Device View Auto Population Rules

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Device View Auto Population Rules

Device View is the logical grouping of the devices that can be used in different places within the Nectus application. In the previous versions of Nectus, the user would manually add devices into device views which may become a significant management overhead.

In Nectus version 1.55 we introduced an ability to automatically populate device views based on specific conditions such as device names, types, etc.

User can define a set of conditions which has to be true for Nectus to automatically add devices to device views.

This article will guide you through the process of defining the auto population rules for device views.

To access your SNMP Device Views go to Inventory Views SNMP Device View

 

 

To add a new Device View, click Create in the upper right hand corner of the SNMP Devices Views page.

 

Give a name to your new Device View.

 

.

Press Save button to finish creation of Device view.

 

Open again newly created device view and in the upper right-hand corner, select Edit Rules.

This will open the Devices View Auto Population Rules page.

 

Select the plus sign to add a new Auto Population Rule.

 

Add all the required Auto-population rules and press Ok button to Save.

If multiple rules are defined all the rules must be TRUE for device to be automatically added. (Logical AND).

Your rules will be processed daily at 3:00 PM.

If you would like to apply your rules immediately, press the Apply Rules button.

 

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Linux Monitoring Agent Installation

Linux Monitoring Agent Installation

Nectus Linux Monitoring Agent is required to be installed on target machine to enable Nectus to monitor Linux system parameters such as CPU and RAM utilization, Storage and Network Utilization.

Agent collects all the required monitoring metrics and reports to the main Nectus Server every 5 minutes.

 

Step 1: Download Monitoring Agent Package

Download binary package appropriate to your target machine Linux flavor and version from the download page.

 

Step 2a: Installation for Debian-based systems (including Ubuntu)

After downloading the package run the following installation command:

$ sudo apt-get install -y <package-name>

This will install Nectus monitoring agent on your target machine. If everything is OK you’ll see an output like this:

$ sudo apt install -y ./nectus-agent_1.4-3_amd64.deb
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
Note, selecting ‘nectus-agent’ instead of ‘./nectus-agent_1.4-3_amd64.deb’
The following NEW packages will be installed:
nectus-agent
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 81 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/843 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,654 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 /home/oleg/nectus-agent_1.4-3_amd64.deb nectus-agent amd64 1.4-3 [843 kB]
Selecting previously unselected package nectus-agent.
(Reading database … 278414 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/nectus-agent_1.4-3_amd64.deb …
Unpacking nectus-agent (1.4-3) …
Setting up nectus-agent (1.4-3) …
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nectus-agent.service → /lib/systemd/system/nectus-agent.service.

 

Step 2b: Installation for RedHat, CentOS and Amazon Linux

After downloading the package run the following installation command:

$ sudo yum install -y <package-name>.rpm

You’ll see an output like this:

$ sudo yum install -y nectus-agent-1.4-3.el9.x86_64.rpm

Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:12 ago on Wed 27 Sep 2023 10:40:52 +07.
Dependencies resolved.
==================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
==================================================================================================================
Installing:
nectus-agent x86_64 1.4-3.el9 @commandline 1.0 M

Transaction Summary
==================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package
Total size: 1.0 M
Installed size: 4.3 M
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Running scriptlet: nectus-agent-1.4-3.el9.x86_64 1/1
Installing : nectus-agent-1.4-3.el9.x86_64 1/1
Running scriptlet: nectus-agent-1.4-3.el9.x86_64 1/1
Verifying : nectus-agent-1.4-3.el9.x86_64 1/1

Installed:
nectus-agent-1.4-3.el9.x86_64

Complete!

 

Step 3: Configuration

After installation is complete you need to set up the agent’s basic configuration.

Nectus agent configuration file is located at: /etc/nectus/nectus-agent.conf.

Default configuration file content is listed in Appendix 1. Most of the values are set to defaults and don’t require a change except following two parameters:

  • SERVER_PRESHARED_KEY
  • AGENT_PORT

SERVER_PRESHARED_KEY is used to encrypt messages between the Agent and Nectus Server. Initially it’s set to value <YourSecretKey>.

Edit this parameter to match the key configured in Nectus GUI (Settings->General Settings ->Linux Monitoring Integration).

SERVER_PRESHARED_KEY is a global parameters that is used for all Linux Servers.

