SNMP Data Monitoring (Snmpcollector)

CA Unified
Infrastructure
Management Probes
SNMP Data Monitoring (
snmpcollector) Release Notes
Date: 27-Jan-2015
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SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 2

Table of Contents
Revision History .......................................................................................... 6
Probe Specific Hardware Requirements ..................................................... 9
Probe Specific Software Requirements ..................................................... 10
Probe Specific Memory and Disk Requirements ....................................... 12

snmpcollector 2.0 and later ....................................................................................................................... 12
snmpcollector v1.4 and 1.6 ....................................................................................................................... 12
snmpcollector v1.3 and Earlier .................................................................................................................. 13
Adjust snmpcollector and pollagent Memory ............................................................................................. 13
Installation Considerations ........................................................................ 14
Configuration Considerations .................................................................... 15

Subnet Ranges .......................................................................................................................................... 15
Discovery Query Capacity ......................................................................................................................... 15
General Considerations ............................................................................. 16

Versions for CA Unified Infrastructure Management Snap ....................................................................... 16
Do Not Duplicate Priority for Rules ............................................................................................................ 16
Some Metrics May Not Be Reported on Some Devices ............................................................................ 16
Limitations for Juniper Devices ................................................................................................................. 17
Changes to Profile Credentials Not Saved ................................................................................................ 17
Configuration File Can Become Corrupted ............................................................................................... 17
Vendor Support ......................................................................................... 18

Known Issues and Workarounds ............................................................... 19

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector)
Release Notes
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an internet-standard protocol for managing devices
on IP networks and consists of a set of standard for network management, including application layer
protocol, database schema, and a set of data objects. Typical devices that support SNMP are routers,
switches, servers, workstations, and printers.
The SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) probe allows you to monitor network-attached devices
for conditions that require administrative attention.
Contents
Revision History
Probe Specific Hardware Requirements
Probe Specific Software Requirements
Probe Specific Memory and Disk Requirements
snmpcollector 2.0 and later
snmpcollector v1.4 and 1.6
snmpcollector v1.3 and Earlier
Adjust snmpcollector and pollagent Memory
Installation Considerations
Configuration Considerations
Subnet Ranges
Discovery Query Capacity
General Considerations
Versions for CA Unified Infrastructure Management Snap
Do Not Duplicate Priority for Rules
Some Metrics May Not Be Reported on Some Devices
Limitations for Juniper Devices
Changes to Profile Credentials Not Saved
Configuration File Can Become Corrupted
Vendor Support
Known Issues and Workarounds

Revision History
This table describes the history of probe updates.
Date Description State Version

Dec Created the UIM SNMP Collector Device Support website which allows you to GA 2.0
emb view supported SNMP devices and their relationships to MIB object identifiers
er (OID), vendors, vendor certifications, metric families, and metrics.
201
Added the ability to create monitoring configuration templates. These
4
templates allow you to apply consistent monitoring configurations across
multiple devices by using filters.
Added options to modify the polling frequency on devices, interfaces, and
other components with template filters.
Added a default monitoring configuration template that supports At a Glance
Reports.
Added discovery filters to control the list of devices that are retrieved from the
discovery server which governs the available monitoring targets that appear
under the Profiles node.
The following settings are available in the probe configuration GUI:
Configure the SNMP port number in a device profile.
Override interface network speed.
Configure the polling frequency on a device, network interface, or
component.
Removed the Metric Families node from the probe configuration GUI.
View raw interface table attributes when you select the Interfaces category for
a discovered device. Attributes include ifIndex, ifName, ifDescr, ifPhysAddress,
ifAlias, ifType, ifAdminStatus, ifOperStatus, and ifMtu.
In UIM, added the ability to view QoS metrics by interface.
July Metrics with a RollupStrategy of sum are now calculated as a rate over time GA 1.61
201 since the last polling cycle.
4
The probe now supports floating-point numbers on robots where decimal
points are represented as commas.
Added more metric families.
Added support for dynamic indexes to the Response Path Test ICMP, Response
Path with ICMP Jitter, and Response Path with Jitter metric families. The
dynamic index MIBs are cisco-ipsla-ethernet, cisco-rttmon, and
cisco-rttmon-icmp. This change was added to support Cisco network device
monitoring tests where new rows are periodically created to store data with a
new timestamp in the index.
Fixed an issue where changes to a component threshold value resulted in the
removal of all other threshold values

