Network Sonar can pick them up during the network discovery. If entire networks are missing, rerun the topology discovery using a seed router in the missing network. To get back to Discover Subnets, from a seed router window, click Previous.

  10. In the Network Topology window, click OK, and then click Next.

  11. Select the subnets to include, and then click Next.

    If you plan to discover a portion of the Internet, such as a national or local ISP network, add the networks or subnets manually and set limits on the discovery. If you do not specify the subnets, Network Sonar may attempt to discover the entire Internet.

  12. Click Start Discovery.

    The faster you set the discovery slider, the more traffic is generated. If you are discovering a network across a dial-up line or low bandwidth circuits, increasing the discovery speed will also increase the chances of congestion and dropped packets.

Modify Network Sonar Discovery preferences

Some preferences can be changed to discover and scan your network.

  1. Click Discovery > Preferences.

  2. Click Discovery Performance, and then adjust the following:

    Network Connection: This slider adjusts the speed of the network discovery. The discovery speed can be set from slow dial-up lines up to a high speed LAN. Network Sonar also automatically adjusts the speed of the discovery.

    Network Congestion: This slider adjusts the default timeouts and retries for Network Sonar. Most of the time, set this to Normal. Network Sonar automatically adapts the network discovery if it starts to encounter problems or congestion in part of the network.

  3. Click Community Strings, and then add and adjust community strings.

    The more community strings you add, the potentially increased time the network discovery takes. Arrange the most commonly used community strings at the top of the list.

  4. Click Automatic Subnet Selection, and then adjust the setting:

    During a network discovery, Network Sonar may find subnets that it does not already have in the database. Network Sonar always adds the new subnet to the Discovery Database, and includes it in the active discovery based on these settings.

    • Exclude the new subnet from the network discovery: Select Exclude if you do not want any new subnets found during the discovery to be automatically scanned as part of the discovery. Network Sonar still adds the subnet to the database. You can always select the subnet later and resume the discovery to scan it.

      Use this option if you are scanning part of the Internet (an ISP for example). You do not want Network Sonar to automatically include any new subnets in the active discovery. If it did, it would attempt to discover the entire Internet.

    • Include the new subnet in the network discovery: Select Include if you want new subnets found during the discovery to be automatically scanned as part of the discovery. This is useful when scanning a corporate Intranet to ensure Network Sonar scans every subnet.

      Include the Subnet if it is smaller than: Set the size of the subnets that should be automatically included. Adjust the slider to change subnet mask size. All subnets smaller than this setting will be included in the active discovery.

  5. Click Ping Sweeps, and then adjust the settings:

    • Delay between pings: The time in milliseconds to wait before sending pings to each node. This setting is used to arbitrarily slow down the network discovery. This is important on dial-up lines or to limit the amount of traffic generated by Network Sonar. Normally, you would not adjust this slider. Network Sonar makes any adjustments when needed.

    • Pings transmitted per node: This setting is used to control how many pings should be sent to each IP address during scanning. Normally, this should be set to 2 or higher.

      This is important when scanning networks using Cisco routers. If the target IP address is not in a Cisco router ARP cache, the router discards the ICMP query (ping) while it requests the MAC address of the target IP. The first ping never reaches the subnet of the target IP address. In this situation, the second ping is the one the target IP address responds to.

  6. Click ICMP, and then adjust the settings:

    • Ping Timeout: The number of milliseconds Network Sonar should wait for a reply before assuming that the target IP address is not responding.

    • Packet Time-To-Live: The number of hops allowed on the way to the specified address. With a setting of 32, a ping could pass through up to 32 different routers on the way to the remote address before being discarded by the network. Normally you would set this to 32 hops.

  7. Click SNMP, and then adjust the settings:

    • Packet Timeout: The number of milliseconds Network Sonar should wait for an SMNP reply before assuming the packet was lost and trying again. This setting should normally be set around 600 milliseconds.

    • Query Attempts: The number of times Network Sonar should retry an SNMP query before giving up. This should normally be set to 2.

Export, print, and copy data

After you perform a discovery, you can transfer the discovered information to other tools through exporting and copy and paste capabilities. You can also print the discovered information.

To export charts:

  1. Click File > Export, and then select the type of export.

  2. Select the information to export.

  3. Name the path for the exported information.

To copy charts, click Edit > Copy Bitmap to Clipboard or Edit > Copy Metafile to Clipboard.

To print calculations, click File > Print, and then select the information to print.

Limit discovery to a single class B or C network

  1. Add the class B or C network manually.

  2. Exclude all new subnets from the discovery.

  3. Add the SNMP community strings for your network.

  4. Start the network discovery.