Host Pools

Host pools are logical groups of hosts. Pools are added using the “plus” button in the “Manage Pools” tab of the Host Pools page.

The Edit Host Pools “Manage Pools” of the Interface Details Page

Once an Host Pool is created, it is possible to add members to it. Host Pool members are added using the “plus” button in the “Manage Pool Membership” tab of the Host Pools page.

An “Alias” can be associated to each pool member to ease the its identification. Typically, one would assign a mnemonic label as member alias (e.g., “John’s iPhone” or “Smart TV”). A “Device Type” can be associated to each member as well. Devices types are used to categorise members on the basis of the device type (e.g., TV, Camera, Smartphone).

The image below shows an “IoT Devices” Host Pool with two members, namely a smart tv and a router.

The Edit Host Pools “Manage Pool Membership” of the Interface Details Page

A view of every host pool is accessible from the “Hosts” menu, entry “Host Pools” as discussed in the relevant section. The view shows live pool information (e.g., overall pool throughput) and provides access to the historical pool traffic timeseries (Professional version) as well as to the currently active pool members.

Host pools can also be used to enforce traffic policies (e.g, block YouTube traffic for the “John” pool and limit Facebook traffic at 1 Mbps for the “Guests” pool). This feature is only available when ntopng is used inline and is a feature only available in the professional version. ntopng inline is described in the “Advanced ntopng Features” of this document.