AGENT_PORT parameter determines the TCP port used by Agent to listen for incoming connections from the Nectus server. By default the TCP port is set to 5400.

AGENT_PORT is Server specific parameter that can be different on each Linux Server.

 

Step 4: Generate SSL Certificate (optional)

The Linux Monitoring Agent listens on pre-configured TCP port for incoming HTTPS connection and needs an SSL certificate to operate.

Default location for storing certificate files is /etc/nectus but it’s configurable (parameter SSL_CERTIFICATE_DIR in the configuration file).

You can either use any existing certificate or generate a new self-signed one.

To generate new self-signed certificate run commands:

$ cd /etc/nectus

$ openssl dhparam -out dh.pem 2048

$ openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout key.pem -x509 -days 10000 -out certificate.pem

The directory pointed by SSL_CERTIFICATE_DIR parameter should finally contain files dh.pem, key.pem and certificate.pem.

 

Step 5: Open TCP port at the Firewall

If there is firewall between Nectus Server and Linux Monitoring Agent you need to permit connections on TCP port 5400 (Unless it is changed to a different port)

Make sure your Linux internal firewall also permits inbound connections on this port.

 

Step 6: Start Agent

Restart the agent in order for configuration changes to take effect:

$ service nectus-agent restart

Check it’s status to ensure proper operation:

$ service nectus-agent status

If case of successful start you’ll see some output like this:

$ service nectus-agent status

● nectus-agent.service – Nectus Agent

Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nectus-agent.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)

Active: active (running) since Mon 2019-04-29 17:55:39 UTC; 4s ago

Process: 10247 ExecStart=/usr/bin/nectus-agent $CONFFILE (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Main PID: 10255 (nectus-agent)

Tasks: 2

Memory: 1.2M

CPU: 14ms

CGroup: /system.slice/nectus-agent.service

└─10255 /usr/bin/nectus-agent /etc/nectus/nectus-agent.conf

Apr 29 17:55:39 ubuntu-16 systemd[1]: Starting Nectus Agent…

Apr 29 17:55:39 ubuntu-16 systemd[1]: nectus-agent.service: PID file /run/nectus/nectus-agent.pid not readable

Apr 29 17:55:39 ubuntu-16 systemd[1]: Started Nectus Agent.

User account

For security reasons it’s not allowed to run Monitoring Agent as root user. If it’s trying to start as ‘root’ then the agent will drop its privileges to the user account set in configuration file

(usually /etc/nectus/nectus-agent.conf) as USER_INSTEAD_OF_ROOT.

Default USER_INSTEAD_OF_ROOT is ‘nectus’.

The agent automatically creates this user account during installation (if this user does not exist already) and provides minimal set of permissions required to run the agent code.

Troubleshooting

Nectus agent runs as a daemon process. You can use the following commands to start, stop restart and check status of the agent:

$ service nectus-agent start

$ service nectus-agent stop

$ service nectus-agent restart

$ service nectus-agent status

If there are any problems with starting the agent first check the agent’s status:

$ service nectus-agent status

Then check the log file (usually /var/log/nectus/nectus-agent.log). If it does not help then you can try to run the agent manually. Usage of the module:

nectus-agent <config-file> [-D]

config-file full path to configuration file

-D debug mode (agent starts not as a daemon but as a usual process)

Locate the executable nectus-agent in /usr/bin and try to run the agent not as a daemon:

$ /usr/bin/nectus-agent /etc/nectus/nectus-agent.conf -D

Check the output and log files at /var/log/nectus.

Upgrade

Upgrade to a new version of the agent is the same as a new installation: download the appropriate package and run either:

> sudo apt-get install -y <package-name>.deb

for Debian/Ubuntu systems or

> sudo yum install -y <package-name>.rpm

for RedHat/CentOS/Amazon Linux.

Uninstallation

To uninstall Nectus agent run the following command:

> sudo apt-get remove nectus-agent

for Debian/Ubuntu systems or

> sudo yum remove nectus-agent

for RedHat/CentOS/Amazon Linux.

