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PeerSpot user
Works at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
We needed a way to quickly identify the source of problems with our network applications

We have more than 25 dispersed clinic locations connected through a central data center and we run hundreds of critical applications. One of the largest software applications is Epic, which is a huge multi-tiered application suite that includes several smaller applications that all bounce from server to server, gathering data requests from different sources and funneling back responses to our clinical and administrative teams.

Visual TruView uses key data sets (including packet storage, application response time, transactional decode, NetFlow and SNMP) to measure performance of hundreds of applications and then report the results through a single dashboard. The comprehensive overview of both network and application performance provides us with a clear picture of performance and, when issues arise, helps us quickly identify the root cause.

We also use TruView to evaluate top talkers (i.e., applications) on the network, identify unknown applications, identify the most-used at any moment, and measure other indicators of network health. TruView delivers this information via simple graphs and alerts that trigger when minimum performance thresholds aren’t met. It helps immediately narrow down the scope of performance problems, so we can do further analysis on a specific node or server.

For example, when we used TruView to identify which applications were affecting network performance the most, we were surprised to find a marketing screensaver as the main culprit. The screensaver (which runs on hundreds of computer screens and is displayed in every patient room) was not deployed properly. Instead of caching information from each individual computer’s hard drive, it was pulling high-resolution images and marketing materials from remote servers and serving them to desktops. This created a huge amount of traffic every single day. We used TruView to identify this unnecessary bandwidth-intense application as a problem.

TruView helps us tell right away when a problem happens and the scope of the issue. If something is slow, we can tell the location or application affected. When it’s a multi-tier application, we can see which element is the problem and don’t need to involve the vendor – it’s eliminated a lot of the troubleshooting frustrations we used to have.

Disclosure: PeerSpot has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Network Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
We tested several products, but Fluke Networks provided the visibility we needed to improve our network performance

With a team of just three engineers and a network spanning the country, we required a solution that provided support for each location’s specific data centers, servers and storage without requiring a vast amount of engineering support. With hundreds of people on the network at any given time, identifying and troubleshooting end-user delays was an important and time-consuming issue for our engineering team. We needed visibility into each data center and the ability to quickly identify and segregate network issues from application problems.

With such a small team of engineers managing all the networking needs — from plugs, to wiring, to power — it was challenging for us to dedicate the required amount of time to troubleshooting end-user issues, especially with a user base spread across the country. It was nearly impossible for us to tell where an issue was coming from; was it a network problem? A smaller location based issue? We just didn’t have the visibility we needed to fix issues efficiently and still have time to dedicate to our other pressing projects.

In addition to normal internal network issues, we utilize many different applications throughout our three data centers, including a newly implemented video over IP capability that allows our geologists to stay on site and still participate in key company meetings. Because of the large number of internal and external applications running at any given time, in any location, our engineers were tasked with solving issues without any clear knowledge of the origin – whether network or application based.

Often problems would arise in Tulsa that had to be diagnosed and fixed from a different location. A large building and hundreds of different devices connecting to the server at any given time hindered the troubleshooting process and often non-vital issues were left unresolved and became the new normal end-user experience.

Our team also faced the challenge of managing third party, subscription-based applications that weren’t always performing up to standard. Conversations with vendors yielded few results and most users were left dealing with a slower, less efficient process.

We chose Fluke Networks OptiView XG to begin monitoring our biggest data center, located in Tulsa. The OptiView XG allowed our engineers to track the normal network use levels and establish a benchmark to compare degraded performance to. Currently, we use the OptiView XG mainly as a diagnostic tool, running continuously and conducting network assessments, validating new infrastructure and devices, testing service provider SLAs, and troubleshooting problems from end to end.

After our success using the OptiView XG, we expanded our Fluke Networks’ product line to include the Visual TruView. With TruView’s Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) combined capabilities, we are able to identify, test and resolve issues across LAN, WAN or Cloud environments and across multiple data centers.

The entire team tested several different product solutions initially, but Fluke Networks provided the visibility we needed to make a discernable difference in our network performance and engineer time management. With the TruView, we’re able to identify an issue, zero in on the location and solve it quickly.

With the TruView and OptiView XG helping to streamline our networking troubleshooting process, our engineering team now has the ability to remotely identify, diagnose and resolve our connectivity problems.

