---
title: Network Data | Blue Matador - Troubleshooting
description: Network Data | Blue Matador - Troubleshooting
image: https://www.bluematador.com/hubfs/logo-1.png
---

 Docs

# Network Data

Rates of bytes and packets on the network are an excellent measure of application availability and health. In the age of connectivity and microservices, network throughput is one of the most reliable statistics. While small spikes are expected, large spikes and sustained changes are indicative of other issues on the server. This recommendation is one that takes into account past trends, growth, and decay.

Because of the general nature of this recommendation, the best thing you can do is check vitals and other metrics for possible problems. Use your other monitoring tools to find issues with code, load, users, scaling, or other infrastructure.

This recommendation is almost never indicative of an error in hardware; it’s almost always software. Similarly, it’s rarely a false positive despite the lack of specificity of the root cause.

 

## Effects

---

While searching for problems, make sure you look at some of the most common causes:

- The server dropped out of a load balancer
- A new code release fundamentally changed the traffic patterns
- An administrator changed a firewall or network configuration
- Critical scaling trigger hit so more servers are needed

## Quick Fix

---

Verify the critical applications on this server are still responsive.

 

## Thorough Fix

---

Compare server vitals against deployments, configuration changes, infrastructure changes, user logins, and automated remediation. For every inflection point, identify the root cause. If one seems out of place, investigate and remedy as appropriate.

 

## Resources

---

- [Network Throughput Testing Tools](http://techgenix.com/network-throughput-testing-tools/) (TechGenix)
- [Measuring network throughput](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_network_throughput) (Wikipedia)
- [iPerf - The ultimate speed test tool for TCP, UDP and SCTP](https://iperf.fr/) (iPerf)
- [5 Free Tools to Test and Benchmark Your Network Speed](https://www.raymond.cc/blog/network-benchmark-test-your-network-speed/) (Raymond Tech)
- [How to Calculate Network Throughput](https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-calculate-network-throughput) (Techwalla)
- [18 commands to monitor network bandwidth on Linux server](https://www.binarytides.com/linux-commands-monitor-network/) (Binary Tides)
- [Windows Performance Counters Explained](http://www.appadmintools.com/documents/windows-performance-counters-explained/) (AppAdminTools)
- [How to test the network speed/throughput between two Linux servers](https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-test-the-network-speedthroughput-between-two-linux-servers/) (nixCraft)
- [Bandwidth, Packets Per Second, and Other Network Performance Metrics](https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/security-center/network-performance-metrics.html) (Cisco Systems)