Appendix 1. Default Configuration File

#########################################
####       GENERAL PARAMETERS        ####
AGENT_IP                0.0.0.0          # IP address of listening socket. 
                                         # Default 0.0.0.0 (listen on all interfaces)
 
AGENT_PORT              5400             # TCP/IP port of the listening socket. Default 5400
 
SSL_CERTIFICATE_DIR     /etc/nectus      # Path to agent’s SSL certificate. 
        # Directory should contain files:
        # dh.pem, certificate.pem and key.pem.
        # To generate those files (self-signed certificate) run commands:
        # openssl dhparam -out dh.pem 1024 
        # openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout key.pem -x509 -days 10000 -out certificate.pem
        # Maybe you would need root privileges for this, then run: sudo openssl etc…
 
SERVER_PRESHARED_KEY    <YourSecretKey> # Pre-shared key to encrypt messages between 
                                        # the agent and Nectus monitoring server. 
                                        # Must be the same as set in Nectus GUI.
 
NUM_OF_THREADS          1               # Number of agent’s threads. Valid values are from 1 to 32.
                                        # Default value = 1.
 
USER_INSTEAD_OF_ROOT    nectus          # Drop privileges to a specific user existing in the system.
                                        # Only has effect if the agent is run as root.
                                        # Default value = nectus.
 
#########################################
######### Logging parameters ############
LOG_DIR                         /var/log/nectus  # Path to log files
 
LOG_LEVEL                       info
# Log verbosity level. Possible values are:
#       error – only errors are reported in log
#       info  – default logging level
#       debug – most verbose level including debug information.
 
LOG_FLUSH_PERIOD_SECONDS 30     # Flush log data to disk every X seconds. 
                                # Valid values are from 1 to 900. Default value = 30.
 
LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE_MBYTES 30     # Maximum size of a single log file. After reaching this size 
                                # next log file is opened. Valid values are from 1 to 1000.
                                # Default value = 30.
 
LOG_FILE_MAX_COUNT      30      # Maximum count of log files stored. After reaching this count
                                # the oldest log files are deleted. 
                                # Valid values are from 1 to 1000. Default value = 30.
/by

ClickHouse DB Installation for Nectus Netflow & Syslog Storage

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Requirements:  Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS       RAM: 16GB   vCPU: 2

More information about installation: https://clickhouse.com/docs/en/install/#self-managed-install

Step 1

Open terminal and install required packages:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates dirmngr

Step 2

Import the ClickHouse public key:

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 –recv 8919F6BD2B48D754

NOTE: It is recommended to import the public key if it’s a fresh Ubuntu install.

Otherwise, you may get the following error when adding the repository:

GPG error: http://repo.clickhouse.com/deb/stable/main/release:
The following signatures couldn’t be verified because the public key is not available:

NO_PUBKEY 8919F6BD2B48D754

Step 3

Add ClickHouse repository:

echo “deb https://packages.clickhouse.com/deb stable main” | sudo tee \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/clickhouse.list

Step 4

Install ClickHouse:

NOTE: During the installation you will be asked to create a password for default user.

Generate a strong password and save it, it will be used for further configuration.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y clickhouse-server clickhouse-client

Step 5

Start ClickHouse server as a daemon:

sudo service clickhouse-server start

Step 6

Now after installation it is time to test connection to ClickHouse database.

Start client (use password generated on Step 4):

clickhouse-client –password

NOTE: Use Ctrl+D to exit ClickHouse client.
NOTE: TCP ports 8123 and 9000 must be open

Step 7

NOTE: Use Ctrl+D to exit ClickHouse client.

While being connected to the ClickHouse, create required Netflow & Syslog databases:

CREATE DATABASE NETFLOW;
CREATE DATABASE SYSLOG;

ClickHouse Configuration

Step 8

By default, ClickHouse allows inbound connections from localhost only.

To allow connections from remote IP-s

edit /etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml:

sudo vim /etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml

Find <listen_host> parameters (one for IPv6 and one for IPv4) allowing all connections after <logger> section, and uncomment them.

Also uncomment and change to 1 <listen_reuse_port> tag for allowing simultaneous IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces:

<listen_host>::</listen_host>

<!– Same for hosts without support for IPv6: –>
<listen_host>0.0.0.0</listen_host>

<listen_reuse_port>1</listen_reuse_port>

Step 9

Restart ClickHouse to apply new parameters:

sudo service clickhouse-server restart

Step 10

Add internal ClickHouse user “root” for Nectus server to connect to DB.

For that edit users.xml file:

sudo vi /etc/clickhouse-server/users.xml

Find <users> section right after <profiles> section.

Add code snippet with user configuration from below, right between </users> and <default> tags, as on a screenshot below.

