ExtraHop System User Guide

About this guide

This guide provides information about the ExtraHop system for the ExtraHop Discover and Command appliances.

The purpose of this guide is to help users understand the ExtraHop system architecture and functionality as well as learn how to operate the controls, fields, and options available throughout the system.

Additional resources are available through the following links:

Contact us

We value your feedback.

Please let us know how we can improve this document. Send your comments or suggestions to documentation@extrahop.com.

If you need additional help, please contact ExtraHop Support. at or visit the ExtraHop Customer Support Portal at https://customers.extrahop.com/.

Email: support@extrahop.com

Support Portal Website: https://customers.extrahop.com/

Telephone:

  • 877-333-9872 (US)
  • +44 (0)203 7016850 (EMEA)
  • +65-31585513 (APAC)

Introduction to the ExtraHop system

The ExtraHop system provides a comprehensive network detection and response solution for security threats and IT operations. You can monitor how services and devices interact with each other and how transactions flow across the data link layer (L2) to the application layer (L7) in your network. You can also perform threat hunting to look for indicators of compromise within network traffic.

This guide explains how the ExtraHop system collects and analyzes your data and how the core system components and functionalities help you access detections, metrics, transactions, and packets about the traffic on your network. Each section also provides links to additional relevant resources about the feature.

Platform Architecture

The ExtraHop system is customized with modular components that combine to satisfy your unique environmental needs.

Solutions

Reveal(x) Enterprise
Reveal(x) Enterprise is a self-managed solution that comprises sensors, consoles, packetstores, recordstores, and access to ExtraHop Cloud Services.

Reveal(x) 360
Reveal(x) 360 is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that comprises sensors and packetsores and includes a cloud-based recordstore, a console, and access to ExtraHop Cloud Services. The type of sensors and packetstores are determined by subscription level.

Components

Each solution offers a set of components based on your environmental needs: sensors, packetstores, recordstores, and a console for centralized management and unified data views.

Packet sensors
Packet sensors capture, store, and analyze metric data about your network. Multiple levels of data analysis, collection, and storage are available by sensor size. These sensors are available as physical, virtual, and cloud-based options in sizes that are based on your analysis needs.
Flow sensors
Flow sensors are available for Reveal(x) 360 Standard subscriptions only and exclusively collect VPC flow logs so that you can see traffic managed by AWS SaaS services.
Packetstores
Packetstores integrate with sensors and consoles to provide continuous packet capture and sufficient storage for deeper investigations and forensic needs. Packetstores can be deployed as standalone physical or virtual options and are included with the Ultra subscription for Reveal(x) 360.
Recordstores
Recordstores integrate with sensors and consoles to store transaction and flow records that can be queried from throughout the ExtraHop system. Recordstores can be deployed as standalone physical or virtual options, supported as third-party connections to Splunk or BiqQuery from Reveal(x) Enterprise, and are included in Premium and Ultra subscriptions for Reveal(x) 360.
Consoles
Consoles provide a browser-based interface that provides a command center for all connected components. Consoles can be deployed as standalone virtual or cloud-based options for Reveal(x) Enterprise and are included in subscriptions for Reveal(x) 360.

The following table provides an overview of the options available for each solution.

ExtraHop Cloud Services

ExtraHop Cloud Services automatically updates sensors with new detections and critical threat intelligence, and feature enhancements, and enables access for your account teams for remote support and professional services.

Smart Sensor Analytics

The ExtraHop system offers a browser-based interface with tools that enable you to explore and visualize data, investigate findings in both top-down and bottom-up workflows, and customize how you collect, view, and share your network data. Advanced users can automate and script both administrative and user tasks through the ExtraHop REST API and customize data collection through the ExtraHop Trigger API, which is a JavaScript IDE tool.

At the core of the ExtraHop system is a smart sensor that captures, stores, and analyzes metric data about your networkā€”and offers different levels of data analysis, collection, and storage based on your needs. Sensors are provisioned with storage that supports 30 days of metric lookback. Note that actual lookback varies by traffic patterns, transaction rates, the number of endpoints, and the number of active protocols.

Consoles act as a command center with connections to multiple sensors, recordstores, and packetstores that are distributed across data centers and branch offices. All Reveal(x) 360 deployments include a console; Reveal(x) Enterprise can deploy virtual or cloud variations.

Consoles provide unified data views across all your sites and enable you to sync certain advanced configurations (such as triggers and alerts) and settings (tuning parameters, analysis priorities, and recordstores).

The following sections describe the major functional components of the ExtraHop system and how they work together.

Sensor Types

The type of sensor you deploy determines the type of data that is collected, stored, and analyzed.

Wire data

Packet sensors passively observe unstructured packets through a port mirror or tap and store the data in the local datastore. The packet data goes through real-time stream processing that transforms the packets into structured wire data through the following stages:

  1. TCP state machines are recreated to perform full-stream reassembly.
  2. Packets are collected and grouped into flows.
  3. The structured data is analyzed and processed in the following ways:
    • Transactions are identified.
    • Devices are automatically discovered and classified by their activity.
    • Metrics are generated and associated with protocols and sources, and the metric data is then aggregated into metric cycles.
  4. As new metrics are generated and stored, and the datastore becomes full, the oldest existing metrics are overwritten according to the first-in first-out (FIFO) principle.
Flow data

A flow is a set of packets that are part of a single connection between two endpoints. Flow sensors are available for Reveal(x) 360 and offer continuous network visibility based on VPC flow logs to help secure AWS environments. VPC flow logs enable you to capture information about the IP traffic going to and from network interfaces in your VPC and are recorded as flow log records, which are log events that consist of fields that describe the traffic flow. This log data enables you to search for threats with advanced machine-learning detections.

Flow logs are ingested, deduplicated, and then grouped into flows. The flows are then enriched with data (such as MAC addresses) queried from AWS EC2 APIs.

The flows are then analyzed and processed in the following ways:

  • Devices are automatically discovered and classified by their activity observed over specific ports.
  • Basic L2-L4 metrics are generated and aggregated into metric cycles.
  • ExFlow record types are generated and published.

Metrics, Records, and Packets

ExtraHop sensors collect and store multiple depths of network interaction as metrics. Metrics are aggregated observations about endpoint interactions over time. Packetstores collect and store the raw data transferred between two endpoints as packets. Recordstores collect and store records, which are structured information about transaction, message, and network flows.

You can view and query all of these interactions from individual sensors or from a console that is connected to a complex deployment of sensors, packetstores, and recordstores.

For example, when a client sends an HTTP request to a web server, here is what each data type contains:

  • The packet contains the raw data that was sent and received in the interaction.
  • The related record contains the time-stamped metadata about the interaction: when the request happened, the IP address of the client and server, the requested URI, any error messages.
  • The related metric (HTTP Requests) contains an aggregate of that interaction with other observed interactions during the specified time period, such as how many requests occurred, how many of those requests were successful, how many clients sent requests, and how many servers received the requests.

Both metrics and records can be customized to extract and store specific metadata with JavaScript-based triggers. While the ExtraHop system has over 4600 built-in metrics, you might want to create a custom metric that collects and aggregates 404 errors from only critical web servers. And, you might want to maximize your record storage space by only collecting transactions that occurred over a suspicious port.

Device discovery

After a device is discovered, the ExtraHop system begins to collect metrics based on the analysis level configured for that device. You can Find a device by their MAC address, IP address, or name (such as a hostname observed from DNS traffic, NetBIOS name, Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) name, DHCP name, or a custom name that you assigned to the device).

The ExtraHop system can discover and track devices by their MAC address (L2 Discovery) or by their IP addresses (L3 Discovery). L2 Discovery offers the advantage of tracking metrics for a device even if the IP address is changed or reassigned through a DHCP request. By default, the ExtraHop system is configured for L2 Discovery.

Device IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are discovered from Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages, Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) responses, local broadcasts, or local subnet multicast traffic. The MAC address and IP address for devices appear in search results throughout the system with the device information.

L2 Discovery

In L2 Discovery, the ExtraHop system creates a device entry for every local MAC address discovered over the wire. IP addresses are mapped to the MAC address, but metrics are stored with the device MAC address even if the IP address changes.

IP addresses observed outside of locally-monitored broadcast domains are aggregated at one of the incoming routers in your network. If a device sends a DHCP request through a router acting as a DHCP relay agent, the ExtraHop system detects and maps the IP address to the device MAC address. If the IP address changes for the device with a subsequent request through the DHCP relay agent, the ExtraHop system updates its mapping and continues to keep track of the device metrics by the MAC address.

Both MAC address and IP address are discovered for the remote device.

If a DHCP relay agent is not configured, remote devices can be discovered by their IP addresses through Remote L3 Discovery.

L3 Discovery

In L3 Discovery, the ExtraHop system creates and links two entries for each local discovered device: an L2 parent entry with a MAC address and an L3 child entry with IP addresses and the MAC address.

Here are some important considerations about L3 discovery:

  • If a router has proxy ARP enabled, the ExtraHop system creates an L3 device for each IP address that the router answers ARP requests for.
  • If you have a proxy ARP configured in your network, the ExtraHop system might automatically discover remote devices.
  • L2 metrics that cannot be associated with a particular L3 child device (for example, L2 broadcast traffic) are associated with the L2 parent device.
Remote L3 Discovery

If the ExtraHop system detects an IP address that does not have associated ARP or NDP traffic, that device is considered a remote device. Remote devices are not automatically discovered, but you can add a remote IP address range and discover devices that are outside of the local network. A device entry is created for each IP address that is observed within the remote IP address range. (Remote devices do not have L2 parent entries.)

Only the IP address is discovered for the remote device.

Here are some recommendations about when to configure Remote L3 Discovery:

  • Your client devices are on a network segment that is not directly tapped.
  • Your organization has a remote office without an on-site ExtraHop system but users at that site access central data center resources that are directly monitored by an ExtraHop system. The IP addresses at the remote site can be discovered as devices.
  • A cloud service or other type of off-site service hosts your remote applications and has a known IP address range. The remote servers within this IP address range can be individually tracked.
VPN Discovery
VPN Discovery enables the ExtraHop system to correlate the private, RFC-1918 IP addresses assigned to VPN clients with their public, external IP addresses. This enriched visibility into north-south traffic reduces barriers when investigating security incidents and performance issues that involve external VPN clients. (This feature requires a VPN gateway that is manually assigned by the user.)

Software frame deduplication

The ExtraHop system removes duplicate L2 and L3 frames and packets when metrics are collected and aggregated from your network activity by default. L2 deduplication removes identical Ethernet frames (where the Ethernet header and the entire IP packet must match); L3 deduplication removes TCP or UDP packets with identical IP ID fields on the same flow (where only the IP packet must match).

The ExtraHop system checks for duplicates and removes only the immediately-previous packet both on the flow (for L3 deduplication) or globally (for L2 deduplication) if the duplicate arrives within 1 millisecond of the original packet.

By default, the same packet traversing different VLANs is removed by L3 deduplication. In addition, packets must have the same length and the same IP ID, and TCP packets also must have the same TCP checksum.

L2 duplication usually only exists if the exact same packet is seen through the data feed, which is typically related to an issue with port mirroring. L3 duplication is often the result of mirroring the same traffic across multiple interfaces of the same router, which can show up as extraneous TCP retransmissions in the ExtraHop system.

The System Health page contains charts that display L2 and L3 duplicate packets that were removed by the ExtraHop system. Deduplication works across 10Gbps ports by default and across 1Gbps ports if software RSS is enabled. L3 deduplication currently is supported only for IPv4, not IPv6.

Threat Detection

The ExtraHop system offers both machine-learning and rules-based detections that identify active or potential threats, network weaknesses that are vulnerable to exploits, and suboptimal configurations that can degrade network performance.

Additionally, charts, visualizations, and device activity maps enable proactive threat hunting.

Detection Tuning
Reduce noise and surface only critical detections by adding details about your network that help identify known parameters such as trusted domains and vulnerability scanners.

Additionally, you can create tuning rules that hide specific detections or participants and further reduce unwanted noise.

Network Locality
By default, any device with an RFC1918 IP address (included in a 10/8, 172.16/12, or 192.168/16 CIDR block) is classified on the system as an internal device.

However, because some network environments include non-RFC1918 IP addresses as part of their internal network, you can change the internal or external classification for IP addresses from the Network Localities page.

Threat Intelligence
The ExtraHop system includes a curated threat intelligence feed that is updated through the cloud as new threats are discovered. You can also add threat collections from a third-party or through partner integrations with ExtraHop Reveal(x) 360.
Threat Briefings
Threat briefings provide information about imminent threats that are targeting networks. Updated detections, targeted record and packet queries, and affected devices are presented as a starting point for your investigation, accessed from the Security Overview page.
Integrations
Reveal(x) 360 provides several third-party integrations that can enhance detection and response management and provide better visibility into network traffic.
Microsoft Protocol Decryption
Enable decryption of Microsoft protocol traffic and improve detection of security attacks within your Microsoft Windows environment. ExtraHop Reveal(x) 360 synchronizes encryption keys with Windows domain controllers to decrypt and analyze network traffic over protocols such as LDAP, RPC, SMB, and WSMan.
CrowdStrike
Import threat intelligence from CrowdStrike Falcon X into the ExtraHop system to detect and annotate indicators of compromise in your environment. You can also easily navigate from assets in the ExtraHop system that are running CrowdStrike to the CrowdStrike Falcon console.
Microsoft 365 (Beta)
Import Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory detections and events into the ExtraHop system. You can also monitor Microsoft 365 metrics in built-in dashboards and view risk event details in records.
Splunk
Export and view ExtraHop detections in your Splunk SIEM.
QRadar
Export and view ExtraHop detections in your QRadar SIEM.

The ExtraHop system provides access to network activity data and detection details through a dynamic and highly customizable user interface.

This guide provides an overview of the global navigation and controls, fields, and options available throughout the system. See Introduction to the ExtraHop system to learn how the ExtraHop system collects and analyzes your data.

Supported browsers

The following browsers are compatible with all ExtraHop systems. Apply the accessibility and compatibility features provided by your browser to access content through assistive technology tools.

  • Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Safari
Important:Internet Explorer 11 is no longer supported. We recommend that you install the latest version of any supported browser.

Layout and menus

Global navigation elements are located at the top of the page and contain links to the main sections of the system. Within each section, the left pane contains links to specific pages or data.

The following figure shows both global and left pane navigation elements.



Here are definitions of each global navigation element:

Overview pages
Overview pages enable you to quickly evaluate the scope of suspicious activity on your network, learn about protocol activity and device connections, and investigate inbound and outbound traffic on your network.
  • View the Security Overview for information about security detections on your network.
  • View the Network Overview for information about active devices on your network.
  • View the Perimeter Overview for information about traffic traveling in and out of your network.
Dashboards
Click Dashboards to view, create, or share dashboards for monitoring any aspect of your network or applications. System dashboards give you an instant view of the activity and potential security threats on your network.
Alerts
Click Alerts to view information about each alert generated during the time interval.
Detections
If your packet or flow sensor is connected to the ExtraHop Machine Learning Service, the top level navigation shows the Detections menu. Click Detections to view detections identified from your wire data. You can access stored detections even if your sensor is disconnected from the Machine Learning Service.
Note:Machine learning detections require a connection to ExtraHop Cloud Services.
Assets
Click Assets to find any application, network, or device discovered by the ExtraHop system. You can view protocol metrics for your assets, active users, or network activity by protocol.
Records
If your ExtraHop system is configured with a recordstore, the top level navigation shows the Records menu. Click Records to query for all stored records for the current time interval. Records are structured information about transactions, messages, and network flows.
Packets
If your ExtraHop system is configured with a packetstore, the top level navigation shows the Packets menu. Click Packets to query for all stored packets for the current time interval.
Global search field
Type the name of any device hostname or IP address, application, or network to find a match on your sensor or console. If you have a connected recordstore, you can search for saved records. If you have a connected packetstore, you can search for packets.
Help icon
See help information for the page that you are currently viewing. To access the most current and comprehensive set of ExtraHop documentation, visit the ExtraHop Documentation website.
System Settings icon
Access system configuration options, such as Triggers, Alerts, Scheduled Reports, and Custom Devices. Click to view the ExtraHop system and version and view system notices.
User option icon
Log in and log out of your sensor or console, change your password, and access API options.
Pane toggle
Collapse or expand the left pane.
Global Time Selector
Change the time interval to view application and network activity that was observed by the ExtraHop system for a specific time period. The global time interval is applied to all metrics across the system and does not change as you navigate to different pages.
Recent pages
See a list of the most recent pages you visited in a drop-down menu and make a selection to go back to a previous page. Repeated pages are deduplicated and condensed to save space.
Navigation path
View where you are in the system and click a page name in the path to navigate back to that page.
Command menu drop-down
Click to access specific actions for the page you are viewing. For example, when you click Dashboards at the top of the page, the command menu provides actions for changing dashboard properties or creating a new dashboard.

Start analyzing data

Begin your data analysis journey with the ExtraHop system by following the basic workflows listed below. As you become familiar with the ExtraHop system, you can complete more advanced tasks, such as installing bundles and building triggers.

Here are some basic ways to navigate and work with the ExtraHop system to analyze network activity.

Monitor metrics and investigate interesting data
A good starting point is the Activity dashboard, which shows you a summary of important metrics about application performance on your network. When you see a spike in traffic, errors, or server processing time, you can interact with dashboard data to drill down and identify which clients, servers, methods, or other factors contributed to the unusual activity.

You can then continue performance monitoring or troubleshooting by creating a custom dashboard to track a set of interesting metrics and devices.

Check out the following walkthroughs to learn more about monitoring data in dashboards:

Search for a specific device and investigate related metrics and transactions
If you want to investigate a slow server, you can search for the server in the ExtraHop system by device name or IP address and then investigate the server's activity on a protocol page. Was there a spike in response errors or requests? Was server processing time too high or did network latency affect the rate of data transfer? Click on different protocols on the Devices page to investigate more metric data collected by the ExtraHop system. Drill down by peer IP addresses to see which clients or applications the server talked to.

If your ExtraHop system is connected to a recordstore, you can investigate entire transactions that the server participated in by creating a record query.

Check out the following walkthroughs to learn more about exploring metrics and records:

Get visibility into changes to your network by searching for protocol activity
You can get a top-down view of your network by looking at built-in protocol groups. An protocol group is a collection of devices automatically grouped together by the ExtraHop system based on the protocol traffic observed over the wire. For example, you can find new or decommissioned servers that are actively communicating over a protocol by creating an activity map.

If you find a collection of devices that you want to continue monitoring, you can add a device tag or custom device name to make those devices easier to find in the ExtraHop system. You can also create a custom device group or a custom dashboard to monitor device group activity.

Advanced workflows for customizing your ExtraHop system

After becoming familiar with basic workflows, you can customize your ExtraHop system by setting up alert notifications, creating custom metrics, or installing bundles.

Set up alerts
Alerts track specified metrics to notify you of traffic deviations that might indicate an issue with a network device. Configure a threshold alert to notify you when a monitored metric crosses a defined value. Configure a trend alert to notify you when a monitored metric deviates from the normal trends observed by the system.
Install a bundle to enhance ExtraHop features and integrations
Bundles are a saved set of system configurations that can be uploaded to an ExtraHop system. Check out the following popular bundles:

Install a bundle on your ExtraHop system, or create a bundle that you can share with others.

Build a trigger to create custom metrics and applications
Triggers are custom scripts that perform an action upon a pre-defined event. Triggers require planning to make sure a trigger doesn't negatively impact system performance.

Check out the following walkthroughs to learn more about exploring metrics and records:

Access keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts help you quickly navigate across the ExtraHop system and manage dashboards with a few keystrokes.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Type one of the following keyboard combinations:
    Keyboard combinations Action
    ? Show or hide the keyboard shortcuts help menu
    G then S Go to Dashboards
    G then A Go to Alerts
    G then P Go to Application metrics
    G then N Go to Network metrics
    G then D Go to Device metrics
    G then G Go to Protocol metrics
    / Global search
    O then H Toggle recent pages
    J Select the next item in recent pages
    K Select the previous item in recent pages
    O then M Open Metric Explorer
    G then E Go to System Settings
    G then T Go to Triggers
    G then H Open Help
    O then Q View system information
    CTRL+S Save widget configuration
    O then L Toggle Edit Layout Mode
    O then P Show Dashboard Properties
    C then D Copy the current dashboard
    D then D Delete the current dashboard
    O then S Toggle Descriptions
    CTRL+SHIFT+F Toggle Presentation Mode
    N then D Create a new dashboard
    N then F Create a new folder
    O then D Toggle Edit Dock
    P then P Print or Export to PDF
    S then R Open Scheduled Reports (Consoles only)
    CTRL+Click or Command+Click Open certain links to pages and views in a new browser tab. This function does not work from certain context menus and list widgets. You can also open pages in a new tab through your browser menus where applicable.

Manage dashboards with keyboard shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts only apply to dashboards.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Type one of the following keyboard combinations:
    Keyboard combinations Action
    O then L Toggle edit layout mode
    O then P Show dashboard properties
    C then D Copy the current dashboard
    D then D Delete the current dashboard
    O then S Toggle descriptions
    CTRL+Up Arrow+F Toggle presentation mode
    N then D Create a new dashboard
    N then F Create a new folder
    O then D Toggle dock edit mode

Time intervals

The Time Selector is displayed in the top-left corner of the navigation bar and controls the global time interval for metrics and detections displayed in the ExtraHop system.

Here are some considerations about time intervals:

  • The Time Selector enables you to select a relative global time interval, such as the last day, or set a custom time range.
  • The selected time interval stays the same, whether viewing metrics in a dashboard or investigating detections, until you change the interval or navigate to a page with a preset time interval, such as detection details or threat briefings.
  • If a relative time interval is selected when you log out, the ExtraHop system defaults to that relative time interval when you log back in.
  • If a custom time range is selected when you log out, the ExtraHop system defaults to the last relative time interval you viewed during the previous login session.
  • You can access the five most recent unique time intervals from the History tab of the Time Selector.
  • The time interval is included at the end of the URL in your browser. To share a link with others that maintains a specific time interval, copy the entire URL. To maintain a specific time interval after logging out of the ExtraHop system, bookmark the URL.
  • The time interval associated with the collection and presentation of network data is determined by your local NTP server by default. You can change the system time in the ExtraHop system from the Administration settings. For more information, see Configure the system time in the ExtraHop Administrators Guide.

Change the time interval

This procedure shows you how to set the global time interval. You can also apply a time interval by dashboard or by region.
  1. Click the time interval in the upper left corner of the page (for example Last 30 minutes).
  2. Select from the following interval options:
    • A preset time interval (such as Last 30 minutes, Last 6 hours, Last day, or Last week).
    • A custom unit of time.
    • A custom time range. Click a day to specify the start date for the range. One click will specify a single day. Clicking another day will specify the end date for the range.
    • Compare metric deltas from two different time intervals.
  3. Click Save.
Tip:You can also set the time interval from the History tab by selecting from up to five recent time intervals set in a previous login session.

View the latest data for a time interval

Pages that display monitored metric data, such as dashboards and protocol pages, are continuously updated to display the latest data for the selected time interval.

Detail metrics pages, detections, records, packets, and alerts are reloaded on request by clicking the refresh data icon at the top left corner of the page.

Change chart data granularity

The ExtraHop system stores metrics in 30-second buckets of time. Metric data are then aggregated or rolled up into additional five-minute and one-hour buckets. Aggregating data helps to limit the number of data points rendered on a time-series chart so the granularity of data is easier to interpret. The time interval you select determines the best aggregation, or roll up, of data to display in a chart for the period of time you are viewing.

For example, if you select a large time interval, such as one week, metric data is aggregated into one-hour roll ups. On the x-axis of a line chart, you see a data point for every hour instead of a data point for every 30 seconds. If you want to increase the level of granularity, you can zoom in on a chart or change the time interval.

The ExtraHop system includes built-in high-precision metrics with 1-second roll ups, which are the Network Bytes and Network Packets metrics. These metrics are associated with a device or network capture source. For more information on how to view these metrics in a chart, see Display the maximum rate in a chart.

The ExtraHop system also includes built-in metrics for identifying the single busiest millisecond of traffic within a 1-second roll up. These metrics, which are Maximum Network Bytes per Millisecond and Maximum Packets per Millisecond, are associated with a network capture source and help you detect microbursts. Microbursts are rapid bursts of traffic that occur within milliseconds.

The following table provides information about how data is aggregated based on time interval.

Time Interval Aggregation Roll Up (if available) Notes
Less than six minutes 1-second A 1-second roll up is only available for custom metrics and for the following built-in metrics:
  • Network source:
    • Network Bytes (total throughput)
    • Network Packets (total packets)
    • Maximum Network Bytes per Millisecond
    • Maximum Network Packets per Millisecond
  • Device source:
    • Network Bytes (combined inbound and outbound throughput by device)
    • Network Bytes In (inbound throughput by device)
    • Network Bytes Out (outbound throughput by device)
    • Network Packets (combined inbound and outbound packets by device)
    • Network Packets In (inbound packets by device)
    • Network Packets Out (outbound packets by device)
120 minutes or less 30-second If a 30-second roll up is not available, a 5-minute or 60-minute roll up displays.
Between 121 minutes and 24 hours 5-minute If 5-minute roll up is not available, a 60-minute roll up displays.
Greater than 24 hours 60-minute ā€“
Note:If you have an extended datastore that is configured for 24-hour metrics, a specified time interval of 30 days or longer displays a 24-hour aggregation roll up.

Zoom in on a custom time range

You can click-and-drag across a chart to zoom in on interesting metric activity. This custom time range is then applied across the ExtraHop system, which is useful for investigating other metric activity that occurred at the same time.

Zooming in on a time range is only available in charts with an x- and y-axis, such as line, area, candlestick, and histogram charts.

