Topology interface elements

Network Topology visualizes your Google Cloud network as a graph. You can use the graph to explore your existing configurations and quickly troubleshoot networking issues. To view a Network Topology graph, see Monitor your networking configuration with Network Topology.

The Network Topology graph includes the following elements.

Element name Description
View options A control pane where you can select or clear entities that Network Topology displays in the graph.
Metrics and insights A section to select the average hourly metrics or insights for entities with high metric values.
Types of egress

In the Infrastructure view, a drop-down menu to filter by traffic type:

  • Cross-zonal: Displays a ranked table of outliers with the traffic between Google Cloud zones, and excludes the traffic between entities within the same zone.
  • To the internet: Displays a ranked table of outliers with the traffic from Google Cloud to external endpoints, excluding hybrid traffic.
  • Hybrid: Displays a ranked table of outliers with the traffic through Cloud VPN, Cloud Interconnect, and router appliances.
  • All measured egress: Displays a ranked table of outliers with the traffic from an entity.

In the GKE view, a drop-down menu to filter by traffic type:

  • Cross-zonal: Displays a ranked table of outliers with the traffic between Google Cloud zones, and excludes the traffic between entities within the same zone.
  • All measured egress: Displays a ranked table of outliers with the traffic from an entity.
Show all projects in the Workspace In the Infrastructure view, select the checkbox to display all the projects in your Cloud Monitoring metrics.
Project aggregation Select the checkbox to group your resources by the projects they belong to.
Show connections for child nodes only on focus

Select the checkbox to display only the traffic paths between top-level entities, such as regions.

To view the traffic paths between lower-level entities, select or hold the pointer over the entities. To display all the traffic paths, clear the checkbox.

Filter

Use entity-type:entity_name or just entity_name values that specify the entities that you want to find in the topology along with their communication peers. Filters for entity names can contain asterisks.

Filters can help you quickly highlight and focus on specific entities, especially when you need to quickly diagnose and troubleshoot issues. For example, you can specify a region filter that shows the us-east4 region and all entities that are communicating with its resources.

You can also use the asterisk (*) to create advanced patterns and search for entities. For example, you can use the value *replica* to search for all entities containing replica in their name. You can put asterisks anywhere within the pattern, matching arbitrary sequences of characters in entity names.

Entity details pane Shows the name of the resource and its hierarchy. You can also view connection details for a selected entity by clicking each connection. If metrics are available for either the entity or the connection, Network Topology shows time-series charts for those metrics.
Traffic paths Lines that show the communication paths between entities. If you hold the pointer over or click an entity, metric values are overlaid on the relevant traffic paths.
Entities and connections

To view information about one or more entities, hold the pointer over or click the entities.

  • To expand or collapse an entity, hold the pointer over it and click its icon to move between different hierarchies of an entity. For more information about expanding and collapsing entities, see Navigate entity hierarchies.
  • To view your selected metric for all traffic paths to an entity, hold the pointer over the entity. All entities that have a connection to this entity remain active, but all other entities are blurred. In the top-right corner of the screen, a card appears to list the name, type, and hierarchy of the entity.
  • To continue viewing the traffic paths of the entity, left-click the entity. This action selects the entity and puts a ring around its icon.
  • To select more entities and view their traffic paths, hold down the key that you use to select multiple files on your workstation (usually control or shift) and left-click each additional entity.
  • To remove an entity from the group of selected entities, hold down the control key on your keyboard and left-click the selected entity.
  • To discard the selected group of entities and select the current entity, click an entity without using the control key.
Timeline

Shows the full range of data that Network Topology has collected.

The timeline is broken into hourly segments that you can select by using the slider. When you select a different time segment, the graph reloads. You can also select the current hour with incomplete data.

Date picker A control for choosing the date for which to show data.
Time slider Indicates the hourly segment for which Network Topology shows the data; you can drag it to select another segment.

What's next