Index


Overview

Statseeker collects configuration and timeseries data from your network infrastructure via SNMP. Statseeker also monitors this infrastructure for its ability to respond to SNMP communications, presenting this information as the SNMP State. By default, if the Statseeker server fails to receive any SNMP response from a device for a 90s period, then the device is considered ‘down’ with regard to SNMP communications.

SNMP State data is available in a number of default reports and dashboards, and can be used in custom dashboards and reports, as well as alert configurations.

SNMP States

The SNMP State for a device will be reported as one of the following:

  • Unknown – there is an issue with SNMP polling the device, contact Statseeker Support
  • Up – the device is responding to SNMP requests in an expected format
  • Down – the device has not responded to any SNMP request for at least 90s (configurable)
  • Disabled – SNMP polling disabled for the device
  • Poller_down – this state is not currently used by Statseeker but will be relevant to functionality still in development

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Enable\Disable SNMP Polling

SNMP polling is enabled by default for all devices discovered by the Statseeker server via:

  • Admin Tool > Discovery > Discover via Ranges
  • Admin Tool > Discovery > Discover using Hosts
  • Admin Tool > Discovery > Add SNMPv3 Devices
  • Admin Tool > Discovery > Add Single Device

Devices added to Statseeker via Admin Tool > Discovery > Add Ping Only Devices are monitored via ICMP only and no SNMP polling of the device occurs.

Note: For more information on the Discovery process see Statseeker Discovery.

Once a device has been discovered SNMP polling can be toggled (on/off) for devices on an individual basis and at a group level.

Enable\Disable SNMP Polling – Single Device

SNMP polling can be toggled on\off for a single device from the Device Details report. From the Console:

  • Select the device in the Devices column
  • From the Report List, select General > Device Details
  • Click the value in the SNMP column to toggle the polling state on\off

A dialog will be displayed confirming the change, detailing the new SNMP polling state for the device.

Note: the Device Details report is also available from within the Device Viewer report.

  • Select the device in the Devices column
  • From the Report List select Summary > Device Viewer
  • Select Configuration > Device Details
  • Click the value in the SNMP row to toggle the polling state on\off



Enable\Disable SNMP Polling – Multiple Devices

SNMP polling can be toggled for multiple devices via an Auto-group rule. Auto-grouping rules are typically used to create and populate Statseeker groups but can also be used to update Statseeker configurations including a device’s SNMP polling state.

  • Select Administration Tool > User Profile/Grouping > Auto Grouping
  • Select Add to create a new rule
  • Enter a Rule Name
  • Groups to populate can be left blank unless you want to populate a group with the devices that will receive the SNMP polling change
  • Set Group Type = Device
  • Apply the filters required to target the devices to receive the SNMP polling change
  • Click Show Advanced Options
  • Set Items = snmp_poll and set the poll value as needed (on\off)
  • Optionally click Test Rule to see the projected output of the rule – this can be used to confirm that your filter configuration is working as intended
  • Click Run Now to apply the rule and apply the SNMP polling changes


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Setting SNMP Polling Timeout

By default, if a device fails to respond to all SNMP requests sent to the device in a 90s period, then the device is considered ‘down’ with regard to SNMP communications. The default 90s ‘timeout’ period can be modified as needed.

The syntax for the setting is ‘snmp_timeout_sec’ ‘{timeout_value_in_seconds}’ where {timeout_value_in_seconds} is an integer.
This is an ‘advanced-user setting’ and as such there is no input validation performed – while there is no restriction on the value assigned here, any non-integer value or any integer value less than 60 is treated as 60.

  • Select Admin Tool > Network Discovery – Advanced Options > SNMP Config
  • On a new line enter ‘snmp_timeout_sec’ ‘{timeout_value_in_seconds}’
    E.g. ‘snmp_timeout_sec’ ‘120’

This is a global setting and will apply to all devices SNMP polled by the Statseeker server.

Note: in the Admin Tool > Network Discovery – Advanced Options > SNMP Config there are details on Per IP Address Tunables. These details include a timeout value. This value does not refer to the SNMP communications timeout, rather to a timeout used when walking the device during a discovery process. There is no setting for per-device SNMP communications timeout, only the global (snmp_timeout_sec) setting.

