Network Management

I have exact same question.

Device HPE 5412R zl2 Switch

example of interface configuration (connected to PC)

interface A1
name "Endpoint"
ip access-group "netbios" in
tagged vlan 2-10
untagged vlan 1
loop-protect
exit

In IMC this port has "Interface Link Type": "Idle Interface"

I'd like to change it to "Interface Connected to PC"

P.S> ADMIN : This post was moved as a new topic from Change interface Link Type 

Hello,

The "Interface Link Type" is determined automatically by iMC and cannot be manually edited. Here is a listing of the different types and how they are detected

PC-connected Interface = an interface where a PC, eg. a device in iMC with only ICMP, has been detected

Server-connected Interface = an interface where a Server, eg. device in iMC with SNMP that has a known Server SysOID, has been detected

SNMP Device-connected Interface = an interface where an SNMP device managed by iMC (which is not a server) has been detected

Idle Interface = any other interface

The only way to change the link type, for example when moving a physical link to a device from one interface to another, is to delete the device from iMC that is connected on that link, then move the physical link, and then re-add the connected device to iMC.

Note that changing the port type (access, trunk etc.) or the name of the port does not have any effect on the link type.

Hope that clarifies how iMC determines this.

Thank you it a bit clarifies however IMC doesn't recognize IMC server connected to the switch as a server. In my network there are only:

SNMP Device-connected Interface and Idle Interface

Regarding PCs should I add all PCs to IMC? (I have a license for 50 devices - I didn't calculate licenses for endpoint only network devices - switches/controllers/APs)

How IMC server should be properly added to IMC itself (should it run SNMP service on it, I only provided credentials for SSH but it wasn't recognized as a server)? IMC server in my environment run on an VMware machine which was discovered with SOAP.

As June 16-17: Online Expert Day started maybe an expert can answer the question:

Hello,

You only need to add PCs to IMC if you want to monitor them and get alarms when the interfaces where they are connected go up/down. This is what the PC-connected interface type is for. If you don't care about that, leaving the interfaces discovered as 'Idle Interface' will be fine. Whether or not you receive alarms for any Idle Interface up/down events is determined globally by System > System Settings > "Alarms for disconnected links" setting. It should be set to Filter to prevent receiving such alarms.

As for the iMC Server, or any server for that matter which you would like to monitor (and have the connected port on the switch appear as "Server-connected"), you would need to configure SNMP on the server's OS, and then add it to iMC as a device. The same applies for the iMC Server. As I've mentioned previously, detection of a Server-connected interface is determined by iMC detecting a known SNMP SysOID of a server connected there, which requires the server to be added in the software using SNMP.

On Windows Servers:

1. Install the SNMP Server feature via Add Roles & Features.
2. Configure the Windows SNMP Service afterwards with a read-only community and access restriction as needed. (Note: On the iMC Server itself, don't enable SNMP Trap service! This will block imcfaultdm.exe alarm process on port 162)
3. Then add it to iMC with only the read community. The interface where it's connected should now appear as Server-connected (you may need to synchronize the switch).

On Linux Servers you can use an SNMP agent of your choice - net-snmp is one I've used successfully.

yum -y install net-snmp net-snmp-utils

Then configure /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf with at least a read community name that has full MIB access, save it, restart and enable snmpd, and discover the Linux server in iMC.

Hope that answers your questions.

Yes, that explains my doubts. Thank you. I will set SNMP service at IMC server OS and will check it out.

Assuming that I would like to monitor all interfaces for up/down event but don't want to have alarms related to PC connected interfaces should this "Alarms for disconnected links" option be set to Filter?

There are predefined filters in System>Resource Management>Filter how do I know which Filter is applied to "Alarms for disconnected links" or those filters are different filters not influencing each other?

Next question is about  Resource>Performance Option>Monitor Option does it only define the default OIDs which are gathered for a given type of interface by default? If not what is the purpose of this option? Assuming that I'd like to monitor all interfaces for the used bandwidth how it should be configured?

Hello,

To filter up/down alarms for PC-connected interfaces  enable "Alarms for "PC-connected Links" given the PCs were added into IMC and the connected links are recognized as "PC-Connected interfaces" .  if the PCs were not added to IMC and therefore the link is not be recognized as "PC-Connected interface"  use "Alarms for disconnected links"

The option under System -> Resource Management -> Filter is not used for filtering alarms but used to set a query criteria for Advanced Queries.  IMC has pre-defined filters which include

• Interfaces in use: Queries interfaces in the Up operational status.
• Available interfaces: Queries interfaces in the non-Up operational status.
• Block Interfaces: Queries interfaces in the Down management status.
• Idle interfaces: Queries interfaces without connections.
• Interfaces connected to PCs: Queries interfaces connected to PCs.
• Interfaces connected to servers: Queries interfaces connected to servers.
• Interfaces connected to SNMP devices: Queries interfaces connected to SNMP devices.