Generate strong password, replace it in snippet below, and then save file:

<root>
<password>**********</password>
<networks incl=”networks” replace=”replace”>
<ip>::/0</ip>
</networks>
<profile>default</profile>
<quota>default</quota>
</root>

NOTE: If file was overwritten by WinSCP or any other similar tool, verify that file has correct ownership:

sudo chown clickhouse:clickhouse /etc/clickhouse-server/users.xml

Step 11

Restart ClickHouse to apply new user:

sudo service clickhouse-server restart

Step 12

Verify newly created user able to log in:

clickhouse-client -u root –password

Step 13

Disable limit of max database size to drop. By default, ClickHouse doesn’t allow to drop table bigger than 50 Gb to prevent occasional data loss.

NOTE: More info here: https://cloud.yandex.com/en/docs/managed-clickhouse/concepts/settings-list#dbms-cluster-settings

To disable it, edit config file /etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml:

sudo vi /etc/clickhouse-server/config.xml

Find and uncomment line to disable limit of max table size to drop:

<max_table_size_to_drop>0</max_table_size_to_drop>

Restart ClickHouse to apply change:

sudo service clickhouse-server restart

Nectus Configuration

Step 14

We have completed the ClickHouse installation. This last step requires login to Nectus to finish the NetFlow/Syslog integration.

Open to “Nectus Settings -> General Settings -> Netflow Integration” page:

Enter the required information and click Test DB Connection (Remote Server IP is the IP address of the Ubuntu/ClickHouse server). The result should be “Test DB Connection OK”

Click “Run Integration Scripts” and finally Save.

Step 15

Restart Nectus NetFlow and Syslog Services.

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Monitoring BGP Sessions with Nectus

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Monitoring BGP Sessions with Nectus

Nectus 1.2.53 introduces ability to automatically discover and monitor iBGP and eBGP sessions across all router types and manufacturers.

Nectus scheduled network discovery automatically finds all the BGP sessions via SNMP polls and adds it to Nectus database where user can group them by type and enable active monitoring and alerting.

BGP Session Discovery

As part of regular scheduled network discovery Nectus detects all existing BGP Sessions and adds it to one of the existing BGP group which has “Default” flag set to ON.

You can see all the BGP sessions that were discovered in Inventory -> BGP Sessions or in left side panel called “BGP Sessions”

 

If you right-click on BGP Session and select “Properties”

 

.. you can assign a human friendly name or change a group membership for any of the BGP sessions.

 

You can create multiple BGP session groups and assign discovered BGP sessions to different groups according to its type or functional purpose.

To create a new Group, right-click on “BGP Sessions” line and select “Add New Group” on context menu.

 

Configure New Group name, set “Enable monitoring” to ON if you want all BGP Sessions in this group to be monitored for UP/DOWN Status.

 

If you set “Default” value to ON, this group will become a group where all newly discovered BGP sessions be added automatically. Only one group can have “Default” value set to ON

You can also assign BGP Session to a Group by right-clicking on BGP session and selecting “Move BGP Session to..” option

 

 

By clicking “View Session Info” on BGP Session context menu you can view detailed information about BGP Session

 

 

After you finished creating BGP session groups, assigning BGP sessions to corresponding groups and enabling BGP session groups for Monitoring the final step is to enable BGP Sessions monitoring in corresponding SNMP Device Monitoring Profiles that are applied to the routers that terminate all the BGP sessions.

Find required SNMP Monitoring Profile and enable “BGP Session Status” Monitoring Option

Now are you all set to start monitoring your BGP sessions line a pro.

 

/by

Features coming up in next Nectus release

  1. BGP sessions monitoring with UP/DOWN Alerting
  2. Linux Servers Monitoring (CPU, RAM,  Storage, Up/Down)
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UPS Health Status Monitoring with Nectus

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UPS Status Monitoring with Nectus

Health monitoring of UPS units is one of the most critical tasks of network infrastructure monitoring.

If UPS fails during power outage it results in immediate network downtime resulting in loss of revenue and degrading user experience.

Most of the modern UPS Units perform daily self-tests and results of those self-tests are available via SNMP protocol.

Our goal is to collect those self-test results on regular basis and generate an alert or incident when self-test indicates a UPS failure.