  1. Click-and-drag your mouse across the chart to select a time range. If the time range is less than one minute, the time range appears red. Drag the mouse until the time range appears green.
  2. Release the mouse button. The chart is redrawn to the custom time range and the time interval in the upper right corner of the navigation bar is updated.
  3. To revert from the custom time interval to your original time interval, click the undo iconā€”a magnifying glass with a minus signā€”which is displayed next to the time interval in the upper right corner of the navigation bar.
    Tip:On a dashboard page, you can limit the zoom-in custom time range to a specific region. Click the region header, select Use Region Time Selector, and then zoom in on a chart. Each chart or widget within that region is updated to the custom time range.

Freeze the time interval to create a custom time range

If you see interesting data in an activity map, dashboard, or protocol page, you can freeze the time interval to instantly create a custom time range. Freezing the time interval is useful for creating links that you can share with others, and for investigating related metric activity that occurred at the same time.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click the time selector in the upper left corner of the page.
  3. Select a preset time interval.
  4. Click Freeze.
    The Custom time range automatically updates as shown in the figure below. The range begins with the earliest time from the previous time interval and ends with the time that you clicked Freeze.

  5. Click Save.
    The new custom time range will not change as you navigate across the ExtraHop system. You can share or bookmark the URL in your browser.
    Note:The time interval is included at the end of the URL in your browser. To share a link with others that maintains a specific time interval, copy the entire URL. Creating a bookmark for the URL maintains the custom time range even after you log out of the ExtraHop system.
  6. To remove the custom time range, change the time interval.

Overview pages

Overview pages enable you to quickly evaluate the scope of suspicious activity on your network, learn about protocol activity and device connections, and investigate inbound and outbound traffic on your network.

  • View the Security Overview for information about security detections on your network.
  • View the Network Overview for information about active devices on your network.
  • View the Perimeter Overview for information about traffic traveling in and out of your network.

Security Overview

The Security Overview displays several charts that highlight data from different perspectives about detections. These charts can help you evaluate the scope of security risks, launch investigations into unusual activity, and mitigate security threats. Detections are analyzed every 30 seconds or every hour, depending on the metric.

Site Selector
Click the site selector at the top of the page to view data for one or more sites in your environment. View combined traffic across your networks or focus on a single site to help you quickly find device data.

The site selector indicates which sites are flow sensors and when all or some sites are offline. Because data is not available from offline sites, the charts and device pages associated with offline sites might not show data or might only show limited data. The site selector is available from consoles only.

Executive Report
Click Generate Executive Report to create a PDF file. The Executive Report provides a summary of the top detections and risks to your network from the last week. The Executive Report only includes information for the selected sites.
Open Detections
This chart shows you a list of detections with a status other than Closed, sorted by highest risk. Click a detection to view open detections of the selected detection type. Each detection card summarizes what caused the detection; click the detection name to open the detection detail page.
Detection Types
This count chart shows you the number of distinct detection types that occurred during the selected time interval. By changing the time interval, you can see how many detection types occurred during that time. Click the number to open the Detections page filtered to show detections for each type.
Detections by Attack Category
This chart provides a quick way to see the types of attacks your network might be at risk for and displays the number of detections that occurred in each category during the selected time interval. Actions on Objective detections are listed by type to help you prioritize the most severe detections. Click any number to open a filtered view of detections that match the selected attack category.
Detections by Operations Category
This count chart shows you the total number of detections in three major Operations categories: Hardening, Caution, and Performance. Click any number to open a filtered view of detections that match the selected operations category.
Top Offenders
This chart shows the top 20 devices or endpoints that acted as offenders in one or more detections. The ExtraHop system considers the number of distinct attack categories and detection types and the risk scores of the detections associated with each device to determine which devices are considered top offenders.

The size of the device role icon indicates the number of distinct detection types and the position of the icon indicates the number of distinct attack categories. Click a role icon to view more information about the attack categories and detection types associated with the device. Click the device name to view device properties.

Learn more about network security with the Security dashboard.

Threat briefings

Threat briefings provide cloud-updated guidance about industry-wide security events. Learn more about threat briefings.

Network Overview

The Network Overview displays the active devices on your network, how they are communicating, and trends in important metrics. The Network Overview refreshes activity map and network health indicator data every minute.

Site Selector
Click the site selector at the top of the page to view data for one or more sites in your environment. View combined traffic across your networks or focus on a single site to help you quickly find device data. The site selector indicates when all or some sites are offline. Because data is not available from offline sites, the charts and device pages associated with offline sites might not show data or might only show limited data. The site selector is available from a console.
Executive Report
Click Generate Executive Report to create a PDF file. The Executive Report provides a summary of the top detections and risks to your network from the last week. The Executive Report only includes information for the selected sites.
Active Devices
This count chart shows you the total number of devices that have been discovered by your ExtraHop system. Click the number to view a list of all discovered devices. The percentage shows you the rate of change for the selected time interval.
New Devices
This count chart shows you how many devices have been discovered within the past five days. Click the number to view a list of all of these devices.

Activity maps

An activity map cycles through the following protocols each minute when activity is detected:

  • CIFS
  • Database (DB)
  • DNS
  • FTP
  • HTTP
  • LDAP
  • SSH
  • SSL
  • Telnet

Here are some ways you can interact with the activity map:

  • Click the protocol name to open the activity map in a view that enables you to add steps and group filters. You can then save your modified activity map to revisit.
  • Click the arrows around the protocol name to cycle through the available protocols. Protocols without activity in the specified time interval do not display.
  • Click controls from the lower right corner of the activity map to pause and resume cycling, toggle between 2D and 3D visualization, and to zoom in and out of the map.
  • Hover over a circle to see device labels and highlight device connections.
  • Click a circle and then click the device name to view a protocol page for the device.

Learn more about navigating activity maps.

Network health indicators

Network health indicators show you general trends related to network and security health. Network health indicators might signal weaknesses or issues in network performance or potentially suspicious activity.

Each network health indicator displays the percentage of change in network activity compared to the previous time interval. Metrics are listed in descending order, by percentage of greatest change to least. Network health indicators with no activity during the specified time interval are not displayed.

Depending on the type of network activity and the amount of change, you can launch an investigation by clicking the metric title to drill down to a detail page. You can then investigate which factors are contributing to the activity.

For example, click the title, such as Weak Ciphers Sessions. A detail page appears with all the clients, servers, certificates, and SNIs that were associated with weak cipher sessions, as shown in the following figure.

The following network health indicators can appear on the Network Overview page.

DNS - Address Mapping Record Queries
This network health indicator shows you the number of DNS requests received by DNS servers that included the A record type. An A record maps a domain name to the IP address (IPv4) of the domain host. Click the metric title to see which clients sent the most requests.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
While DNS address mapping queries are normal, large or sudden increases can be an indicator of potential data exfiltration or a DNS tunnel. A DNS tunnel is a technique that encodes data into DNS queries for data exfiltration or command and control attacks. For example, sensitive data can be encoded into the hostname within the A record. You can view the A record by clicking the records icon next to a client that sent a high number of DNS requests.
DNS - FTP Responses
This network health indicator shows you the number of FTP responses sent by DNS servers. Click the metric title to see which servers sent the highest number of FTP responses.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
The primary activity for DNS servers should be to resolve hostnames instead of sending files over FTP. Attackers can exploit weaknesses in DNS servers, which often go undetected. If there is an increasing number of FTP data transfer by DNS servers, investigate this suspicious activity.
DNS - Request Timeouts
This network health indicator shows you the number of timeouts that occurred after repeated unanswered DNS query requests were sent from clients. Click the metric title to see which clients were affected and which servers were not responding.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
DNS can be a bottleneck in your network if hostname resolution cannot take place. A spike, or large increase in request timeouts, is disruptive to your network in general, and can also be an indicator of a distributed denial of service (DDoS).
DNS - Requests with Suspicious Hosts
This network health indicator shows you the number of DNS requests that included a suspicious hostname, according to threat intelligence applied to your ExtraHop Reveal(x) system. Click the metric title to see which hosts are considered suspicious. Click the red camera icon to see threat intelligence details about the hostname.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Threat intelligence provides known data about suspicious IP addresses, hostnames, and URIs. You should always investigate indicators of compromise that are identified by threat intelligence. You can view information about the entire DNS transaction by clicking the records icon next to a suspicious host query.
DNS - Text Record Queries
This network health indicator shows you the number of DNS requests received by DNS servers that included the TXT record type. A TXT record associates human-readable text with a host. Click the metric title to see which client sent the most DNS requests with the TXT record type.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
DNS queries that include TXT records are typically uncommon, and large increases can be an indicator of a potential DNS tunnel. A DNS tunnel is a technique that encodes data into DNS queries for data exfiltration or command and control attacks. For example, malware or sensitive data can be encoded into the TXT record. You can view the TXT record by clicking the records icon next to a client that sent a high number of DNS requests.
HTTP - 404 Not Found Error
This network health indicator shows you the number of HTTP responses that included the 404 (Not Found) status code. Click the metric title to see which URIs were associated with the 404 status code.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
While a certain number of 404 errors might be considered normal, a large increase in this client-side error could indicate a potential web directory scan. Attackers rely on information about the underlying web server and associated components that are returned in the HTTP 404 status code.
HTTP - 500 Server Errors
This network health indicator shows you the number of HTTP responses sent by servers that contained the 500 (Server Error) status code. Click the metric title to see which URIs were associated with the 500 status code.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
A large or sudden increase in this server-side error could indicate a potential web directory scan. Web penetration tools deployed by attackers rely on information about the underlying web server and associated components that are returned in the HTTP 500 status code.
HTTP - Requests with Suspicious Hosts
This network health indicator shows you the number of HTTP requests that included a suspicious hostname, according to threat intelligence found in your ExtraHop Reveal(x) system. Click the metric title to see which hosts are considered suspicious. Click the red camera icon to see related threat intelligence details about the host.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Threat intelligence provides known data about suspicious IP addresses, hostnames, and URIs. You should always investigate indicators of compromise that are identified by threat intelligence. You can view information about the entire HTTP transaction by clicking the records icon next to a suspicious host.
HTTP - Requests with Suspicious URIs
This network health indicator shows you the number of HTTP requests that included a suspicious URI, according to threat intelligence found in your ExtraHop Reveal(x) system. Click the metric title to see which URIs are considered suspicious. Click the red camera icon to see related threat intelligence details about the URI.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Threat intelligence provides known data about suspicious IP addresses, hostnames, and URIs. You should always investigate indicators of compromise that are identified by threat intelligence. You can view information about the entire HTTP transaction by clicking the records icon next to a suspicious URI.
SSL - Expired Certificate Sessions
This network health indicator shows you the number of TLS/SSL sessions that were established with an expired certificate. Click the metric title to see which expired certificates had the most sessions.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Certificate authorities add expiration dates to certificates, which are required for establishing a secure TLS or SSL session. Sessions established with expired certificates could indicate that servers have certificate verification disabled, or that users ignored browser warnings when establishing the session. This type of activity increases the vulnerability of devices to man-in-the-middle attacks. Consider configuring your web servers to remove expired certificates.
SSL - Insecure SSLv3 Protocol Sessions
This network health indicator tells you the number of connections on your network that were established with SSL version 3.0. Click the metric title to see a list of servers and clients with SSLv3 sessions.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Known vulnerabilities, such as BEAST and POODLE, are associated with SSLv3. If you have a high number of SSLv3 sessions, consider configuring servers to support the latest version of TLS.
SSL - Insecure TLS 1.0 Protocol Sessions
This network health indicator tells you the number of connections on your network that were established with TLS version 1.0. Click the metric title to see a list of servers and clients with TLS 1.0 sessions.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Known vulnerabilities, such as BEAST and POODLE, are associated with TLS 1.0. If you have a high number of TLS 1.0 sessions, consider configuring servers to support the latest version of TLS.
SSL - Self-signed Sessions
This network health indicator shows you the number of TLS/SSL sessions that were established with self-signed certificates. Click the metric title to see which clients were associated with self-signed certificate sessions.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Self-signed certificates are not issued or verified by a certificate authority. The presence of self-signed certificates might indicate that software on your systems is not validating certificates, making your network vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. A sudden or large increase in sessions with self-signed certificates could also indicate that an attacker is communicating with command and control servers.
SSL - Weak Cipher Sessions
This network health indicator shows you the number of the number of TLS/SSL sessions that were established with weak ciphers. Click the metric title to see which clients are associated with weak ciphers.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
A cipher suite is a set of encryption algorithms that help secure a TLS/SSL connection. Algorithms within a cipher suite that are associated with known vulnerabilities are considered weak. You can view the cipher suite by clicking the records icon next to a client. Consider configuring your web servers to remove weak ciphers.
TCP - Suspicious TCP Connections
This network health indicator shows you the number of the number of outbound connections to suspicious IP addresses, according to threat intelligence found in your ExtraHop Reveal(x) system. Click the metric title to see which IP addresses are considered suspicious. Click the red camera icon to see related threat intelligence details about the IP address.
Why is this metric a security health indicator?
Threat intelligence provides known data about suspicious IP addresses, hostnames, and URIs. You should always investigate indicators of compromise that are identified by threat intelligence.

Learn more about your network with the Network dashboard.

Perimeter Overview

The Perimeter Overview displays charts and interactive visualizations that help you monitor traffic that is entering and leaving your network through connections with external endpoints.

Site Selector
Click the site selector at the top of the page to view data for one or more sites in your environment. View combined traffic across your networks or focus on a single site to help you quickly find device data. The site selector indicates when all or some sites are offline. Because data is not available from offline sites, the charts and device pages associated with offline sites might not show data or might only show limited data. The site selector is only available from a console.
Executive Report
Click Generate Executive Report to create a PDF file. The Executive Report provides a summary of the top detections and risks to your network from the last week. The Executive Report only includes information for the selected sites.
Internal Endpoints Accepting Inbound Connections

This count chart displays the number of internal endpoints that accepted inbound connections from external endpoints during the selected time interval. Click the chart to open a filtered view of these conversations.

Suspicious Inbound Connections
This count chart displays the number of connections that were initiated by suspicious external endpoints. ExtraHop identifies suspicious endpoints through threat intelligence data. Click the chart to open a filtered view of these conversations.
Suspicious Outbound Connections
This count chart displays the number of connections that internal endpoints initiated with suspicious external endpoints. ExtraHop identifies suspicious endpoints through threat intelligence data. Click the chart to open a filtered view of these conversations.
Total External Traffic
This chart shows the rate that data is moving outbound and inbound from connections with external endpoints. Click the Inbound Traffic or Outbound Traffic data label to access menu options to create a new chart, search for related records, or drill down by conversation.

Halo visualization

The halo visualization provides three views of your network connections to external endpoints: Cloud Services, Countries, and Large Uploads.

External endpoints appear on the outer ring with connections to internal endpoints and appear as circles in the middle of the visualization. These visualizations enable you to prioritize your investigation for connections marked with high-risk detections or for high-value devices.

To help identify high-traffic endpoints, inner circles and outer rings increase in size as traffic volume increases. In some cases, the size of inner circles and outer ring segments might be increased for readability. Click an endpoint to display precise traffic information.

Click Cloud Services to view connections between internal endpoints and cloud service providers. Cloud service providers and the amount of sent or received data appear in the information panel to the right. You can toggle between views that show Bytes Out to providers and Bytes In to your network.

Click Countries to view connections between internal endpoints and countries. The connections are broken down by the geographic location of the external endpoint. Countries and the amount of sent or received data appear in the information panel to the right. You can toggle between views that show Bytes Out to countries and Bytes In to your network.

Click Large Uploads to view connections between internal and external endpoints where over 1 MB of data was transferred in a single transmission out of your network to an external endpoint. External endpoints and the amount of uploaded data appear in the information panel to the right.

Here are some ways that you can interact with these halo visualizations:
  • Hover over endpoints or connections to view available hostnames and IP addresses.
  • Click endpoints or connections to hold focus and display precise traffic information and links for your selection in the information panel to the right.
  • Click or hover an internal endpoint in the information panel to view device properties and access links to associated information such as detections, records, or packets.
  • Adjust the time interval to view connections at specified times, such as unexpected activity during evenings or weekends.

Dashboards

Dashboards are an effective tool for monitoring high-priority network traffic or troubleshooting issues because they consolidate multiple metric charts into a central location where you can investigate and share data. You can also add text boxes, formatted through Markdown, to provide content for stakeholders.

Dashboards and collections are located in the dashboard dock.

Click Collections to display all of the dashboard collections you own or that have been shared with you. The number of dashboards in each collection is displayed. Click the collection name to view the owner, who the collection is shared with, and the list of dashboards in the collection.

Only the collection owner can modify or delete a collection. However, because dashboards can be added to multiple collections, you can create a collection and share it with other users and groups.

Click Dashboards to display an alphabetized list of all of the dashboards that you own or that have been shared with you, including dashboards shared through a collection. The owner of each dashboard is displayed. An icon next to the owner name indicates that the dashboard was shared with you.

Creating dashboards

If you want to monitor specific metrics or custom metrics, you can create a custom dashboard. Custom dashboards are stored separately for each user that accesses the ExtraHop system. After you build a custom dashboard, you can share it with other ExtraHop users.

There are several ways to create your own dashboard:

New dashboards are opened in Edit Layout mode, which enables you to add, arrange, and delete components within the dashboard. After creating a dashboard, you can complete the following tasks:

Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page to edit the dashboard properties or delete the dashboard.

Note:You cannot recover a deleted dashboard. When deleting user accounts, ExtraHop administrators can transfer dashboard ownership to another system user. Otherwise, all custom dashboards associated with the user account are also deleted. To preserve dashboards, make a copy before the account is deleted.

Learn how to monitor your network by completing a dashboard walkthrough.

Viewing dashboards

Dashboards are composed of chart widgets, alert widgets, and text box widgets that can present a concise view about critical systems or about systems managed by a particular team.

Click within a chart to interact with the metric data:

  • Click a chart title to view a list of metric sources and menu options.
  • Click a metric label to drill down and investigate by a metric detail.
  • Click a metric label and click Hold Focus to display only that metric in the chart.
  • Click a chart title or a metric label and then click Description to learn about the source metric.
  • Click a detection marker to navigate to the detection detail page

Change the time selector to observe data changes over time:

Export and share dashboard data

By default, all custom dashboards are private and no other ExtraHop users can view or edit your dashboard.

Share your dashboard to grant view or edit permission to other ExtraHop users and groups, or share a collection to grant view-only permission to multiple dashboards.

You can only modify a shared dashboard if the owner granted you edit permission. However, you can copy and customize a shared dashboard without edit permission.

Export data by individual chart or by the entire dashboard:

System dashboards

The ExtraHop system provides the following built-in dashboards that display common protocol activity about the general behavior and health of your network.

System dashboards are located in the default System Dashboards collection in the dashboard dock and cannot be added to another collection. System dashboards can be viewed by any user except for restricted users.

Activity dashboard
Find top-talkers by application (L7) protocols and view recent alerts. For more information about charts in this dashboard, see Activity dashboard.
Network dashboard
Identify traffic latency and bottlenecks over the data link (L2), network (L3), and transport (L4) layers. For more information about charts in this dashboard, see Network dashboard.
Security dashboard (ExtraHop Reveal(x) only)
Monitor general information about potential security threats on your network. For more information about charts in this dashboard, see Security dashboard.
System Health dashboard
Ensure that your ExtraHop system is running as expected, troubleshoot issues, and assess areas that are affecting performance. For more information about charts in this dashboard, see System Health dashboard.

Activity dashboard

Monitor general information about application activity and performance from the transport through the application layers (L4 - L7) on your network.

The Activity dashboard is a built-in, system dashboard, and you cannot edit, delete, or add system dashboards to a collection. However, you can copy a chart from a system dashboard and add it to a custom dashboard, or you can make a copy of the dashboard and edit it to monitor metrics that are relevant to you.

Each chart in the Activity dashboard contains visualizations of protocol metric data, organized by region. The following information summarizes each region and its charts.

Traffic Overview
Determine whether traffic bottlenecks are related to a specific application protocol or network latency. The Traffic Overview region contains the following charts:

Network Packets by L7 Protocol Avg Rate chart: Find the protocol that has the highest volume of packet transmissions over the application layer (L7) during the selected time interval.

All Activity Network Round Trip Time: The 95th percentile line shows you the upper range of the time that it took for packets to traverse the network. If this value is over 250ms, then network issues could be slowing down application performance. Round trip time is a measurement of the time between when a client or server sent a packet and received an acknowledgment.

Alerts: View up to 40 of the latest alerts that were generated, and their severity levels. Alerts are user-configured conditions that establish baseline values for specific protocol metrics.

Active Protocols

Determine how application performance is affected by the protocols that are actively communicating on the ExtraHop system. For example, you can quickly glance at charts that display server processing times and the ratio of errors to responses per protocol.

There is a chart for each active protocol. If you do not see a protocol you were expecting, applications might be not communicating over that protocol for the selected time interval.

For more information about protocols and to view metric definitions, see the ExtraHop Protocol Metrics Reference.

Note:From a console, you can display the Activity dashboard for each connected site. The site name appears in the navigation bar; click the down arrow next to the name to pivot the display to other sites.

Network dashboard

Monitor how effectively data is transmitted over the data link, network, and transport (L2 - L4) layers.

The Network dashboard is a built-in, system dashboard, and you cannot edit, delete, or add a system dashboard to a collection. However, you can copy a chart from a system dashboard and add it to a custom dashboard, or you can make a copy of the dashboard and edit it to monitor metrics that are relevant to you.

Each chart in the Network dashboard contains visualizations of network metric data, organized by region. The following information summarizes each region.

Network L2 Metrics
Monitor the throughput rates over the data link (L2) layer by bits and packets, and monitor the types of frames transmitted. You can also determine how much data is sent to receivers by unicast, broadcast, or multicast distribution.
Network L4 Metrics
Monitor data transfer latency over the transport layer (L4). View TCP activity through connection, request, and response metrics. This data can indicate how effectively data is sent and received across the transport layer in your network.
Network Performance
Monitor how network performance is affecting applications. View overall network throughput by reviewing the throughput per application protocol and the magnitude of high TCP round trip times.
Network L3 Metrics
View data throughput at the network layer (L3) and see packets and traffic by TCP/IP protocols.
DSCP
View a breakdown of packets and traffic by Differentiated Services code points, which is part of the DiffServ network architecture. Every IP packet contains a field to express the priority of how the packet should be handled, which is called differentiated services. The values for the priorities are called code points.
Multicast Groups
View traffic that is sent to multiple receivers in a single transmission, and see packets and traffic by each receiver group. Multicast traffic on a network is organized into groups based on destination addresses.
Note:From a console, you can display the Network dashboard for each connected site. The site name appears in the navigation bar; click the down arrow next to the name to pivot the display to other sites.

Security dashboard

Monitor general information about potential security threats on your network.

The Security dashboard is a built-in, system dashboard, and you cannot edit, delete, or add a system dashboard to a collection. However, you can copy a chart from a system dashboard and add it to a custom dashboard, or you can make a copy of the dashboard and edit it to monitor metrics that are relevant to you.

Each chart in the Security dashboard contains visualizations of protocol metric data, organized by region. The following information summarizes each region and its charts.

Security Overview
Click the links to visit the Security Overview page, which can help you evaluate the scope of a suspicious activity on your network. The Security Overview page dynamically displays high-risk detections, trending security metrics, and rotating activity maps that display network activity by protocol.
Note:Machine learning detections require a connection to ExtraHop Cloud Services.
Alerts
See which alerts were issued most recently in your environment. For more information about configuring and interpreting alerts, see Alerts.
Threat Intelligence
See the number of connections and transactions that contain suspicious hostnames, IP addresses, or URIs found in threat intelligence. Click a blue metric value or metric name in the legend to drill down on a suspicious metric. A detail page appears that displays a red camera icon next to the suspicious object. Click the red camera icon to learn about the threat intelligence source.
Note:Threat intelligence metrics display a zero value for one or more of the following reasons:
  • Your ExtraHop Reveal(x) subscription does not include threat intelligence.
  • You have not enabled threat intelligence for your ExtraHop Reveal(x) system.
  • You have not directly uploaded custom threat collections to your sensors. Contact ExtraHop Support for help uploading a custom threat collection to you ExtraHop-managed sensors.
  • No suspicious objects were found.
SSL - Weak Ciphers
See the number of active SSL sessions with weak cipher suites on your network. You can also see which clients and servers are participating in those sessions along with which cipher suites those sessions are encrypted with. DES, 3DES, MD5, RC4, null, anonymous, and export cipher suites are considered to be weak because they include an encryption algorithm that is known to be vulnerable. Data encrypted with a weak cipher suite is potentially insecure.
SSL - Certificates
See which SSL certificates in your network are self-signed, wildcard, expired, and expiring soon. Self-signed certificates are signed by the entity that issues the certificate, rather than a trusted certificate authority. Although self-signed certificates are cheaper than certificates issued by a certificate authority, they are also vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.

A wildcard certificate applies to all first-level subdomains of a given domain name. For example, the wildcard certificate *.company.com secures www.company.com, docs.company.com, and customer.company.com. Although wildcard certificates are cheaper than individual certificates, wildcard certificates create a greater risk if they are compromised because they can apply to any number of domains.

Vulnerability Scans
See which devices are scanning applications and systems on your network to search for weaknesses and potential targets, such as high-value devices. In the left chart, you can identify which devices are sending the most scan requests, which are HTTP requests associated with known scanner activity. In the right chart, you can see which user-agents are associated with the scan requests. The user-agent can help you determine if scan requests are associated with known vulnerability scanners such as Nessus and Qualys.
DNS
See which DNS servers are most active on your network and the total number of reverse DNS lookup failures those servers have encountered. A reverse DNS lookup failure occurs when a server issues an error in response to a client request for a pointer (PTR) record. Failures in reverse DNS lookups are normal, but a sudden or steady increase in failures on a specific host might indicate that an attacker is scanning your network.
Note:From a console, you can display the Security dashboard for each packet sensor. Click down arrow next to the name of the sensor in the navigation bar to display the Security dashboard for other sensors.

