Network Mapping and Visualization

Overview

Gain complete visibility into your infrastructure with dynamic network mapping and real-time visualization across hybrid networks.

To understand and maintain a complex network, you need to see how the different parts of your network infrastructure fit together and interact.

Network Mapping and Visualization guides you through using SecureTrack to:

  • Visualize your network topology, and keep it accurate and up-to-date

  • Understand how different parts of the network relate to and interact with each other

  • Gain clear visibility into connectivity and dependencies across environments: on-premises, cloud, and hybrid

Why this matters

An up-to-date topology gives you confidence and control over your network, helping you:

  • Understand network connectivity at a glance

  • Make informed decisions about network design and optimization

  • Reduce the time spent troubleshooting and analyzing disconnected components

  • Deliver accurate end-to-end visibility of network infrastructure for ongoing maintenance and topology updates

  • Simplify capacity planning, and evaluating impact of changes

  • Empower data-driven network design and optimization decisions

Who this is for

  • Network engineers responsible for maintaining and updating network topology

  • System administrators responsible for maintaining device visibility and continuous sync health and

  • Cloud engineers validating hybrid network representation.

Key capabilities

Network mapping and visualization leverages key features in SecureTrack to provide network mapping and visualization:

Prerequisites

Step 1: Visualize network topology

The first step is to visualize monitored devices and the subnets they are connected to in a dynamic topology map.

Use SecureTrack's Mapto view a live diagram of your environment.

Visualize network topology

Select Map to view your network topology. Explore the layout and options available.
You can pan, zoom, explore devices, and review how everything is connected.

See Explore the topology map.

View device details

Click a device to display information in the Info panel. The information helps you quickly understand what a device is, where it is, and what you can do with it.

  • Click the expand icon if present to view additional information on the device.

  • Click the context menu to view the actions available for the device.

See View device details.

Step 2: Customize Map views

The default Map view displays all network devices. You may need a more structured, uncluttered view of your topology map by creating personalized topology layouts of network devices.

  • Use Map's View by options to create a clear, intentional representation of your network. Toggle between predefined view options and the custom views you define to see how network devices are clustered.

    • Ungrouped view: The default, unfiltered view of all devices.

    • Domain view: Devices grouped by the domain in which they are deployed.

    • Custom view: Devices grouped into Custom Groups created according to criteria meaningful to you, such as device type, region, function, or owner. You can save and share custom views across teams for efficient reuse.

See:

Map views

Creating and Managing Custom Groups for Viewing Devices

Step 3: Join clouds to connect devices

Your network topology can include devices not monitored by SecureTrack. In cloud or hybrid environments, these devices often appear as unmonitored clouds. When such clouds represent connected parts of the network, you can join them to create paths between subnets and connect devices.

This step is especially important when you know that two areas of the network communicate, but the topology map does not yet show the connection.

  • Use Map's Join Clouds to link unmonitored clouds. Joining Clouds fills gaps in the topology, creates accurate paths between subnets, and ensures the map reflects actual network connectivity.

See Join Clouds.

Step 4: Identify and resolve Islands

Your topology map can show isolated parts of the network. These parts represent disconnected areas of your topology—Islands—indicating missing devices or incomplete data.

In this step, you'll identity the reasons for Islands, and use Join Clouds to resolve connectivity using the following process.

Check for cloud representation

Check the list of cloud IPs by clicking Cloud:

  • If the IP belongs to a device you do manage, simply update the device configuration through SecureTrack's Manage Devices.

  • If there are several unmanaged clouds, continue with Generate Cloud Suggestions.

Generate Cloud Suggestions

If you identify several unmanaged islands, generate Cloud Suggestions to analyze route data for specific cloud devices.
Export these suggestions to a CSV file for offline analysis or sharing.

See Generate and view Cloud Suggestions.

Integrate devices based on Cloud Suggestions

After generating Cloud Suggestions, you have different options to integrate devices based on what the suggestions represent.

The goal is to give SecureTrack enough information to accurately integrate these islands into your topology map.

  • Managed devices: Integrate it as any standard device

  • Unmanaged cloud-provider devices: Use Join Cloud.

  • SD-WAN unmanaged links: Create a Generic Device.

See:

Add devices for monitoring

Add and update a generic device

Regenerate Cloud Suggestions

After integrating devices, regenerate Generate Cloud Suggestions. Repeat the process until there are no more islands to connect.

Step 5: Set topology sync schedule and scope

Once your topology is accurate, keep it up to date by scheduling automated sync, and the scope of the sync.

Set sync schedule

Use Map's Topology Settings to specify the topology sync schedule. By default, SecureTrack runs an automated sync weekly at 3:00 AM.

See Topology sync schedule.

Set sync scope

In addition to the sync schedule, you can also select the type of sync to rebuild the topology, ensuring that your map evolves with your network.

Use:

  • Quick sync: Rebuild topology using existing data

  • Full sync: Retrieve current information from devices for the most accurate sync

See Topology sync scope.

 

Step 6: Run TOS Discovery (for Cisco devices)

If your environment includes Cisco devices, run TOS Discovery to automatically discover devices not monitored by SecureTrack.

See TOS discovery.

What's next

Understand, diagnose, and optimize traffic flows in your network with the Network Path Analysis and Troubleshooting use case.