This information is here for historic purposes and is OUTDATED.

The Traffic Map was a component of NAV versions prior to 3.5. Version 3.5 through 3.11 featured a replacement called Netmap. These were both implemented as Java applets. NAV version 3.12 and later feature a new Netmap implemented in Javascript using modern web standards such as HTML5 and SVG.

The traffic map gives an overview of your layer 3 (router) topology depicting all routers (GW and GSW) and interconnted subnets (network type link and core). The routers are shown as blue icons. In addition external routers are shown as red icons (only true if you have decided to show external routers, see below).

The map shows the traffic load of each link. This is done by dividing the line in two, where the nearest part shows traffic out from the router, the far end shows traffic out from the opposite router.

If you pinpoint your mouse to a router extra pop-up information is shown. This is also true for the link networks.

You may also drill down on the topology. This is done by clicking on a given router. A router centric view is then shown; i.e the router in question with all connected subnets and all connected routers. Please note the scrollbar within the applet.

You may also drill further down and enter layer two. This is done by pressing a subnet cloud. It will then show the first connected switch for the subnet, with connections to other switches. You may press another switch and see the topology from there. In this manner you can click around in your layer 2 topology and always show the relevant traffic load.

Note that you can alter the timeframe that you show traffic data for. The default is the current data.

Also note that you on layer 2 can swap between subnets using the right mouse button.

By default the traffic map will show all routers (GW and GSW) lined up in an evenly spaced manner. As administrator you can change this layout. Please note that you need to be member of a group that has administrator privilege for the traffic map, i.e. your web_access privilege must include (vlanPlot|navAdmin).

As administrator you press the Move button to enter “move mode”. Now you can point on a router and drag it elsewhere on the map. Lines will follow. In this way you can manually adjust your layer 3 layout. When finished press “save” and your changes will be saved.

If you have very many routers (say more than 20) you may find the layout chaotic. There are simply too many routers in the same view. To help you out here, NAV has introduced containers. You can use the Edit database tool to add as many containers as you like. In turn you can insert the routers into a container. A given router can only be in one container.

Initially all routers are placed in the _Top container. If you i.e. have 20 routers named R1 .. R20 and you wish to split them into four regions, say containers named North, West, South and East, simply add these containers and in turn put the relevant routers in the relevant containers.

The top layout will then vary depending on the value of vp_netbox_grp_info.hidecons for your containers. The default value here is false. In this mode all routers are still visable on the top level, but they are placed within grey circles, each circle being a given container. In addition the traffic load between the routers within a container is not shown.

If you instead prefer a top level view where the containers are shown as a single icon only, you should alter the value of vp_netbox_grp_info.hideincons for your containers. Unfortunately there is no button for this, you have to update the database field backstage, i.e. in a psql shell enter:

manage=# UPDATE vp_netbox_grp_info SET hideicons='t'  [ WHERE name='North' ];

You may also use your own icon for a given container. This is done by editing the field vp_netbox_grp_info.iconname and place the icon in the vlanPlot/icons directory. If you don't do this the default_grp_icon.gif will be used.

NAV will detect external connections, elinks, i.e. subnets that are on the perimeter of you network, connecting other customers or other ISPs. These prefixes will have the attribute vlan.nettype='elink'.

From NAV 3.2 and on, these external connections will show up in the traffic map's top level view by default. If you run an earlier version of NAV, or upgraded from an earlier version, you need to perform the following SQL trick in the manage database to show elinks in the traffic map:

manage=# UPDATE vp_netbox_grp_info SET hideicons='f'  WHERE name='_Top' ;

Please note that hiding external connections can only be done on the top level. Within a given container there is no way of hiding external connetions. They will always be shown.

We realize that the use of hideicons may seem confusing. To summarize it has two meanings:

• For the _Top container:
  • hideincons=false means that external connections are not shown on the top level.
  • hideicons=true means that external connectons are visable on the top level.
• For all other containers:
  • hideicons=false means that the given container is shown as a grey circle on the top level, with all the routers within.
  • hideicons=true means that the given container is shown as a single icon on the top level.