Using Fluke Networks TruView and the OptiView XG together allow us to shed light on issues that pop up when managing a cross-country network. It gives the entire team insight we’ve never had before and enables us to differentiate between normal traffic and bigger problems. It’s a great tool for not only day-to-day network monitoring, but also troubleshooting and effectively leading us to issue resolution.

In one specific example, my team was called in to deal with an application problem reported by a group of users in Tulsa. It turned out the users were all on the 14th floor of the same building. The IT team first used the OptiView XG to eliminate some obvious potential causes with the network on that particular floor and then used TruView to see how the performance on that floor compared to other floors. With the network ruled out as the cause of the issue, TruView helped to identify a file server that had been configured improperly after a power outage.

In addition to dealing with our own internal network issues, Fluke Networks’ tools have allowed us to help identify and resolve third-party application issues as well.

In one instance, using the OptiView XG, our engineers were able to log into an end user’s machine, take a packet capture then decode it using Fluke Networks ClearSite Analyzer software, which showed specific metrics around application performance.

The data showed an application problem that was a surprise to the vendor. While they were able to fix the problem and improve the end user experience, without the conclusive data provided by the Fluke Networks tools, we may have been lost in an endless cycle of back-and-forth between the internal team and the application company.

Without Fluke Networks, we just wouldn’t have the same visibility. It’s an essential part of our network infrastructure.

Disclosure: PeerSpot has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
PeerSpot user
it_user1020 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user1020Head of Data Center at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Vendor

Hi Kurt,

Great review! seems like you really have made good use of this product. I'm just curious on the other products that you evaluated prior to deciding that this is the right product for your organization. We currently have Solar Winds and although it works for our purpose, I would love to have a product where we can integrate different monitors in one console. I think Visual TruView is one of those products and would like to hear from you regarding this.

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Buyer's Guide
TruView
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about TruView. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
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reviewer1414866 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
Efficient monitoring, data visibility and easy overview of all data on a single view
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature for us was the ability to monitor sites and get a nice overview of all the data in a single view."
  • "One area that could be improved is the reporting features. In the version transformation from ten to eleven, the platform changed from a Windows-based platform to a Linux-based platform. As a result, the previous reporting feature using Crystal Reports was no longer available. Instead, we had to generate PDF dashboard reports, which were not as flexible."

What is our primary use case?

TruView had a very unique view for displaying network monitoring and response times. It had a matrix called the end-user response time that captured application, network, and server responses in one matrix. It allowed easy identification of issues, whether it was an application, network, server, or backend problem. I haven't seen any software that provides the same level of quick troubleshooting and drill-down capabilities as TruView. Most other systems out there are not as quick or specific in scrolling down to settings or specific details.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature for us was the ability to monitor sites and get a nice overview of all the data in a single view. It provided easy visibility of the top servers or sites for application response times and usages.

So data visibility is a strong point of this solution. It provides an easy view to see the top ten for specific servers or sites, especially for application response times and usages.

What needs improvement?

One area that could be improved is the reporting features. In the version transformation from ten to eleven, the platform changed from a Windows-based platform to a Linux-based platform. As a result, the previous reporting feature using Crystal Reports was no longer available. Instead, we had to generate PDF dashboard reports, which were not as flexible. It would be great to have better reporting options in the future.

When it comes to future releases, TruView is reaching its end-of-life, so they are not developing or selling it anymore. However, the replacement software from NetScout, called NetScout Engineers One Monitoring Software, is close but more focused on engineering and technical aspects. It would be great if the new software could provide similar views and data representation as TruView, as there are still a few things that our customers would like to see but are missing in the current solution. For example, improvements in data representation.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using TruView for around ten years. Currently, we have it installed for one of our customers who use it.

The customer purchased the hardware, and now it's reaching its end-of-life phase. It's already in the system, so it's nearing its shelf life. We are in the process of replacing it with a new monitoring software from NetScout.

We are currently working with version 11.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten. As long as you consider all the Fluke and NetScout products. It's important not to jump to the latest patch immediately, as that may not improve the reliability. This rating is based on the company's historical performance. 

My recommendation would be to follow a reasonable timeline when applying patches. For major releases, such as transitioning from version one to version two, it's advisable to wait a bit before upgrading. However, for incremental releases within the same version, like moving from 1.1 to 1.2 or 1.3, most of the bugs are typically resolved, making the system stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability of the solution around six out of ten. In the past, before the availability of clustering, scaling TruView was not as straightforward. You couldn't simply add resources like disk space or CPU processing power. Instead, you had to upgrade or export the databases and import them onto a new server. However, nowadays, with more advanced software, you can add additional devices and increase processing power and performance.