System Health dashboard

The System Health dashboard provides a large collection of charts that enable you to make sure that your ExtraHop system is running as expected, to troubleshoot issues, and to assess areas that are affecting performance. For example, you can monitor the number of packets processed by the ExtraHop system to ensure that packets are continuously captured.

Note:The Administration settings page also provides status information and diagnostic tools for all ExtraHop systems.

Access the System Health page by clicking the System Settings icon or by clicking Dashboards from the top of the page. The System Health dashboard automatically displays information about the ExtraHop system you are connected to. If you are viewing the System Health dashboard from a console, you can click the site selector at the top of the page to view data for a specific site or for all sites in your environment.

Charts on the System Health dashboard are divided into the following sections:

Device Discovery
View the total amount of devices on your network. See which devices have been discovered and how many of those devices are currently active.
Data Feed
Assess the efficiency of the wire data collection process with charts related to throughput, packet rate, desyncs, and capture drops.
Records
View the total amount of records that are being sent to an attached recordstore..
Triggers
Monitor the impact of triggers on your ExtraHop system. See how often triggers are running, how often they are failing, and which triggers are placing the largest load on your CPU.
Open Data Stream and Recordstore
Follow the activity of open data stream (ODS) transmissions to and from your system. View the total number of remote connections, message throughput, and details related to specific remote targets.
SSL Certificates
Review the status information for all SSL certificates on your ExtraHop system.
Remote Packet Capture (RPCAP)
View the number of packets and frames that are sent and received by RPCAP peers.
Advanced Health Metrics
Track heap allocation related to data capture, the system datastore, triggers, and remote transmissions. Monitor write throughput, working set size, and trigger activity on the system datastore.

Create a dashboard

Dashboards provide a single location for important metrics that you care about. When you create a custom dashboard, a dashboard layout opens containing a single region with an empty chart widget and an empty text box widget. Edit a chart to incorporate real-time metrics into your dashboard, and edit a text box to provide information. Finally adjust the layout and add more widgets to complete your dashboard and begin monitoring your network.

Before you begin

Determine which metrics you want to monitor on your dashboard. Ask yourself the following questions:
  • Do I want to track if my server is offline or unavailable? Add availability metrics such as requests and responses to your dashboard charts.
  • Is my server functioning properly? Add reliability metrics such as errors to your dashboard charts.
  • Is my server properly resourced? Add performance metrics such as server processing time to your dashboard charts.

Create the dashboard layout

The following steps show you how to create the framework for your dashboard, which includes two empty widget types: a chart and a text box. Your new dashboard opens in Edit Layout mode (which is displayed in the upper right corner). Edit Layout mode enables you to quickly edit your chart and text box, and arrange the placement of widgets and regions on a dashboard.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. On the Dashboards page, complete one of the following steps:
    • Click Dashboards in the dashboard dock and then click Create Dashboard at the bottom of the dock.
    • Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page and select New Dashboard.
  4. In the Dashboard Properties window, type a name for your dashboard.
  5. Enter any other meta data for your dashboard, such as a name for the author or a description. Note that the Permalink provides a direct URL to your dashboard for any users who have sharing privileges for your dashboard.
  6. Click Create.

Edit a basic chart

The following steps show the general flow for editing a chart widget in the Metric Explorer tool. Begin by specifying sources and metrics to add data to your chart. For example, you can now add the availability, reliability, or performance metrics that you considered at the beginning of this procedure to your dashboard. Then choose a chart type to visualize the data.

  1. Click the chart to launch the Metric Explorer.
  2. Click Add Source.
  3. In the source search field, type the name of a source and then select the source from the search results.
  4. In the metric search field, type the protocol and metric name and then select the metric you want to add to the chart from the search results. For example, to monitor the reliability of web transactions, type HTTP errors and then select HTTP Errors from the search results.
  5. Select a chart type from the bottom of the Metric Explorer.
    Some charts might not be compatible with your selected metrics. For example, the heatmap chart can only display dataset metric data, such as server processing time. For more information about charts and compatible metrics, see Chart types.
  6. (Optional): Select a drill down key to view detail metrics. Click Drill down by <None>, where <None> is the name of the detail metric key currently displayed in your chart. You can view up to 20 top key values in a chart for a specific time interval.
  7. Click Save.

Next steps

Edit a basic text box widget

The following steps show you how to display custom text in a dashboard region, which is a helpful tool for adding notes about a chart or data in a dashboard. The text box widget supports the Markdown syntax. A new text box widget contains sample text that is already formatted in Markdown to provide you with basic examples.

  1. Click the text box.
  2. Type and edit text in the left Editor pane. The HTML output text dynamically displays in the right Preview pane. For more formatting examples, see Format text in Markdown.
  3. Click Save.

Add more widgets and regions to your dashboard

Add and arrange the placement of regions and widgets on your dashboards.

  1. Click-and-drag dashboard components, such as a region or widgets, from the bottom of the page onto the workspace.
  2. To arrange dashboard components, click-and-drag the edge of a region or widget to resize them. If dashboard components overlap, they will be outlined in red. You must click and drag the sides of the widgets and regions to make room.
  3. (Optional): Click Remove Extra Space to remove the empty vertical white space around widgets. Empty vertical white space will be removed from every region on the dashboard.
  4. After making your changes, click Exit Layout Mode.
    Note:If an error message appears, another user might be making changes. It is best practice for each ExtraHop user to have an individual account.

Next steps

Now that your dashboard is complete, you can perform the following steps:

Chart editing tips

The following tips help you search for and select metrics when building a chart.

  • Filter search results to a specific source type or protocol by clicking Any Type or Any Protocol underneath the search fields.
  • You can only select the same source type that is currently in your metric set. A metric set contains one source type and metrics. For example, if you select the All Activity application as the source, you can only add more applications to that metric set.
  • Create an ad hoc group of more than one source in your chart by selecting Combine Sources. For example, you can combine two applications and then view a single metric value in the chart for both of these applications.
  • If you select a device group as your source, you can Drill down by Group Member to display individual metrics for up to 20 of the devices within the group.

Create a dashboard with dynamic sources

You can create a dashboard with dynamic sources to enable users to change the source of the dashboard at any time. If you have created a large number of dashboards that all have the same metrics, but different sources, you might want to consider replacing those dashboards with a single, dynamic-source dashboard.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard that you want to edit.
  4. Set the source of each chart to a source type variable.
    1. Click the name of a chart and then click Edit.
    2. In the Sources field, type $.
      The Source Type Variables list appears.
    3. From the Source Type Variables list, select the type of source that you are replacing. For example, if you are replacing a device source, select $device.
  5. Click Save.
    At the top of the dashboard, the View Source drop-down menu appears.
  6. From the View Source drop-down menu, select the source that you would like to view metrics for.
    If no data is displayed in the dashboard charts, try refreshing the page.
Tip:If you want to hide the dynamic source menu from your dashboard, append the following parameter to the end of the dashboard page URL: &hideTemplatePanel=true.

Before

After

For example:

https://eda/extrahop/#/Dashboard/XYFwM/?$device=16&from=30&interval_type=MIN&until=0&hideTemplatePanel=true

Next steps

Copy a dashboard

If you want to duplicate a useful dashboard, you can copy a dashboard and then replace or modify sources to display different application, device, or network data. You can only copy one dashboard at a time.

Note:If you only want to copy a dashboard so you can change the source across the entire dashboard, you might want to consider creating a dashboard with dynamic sources instead of making multiple copies of a single dashboard.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard that you want to copy.
  4. Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the dashboard page.
  5. Click Copy and complete one of the following steps:
    • Click Keep Sources to maintain the original data configurations in the new dashboard.
      Note:When you copy a dashboard with dynamic sources, the original data configurations are automatically maintained.
    • Click Modify Sources, which helps you to immediately update every region, chart, and widget within the copied dashboard with another source, and then complete the following steps:
      1. In the right pane of the Modify Sources window, click a source name. A search field opens.
      2. Type the name of a new source and then select the source from the drop-down list. Repeat this step if the dashboard contains more than one source that you want to replace.
      3. Click Create Dashboard.
    A copied dashboard with a modified version of the original title is created.
  6. To rename the copied dashboard, complete the following steps:
    1. Click the command menu in the upper right corner and the page.
    2. Select Dashboard Properties.
    3. In the Title field, type a new name.
    4. Click Save.
    Tip:To quickly copy a dashboard, type the keyboard shortcut CD and then update Dashboard Properties or modify sources.

Edit a dashboard layout

Place your dashboard into Edit Layout mode to add, delete, or rearrange the widgets and regions on your dashboard layout. You can only add or delete widgets or regions when the dashboard is in Edit Layout mode.

When you create a new dashboard, the dashboard is automatically placed into Edit Layout Mode. To edit the layout of an existing dashboard, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard that you want to edit.
  4. Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page, and then select Edit Layout.
  5. In Edit Layout mode, select from the following options:
    Add widgets and regions

    Click-and-drag a widget or region from the bottom of the page and place it onto the dashboard.

    Widgets are configurable dashboard components that provide the following functions:

    Chart: add metrics and select chart types to visualize data

    Text box: add explanations, links, and images to your dashboard

    Alerts: scan up to 40 recent alerts, sorted by severity

    Activity Group: monitor devices that are grouped together automatically by protocol activity in the ExtraHop system

    Regions contain and logically group widgets together. Click-and-drag widgets into a region. The width of a region can include a maximum of six widgets. The length of a region and dashboard is unlimited.

    Delete widgets and regions
    To delete a region, click Delete in the region header. To delete a widget, click the title and then select Delete from the drop-down menu.
    Arrange the placement of widgets and regions

    Click the header of a region or widget to drag them into a different location. Click and drag the edge of a region or widget to resize them.

    If dashboard components overlap, they will be outlined in red. You must click and drag the sides of the widgets and regions to make room.

    Duplicate charts
    Click Duplicate to create a copy of a chart or text box in the same region.
  6. (Optional): Click Remove Extra Space to remove the empty vertical white space around widgets. Empty vertical white space will be removed from every region on the dashboard.
  7. Click Exit Layout Mode in the upper right corner of the page to save your changes.
    Note:If an error message appears, another user might be making changes. It is best practice for each ExtraHop user to have an individual account.

Edit a chart with the Metric Explorer

The Metric Explorer is a tool for creating and editing charts, which lets you construct dynamic visualizations of device and network behavior.

Create and edit a basic chart

With the Metric Explorer, you can edit chart components, such as sources, metrics, and data calculations, and then preview how metric data appears in different chart types. When you are satisfied with your selections, save your chart to a dashboard.

The following steps show you the basic workflow and minimum requirements for completing a new chart.

  1. Click Add Source and then select a source.
    • You can select a static source for the chart by typing the name of an application, device, or network.
    • You can also select a dynamic source that can be dynamically modified by dashboard viewers by typing $ and selecting a variable from the Source Type Variable list. For more information about source type variables and dashboard templates, see Create a dashboard with dynamic sources.
  2. Select the source from the list of results.
  3. In the Metrics field, type a protocol and metric name. Then select the metric from the list of results, as shown in the following figure.
  4. Select a chart from the bottom of the Metric Explorer, as shown in the following figure.
  5. (Optional): Click the drop-down link below the metric name to display a count or rate or percentile.
  6. Complete one of the following steps:
    • Click Save when creating or editing a chart from a dashboard. Your dashboard is updated with your basic chart.
    • Click Add to Dashboard when creating or editing a chart from a protocol page. Then select an existing dashboard from the list, or select Create Dashboard.

Configure advanced options for data analysis and chart customization

Depending on the metrics and chart type you select, you can configure advanced options for creating sophisticated visualizations with the Metric Explorer, as shown in the following figure.

Drill down on metric data and sources to display details
In the Details section from the Metrics tab, you can drill down to display detail metrics or drill down on a device group to display individual devices within the chart. You can also filter detail metrics for exact matches, or create a regex filter.
Add a baseline or threshold line from the Analysis tab
You add a dynamic baseline or static threshold line to your chart. Baselines are calculated after the chart is saved. To see a line that represents a threshold, such as an service level agreement (SLA) value, add a static threshold line to your chart.
Rename legend labels and the chart title
For charts that display a legend, you can change a metric name in the chart legend with a custom label. In the Metric Explorer, click the label in the preview pane then select Rename. To rename a chart, click the chart title and select Rename.
Customize your chart from the Options tab
You can access the following options for customizing chart properties and the display of metric data in your chart:
  • Convert metric data from bytes to bits
  • Convert metric data from base 2 (Ki=1024) to base 10 (K = 1000)
  • Change the y-axis in a time-series chart from linear to log scale
  • Abbreviate metric values in a chart (for example, abbreviate 16,130,542 bytes to 16.1 MB)
  • Sort metric data in ascending or descending order in a bar, list, or value chart
  • Change the percentile precision in a pie chart
  • Hide or display a chart legend
  • Hide inactive metrics with a zero value so that these metrics are not visible in the chart, including the legend and label
  • Include sparkline in a list or value chart
  • Show the alert status for data displayed in list or value charts (for more information, see Alerts)
  • Switch the color display for metric data to grayscale (with exception to charts that display an alert status)
  • For IP address labels, display the hostname (if detected from DNS traffic in wire data) or origin IP address (if a proxy is detected from wire data)
  • Show the relative time for an expiration date, such as the number of days until an SSL certificate expires.
Note:Some options are only available for specific chart types. For example, the option to include a sparkline only appears in the Options tab for list and value charts.
Create an ad hoc group to combine data from multiple sources
From the Metric tab, you can create an ad hoc group of multiple sources within a set by selecting Combine Sources. For example, you can combine two applications and then view a single metric value in the chart for both of these applications.

Next steps

Practice building charts by completing the following walkthroughs:

Regular expression filters

Filter your search results by writing regular expression (regex) strings in certain search fields throughout the ExtraHop system. For example, you can filter for parameters in a detail metric key, such as a number within an IP address. You can also filter by excluding specific keys or a combination of keys from charts.

Regex-capable search fields have visual indicators throughout the system and accept standard syntax.
Search fields with an asterisk
Click the asterisk to enable regex strings.

This type of field is available from the following system pages:
  • Filtering a table of devices
  • Creating filter criteria for a dynamic device group
Certain search fields with a trifield operator
Click the operator drop-down to select the regex option.

This type of field is available from the following system page:
  • Editing a chart in Metric Explorer
Certain search fields with a tooltip
Hover over the tooltip in the field to see when regex is required.

This type of field is available from the following system page:
  • Adding record relationships to a custom metric

The following table includes examples of standard regex syntax.

Chart Scenario Regex filter How it works
Compare HTTP status codes 200 to 404. (200|404) The vertical bar symbol ( | ) is the OR operator. This filter matches 200, or 404, or both status codes.
Display any HTTP status code that contains a 4. [41] Square brackets ( [ and ] ) designate a range of characters. The filter searches for every character inside the brackets, regardless of order. This filter matches any value that contains a 4 or a 1. For example, this filter can return 204, 400, 101, or 201 status codes.
Display all 500-level HTTP status codes. ^[5] The caret symbol ( ^ ) outside square brackets ( [ and ] ) means "starts with." This filter matches any value that begins with a 5. For example, this filter can return 500 and 502 status codes.
Display all 400 and 500-level HTTP status codes. ^[45] Multiple values inside square brackets ( [ and ] ) are searched individually, even when preceded by the caret symbol ( ^ ). This filter does not search for values that begin with 45, but matches all values that begin with a 4 or 5. For example, this filter can return 400, 403, and 500 status codes.
Display any HTTP status codes except 200-level status codes. ^(?!2) A question mark ( ? ) and exclamation point ( ! ) inside parentheses specify a value to exclude. This filter matches all values except values beginning with a 2. For example, this filter can return 400, 500, and 302 status codes.
Display any IP address with a 187. 187. Matches 1, 8, and 7 characters in the IP address. This filter will not return IP addresses that end in 187 because the trailing period designates that something must come after the values. If you want to search the period as a literal value, you must precede it with a backslash ( \ ).
Review all IP addresses containing 187.18. 187\.18. Matches 187.18 and anything that follows. The first period is treated literally because it is preceded by a backslash ( \ ). The second period is treated as a wildcard. For example, this filter returns results for 187.18.0.0, 180.187.0.0, or 187.180.0.0/16. This filter does not return an address that ends with 187.18, because the wildcard requires that characters follow the specified values.
Display any IP address except 187.18.197.150. ^(?!187\.18\.197\.150) Matches anything except 187.18.197.150, where ^(?!) specifies the value to exclude.
Exclude a list of specific IP addresses. ^(?!187\.18\.197\.15[012]) Matches anything except 187.18.197.150, 187.18.197.151, and 187.18.197.152, where ^(?!) specifies the value to exclude and the square brackets ( [ and ] ) specify multiple values.
Additional filters

When you create a custom detail metric from the Metric Catalog, you can add advanced regex syntax to the Additional Filters search field in the Record Relationships section.

The tooltip appears after you select Detail Metric and is not available when Base Metric is selected.

The regex syntax in this field must meet the following requirements:
  • If your key contains multiple values, your regex syntax must include a single capture group. A capture group is designated by parenthesis. Your capture group determines the filter value.

  • If you want to return a specific value from a detail metric key that contains multiple record field values, the regex must follow this syntax:

    $KEY:/<regex>/

    For example, if your detail metric key is ipaddr:host:cipher and you only want to return the IP address value, you would type the following:

    $KEY:/^([^:]+):.+/

  • If your key contains multiple record field values, the values are separated by a delimiter that is specified in the trigger that is generating the key. The placement of the delimiters in your regex syntax must match the delimiters in the detail key. For example, if you have a key with three values that are separated by a delimiter that is a colon, the three values for the key in your regex syntax must be separated by two colons.
Tip:If you want to return all record field values in a detail metric key, type $KEY. For example, if your detail metric key is ipaddr:host:cipher, type $KEY in the search field to return all three of those field record values (IP address, hostname, and SSL cipher suite).

Edit a text box widget

If you want to include explanatory text next to your dashboard charts or display a company logo in your dashboard, you can edit a text box widget. With the text box widget, you can display text, links, images, or sample metrics in your dashboard.

The text box widget supports Markdown, which is a simple formatting syntax that converts plain text into HTML with non-alphabetic characters, such as "#" or "*". New text box widgets contain Markdown examples. A text box widget is automatically provided each time you create a dashboard. You can also add a text box widget to your dashboard layout.

To edit an existing text box widget, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the text box you want to edit.
  4. Click the command menu in the upper right corner and select Edit Layout.
  5. Click the text box.
  6. Type and edit text in the left Editor pane.
    The HTML output text dynamically displays in the right Preview pane. With Markdown, you can format the following types of content:
  7. Click Save to close the Metric Explorer.

Format text in Markdown

The following table shows common Markdown formats that are supported in the text box widget.

Note:Additional Markdown format examples are provided in the GitHub Guides: Mastering Markdown. However, not all Markdown syntax formatting options are supported in the ExtraHop text box widget.
Format Description Example
Headings Place a number sign (#) before your text to format headings. The level of heading is determined by the amount of number signs. ####Example H4 heading
Unordered lists Place a single asterisk (*) before your text. * First example * Second example
Ordered lists Place a single number and period (1.) before your text. 1. First example 2. Second example
Bold Place double asterisks before and after your text. **bold text**
Italics Place an underscore before and after your text. _italicized text_
Hyperlinks

Place link text in brackets before the URL in parentheses. Or type your URL.

Links to external websites open in a new browser tab. Links within the ExtraHop system, such as dashboards, open in the current browser tab.

[Visit our home page](https://www.extrahop.com)

https://www.extrahop.com

Blockquotes Place a right angle bracket and a space before your text.

On the ExtraHop website:

> Access the live demo and review case studies.

Monospace font Place a backtick (`) before and after your text. `example code block`
Emojis Adding emojis in Markdown syntax is unsupported; however, you can copy and paste a Unicode emoji image into the text box.

See the Unicode Emoji Chart website for images.

Ā 

Add images in Markdown

You can add images to the text box widget by linking to them. Make sure your image is hosted on a network that is accessible to the ExtraHop system.

Links to images must be specified in the following format:

![<alt_text>](<file_path>)

Where <alt_text> is the alternative text for the image name and <file_path> is the path of the image. For example:

![Graph](/images/graph_1.jpg)
Note:You also can add images by encoding them to Base64. For more information, see the following post on the ExtraHop forum, "Putting Images in Text Boxes."

Add metric examples in Markdown

You can write a metric query to include a metric value inline with text in the text box widget. For example, to show how many web servers have returned a 404 error, you can add a metric query to a sentence and the value is updated within the text.

The following example shows the basic format for writing metric queries:

%%metric:{
    "metric_category": "<metric_category>",
    "object_type": "<object_type>",
    "object_ids": [object_id],
    "metric_specs": [
        {
            "name": "<metric_spec>"
        }
    ]
}%%

To locate the object_type, metric_spec, and metric_category values for a metric, complete the following steps:

  1. Click Settings
  2. Click Metric Catalog.
  3. Type the metric name in the search field.
  4. Select the metric, and note the values for metric_category, object_type, and metric_spec in the REST API Parameters section.
The following figure displays values for NFS Server - TCP Requests by Client.

To locate the object_id for a device, device group, or other asset, complete the following steps:

  1. Click Assets, and then click an asset type from the left pane.
  2. Click the name of the asset you want, and then open the properties window.
  3. Note the value displayed for the REST API ID.
The following figure displays the properties for a device with an ID of 18697.

After you locate the values for the metric you want to display, add them to the metric query in the text editor. The value will be displayed in the text widget.

The following example markup will display the number of TCP requests received, listed by client IP address, for an NFS server with the object ID 18697.

Note:The following metric queries are unsupported in the text box widget:
  • Time-series queries
  • Mean calculations
  • Multiple object_ids
  • Multiple metric_spec
  • Multiple percentiles
Metric query examples for the text box widget

The following examples show you how to write top-level, or base, metric queries for application, device, and network objects. You can also write a query for detail metrics.

Application metrics

To specify the All Activity object, the object_ids is "0".

This example query shows how you can retrieve HTTP metrics from the All Activity application object, and displays the following output: "Getting [value] HTTP requests and [value] HTTP responses from All Activity."

Getting
%%metric:{
"object_type": "application",
"object_ids": [0],
"metric_category": "http",
"metric_specs": [{"name":"req"}]
}%%HTTP requests and
%%metric:{
"object_type": "application",
"object_ids": [0],
"metric_category": "http",
"metric_specs": [{"name":"rsp"}]
}%%
HTTP responses from All Activity.
Device metrics

You must specify either a client ("_client") or server ("_server") in the metric_category. To retrieve metrics for a specific device, specify the device object ID number in object_ids. To retrieve the device object ID (deviceOid), search for the device object in the ExtraHop global search. Select the device from your search results. The "deviceOid=" value will be embedded in the URL query string.

This example query shows how to retrieve metrics from a device client object, and displays the following output: "Getting [value] CLIENT DNS response errors from a specific device."

Getting
%%metric:{"object_type": "device",
"object_ids": [8],
"metric_category": "dns_client",
"metric_specs": [{"name":"rsp_error"}]
}%%
CLIENT DNS response errors from a specific device.

This example query shows how to retrieve metrics from a device server object, and displays the following output: "Getting [value] SERVER DNS response errors from a specific device."

Getting
%%metric:{
"object_type": "device",
"object_ids": [156],
"metric_category": "dns_server",
"metric_specs": [{"name":"rsp_error"}]
}%%
SERVER DNS response errors from a specific device.
Network metrics

To specify All Networks, the object_type is "capture" and the object_ids is "0." To specify a specific VLAN, the object_type is "vlan" and the object_ids is the VLAN number.

This example query shows how to retrieve metrics for all networks, and displays the following output: "Getting [value] broadcast packets from all networks."

Getting
%%metric:{
"object_type": "capture",
"object_ids": [0],
"metric_category": "net","metric_specs": [{"name":"frame_cast_broadcast_pkts"}]
}%%
broadcast packets from all networks.

This example query shows how to retrieve metrics for a specific VLAN and displays the following output: "Getting [value] broadcast packets from VLAN 3."

Getting
%%metric:{
"object_type": "vlan",
"object_ids": [3],
"metric_category": "net",
"metric_specs": [{"name":"frame_cast_broadcast_pkts"}]
}%%
broadcast packets from VLAN 3.
Group metrics

To specify a group, the object_type is "device_group." You must specify either a client ("_client") or server ("_server") in the metric_category. The object_ids for the specific group must be retrieved from the REST API Explorer.

This example query shows how to retrieve metrics for all networks, and displays the following output: "Getting [value] HTTP responses from the HTTP Client Device Group."

Getting
%%metric:{
"object_type": "device_group",
"object_ids": [17],
"metric_category": "http_client",
"metric_specs": [{"name":"req"}]
}%%
HTTP responses from the HTTP Client Device Group.
Detail metrics

If you want to retrieve detail metrics, your metric query should contain additional key parameters, such as key1 and key2:

  • object_type
  • object_ids
  • metric_category
  • metric_spec
    • name
    • key1
    • key2
The key parameters act as a filter for displaying detail metric results. For non-custom detail metrics, you can retrieve detail metric parameters from the Metric Catalog. For example, type HTTP Responses by URI, and then look at the parameter values in the REST API Parameters section.
Important:You must supply the object_ids in your query.

