Stay Ahead of Issues with Proactive Port Insights

Have you ever missed a loop guard event because you weren’t logged into Nebula at the time? Concerned that a PoE short-circuit might damage your device, but didn’t know until it was too late?

This is a common concern. Users have been asking for a faster, more reliable way to catch port problems before they impact the network or connected devices.

Introducing Port Advisor: Smarter Switch Port Insights for Proactive Management

That’s why we built Port Advisor—a powerful new feature within the Nebula Pro Pack designed to transform how you monitor and manage your network switch ports. It delivers real-time port health monitoring, intelligent alerts, and actionable insights—all accessible directly from your Nebula Control Center (NCC).

Port Advisor proactively detects a wide range of port abnormalities—such as network loops, unauthorized connections, cable faults, and bandwidth spikes—and notifies you instantly, even when you’re not logged into NCC. This means you’ll receive timely alerts via email or mobile app push notifications, ensuring you never miss critical events that could impact your network’s stability.

What Does Port Advisor Do?

• Continuous Port Health Monitoring: It tracks real-time port status and detects abnormalities such as network loops (Loop Guard), unauthorized switch connections (BPDU Guard), cable faults, excessive broadcast/multicast traffic (Storm Control), and bandwidth spikes (Tx/Rx utilization). This helps you quickly identify and resolve issues before they impact network performance or connected devices.
  • Anomalies are detected from these sources: Click here to view more.
  
• Abnormal-Issue Summary Dashboard: Go to Monitor > Switch > Port Advisor to view a centralized dashboard that provides a visual timeline of all detected port abnormalities within a selected time range. The dashboard automatically groups issues by category and includes detailed root cause analysis, helping you quickly identify patterns, pinpoint underlying problems, and prioritize corrective actions for faster troubleshooting and resolution.
  
  
• In-Depth Port Issue Analysis: Click on the port issue hyperlink to view detailed insights such as affected device and port information, recommended fixes, port usage statistics, and cable quality reports. This level of analysis enables faster root cause identification and resolution, reducing downtime and helping maintain network stability.
  
  
  
• Direct Remediation Actions: Take immediate action directly from the Port Advisor panel—adjust settings like storm control thresholds, shut down ports to prevent network anomalies, or restart the shut-down ports once the underlying problems have been resolved. This allows you to respond swiftly to issues without switching tools, minimizing downtime, reducing operational overhead, and keeping the network running smoothly.
  
  
  
• Direct Alert Notifications: Go to Configure > Alert Settings > Port advisor to set up the alert thresholds and notification intervals. You can choose to receive alerts via email, in-app push, or both—ensuring you're promptly informed of port issues without needing to log into the Nebula dashboard, allowing for faster response and reduced downtime.
  

Why It Matters

• Automation Over Manual Logs

  Say goodbye to digging through CLI or SNMP logs—Port Advisor automates it all.

• Speed Up Remediation

  Real-time detection combined with in-dashboard actions helps resolve issues faster, with fewer steps.

• Holistic Visibility

  Even large networks with hundreds of switches gain a unified, clear view of switch port health—making network management simpler and smarter.

Whether you’re managing a dynamic enterprise network with frequent port reconfigurations or overseeing multiple client sites as an MSP, Port Advisor simplifies troubleshooting by eliminating manual log checks and automatically grouping abnormalities into actionable categories.

Integrated into NCC, it provides centralized, at-a-glance monitoring across all switches and enables immediate remediation—from adjusting settings to restarting affected ports—allowing quick resolution of many issues without delays. For anyone responsible for maintaining wired network stability, Port Advisor delivers a smarter, faster, and more efficient way to stay in control.