Patent ID: 8532970

Claim:
A system for monitoring and analyzing components and operation of a simulated network environment comprising: a computer network platform having hardware and software configured as a standalone configuration including a system control module and a memory configured for simulating a network environment, the computer network platform in communication with a simulated network, the simulated network comprising a plurality of simulated components, each simulated component representing an actual component of an actual operational network environment; a module configured for storing a predetermined baseline for the simulated network environment, the predetermined baseline generated from predetermined configuration files representative of a configuration of the actual components of the actual operational network environment, monitoring the simulated network environment during one or more monitored operations, analyzing the monitored operations and an impact of the operations on one or more components of the simulated network environment and comparing at least one of the monitored operations and impacts of the operations against the predetermined baseline; and a traffic generator module within the simulated network environment configured to generate traffic, wherein a portion of the traffic generated by the traffic generator module provides context, and wherein the module is configured to monitor and interpret the context of the traffic and to interpret a traffic pattern during monitoring of a particular operation within the simulated network environment, validate one of the network operations, identify failures encountered, and store data related to any identified failure, wherein the module is further configured for defining one or more network operation checks that is a testable configuration of a traffic pattern or network protocol within the operation of the simulated network environment, wherein the network operation checks include metadata regarding the network operation check, and wherein the analyzing includes the network operation check.