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Reporting on SNMP State Data

Statseeker provides a number of pre-configured reports and dashboard panels containing SNMP State data.

SNMP State Reports
  • General > SNMP Availability – SNMP availability SLA data using an ad-hoc timefilter
  • General > SNMP Outages – event records for devices going entering\leaving an SNMP Down state
  • Historical > Device Group SLA Availability for 13 Months – SNMP availability SLA data for all currently configured SLA configurations, aggregated by month for the previous 13 months (This report requires that you have at least 1 SLA configured, see SLA Reporting for details)
How to use the SNMP Availability Report

This report can be used to present SNMP availability (percentage of time ‘up’, total number of transitions into a ‘down’ state, total time in a ‘down’ state) for the specified reporting period (timefilter assigned prior to running the report). It can also be used to compare SNMP availability for a specific timerange within a larger reporting period – for this option specify a timefilter which includes some degree of an ‘exclusion’ period.

For example, rather than a time filter of the last 7 days (range = start_of_today – 7d to now;), configure a timefilter of Mon-Fri, 06:00 – 18:00, for the last 7 days (range = start_of_today – 7d to now; wday = Mon to Fri; time = 06:00 to 18:00;), then run the report using this timefilter. With this configuration you get the SNMP availability data for the total reporting (last 7 days) and availability data for just the Mon-Fri, 06:00-18:00 within those 7 days.

The report can be run on a device or group level. If one or more devices are selected when running the report, data for each device is presented on a separate row. If one or more groups are selected when running the report, data for each group is presented on a separate row with data aggregated for each device in the group.

Dashboard Content

There are a range of default dashboards and panel templates which present SNMP State data:

  • Asset Overview – total number of devices being SNMP polled
  • Device Overview – device SNMP availability (for the reporting period) and current SNMP state
  • Network Summary – counts of devices currently SNMP ‘Up’ and SNMP ‘Down’, current SNMP State of devices in recent ping-down event records
  • Server Overview – device SNMP availability (for the reporting period) and current SNMP state
  • Daily Device SNMP Reachability (graph template) – the average SNMP reachability for the last 7 days across all devices that match the dashboard Group and Device filters

Custom Report and Dashboard Content

Dashboards

To configure custom dashboard panels to present SNMP State:

  • Set Object = Device
  • Add the SNMP State field, select Fields > Event Fields > SNMP State
  • Specify the data format to use

Reports

To configure custom reports to present SNMP State:

  • Set Report Data Type = Device
  • Add the SNMP State field, select Attribute > Device > SNMP State
  • Specify the data format to use

When creating custom dashboards or reports containing SNMP State data there are a range of data formats to select from, some of these formats also require the specification of one or more SNMP States:

  • Percent in/not in States – the percent of time the device has been in/not in any of the specified states
  • Time in/not in States – the time the device has been in/not in any of the specified states
  • Transitions into/out of States – the number of transitions into/out of the specified states
  • Total Transitions – the total number state transitions
  • Poll – whether SNMP polling is enabled/disabled (on/off)
  • Current State – the current SNMP state of the device
  • Time of last transition – the time of the last state transition for the device

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Alerting on SNMP State Changes

Statseeker automatically creates an event record for every SNMP State change which occurs within your monitored network. Alerts can be configured in response to these event records. A device may stop responding to SNMP communications for a range of reasons including:

  • The device is unreachable due to it, or an upstream device, being offline
  • A change has been made to the SNMP community string on the device, or the community string records within Statseeker
  • A change has been made to firewall configuration which is preventing SNMP communication from occurring between the device and the Statseeker server

Statseeker alerting offers SNMP-specific alerting triggers:

  • SNMP (all) – triggered by devices entering both ‘SNMP up’ and ‘SNMP down’ states
  • SNMP down – triggered by devices entering the ‘SNMP down’ state
  • SNMP up – triggered by devices entering the ‘SNMP up’ state

For more information on alerting and alert configuration see Alerting.

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