Network Bandwidth Monitor

You use the Network Bandwidth Monitor to monitor SNMP-enabled network appliances such as routers and switches. The error and warning thresholds for the monitor can be set on as many as ten different objects. This monitor type also provides a Real-time metrics report, available as a link in the More column on the Group Detail Page.

Usage Guidelines

The Network Bandwidth Monitor operates like many other browsable monitors: it gathers information from a source and allows the user to choose which items in the tree it should monitor. It works by connecting to the specified network component and returning a list of interfaces.

The MIB files in SiteScope/templates.mib are then used to create a browsable tree that contains names and descriptions of the objects found during the traversal. Note that an object may or may not be displayed with a textual name and description, depending on the MIBs available in SiteScope/templates.mib. SiteScope does not display objects for user selection when it has no knowledge of how to display those objects. For example, a plain OctetString may contain binary or ascii data, but SiteScope has no way to decode and display this data correctly without more information.

The default run schedule for this monitor is every 10 minutes, but you can change it to run more or less often using the Update every setting.

Completing the Network Bandwidth Monitor Form

To display the Network Bandwidth Monitor Form, either click the Edit link for an existing Network Bandwidth Monitor in a monitor table, or click the add a Monitor link on a group's detail page and choose the "Add Network Bandwidth Monitor" link.

Complete the items on the Network Bandwidth Monitor Form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the Add Monitor button.

Server: Enter the name of the server you want to monitor.
SNMP Version: Select the version of SNMP to use when connecting.
V1/V2 Community: Enter the community string (valid only for version 1 or 2 connections).
SNMP V3 Authentication Type: Select the type of authentication to use for version 3 connections.
SNMP V3 Username: Enter the username for version 3 connections.
SNMP V3 Authentication Password: Enter the authentication password to use for version 3 connections.
SNMP V3 Privacy Password: Enter the privacy password if DES privacy encryption is desired for version 3 connections. Leave blank if you do not want privacy.
SNMP V3 Context Engine ID: Enter a hexidecimal string representing the Context Engine ID to use for this connection. This is applicable for SNMP V3 only.
SNMP V3 Context Name: Enter the the Context Name to use for this connection. This is applicable for SNMP V3 only.
Counters: Choose the counters (objects) you want to check with this monitor. The table list to the right of this item displays those currently selected for this monitor. Use the choose counters link to bring up the counters selection screen. Check or clear the check boxes on the choose counters screen to select between one to ten counters to monitor on this server.
Update every: Enter how frequently the monitor should read the server statistics. The drop-down list to the right of the text box lets you specify time increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. You must specify a time increment of at least 15 seconds.
Title: Enter a name for this monitor. This name appears in the Name text box on the monitor table when you open the group's detail page. If you don't enter a name, a default name will be created.

Advanced Options

The advanced options give you the ability to customize error and warning thresholds. If you choose not to set them, SiteScope will use pre-set defaults if available. If a default is not available, SiteScope will not be able to utilize the condition.

Device Type

Select an optional device type for device specific monitoring. The default is Do not monitor device-specific metrics. By specifying a device type, you will enable the Network Bandwidth monitor to watch certain device-specific metrics. See the section entitled Device Specific Metrics Config File for more information on controlling the metrics associated with these device types and on adding new device types.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Duplex or Half-Duplex

Select the duplex state to use when calculating percent bandwidth utilized for all selected interfaces on this device.

Interface Index

Metrics for network interfaces on an SNMP-enabled device are presented as a table of management information (the ifTable), where each row corresponds to a different interface. Unfortunately, there is no requirement that the mapping from interface-to-row in this table remain constant across device reboots. The Interface Index paremeter may help to ensure that the interfaces SiteScope is monitoring do not become confused after a device restarts.