Step 1. Determine which SNMP OID to use

Very first step before you can start monitoring UPS health status is to determine which SNMP OID contains self-test information for your UPS units.

You can open a support case with your UPS vendor and request SNNP OID string for self-test information.

For example, SNMP OID for self-test information from UPS manufactured by APC is .1.3.6.1.4.1.318.1.1.1.7.2.3.0

This OID returns following values:

1 = Ok

2 = Failed

3 = Invalid Test

4 = Test In Progress

 

Step 2. Create Device View that contain all UPS units

Next step is to create a Device View that contain all UPS units that we want to monitor.

To create a Device View go to Inventory -> Views -> SNMP Device Views.

 

Create a new Device Vice called “UPS Units”

 

 

Step 3. Create Custom SNMP Tracker for UPS Self-Test Info

Now we are ready to create a custom SNMP tracker that will be polling our UPS units every 5 min for self-test information.

In Nectus GUI go to Monitoring → SNMP Monitoring Settings → Custom SNMP Trackers

 

Press “Create” button to bring up Custom SNMP Tracker creation interface.

Complete tracker General information tab with correct SNMP OID and select Device View that contains all UPS units that we want to monitor.

 

Select Email and SMS list for Alert Recipients.

In “Alerts” Tab we need to specify which status values will be considered Normal and which values should trigger Alerts.

You can specify multiple values separated by comma.

 

Define an Alert Severity level for Alarm Values as Informational, Warning or Critical.

Define number of consecutive readings for which UPS self-test status must report an Alarm condition before formal Alert is created.

Nectus performs one SNMP poll per 5 min.

If you define value for consecutive readings as 3 it should result in Alert created after 15 minutes of True Alarm conditions.

Press “Save” to complete Custom SNMP tracker creation for UPS Status Monitoring

This completes creation of custom tracker that will be monitoring UPS self-test information on all APC UPS units in your network.

 

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Suppression of Frequent Identical Alerts In Nectus

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Suppression of Frequent Identical Alerts In Nectus

Often when a network device or interface changes its state between Up and Down multiple times in a short time interval, numerous identical alerts will be sent to all the configured alert recipients.

Nectus offers the ability to suppress frequent identical alerts to reduce informational noise level by specifying a suppression timer for up to three hours.

Nectus calculates a CRC hash value from each of the email alert bodies and if hash values of two alerts are matching they are considered to be identical and can be suppressed.

Nectus excludes event timer values and specific metric values from hash calculation logic. You can configure the suppression timer from 0 to 180 minutes where 0 means no suppression.

To configure the suppression timer, go to    Monitoring -> Global Monitoring Settings

 

 

Under Monitoring Settings, select the Alerts tab.

To enable suppression specify a time interval from 1 to 180 minutes.

At the end of the time interval, alert logic will resume as normal.

Setting timer to 0 will disable the suppression.

 

 

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Importing WMI Servers from CSV file to Nectus

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Importing WMI Servers from CSV file to Nectus

To import a list of Windows Servers from CSV file to Nectus prepare a CSV file with only single column containing list of IP addresses of Windows Servers.

No other information is required.

File format example in Excel.

To start import, right-click on WMI Server Group that you want to import servers into and select “Import  WMI Servers from CSV file” option

 

 

Select CSV File that you prepared.

 

 

Press “Start” button

 

Nectus will import each server individually and collect basic Server information via WMI Interface.

 

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Configuring WMI Integration in Nectus

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Configuring WMI Integration in Nectus

Nectus uses WMI Interface in several of its modules.

List of modules that depends on WMI Integration:

  1. Windows Server Monitoring Module
  2. IPAM Module

In Windows Server Monitoring module Nectus uses WMI interface to poll Windows Servers for critical health metrics such as CPU and RAM Utilization etc.

In IPAM Module Nectus uses WMI interface to interact with Microsoft DNS and DHCP servers while Importing and creating reservations.

WMI Integration settings must be complete before Nectus can communicate with Windows Servers in those modules.

To complete WMI Integration go to Settings -> General Settings -> WMI Integration

Click on “WMI Integration” link and complete all the required fields for WMI Service account

that will be used by Nectus connect to Windows Servers via WMI Interface.

WMI Service account should not have password expiration policy to prevent Integration from breaking every time password has to be changed.

Use “Test” button to test Service account credential against any of Windows Servers of your choice.

After connection “Test” is passed WMI Integration is complete.