June Added a servlet to view the internal status of the pollagent probe. The URL to GA 1.60
201 access the servlet is <robotSystem>:9715/Dump/Help.
4
Added automatic device rediscovery with an index shift occurs.
Added functionality for monitoring probe self-health.
May Added the ability to override the default speed in and out settings for interface GA 1.42
201 devices. For more information, see the updated Known Issues and
4 Workarounds section.
Fixed an issue with the calculation of metric counter values.
April Fixed an issue where large values for QoS metrics were being calculated GA 1.41
201 incorrectly.
4
Fixed an issue with inventory corruption when loading USM devices.
Removed the obsolete metric family Generic System CA. Metrics were moved
into specific device metric families.
Mar Support for SNMP AES-192 and AES-256 privacy protocols. GA 1.40
ch
Support for polling 50,000 interfaces every 5 minutes.
201
4 Added full support for Juniper devices.
Improved handling of index shift for router interfaces.
Improvements in performance for Discovery Server and detection of device
components.
Corrected issues with invalid or duplicate device names appearing after
rediscovery.
Updated memory and disk requirements, software requirements, and
supported platforms.
Unsupported metrics no longer appear for device components. Previously,
unsupported metrics would appear as configurable but never collect data.
Mar Updated for use with SnapCA Unified Infrastructure Management 7.5. GA 1.33
ch
Fixed an issue with QOS_pctDiscardsOut not appearing in USM.
201
4 Fixed an issue where SNMP V3 devices with AES encryption would appear in
USM without default monitors.
Febr Minor bug fixes and performance enhancements. GA 1.32
uary
Name changes for System Management Info-Router\Director and Anti-Virus
201
Info metric families.
4
Janu Support for SNMP V3 3-DES, and AES-128 privacy protocols. GA 1.30
ary
Support for CPU and physical memory metric families on Juniper devices.
201
4 Added the NMS RULE AdminStatus Down rule to filter interfaces that are
administratively down.
Updated memory and disk requirements, software requirements, and
supported platforms.

Dec Support for more metric families. GA 1.20
emb
Support for F5, Juniper devices, and system agents (Host Resources and CA
er
SystemEDGE)
201
3
Sept Improvements in performance, especially discovery. Usability improvements GA 1.10
emb to UI.
er
Added the ability to monitor Cisco devices, similar to the functionality of the
201
cisco_monitor probe.
3
Added the ability to set rules for monitoring configurations so that you can set
different thresholds that are based on non-polled configuration information (
for example, based on ifType).
July Improvements to memory management and discovery performance. Cont 1.01
201 rolle
3 d
Rele
ase
June Initial version of the SNMP Data Monitoring probe Cont 1.00
201 rolle
3 d
Rele
ase

Probe Specific Hardware Requirements
The probe should be installed on systems with the following minimum resources:
Memory: 4 GB (minimum) of RAM. This probes out of the box configuration requires 2.5-GB of
RAM.
CPU: 3-GHz dual-core processor, 64-bit.

Probe Specific Software Requirements
The snmpcollector probe can be used to monitor devices that support SNMP v1, v2c, and v3.
Note: It is recommended that the CA Unified Infrastructure Management server and CA Unified
Management Portal (UMP) are the same version but not required.
Probe v2.0 requires:
CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 8.1 or later installed on the primary hub.
The snmpcollector probe and the pollagent probe must be on a remote (secondary) hub. No other
monitoring probes should be installed on the hub to prevent performance issues.
The following minimum probe versions must be on each hub with the snmpcollector probe:
ppm v3.0
baseline_engine v2.4
alarm_enrichment v4.6
NAS v4.6
predictive_engine v1.1
CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 7.6 or later with:
CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe on the primary hub
CA Unified Infrastructure Management ppm probe on each hub with a robot running the
snmpcollector probe
CA Unified Management Portal (UMP)
CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 7.5 or later with:
CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe on the primary hub
CA Unified Management Portal (UMP)
CA Unified Infrastructure Management ppm probe version 2.23 or later on each hub with a robot
running the snmpcollector probe
Probe v1.2 and v1.3 requires:
CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 7.1

CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe version 7.10 or later on the

primary hub
CA Unified Management Portal (UMP) version 7.0 or later
CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe version 7.10 or later on the

primary hub
CA Unified Management Portal (UMP) version 7.0 or later

Probe Specific Memory and Disk
Requirements
This section includes the memory and disk requirements for specific releases of the snmpcollector
and pollagent probes and instructions for adjusting Xmx memory.
snmpcollector 2.0 and later

The following table shows the memory and disk requirements for the snmpcollector and pollagent
probes.
Number of Components Value snmpcollector pollagent

1000 Xmx Memory 2 GB 4 GB
Disk 4 GB 6 GB
Disk 8 GB 12 GB
10,000 Xmx Memory 6 GB 12 GB
Disk 12 GB 24 GB
Disk 18 GB 40 GB
Disk 26 GB 56 GB
snmpcollector v1.4 and 1.6

probes.

Disk 2 GB 3 GB
Disk 4 GB 6 GB
Disk 6 GB 12 GB

Disk 9 GB 20 GB
Disk 13 GB 28 GB
snmpcollector v1.3 and Earlier

probes.

Disk 2 GB 3 GB
Disk 8 GB 12 GB
Disk 12 GB 24 GB
Disk 20 GB 40 GB
Adjust snmpcollector and pollagent Memory

The memory and disk requirements for the snmpcollector and pollagent probes can vary according to
the number of processors, devices, device components, and metrics. You might need to adjust the
Xmx memory to improve performance.
Follow these steps:
1. In Infrastructure Manager, select and right-click on pollagent or snmpcollector.
2. Select Edit from the menu.
3. In the Arguments box, change the text -Xmx1536m so that the number following Xmx is the
maximum amount of memory in megabytes consumed by the probe.
4. Click OK.
The probe restarts with the new setting.

Installation Considerations
The snmpcollector probe actually is two distinct probes:
snmpcollector
pollagent
The probes are downloaded and installed just like other CA Unified Infrastructure Management
probes. Download both these probes from the Internet Archive into your local Archive.
After you download the probes to your local Archive, you only need to install (drag from the Archive
to the Robot), the snmpcollector probe. The snmpcollector probe has a dependency on the pollagent
probe, so the pollagent probe is automatically installed.
Important! Install the snmpcollector probe and the pollagent probe on a secondary hub where no
other monitoring probes are installed.
Note: On Linux/Unix systems the /etc/hosts file should contain an entry with the FQDN for the
installation system.

Configuration Considerations
This section contains general considerations for the probe.
Subnet Ranges
During the initial probe configuration you can define a discovery range in the Discovery Wizard. Do
not enter a range of subnets that is greater than /16 (such as /8). Entering range scopes larger than
65,536 addresses when defining a discovery range can create an out of memory condition. Discovery
server is not able to support the large number of subnets that get returned.
Discovery Query Capacity

The probe has a default discovery query capacity of 2000 devices. You can change this value through
Raw Configure. Go to the discovery_query node and change the value for max_results.

General Considerations
This section contains general considerations for the probe.
Versions for CA Unified Infrastructure Management Snap

The 1.2 and 2.0 versions of the SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) probe were not released for
use with the CA Unified Infrastructure Management Snap GUI. CA Unified Infrastructure Management
Snap users should refer to the document version appropriate for the version of the SNMP Data
Monitoring probe included with their installation of CA Unified Infrastructure Management Snap.
Do Not Duplicate Priority for Rules

For versions 1.6 and earlier. Do not assign the same priority to more than one rule. If you do so, the
existing rule with that priority is overwritten (deleted).
Some Metrics May Not Be Reported on Some Devices