The three possible options are:

Indexed by Description The ifDescr field of the ifTable is used to maintain monitoring consistency across device reboots.
Indexed by Physical Address The ifPhysAddr field of the ifTable is used to maintain monitoring consistency across device reboots.
Indexed by ifTable Row Number SiteScope will assume that the interfaces remain in the same row in the ifTable across device reboots.

Note that some devices (Cisco, for instance) may have a configuration option to not jumble the position of interfaces in the ifTable during reboot. This may be the safest option, as not all interfaces may always have a unique ifDescr, and not all interfaces may have an ifPhysAddr (loopback interfaces do not typically have a physical addres).

Show Bytes In/Out

Select this option to display a graph for bytes in/out along with the percent bandwidth utilized on the Real-Time Metrics page.

Real-Time Data Time Window

Enter the the number of hours for which real-time graph data should be stored.

Real-Time Data Vertical Axis

Enter the maximum value on the vertical axis for real-time graphs (leave blank to have this automatically calculated by SiteScope)

Timeout

Enter the total time, in seconds, that SiteScope should wait for all SNMP requests (including retries) to complete.

Retries

Enter the number of times each SNMP GET request should be retried before SiteScope considers the request to have failed.

Port

Enter the port to use when requesting data from the SNMP agent. The default of 161 is the port on which an SNMP agent will typically be listening.

Verify Error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to automatically run this monitor again if it detects an error. When an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.

Note: In order to change the run frequency of this monitor when an error is detected, use the Update every (on errors) option below.

Note: The status returned by the Verify Error run of the monitor will replace the status of the originally scheduled run that detected an error. This may cause the loss of important performance data if the data from the verify run is different than the initial error status.

Warning: Use of this option across many monitor instances may result in significant monitoring delays in the case that multiple monitors are rescheduled to verify errors at the same time.

Update Every (on error)

This options allows you to set a new monitoring interval for monitors that have registered an error condition. For example, you may want SiteScope to monitor this item every 10 minutes normally, but as often as every 2 minutes if an error has been detected. Note that this increased scheduling will also affect the number of alerts generated by this monitor.

Schedule

By default, SiteScope's monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Choose the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For information about creating schedules, read these instructions.

Monitor Description

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <BR> <HR>, and <B> tags to control display format and style. The description will appear on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description

Enter a description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what this monitor does. The description will appear on Management Reports and on the info pop-up for a monitor.

Depends On

To make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor or monitor group, use the drop-down list to select the monitor on which this monitor is dependent. Select None to remove any dependency.

Depends Condition

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, choose the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have in order for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Setting Monitor Status Thresholds

SiteScope Application Monitors allow you to set multiple threshold conditions to determine the status reported by each monitor. The individual conditions are combined as logical OR relationships so that when one or more of the conditions (for example any of the conditions for Error if) are met the monitor status is set to the applicable condition. If multiple conditions are met for more than one status condition (such as conditions for both error and for warning), the status for the monitor is set to the highest valued condition. Thus a match of an error condition and a warning condition would be reported as an error status, error being the highest value, warning the next highest and good the lowest value.

Error if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more error conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change error threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. After choosing a counter or parameter, use the comparison operator drop-down list to specify an error threshold such as: >= (greater than or equal to), != (not equal to), or < (less than) and enter a comparison value in the box provided. Comparison values should be entered as whole numbers.
Warning if: Use one or more of the selection boxes in this item to define one or more warning conditions for this monitor. Use the drop-down lists in these items to change warning threshold(s) relative to the counters you have selected to check with this monitor. Set these values relative to those you set for the error threshold in the Error if item.
Good if: You can set this monitor to return a good status for certain conditions. You may define those conditions here. Complete this item as you would for the Error if and Warning if items.

