xSNMP Management Packs – Beta Version 1.0.8 Release
January 21, 2010 25 Comments
After many weeks of development efforts and testing, I have made the latest beta version of the xSNMP Management Packs available for download. Before getting into any more detail, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the invaluable help provided by some of the volunteers who tested these management packs through all stages of development. Many thanks in particular to Chris and Davey, who played a huge role in every stage of the development of the xSNMP MP’s. Many thanks also to Gary and Björn for their great help in testing the MP’s.
The included documentation covers recommendations for deployment and configuration as well as the details of the management packs. Additional information about performance considerations in large SNMP monitoring environments can be found in this previous post. At present, the following management packs are included in this suite, and more are currently in the works.
- xSNMP Management Pack – Implements filtered discovery and monitoring of SNMP devices and interfaces that support the standard RFC1213 MIB, IF-MIB, and EtherLike-MIB. This management pack is the core of the xSNMP Suite and contains public datasources that are utilized in the other optional management packs.
- xSNMP Overrides Management Pack – This unsealed management pack can be used as a container for overrides, but also provides preconfigured groups and overrides for easily controlling interface monitoring through groups of network interfaces.
- xSNMP APC Managment Pack – Implements monitoring for APC Rackmount PDU, UPS, Automatic Transfer Switch, and Environmental Monitor devices.
- xSNMP Brocade Management Pack – Implements chassis monitoring for Brocade Fibre-Channel switch devices (Fibre-Channel ports are monitored as network interfaces with the xSNMP MP).
- xSNMP Check Point Secure Platform Management Pack – Implements module health and firewall HA failover monitoring for Check Point Secure Platform firewall devices.
- xSNMP Cisco Management Pack – Implements additional monitoring for Cisco devices, primarily including chassis hardware moniotring for devices that support the EnvMon MIB, Entity-MIB, or Cisco-Stack MIB.
- xSNMP Data Domain Management Pack – Implements monitoring for the performance, hardware status, and replication status of Data Domain Restorer storage appliances.
- xSNMP HP ProCurve Management Pack – Implements component health monitoring for HP ProCurve switches and wireless access points.
- xSNMP HP Proliant Management Pack – Implements hardware health monitoring for SNMP-enabled HP servers that support the Proliant Insight Management Agents.
- xSNMP Net-SNMP Management Pack – Implements operating system monitoring for Net-SNMP agent devices, such as UNIX/Linux servers through the UCD and Host-Resources MIBs.
- xSNMP Syslog Management Pack – Provides warning and critical alert generating rules that can be enabled and filtered with overrides to alert on incoming syslog messages from discovered SNMP devices.
Feedback is, of course, welcomed.
About Kristopher Bash
Operating-Quadrant 
Hi Kris and peers!
Great job! I am sure many customers of mine will appreciate it very much.
Kris, is there any particular email address I could use to submit bugs?
Thank you
Pavel
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The best native SCOM MP for Cisco and APC devices i have ever seen.
Thank you from Russia! )
I believe this is for SCOM R2. Would this work for SP1 also? If not, any plans for the SP1 release?
Thanks
Thanks for your comment. The xSNMP mp’s are exclusively for R2, and I don’t have any plans to create an SP1 version. I wish I could be of more help, but the new SNMP features of R2 were vital to the architecture of these MPs. I do have plans to implement a few improvements in the Cisco SP1 MP that I have previously posted, when time allows.
Out of curiosity, do you have a reference for the new SNMP features added in R2? I don’t recall having seen anything about it…
Do you take (monentary) donations? You *totally* need a beer fund…
There are three changes in R2 that make SNMP monitoring far more viable. The first change is the introduction of the ability to return multiple data items from an SNMP walk. The only way to do this in SP1 is to use the WMI SNMP provider in a script, which has a lot of limitations. The second change of note is the addition of the SpreadInitializationOverInterval parameter. This parameter makes it much more viable to manage a high number of centralized workloads, as without it, all monitors with the same interval fire at the same time (unless the SyncTime parameter is defined). The third change that is germane to these management packs is the introduction of the PowerShell script modules. The PowerShell modules are far more efficient than the vbscript modules, as PowerShell modules function a bit like managed code – no seperate process is spun up to run the script, the single monitoringhost.exe process runs the powershell modules natively. This is a huge efficiency improvement over the vbscript modules.
Thanks Krish.
And yes, you are a great, great help to the SCOM community..
Thanks for all your efforts on the MP’s.
Has anyone else noticed that Cisco serial interfaces are monitored by default?
I changed the dynamic membership rule for the ‘xSNMP Network Interfaces – Fully Monitored…’ group to remove the inclusion of the regular expression. I.e., use an inclusion list.