This example shows how to retrieve HTTP requests by URI for the All Activity application (object_ids is "0"):

%%metric:{ 
"object_type": "application", 
"object_ids": [0],  
"metric_category": "http_uri_detail", 
"metric_specs": [{"name":"req"}] 
}%%

This example query shows you how to retrieve HTTP requests by URIs that contain a key value for "pagead2" for the All Activity application (object_ids is "0"):

%%metric:{ 
"metric_category": "http_uri_detail", 
"object_type": "application",
"object_ids": [0], 
"metric_specs": [ 
{ 
"name": "req", 
"key1": "/pagead2/" 
} 
] 
}%%

This example query shows how to retrieve count metrics for all networks and displays the following output: "Getting [value] detail ICA metrics on all networks."

Getting
%%metric:{
"object_type": "capture",
"object_ids": [0],
"metric_category": "custom_detail",
"metric_specs": [{
"name":"custom_count",
"key1":"network-app-byte-detail-ICA"
}]
}%%
detail ICA metrics on all networks.

This example query shows how to retrieve a custom dataset statistic with topn keys and percentiles, and displays the following output: "The fifth percentile is: [value]."

The fifth percentile is:
%%metric:{
"object_type": "vlan",
"object_ids": [1],
"metric_category": "custom_detail",
"metric_specs": [{
"name": "custom_dset",
"key1": "myCustomDatasetDetail",
"key2": "/10.10.7/",
"calc_type": "percentiles",
"percentiles": [5]
}]
}%%
.
Note:Sampleset metrics are unsupported in the text box widget. For example, adding the "calc_type": "mean" parameter to your text box query is unsupported.

Edit a dashboard region

Dashboard regions, which contain charts and widgets, are highly customizable. As you work with dashboards, you might need to frequently change or copy a region. You can only delete, resize, or rearrange a region by editing the dashboard layout.

To edit basic properties of a region in a dashboard, complete the following steps:
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard with the region you want to edit.
  4. Click the region header to access the following options:
    Rename a region
    Add a custom name to the region.
    Modify sources
    Quickly replace the data sources for each chart in a region with a different source after copying a chart, region, or dashboards.
    Copy a region
    Hover over Copy to... and make one of the following selections:
    • Select the name of an existing dashboard from the list. The dashboard page opens and displays the location of the copied region.
      Tip:The dashboard list is ordered from the most recently created dashboards (at the bottom) to the oldest dashboards (at the top).
    • Select Create Dashboard. In the Dashboard Properties window, type a name for the new dashboard.
    Change the region time interval
    Apply a time interval to the entire region by enabling the Region Time Selector.
    Fullscreen
    Expand region contents into a fullscreen display.

Change the time interval for a dashboard region

In a dashboard, you can apply a time interval to an entire dashboard with the Global Time Selector, or apply a different time interval per region with the Region Time Selector.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Select a dashboard.
  4. Click the region header and then select Use Region Time Selector.
  5. Click Last 30 minutes and complete one of the following steps:
    • From the Time Interval tab, select one of the following options:
      • Select another time interval (such as Last 30 minutes, Last 6 hours, Last day, or Last week).
      • Specify a custom unit of time.
      • Select a custom time range. Click a day to specify the start date for the range. One click will specify a single day. Click another day to specify the end date for the range.
      • Compare metric deltas from two different time intervals.
    • From the History tab, select from up to five recent time intervals selected in a previous login session.
  6. Click Save to close the Region Time Selector.
    The new time interval is applied to all charts and widgets within the region.
  7. To remove the region time interval, click the region header and select Use Global Time Selector.
    When the time interval disappears from the region header, the global time interval is applied to the region.

Edit dashboard properties

To rename a dashboard, change the theme, or change the URL, you must edit the dashboard properties. When you create a dashboard, you have an opportunity to specify dashboard properties. However, you can change dashboard properties at any time.

You can only change properties for one dashboard at a time. You cannot multi-select dashboards and change a property, such as the dashboard author.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select the dashboard that you want to edit.
  4. Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page and then select Dashboard Properties.
  5. In the Dashboard Properties window, you can modify the following fields:
    Title
    Rename the dashboard.
    Author
    Change the author name.
    Description
    Change the dashboard description. Note that the description is only seen when editing dashboard properties.
    Permalink
    Change the URL for the dashboard. By default, the permalink, also known as a short code, is a five-character unique identifier that appears after /Dashboard in the URL. You can change the permalink to a more user-friendly name.
    Note:The permalink can have up to 100 characters combining letters, numbers, and the following symbols: dot (.), underscore (_), dash (-), plus sign (+), parentheses ( ), and brackets ([ ]). Other alphanumeric characters are unsupported. The permalink cannot contain spaces.
    Sharing
    To share a dashboard with users who can view and edit, click the link. For more information, see Share a dashboard.
    Editors
    View the list of ExtraHop users with editing access to the dashboard. To change the users, click Sharing.
  6. Click Save.

Present a dashboard

You can set your dashboard to display in fullscreen mode for presentations or for your network operation center screens.

The fullscreen mode provides the following viewing options:

  • You can view and interact with the entire dashboard while in Presentation Mode.
  • You can view a continuous cycle of each chart in the dashboard in a Widget Slideshow.
  • You can view a single region in fullscreen display.

To present an entire dashboard in fullscreen display, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select the dashboard you want to present.
  4. In the upper right corner of the page, click the command menu and select one of the following options:
    Presentation Mode
    The dashboard dock and top navigation menus collapse. You can interact with the time interval and dashboard components while in presentation mode.
    Widget Slideshow
    A continuous cycle of charts and widgets in fullscreen display begins. Select how long you want each widget to display (for example, 20 seconds, 15 seconds, etc.). Click the x icon in the upper right corner of the screen to return to the dashboard.
    Tip:To open a dashboard in Presentation Mode, add /presentation to the end of the URL and then bookmark it. For example:

    https://<extrahop_ip>/extrahop/#/Dashboard/437/presentation

Share a dashboard

By default, all custom dashboards you create are private, which means that no ExtraHop users can view or edit your dashboard. However, you can share your dashboard by granting view or edit access to other ExtraHop users and groups.

Here are some importance considerations about sharing dashboards:

  • How a user interacts with a shared dashboard and the information they can view in the ExtraHop system is determined by user privileges. For example, you can add a user with the Restricted read-only privilege, which allows that user to only view the dashboards that you share with them in the ExtraHop system. For more information, see the User privileges section in the ExtraHop Administrators Guide.
  • When you grant a user edit permission, that user can modify and share the dashboard with others, and add it to a collection. However, other users cannot delete the dashboard. Only the dashboard owner can delete a dashboard.
  • Group information is imported into the ExtraHop system from LDAP (such as OpenLDAP or Active Directory). User information is available after an ExtraHop user logs in to their account.
  • To share a dashboard with a non-ExtraHop user, you can create a PDF file of the dashboard.
  • You can create a scheduled report, which sends the PDF file of the dashboard to any email recipient on a regular basis. (Consoles only.)
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard you want to share.
    You cannot share system dashboards or dashboards that you do not have edit access to.
  4. Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the dashboard page and select Share.
  5. To grant view permission to every user, select Allow all users to view this dashboard.
  6. To grant view or edit permission to specified users and groups, complete the following steps:
    1. Type the name of a user or group, and then select the name from the drop-down list.
    2. Next to the name, select Can view or select Can edit.
  7. Click Save.
    If you shared your dashboard, a small gray icon will appear next to your dashboard in the dock.

Remove access to a dashboard

You can remove or modify dashboard access that you granted to users and groups.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. From the dashboard dock, select the custom dashboard that you want to modify.
  4. Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page and select Share.
  5. Remove access for users or groups by completing one of the following steps:
    • Remove all access for a user or group by clicking the red delete (x) icon next to the user or group name.
    • Remove edit access by selecting Can view from the drop-down list next to the user or group name.
  6. Click Save.

Create a dashboard collection

You can create a collection to organize dashboards that you own and that have been shared with you.

Here are some important considerations about dashboard collections:

  • Your user privileges determine whether you can create and share collections.
  • You can add any dashboard to a collection that you own or have permission to view or edit.
  • You can add a dashboard to multiple collections.
  • You can share a collection if you own or have edit permission for all of the dashboards in that collection.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Click Collections at the top of the dashboard dock and then click Create Collection at the bottom of the dock.
  4. In the Name field, type a unique name for the collection.
  5. (Optional): In the Description field, add information about the collection.
  6. (Optional): Type the name of a user or group in the Sharing drop-down list, select from the search results, and then click Add.
  7. Type the name of a dashboard in the Contents drop-down list and then select from the search results.
    The name of the owner is displayed for each added dashboard.
    Tip:The dashboard at the top of the list is displayed by default when the collection is selected in the dashboard dock. Click and drag the icon next to a dashboard name to re-order the list.

  8. Click Save.
    The collection is added to the dashboard dock.

Share a dashboard collection

By default, all dashboard collections are private, which means that no other users can view or edit your collection. However, you can share your collection with other users and groups.

Here are some important considerations about sharing dashboard collections:

  • You can only share a collection if you own or have permission to edit all of the dashboards in the collection.
  • Users can only view the dashboards in a shared collection; they cannot edit any collection properties.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Click Collections at the top of the dashboard dock.
  4. Click the collection you want to share and then click Edit.
  5. Type the name of a user or group in the Sharing drop-down list and then select from the search results.
  6. Click Add.
    The user or group is displayed in a list of shared users.

    Tip:Remove a user or group by clicking the remove (X) icon next to the name.
  7. Click Save.
    The collection appears in the dashboard dock for each shared user.

Export data

You can export chart data from the ExtraHop system in CSV and XLSX formats.

You can also create PDFs of ExtraHop charts, pages, and dashboards.

Export data to Excel

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Navigate to a dashboard or protocol page.
  3. Right-click any chart, table, or metric and select Export to Excel.

Export data to CSV

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Navigate to a dashboard or protocol page.
  3. Right-click any chart, table, or metric and select Export to CSV.

Create a PDF file

You can export data from a dashboard, protocol page, or individual chart as a PDF file.

  1. Find the dashboard or protocol page that contains the data you want to export and complete of one of the following steps:
    • To create a PDF file of the entire page, click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page and select Print from a sensor or Export to PDF from a console.
    • To create a PDF file of an individual chart or widget, click the chart title and select Print from a sensor or select Export to PDF from the drop-down menu on a console.
  2. A PDF preview dialog opens. Complete one of the following steps:
    • Click Print Page and then select PDF as the destination from the print settings in your browser.
    • From a sensor, click Print Widget and select PDF as the destination from the print settings in your browser.
    • From a console, select PDF format customizations and then click Export to PDF. The process for generating a PDF might take several seconds.
    Tip:To access PDF print options through a keyboard shortcut, type pp.

Customize the format of a PDF file

When creating a PDF file of a dashboard or protocol page from a console, you have several options for customizing the appearance of your PDF file.

  1. Type a custom name for your PDF file or accept the default name.
  2. Choose one of the following page width options:
    Narrow
    Displays large text in chart titles and labels, but provides less space for displaying chart data. Long chart titles and labels might be truncated.
    Medium
    (Recommended) Displays a view of chart titles, legends, and data that is optimized for portrait page orientation.
    Wide
    Displays small text in chart titles and labels, but provides more space for displaying chart data.
  3. Choose one of the following page break options:
    Single page
    Displays the entire dashboard or protocol page on a single, continuous page. This setting might generate a PDF file that is larger than standard printer page sizes.
    Page break per region
    Displays each chart region on an individual page.
  4. Choose one of the following themes:
    Light
    White background with dark text.
    Dark
    Black background with white text.
    Space
    Dark background with a stylized background image and text.
  5. Click Export to PDF.
    The process for generating a PDF might take several seconds.

Next steps

The PDF file will download to your local computer. Each PDF file includes the dashboard title and time interval. Click View report on ExtraHop to open the original dashboard set to the time interval specified in the PDF file.

Chart types

Dashboard charts in the ExtraHop system offer multiple ways to visualize metric data, which can help you answer questions about your network behavior.

You select a chart type when you edit a chart in the Metric Explorer. But how do you know which chart to select? It helps to first decide which question you want to answer:
  • To learn how a metric changes over time, select a time-series chart such as the area, column, line, line & column, or status chart.
  • To learn how a metric value compares to a complete set of data, select a distribution chart such as the box plot, candlestick, heatmap, or histogram chart.
  • To learn the exact metric value for a time period, select a total value chart such as the bar, list, pie, table, or value chart.
  • To learn the alert status of this metric, select the list, status, or value chart.

Find more answers in the Charts FAQ.

The following table provides a list of chart types and descriptions. Click on the chart type to see more details and examples.

Chart Type Description Type
Area chart Displays metric values as a line that connects data points over time, with the area between the line and axis filled in with color. Time-series
Column chart Displays metric data as vertical columns over a selected time interval. Time-series
Line chart Displays metric values as data points in a line over time. Time-series
Line & Column chart Displays metric values as a line, which connects a series of data points over time, with the option to display another metric as a column chart underneath the line chart. Time-series
Status chart Displays metric values in a column chart and the status of an alert assigned to both the source and metric in the chart. Time-series
Box plot chart Displays variability for a distribution of metric data. Each horizontal line in the box plot includes three or five data points. Distribution
Candlestick chart Displays variability for a distribution of metric data over time. Distribution
Heatmap chart Displays a distribution of metric data over time, where color represents a concentration of data. Distribution
Histogram chart Displays a distribution of metric data as vertical bars or bins. Distribution
Bar chart Displays the total value of metric data as horizontal bars. Total value
List chart Displays metric data as a list with optional sparklines that represent data changes over time. Total value
Pie chart Displays metric data as a portion or percentage of a whole. Total value
Table chart Displays multiple metric values in a table, which can be easily sorted. Total value
Value chart Displays the total value for one or more metrics. Total value

Area chart

Metric data is displayed as data points over time connected by a line, with the area between the line and the x-axis filled in with color.

If your chart contains more than one metric, data for each metric is displayed as an individual line, or a series. Each series is stacked together to illustrate the cumulative value of the data.

Select the area chart to see how the accumulation of multiple metric data points over time contribute to a total value. For example, an area chart can reveal how various protocols contribute to total protocol activity.

For more information about displaying rates in your chart, see the Display rates section.

Note:This chart supports detection markers, which indicate detections associated with chart data.
Note:Machine learning detections require a connection to ExtraHop Cloud Services.

The following figure shows an example of an area chart.



Bar chart

The total value of metric data is displayed as horizontal bars.

Select the bar chart when you want to compare the data for more than one metric for a selected time interval.

The following figure shows an example of a bar chart.



Box plot chart

The box plot chart displays variability for a distribution of metric data. You can only display data from dataset metrics, such as server processing time, in this chart.

Each horizontal line in the box plot includes three or five data points. With five data points, the line contains a body bar, a vertical tick mark, an upper shadow line, and a lower shadow line. With three data points, the line contains a vertical tick mark, an upper shadow, and lower shadow. For more information about displaying specific percentile values in your chart, see Display percentiles.

The following figure shows an example of a box plot chart.



Candlestick chart

The candlestick chart displays variability for a distribution of metric data over time. You can only display data from dataset metrics or high-precision network (L2) byte and packet metrics.

Vertical lines at each time interval displays three or five data points. If the line has five data points, it contains a body, middle tick mark, an upper shadow line, and a lower shadow line. If the line has three data points, it contains a middle tick mark. For more information about displaying specific percentile values in your chart, see Display percentiles.

Select the candlestick chart to view the variability of data calculations for a specific period of time.

The following figure shows an example of a candlestick chart.



Column chart

Metric data is displayed as vertical columns over time. If your chart contains more than one metric, data for each metric is displayed as an individual column or as a series. Each series is stacked together to illustrate the cumulative value of the data.

Select the column chart to compare how accumulation of multiple metric data points at a specific time contribute to the total value.

Note:This chart supports detection markers, which indicate detections associated with chart data.

The following figure shows an example of a column chart.



Heatmap chart

The heatmap chart displays a distribution of metric data over time, where color represents a concentration of data. You can only select a dataset metric to display in the chart, such as server processing time or round trip time.

Select the heatmap when you want to identify patterns in the distribution of data.

Here are some important considerations about the heatmap chart:
  • The heatmap legend displays the color gradient that corresponds to the data range in the chart. For example, the darker color on the heatmap indicates a higher concentration of data points.
  • The default data range is between the 5th and 95th percentiles, which filters outliers from the distribution. Outliers can skew the scale of data displayed in your chart, making it more difficult to spot trends and patterns for the majority of your data. However, you can choose to view the full range of data by changing the default filter in the Options tab. For more information, see Filter outliers.
  • The selected theme, such as Light, Dark, or Space, affects whether a dark or light color indicates a higher concentration of data points.

The following figure shows an example of a heatmap chart.



Histogram chart

The histogram chart displays a distribution of metric data as vertical bars, or bins. You can only select a dataset metric to display in this chart, such as server processing time or round trip time.

Select the histogram chart to view the shape of how data is distributed.

Here are some important considerations about the histogram chart:
  • The default data range is from the 5th to 95th percentile (5th-95th), which filters outliers from the distribution. The minimum to maximum (Min-Max) view displays the full data range. Click the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the chart to toggle between the two views.
  • Data is automatically distributed into bins on either a linear or log scale based on the data range. For example, when the data range spans several orders of magnitude, data is placed into bins on a log scale. Min-Max (log) appears in the upper right corner of the chart.
  • Click-and-drag to zoom in on multiple bins or a specific bin. Click the magnifying glass again in the upper right corner of the chart to zoom out to the original view (either 5th-95th or Min to Max).
    Note:Zooming in to view a custom time interval does not change the global or region time interval.
  • Your toggle selection (between the 5th-95th and Min-Max views) will persist for your chart, but not for the users that you shared your dashboard and chart with. To set a persistent toggle selection before sharing a dashboard, see Filter outliers.

The following figure shows an example of a histogram chart.



Note:This chart does not support baselines or threshold lines.

Line chart

Metric data is displayed as data points over time that are connected in a line. If your chart contains more than one metric, data for each metric is displayed as an individual line or as a series. Each series overlaps.

Select the line chart to compare changes over time.

Note:This chart supports detection markers, which indicate detections associated with chart data.

The following figure shows an example of a line chart.



Line & column chart

Metric data is displayed as data points over time connected by a line, with the option to display a column chart underneath the line chart. For example, if your chart contains more than one metric (for example, HTTP Requests and HTTP Errors), you can select Display as Columns to display one of the metrics as a column chart underneath the line chart.

Columns are displayed in the color red by default. To remove the red color, click Options and deselect Display columns in red.

Select the line & column chart to compare different metrics at different scales in one chart. For example, you can view error rates and the total number of HTTP responses in one chart.

Note:This chart supports detection markers, which indicate detections associated with chart data.

The following figure shows an example of a line & column chart.



List chart

Metric data is displayed as a list. Select the list chart to view long lists of metric values, such as detail metrics.

This chart includes the following options:
  • Add a sparkline, which is a simple area chart placed inline with the metric name and value. A sparkline shows how data changed over time. Click the Options tab and select Include sparklines.
  • Display the metric value in an alert status color. Different colors indicate the severity of the configured alert. For example, if an alert threshold is crossed for a metric that is displayed in the list chart, the value for that metric appears in red. Click the Options tab and select Color indicates alert status.
Note:This chart does not support baselines or threshold lines.

The following figure shows an example of a list chart.



Pie chart

Metric data is displayed as a portion or percentage of a whole. If your chart contains more than one metric, data for each metric is represented as single slice, or series, in the pie chart.

Select the pie chart to compare the metric values that are mutually exclusive, such as status code detail metrics for the top-level HTTP Response metric.

This chart includes the following options:
  • Display as a donut chart. Click the Option tab and select Show total value.
  • Specify the decimal precision, or the number of digits, displayed in your chart. Percentile precision is useful for displaying ratios of data, especially for service-level agreements (SLAs) that might require precise data for reporting. Click the Options tab, and in the Units section, select Show percents instead of counts. Then select 0.00% or 0.000% from the drop-down list.

The following figure shows an example of a pie chart.



Status chart

Metric data is displayed in a column chart. The color of each column represents the most severe alert status of the configured alert for the metric. You can only select one source and metric to display in this chart.

To view the status of all of the alerts associated with the selected metric category, click Show Related Alerts. A list of alerts is then displayed below the column chart.

Select the status chart to see how data and the alert status for your metric change over time.

Note:This chart does not support baselines.

The following figure shows an example of a status chart.



Table chart

Metric data is displayed across rows and columns in a table. Each row represents a source. Each column represents a metric. You can add multiple sources (of the same type) and metrics to a table.

Select the table chart when you want to view metric data in a grid and easily sort values across multiple metrics.
Note:This chart does not support baselines or threshold lines.

The following figure shows an example of a table chart.



Value chart

The total value for one or more metrics is displayed as a single value. If you select more than one metric, metric values are displayed side-by-side.

Select the value chart to see the total value of important metrics, such as the total number of HTTP errors occurring on your network.

This chart includes the following options:
  • Add sparklines, which is a simple area chart placed underneath the metric value. A sparkline shows how data changed over time. Click the Options tab and select Include sparklines.
  • Display the metric value in an alert status color. Different colors indicate the severity of the configured alert. For example, if an alert threshold is crossed for a metric, the value appears in red. Click the Options tab and select Color indicates alert status.
Note:This chart does not support baselines or threshold lines.

The following figure shows an example of a value chart.



Create a chart

Charts are an essential tool for visualizing, analyzing, and understanding network behavior. You can create a custom chart from a dashboard or protocol page to visualize data from any of the 4,000+ built-in metrics or custom metrics available in the ExtraHop system. For example, if you observe an interesting server metric while troubleshooting, you can create a chart to visualize and further analyze that metric. Customized charts are then saved to dashboards.

The following steps show you how to quickly create a blank custom chart:
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Complete one of the following steps:
    • Click Dashboards at the top of the page.
    • Click Assets at the top of the page. Select a source from the left pane, and then click the name of an application, device, device group, or network from the center pane. A protocol page for the source appears.
  3. Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page and then select Create Chart.
  4. Edit the chart in the Metric Explorer.
  5. To save your chart, click Add to Dashboard and complete one of the following steps:
    • Select the name of an existing dashboard from the list. The dashboard list is ordered from the most recently created dashboards (at the bottom) to the oldest dashboards (at the top).
    • Select Create Dashboard. In the Dashboard Properties window, type a name for the new dashboard and then click Create.
    Tip:Here are some other ways to create a chart:
    • If you find a chart you like on a protocol page or dashboard, you can recreate and save that chart to your dashboard. Click the chart title and then select Create Chart From....
    • You can edit a dashboard layout and click-and-drag a new chart widget onto the dashboard.

Next steps

After you create a chart, learn more about working with dashboards:

Copy a chart

You can copy a chart from a dashboard or protocol page and then save the copied chart to a dashboard. Copied widgets are always placed into a new region on the dashboard, which you can later modify.

Tip:If you want to copy a dashboard chart or text box without creating a new region, click the command menu in the upper right corner of the dashboard page and click Edit Layout. Find the chart you want to copy and then click Duplicate.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Select a dashboard that contains the chart or widget that you want to copy.
  4. Click the title.
    Note:You cannot click the title of a text box widget. To copy a text widget, you must first edit the dashboard layout. Click the command menu in the upper right corner of the text box widget, and then complete step 4.
  5. Hover over Copy toā€¦ to expand a drop-down list and then make one of the following selections:
    • Select the name of an existing dashboard from the list. The dashboard list is ordered from the most recently created dashboards (at the bottom) to the oldest dashboards (at the top).
    • Select Create Dashboard. In the Dashboard Properties window, type a name for the new dashboard and then click Create.

Next steps

The chart is copied into a new region on the dashboard that is in Edit Layout mode. You can now edit your dashboard or chart in the following ways:

Drill down

An interesting metric naturally leads to questions about the factors associated with that metric value. For example, if you find a large number of DNS request timeouts on your network, you might wonder which DNS clients are experiencing those timeouts. In the ExtraHop system, you can easily drill down from a top-level metric to view the devices, methods, or resources associated with that metric.

When you drill down on a metric by a key (such as a client IP address, method, URI, or resource), the ExtraHop system calculates a topnset of up to 1,000 key-value pairs. You can then investigate these key-value pairs, referred to as detail metrics, to learn which factors are linked to the interesting activity.

Drill down from a dashboard or protocol page

Clicking a metric in a chart or legend helps you see which key, such as client IP address, server IP address, method, or resource, contributed to that value.

The following steps show you how to locate a metric and then drill down:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Find an interesting metric by completing one of the following steps:
    • Click Dashboard, and then select a dashboard from the left pane. A dashboard appears containing metrics.
    • Click Assets, click Device, Device Group, or Application in the left pane. Then select a device, group, or application. A protocol page appears containing metrics.
    • Click Assets, click Networks in the left pane, and then select a flow network. A protocol page appears containing metrics.
  3. Click on a metric value or a metric label in the chart legend, as shown in the following figure. A menu appears.


    Tip:On a protocol page, you can also click a drill-down shortcut button in the Drill Down section, located in the upper right corner of the page. The type of shortcut buttons vary by protocol.


  4. In the Drill down byā€¦ section, select a key. A detail metrics page with a topnset of metric values by key appears. You can view up to 1,000 key-values pairs on this page.
    Tip:If available, click the View More link at the bottom of a chart to drill down on the metric displayed in the chart.

Drill down on network capture and VLAN metrics

Click an interesting top-level metric about network activity on a Network capture or VLAN page to identify which devices are linked to that activity.

Note:For information about how to drill down on metrics from a flow network or flow network interface page, see the Drill down from a dashboard or protocol page section.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click Assets.
  3. Click Networks in the left pane.
  4. Click a network capture or VLAN interface name.
  5. Click a network layer in the left pane, such as L3 or L7 Protocols. Charts that display metric values for the selected time interval appear. For most protocols and metrics, a Device table also appears at the bottom of the page.
  6. Click the chart data, which updates the list to display only the devices that are associated with the data.
  7. Click a device name. A Device page appears, which displays traffic and protocol activity associated with the selected device.