If for example you are looking for a list of interface connected to PCs you would bring up the Device view, open up the Advanced Query, select Query Interfaces and select PC-connected Interace from the pull-down for Interface Link Type.  This query  returns a list of interfaces where the interface type was defined as "PC-connected Interface".

Regards,

Thank you for your answer. Could you also answer the question:

Hello,

The Monitor Option tab is used to specify default monitor settings when adding performance indexes on a device.  By default iMC will not collect interface performance data on any discovered device.  A performance monitor must be configured for any given device to collect interface performance data. 

From the Device List view click on the icon with the tripple dots "..." under the Operation column for the selected device where performance data is required.  Select Device Monitor -> Add Monitor.  Under Select Index click "Add" to open a Slect Index window.  Open the section for System-Interface Statistics and select Interface Inbound Bandwidth Usage and Interface Outbound Bandwidth Usage and click OK.  At the bottom of the Monitoring Settings-Add Monitor window there is a Monitoring Settings section.  This should look familiar since these are the seetings shown in the Monitoring Options tab previously mentioned.  Click OK on this screen to add the monitor for the device and collect performance data on "Up Intefaces", "Interaces Connected to SNMP Devices" and "Interfaces Connected to Servers".  Performance data will be collected on these interface because these options were checked at the bottom of the Monitoring Settings-Add Monitor window.  These defaults can be changed prior to clicking OK if needed.  IMC will start collecting performance data on the given interfaces based on the Monitor settings.  After clicking OK a list of interfaces will be displayed showing if the performance monitor settings were successfull. 

Performance monitors are required for every device where performance data is needed.  Wait some time for iMC collect data.  After configuring performance settings for the required devices view the interfaces with the highest in/out bandwith by selecting Resource -> Performance Management -> Performance View and select "TopN".  On the top right click the pull-down and select "Interface In-Bandwidth Usage TopN" or "Inteface out-Bandwidth Usage TopN".  IMC will pull historical data collected for all interface and display the top 5  interfaces with the highest values. 

Regards,

Thank you I will check if I did setup everything correctly.

Regarding "By default iMC will not collect interface performance data on any discovered device."

I think that in my case I did setup default collection of performance data in 'Resource > Auto Discovery (Advanced)' and in top right corner there is 'Set Default Monitor Indices' which took me to somehow hidden menu 'System > Performance Index Config'

That is probably the reason why all newly added devices have automatically turned on some statistics for some interfaces. 

Hello,

That's correct, if you set up the Performance Management > Performance Option > Default Monitoring Indexes in advance of discovering devices, and you configure the Monitor Option (also under Performance Option) accordingly, then all newly added devices with interfaces that match the Monitor Option configuration will automatically have the performance monitoring indexes you've selected as default added to matching interfaces.

Monitor Option in-context help provides some details about the way it determines what to monitor:

You can select only one option from the following:
All interfaces,
Up interfaces,
Monitor Physical Interfaces only,
UP Physical Interfaces.

You can select one or multiple options from the following:
Interfaces Connected to SNMP Devices,
Interfaces Connected to Servers,
Interfaces Connected to PCs.

The three options are ORed. The first four options and the last three options are ANDed. For example, when you select Monitor Up-Interfaces only, Monitor Interfaces Connected to SNMP Devices, and Monitor Interfaces Connected to Servers, the interface index will monitor the UP interfaces connected to SNMP devices and servers.

For example, if you choose 'All Interfaces' and 'Interfaces Connected to SNMP Devices', and then discover a device, iMC will automatically add your default interface performance monitoring choices to all interfaces (including virtual ones) on the newly added device where iMC detects a link to another managed SNMP device.

Be careful not to un-check all the "Interface Connected to ..." boxes. If you do that and have 'All interfaces' selected, then iMC adds the default interface performance monitoring to every singly interface on the newly added devices, regardless of link type. If you add a lot of devices like this, it can cause significant load on iMC and degrade its performance. Normally you only want to monitor inter-switch interfaces, and perhaps interfaces connected to servers - hence the Interfaces Connected to SNMP Devices and Servers options are checked by default and recommended to avoid excessive monitoring.

Hope that helps explain how to add interface monitoring by default.

Thank you for you answer. It explains this case with details.