Device Specific Metrics Config File: netbandwidth.xml

The Network Bandwidth Monitor may be customized for use with specific devices which implement non-standard or vendor-specific OIDs. By editing the netbandwidth.xml file (found in the templates.applications directory), the user may add new Device Types which contain a set of OIDs to monitor. Here is an example of a Device Type from the default netbandwidth.xml file:

        <device>
                <identifier>cisco</identifier>
                <displayName>Cisco Routers and Switches</displayName>
                <deviceMetrics>
                        <metric>
                                <OID>1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.109.1.1.1.1.7</OID>
                                <metricName>CPU Usage</metricName>
                                <units>percent used</units>
                                <realTime>true</realTime>
                                <sameGraph>true</sameGraph>
                                <multipleInstances>all</multipleInstances>
                        </metric>
                        <metric>
                                <OID>1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.5</OID>
                                <metricName>Memory</metricName>
                                <metricNameOID>1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.2</metricNameOID>
                                <units>bytes free </units>
                                <realTime>true</realTime>
                                <sameGraph>true</sameGraph>
                                <multipleInstances>all</multipleInstances>
                        </metric>
                </deviceMetrics>
        </device>

This entry specifies a new type of device entitled, "Cisco Routers and Switches". When this device type is selected in the Network Bandwidth Monitor, OIDs for CPU and memory pool usage will be monitored. If multiple instances of this data are found on the device, they will all be recorded individually. In addition, they will both be reported on the real-time report graphs, and multiple instances of the same OID will be charted on the same real-time graph. For instance, a router with three memory pools (CPU, IO 1, and IO 2) will have a real-time report with a single graph for memory pool data, containing a total of three lines (one for each pool).

Below is a detailed description of the meaning of each XML tag in the config file. You may wish to consult this list when creating a new device type or when adding new metrics to existing device types.

The identifier Tag

This is for use by SiteScope to uniquely identify the device entry. For that reason, the value of this tag must be unique in the netbandwidth.xml file.

The displayName Tag

As its name suggests, this option controls the text that is displayed on the Network Bandwidth Monitor's Add/Edit page. You should choose a short, descriptive phrase that will help you to remember what type of device this entry is intended to monitor.

The deviceMetrics Tag

This tag encloses all of the metrics which should be monitored for this type of device.

The metric Tag

The metric tag encloses all of the properties associated with a single metric on the device.

The OID Tag

The OID tag contains the object identifier (OID) of the metric. This OID does not need to correspond to a single object instance. If multiple instances are found under the given OID, then all of them are retrieved. To use the Cisco memory pool example again, if the user wished to limit the metric to one memory pool, then the OID should contain the specific instance the user is interested in: <OID>1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.5.1</OID> Otherwise, the user can specify the OID with no index to indicate that all memory pool instances should be retrieved: <OID>1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.5</OID>

The metricName Tag

This tag specifies the base name to use for the retrieved instance(s). If no metricNameOID is specified, then this name will be used to create names for multiple instances of the metric.

The metricNameOID Tag

When present, this tag instructs the Network Bandwidth Monitor to ask the device for a name or series of names to use for the instance(s) retrieved for the given OID. This is particularly useful for columnar data, where one column in a MIB table contains data and a corresponding column contains descriptive names for the data. The value given in this tag must be a valid OID.

The units Tag

The units tag is, as the name suggests, used to give the units that should be displayed with the metric. This can be any text value, and has no impact on any calculations done on the data.

The realTime Tag

The value of this option must be either "true" or "false". When "true", this metric will appear on a graph in the "Real-Time Metrics" report page.

The sameGraph Tag

The value of this option must be either "true" or "false". It is only applicable to a metric for which multiple instances are present. The effect of setting this option to "true" is that all instances of the metric will appear in the same graph on the "Real-Time Metrics" report page.

The multipleInstances Tag

This tag specifies what the Network Bandwidth Monitor should do with OIDs for which it retrieves more than one instance of data. Usually, the all option is the best selection, as it causes all instances to be displayed and graphed. The complete list of options includes:

all causes all retrieved instances to be reported individually
average causes all retrieved instances to be averaged
min causes only the minimum of the retrieved instances to be reported
max causes only the maximum of the retrieved instances to be reported