Help Network Monitoring Custom SNMP Monitoring

Custom SNMP Monitoring

Cisco, Aruba, X, Y, or Z—no matter who your device vendor is, Site24x7 can monitor any device and any attribute in that device. All you need is support for SNMP, and you can fully customize your monitoring. 

 Table of contents: 

Here is a video to demonstrate performance counters:

 

When is custom SNMP monitoring useful?

  • If you'd like to monitor a device Site24x7 hasn't added a device template for, you can create a custom device template. 
  • If you wish to monitor a parameter that isn't offered by default, like kWh power consumption in the past hour for an uninterruptable power supply (UPS), you can create a custom performance counter. 
  • If you want to monitor exhaustive values of an attribute like Cisco temperature (that gives temperatures of left and right inlets, outlets, fan, etc. of a Cisco device), we offer support for tabular performance counters, which monitor your tabular object identifiers (OIDs).

What are custom performance counters?

Custom performance counters are used to monitor special attributes that the user would like to monitor in addition to the basic performance metrics provided.

More on custom performance counters

You can also perform relevant mathematical operations using OIDs to monitor the values of your choice as custom performance counters.

For example, if you want to monitor memory utilization (in percentage) of a Cisco router, the value can be obtained from the mathematical expression (A*100)/(A+B), where: 

A = .1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.5.1 (Indicates the number of bytes from the memory pool that are currently in use by applications on the managed device.) 

B = .1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.6.1 (Indicates the number of bytes from the memory pool that are currently unused on the managed device for the processor.) 

The final expression will look like: 

(.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.5.1*100)/(.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.5.1+.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.48.1.1.1.6.1)

What are custom device templates?

Custom device templates are those templates created by users when they edit one of the over 10000 default device templates or add new ones. 

What are the requisites for custom SNMP monitoring?

Your devices are expected to have basic SNMP support so you can customize your monitoring. You'll need the SNMP OIDs or system OIDs (sysOIDs) to monitor new attributes using custom performance counters. You can find these sysOIDs from the MIB browser.

Adding custom device templates

If there is no preset template corresponding to your device, you can create one based on your need. Log into your Site24x7 account and navigate to Network > Device Templates. In the Device Templates screen, click Add Device Template, located at the top right corner of the screen and enter the following:

  1. Device Template: Provide a name to identify the template.
  2. Share this template globally with other Site24x7 users: Toggle Yes if you wish to share your custom template across Site24x7 users. 
  3. Vendor: Pick a vendor from the drop-down menu or add one by clicking +.
  4. Category: Choose the category to which the device belongs to. You can also add a new custom category by clicking +. In this case, you'll have to add a Parent Category first, and then the custom Category will be a sub-type of the Parent.
  5. Device Identifier: Enter the System Object Identifier (SysOID).
  6. Performance Counters: To add custom performance counters, click the button. The performance counters can be either scalar, tabular, or you can also view them as a table. 
    • MIB Browser: Choose if you wish to add performance counters from generic MIB or custom MIBSs.
      • Generic MIBs: These are available by default in Site24x7. Choose the Vendor and the MIB from the drop-down list.
        Add custom performance counter
      • Custom MIBs: You can upload MIBs from your system and use them to add custom performance counters.
        • On-Premise Poller: Choosing an On-Premise Poller will list all the MIBs inside the folder Poller-home/NetworkPlus/mibs. Choose the On-Premise Poller which stores the MIB files you uploaded. If you choose ‘Recently Viewed’, all the MIBs that were uploaded or recently used will be shown. 
        • MIB: Choose an already uploaded MIB from the drop-down menu or click + to add new ones. 

          In the Upload MIB screen, select files and upload them from your computer. Also, choose the On-Premise Poller which has to store the MIB files. 

          Upload MIB
    • Scalar Performance Counters: Add scalar performance counters by entering the values for SNMP OID, name, description, unit, type, and format value. You can either enter them manually or use the in-built MIB browser to do the same.
    • Tabular Performance Counters: Add tabular performance counters by entering the values for SNMP OID, name, description, unit, type, and format value. You can either enter them manually or use the in-built MIB browser to do the same. By selecting a table on the MIB, you can directly create a Table View which includes all the corresponding tabular performance counters.

      Save Absolute:       This option is available for scalar and tabular performance counters and is useful for counter type OIDs. When toggled to No, this will fetch the value as the difference between the last two polls. To fetch the value from all data procured, toggle to Yes.
    • Table View: A table view displays selected performance counters as a table. Provide a name, and choose the tabular performance counters that have to be displayed as individual columns in a table. You can also choose a table directly from the MIB and view it, here. Note that a table can contain at the maximum of nine columns while the rest will be added as individual tabular performance counters.

      Column of the Table View to be displayed in the Alert:       Choose a column name to include in the alerts generated so that you'll obtain a clear picture of which tabular performance counter in the table has generated alert.
      e.g. Consider a table View with two tabular performance counters (columns) namely "Sensor Failures" and "Sensor Description". If you choose the column "Sensor Description", then your alert will be like: Sensor Failures-.3 for (Power Supply 2 Sensor) exceeds 5 units.
    • Show in Monitor Summary Page: Toggle yes to choose if the performance counter has to be displayed on the monitor summary page.
    • Click Add. 

      Table View
  7. Table View: View a consolidated table of tabular performance counters that you added to the table (while adding custom performance counters). You can create an all-new Table View from here if you haven't created one yet.
  8. Custom Monitor Metrics: You can configure monitor-level metrics for your device type by providing a custom performance counter. Click Configure Custom Monitor Metrics. In the Custom Monitor Metrics window that pops up, choose the custom metrics for the performance counters of CPU Utilization, Memory Utilization, Manufacturer, Serial Number, and Model Name from the drop-down menu. You can also Test them before adding.
    Adding custom monitoring metrics
    CPU and Memory Utilization can only be numeric values while the rest can be either numeric or string.
  9. Show in Monitor Summary Page: Double check your entries from the Add Performance Counters tab. You can also add more to your desired performance counters and tables, and view them on the monitor summary page.
  10. Click Save to save the custom template. Click Save and Associate to associate the template to a set of network devices.
You can also create custom device templates by editing default templates.

Adding custom performance counters

You can add custom performance counters while adding a device template or by editing a device template . 

You can also do this by navigating to the device's dashboard. To do this:

  1. Go to Network > Network Devices.
  2. Click the name of the device.
  3. Go to the Performance Counters tab.
  4. Click Add Performance Counters.
  5. In the Add Performance Counters pop-up, click Add Custom Performance Counters in the bottom-right corner.
  6. This will direct you to the Edit Device Templates window.
  7. You can add your custom performance counters here by entering the SNMP OID, name, description, and unit.
  8. Save your changes. Click Save and Associate if you wish to associate this device template containing new performance counters, to a set of network devices.

Edit device template

Testing custom performance counters

You can test the custom performance counters you've added to fetch their latest values. To do this:

  1. Go to Network > Network Devices.
  2. Click the name of the device.
  3. Go to the Performance Counters tab.

    Testing custom performance counters
  4. Click Test on the custom performance counter you've added.
  5. The test result will be displayed in the pop-up.

    Test performance counters
If the performance counter test fails, follow these steps to troubleshoot.

Configuring thresholds for network attributes

You can configure thresholds to receive alerts on violation of threshold conditions. You can do this at the device level, interface level, and performance counter level.

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Help Network Monitoring Custom SNMP Monitoring