Wireless Tracking

To get started with wireless device tracking, you’ll need to create a network endpoint database. If you’re starting from scratch, use the SolarWinds Platform Discovery Wizard to enable the devices you want to monitor for SNMP and enable Windows devices for WMI. We recommend starting with a limited number of endpoints for the first discovery scan to make it easier to filter through devices you’ll want UDT to monitor automatically. To initiate a discovery scan and start your inventory database, follow these steps:

1. Click Settings > Network Discovery > Add New Discovery > Start.
2. Go to the Network panel and add a limited number of IP addresses. After your first scan, filter through devices using IP ranges, subnets, IP addresses, and Active Directory.
3. To find ESX hosts and VMware vCenter, go to the Virtualization panel and check Poll for VMware, then Add vCenter or ESX Credential. Select <new credential> and input the prompted information.
4. The Agents panel may appear if you opted for the Quality of Experience (QoE) agent while installing the SolarWinds Platform. If you’d like packet-level traffic monitoring, configure your agent settings here.
5. On the Configuration panel, you can add SSH or Telnet credentials to perform backup and restoration processes.
6. On the SNMP and Windows panels, add new credentials for WMI, RPC-enabled, and non-Windows devices.
7. Select the manual setup option on the Monitoring Settings panel to review the list of found endpoints and choose the specific devices you want to monitor.
8. To launch the discovery process, go to the Discovery Settings pane, click Next, and accept the default frequency.

If you already have another SolarWinds solution installed with a customized node database, simply go to Settings in UDT > All Settings > Manage Ports > Show Nodes. Filter to UDT Unmonitored Nodes, choose what nodes you want to track, and select Monitor Node with UDT to integrate your existing database.

UDT harnesses SSID filtering to help locate the wireless endpoints linked to your network. Head to the All Nodes list from the SolarWinds Platform Summary Dashboard, then click on the relevant SSID. Details about the selected device will be displayed.

From here, you can view Current Endpoint Connections and All Endpoint Connections. If the device you had in mind isn’t listed, you can search by hostname, MAC address, or IP address through these widgets. This way, no device is left out of your wireless tracking checklist.

Tracing IP addresses to domain names becomes a breeze with UDT. Be advised UDT doesn’t have DNS resolution enabled by default, so you’ll have to configure this using the SolarWinds Platform Web Console. Click Settings > All Settings > Polling Settings. Find the Wireless tab, then input the value 1 in the Reverse DNS Timeout field. Select Submit and restart the entire console to activate the new setting.

For granular insight with an organized overview, UDT offers detailed widgets displaying critical information about all nodes and endpoint devices. This gives you complete control and visibility for all your wireless tracking needs. UDT updates you on everything you need to know about your network, including the following:

• All UDT Nodes: Lists all the nodes with at least one device enabled for UDT monitoring. You can view the status of each node, its name, and the ports associated with the node for detailed endpoint tracking oversight.
• Total Ports Currently Used: Displays a pie chart summary of the number and percentages of available and occupied ports.
• Top 10 Nodes by Percent Ports Use: Shows the nodes with the most ports used, including the number of ports used and available.
• Ethernet Ports Used Over Time: Allows you to see Ethernet port usage over a custom time period, over the last seven days, or over the last 30 days.
• Last 25 Events: Informs you of each monitored device's top 25 most recent events. However, you can customize the number of events to your preference.
• Rogue Devices: Lists all suspicious and unauthorized devices that have connected to your network. You can also manage your white list and create a watch list to locate these devices and elevate your wireless device tracking settings.
• Device Watch List: To enable more targeted wireless device tracking, you can use this widget to create a list of usernames, hostnames, and IP or MAC addresses and quickly view real-time details for optimal endpoint tracking.

Aside from extensive wireless device tracking, UDT allows you to integrate SolarWinds IP Address Manager (IPAM) to unify existing endpoint lists and maintain end-to-end visibility on the most important devices for your network. If your IPAM instance is updated to version 4.3 or higher and your UDT instance runs at version 3.2, the two software platforms will automatically complete the integration process for you.

For the best of both worlds, IPAM and UDT are available together in the IP Control Bundle, which allows you to drill down on port and user information, associated devices, connection histories, endpoint conflicts, and more via IP address. The IP Control Bundle also provides automatic alerting features and detailed logging capabilities, giving you the data you need to investigate and resolve IP conflicts. Protect your network from problematic devices through remote shutdown and port switches to keep your network running as it should.