Not all metrics defined in a metric family are delivered for all devices. Some devices do not support
some OID metrics. For example, PctDiscards of packets on a virtual router may not be able to be
calculated if certain OID data is not available from the router.
To determine whether metrics are not being reported, view the pollagent log file. When the pollagent
is given a new set of metrics to poll, it attempts to collect all OID data. Any OIDs not supported by a
device are logged in the following format only once when the metric is first added, and when it is
re-added through a probe restart.
In the following pollagent log message examples you see the device IPaddress, the metric family
name, and the OID name and value that is not supported.
Dec2010:41:42DASCH03-780.ca.comAGM:[Info.](Tests:SnmpGetExpression:p_172.19.255.12|NormalizedPor





Limitations for Juniper Devices

Metrics for memory and CPU are not supported for Juniper devices for the 1.2 release.
Changes to Profile Credentials Not Saved

If you add a profile and then edit an authentication credential the change is not saved. If you need to
change the credentials for a profile, delete the profile and add it again with the correct credentials.
Configuration File Can Become Corrupted

The configuration file can become corrupted if the probe is disconnected from the controller while
executing a discovery or configuration operation. The snmpcollector probe creates a configuration
backup file every time the probe starts successfully. You can use the snmpcollector.cfg.BAK file
located in Nimsoft/probes/networking/snmpcollector/ to assist with the recovery process.
Note: We recommend frequent backups while making configuration changes.

Vendor Support
You can view supported SNMP devices, object identifiers (OID), vendors, vendor certifications, metric
families, and associated metrics through the Device Support tool. For more information, see SNMP
Data Monitoring Device Support.

Known Issues and Workarounds
Issue:
The various threshold settings for a metric are used to generate baseline data in USM. The scale of
the monitoring environment has a direct impact on the calculation of baseline data. In larger scale
environments, it could take significantly longer for the data to appear in USM. This issue occurs in
snmpcollector v2.0.
Workaround:
Only enable the threshold settings that are necessary. No workaround exists at this time.
Issue:
Many strings are not localized for non-English locales in the probe GUI. This issue occurs in
snmpcollector v2.0.
Workaround:
None
Issue:
The discovery query can take a long time to complete if there is a discovery filter with a subnet mask.
This issue occurs in snmpcollector v2.0.
Workaround:
It can take some time for the devices to load if the discovery scope is for a large number of devices.
Entering range scopes larger than 65,536 addresses (subnets greater than /16) impacts discovery
performance. Wait for the discovery process to complete.
To verify the status of the device import, select the snmpcollector node, and view the Profile
Import Status field.
To verify the status of subcomponent discovery, select snmpcollector > Profiles > profile name >
device name, and view the Component Discovery field.
Issue:
After upgrading to v1.61 or later, counts have significantly dropped for metrics that measured
network packets (bits, frames, octets).
Workaround:
This is expected after an upgrade to v1.61 or later. Pollagent now calculates metrics with a
RollupStrategy of sum as a rate over time in seconds since the last polling cycle.

Look in the appropriate metric family file in <install_path>\Nimsoft\probes\network\snmpcollector\
MetricFamily to view the RollupStrategy for a particular metric.
Issue:
The SNMP Data Monitoring probe shows fewer metrics after an upgrade to v1.6.
Workaround:
This is not an issue. The metrics for SNMP response time and availability previously existed within
each metric family. With v1.6 these metrics were consolidated into their own metric families called
Reachability and Availability.
Issue:
The interface speed for some virtual interfaces is not reported correctly because the device is not able
to detect the true speed of connection. This issue is usually seen with WAN related interfaces.
Workaround:
To properly calculate utilization on these interfaces, you must contact your system administrator to
determine the maximum speed of the interface. You must then set the interface speed in the probe.
The interface speed settings are available with probe v1.42 or later. Set an override value in the
Speed out Override and Speed in Override fields in bits per second.
For example, to set an interface to a speed of 100GB you would enter 100000000000.
Issue:
Some polled metric values larger than 8 million might be rounded. This limits the precision available
in polled metrics.
Workaround:
No workaround exists at this time.
Issue:
I see an I/O communication error in the snmpcollector.log file with the following message:
Exception in ThreadClient: (2) communication error, I/O error on nim session (S) c
This message only appears when loglevel is 1 or greater when loading or reloading the configuration
page.
Workaround:
No action is required. You can ignore this alarm.
Issue:

