Users, devices and traffic tied together for an Irish institute of technology
A Dublin institute of technology, now part of a technological university, deployed Rebasoft to see which user was on which device, where it was connected and what it was doing, across separate staff and student directory domains.
- 5
- Active Directory domains correlated
- User → port
- every login tied to a device and switch port
- 2
- Rebasoft platforms: discovery and traffic
- 2013
- first deployed
The challenge
- Staff, students and departments spread across several separate directory domains.
- Knowing a device’s IP or MAC address was not enough: the team needed the person behind it, and where they were.
- Web and network activity had to be traceable back to a user when incidents occurred.
Our approach
- Rebasoft network discovery and traffic analysis on virtual machines in the institute’s data centre.
- Read-only LDAP queries into all five directory domains, tagging each device with its user, department and role.
- Web proxy logs shipped into the traffic platform, so activity could be tied to user, device and port.
What the institute gained
Who, what and where
Each device linked to the logged-in user, their department and the switch port they are on.
Across every domain
One query path across staff and student domains, despite gaps in the directory’s global catalogue.
Activity in context
Proxy and traffic data attributed to users and devices, not just IP addresses.
Port problems spotted
Ports shut down by switch protection (err-disabled) identified over SNMP.
Policy-driven alerting
Automated policies raising exceptions without manual log review.
Partner on the ground
Supported by Rebasoft’s team in Ireland, with on-site hardware offered when VM resources were tight.
The outcome: every device on the institute’s network tied to a person, a place and its activity, across all of its directory domains.
Why it matters for education
Know who, not just what
Directory identity joined to network data.
Agentless
Nothing to install on student or staff devices.
A long-term partner
Integrations built with the institute’s own team.