Enabling Monitoring for SNMP Interfaces

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to enable monitoring and create monitoring groups for SNMP Interfaces.

The specific topics we will cover in this chapter are:

Automatic Discovery and Grouping of SNMP Interfaces
Creating and Activating Monitoring Groups
Creating and Customizing Monitoring Profiles
Customizing Alerts
Placing Interfaces in Monitoring Groups

1. Automatic Discovery and Grouping of SNMP Interfaces

During the Discovery phase all network Interfaces are automatically added to the group called “No Monitoring Group.” This group has all monitoring functionality disabled and serves as a parking space for all unmonitored Interfaces.

To enable monitoring for a particular Interface you must move that interface from the “No Monitoring Group” to any group that has the monitoring checkbox set to “ON” and has a Monitoring Profile assigned.

2. Creating and Activating Monitoring Groups

To create and activate SNMP Interface Monitoring Groups go to the Nectus Home Screen and select Monitoring -> SNMP Monitoring Groups -> Interface Monitoring Groups.

This opens the “Interface Monitoring Groups” dialog box.

Nectus provides you with two predefined Monitoring Groups:

No Monitoring Group – Interfaces in this group are not being monitored.
Default Monitoring Group – Interfaces in this group are monitored by Nectus.

Click the Add Group button to open the “Add Monitoring Interface Group” dialog box and create an additional Monitoring Group.

To monitor a group, check its Enable Monitoring box in the “Interface Monitoring Groups” dialog box.

Next select the Monitoring Profile you want to use for the Group. See the next section for more information on Monitoring Profiles.

Then click the Edit Alert Recipients icon to open the “Alert Recipients” dialog box and select lists that specify who will receive alerts from this particular Monitoring Group and Profile.

3. Creating and Customizing Monitoring Profiles

Each Monitoring Group must have a Monitoring Profile that determines which parameters are monitored. You can customize each Profile, and create individual Profiles for each Monitoring Group.

To create a new Profile, go to the Nectus Home Screen and select Monitoring -> SNMP Monitoring Profiles -> Profiles – SNMP Interface Monitoring. This opens the “Interface Monitoring Profiles” dialog box. Click the Add Profile button to create a new Profile.

To edit a Profile click the Edit icon to the right of the Monitoring Profile for the Group. This opens the “Edit Device Monitoring Profile” dialog box.

Some of the parameters here allow you to set Threshold values or other customizations.

Set the Enabled checkbox next to each Parameter you want to monitor. Check any of the Log to DB, Email Alerts, SMS Alerts, or Traps Alerts boxes to send those types of alerts.

4. Customizing Alerts

To customize the alerts, click the Edit Alert Templates button to open the “Edit Alert Handler” dialog box.

If you select Email Alerts or SMS Alerts, Nectus will generate Alert messages when the Monitored Parameter exceeds threshold and Recovery messages when the Parameter returns to normal.

Selecting the tab for one of these messages allows you to customize the appearance of that message.

5. Placing Interfaces in Monitoring Groups

Once you have created the Monitoring Groups you want to use you need to place Interfaces in them. To do so, click the Monitoring Group Name to open the “Edit Monitoring Interface Group” dialog box.

Select the Group you want to add Interfaces to on the left, and the Group you want to take them from on the right. Use the arrows to move Interfaces between the two Interface Groups.

Note that if you move an Interface that is currently being monitoring into the No Monitoring Group, Nectus will immediately stop monitoring that Interface. This can be useful for situations where you know an Interface will be down for some time (extended maintenance, for example) and you don’t want the system to send alerts.