 

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Adjusting min. detectable ICMP outage duration in Nectus

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Adjusting Min. detectable ICMP outage duration in Nectus

When Nectus is configured to monitor UP/DOWN Status for network devices with ICMP it sends Echo packets at preset interval called Inter-Packet Delay.

By default, this Interval is set to 10 seconds.

Network Device is considered down if Echo-Reply is not received for “N” consecutive Echo packets.

By default “N” is set to 10.

So, by combining Inter-Packet Delay and “N” Value we can see that minimum duration of the outage that can be detected by Nectus with default settings is 100 seconds.

Sometimes when network a prone to fast transient outages or burstable traffic patterns that can impact ICMP it may be beneficial to increase minimum detectable ICMP outage duration to higher value. This can helps to eliminate alerts about short lived outages and only alert on outages that have more lasting impact.

To adjust Inter-Packet Delay or “N” Value go to “Monitoring -> Global Monitoring Settings”

 

And adjust values on “ICMP Monitoring” Tab according to your business needs.

 

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Monitoring HTTP URLs with Nectus NMS

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Monitoring HTTP URLs with Nectus NMS

Have you ever been surprised to find out your website hadn’t been running or online?

Realtime status updates of your website can relieve you of the frustration of downtime and provide with instant alerts to your team.

Nectus HTTP Monitoring module can take the burden of URL monitoring away and provide real-time status of thousands of URLs, all using one quick view.

Nectus can poll websites on with preset frequency and alert you via Email or SMS if any of the websites are down.

Creating URL Groups in Nectus

HTTP URL Monitoring starts with creating URL Groups.

To create a URL group, right click on the Web Servers group on the left side panel. When the context menu appears, click on Add New Group.

After clicking Add New Group, a pop-up window appears.

Window allows you to set a Poll Frequency, which defined how often Nectus will poll your website.

Enable Monitoring can be checked to begin monitoring for all URLs that are members of this group.

Send Alerts to Email Group and Send Alerts to SMS Group can be checked to specify URL Down Alert recepients for Email or SMS notifications.

To modify members’ list of any of the existing E-mail or SMS groups click on the group name.

Once you click on the Alert group name a popup window appears where changes can be made to the existing alert groups.

Adding URLs to Groups in Nectus

After creating URL groups, you now may add URLs that you want to monitor to the group you have just created.

Right Click on any of the group name and select: Add New URL

After clicking Add New URL, you can add the URL and give the URL a specific name. You may also specify which group the URL goes into.

Once you have added the URL, monitoring start automatically.

Repeat this process for every URL you’d like to enable for monitoring.

After you have finished adding all of your URLs you will be able to quickly see the status of all the URLs in the left side panel.

 

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Multiple Alert Email Aggregation in Nectus

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Multiple Alert Email Aggregation in Nectus

Very often during site level power or network outages or during network maintenance multiple devices become offline at the same time causing multiple individual DOWN Email alerts to be sent at the same time.

Depending in the size of the site it can be well over hundreds or even thousands alert emails to be sent out to corresponding e-mail recipients configured for given site.

Starting from version 1.2.52 Nectus offers an option to aggregate multiple DOWN or UP email alerts into a single multi-device alert notification containing a list of all devices that became DOWN or UP within last monitoring interval.

To enable Alert Aggregation, go to Monitoring -> Global Monitoring Settings: “Alert” Tab

And Select “Aggregate multiple UP/DOWN Alerts” Option.

 

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Monitoring Cisco Power Supplies with SNMP

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Monitoring Cisco Power Supplies with SNMP

Cisco Power Supply

Cisco Power Supply

Step 1. Determine which SNMP OID to use

Very first step before you can start monitoring power supply status is to determine which SNMP OID is supported by specific router or switch type you want to monitor.

The main challenge here is that there is no consensus among manufacturers on specific SNMP OID and even within Cisco products OID can be different on different product lines.

Let’s take Cisco Catalyst 3750 series switches as an example.

For all Cisco 3700 series switches SNMP OID that contain power supply status is .1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.13.1.5.1.3 (ciscoEnvMonSupplyState) from CISCO-ENVMON-MIB

Cisco TAC is usually a good resource to confirm which OID can be used for different Cisco product lines.