Drill down from a detection

For certain detections you can drill down to see more details about the metric or key that contributed to the unusual behavior. The metric name or key appears as a link at the bottom of an individual detection.

Note:Detections with metrics or keys that do not have detail metrics do not include a drill down option. Detections that only display anomalous protocol activity instead of a metric also do not include a metric drill down option. For example, you cannot drill down on a detection for Anomalous DNS Client activity, as shown in the figure below. Instead, click the links for the device or application name, Activity Map, or Records to learn more about the anomalous activity.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click Detections at the top of the page.
  3. Find an interesting detection that is associated with a metric and click the metric name or key. In the following figure, by clicking on the response code, we can drill down to see all of the clients that received DNS responses with NXDOMAIN/QUERY:A.


  4. In the Drill down by... section, click a key such as Client.
    A detail metric page appears, where you can investigate metrics listed by key.

Drill down from an alert

Click the metric name or key in a threshold or detection alert to see which key, such as client, server, method, or resource, contributed to the metric value or unusual behavior.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click Alerts at the top of the page.
    Note:You can also access alerts from an Alert widget on a dashboard or at the bottom of the following protocol pages:
    • Application Overview page
    • Device Group Overview page
    • Network Overview page
  3. Click the name of a threshold alert or a detection alert.
    Alert details appear.
  4. Click a metric name or key, as shown in the following figure.


  5. In the Drill Down by section, click a key, such as Client, Method, Referer, Server, or URI.
    A detail metric page appears, where you can investigate metrics listed by key.

Investigate detail metrics

After you drill down on a metric from a dashboard, protocol page, detection, or alert, you can investigate metric values by key on a detail metric page. Filter metric data or select different keys, such as status codes or URIs, to view data from different perspectives.

The following figure shows you how to filter, pivot, sort, or export data on a detail metric page.



If you drilled-down on a metric by IP, Client, or Server, IP addresses and hostnames (if observed from DNS traffic) appear in the table. Additional options are now available to you. For example, you can generate a geomap or directly navigate to a client or server protocol page, as shown in the following figure.



Filter results

A detail page can contain up to 1,000 key-value pairs. There are two ways to find specific results from data: filter results or click a key in the table to create another drill-down filter.

To filter results, click Any Field, and then select a field, which varies by key. For example, you can select Network Locality for Client or Server keys. Then, select one of the following operators:

  • Select = to perform an exact string match.
  • Select ā‰ˆ to perform an approximate string match. The ā‰ˆ operator supports regular expression.
    Note:To exclude a result, enter a regular expression. For more information, see Create regular expression filters.
  • Select ā‰‰ to exclude an approximate string match from your results.
  • Select > or ā‰„ to perform a match for values greater than (or equal to) a specified value.
  • Select < or ā‰¤ to perform a match for values less than (or equal to) a specified value.
  • Click Add filter to save the filter settings. You can save multiple filters for one query. Saved filters are cleared if you select another key from the Details section in the left pane.

To complete the filter, enter or select a value that you want to filter results by, and then click Add Filter.

Investigate threat intelligence data (ExtraHop Reveal(x) Premium and Ultra only)
Click the red camera icon to view threat intelligence details about a suspicious host, IP address, or URI found in detail metric data.
Highlight a metric value in the top chart
Select an individual row or multiple rows to change chart data in the top chart on the detail metric page. Hover over data points in the chart to view more information about each data point.
Pivot to more data by key
Click key names in the Details section to see more detail metric values, broken down by other keys. For IP address or host keys, click a device name in the table to navigate to a Device protocol page, which displays traffic and protocol activity associated with that device.
Adjust the time interval and compare data from two time intervals
By changing the time interval, you can view and compare metric data from different times in the same table. For more information, see Compare time intervals to find the metric delta.
Note:The global time interval in the upper left corner of the page includes a blue refresh icon and gray text that indicates when the drill-down metrics were last polled. To reload the metrics for the specified time interval, click the refresh icon in the Global Time Selector display. For more information, see View the latest data for a time interval.
Sort metric data in columns
Click the column header to sort by metrics to view which keys are associated with the largest or smallest metric values. For example, sort on processing time to see which clients experienced the longest website load times.
Change data calculation for metrics
Change the following calculations for metric values displayed in the table:
  • If you have a count metric in the table, click Count in the Options section in the left pane and then select Average Rate. Learn more in the Display a rate or count in a chart topic.
  • If you have a dataset metric in the table, click Mean in the Options section in the left pane and then select Summary. When you select Summary, you can view the mean and the standard deviation.
Export data
Right-click a metric value in the table to download a PDF, CSV, or Excel file.
Drill-down a second time by a key filter

After you first drill down on a top-level metric by key, a detail page appears with a topnset of metric values broken down by that key. You can then create a filter to drill down a second time by another key. For example, you can drill down on HTTP responses by status code, and then drill down again by the 404 status code to find more information about the servers, URIs, or clients associated with that status code.

Note:The option to drill-down a second time is only available for certain topnsets.

The following steps show you how to drill down from a chart and then drill down again from a detail metric page:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Navigate to a dashboard or protocol page.
  3. Click a metric value or label.
  4. In the Drill down byā€¦ section, select a key.
    A detail page appears.
  5. Click a key in the table, such as a status code or method. (The key must not be an IP address or hostname.)
  6. In the Drill down byā€¦ section, select a key, as shown in the following figure.


    The key filter appears above the table. You can now view all the detail metrics associated with that single key.
  7. To remove this filter from the table and then apply the filter to the top chart, click the x icon, as shown in the following figure.


    The filter in the chart persists as you select other keys in the Details section.

Add detail metrics to a chart

If you want to quickly monitor a set of detail metrics in a dashboard, without repeatedly performing the same drill-down steps, you can drill down on a metric when editing a chart in the Metric Explorer. Most charts can display up to 20 of the top detail metric values broken down by key. A key can be a client IP address, hostname, method, URI, referrer, or more. Table and list widgets can display up to 200 top detail metric values.

For example, a dashboard for monitoring web traffic might contain a chart displaying the total number of HTTP requests and responses. You can edit this chart to drill down on each metric by IP address to see the top talkers.

The following steps show you how to edit an existing chart and then drill down to display detail metrics:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Navigate to a dashboard or protocol page.
  3. Click the chart title and then select Edit.
  4. In the Details section, click Drill down by <None>, where <None> is the name of the drill-down metric key currently displayed in your chart.
  5. Select a key from the drop-down list.
    Note:If you have more than one source selected in your metric set, such as two devices, the sources are automatically combined into an ad hoc source group as you drill down. You cannot deselect the Combine Sources checkbox. To view drill-down metrics for each source, you must remove a source from the metric set and then click Add Source to create a new metric set.
    If detail metric data for a common key is available for all of the metrics in a metric set, the key for the detail metric automatically appears in the drop-down list, as shown in the following figure. If a key in the list is grayed out, the detail metric associated with that key is unavailable for all of the metrics in that metric set above. For example, client, server, and URI data are available for both HTTP Requests and HTTP Responses metrics in the metric set.

  6. You can filter keys with an approximate match, regular expression (regex), or exact match through one of the following steps:
    • In the Filter field, select the ā‰ˆ operator to display keys by an approximate match or with regex. You must omit forward slashes with regex in the approximate match filter.
      Note:The ā‰‰ filter option to exclude results is only available on detail pages. If you want to exclude results in a dashboard chart, create a regular expression (regex).
    • In the Filter field, select the = operator to display keys by an exact match.
  7. (Optional): In the top results field, enter the number of keys that you want to display. These keys will have the highest values.
  8. To remove a drill-down selection, click the x icon.
    Note:You can display an exact key match per metric, as shown in the following figure. Click the drill-down metric name (such as All Methods) to select a specific drill-down metric key (such as GET) from the drop-down list. If a key appears gray (such as PROPFIND), drill-down metric data is unavailable for that specific key. You can also type a key that is not in the drop-down list.

Display a rate or count in a chart

You can visualize errors, responses, requests, and other count metric data in a chart as a per second rate or as a total number of events over time. For high-precision Network Bytes and Network Packets metrics, you have the additional options to view the maximum, minimum, and average rate per second in a chart.

When editing a chart in the Metric Explorer, you can select a count or rate by clicking the drop-down link below the metric name, as shown in the following figure.

In addition, you can select from the following options for displaying rates and counts. Note that the type of metric you select affects which rate or count is automatically displayed.

Average rate
Calculates the average metric value per second for the selected time interval. For network-related metrics, such as Response L2 Bytes or NetFlow Bytes, the average rate per second is automatically displayed.
Count
Displays the total count of events for the selected time interval. For the majority of count metrics, such as errors, requests and responses, the count is automatically displayed.
Rate summary
Calculates the maximum, minimum, and average metric value per second. For high-precision metrics, such as Network Bytes and Network Packets, these three rates are automatically displayed in the chart as a summary. You can also select to view only the maximum, minimum, or average rate in a chart. High-precision metrics are collected with a 1-second level of granularity and are only available when you configure your chart with a network or device source.

Display the average rate in a chart

If you configured a chart with an error, response, request, or other type of count metric, then the total number of events over time is automatically displayed. You can further edit the chart to display an average rate per second for your data.

Before you begin

Create a chart and select a count metric, such as errors, requests, or responses, as your source. Save your chart to a dashboard.
The following steps show you how to add an average rate to an existing dashboard chart:
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Launch the Metric Explorer to edit the chart by completing the following steps:
    1. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the chart that you want to edit.
    2. Click the chart title and select Edit.
  4. Click Count below the metric name.
  5. Select Average Rate from the drop-down list.
    The unit "/s" is applied to metric units. You can toggle back to the count at any time.
  6. Click Save to close the Metric Explorer.
    Tip:When you select more than one count metric in a chart, avoid displaying rates and counts together in the same chart. It can skew the scale of the y-axis. The y-axis will include a "/s" on tick labels only if all metrics are displaying rates.

Display the maximum rate in a chart

To display a maximum rate per second of a metric in a chart, you must configure a chart with a high-precision metric.

The following steps show you how to configure a chart that displays a maximum rate:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Complete one of the following steps:
    • To create a new chart, click the command menu in the upper right corner of the page and then select Create chart.
    • To edit an existing chart, click Dashboards at the top of the page. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the chart that you want to edit. Click the chart title and select Edit.
  3. Click Add Source and select one of the following sources:
    • A network source that is not a flow network, such as a site.
    • A device, such as a server or client.
  4. Search for and select one of the following metrics:
    For a network source
    • Network Bytes (total throughput)
    • Network Packets (total packets)
    For a device source
    • Network Bytes (combined inbound and outbound throughput by device)
    • Network Bytes In (inbound throughput by device)
    • Network Bytes Out (outbound throughput by device)
    • Network Packets (combined inbound and outbound packets by device)
    • Network Packets In (inbound packets by device)
    • Network Packets Out (outbound packets by device)
  5. Select a chart type that is compatible with count metrics (includes line, value, column, bar, pie, and list charts).
    The default display for a high-precision metric is a rate summary that automatically displays the maximum, average, and minimum rate.
  6. Click Rate Summary below the metric name.
  7. Select Maximum Rate from the drop-down menu.
  8. Click Save to close the Metric Explorer.

Display percentiles or a mean in a chart

If you have a set of servers that are critical to your network, viewing the 95th percentile of server processing time in a chart can help you gauge how much servers are struggling. Percentiles are statistical measures that can show you how a data point compares to a total distribution over time.

You can only display percentile value and mean (average) calculations in charts that contain dataset or sampleset metrics. Dataset metrics are associated with timing and latency, such as server processing time and round trip time metrics. Sampleset metrics provide summaries of detail timing metrics, such as server processing time broken down by server, method, or URI.

When editing a chart in the Metric Explorer, you can select percentiles or the mean by clicking the drop-down link below the dataset or sampleset metric name, as shown in the following figure.

The Metric Explorer provides the following calculations for displaying percentiles and the mean.

Summary

For dataset metrics, the Summary is a range that includes the 95th, 75th, 50th, 25th, and 5th percentile values.

For example, each line in a candlestick chart contains five data points. If Summary is selected, the main body of the line represents the range from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile. The middle tick mark represents the 50th percentile (median). The upper shadow above the body line represents the 95th percentile. The lower shadow represents the 5th percentile.

For sampleset metrics, the Summary displays the +/-1 standard deviation and the mean values. In the candlestick chart, the vertical tick mark in the line represents the mean, and the upper and lower shadows represent the standard deviation values.

Mean
The calculated average of data.
Median
The 50th percentile value of a dataset metric.
Maximum
The 100th percentile value of a dataset metric.
Minimum
The 0th percentile value of a dataset metric.
Percentile
A custom range of three or five percentile values for a dataset metric.

Display a custom range of percentiles

You can display a custom range of three or five percentile values for server processing time or round trip time metrics. You cannot display custom percentiles in a pie or status chart.

The following steps show you how to add a custom percentile range to an existing dashboard chart:

Before you begin

Create a chart and select a dataset or sampleset metric, and save it to a dashboard.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Launch the Metric Explorer to edit the chart by completing the following steps:
    1. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the chart you want to edit.
    2. Click the chart title and select Edit.
  4. Click Summary below the metric name.
  5. Select Percentile... from the drop-down list.
  6. In the Set Percentiles field, type a number for each percentile value, separated by a comma. For example, to view the 10th, 30th, and 80th percentiles, type 10, 30, 80.
  7. Click Save. Your custom range is now displayed in the chart. You can toggle between your custom range and other percentile selections, such as Summary or Maximum, at any time.
  8. Click Save again to close the Metric Explorer.

Filter outliers in histogram or heatmap charts

Histogram and heatmap charts display a distribution of data. However, outliers can skew how the distribution displays in your chart, making it difficult to notice patterns or average values. The default filter option for these charts excludes outliers from the data range and displays the 5th-95th percentiles. You can change the filter to view the full range of data (minimums to maximums), including outliers, in your chart by completing the following procedure.

  1. Click the chart title and then select Edit to launch the Metric Explorer.
  2. Click the Options tab.
  3. From the Default filter drop-down list in the Filters section, select Min to Max.
  4. Click Save to close the Metric Explorer.

Edit metric labels in a chart legend

You can change the default metric label in a chart to a custom label. For example, you can change the default label, "Network Bytes," to a custom label such as "Throughput."

Custom labels only apply to individual charts. A custom label for a metric will persist if you copy the chart to another dashboard, share a dashboard with another user, or add new metrics to your chart.

However, if you make changes to the original metric, such as updating the data calculation (from median to 95th percentile, for example) or drilling down on the metric, the custom label will automatically clear. The label clears to prevent mislabeling or potential inaccuracy of the custom label when metric data changes.

Here are some considerations about changing the label of a chart legend:

  • For detail metrics, a custom label is automatically appended to all the keys displayed in the chart. However, you can change the order of the key in the label by including the variable, $KEY:
    • Type $KEY errors to display 172.21.1.1 errors
    • Type [$KEY] errors to display [172.21.1.1] errors
  • You cannot change labels in the box plot, candlestick, heatmap, table, or status charts.
  • You cannot rename metric delta or dynamic baseline labels.

Before you begin

Create a chart and select a metric.

The following steps show you how to change metric labels in an existing dashboard chart:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Launch the Metric Explorer to edit the chart by completing the following steps:
    1. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the chart that you want to edit.
    2. Click the chart title and select Edit.
  4. In the preview pane of the Metric Explorer, click the metric label.
  5. Select Rename from the drop-down menu.
  6. In the Display custom label field, type a new label.
    The label must be unique from other labels in the chart.
  7. Click Save, and then click Save again to close the Metric Explorer.
    The new label appears in your chart.

Add a dynamic baseline to a chart

Dynamic baselines help distinguish between normal and abnormal activity in your chart data. Baselines are only supported in the area, candlestick, column, line, and line & column charts.

The ExtraHop system calculates dynamic baselines based on historical data. To generate a new data point on a dynamic baseline, the system calculates the median value for a specified period of time.

Warning:Deleting or modifying a dynamic baseline can delete baseline data from the system. If a dynamic baseline is not referenced by any dashboards, the data will be deleted from the system to free unused system resources. You cannot recover a dynamic baseline after it is deleted.

Select a baseline type that best fits your environment. For example, if you regularly see dramatic changes from one day to another, select an hour-of-week baseline that compares activity seen on specific days of the week. If HTTP activity spikes on Saturdays, the hour-of-week baseline can help you compare the current spike in HTTP activity with the level seen on other Saturdays at the same hour. The following table describes how each type of baseline is calculated:

Baseline type Historical data What the baseline compares New baseline data points added
Hour of day 10 days Metric values from a given hour of a day. For example, every day at 2:00 PM. Every hour
Hour of week 5 weeks Metric values for a given hour on a specific day of the week. For example, every Wednesday at 2:00 PM. Every hour
Short-term trend 1 hour Metric values from each minute in one hour. Every 30 seconds

Here are some important considerations about adding a baseline to a chart:

  • Dynamic baselines calculate and store baseline data. Therefore, creating a baseline consumes system resources, and configuring too many baselines might degrade system performance.
  • Deleting or modifying a dynamic baseline can delete dynamic baseline data from the system.
  • Detail metrics, also referred to as topnsets, are unsupported. Sampleset, maximum rate, and minimum rate metrics are also unsupported. If any of these types of metrics are selected in your chart, you will be unable to generate a dynamic baseline for this data.
  • The system can begin building a dynamic baseline only if the necessary amount of historical data is available. For example, an Hour of day baseline requires 10 days of historical data. If the system has only been collecting data for six days, the baseline does not begin plotting until it has four more days worth of data.
  • The system does not retroactively plot a dynamic baseline for historical data. The system only plots a dynamic baseline for new data.
  • If two identical dynamic baselines exist in separate dashboards, the dashboards reuse the baseline data; however, the baselines must be identical. If you select a new baseline type, the new dynamic baseline will not share data with the previous dynamic baseline.

The following steps show you how to add a dynamic baseline to an existing dashboard chart:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Launch the Metric Explorer to edit the chart by completing the following steps:
    1. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the chart that you want to edit.
    2. Click the chart title and then select Edit.
  4. Click the Analysis tab.
  5. In the Dynamic Baselines section, select one of the following dynamic baseline type options:
    Option Description
    Hour of day Displays the median value for a given hour of the day. This option is most useful if activity in your environment usually follows a consistent daily pattern. If you regularly see dramatically different levels of activity on different days of the week, this option is less useful because the baseline usually does not match the current values.
    Hour of week Displays the median value for a given hour on a specific day of the week. This option is most useful if you regularly see significantly different levels of traffic during each day of the week.
    Short-term trend Displays the median value for the last hour. This option is useful for smoothing chart data to reveal short-term trends.
  6. Click Save to close the Metric Explorer and return to the dashboard.
    The ExtraHop system will begin calculating the dynamic baseline. New baseline data points are added every hour or 30 seconds, as shown in the following figure.

Add a static threshold line to a chart

Displaying a static threshold line in a chart can help you determine which data points are either below or above a significant value.

For example, you can create a line chart for server processing time to help you monitor the performance of an important database in your network environment. By adding a threshold line that defines a service level agreement (SLA) boundary of acceptable processing time, you can see when database performance is slowing down and address the issue.

You can add one or more threshold lines as you edit a chart with the Metric Explorer. These lines are local to the chart and not associated with other widgets or alerts. Threshold lines are only available for area, candlestick, column, line, line & column, and status charts.

The following steps show you how to add a static threshold line to an existing dashboard chart:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards.
  3. Launch the Metric Explorer to edit the chart by completing the following steps:
    1. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the chart that you want to edit.
    2. Click the chart title and then select Edit.
  4. Click the Analysis tab.
  5. In the Static Thresholds section, click Add Threshold Line.
  6. In the Value field, type a number that indicates the threshold value for the line. This value determines where the line appears on the y-axis of your chart.
    Note:For charts that display only count metrics (such as bytes, errors, and responses), the value of the threshold line automatically scales based on whether data is displayed as a rate or count. When data is only displayed as a count, the threshold line value automatically scales to the roll up period (either 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 1 hour, or 1 day). The data roll up period is determined by the time interval you select.
  7. In the Label field, type a name for your threshold line.
  8. In the Color field, select a color (gray, red, orange, or yellow) for your threshold line.
  9. Click Save to close the Metric Explorer.

Display device group members in a chart

If you have a chart that displays a device group, you can view metrics by top devices in the group, instead of viewing a single value for the entire device group. Drilling down by group member in the Metric Explorer lets you view up to 20 devices in the chart.

If you see fewer groups members in a chart than the number of results you specified, this could be because you selected a built-in device group with a small number of devices. For built-in device groups, devices are dynamically placed into a group based on the type of protocol traffic they are associated with or the role they are assigned.

Before you begin

Create a chart that contains a device group as the selected source. Save the chart to a dashboard.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Dashboards .
  3. Launch the Metric Explorer to edit the chart by completing the following steps:
    1. From the dashboard dock, select a dashboard containing the chart that you want to edit.
    2. Click the chart title and select Edit.
  4. In the Details field, click Drill down by <None>, where <None> is the name of the detail metric currently displayed in your chart. Then, select Group Member.
  5. In the top results field, enter the number of group members that you want to display. These devices will have the highest metric values. You can display up to 20 group members.
  6. Click Save to close the Metric Explorer.
    Note:If you drill down by group member, you cannot perform additional drill downs to see detail metrics for each device by a key. To see detail metrics by key for a device, we recommend creating another chart with specific devices selected as the source.

Regular expression filters

Filter your search results by writing regular expression (regex) strings in certain search fields throughout the ExtraHop system. For example, you can filter for parameters in a detail metric key, such as a number within an IP address. You can also filter by excluding specific keys or a combination of keys from charts.

Regex-capable search fields have visual indicators throughout the system and accept standard syntax.
Search fields with an asterisk
Click the asterisk to enable regex strings.

This type of field is available from the following system pages:
  • Filtering a table of devices
  • Creating filter criteria for a dynamic device group
Certain search fields with a trifield operator
Click the operator drop-down to select the regex option.

This type of field is available from the following system page:
  • Editing a chart in Metric Explorer
Certain search fields with a tooltip
Hover over the tooltip in the field to see when regex is required.

This type of field is available from the following system page:
  • Adding record relationships to a custom metric

The following table includes examples of standard regex syntax.

Chart Scenario Regex filter How it works
Compare HTTP status codes 200 to 404. (200|404) The vertical bar symbol ( | ) is the OR operator. This filter matches 200, or 404, or both status codes.
Display any HTTP status code that contains a 4. [41] Square brackets ( [ and ] ) designate a range of characters. The filter searches for every character inside the brackets, regardless of order. This filter matches any value that contains a 4 or a 1. For example, this filter can return 204, 400, 101, or 201 status codes.
Display all 500-level HTTP status codes. ^[5] The caret symbol ( ^ ) outside square brackets ( [ and ] ) means "starts with." This filter matches any value that begins with a 5. For example, this filter can return 500 and 502 status codes.
Display all 400 and 500-level HTTP status codes. ^[45] Multiple values inside square brackets ( [ and ] ) are searched individually, even when preceded by the caret symbol ( ^ ). This filter does not search for values that begin with 45, but matches all values that begin with a 4 or 5. For example, this filter can return 400, 403, and 500 status codes.
Display any HTTP status codes except 200-level status codes. ^(?!2) A question mark ( ? ) and exclamation point ( ! ) inside parentheses specify a value to exclude. This filter matches all values except values beginning with a 2. For example, this filter can return 400, 500, and 302 status codes.
Display any IP address with a 187. 187. Matches 1, 8, and 7 characters in the IP address. This filter will not return IP addresses that end in 187 because the trailing period designates that something must come after the values. If you want to search the period as a literal value, you must precede it with a backslash ( \ ).
Review all IP addresses containing 187.18. 187\.18. Matches 187.18 and anything that follows. The first period is treated literally because it is preceded by a backslash ( \ ). The second period is treated as a wildcard. For example, this filter returns results for 187.18.0.0, 180.187.0.0, or 187.180.0.0/16. This filter does not return an address that ends with 187.18, because the wildcard requires that characters follow the specified values.
Display any IP address except 187.18.197.150. ^(?!187\.18\.197\.150) Matches anything except 187.18.197.150, where ^(?!) specifies the value to exclude.
Exclude a list of specific IP addresses. ^(?!187\.18\.197\.15[012]) Matches anything except 187.18.197.150, 187.18.197.151, and 187.18.197.152, where ^(?!) specifies the value to exclude and the square brackets ( [ and ] ) specify multiple values.

Additional filters

When you create a custom detail metric from the Metric Catalog, you can add advanced regex syntax to the Additional Filters search field in the Record Relationships section.

The tooltip appears after you select Detail Metric and is not available when Base Metric is selected.

The regex syntax in this field must meet the following requirements:
  • If your key contains multiple values, your regex syntax must include a single capture group. A capture group is designated by parenthesis. Your capture group determines the filter value.

  • If you want to return a specific value from a detail metric key that contains multiple record field values, the regex must follow this syntax:

    $KEY:/<regex>/

    For example, if your detail metric key is ipaddr:host:cipher and you only want to return the IP address value, you would type the following:

    $KEY:/^([^:]+):.+/

  • If your key contains multiple record field values, the values are separated by a delimiter that is specified in the trigger that is generating the key. The placement of the delimiters in your regex syntax must match the delimiters in the detail key. For example, if you have a key with three values that are separated by a delimiter that is a colon, the three values for the key in your regex syntax must be separated by two colons.
Tip:If you want to return all record field values in a detail metric key, type $KEY. For example, if your detail metric key is ipaddr:host:cipher, type $KEY in the search field to return all three of those field record values (IP address, hostname, and SSL cipher suite).

Find all devices talking to external IP addresses

The following steps show you how to find all of the external IP addresses that your internal devices are talking to. You can then see if any devices are making or receiving unauthorized connections from other devices outside of your network.