We have over 100 users using this solution. Our clients are enterprise businesses, specifically in the banking environment.

How are customer service and support?

Over the past three years, I have had an excellent experience with TruView's customer service and support. While there's always room for improvement, they have been consistently helpful and responsive.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I would rate my experience with the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy to set up. 

TruView is usually deployed in an enterprise environment on-premises. For a standalone server, the deployment basically takes about two hours. So, if you're really motivated, you can have the system fully deployed in a day, provided you have all the necessary information and the deployment process goes smoothly.

So, the whole process can be completed within a day. Once it's up and running, you can start using it, although configuring data feeds and other customer-specific aspects may take additional time, depending on their change processes.

The initial steps involve gathering information, such as addressing host names and following the customer's change process. You also need to consider the environmental aspects, like space and sufficient cooling. Additionally, if you don't have all the necessary information, you still need to log individual changes to monitor branches and sites, which can take some time. It depends on the customer's change process cycle. So, you need network engineers to configure everything.

We have an automated system for central deployment that allows network engineers to push configurations within a few hours. The speed and automation of certain processes depend on the customer's environment and the tools they have available.

What about the implementation team?

It takes around four to five engineers to load the server during the initial setup process. It's a fully automated deployment process from the CD, where you run it, and it takes care of everything. Along the way, it asks a few questions that you need to answer to complete the network configurations. After that, you need to start working on configuring it, which may take some time.

The system deployment is well-documented, and the engineers from the partner company have provided us with guidance and training. It just takes some time to explore and configure specific sections of the system to make it work effectively.

The system is deployed, and you need some knowledge to configure specific sections of the system. Luckily, our partners showed us training on how to deploy it, and their tech engineers were available to assist if we encountered any issues. There was also online training available. So, everything is there, but you still need to play around the system on your own. They won't provide all the details on a platter because, at the end of the day, they also want to make money through advanced training and sales.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There are certain licensing costs. For example, if you use NetFlow, you need to purchase a license depending on the size of your connector. Similarly, for voice monitoring, you need a separate license. Apart from that, I'm not aware of any additional costs.

What other advice do I have?

Currently, TruView is no longer available for purchase. It's not really suitable for small to medium-sized businesses. It's more cost-effective and designed for enterprise monitoring. So, my advice would be to consider the size and requirements of your organization before deciding.

Overall, I would give TruView an eight. It has evolved over time, and I've never encountered any major issues with it. Customers can easily find what they are looking for within a few clicks, and it enables them to quickly troubleshoot and resolve issues. The system provides an extensive range of views and performance monitoring, allowing for quick problem identification and resolution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
it_user143970 - PeerSpot reviewer
Operation & Infrastructure Manager at a wellness & fitness company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Deployment was rather simple, but did require quite a bit of time to configure since our applications are so complex.

We develop our applications in-house to address our organization’s specific mission and operational needs. The data housed within these applications are critical to us, as evidenced by a spike in incoming technical support calls immediately after any network, application, or database outage.

Application and network issues would inevitably arise within our infrastructure. These issues, no matter how minor, were hard to troubleshoot since each application integrates with multiple data sources. We evaluated multiple network monitoring solutions. Visual TruView was selected and deployed to solve our IT challenges and resolve the ambiguity associated with technical support calls.

As TruView processes network performance analytics, it time correlates the results, which helps cross-functional IT teams—such as network engineering and application development teams—work more collaboratively and solve problems faster than before without the usual finger-pointing. The effort is centralized with a dashboard that tells us whether the problem is database, application, or network related so we can assign accountability and get to a solution faster.

The ability to see across our network and monitor each node along with all applications and databases is of great benefit, it helps us immediately identify the problem’s root cause so we can bring in the appropriate service team to solve the issue.

Deployment was rather simple, but did require quite a bit of time to configure since our applications are so complex. But, once we got it up and running, the results were almost immediate.

It also provides ongoing monitoring for external and third-party applications as well. TruView can easily pinpoint problems, letting us know if the issue lies internally or with the external application provider.

For example, we used TruView to troubleshoot a third-party application that was performing slowly over the VPN connection. The application used specific protocols for querying data from multiple sources. We reviewed all data transactions – one after another. In each transaction, data took no more than 30 milliseconds to process. Some of the files, however, exceeded 15 MB in size. These larger data calls required several minutes to process over the VPN. Because we could isolate the specific data call culprits, the system could be optimized to solve the issue quickly and effectively.