 

Step 2. Obtain Power Supply Index Values

Next step is to perform SNMP GET BULK or SNMP Walk query for selected OID (.1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.13.1.5.1.3) against one of the switches that you planning to monitor to determine how many power supplies this specific switch model has and what are the index values for each power supply.

Sample GET Bulk Response from Cisco Catalyst 3750:

‘1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.13.1.5.1.3.[1034]’ => “1”

‘1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.13.1.5.1.3.[2034]’ => “1”

In this SNMP GET-BULK response we see that switch has two power supplies with indexes: 1034 and 2034.

 

Step 3. Obtain list of Status Values for SNMP OID

Last step before we can start monitoring power supply is to consult MIB for possible values that this specific OID can report for power supply status.

For SNMP OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.13.1.5.1.3 there are 6 possible status codes:

Normal (1), Warning (2), Critical (3), Shutdown (4), Not Present (5), Not Functioning (6)

 

Step 4. Create Custom SNMP Tracker for Each Power Supply

Now we are ready to create custom SNMP trackers for each of the power supplies.

In Nectus GUI go to Monitoring → SNMP Monitoring Settings → Custom SNMP Trackers

Press “Create” button to bring up Custom SNMP Tracer creation interface.

We will have to create two separate trackers, one for each power supply.

Complete tracker “General” settings Tab according to this

Note that for this tracker we created a device view called “Cisco Catalyst 3700 Switches” that contain all Cisco Catalyst 3700 Series switches that we want to monitor with this tracker.

If you want to enable Power supply monitoring for more switches later, you just need to add new switches to this Device View.

Select which email lists will be used as email Alert recipients.

In “Alerts” Tab we need to specify which status values will be considered Normal and which values should trigger Alerts. You can specify multiple values separated by comma.

Define an Alert Severity level for Alarm Values as Informational, Warning or Critical.

Define number of consecutive readings for which power supply status has to report an Alarm condition before formal Alert is created. Nectus performs one SNMP poll per 5 min.

So if you define value for consecutive readings as 3 it should result in Alert created after 15 minutes of True Alarm conditions.

Press “Save” to complete Custom SNMP tracker creation for Power Supply 1.

Repeat the same process for Power Supply 2.

Now you have created custom trackers that will be monitoring both power supplies on all Cisco Catalyst 3700 Switches in your network.

 

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Using Subnet Profiles in Nectus IPAM

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Using Subnet Profiles in Nectus IPAM

One of the unique features offered by Nectus is the ability to logically split each subnet into predefined ranges reserved for specific categories such as users, servers, infrastructure devices, etc. This is done with the help of subnet profiles. In Nectus, subnet profile is a set of IP ranges with a unique color code and a distinct name. Color coding makes it easier to locate an IP range reserved for a specific device type. This article explains how to create subnet profiles in Nectus.

  1. Creating a Subnet Profile

To create a new subnet profile, go to Main Menu and select Settings → General Settings → IPAM Integration.

In the “IPAM Integration” window that appears, select Subnet Profile tab and click Add button.

Begin defining a new subnet profile in the “Add Subnet Profile” GUI window that appears. Assign a name to your new profile. Define the first device category. Determine how many IP address you would like to reserve for the first device category and assign an order number for the first (Start) and the last (End) IP address in the group. Chose a color code for the device category.

Use + button to add additional device categories. Press Save to save your new profile.

 

2. Assigning Profile to a Subnet

 

To assign a profile to a subnet, right click on the selected subnet and select Properties.

On the “Properties” page that appears, select the desired profile and press Save button.

 

3. Benefits of Subnet Profiles

Once you have assigned a profile to a subnet, your subnet map will display color-coded IP ranges reserved for the device categories.

This visual guide will help you better manage IP addresses in the subnet.

 

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Importing subnets to IPAM from IGP routing protocols explained.

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When importing Subnets into IPAM from routing protocols Nectus apply following rules:

  1. Only subnets from IGRP routing protocols (EIGRP, OSPF, ISIS, RIP) are being considered for import.
  2. Nectus will not import subnets from iBGP  or eBGP.
  3. Nectus start importing subnets in the order from smallest to largest:  /32 ,   /31, then /30, then /29…etc.  This is done to give individual subnets priority over  summaries.
  4. Every imported subnet is validated against overlapping with existing subnets.
  5. Nectus will not import subnets that overlap with any of the existing subnets.
  6. Nectus will only import subnets that fall into defined IPAM address space.
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Using Custom Subnet Tags in Nectus IPAM

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Using Custom Subnet Tags in Nectus IPAM

One of the unique features of Nectus IPAM is ability to define unlimited number of properties aka “custom tags” and assign it to any of the subnets.