Tip:By default, any device with an RFC1918 IP address (included in a 10/8, 172.16/12, or 192.168/16 CIDR block) that the ExtraHop system automatically discovers is classified as an internal device. Because some network environments include non-RFC1918 IP addresses as part of their internal network, you can specify the locality of an IP address on the Network Localities page.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click Assets at the top of the page.
    The Devices page appears, which lists all the protocols with traffic in the selected time interval.
  3. From Devices by Protocol Activity, click the number of TCP devices.
    At the top of the page, the External Accepted and External Connected metrics display how many IP addresses outside of your internal network are actively connected to all of your network devices.
  4. Click the blue metric value for either metric.
  5. In the Drill Down byā€¦ section, select Group Member. A detail metric page appears and shows all of the names of your network devices and the number of connections to external IP addresses.
  6. Click on a device name that you want to investigate. A protocol page for that device appears, which contains metrics related to the device.

Monitor a device for external IP address connections

If you have an authentication server or database that should not connect to IP addresses outside of your internal network, you can create a value chart in a dashboard that tracks External Accepted and External Connected metrics. From your dashboard, you can then monitor the number of external connections for a specific device.

Tip:By default, any device with an RFC1918 IP address (included in a 10/8, 172.16/12, or 192.168/16 CIDR block) that the ExtraHop system automatically discovers is classified as an internal device. Because some network environments include non-RFC1918 IP addresses as part of their internal network, you can specify the locality of an IP address on the Network Localities page.

The following steps show you how to create a value chart for these TCP metrics and then add the chart to a dashboard.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click Assets at the top of the page.
  3. Click Devices in the left pane.
  4. Find a device and then click the device name.
  5. Click TCP in the left pane. In the Total Connections chart in the upper left corner, the External Accepted and External Connected metrics display how many IP addresses outside of your internal network are connected to the device.
  6. Click the Total Connections chart title.
  7. From the drop-down menu, select Create chart fromā€¦. The Metric Explorer opens with the device and TCP metrics already selected in the chart.
  8. At the bottom of the Metric Explorer, click the Value chart.
  9. In the left pane in the Metric section, click the x icon to delete each TCP metric that you do not want to view in the chart, as shown in the following figure.


    Your dashboard now contains metrics that help you track the ratio of all accepted connections to external accepted connections, and the ratio of all initiated connections to external initiated connections.
  10. (Optional): Make additional edits to the chart with the Metric Explorer.
  11. Click Add to Dashboard and complete one of the following options:
    • Select the name of an existing dashboard from the list. The dashboard list is ordered from the most recently created dashboards (at the bottom) to the oldest dashboards (at the top).
    • Select Create Dashboard. In the Dashboard Properties window, type a name for the new dashboard and then click Create.
  12. (Optional): Make additional edits to the dashboard layout.
  13. Click Exit Layout Mode. Your dashboard is complete.

Compare time intervals to find the metric delta

Comparing metric data between two time intervals helps you see the difference, or the delta, in metric data side-by-side in the same chart. If you create a comparison and navigate to another area of the ExtraHop system, the comparison is disabled temporarily. When you return to your original page, the comparison you saved is enabled again.

  1. Find a chart with the metrics that you want to compare.
  2. In the upper left hand corner of the navigation bar, click the time interval.
  3. In the Time Interval tab, click Compare.
  4. In the Previous Interval (Comparison) section, select the time interval to compare with the current time interval.
  5. Click Save. New metric data from the comparison time interval is placed on the original chart.
  6. To remove the comparison, complete the following steps:
    1. Click the time interval.
    2. Click Remove Comparison.
    3. Click Save.
    Note:Dynamic baselines will not appear on a chart when you are comparing time intervals.

Sort metrics

On an application protocol page, if a metrics section on a protocol page contains a gear icon in the upper right corner, the metrics in that section can be sorted by key or value.

  1. Navigate to a protocol page by clicking Assets and then select an application.
  2. Click the gear icon.
  3. Select Sort by Key or Sort by Value.

Create a chart from a protocol page

Protocol pages contain a large amount of metrics and data. While you cannot modify the charts on protocol pages, you can create a copy of an interesting chart on a protocol page and then add the copied chart to a dashboard. Your dashboard can be then modified and shared with other team members.

  1. Click Assets and then select a source in the left pane.
  2. Find the chart that you want to copy. Click the chart title and select Create Chart. The Metric Explorer opens with the source and metric selected.
    Note:If you find a chart on an Application or Network Capture page, click Create Chart in the upper right corner of the page.
  3. Edit the chart as needed.
  4. Click Add to Dashboard:
    • Select Create Dashboard to create a dashboard, and then click Create.
    • Select an existing dashboard from the list, and then click Close.

Assets

All of the metric activity collected from the data on your network is logically grouped into sections on the Assets page, where you can navigate to find the data you need.

Devices

Devices, also known as assets and endpoints, are objects on your network with a MAC address or IP address that have been automatically discovered and classified by the ExtraHop system. Assign any device to a chart, alert, or trigger as a metric source. Learn more about Devices.

Device Groups

Device groups are user-defined sets of devices that can be collectively assigned as a metric source to a chart, alert, or trigger. You can create a dynamic device group that adds devices that matches your specified criteria or you can create a static device group and manually add or remove devices. The ExtraHop system also includes built-in dynamic device groups by role and by protocol activity that you can assign as a metric source. Click a role or protocol link from the Devices page to view metrics for a built-in device group.

Users

The Users page displays a list of all active users found on your network and the devices the user logged in to. The user name is extracted from the authentication protocol, such as LDAP or Active Directory. Search for devices accessed by a specific user.

Note:These users are not associated with user accounts for the ExtraHop system.

Applications

Applications are user-defined containers that represent distributed systems on your network. Create an application to view all of the metric activity associated with your website trafficā€”web transactions, DNS requests and responses, and database transactions. See the Applications FAQ.

Basic applications that filter built-in metrics by protocol activity can be created through the ExtraHop system. Complex applications that collect custom metrics or metrics from non-L7 traffic must be created through a trigger, which requires JavaScript code. Learn more about building Triggers.

Networks

Networks are sites and flow networks from which the ExtraHop system collects and analyzes data. Sites include packet sensors and flow sensors. Click an entry to see the VLANs associated with a site, or click an entry to see the interfaces associated with a flow network.

Devices

The ExtraHop system automatically discovers and classifies devices, also known as endpoints, that are actively communicating over your network, such as clients, servers, routers, load balancers, and gateways. Each device receives the highest level of analysis available, based on your system configuration.

The ExtraHop system can discover and track devices by their MAC address (L2 Discovery) or by their IP addresses (L3 Discovery). Enabling L2 Discovery offers the advantage of tracking metrics for a device even if the IP address is changed or reassigned through a DHCP request. If L3 Discovery is enabled, it is important to know that devices might not have a one-to-one correlation to the physical devices in your environment. For example, if a single physical device has multiple active network interfaces, that device is identified as multiple devices by the ExtraHop system.

After a device is discovered, the ExtraHop system begins to collect metrics based on the analysis level configured for that device. The analysis level determines the types of metrics that are generated and which features are available for organizing metric data.

Click Assets from the top menu and then click Devices to display the following charts that provide insight about the active devices discovered on your network during the selected time interval:

Active Devices
Displays the total number of devices that have been discovered by the ExtraHop system. Click the number to view a list of all discovered devices. From the Active Devices list, you can search for specific devices or click a device name to view device details on the Device Overview page.
New Devices
Displays the number of devices that have been discovered within the past month and the percentage rate of change. Click the number to view a list of all of these devices.
Devices by Role
Displays each device role and the number of devices assigned to each role that is active during the specified time interval. Click a device role to see a built-in Device Group Overview page that includes metric data, peer IPs, and protocol activity for that group of devices. You can also add additional filter criteria and save the group as a new dynamic device group.
Devices by Protocol Activity
Displays a list of protocol activity found on your network. Click a protocol name or device count to see a built-in Device Group Overview page with specific metric charts about that protocol activity. Click an activity map to see all device-to-device connections. You can also add additional filter criteria and save the group as a new dynamic device group.

Device Overview page

By clicking on a device name, you can view all of the information discovered about the device by the ExtraHop system on the Device Overview page. The Device Overview page is divided into three sections: a top-level summary, a properties panel, and an activity panel.

Device summary

The device summary provides information such as the device name, the current IP address or MAC address, and the role assigned to the device. If viewing from a console, the name of the site associated with the device is also displayed.

  • Click Records to start a record query that is filtered by this device.
  • Click Packets to start a packet query that is filtered by this device.
Device properties

The device properties section provides the following known attributes and assignments for the device.

High Value Device
A high value icon appears if the ExtraHop system observed the device providing authentication or essential services; you can also manually specify a device as high value. Risk scores are increased for detections on high value devices.
IP Addresses
A list of IP addresses observed on the device at any time during the selected time interval. If L2 Discovery is enabled, the list might display both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses that are simultaneously observed on the device, or the list might display multiple IP addresses assigned through DHCP requests at different times. A timestamp indicates when the IP address was last observed on the device. Click an IP address to view other devices where the IP address has been seen.
Associated IP Addresses
A list of IP addresses, usually outside of the network, that are associated with the device at any time during the selected time interval. For example, a VPN client on your network might be associated with an external IP address on the public internet. A timestamp indicates when the IP address was last associated with the device. Click an associated IP address to view details such as the geographic location and other devices the IP address has been associated with.
Cloud Instance Properties

The following cloud instance properties appear for the device when you configure the properties through the REST API:

  • Cloud Account
  • Cloud Instance Type
  • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
  • Subnet
  • Cloud Instance Name (appears in the Known Alias property)
  • Cloud Instance Description (instance metadata appears automatically for devices in Flow Analysis)

See Add cloud instance properties through the ExtraHop API Explorer for more information.

Users
A list of authenticated users logged into the device. Click a user name to go to the Users page and view which other devices the user is logged into.
Known Aliases
A list of alternative device names and the source program or protocol.
Note:Multiple DNS names are supported.
Hardware and Software
The hardware or vendor make and model of the device and any operating systems running on the device.

The ExtraHop system observes the network traffic on devices to automatically determine the vendor make and model, or you can manually assign a new make and model.

Tip:(CrowdStrike integration on Reveal(x) 360 only) Click links from CrowdStrike devices to view device details in CrowdStrike Falcon and initiate containment of CrowdStrike devices that are participants in a security detection.
Tags
The tags assigned to the device. Click a tag name to view the other devices that the tag is assigned to.
First and Last Seen
The timestamps from when the device was first discovered and when activity was last observed on the device. NEW appears if the device was discovered within the last five days
Analysis
The level of analysis that this device receives.

Here are some ways you can view and modify device properties:

  • Click View Groups to view the device group membership for the device.
  • Click Edit Properties to view or modify device properties such as device role, device group memberships, or device tags.
  • Click Edit Assignments to view or modify which alerts and triggers are assigned to the device.
Device activity

The device activity section provides information about how the device is communicating with other devices and which detections and alerts are associated with the device.

  • Click Traffic to view charts for protocol and peer data, and then drill down on metrics in traffic charts.
    Note:Traffic charts are not available if the device analysis level is Discovery Mode. To enable traffic charts for the device, elevate the device to Advanced Analysis or Standard Analysis.
  • Click Detections to view a list of detections, and then click a detection name to view detection details.
  • Click Similar Devices to view a list of devices with similar network traffic behavior observed by machine-learning analysis. Similar devices can help you gain insight into normal device behavior when threat hunting. This tab is only displayed if there are similar devices associated with the device.
  • Click Alerts to view a list of alerts, and then click an alert name to view alert details. This tab is only displayed if there are alerts associated with the device.
  • Click Peer Devices to view an activity map, which is a visual representation of the L4-L7 protocol activity between devices in your network. To modify the activity map with additional filters and steps, click Open Activity Map.
Tip:You can bookmark the Device Overview page to a specific activity view by setting the tab URL parameter to one of the following values:
  • tab=traffic
  • tab=detections
  • tab=alerts
  • tab=peers

For example, the following URL always displays detection activity for the specified device:

https://example-eda/extrahop/#/metrics/devices//0026b94c03810000/overview/&tab=detections

Device metrics

Metrics are real-time measurements of your network traffic that the ExtraHop system calculates from network or flow data. Metrics collected from device traffic can be viewed in built-in charts and graphs from a device page.

Click a built-in metric page from the left pane to view top-level device metrics or client and server metrics by protocol. Click a chart to drill down to detail metric pages, which display metric values for a specific key (such as a client or server IP address).

In addition to network and TCP built-in pages, devices display built-in metric pages for associated cloud services if data is available. See the Protocol Metrics Reference for more information about what data is available on built-in device pages.

The ExtraHop system provides thousands of built-in metrics. Here are some ways you can gain further insight about your devices

IP address details

Type an IP address in the global search field or click an IP address link from a Device Overview page to view details about an IP address.

The following information appears for an IP address seen on a device:

  • Each device where the IP address is currently observed, regardless of the selected time interval.
  • Each device where the IP address was previously observed within the selected time interval, including the timestamp from when the IP address was last seen on the device.

If L2 Discovery is enabled, both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses might be simultaneously observed on the device, or different IP addresses might be assigned to the device by DHCP over time.

The following information appears for an IP address associated with a device:

  • The geolocation of the IP address and links to the ARIN Whois website.
  • Each device where the associated IP address was seen outside of the network at any time during the selected time interval. For example, a VPN client on your network might be associated with an external IP address on the public internet.
  • Any cloud services associated with the IP address.
  • The IP address of the device as seen by the ExtraHop system on your network.
  • The timestamp when the associated IP address was last seen on the device.

Here are some ways you can view additional IP address and device information:

  • Hover over a device name to view device properties.
  • Click a device name to view the Device Overview page.
  • Click Search for Records to start a record query that is filtered by the IP .
  • Click Search for Packets to start a packet query that is filtered by this device.

Grouping devices

Both custom devices and device groups are ways that you can aggregate your device metrics. Custom devices are user-created devices that collect metrics based on specified criteria, while device groups gather metrics for all of the specified devices in a group. With device groups, you can still view metrics for each individual device or group member. The metrics for a custom device are collected and displayed as if for a single deviceā€”you cannot view individual device metrics.

Both device groups and custom devices can dynamically aggregate metrics based on your specified criteria. We recommend selecting reliable criteria, such as the device IP address, MAC address, VLAN, tag, or type. While you can select devices by their name, if the DNS name is not automatically discovered, the device is not added.

Ā  Device Groups Custom Devices
Criteria
  • Device names and aliases
  • IP address, MAC address, subnet
  • Source and destination port
  • Discovery time
  • Device criticality
  • Device role
  • Protocol activity
  • External connections
  • Vendor, model, software
  • Cloud instance properties
  • VLAN
  • Device tags
  • IP address
  • Bidirectional, inbound, or outbound traffic
  • Peer IP address
  • Source port
  • Destination port
  • VLAN
Performance cost Comparatively low. Because device groups only combine metrics that have already been calculated, there is a relatively low effect on metric collection. However, a high number of device groups with a large number of devices and complex criteria will take more time to process. Comparatively high. Because the metrics for custom devices are aggregated based on user-defined criteria, large numbers of custom devices, or custom devices with extremely broad criteria, require more processing. Custom devices also increase the number of system objects to which metrics are committed.
View individual device metrics Yes No
Best practices Create for local devices where you want to view and compare the metrics in a single chart. Device groups can be set as a metric source. Create for devices that are outside of your local network, or for types of traffic that you want to organize as a single source. For example, you might want to define all physical interfaces on a server as a single custom device to better view metrics for that server as a whole.

Custom devices

Custom devices enable you to collect metrics for devices that are outside of your local network or when you have a group of devices that you want to aggregate metrics for as a single device. These devices can even be different physical interfaces that are located on the same device; aggregating the metrics for these interfaces can make it easier to understand how heavily taxed your physical resources are as a whole, rather than by interface.

You might create a custom device to track individual devices outside of your local broadcast domain or to collect metrics about several known IP addresses or CIDR blocks from a remote site or cloud service. You can collect remote site metrics for custom devices to learn how remote locations consume services and to gain visibility into traffic between remote sites and a data center. See the Protocol Metrics Reference for a full list of remote site metrics and descriptions.

After you create a custom device, all of the metrics associated with the IP addresses and ports are aggregated into a single device that collects L2-L7 metrics. A single custom device counts as one device towards your licensed capacity for Advanced Analysis or Standard Analysis, which enables you to add a custom device to the watchlist. Any triggers or alerts are also assigned to the custom device as a single device.

While custom devices aggregate metrics based on their defined criteria, the metric calculations are not treated the same as for discovered devices. For example, you might have a trigger assigned to a custom device that commits records to a recordstore. However, the custom device is not shown as either a client or a server in any transaction records. The ExtraHop system populates those attributes with the device that corresponds to the conversation on the wire data.

Custom devices can affect the overall system performance, so you should avoid the following configurations:

  • Avoid creating multiple custom devices for the same IP addresses or ports. Custom devices that are configured with overlapping criteria might degrade system performance.
  • Avoid creating a custom device for a broad range of IP addresses or ports, which might degrade system performance.

If a large number of custom devices is affecting your system performance, you can delete or disable a custom device. The unique Discovery ID for the custom device always remains in the system. See Create a custom device to monitor remote office traffic to familiarize yourself with custom devices.

Device groups

A device group is a user-defined collection that can help you track metrics across multiple devices that are typically grouped by shared attributes such as protocol activity.

You can create a static device group that requires you to manually add or remove a device from the group. Or, you can create a dynamic device group that includes criteria that determines which devices are automatically included in the group. For example, you can create a dynamic device group based on the device discovery time that adds devices that are discovered during a specific time interval.

By default, the Device Group page includes the following dynamic device groups that you can overwrite or delete:

New Devices (Last 24 Hours)
Includes assets and endpoints that were first seen by the ExtraHop system over the last 24 hours.
New Devices (Last 7 Days)
Includes assets and endpoints that were first seen by the ExtraHop system over the last 7 days.

The ExtraHop system also includes built-in dynamic device groups by role and by protocol. You can assign built-in device groups as a metric source for objects such as charts, alerts, triggers, and activity maps. You cannot overwrite or delete a built-in device group, but you can add filter criteria and save it as a new device group.

From the Devices page, click a device count for a role or protocol, such as Domain Controller or CIFS clients, to view the Device Group Overview page. Clicking the filter at the top of the page enables you to add additional criteria and update the page data on demand instead of requiring you to create a device group.

There is no performance impact to collecting metrics with device groups. However, we recommend that you prioritize these groups by their importance to make sure that the right devices receive the highest level of analysis.

Device groups are a good choice when you have devices that you want to collectively apply as a source. For example, you could collect and display metrics for all of your high-priority production web servers in a dashboard.

By creating a device group, you can manage all of those devices as a single metric source instead of adding them to your charts as individual sources. However, note that any assigned triggers or alerts are assigned to each group member (or individual device).

Device names and roles

After a device is discovered, the ExtraHop system tracks all of the traffic associated with the device to determine the device name and role.

Device names

The ExtraHop system discovers device names by passively monitoring naming protocols, including DNS, DHCP, NETBIOS, and Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).

If a name is not discovered through a naming protocol, the default name is derived from device attributes, such as MAC addresses and IP addresses. For some devices discovered on flow sensors, the ExtraHop system assigns names based on the role of the device such as Internet Gateway or Amazon DNS Server. You can also create a custom name or set a cloud instance name for a device.

A device can be identified by multiple names, which appear as Known Aliases on the Device Overview page. If a device has multiple names, the order of priority for the default display name is the custom name followed by the cloud instance name, the DHCP name, the public DNS name, and then other naming protocols. You can search by any name to find a device.

Note:Custom names are not synchronized across connected ExtraHop systems. For example, a custom name created on a sensor is not available from a connected console.

If a device name does not include a hostname, the ExtraHop system has not yet observed naming protocol traffic associated with that device. The ExtraHop system does not perform DNS lookups for device names.

Device roles

Based on the type of traffic associated with the device or the device model, the ExtraHop system automatically assigns a role to the device, such as a gateway, file server, database, or load balancer. The Other role gets assigned to devices that cannot be identified.

A device can only be assigned one role at a time. You can manually change a device role, or the ExtraHop system might re-assign a different role if observed traffic and behavior changes. For example, if a PC has been repurposed into a Web server, you might change the role immediately, or the change might be observed over time and the role updated by the system.

The ExtraHop system identifies the following roles:

Icon Role Description
Custom Device A user-created device that collects metrics based on specified criteria. The ExtraHop system automatically assigns this role when you create a custom device. You cannot manually assign the Custom role to a device.
Database A device that primarily hosts a database instance.
DHCP Server A device that primarily processes DHCP server activity.
DNS Server A device that primarily processes DNS server activity.
Domain Controller A device that acts as a domain controller for Kerberos, CIFS, and MSRPC server activity.
File Server A device that responds to read and write requests for files over NFS and CIFS/SMB protocols.
Firewall A device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and blocks traffic according to security rules. The ExtraHop system does not automatically assign this role to devices.
Gateway A device that acts as a router or gateway. The ExtraHop system looks for devices associated with a large amount of unique IP addresses (past a certain threshold) when identifying gateways. Gateway device names include the router name such as Cisco B1B500. Unlike other L2 parent devices, you can add a gateway device to the watchlist for Advanced Analysis.
IP Camera A device that sends image and video data through the network. The ExtraHop system assigns this role based on the device model.
Load Balancer A device that acts as a reverse proxy for distributing traffic across multiple servers.
Medical Device A device designed for healthcare needs and medical environments. The ExtraHop system might assign this role if a device is a known medical make and model or if the device processes DICOM traffic.
Mobile Device A device that has a mobile operating system installed, such as iOS or Android.
NAT Gateway A device that acts as a Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway. The ExtraHop system might assign this role if a device is associated with four or more OS fingerprint families or with four or more hardware or vendor makes and models. After a device is assigned this role, device properties for software, hardware make and model, and authenticated users no longer appear for the device.
PC A device such as a laptop, desktop, Windows VM, or macOS device that processes DNS, HTTP, and SSL client traffic.
Printer A device that enables users to print text and graphics from other connected devices. The ExtraHop system assigns this role based on the device model or on traffic observed over mDNS (multicast DNS).
VoIP Phone A device that manages voice over IP (VoIP) phone calls.
VPN Client An internal device that communicates with a remote IP address. If VPN client discovery is enabled, the ExtraHop system automatically assigns this role to internal devices communicating with remote IP addresses through a VPN gateway. You cannot manually assign the VPN Client role to a device.
VPN Gateway A device that connects two or more VPN devices or networks together to bridge remote connections. The ExtraHop system assigns this role to devices with a large number of external VPN peers if automatic classification for this role is enabled in the running configuration.
Vulnerability Scanner A device that runs vulnerability scanner programs.
Web Proxy Server A device that processes HTTP requests between a device and another server.
Web Server A device that primarily hosts web resources and responds to HTTP requests.
Wi-Fi Access Point A device that creates a wireless local area network and projects a wireless network signal to a designated area. The ExtraHop system assigns this role based on the device model.

Find a device

The ExtraHop system automatically discovers devices such as clients, servers, routers, load balancers, and gateways that are actively communicating with other devices over the wire. You can search for a specific device on the system and then view traffic and protocol metrics on a protocol page.

You can search for devices from the global search field at the top of the page. Global search compares a search term to multiple device properties such as the hostname, IP address, known alias, vendor, tag, description, and device group. For example, if you search for the term vm, the search results might display devices that include vm in the device name, device vendor, or device tag.

  1. Type a search term in the global search field at the top of the page.
  2. Click Any Type and then select Devices.
    The search results are displayed in a list below the search field. Click More Results to scroll through the list.

    Matching devices with no activity during the specified time interval have an Inactive label.

    Tip:Devices inactive for more than 90 days are excluded from global search results. However, you can immediately exclude all devices that have been inactive for fewer than 90 days through the Administration settings.
  3. Click a device name to open the Device Overview page and view device properties and metrics.

Search for a device by details

You can search for devices by information observed over the wire, such as IP address, MAC address, hostname, or protocol activity. You can also search for devices by customized information such as device tags.

The trifield search filter enables you to search by multiple categories at once. For example, you can add filters for device name, IP address, and role to view results for devices that match all of the specified criteria.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. Click Devices in the left pane, and then click the Active Devices chart.
  4. In the trifield filter, click Name and select one of the following categories:
    Option Description
    Name Filters devices by the discovered device name. For example, a discovered device name can include the IP address or hostname.
    MAC Address Filters devices by the device MAC address.
    IP Address Filters devices by IP address in IPv4, IPv6, or CIDR block formats.
    Site Filters devices associated with a connected site.

    Console only.

    Discovery Time Filters devices automatically discovered by the ExtraHop system within the specified time interval. For more information, see Create a device group based on discovery time.
    Analysis Level Filters devices by analysis level, which determines what data and metrics are collected for a device.

    You cannot create a dynamic device group for devices filtered by analysis level.

    Model Filters devices by make and model name. The following tips can help you find the device model you want:
    • Select the exact match operator (=) to view a drop-down list of existing models and model sets.
    • Select the exact match operator (=) and then select Custom Models to filter all devices assigned to a custom model set.
    Activity Filters devices by protocol activity associated with the device. For example, selecting HTTP Server returns devices with HTTP server metrics, and any other device with a device role set to HTTP Server.

    Also filters devices that accepted or initiated an external connection, which can help you determine whether devices are engaged in suspicious activity.