Disclosure: PeerSpot has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
PeerSpot user
it_user112599 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Team Lead with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
We needed a mechanism to pinpoint issues and determine if the root cause lay with the database, application, or network.

Due to the nature of our business, we require continuous operations with zero tolerance for network performance delays or downtime. Performance expectations are high for our IT team and network.

We rely on optimal network response times to our auction applications and databases to present, track, and sell plants and flowers as quickly as possible. As soon as one product is sold, we need to be able to showcase the next item immediately. Time is of the essence, and we can’t waste it with unnecessary troubleshooting steps.

In an auction clock environment, plants and flowers are brought into a room to be bid on by both in-person and online buyers. A database pushes information to the clock, which displays the product, quantity, price, and time left at auction. Bidders push a button to purchase flowers based on the price displayed on the clock at that particular time. As soon as the product is sold, a new product is displayed as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, we recently encountered a response time delay between the database and the auction clock. The delay slowed the clock display information by up to two seconds between each auction, which is far too long in our environment. We needed a mechanism to pinpoint the issue and determine if the root cause lay with the database, application, or network. That was easier said than done at the time, given our organization’s complex, homegrown databases and applications.

A delay of even a few seconds is unacceptable when we’re auctioning more than 50 million items each day to on-site and international bidders. Time literally translates to money, so we do everything possible to mitigate delays.

We evaluated multiple technologies before implementing a Visual TruView unified network and application performance monitoring and troubleshooting solution from Fluke Networks. We deployed Visual TruView to monitor and troubleshoot both our backbone and marketplace networks. The backbone network is made up of two core switches, two connected server switches, and five distribution switches. This infrastructure powers the organization’s home-grown applications and databases. The backbone network is connected to the marketplace network, which powers all auction bidding through numerous connections to in-person bidding devices and online bidding applications.

Visual TruView uses key data sets (including packet storage, application response time, transactional decode, NetFlow and SNMP) to highlight performance metrics through a single dashboard. The comprehensive overview of both network and application performance provides us with a clear picture of where issues originate across both our backbone and marketplace networks.

TruView tracks the networks and devices for all auction activities. It doesn’t make any difference what the issue is or where it originates, giving us immediate access across our entire infrastructure. The response-time savings are phenomenal.

We used Visual TruView to troubleshoot our delays between auctions. The solution monitored performance from the application data query across the network to the database and back. TruView immediately identified the database as the root cause, taking an extra second or two to process the query and respond. We optimized the database and fixed the problem without wasted effort scrutinizing the entire network and application since the issue was isolated immediately.

Visual TruView provides visibility into the our network, applications, and databases from a single solution so we don’t waste time unnecessarily pinpointing where issues originate. The result saves us two hours of accumulated delays each year, equaling €200,000 in annual savings, along with an improved image for our operations.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user70026 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Project Manager at a local government with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
TruView provides a high-level overview of what’s going on which enables us to address issues quickly

Recently, our government moved forward with a plan to combine two separate county councils into a single entity. One of the more complex tasks involved in the merger is the creation of a single, unified IT infrastructure for the county’s services and public-facing websites. The €1.8 million IT consolidation project includes the creation of a primary data center and disaster recovery site connecting to 57 remote county offices and sites over a variety of connections (point-to-point, VPN, private DSL, MPLS, etc.).

When completed, the network will include a mix of internal applications, public-facing websites and portals for services such as housing, water, roads, environment, planning and other key local government functions. In addition to standard business applications for communications, productivity, CRM and financial management, the network will also host some bandwidth intensive GIS and mapping applications. It will also support remote access and a variety of mobile services and applications.

Creating a single unified network across all of our county is a major undertaking. All of the merged authority’s back-end infrastructure will be located in the North of the county. As a result, all WAN services from the Southern part of the county are being relocated and re-terminated at a separate head end. Major sites in the south of the county will send traffic out through a switch core, up the point to point link to be dropped off in the primary data center core. About 800 users will be connecting to services hosted in the data center, of which approximately 450 will be from the southern part of the county.

The technical complexity of merging existing systems, applications and data was just one of my major concerns. We are especially conscious of the fact that users from the Southern part of the county are sensitive to performance issues in light of the division of labor and responsibility for the unified network. Being able to remotely diagnose and solve network and application problems is a priority.

