Device Topology Map

Docs > Network Monitoring > Network Device Monitoring > Device Topology Map

Overview

The Network Device Topology Map provides an overview of your network’s physical connections, so you can more easily identify issues in your devices and understand their upstream and downstream impacts.

Setup

The Datadog Agent version 7.52 and later automatically collects topology data. No additional installation is necessary.

Prerequisites

Devices have LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol) and/or CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) enabled with SNMP. Use the same protocol on connected devices so that they can discover each other. LLDP is generally preferred as it is a more common option.
Datadog Agent version 7.52 or later is installed.

In the Network Topology Map, the following navigation options are available:

View

In View By, use tags to select how you want to visualize devices:

Color

Under Color By, change how nodes on the Device Topology Map are colored based on:

Device State: Display nodes on the Device Topology Map by SNMP reachability.
Ping State: Display nodes on the Device Topology Map by Ping status.

The navigation option, with view by color selected, highlighting view by device state

The following are the definitions of the nodes for each color state:

Color	Description
Green	Device is reachable.
Red	Issue with device, such as unreachable through SNMP.
Gray	Device is monitored by NDM; however, no data has been received. For example, if the ping wasn’t configured and you opted to `color by` Ping State in the Device Topology Map, the devices are displayed in gray.
No color	Shadow devices that are not directly monitored by NDM, but are discoverable through LLDP/CDP from a connected device that NDM is monitoring. You can toggle on/off the Hide N unmonitored device section if you want these devices to be shown on the Device Topology Map.

Filter devices

Under Filter Devices, gain further granular control over what devices are shown on the Device Topology Map.

The navigation option, with view filer option selected, toggling by hide unmonitored devices

Note: The Filter Devices setting impacts what devices are shown on the Device Topology Map for all queries you might make. For example, if you filter by a device facet in the search bar.

Hide N Unmonitored Devices - Turned OFF by default.: Toggling this on hides devices on the Device Topology Map that are not directly monitored by Network Device Monitoring, but still discovered by LLDP/CDP, and shown on the map from adjacent devices that are monitored by Network Device Monitoring.
Hide N Unconnected Devices - Turned OFF by default.: Toggling this on hides any devices that have no link connections. Devices can be unconnected for reasons such as improper configuration, or the device does not support LLDP/CDP.

Icon legend

SNMP devices are matched to a representative icon based on their device type in each device node, as defined in their device profiles.

Icon	Description
	Access Point
	Firewall
	Router
	Server
	Switch
	Device

Investigating devices

In addition to providing an overview of your network’s physical connections, you can investigate individual devices to understand their connections, flows, and overall status. Hovering over a device displays its overall status and key metrics. You can also click on a device to see the following options:

Inspect

Choose Inspect to see the device’s interface connections. Click on any of the connected interfaces for further investigation. This view shows only the physical interfaces that are actually connected to another device. This means that it shows a subset of the total set of interfaces of a network device.

View device details

Choose View device details to see information such as the device’s IP address and tags, as well as data related to throughput, CPU, and memory.

From this view, you can also view the device’s connected interfaces in the Connected Interfaces tab.

The View device details tab of an individual device with the Interfaces tab selected

View flow details

Choose View flow details to open the NetFlow tab filtered by the device’s @device.ip for a detailed exploration of the device’s sources, destinations, and volume. See the NetFlow Monitoring page for more information.

Troubleshooting

If you experience issues using the Network Topology Map, use the following troubleshooting guidelines. If you need further assistance, contact Datadog support.

Missing topology data message box

The missing topology data message that is displayed when the rendered map has no links

This message is displayed when the rendered map has no links.

Note: Since the “Hide N Unconnected Devices” toggle is enabled by default, this message displays with an empty map.

Empty map message

The no devices found message that is displayed when NDM is either not configured or because of filtering.

There are no devices because NDM is not configured.

No connections found / No connected devices to show

Turn the “Hide N Unconnected Devices” toggle off to show the isolated devices.
Use categorization tag to help understand your map view with information hierarchy.

Empty map/ no monitored devices

Ensure the “Hide N Unconnected Devices” toggle is off.

Missing devices/connections

The Device Topology Map data is based on LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol) and CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) information collected with SNMP. If your map is missing devices and/or connections, ensure the following:

Datadog Agent version 7.52 or later is installed.
Devices have LLDP and/or CDP enabled with SNMP.

Verify that your devices are exposing LLDP and CDP data with the following commands:

For LLDP data:

sudo -u dd-agent datadog-agent snmp walk <DEVICE_IP> 1.0.8802

For CDP data

sudo -u dd-agent datadog-agent snmp walk <DEVICE_IP> 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.23

Missing connections or links

If your device is exposing topology data with LLDP or CDP but some of the connections are missing, ensure that the “Hide N Unmonitored Devices” toggle is off. If you are using tags to filter nodes on the map, ensure the “Show one hop away on filter” toggle is on to see the connected nodes.

Un-monitored devices showing on map

The Device Topology Map shows all devices discovered with LLDP or CDP. These can be new devices that are not already monitored with SNMP or existing devices that were not resolved to the equivalent monitored device. You can use the “Hide N Unmonitored Devices” toggle to hide these nodes.

Device duplicated on map

The Device Topology Map shows all devices discovered with LLDP and/or CDP. In some cases, these devices are already monitored with SNMP but can not be resolved to the equivalent monitored device. In this case, the device is shown twice: one node representing the monitored device and one node representing the LLDP/CDP discovered device. Use the “Hide N Unmonitored Devices” toggle to hide the unmonitored nodes.

Borderless or black nodes on the map

The borderless or black nodes on the Device Topology Map can represent devices discovered with LLDP or CDP that are not configured to be monitored with NDM, or devices discovered with LLDP or CDP that can not be resolved to the equivalent monitored device.

Device resolution

The Device Topology Map provides an overview of the devices monitored with NDM and their physical connections. The topology links data is based on LLDP (Link Layer Discovery Protocol) or CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) information collected with SNMP. The connections discovered with LLDP or CDP can correspond to devices already monitored with SNMP. The device resolution consists in matching the discovered device to the monitored device.

Device resolution failures

The device resolution can fail if the device is not monitored with NDM, or the LLDP or CDP data is insufficient to match the discovered device to the monitored device.