    Cloud Account Filters devices by the cloud service account associated with the device.
    Cloud Instance ID Filters devices by the cloud instance ID associated with the device.
    Cloud Instance Type Filters devices by the cloud instance type associated with the device.
    High Value Filters devices that are considered high value because they provide authentication services, support essential services on your network, or are user-specified as high value.
    Currently Active Filters devices by activity observed on a device in the last 30 minutes.
    Role Filters devices by the assigned device role, such as gateway, firewall, load balancer, and DNS Server.
    Software Filters devices by operating system software detected on the device.
    Subnet Filters devices by the subnet associated with the device.
    Tag Filters devices by user-defined device tags.
    Vendor Filters devices by the device vendor name, as determined by the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) lookup.
    Virtual Private Cloud Filters devices by the VPC associated with the device.
    VLAN Filters devices by the device VLAN tag. VLAN information is extracted from VLAN tags, if the traffic mirroring process preserves them on the mirror port.

    Only available if the devices_accross_vlans setting is set to False in the Running Config file.

    CDP Name Filters devices by the CDP name assigned to the device.
    Cloud Instance Name Filters devices by the cloud instance name assigned to the device.
    Custom Name Filters devices by the custom name assigned to the device.
    DHCP Name Filters devices by the DHCP name assigned to the device.
    DNS Name Filters devices by any DNS name assigned to the device.
    NetBIOS Name Filters devices by the NetBIOS name assigned to the device.
  5. Select one of the following operators; the operators available are determined by the selected category:
    Option Description
    = Filters devices that are an exact match of the search field for the selected category.
    ā‰  Filters devices that do not exactly match the search field.
    ā‰ˆ Filters devices that include the value of the search field for the selected category.
    ā‰ˆ/ Filters devices that exclude the value of the search field for the selected category.
    starts with Filters devices that start with the value of the search field for the selected category.
    exists Filters devices that have a value for the selected category.
    does not exist Filters devices that do not have a value for the selected category.
  6. In the search field, type the string to be matched, or select a value from the drop-down list. The input type is based on the selected category.
    For example, if you want to find devices based on Name, type the string to be matched in the search field. If you want to find devices based on Role, select from the drop-down list of roles.
    Tip:Depending on the selected category, you can click the Regex icon in the text field to enable matching by regular expression.

  7. Click Add Filter.
    The devices list is filtered to the specified criteria.

Next steps

  • Click a device name to view device properties and metrics on the Device Overview page.
  • Click Create Dynamic Group from the upper right corner to create a dynamic device group based on the filter criteria.
  • Click the command menu and then select PDF or CSV to export the device list to a file.

Search for devices by protocol activity

The Devices page displays all protocols that are actively communicating on the ExtraHop system during the selected time interval. You can quickly locate a device that is associated with a protocol, or discover a decommissioned device that is still actively communicating over a protocol.

In the following example, we show you how to search for a web server within the group of HTTP servers.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. From the Devices by Protocol Activity chart, click the number of HTTP servers, as shown in the following figure.
    Note:If you do not see the protocol you want, the ExtraHop system might not have observed that type of protocol traffic over the wire during the specified time interval, or the protocol might require a module license. For more information, see the I don't see the protocol traffic I was expecting? section in the License FAQ.
    The page displays traffic and protocol metrics associated with the group of HTTP servers.
  4. At the top of the page, click Group Members.
    The page displays a table that contains all of the devices that sent HTTP responses over the wire during the selected time interval.
  5. From the table, click a device name.
    The page displays traffic and protocol metrics associated with that device, similar to the following image.

Search for devices accessed by a specific user

From the Users page, you can see active users and the devices they have logged in to the ExtraHop system during the specified time interval.

Tip:You can also search for users from the global search field at the top of the page.

This procedure shows you how to perform a search from the Users page.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. Click Users in the left pane.
  4. From the search bar, select one of the following categories from the drop-down list:
    Option Description
    User Name Search by user name to learn which devices the user has accessed. The user name is extracted from the authentication protocol, such as LDAP or Active Directory.
    Protocol Search by protocol to learn which users have accessed devices communicating over that protocol.
    Device Name Search by device name to learn which users have accessed the device.
  5. Select one of the following operators from the drop-down list:
    Option Description
    = Search for a name or device that is an exact match of the text field.
    ā‰  Search for names or devices that do not exactly match the text field.
    ā‰ˆ (default) Search for a name or device that includes the value of the text field.
    ā‰ˆ/ Search for a name or device that excludes the value of the text field.
  6. In the text field, type the name of the user or device you want to match or exclude.
    The Users page displays a list of results similar to the following figure:

  7. Click the name of a device to open the Device Overview page and view all of the users that have accessed the device during the specified time interval.

Search for peer devices

If you want to know which devices are actively talking to each other, you can drill down by Peer IPs from a device or device group protocol page.

When you drill down by Peer IP address, you can investigate a list of peer devices, view performance or throughput metrics associated with peer devices, and then click on a peer device name to view additional protocol metrics.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets and then select Device or Device Group in the left pane.
  3. Search for a device or device group, and then click the name from the list of results.
  4. On the Overview page for the selected device or device group, click one of the following links:
    Option Description
    For devices Click View More Peer IPs, located at the bottom of the Top Peers chart.

    For device groups Click Peer IPs, located in the Details section near the upper right corner of the page.

    A list of peer devices appears, which are broken down by IP address. You can investigate network bytes and packets information for each peer device, as shown in the following figure.

Change a device name

The ExtraHop system automatically names devices by passively monitoring naming protocol traffic (DNS, DHCP, NETBIOS, CDP). If naming protocol traffic is not observed for a device, the device name displays either the IP address or the MAC address. In either condition, you can change the automatic device name to a custom name. The custom name will appear throughout the ExtraHop system.

Here are some important considerations about changing a device name:
  • Custom names are not synchronized across connected ExtraHop systems. For example, a custom name created on a sensor is not available from a connected console.
  • The ExtraHop system does not perform DNS lookups for device names. The ExtraHop system derives the DNS name for a device by observing DNS traffic over wire data. For more information, see Device discovery.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. Click Devices in the left pane, and then click the Active Devices chart.
  4. Filter the device list to find the device you want and then click the device name.
    The Device Overview page appears, which displays traffic and protocol activity for the selected device.
  5. Click Edit Properties.
  6. Click Display custom name.
  7. Type a custom name in the field.
  8. Click Save.

Change a device role

The ExtraHop system automatically discovers and classifies devices on your network based on the protocol activity or device model and assigns a role to each device, such as a gateway, file server, database, or load balancer. You can change the role assigned to a device at anytime.

Here are some important considerations about changing a device role:
  • After you change the device role, the device might be removed from or added to dynamic device groups that include a device role as criteria.
  • Device role changes are not synchronized across connected ExtraHop systems. For example, if you change a device role on a sensor, the role is not changed from a connected console.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. Click Devices in the left pane, and then click the Active Devices chart.
  4. Filter the device list to find the device you want and then click the device name.
    The Device Overview page appears, which displays traffic and protocol activity for the selected device.
  5. Click Edit Properties .
  6. In the Device Role section, click the drop-down list, and then click one of the following roles:
    Role Description
    Auto Assign the role that the ExtraHop system identified for the device, which appears in parentheses.
    Database Assign to a device that hosts a database instance.
    DHCP Server Assign to a device whose main function is processing DHCP server activity.
    DNS Server Assign to a device whose main function is processing DNS server activity.
    Domain Controller Assign to a device that acts as a domain controller for Kerberos, CIFS, and MSRPC server activity.
    File Server Assign to a device that responds to read and write requests for files over NFS and CIFS/SMB protocols.
    Firewall Assign to a device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and blocks traffic according to security rules.
    Gateway Assign to a device that acts as a router or gateway.
    IP Camera

    Assign to a device that sends image and video data through the network, such as security cameras.

    Load Balancer Assign to a device that acts as a reverse proxy for distributing traffic across multiple servers.
    Medical Device Assign to a device that is specifically designed for healthcare needs and medical environments.
    Mobile Device Assign to a device that has a mobile operating system installed, such as iOS or Android.
    NAT Gateway Assign to a device that acts as a Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway. A NAT gateway is typically associated with four or more OS fingerprint families or with four or more hardware or vendor makes and models. After a device is assigned this role, device properties for software, hardware make and model, and authenticated users no longer appear for the device.
    PC Assign to a device such as a laptop, desktop, Windows VM, or macOS device.
    Printer Assign to a device that enables users to print text and graphics from other connected devices.
    VoIP Phone Assign to a device that manages voice over IP (VoIP) phone calls.
    VPN Gateway Assign to a device that connects two or more VPN devices or networks together to bridge remote connections.
    Vulnerability Scanner Assign to a device that runs vulnerability scanner programs.
    Web Proxy Server Assign to a device that processes HTTP requests between a device and another server.
    Web Server Assign to a device that hosts web resources and responds to HTTP requests.
    Wi-Fi Access Point Assign to a device that creates a wireless local area network and projects a wireless network signal to a designated area.
    Other Assign to a device when the device activity does not clearly identify a single role.
  7. Click Save.

Change a device model

The ExtraHop system observes the network traffic on devices to automatically determine the vendor make and model, but you can manually change the device model.

Here are some important considerations about changing a device model:

  • Devices are automatically added and removed from dynamic device groups with criteria based on device models.
  • You can change a device model from sensors and consoles. When the device is updated on a console, the change is synchronized to connected sensors. However, the change is not synchronized from individual sensors to the connected console.

Before you begin

You must have full write privileges or higher.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. Click Devices in the left pane, and then click the Active Devices chart.
  4. Filter the device list to find the device you want and then click the device name.
    The Device Overview page appears, which displays traffic and protocol activity for the selected device.
  5. Click Edit Properties.
  6. In the Device Model section, select one of the following options:
    Option Description
    Auto
    • Select to enable the ExtraHop system to automatically determine the device make and model, which appears in parentheses.
    Custom
    1. Select to manually specify the device make and model.
    2. Click Specify a device make... and type the name of the make you want. The drop-down list displays matching makes.
    3. Select a make from the drop-down list or type a custom make name.
    4. Click Specify a device model... and type the name of the model you want. If you selected an existing make, the drop-down list displays matching models for that make.
    5. Select a model from the drop-down list or type a custom model name.
  7. Click Save.

Manually identify a device as high value

While the ExtraHop system automatically identifies devices that provide authentication or essential services as high value, you can also manually identify a device as high value or not.

Here are some important considerations about identifying a device as high value:
  • Risk scores are increased for detections on high value devices.
  • Devices are automatically added and removed from dynamic device groups with criteria based on high value.
  • You can manually identify high value devices from sensors and consoles. When the device is updated on a console, the change is synchronized to connected sensors. However, the change is not synchronized from individual sensors to the connected console.

Before you begin

You must have full write privileges or higher.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. Click Devices in the left pane, and then click the Active Devices chart.
  4. Filter the device list to find the device you want and then click the device name.
    The Device Overview page appears, which displays traffic and protocol activity for the selected device.
  5. Click Edit Properties.
  6. In the High Value section, select one of the following options:
    • Select Auto to enable the ExtraHop system to automatically determine whether the device is high value, which appears in parentheses.
    • Select Yes to manually identify the device as high value.
    • Select No to manually identify that the device is not high value.
  7. Click Save.

Create a device tag

Tags are user-defined labels that you can attach to a device. Tags can help differentiate devices on the ExtraHop system that share a common attribute or characteristic. You can then search for devices or create dynamic device groups based on the device tag.

Note:You cannot rename a device tag after it is created.
Note:You can also automate this task through the REST API.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click the System Settings icon and then click Tags.
  3. Click Create.
  4. In the Name field, type a unique name for the tag.
  5. (Optional): To immediately add the new tag to a device, complete the following steps:
    1. Click Select a device.
    2. Type a device name, IP address, MAC address, or hostname.
    3. Select the device from the search results.
      The device name appears in the window, indicating that the new tag will be added to this device.
  6. Click Save.
    The new tag appears in the Manage Tags window.
  7. Click Done to close the window.
    Tip:You can also add a tag from a Device Overview page. Find a device and then click the device name. From the Device Overview page, click Edit Properties, and then click Tags.

Create a device group

You can create both dynamic and static device groups. Dynamic groups automatically add all devices that match specified criteria to the group, while static groups require you to manually add each device.

Create a dynamic device group

You can create dynamic device groups with complex filters, which enable you to specify multiple criteria and create nested groups of criteria.
Tip:You can quickly create a dynamic device group from a filtered list of devices on the Devices page. Click Create Dynamic Group from the upper right corner.

You can also create a dynamic device group from a built-in device group. From the Devices page, click a role or protocol, update the filter criteria, and then click the Save icon from the upper right corner.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. From the top menu, click Assets and then click Device Groups in the left pane.
  3. Click Create Device Group.
  4. In the Group Name field, type a descriptive name to identify the group
  5. (Optional): In the Description field, add information about this device group.
  6. In the Group Type section, click Dynamic.
  7. In the Filter Criteria section, click Match All and then select one of the following match operators from the drop-down list:
    Option Description
    Match All Filters only devices that match all of the specified criteria.
    Match Any Filters devices that matches any of the specified criteria.
    Match None Filters devices that do not match any of the specified criteria.
  8. Click Name and select one of the following categories from the drop-down list:
    Option Description
    Name Filters devices by the discovered device name. For example, a discovered device name can include the IP address or hostname.
    MAC Address Filters devices by the device MAC address.
    IP Address Filters devices by IP address in IPv4, IPv6, or CIDR block formats.
    Site Filters devices associated with a connected site.

    Console only.

    Discovery Time Filters devices automatically discovered by the ExtraHop system within the specified time interval. For more information, see Create a device group based on discovery time.
    Analysis Level Filters devices by analysis level, which determines what data and metrics are collected for a device.

    You cannot create a dynamic device group for devices filtered by analysis level.

    Model Filters devices by make and model name. The following tips can help you find the device model you want:
    • Select the exact match operator (=) to view a drop-down list of existing models and model sets.
    • Select the exact match operator (=) and then select Custom Models to filter all devices assigned to a custom model set.
    Activity Filters devices by protocol activity associated with the device. For example, selecting HTTP Server returns devices with HTTP server metrics, and any other device with a device role set to HTTP Server.

    Also filters devices that accepted or initiated an external connection, which can help you determine whether devices are engaged in suspicious activity.

    Cloud Account Filters devices by the cloud service account associated with the device.
    Cloud Instance ID Filters devices by the cloud instance ID associated with the device.
    Cloud Instance Type Filters devices by the cloud instance type associated with the device.
    High Value Filters devices that are considered high value because they provide authentication services, support essential services on your network, or are user-specified as high value.
    Currently Active Filters devices by activity observed on a device in the last 30 minutes.
    Role Filters devices by the assigned device role, such as gateway, firewall, load balancer, and DNS Server.
    Software Filters devices by operating system software detected on the device.
    Subnet Filters devices by the subnet associated with the device.
    Tag Filters devices by user-defined device tags.
    Vendor Filters devices by the device vendor name, as determined by the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) lookup.
    Virtual Private Cloud Filters devices by the VPC associated with the device.
    VLAN Filters devices by the device VLAN tag. VLAN information is extracted from VLAN tags, if the traffic mirroring process preserves them on the mirror port.

    Only available if the devices_accross_vlans setting is set to False in the Running Config file.

    CDP Name Filters devices by the CDP name assigned to the device.
    Cloud Instance Name Filters devices by the cloud instance name assigned to the device.
    Custom Name Filters devices by the custom name assigned to the device.
    DHCP Name Filters devices by the DHCP name assigned to the device.
    DNS Name Filters devices by any DNS name assigned to the device.
    NetBIOS Name Filters devices by the NetBIOS name assigned to the device.
  9. Select one of the following operators from the drop-down list; the operators available are based on the selected category:
    Option Description
    = Filters devices that are an exact match of the search field for the selected category.
    ā‰  Filters devices that do not exactly match the search field.
    ā‰ˆ Filters devices that include the value of the search field for the selected category.
    ā‰ˆ/ Filters devices that exclude the value of the search field for the selected category.
    starts with Filters devices that start with the value of the search field for the selected category.
    exists Filters devices that have a value for the selected category.
    does not exist Filters devices that do not have a value for the selected category.
  10. In the search field, type the string to be matched, or select a value from the drop-down list. The input type is determined by the selected category.
    For example, if you want to find devices based on Name, type the string to be matched in the search field. If you want to find devices based on Role, select from the drop-down list of roles.

    Tip:Depending on the selected category, you can click the Regex icon in the text field to enable matching by regular expression.

  11. (Optional): Click Add Filter to add more filter criteria.
  12. (Optional): Click Add Filter Group to add filter criteria to the results of the original filter.
    For example, if you filter for devices names that start with "acct", you can add a new group of criteria that filters for a certain role or tag within the group of devices that start with "acct".
  13. Click Save.
You can change the criteria by clicking the group you want to modify from the Device Groups page, and then clicking Properties.

Create a static device group

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click Assets and then click Device Groups.
  3. Click Create Device Group.
  4. In the Name field, type a name for the new group.
  5. In the Group Type section, select Static.
  6. (Optional): In the Description field, add information about this device group.
  7. Click Save.
    Your device group is now created.
  8. Add devices to your group.
    1. Click Devices in the left pane.
    2. Find a device and then select the checkbox next to the devices you want to add to your group.
    3. At the top of the device table, click Assign to Group.
    4. Select a device group from the Group drop-down list.
    5. Click Add to Group.

Next steps

Remove devices from a group by selecting the checkbox next to the device name and clicking Remove from Group in the upper right corner.

Create a custom device

Collect metrics for a segment of traffic across multiple IP addresses and ports by creating a custom device. Custom devices are useful for monitoring traffic outside of your local broadcast domain, such as branch offices, stores, or clinics.

Here are some important considerations about custom devices:

  • Custom devices only appear in the ExtraHop system after traffic that matches your specified criteria is observed.
  • Avoid creating multiple custom devices for the same IP addresses or ports. Custom devices that are configured with overlapping criteria might degrade system performance.
  • Avoid creating a custom device for a broad range of IP addresses or ports, which might degrade system performance.
  • A single custom device counts as one device towards your licensed capacity for Advanced Analysis and Standard Analysis.
  • You can also automate this task through the REST API.

Before you begin

You must have full write privileges or higher.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click the System Settings icon and then click Custom Devices.
  3. Click Create.
  4. In the Name field, type a unique name for the custom device.
  5. In the Discovery ID field, type a unique identifier.
    If this field is left blank, a Discovery ID is generated from the custom device name. The Discovery ID cannot contain spaces and cannot be changed after the custom device is saved.
  6. From the Sensor drop-down list, select the sensor that you want to associate with the custom device. (Consoles only.)
  7. Select the Enable custom device checkbox to enable or disable the custom device.
  8. (Optional): In the Description field, add information about the custom device.
  9. Click Add Criteria to specify an IP address, port range, or VLAN range as match criteria for the custom device.

    You can specify a single option, such as an IP address, or specify a combination of criteria options; you do not need to complete each field.

    1. In the IP Address field, type an IP address or a CIDR notation. If you specify an IP address, you can also specify the direction of traffic and a peer IP address.
      • (Optional): From the Traffic Direction drop-down list, select Outbound from IP Address or Inbound from IP address as a match criterion. These options enable you to create a custom device that collects metrics only from traffic sent to or sent from this IP address. The default selection is Bidirectional.
      • (Optional): In the Peer IP Address field, specify an IP address or CIDR notation that communicates with the address specified in the IP Address field. This option enables you to create a custom device that collects metrics only from traffic between specific source and destination IP addresses.
        Note:If you specify a peer IP address, you cannot select Bidirectional for the traffic direction.
    2. In the Destination Port Range fields, type a minimum and a maximum destination port number. If no range is specified, all ports are considered match criteria.
  10. (Optional): Click Show Advanced Options to configure a source port or VLAN range.
    1. In the Source Port Range fields, type a minimum and a maximum source port number. If no range is specified, all ports are considered match criteria.
    2. In the VLAN Range fields, type a minimum and a maximum VLAN ID.
  11. (Optional): Click Add Criteria to configure additional IP addresses, port ranges, or VLAN ranges.
  12. Click Save.
    Tip:Click Save All Changes to save all custom devices that have unsaved configuration changes.

Delete or disable a custom device

Custom devices are manually created on an ExtraHop system to collect metrics for traffic observed across multiple IP addresses and ports. If a large number of custom devices is affecting your system performance, you can delete or disable a custom device.

Before you begin

Full privileges or higher are required to create or delete a custom device.
  • When you delete or disable a custom device, the device becomes inactive, which means that the system stops collecting metrics for that device.
  • When you delete or disable a custom device, the device continues to appear as an asset until all metrics collected for that device are overwritten in the local datastore.
  • When you delete a custom device, the unique Discovery ID for the custom device always remains in the system and cannot be applied to a new custom device.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click the System Settings icon and then click Custom Devices.
  3. (Optional): From the filter text box, search for the custom device.
    The filter text box supports substring matching by custom device name, description, status, sensor, and Discovery ID.
  4. From the table, select the custom device that you want, and then complete one of the following steps:
    • From the configuration options, clear the Custom Device Enabled checkbox. The selected device becomes inactive and is removed from the full analysis device count. You can re-enable the custom device anytime, and you can still access custom device metrics from previous time intervals until they are overwritten in the local datastore.
    • From the top of the page, click Delete Device, and then click Delete Custom Device from the confirmation window. The selected custom device is permanently removed from the ExtraHop system and cannot be restored.

Configure remote sites for custom devices

Custom devices are useful for monitoring traffic outside of your local broadcast domain, such as branch offices, stores, or clinics. You can collect remote site metrics about custom devices to easily learn how remote locations consume services and to gain visibility into traffic between remote sites and a data center.

For example, build a dashboard and add a custom device as the metric source to see remote site metrics such as inbound and outbound throughput, retransmission timeouts, round trip times, and zero windows. See the Protocol Metrics Reference for a full list of remote site metrics and descriptions.

Here are some important considerations about remote sites for custom devices:

  • Remote site configuration applies to all enabled custom devices; you cannot configure remote sites for an individual custom device.
  • Remote site metrics are only displayed in the Metric Catalog and the Metric Explorer if remote site metric collection is enabled.

Before you begin

You must have full write privileges or higher.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click the System Settings icon and then click Custom Devices.
  3. Click Configure Remote Sites.
  4. Select or clear the Collect remote site metrics checkbox.
  5. Click Save.

Classify IP addresses and trusted domains

By providing details about your network specifications, you can improve the metrics and detections generated by your ExtraHop system. The Network Locality page enables you to classify the locality of IP addresses and add trusted domains that your devices regularly connect to.

Note:Network Locality settings must be configured on all sensors and consoles. For ExtraHop Reveal(x) 360, these settings are synchronized across all connected sensors; do not configure these settings on individual sensors.

Before you begin

You must have full write privileges to change these settings.

Specify the locality for IP addresses

By adding a CIDR block to the Network Localities page, you can classify traffic from these IP addresses as internal or external to your network.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click the System Settings icon and then click Network Localities.
  3. Click Add a CIDR Block.
  4. In the Network field, type a single IP address or CIDR block. You must enter a unique range of IP addresses.
  5. Select Internal or External, based on which classification you want to apply to the CIDR block.
  6. (Optional): In the Description field, type information about why you are configuring the locality of this CIDR block.
  7. Click Save.
  8. To add more entries, click Add CIDR.

Next steps

Verify that the ExtraHop system no longer classifies an IP address as an external or internal by completing the following steps:
  1. Click Assets at the top of the page. The Devices page appears, which lists all the protocols with traffic in the selected time interval.
  2. From Devices by Protocol Activity, click the device count for TCP. A protocol page appears that displays metrics for every device on your network with TCP activity.
  3. In the TCP Connections section, look for changes in the number of External Accepted and External Connected metrics. For example, if you classified a large CIDR block for a remote office as Internal, then the number of external connections should be lower.
Filter IP addresses by locality

You can filter detail metric data by internal or external IP addresses.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Drill down on a metric from a dashboard or protocol page by client, server, or IP address.
    A detail metric page appears that displays metric data listed by IP address.
  3. In the trifield filter, click Any Field and then click Network Locality, as shown in the following figure.


  4. Click All Locations and then select Internal or External.
  5. Click Add Filter.
Detail metric data for internal or external devices is displayed.

Analysis priorities

The ExtraHop system analyzes traffic and collects data from all discovered devices on a single sensor. Each discovered device receives an analysis level that determines what data and metrics are collected for a device. Analysis priorities determine which analysis level a device receives.

Important:Analysis priorities can be centrally managed from a console.

Prioritizing devices and groups

The ExtraHop system can analyze hundreds of thousands of devices and automatically determine which analysis level each device receives, but you can control which devices are prioritized for Advanced and Standard Analysis.

Most devices can be added to a watchlist to ensure Advanced Analysis or you can add device groups to an ordered list to prioritize them for Advanced Analysis and Standard Analysis.

Here are some important considerations about prioritizing devices through the watchlist:

  • Devices remain on the watchlist even when they are inactive, but metrics are not collected for inactive devices.
  • The number of devices in the watchlist cannot exceed your Advanced Analysis capacity.
  • Devices can only be added to the watchlist from a device properties page or the device list page. You cannot add devices to the watchlist from the Analysis Priorities page.
  • If you want to add several devices to the watchlist, we recommend that you create a device group and then prioritize that group for Advanced Analysis.
  • Devices receiving L2 Parent Analysis or Flow Analysis cannot be added to the watchlist.

Here are some important considerations about prioritizing devices groups:

  • Order device groups from the highest to lowest priority in the list.
  • Click-and-drag groups to change their order in the list.
  • Make sure that each device in the group is active; groups that contain a large number of devices take up capacity and inactive devices do not generate metrics.

By default, the ExtraHop system automatically fills Advanced and Standard Analysis levels to maximum capacity. Here are some important considerations about capacity levels and the automatic fill option:

  • Devices prioritized in the watchlist or through a prioritized group fill the higher analysis levels first, and then by the earliest-discovered devices.
  • Devices are prioritized for Advanced Analysis if the device is associated with certain detections, if the device has accepted or initiated an external connection, or if the device is running common attack tools.
  • Device properties such as the role, hardware and software, protocol activity, detection history, and high value can also determine analysis levels.
  • The Automatically Fill option is enabled by default. If disabled, all devices that are not in prioritized groups or in the watchlist are removed and the ExtraHop system sets the priority for each device.
  • Your ExtraHop subscription and license determine maximum capacity levels.