SNMP devices with non-standard port numbers are not detected. The standard port number for an
SNMP device is 161.
Workaround:
View the device in NMS and verify that a non standard device port is in use.
For v1.61 and earlier, you must reconfigure the device to use port 161.
For v2.0 and later, go to the probe configuration GUI and locate the device profile (snmpcollector
> Profiles > profile name). Enter the correct SNMP port for the device.
Issue:
I see an alarm with the following message:
An attach queue for the subject probe_discovery on the hub /SNMPdom/SNMPhub/SNMPro
Workaround:
No action is required. You can ignore this alarm.
Issue:
It may take 30 minutes or more to complete initial discovery of device subcomponents (after querying
the Discovery Server for the first time). This may cause screen (GUI) timeouts during that period.
Workaround:
Wait for subcomponent discovery to complete.
Issue:
When thresholds are changed in a monitoring template, all devices may not receive the updated
thresholds. This is an issue in probe versions earlier than 1.2.
Workaround:
Avoid changing an existing monitoring template. Create a new template (uses the values in the
default) and apply the new template to the devices.
Issue:
Admin Console based Restart command does not work for snmpcollector or pollagent.
Workaround:
First Deactivate the probe and then Activate it.
Issue:

The SNMP Data Monitoring probe may be unresponsive under heavy load, during scheduled
re-discovery, or immediately after applying a monitoring template to multiple large devices.
Workaround:
If the probe is unresponsive, wait several minutes and try again.
Issue:
Discovery can take longer than expected. This issue is most likely to occur in version 1.0 of the probe.
The snmpcollector 1.1 probe greatly improves performance of discovery.
Workaround:
To check discovery progress:
Version 1.0
In the probe GUI click the SNMP Collector Probe node in the tree and view the Discovery Status
field.
Version 1.1 and later

In the probe GUI click a device name in the tree and view the Component Discovery field.

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SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 2

Revision History .......................................................................................... 6

Probe Specific Hardware Requirements ..................................................... 9

Probe Specific Software Requirements ..................................................... 10

Probe Specific Memory and Disk Requirements ....................................... 12

Installation Considerations ........................................................................ 14

Configuration Considerations .................................................................... 15

General Considerations ............................................................................. 16

Vendor Support ......................................................................................... 18

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 3

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 4

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 5

Date Description State Version

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 6

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 7

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 8

CPU: 3-GHz dual-core processor, 64-bit.

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 9

Probe v2.0 requires:

Probe v1.6 requires:

CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 7.6 or later with:

CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe on the primary hub

CA Unified Management Portal (UMP)

Probe v1.4 requires:

CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 7.5 or later with:

CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe on the primary hub

CA Unified Management Portal (UMP)

Probe v1.2 and v1.3 requires:

CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 7.1

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 10

CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe version 7.10 or later on the

CA Unified Management Portal (UMP) version 7.0 or later

Probe v1.1 requires:

CA Unified Infrastructure Management server version 7.0

CA Unified Infrastructure Management discovery_server probe version 7.10 or later on the

CA Unified Management Portal (UMP) version 7.0 or later

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 11

snmpcollector 2.0 and later

Number of Components Value snmpcollector pollagent

snmpcollector v1.4 and 1.6

Number of Components Value snmpcollector pollagent

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 12

snmpcollector v1.3 and Earlier

Number of Components Value snmpcollector pollagent

Adjust snmpcollector and pollagent Memory

Follow these steps:

1. In Infrastructure Manager, select and right-click on pollagent or snmpcollector.

2. Select Edit from the menu.

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 13

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 14

Discovery Query Capacity

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 15

Versions for CA Unified Infrastructure Management Snap

Do Not Duplicate Priority for Rules

Some Metrics May Not Be Reported on Some Devices

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 16

Limitations for Juniper Devices

Changes to Profile Credentials Not Saved

Configuration File Can Become Corrupted

Note: We recommend frequent backups while making configuration changes.

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 17

SNMP Data Monitoring (snmpcollector) Release Notes 18