Patent attributes
A central networking system supports efficient identification and analysis of problems that occur at associated nodes on the network. Using network monitoring rules, the central networking system samples data from a subset of nodes in response to an indication that an error or problem has occurred on the network. If the collected sample data is determined to satisfy certain network conditions, the central networking system proceeds to perform network operations on nodes of the entire network, as appropriate. Thus, the system does not need to collect data from every node in a large network to address potential network threats. The central networking system also defines rules for detecting when a node experiencing a problem violates safety conditions such that it is impossible or inadvisable to pull analytical data from the node. The system performs appropriate remedial actions to address the node problems prior to requesting data for analysis.