For example: “Building Floor”, “Datacenter” or “Application Name” can be defined for each subnet as a custom Tag.

To create a new custom tag go to Settings → General Setting → IPAM Integration

On “Subnet Tags” tab you will see current list of Tags that already exist in database.

To add a new tag press “+” button next to drop-down menu with all the tags.

Specify Tag name and press “Save” button

After you defined Tag’s name you can start adding specific Tag values for this Tag by pressing on “+ Add” button at the right upper corner of the page.

You can define as many Tag Value as required.

After you finished defining Tag values you can open Properties for any subnet in IPAM and you will see all the defined Tags as a drop-down menus where you can select specific Tag value for given subnet.

 

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Creating DHCP Split Scopes in Nectus IPAM

Creating DHCP Split Scopes in Nectus IPAM

Nectus IPAM offers extensive DHCP integration features with one of the most important is ability to create and manage DHCP Scopes split across multiple DHCP Servers.

To create a new DHCP Split-Scope go to “Inventory → IPAM Subnets and Reservations”

Select “IPv4 DHCP Subnets” Tab and press “Add Subnets” button.

Specify basic Subnet info and select the DHCP Servers that will be serving IP addresses for this subnet. Define “Start” and “End” IP address for each selected DHCP Server.

In this example subnet 10.20.20.0/24 is split across two DHCP servers: PLUTO and NEON.

Server PLUTO is serving IP addresses from range: 10.20.20.1-10.20.20.200

Server NEON is serving IP addresses from range: 10.20.20.201-10.20.20.254

Always make sure that split-scope ranges don’t overlap to prevent duplicate IPs being leased.

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Suppressing excessive E-mail alerts during site level network outages

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When whole site power outage or network maintenance is in progress it is default behavior for Nectus to send individual DOWN alerts for each device in that site possibly resulting in hundreds of DOWN e-mail alerts followed by the same amount of UP e-mail alerts sent out to all configured alert recipients.

In version 1.2.53 Nectus introduced a feature that allows user to reduce number of alert e-mails during site level network outages to only specifically designated devices called “Gateways”

For each site user can designate some of the devices as “Gateways” and following alert rules will be applied:

  1. If all the Gateways in given site are DOWN, Nectus will not send DOWN alerts for regular devices located in the same site.
  2. If at least one Gateway in given site is still UP then Nectus will send individual DOWN alerts for all of the devices detected as DOWN.
  3. If all the Gateways in given site recovered from DOWN to UP, Nectus will not send UP alerts for regular devices located in the same site.
  4. If at least one Gateway in given site is still DOWN then Nectus will send individual UP alerts for all of the devices detected as UP.

To configure Site Gateways right click on Site and select Properties

Press “Site Gateways” Button

Select devices that you want to be gateways for given site and press Save button

 

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Using Graphs in Custom Dashboards

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Using Graphs in Custom Dashboards

Nectus offers extensive capabilities of visualizing different aspects of network performance and presenting it in custom dashboards.

This article guides you through the basic step of process of adding graphs to custom dashboards.

Step 1. Prepare Graphs for the Dashboard.

Generate the graph you’d like to include in a dashboard. Make sure to adjust the required time range using the drop-down menu in the left upper corner.

Click URL button to obtain the URL address for the graph.

In the URL window, click Copy and save the URL address into Notepad.

If creating a dashboard with multiple different graphs, repeat building graphs and save URLs for every graph that will be included in dashboard.

Step 2. Create Custom Dashboard.

Once you have built the graphs and saved all the URLs, you are now ready to create a custom dashboard.

Go to Monitor → Custom Dashboards → Manage Custom Dashboards.

Click Add Dashboard button.

In the “Dashboard Widgets” menu select “Custom Graphs” Tab, select the number of graphs you’d like to display in Dashboard by checking the boxes on the left, and paste the URL addresses that you previously saved.

Give Dashboard a Name and press “Ok”

Your new dashboard is now listed in the Custom Dashboards list. Click on the name to open it.

If desired, use paper clip icon in the right upper corner to make this dashboard appear every time you login.

 

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