Binary profiling

A common challenge when managing digital employee experience (DEX) is a change implemented throughout the IT ecosystem, such as upgrades to applications or the rollout of new applications. With Binary profile, assess the risk of any adverse impact related to changes in your environment beforehand. This feature helps you answer important questions:

Is the specific version of the binary stable?
Is the resource consumption on a similar level?
Are there any unexpected problems we might see after the change?

Accessing Binary profiling

To access Binary profiling:

Select Alerts and Diagnostics > Binary profiling.

The Search page opens when accessing Binary profiling from the menu.

Binary Profiling - 11707674228 (1).png — Binary profiling

To view a binary profile:

Use the search field to select a binary name or product.
A list of suggestions shows binaries used across various organizations.
Select the relevant binary name or product from the suggested results.
A new page opens displaying cross-customer statistics for that particular binary or product.

You can access binaries that you do not use in your environment.

The search does not return results if the binary name or product you are looking for is not widely used by other Nexthink customers.

Binary profiling table

The Binary profiling table displays details related to the selected binary.

Binary details

From the Binary details tab on the dashboard, you can:

Switch to a different binary within an existing product name or to a different product within an existing binary name.
View the status of devices used with that binary.
View the number of companies and devices that have installed the selected binary.

To switch to another binary profile:

Click the drop-down menu in either the Binary name or Product name search field under Binary details.
A list of binary or product suggestions appears.
Select the relevant binary or product from the suggested results.
A new binary profile displays the cross-customer statistics for that binary or product.

List all versions by chosen metric

Compare all binary versions that the devices use. The default breakdown shows the Version usage as a percentage of devices across all companies that use that binary. The system displays usage at your organization as complementary information.

Data across all organizations has a timeframe of 4 weeks, while your organization has a timeframe of 7 days. During the respective timeframe, the system counts multiple versions for the same device. This is why the versions do not add up to 1 in terms of version usage.

If a version of the binary is rare, it doe not meet the required threshold to be significant across all organizations and, therefore, doesn’t appear on the list. This is why versions at your organization may add up below 1 in terms of version usage.

Use the drop-down menu to see other metrics such as CPU single core usage, Time between crashes, Average memory used, and network-related metrics such as Network traffic, Throughput, and Connectivity.

Compare chosen versions

Hover over the version number to reveal the action menu.
Click on the action menu.
Add a selected version of the binary to the Version comparison widget on the right. Alternatively, you can add it to different columns of the widget manually.

Sort binary versions to see how the latest versions compare to the versions you are currently using at your organization.

By default, the system adds the two most common versions to the widget for comparison. The first column displays the weighted average values from all versions.

Use the Metric by version widget to add different versions of the binary to different columns.
Use the drop-down menu at the top of each column to select another version for a given column.

Compare up to 3 versions to assess the following cross-customer statistics:

Reliability: Time between crashes. This statistic indicates how often the crash occurred with respect to the execution duration. The system displays the value in days and hours. The shorter the reported period is, the more often the binary crashes, resulting in a decrease in reliability. The reliability KPI measures reliability in different systems. The more generic name is Mean time to failure. Nexthink has chosen to use this metric over crash ratio, as it also takes into account the execution time. This means that a crash that occurs on an execution that lasts 1h, is more impactful than a crash that occurs on an execution that lasts 72h. A value of 30d means that the binary crashes, on average, every 30 days of usage for a single device.
CPU: Single core usage. The system uses two statistics to report CPU usage:
- Average CPU usage on a single core. This is based on the time period when the binary is actually using the CPU.
- Typical ranges of single-core usage. This is based on the time period when the binary is actually using the CPU. Typical ranges correspond to the 25th percentile and 95th percentile of single-core usage and are formatted as a percentage.
Memory: The system uses two statistics to report memory usage:
- Average memory usage is based on the time period when the binary is actually using the memory.
- A typical range falls between the 25th percentile on the lower limit and 95th percentile on the upper limit.
Network traffic:
- Only TCP for incoming traffic. Count both TCP and UDP for outgoing traffic.
- The traffic situation varies depending on the device. Some devices are more active, others less. The system doesn’t distinguish between active devices versus idle devices, which is why the average value may seem low.
Throughput:
- Only TCP for incoming traffic. Count both TCP and UDP for outgoing traffic.
- Throughput can be significantly different from one time bucket to another. Therefore when averaging, the average value tends to be low.
Connectivity:
- Average time of establishing the connection.
- A typical range falls between the 25th percentile on the lower limit and the 95th percentile on the upper limit.

Permissions

Binary profile is part of the Diagnostics feature and requires appropriate user profile permissions. Refer to Getting started with Diagnostics for more information.

License Restrictions

Binary profile uses cross-customer statistics from Nexthink cloud customers to create benchmark-based binary profiles. This feature is only available to customers who are opted-in to share telemetry so they can benefit from cross-customer benchmark-based insights. You are opted-in by default.
Contact your Nexthink representative if you wish to change the telemetry sharing option.