Foglight for SNMP 5.9.6 - User and Reference Guide

Using Foglight for SNMP to monitor devices

Foglight for SNMP supports and extends the physical host and device monitoring capabilities of the Foglight for Infrastructure cartridge to a broader set of platforms that the Infrastructure agent does not currently support.

Use Foglight for SNMP to collect data from all types of devices, such as desktops, servers, routers, and switches, across Microsoft®Windows®, Linux®, Oracle Solaris®, HP-UX™, and AIX® operating systems. When you enable SNMP on a device and provide the correct credentials, Foglight for SNMP can monitor that device and collect data from it.

When you deploy Foglight for SNMP, you can view the performance of the monitored platforms and devices. Foglight for SNMP gives you the capability to ensure consistent platform and device performance by reviewing the performance statistics. Better management of your hosts and devices can be achieved when you are alerted to potential problems before users are affected.

Starting with version 5.8.5.3, the SNMP agent package that collects data is no longer deployed during installation. Using multiple Foglight Agent Managers is now supported, so after you install the Foglight for SNMP cartridge on the Management Server, run an SNMP discovery to select an Agent Manager. For more information, see Running SNMP discovery.

Review the following topics to learn about the dashboards, understand any requirements, and complete an SNMP Discovery to start monitoring devices and collecting data:

Installing or upgrading Foglight for SNMP

Foglight for Infrastructure must be installed before installing Foglight for SNMP. For more information, see the Foglight for Infrastructure Release Notes.

For information about installing or upgrading Foglight for SNMP, and for system requirements and compatibility, see the Foglight for SNMP Release Notes.

For general cartridge installation instructions, see the “Install Foglight cartridges” topic in the Foglight Administration and Configuration Guide.

Foglight for SNMP navigation basics

Foglight for SNMP integrates seamlessly into the Infrastructure cartridge workflow. So, after you install the Foglight for SNMP cartridge there is no separate SNMP dashboard in the navigation panel on the left of the browser interface.

The SNMP Hosts button is in the top-right corner of the Infrastructure Environment dashboard.

For information on how to discover network devices using the SNMP Hosts button, see Running SNMP discovery.

The default behavior of Foglight for SNMP is to display metrics, alerts, and messages that have occurred within the last four hours. This time range, however, is configurable.

To configure the time range, use the Time Range pop-up, which you can access from the upper right corner of the Foglight for SNMP browser interface.

Using the Time Range pop up, you can select from predefined time ranges or you can specify a custom range using calendar precision controls to specify dates and times. When you modify the time range for a dashboard or view, it adjusts the range for all the views contained within and drill-downs accessed from that dashboard or view. It does not adjust the time range for any parent views.

Foglight for SNMP tables contain sortable lists. Clicking a column heading once sorts the list in ascending order. Sorting is handy when you want to have an organized view sorted by name, status, or some other criterion.

If you want to investigate the results in a table or forward them to a third party, you can export the table.

4	Click the Customizer icon at the top right of the table.

Foglight for SNMP uses status indicators to show the alarm status of SNMP-managed devices. Four status indicators (fatal, critical, warning, and normal) are used throughout the Foglight for SNMP views.

Many items within the Foglight for SNMP views display additional information when you hover the cursor over them. For example, when you hover the cursor over a graph you are likely to see a specific value or values that correspond to the position of the cursor. When you hover the cursor over an individual metric, you are likely to see a small descriptive pop-up.

Understand monitoring with both host and SNMP agents

A host can be monitored simultaneously by both an Infrastructure agent and an SNMP agent, but it is not recommended.

For hosts monitored by both Infrastructure and SNMP agents, the two agents collect different sets of information. The Infrastructure agent gathers data on the processor, network interface, disk, and memory. The SNMP agent collects additional metrics not available in the Infrastructure cartridge such as ‘Windows Installed Programs’.

For information about the host details on the Infrastructure dashboard, see Hosts monitored by both an Infrastructure and SNMP agent.

Foglight for SNMP 5.8.5.5 has changed the way it alerts users about host availability.

If a host is monitored only by the SNMP agent, Foglight for SNMP is able to identify and report the following three states for the monitored host:

When the Host monitored status changes, the following alarms are triggered: Warning (for the UNMONITORED state) and Critical (for the UNAVAILABLE state).

If a host is monitored by both the Infrastructure and the SNMP agent, then the host monitored status is identified and reported as described in the Foglight for Infrastructure User and Reference Guide, “Host availability alerting” section.