Index


Overview

Primarily, this report configuration is an example of defining custom reporting periods per column in a tabular report.

The report will look at interfaces reporting a high number of errors, and whether that error rate is increasing/decreasing over time.


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Report Configuration

  • Data Type: Interface Metrics
  • Refresh: 5mins
  • Results: 10, just show me the top ten on the first page
  • Show Report Filters: I have un-checked the time filter as the report features fixed timefilters per column


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Filters

In this report we are looking at the entire network, and we will be applying a few metric-specific time filters (no global time filter for the report) so there are no filters being applied.

If you want to restrict the report to a subnet, or select group of devices, within your network, then you can apply a group filter, or an attribute filter restricting by IP range.

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Fields

The first 3 are just to identify the device/interface reporting the errors:

  • Device Name
  • Interface Name
  • Device IP Address

Now we add columns for the errors. In this example I used Interface Errors Percent, you can use Errors for a straight count if that’s better, and in the same manner you could use Discards or Discards Percent to look at dropped packets.

Because I am using Errors Percent, I have selected Format = Average and have added 3 columns, all reporting Errors Percent, but with different time filters applied. So, we are reporting on the average Errors over the last 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and 5 minutes. In this way you can see if the error rate is increasing or decreasing.

I have also selected the ‘last 5 minutes’ column as the primary sort for the report, ensuring that those interfaces reporting the highest Error Percentage over the last 5 minutes are pushed to the top of the report.

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Options


Alternate Time Filters

An alternate method of displaying changes in error rates would be to set the time filters to report 15-minute blocks, essentially a bar chart in tabular form, but unlike a bar chart, you can report on multiple interfaces clearly. To do this you need to adjust the time filter in the columns to use a custom range, rather than just selecting “last N minutes” from the favorites list.

Apply the same custom time filter style to the other columns:

  • range = now - 25m to now – 20m
  • range = now - 20m to now – 15m
  • range = now - 15m to now – 10m
  • etc.

Each column displays a 5-minute average, so you clearly see if the error rate is decreasing/increasing.

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Additional Metrics

Other options include:

  • Breaking the errors columns down to Rx/Tx Errors
  • Adding columns for device CPU load, memory load, and temperature

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Drilldowns

Typical drilldowns for this report would be:

  • Device name and IP to the device viewer
  • Interface name to the Interface Statistics report
  • The error columns through to Interfaces > Errors

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