This leaves the serial interface flapping monitor (it’s disabled by default but the effective value is ‘enabled’) so that will need to be overridden.
Finally, the IO throughput counters always return 0 in our environment so I’m looking into that now. I will also look to update the IFStatistics.ps1 script to also return the octets delta for raw per period reports.
Were you able to fix the 0 counter issue regarding IO throughput? I have the same issue with Cisco monitored interfaces.
Yes. You can download this update: http://cid-7fd733e2738cc589.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/files/xSNMP/xSNMP%20Beta%201.0.8.6B.zip and just import the xSNMP mp over top of the currently installed one.
Kris – thank you, that resolved the counter issue with my Cisco IOS devices. I’m curious if this MP will be extended to support the Cisco Nexus (NX-OS) platform and if any assistance can be provided to help it move down this path?
Hi Krish
I am very happy with this SCOM Package. For me is it a great feature for SCOM
(Do you take (monentary) donations? You *totally* need a beer fund)
Its true 😉
Kind Regards from Switzerland
Kristopher,
I’ve added all admin/link up ports for my brocade devices and the performance data is all 0. there’s no activity being collected. other than that, the temp is being collected fine, along with all the other variables. it’s just the performance data for interfaces that does not appear to be functioning.
Thanks! BTW this is a GREAT management pack!!! I appreciate all the effort you’ve put in to these packs!
Hello,
Having the same problems with Cisco-ports – all ports I monitor is collecting zero-values. Besides the group-membership, anything else I should configure??
Regards Kjell
Are there any plans in the future for Ironport MP?
Thanks
Jeremy
By the way, great job on this.
I had one questions though, I have add several APC UPS with the integrated environtal sensors. The data for those does not seem to be available even after waiting for a couple days. What can I check to see if everything is working or not??
Hi,
Is there already a solution for the performance data collect through the interfaces? They are all returning 0.
Even after I imported the 201.8.6B fix .
Regards,
Erwin
Hi,
We are having the same issue after importing the update. Cisco data collected through the interfaces are returning 0.
Is there anything else we should have done to make this work?
Thanks.
First, this MP is awesome..THANK YOU!
Possible bug to report (1.0.8.6b – xSNMP MP / Overrides MP / Cisco MP / APC MP);
Generic Performance Mapper Module Failed Execution
Module was unable to convert parameter to a double value
Original parameter: ‘$Data/Property[@Name=’OutErrPerMin’]$’
Parameter after $Data replacement: ‘-1.#IND’
Error: 0x80020005
Details: Type mismatch.
One or more workflows were affected by this.
Workflow name: xSNMP.Rule.CollectInterfaceInErrors
Instance name: Serial0/0/1:3
Hope that is of use.
Cheers,
Aengus
Jeez, I’m enjoying implementing this MP, it is really adding value to our SCOM install.
One for the wishlist….Cisco Power Supply discovers all our PoE ports, it doesn’t look like I can over-ride discovery of those.
If we could do that would be great.
Thanks!
Aengus
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Hey Kris!
Thanks for including the Netbotz with new version!
I wanted to run something by you. We ran into an issue with one of the network interface availability monitors. Specifically the Network Interface Status (SNMP Trap) monitor. Whenever we attempt to view the monitor properties, we get an “Invalid character in a Base-64 string” error. This occurs on any given network interface. Here is a copy/paste of the detail:
Note: The following information was gathered when the operation was attempted. The information may appear cryptic but provides context for the error. The application will continue to run.
System.FormatException: Invalid character in a Base-64 string.
at System.Convert.FromBase64String(String s)
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Pages.SnmpTrapProviderPage.LoadConfig()
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Pages.SnmpTrapProviderPage.LoadConfiguration()
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Pages.SnmpTrapProviderPage.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.UserControl.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Extensibility.PageWrapper.LoadPageConfig()
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Extensibility.PageWrapper.OnPageAdded()
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ConsoleFramework.SheetFramework.AddPage(Page page)
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Extensibility.PageManagerBase.AttachToFramework(IPageFramework pageFramework, Boolean readOnly)
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Extensibility.MomExtensionsCommon.AddMonitorPages(LaunchMonitorUICommandData launchData, Form form)
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Extensibility.MomExtensionsCommon.Initialize(Object launchData, Form form)
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Extensibility.MomExtensionsCommon.RunPrivate(Object[] userData)
at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Internal.UI.Authoring.Extensibility.MomExtensionsCommon.Run(Object[] userData)
Do you have any ideas about this error? This was happening before we upgraded to the latest 1.1.1 version (today) as well as afterwards. Thanks.
Same problem at me also (Invalid character in a Base-64 string.). Did someone resolved the problem?