Hirschmann Industrial HiVision
Industrial HiVision is an awesome Network Management software with a ton of amazing features and I may separately do a post series about all the features we leverage on our medium to larger projects. But the focus in this post is on MAPPING so let’s get into it.
PROs
HiVision can perform what they call Infrastructure Auto Topology which is creating a map like above automatically by discovering devices (scanning an IP range, etc.), and then using an SNMP guest list you provide to access the managed switches LLDP (neighbor) tables, reconcile all info received back to display switch to switch maps like above. Also, it’s worth noting that map is LIVE and DYNAMIC, showing when a link is up or down, if a redundant link is in standby mode, if a link is seeing high utilization, etc. Set it up properly and a link down in the field is reflected in HiVision near instantaneously.
You might assume that HiVision can only do all this for Hirschmann hardware but it can actually talk to any SNMP managed device. We’ve leveraged this to bring in diagnostics from things like APC UPSs (on battery, battery needs replacing, etc.) but more significantly to monitor switches from other vendors like Moxa, Cisco, Rockwell, etc. The first image below is HiVision monitoring 60 Stratix switches and then on the right is an Ignition screen we created of the same network leveraging information provided by HiVision’s OPC UA server.
HiVision also has a feature called “Entire Network” Topology where it attempts to map not just switch to switch connectivity but also HOST to switch connectivity (including not just MAC to port info but IP to port info) by interrogating the switch MAC tables and then local or L3 switch ARP caches and putting all the pieces together.
Not sure if HiVision is right for your network? Hirschmann offers a Free of Charge Promotional License. The promo license offers the following functions:
Valid for a maximum of 16 nodes (IP addresses).
Supports almost all functionality offered by the paid version.
Never expires.
Not tied to hardware.
Valid for personal and commercial use.
CONs
Above may sound like I’m ready to toss HiVision at every network, and while we’ve certainly tossed it at many, it’s not all sunshine and roses.
That Entire Network topology I mentioned above, the one I often describe as the Holy Grail in industrial networking eludes HiVision at times. Even in an all Hirschmann network, if it’s multi-VLAN and larger, etc. we’ve seen it struggle to get the full host topology consistently correct.
HiVision is a paid product and is licensed based on number of monitored nodes. Even if it could nail the Entire Network topology, I’m not sure what customers are willing to fork out to cover all hosts on their networks. Accordingly when we recommend/deploy HiVision we’re typically advising to monitor network infrastructure only, which includes the link up/down status to hosts so you can still know if something is up or down but license in a more achievable way.
Additional Notes
HiVision has been around for a LONG time. In recent years Belden has touted new platforms such as the PROVIZE Suite and Belden Horizon Network Insights and it’s been challenging to get a clear picture of the road map, if and when HiVision is going away and if it’s replacement will have all of its’ functionality from day 1. We’re certainly keeping a close eye on the situation but in the interim it leads to confusion on how a new Hirschmann network owner should proceed.
Stay tuned for additional posts in the series!