Collecting data, in practice

There are many ways to collect operational data from network devices (corresponding to the planes mentioned earlier), each with different characteristics. In this section, we will give you a taste of the most popular ones to give you an overall understanding of them.

This book does not aim to cover every protocol or technique in detail. This section aims to provide one example for each type, with more detailed coverage in the lab scenarios later in the book.

But, before starting with the examples, it’s worth adding yet another classification method, depending on where the collector runs.

Agent-based versus Agentless approach

The two options are collecting the data and sending it to the persistence layer from within the observed system/network device or from an external agent:

Figure 3.2 – Agent-based versus Agentless data collection

Let’s look at these in detail:

• Agent-based monitoring...