We need a tool that can give us a complete picture of what is happening with applications, servers and the network across the entire county. Right now, we’re still building the network. But in the medium term, it’s important for us to be able to isolate the source of performance issues so we can get application problems on the desk of the applications team and network problems to the network team so they can address them quickly.

We chose the Fluke Networks Visual TruView appliance to provide the application and network performance monitoring we need. TruView leverages key data sets such as stream-to-disk packet storage, application response time, transactional decode, IPFIX (NetFlow), and SNMP to present analytics through a single reporting interface. As TruView processes analytics from these data sets, it time correlates the results providing cross-functional IT teams such as network engineering, application, and server teams with a new found ability to work more collaboratively and solve problems fast. We deployed TruView directly in our data center core.

With TruView you can get a high-level overview of what’s going on with a particular site or a particular application very quickly. It’s very easy to interpret. We can see which applications are having or causing problems. With our previous solution, it took much longer. And, of course, with TruView you can drill down into the data when you need to take a closer look.

I’ve been a user of Fluke Networks products for more than 12 years. We even had one of the earliest OptiView portable network monitoring devices which was extensively used across the network. So when it came time to choose a performance monitoring solution, I knew Fluke Networks could deliver.

We had no identified budget for a TruView appliance this year, but we could clearly see the benefits we could realise from deploying the solution. We managed to identify savings and re-prioritise some other projects within our budget in order to fund purchase of the TruView. We chose the TruView because it offered better value than the other performance monitoring solutions we saw.

Before deploying the TruView, performance monitoring was fairly manual. We’d used and were very familiar with NetFlow. With TruView, we have a much better view of application performance, particularly from the user perspective.

For example, we had an application response time issue with Exchange. TruView helped to isolate the particular server that was the root of the problem. As the launch of our unified network approaches, TruView has helped my team find “bits and pieces” of things that might have impacted application performance had they gone undetected.

Another recent example of practical use was an issue in which slow user logins were being reported from the southern end of the network. Using the TruView, within minutes we eliminated the point-to-point link, server side performance and end user response times and firmly diagnosed the issue to be local to the southern end of the network. This is exactly the type of scenario we knew the TruView could help us with. Prior to this it would have required an exhaustive search to figure out what exactly or where exactly the issue was.

As the launch of the new, unified network gets nearer I see TruView becoming even more useful. We’re looking forward to seeing how much more it can do. I don’t think we’ve taken full advantage of it yet.

Disclosure: PeerSpot has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.
PeerSpot user
it_user1020 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user1020Head of Data Center at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Vendor

Hi Dermont,

Thanks for sharing this information. With what you have shared, I think I'm really interested to give Truview a try and see what I'm missing with SW.

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PeerSpot user
Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
I've used WhatsUp Gold and this is one of the best SNMP/monitoring solutions I have seen.

Fluke Networks is a well known name when it comes to network testing hardware and devices. That being said, their Visual TruView monitoring software is top notch and one of the best SNMP/monitoring solutions I have seen.

I have used the competitors products in the past, namely WhatsUp Gold and others, and they don't even come close to offering what Fluke does with their product!

The way that TruView presents its information, via a HTML5 front-end applet with the visual and textual renditions of the data is superb, the dashboards are full featured and make it easily readable to even the entry level IT professionals. It helps you narrow down the problem areas quickly and efficiently, and drill in to fix the issue with little to no downtime.

From what little I've used this solution (I've only deployed it twice), it has quickly become my "go-to" for my clients when their in house IT needs a management solution, and especially when I am doing the management myself!

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user2652 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Vendor

This is the best tool when it comes to monitoring. It provides a user friendly GUI interface and alerts can also be configured to monitor the utilization and other network services.

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it_user111267 - PeerSpot reviewer
Tech Infrastructure Security Admin at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Helps our Network Team Respond to Potential Issues Before they Become Larger Ones.

Valuable Features:

Being able to track down network anomalies and problems quickly.

Improvements to My Organization:

Visual TruView helped our network team respond to potential issues before they became larger ones.

Room for Improvement:

Nothing comes to mind, it's a great product.

Use of Solution:

I've been using Visual TruView for 1 year now.

Deployment Issues:

No, we haven't experienced any issues.

Customer Service:

Good to excellent

Initial Setup:

I didn't set it up. However, I heard it was pretty straightforward.

Implementation Team:

I believe it was a combination of vendor and in-house.

Other Advice:

It is a great product and will help you save time trying to find out where the issues are in the network.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user