See the Analysis Priorities FAQ to learn about analysis level capacities.

Compare analysis levels

Analysis Level Features How to Receive this Level
Discovery Mode
  • Detections
  • Observed protocols
  • IP addresses
  • Authenticated users
  • Software
  • Hardware make and model
Devices automatically receive Discovery Mode if not in Standard, Advanced, or L2 Parent Analysis.
Standard Analysis
  • L2-L3 metrics
  • Activity maps
  • Detections
  • Observed protocols
  • IP addresses
  • Authenticated users
  • Software
  • Hardware make and model
Prioritize device groups for Standard Analysis.
Advanced Analysis
  • L2-L7 metrics
  • Custom metrics
  • Activity maps
  • Detections
  • Observed protocols
  • IP addresses
  • Authenticated users
  • Software
  • Hardware make and model
Prioritize device groups for Advanced Analysis or add individual devices to the watchlist.
L2 Parent Analysis

(Only applicable if L3 Discovery is enabled)

  • L2-L3 metrics
  • Activity maps
L2 parent devices automatically receive L2 Parent Analysis, except for gateways and routers.
Flow Analysis
  • L2-L3 metrics
  • Activity Maps
  • Observed protocols
  • IP Address
  • Cloud instance properties
  • Limited detection types
Devices automatically receive Flow Analysis if discovered on a flow sensor.

Transfer management of analysis priorities

By default, each packet sensor manages its own analysis priorities, which determine which devices receive Advanced Analysis or Standard Analysis. If your sensor is connected to a console, you can transfer priority management to that console for a centralized view of these settings.

Here are some important considerations about transferring management:

  • You must have full write privileges to edit analysis priorities.
  • After management is transferred to a console, any further changes you make on individual sensors are inactive. See which other settings are also transferred.
  • Analysis Priorities settings are not available for flow sensors; management cannot be transferred.

The following steps show you how to transfer priority management to a console:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system.
    Repeat these steps on each sensor in your environment.
  2. Click the System Settings icon and then click Analysis Priorities.
  3. At the top of the page, click the Console drop-down list and select the console that you want to transfer management to.
  4. Click Transfer.
Tip:To avoid analysis disruptions, you can save a draft of the analysis priorities settings for each sensor before transferring management to a console.

Prioritize groups for Advanced Analysis

You can specify device groups for Advanced Analysis based on their importance to your network. Groups are ranked in an ordered list.

Here are some important considerations about Advanced Analysis:

  • Devices on the watchlist are guaranteed Advanced Analysis and are prioritized over device groups.
  • Devices within a device group that are inactive do not affect Advanced Analysis capacity.
  • Custom metrics are only available for devices in Advanced Analysis. If you want to see custom metrics for a specific device, prioritize a group that contains the device or add the device to the watchlist.
  • You must have full write privileges to edit analysis priorities.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
    (These steps must be completed on the console or sensor that is managing these shared settings.)
  2. Go to the settings for Standard Priorities.
    • On a console, click the System Settings icon and then click Analysis Priorities. Then, click Edit Priorities next to the sensor you want to modify.
    • On a sensor, click the System Settings icon and then click Analysis Priorities.
  3. Prioritize groups by completing the following steps:
    1. In the For Advanced Analysis section, click adding a group to add the initial group or Add Group to add additional groups.




    2. In the Group drop-down list, type the name of a device group and then click the group name from the search results. For example, type HTTP servers and select the HTTP Servers device group.
    3. (Optional): In the Note field, type information about the group.
  4. In the Automatically Fill section, make sure On is selected.
    Note:If your system is having performance issues, click Off. Only devices that are in prioritized groups or on the watchlist will receive Advanced Analysis.
  5. At the top of the page, click Save.

Next steps

Here are some additional ways to manage and refine groups that receive Advanced Analysis:

  • If you add multiple groups, the groups are prioritized from top to bottom. Click the upper left icon next to Group, and then drag the group to another position in the ordered list.

  • Click the check icon to collapse the group. Click the pencil icon to expand the group again, as shown in the following figure.

  • Click the go to icon next to a group name to navigate to the device group page. The device group page displays which devices and how many devices are in the group. The icon is only available when the group is collapsed.
  • Click the x icon to remove a group from the list, as shown in the following figure.

Prioritize groups for Standard Analysis

You can specify device groups for Standard Analysis based on their importance to your network. Groups are ranked in an ordered list.

Here are some important considerations about Standard Analysis:

  • Devices prioritized for Standard Analysis section receive Advanced Analysis when there is capacity.
  • You must have full write privileges to edit analysis priorities.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
    (These steps must be completed on the console or sensor that is managing these shared settings.)
  2. Go to the settings for Standard Priorities.
    • On a console, click the System Settings icon and then click Analysis Priorities. Then, click Edit Priorities next to the sensor you want to modify.
    • On a sensor, click the System Settings icon and then click Analysis Priorities.
  3. Prioritize groups by completing the following steps:
    1. In the For Standard Analysis section, click adding a group to add the initial group or Add Group to add additional groups.




    2. In the Group drop-down list, type the name of a device group and then click the group name from the search results. For example, type HTTP servers and select the HTTP Servers device group.
    3. (Optional): In the Note field, type information about the group.
  4. In the Automatically Fill section, make sure On is selected.
    Note:If your system is having performance issues, then click Off. Only devices that are in prioritized groups receive Standard Analysis.
  5. At the top of the page, click Save.

Next steps

Here are some additional ways to manage and refine groups that receive Standard Analysis:

  • If you add multiple groups, the groups are prioritized from top to bottom. Click the upper left icon next to Group, and then drag the group to another position in the ordered list.

  • Click the check icon to collapse the group. Click the pencil icon to expand the group again, as shown in the following figure.
  • Click the go to icon next to a group name to navigate to the device group page. The device group page displays which devices and how many devices are in the group. The icon is only available when the group is collapsed.
  • Click the x icon to remove a group from the list, as shown in the following figure.

Add a device to the watchlist

Add devices to the watchlist to ensure Advanced Analysis. You can add a custom device to the watchlist, but you cannot add an L2 parent device to the watchlist, unless the device is a gateway or router, and you cannot add a device in Flow Analysis. Devices stay on the watchlist whether they are inactive or active, but a device must be active for the ExtraHop system to collect Advanced Analysis metrics.

Tip:Instead of adding several devices to the watchlist, create a device group and then prioritize that group for Advanced Analysis. Or add multiple devices to the watchlist from the Device list page. Click the checkbox next to one or more devices and then click the Add to Watchlist icon in the upper right corner.

Learn more about Analysis Priorities.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Click Assets at the top of the page and then click Devices in the left pane.
  3. Search for the device you want and then click the device name. The Device Overview page appears, which displays traffic and protocol metrics associated with the device.
  4. Click Edit Properties.
  5. Click Add this device to the watchlist.
  6. Click Done.
Your device is now on the watchlist. Visit the Watchlist page to remove a device from the watchlist .

Remove a device from the watchlist

You can remove devices that are on the watchlist from the Analysis Priorities page.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
    (These steps must be completed on the console or sensor that is managing these shared settings.)
  2. Go to the settings for Standard Priorities.
    • On a console, click the System Settings icon and then click Analysis Priorities. Then, click Edit Priorities next to the sensor you want to modify.
    • On a sensor, click the System Settings icon and then click Analysis Priorities.
  3. At the top of page in the Advanced Analysis Watchlist section, click View the Watchlist. The Watchlist page appears and displays all the devices on the watchlist.
  4. To remove devices from the watchlist, complete the following steps:
    1. Select the checkbox next to the device name.
    2. Click Remove Devices.
  5. Click Save.
Note:It is possible to add devices to a blocklist, based on their unique MAC addresses, by modifying the running configuration file on the ExtraHop system. Contact your ExtraHop administrator to add devices to a blocklist.

Activity maps

An activity map is a dynamic visual representation of the L4-L7 protocol activity between devices in your network. You can see a 2D or 3D layout of device connections in real-time to learn about the traffic flow and relationships between devices.

Activity maps can help you with the following use cases:

Complete a data center or cloud migration
As part of your migration strategy, you must determine which services can be turned off and when. An activity map helps you identify which devices are still connected so you can prevent unexpected service disruptions during the migration process. For more information, see the Plan and monitor your migration with activity maps walkthrough.
Identify the root cause behind a slow application
Applications often depend on multiple tiers of services within a network. An activity map can help you identify the delivery chain of traffic to your slow application server. Click a device to investigate related metrics, which can shed more light onto the root cause of the slow-down.
Track suspicious devices or unexpected connections
During a security event, an activity map can help you identify affected devices by tracking the real-time east-west traffic associated with a suspicious device. As part of a daily security monitoring strategy, you can create an activity map to confirm that devices are not making unexpected connections with other devices.

Here are some important considerations about activity maps:

  • You can create activity maps for devices in Advanced, Standard, L2 Parent Analysis, and Flow Analysis. You cannot create an activity map for devices in Discovery Mode. For more information, see Analysis priorities.
  • If you create an activity map for a device or device group that has no protocol activity during the selected time interval, the map appears without any data. Change the time interval or your origin selection and try again.
  • You can create an activity map from a console to view device connections across all of your sensors.
  • You can save and share an activity map , granting view or edit access to other system users or groups. You can also load a saved activity map to modify map properties.

For more information about activity maps, see the Activity Maps FAQ.

After creating an activity map, you can start investigating data. The following sections provide details about how to interact with an activity map and find information about the data you are viewing.

Layout

Devices are represented by circles and connections are represented by lines.

The placement of devices is optimized to display information. The layout can change as data about device activity is updated in real-time. For example, the layout is updated as new connections are observed or devices become inactive.

Note:When the time interval in the upper left corner of the page is set to Last 30 minutes, Last 6 hours, or Last 1 day, activity map data continually updates every minute with real-time data. Set a custom time interval with a specific start and end time to stop real-time layout updates.
2D or 3D layout

By default, activity maps are displayed in a 2D layout, but you can click 3D to change the display to a rotating 3D model. For example, you might want to showcase 3D maps on a large screen in a network or security operations center.



Reposition, rotate, and zoom

Zoom in and out of a map with controls located in the bottom right corner of the page or zoom with your mouse wheel. Click-and-drag your mouse to reposition a 2D map or rotate a 3D map.

Hold focus

Click any device and select Hold Focus. You can then reposition or rotate, depending on your layout, and zoom in and out of the map while focusing on the selected device and its immediate peers.



View device list

Click Devices in Activity Map at the bottom of the page to view a list of all devices, their names, IP addresses, and MAC addresses. Click a device name to navigate to the device page.

Labels and icons

Circle labels contain details such as the device hostname, IP address, or MAC address.

Line labels contain protocol names associated with the device connection and the direction of traffic flowing between the devices, which is displayed as animated pulses. Specific device roles are represented by an icon.

To optimize the display of information, not every label is displayed. Hover over any circle or line to display its label, as shown in the following figure.



Note:Device roles are automatically assigned to a device based on the type of traffic the ExtraHop system observes for that device. For more information, see Change a device role.

Circle and line size

The size of objects in the map corresponds with a metric value, which helps to highlight areas of increased activity, such as the number of bytes, or traffic volume, associated with a device connection.

At the bottom of the left pane, you can select a different metric for map elements:

Bytes: See all of the devices transmitting or receiving data during the time interval.

Connections: See only the devices that have established a new connection at least once during the time interval.

TCP Turns: See only the devices that switched between transmitting and receiving data at least once during the time interval.

Color

Blue and gray are default colors for circles and lines. These default colors are optimized to display information in a map. However, you can apply different colors to your map to highlight the severity level of an alert or show when a device connection was established.

Detections

Detections associated with a device on the map appear around the circle as animated pulses, known as detection markers. The color of the pulse is red if the device is the offender and teal if the device is the victim of the detection. The participant status also appears on the device label.

Note:Machine learning detections require a connection to ExtraHop Cloud Services.

Click a circle with a detection marker to view and navigate to associated detections or the Device Overview page.

If detection markers do not appear on your activity maps as expected, detection markers might be disabled. You can enable or disable detection markers from the User menu.

Alert status

To see the severity level of an alert for a device in your map, select Display alert status in the lower left corner or the page, as shown in the following figure. The circle color then corresponds to the most severe status for all alerts assigned to a device during the time interval. If there is no alert assigned to a device or the alert level is informational, the default circle color is green.

To investigate the alert, click the circle and then select the device name in the Go to Deviceā€¦ section. On the device's protocol page, scroll down to view the Alerts page.



Time interval comparison
When you compare two time intervals to find metric deltas, different colors in the map help you determine when device connections were established or when the protocol activity for a device changed. For example, after creating a comparison between Yesterday and the Last 30 minutes, new device connections or activity that only appear in the more recent time interval appear green. Previous device connections or activity that only appear in the earlier time interval are red. Devices connections that did not change between time intervals are blue. In the following figure, new connections that were established in the last thirty minutes are represented by green circles and lines.

Note: If all the devices are a single color, such as green, this means that the query did not produce results in the earlier time interval. For example, the origin device did not have any protocol activity in the earlier time interval.

Add steps and filters to a map

A step is a level of connections between devices. Devices in each step have a relationship to devices in previous step. These relationship are defined by their protocol activity.

Add a new step to an activity map to add another layer of information to your map. Click the drop-down list for a particular step, and then select a protocol activity.



You can also filter devices in a step by their group membership. For example, if you select HTTP Servers but only want to see your test servers in the map, you can filter HTTP Servers by a device group, such as My Test Servers.

For more information on how to add steps and filters to a map, see Create an activity map.

Manage activity maps

The following options for managing your activity map are available from the command menu in the upper right corner:

Best practices for investigating activity map data

If you find a device on your map that is worth investigating, you have several options to gather more information about that device.

Find recently-connected devices

Click the time interval in the top left corner of the page and click Compare. You can see how device connections changed between two different time intervals.

For more information, see Time interval comparison.

Navigate to protocol pages to find related metric activity

Click a circle or line to access a drop-down menu as shown in the following figure.



Select the device name from the menu to view the Device Overview page. From the left pane, click a protocol name to view the protocol page, which contains a summary of important protocol metrics that were observed and associated with the device. From a protocol page, you can find related metrics such as errors, requests, responses, and server processing time. You can also drill down on a metric from a protocol page to view metric details, such as server IP address, client IP address, status codes, methods, and URIs.

Navigate to detections identified on the device
Devices on an activity map that have associated detections are displayed as animated pulses around the circle label. Click a circle with this detection marker to access a drop-down menu, as shown in the following figure.

Select a detection name from the menu to navigate to the detail page for that detection. The detail page contains information about the type of detection that occurred and what it means, as well as when the detection occurred and the duration of the issue. For more information, see Detection detail page.

Search for transaction records associated with a connection (Requires a configured recordstore)
Click a circle or line to access the drop-down menu. Click Records. A records query page opens and displays all the records from each connected device, including all record types associated with the device connection protocols.

Create an activity map

An activity map is an interactive 2D or 3D display of real-time device connections based on protocol activity between devices. Activity maps help you visualize traffic flows and kick off troubleshooting based on an interesting data point in a map.

You can create an activity map for an active single device or a device group. After generating a basic map, you can then filter devices and connections in your map.

Note:You can create activity maps for devices in Advanced, Standard, L2 Parent Analysis, and Flow Analysis. You cannot create an activity map for devices in Discovery Mode. For more information, see Analysis priorities.

Create a basic activity map

A basic activity map shows you a single step, or level, of device connections between origin devices and peer devices on your network.

Note:You can create activity maps for devices in Advanced, Standard, L2 Parent Analysis, and Flow Analysis. You cannot create an activity map for devices in Discovery Mode. For more information, see Analysis priorities.
  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. At the top of the page, click Assets.
  3. Complete one of the following steps based on the origin type of the activity map:
    Option Description
    For a device Click Devices in the left pane and then click an individual device name.
    For a device group Click Device Groups in the left pane and then click a device group name.
    For a device group by protocol activity Click Activity in the left pane and then click the group of clients, servers, or devices for the protocol you want.
  4. Click one of the following links to create the activity map:
    Option Description
    For a device Click Peer devices, located at the top of the page.
    For a device group Click Activity Map, located near the upper right corner of the page.
    Note:If the device or device group has no protocol activity during the specified time interval, the activity map appears without any data. Change the time interval or your origin selection and try again.
  5. From the activity map, filter connections by protocol activity by completing the following steps:
    1. Click the drop-down list in the Step 1 section of the left pane, as shown in the following figure.


    2. At the top of the drop-down list, search for and select a protocol activity and role. You can make more than one selection.
    3. Click anywhere outside of the drop-down list.
  6. (Optional): Change the primary origin device by completing the following steps:
    1. In the Start from section in the left pane, click the device or group name. A drop-down list appears.


    2. Search for and select another device or group to dynamically update the map origin for the map you are viewing.
  7. (Optional): Create an ad hoc group of sources to quickly investigate traffic originating from multiple devices in the same map. Click Add Source.


Add connections and filter devices in your map

To better understand the path of traffic from origin devices to downstream devices, you can add more steps to your map. You can also create filters to include or exclude devices from the map. The following figure shows you how to add steps and create filters.

Add another level of device connections

A step defines a level of connection between devices in a map. Devices in each step have a relationship to the devices in the previous step. These relationships are defined by their protocol activity. You can add up to 5 steps to see how traffic flows from one device to another.

  1. Click Add Step, as shown in the following figure. All Peers is selected by default.


  2. At the top of the drop-down list, search for and select a protocol activity and role. You can make more than one selection.


  3. Click anywhere outside of the drop-down list.
Include or exclude devices

You can filter devices within a step by their device group membership.

  1. Click Add Group Filter.


  2. Click a drop-down list to search for and select a device group.
  3. Click anywhere outside of the filter menu to apply your filters.
  4. To remove or change a filter, complete the following steps:
    1. Click the device group name.


    2. Change the filter by clicking the drop-down list and then selecting another device group.
    3. Remove the filter by clicking the x icon, as shown in the following figure.


    4. Click anywhere outside of the filter menu to apply your filter updates.

Save and share an activity map

You can save an activity map and share it with others. By default, all activity maps that you create are private, which means that no ExtraHop users can view or edit your map. However, you can share your map when you save it by granting view or edit access to other ExtraHop users and groups.

Here are some important considerations about sharing activity maps:

  • How a user interacts with an activity map and the information they can view in the ExtraHop system is determined by user privileges, which are assigned by the ExtraHop administrator. For more information, see the User privileges section in the ExtraHop Administrators Guide.
  • When you grant a user edit access, that user can modify and share the activity map with others. However, other users cannot delete the activity map. Only the map owner can delete an activity map.
  • Group information is imported into the ExtraHop system from LDAP (such as OpenLDAP or Active Directory). User information is available after an ExtraHop user logs in to their account.
  • If you are deleting a user, you will have the option to transfer their activity maps to another user.

The following steps show you how to save and share an activity map:

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Create an activity map.
  3. Click the Save icon in the upper right corner of the page.
  4. Type a name for your map. The name must be unique.
  5. (Optional): Type a description.
  6. (Optional): Change the permalink shortcode to a user-friendly name.
    For example, you can configure a map to display alert statuses and append "/alerts" to the shortcode to let users know that the saved map displays alerts by default.
    Note:The shortcode cannot contain spaces and the shortcode must be unique.
  7. Share your activity map by completing the following steps:
    1. Type a username or group.
    2. Make one of the following selections:
      Type of Access Selection
      ExtraHop users can view Select Can view and then click Add.
      ExtraHop users can both view and edit Click Can view and then click Can edit. Click Add.
  8. Click Save.
    Tip:You can also modify the properties for a saved map by clicking the command menu and then clicking Map Properties. To quickly modify share permissions, click the command menu and then click Share.

Next steps

Remove or change access to an activity map

You can remove or modify access to an activity map that you granted to users and groups. You must first create an activity map to access options to modify saved activity maps.

  1. Create an activity map, and then click the Open icon in the upper right corner of the page.
  2. Click the activity map name.
  3. In the Sharing section, complete one of the following steps:
    • To remove access for users or groups, click the red delete x icon next to the user or group name.
    • To change access for an existing user or group, click Can view or Can edit, and make a different selection.
    • To add a new user or group, search for and click the user name. Click Can view or Can edit, and then click Add.
  4. Click Save.

Load and manage a saved activity map

You can view, update, or delete saved activity maps. First, you must first create a new map to access a list of saved and shared maps.

  1. Log in to the ExtraHop system through https://<extrahop-hostname-or-IP-address>.
  2. Create an activity map, and then click the Open icon in the upper right corner of the page.
  3. Choose one of the following activity map options:
    • To load a map, click the map name. If you want to modify and then re-save the map, make your changes and then click the Save icon.
      Tip:You can also modify the properties for a saved map by clicking the command menu and then clicking Map Properties.
    • To delete a map, click Delete next to the map name.
    Note:Users must have privileges to view or interact with activity maps. See User privileges in the ExtraHop Administrators Guide.

Detections

The ExtraHop system applies machine learning techniques and rule-based monitoring to your wire data to identify unusual behaviors and potential risks to the security and performance of your network.

Before you begin

Users must be granted privileges to view detections.

When anomalous behavior is identified, the ExtraHop system generates a detection and displays the available data and options. Controls on the Detections page help you group, filter, and sort your view of detections, so you can quickly triage issues with critical systems first.

Detections can help you defend your network in the following ways:
  • Collect high-quality, actionable data to find the root causes behind network issues.
  • Find unknown issues with performance, security, or infrastructure.
  • Identify malicious behavior that is associated with different attack categories or MITRE techniques.
  • View related detections or create your own investigation to group detections and track potential attack campaigns.
  • Flag suspicious IP addresses, hostnames, and URIs identified by threat intelligence.
  • Highlight security hardening best practices.
Learn more about optimizing detections.
Important:Although detections can inform you about security risks and performance issues, detections do not replace decision-making or expertise about your network. Always review security and performance detections to determine the root cause of unusual behavior and when to take action.

Detection cards appear in a sortable list that can be further grouped and filtered by multiple criteria on the main Detections page. Click any detection card to navigate to the detection detail page.

Detection cards

Each detection card identifies the cause of the detection, the detection category, when the detection occurred, and the victim and offender participants. Security detections include a risk score.

Risk score
Measures the likelihood, complexity, and business impact of a security detection. This score provides an estimate based on factors about the frequency and availability of certain attack vectors against the necessary skill levels of a potential hacker and the consequences of a successful attack. The icon is color coded by severity as red (80-99), orange (31-79), or yellow (1-30).
Participants
Identifies each participant (offender and victim) involved in the detection by hostname or IP address. Click on a participant to view basic details and access links. Internal endpoints display a link to the Device Overview page; external endpoints display the geolocation of the IP address and links to the ARIN Whois website and IP address detail page. If a participant has passed through another device like a load balancer or gateway, both the participant and the device are displayed on the participant card, but only the origin endpoint is considered a participant.
Note:SSL/TLS decryption is required to display origin endpoints if HTTPS is enabled. Learn more about SSL/TLS decryption.

When grouping the Detection page by Type, a participant summary appears under the detection type that breaks down detections by offender and victim and enables you to quickly apply participant filters.

When grouping the Detection page by Sources, internal device role icons are highlighted red if the device was an offender in a detection and teal if the device was a victim. You can click Details under the source name to view a summary of detections where that source was a participant. These device details are displayed next to the detection card on wide screens (1900 pixels or greater).

Duration
Identifies how long the unusual behavior was detected or displays ONGOING if the behavior is currently occurring.

Detections that highlight security hardening best practices display two dates: the first time and the most recent time that the violation was identified.

Metric data
Identifies additional metric data when the unusual behavior is associated with a specific metric or key. If metric data is unavailable for the detection, the type of anomalous protocol activity appears.

Detection management
You can track or tune the detection from the Actions dropdown list, or click View Detection Details to navigate to the detection detail page.

Detection detail page

Most of the data that you need to understand and validate a detection appears on the detection detail page: tables of relevant metric data, record transactions, and links to raw packets.

The detection card information is followed by all available sections for the detection. These sections vary depending on the type of the detection.

Track Detection
You can track or tune the detection, or click Add to an Investigation to include the detection in a new or existing investigation.

If you have configured a CrowdStrike integration on your ExtraHop system, you can initiate containment of CrowdStrike devices that are participants in the detection. (Reveal(x) 360 only.)

Decryption badge
When the ExtraHop system identifies suspicious behavior or a potential attack in decrypted traffic records, the detection detail page displays a decryption badge to the right of the detection name.



Learn more about SSL/TLS decryption and decrypting traffic with a Windows domain controller.

Detection properties
Provides a list of properties that are relevant to the detection. For example, detection properties can include a query, URI, or hacking tool that is central to the detection.

Related detections
Provides a timeline of detections related to the current detection that can help you identify a larger attack campaign. Related detections include the participant role, duration, timestamp, and any role changes if the offender in one detection becomes the victim in a different detection. Click any related detection in the timeline to view the details page for that detection.

Activity map

Provides an activity map that highlights the participants involved in the detection. The activity map displays east-west traffic of the protocol associated with the detection to help you assess the scope of malicious activity. Click the victim or offender to access a drop-down menu with links to the Device Overview page and other detections where the device is a participant.



Compare behaviors

Provides a chart that displays the activity of the offender next to the activity of similar devices over the time period when the detection occurred. The chart appears for detections related to unconventional activity by a device, and highlights unexpected behavior by displaying it next to the behavior of devices on the network with similar properties.



Detection data and links
Provides all available data about the detection, such as metrics from the targeted servers and clients and their record transactions. Click the icon to view the raw