Unfortunately, I cannot offer any help, except to confirm the same problems
that you have experienced. We had attempted to distribute SNMP data
collection and thresholding to MLM servers for the same reason -
scalability. It failed miserably, so we upgraded our NetView server from an
RS/6000-590 to a 4-processor SP Silver Node. We have not completely given
up on MLM and plan to attempt it again this year.
I agree with you that we need to keep pressure on IBM/Tivoli to make the MLM
product useful for this function.
Joel Gerber - I/T Networking Professional - USAA Information Technology Co.
- San Antonio, TX
* (210)456-4231 * mailto:Joel.Gerber@USAA.com "
http://www.usaa.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Curry [SMTP:jane.curry@SKILLS-1ST.CO.UK]
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2000 05:01
To: NV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU
Subject: MLM experiences
Is anyone REALLY using MLM to offload the collection of MIB data? I
would dearly like to do this but, in practise, it seems contorted at
best...... Any examples that would help me get around the following
problems, would be most appreciated.
1) MLM collects simple variables fine. If you set thresholds, I
believe
the MLM manual is wrong on Page 9-69 when it says that the threshold
calculates the rate-per-second - I think it compares straight delta
values (for counter variables) so you have to set your threshold
such
that it is multiplied by the time interval in seconds. This is a
workaround but is not likely to endear MLM to anyone...
2) You can have MLM collect variable expressions (which DON'T have
to be
in reverse Polish notation - good point). The result always seems
to be
an integer so for thresholds, I have to apply the kludge above AND
use
the @delta function.
3) To integrate MLM-collected data with NetView snmpCollect'ed data,
I
have 2 functions, mlmRemoteCollect and smconvert. mlmRemoteCollect
is
documented as needing root authority. By changing permissions on
files
(adding group permissions for "system" and "bin") I can get around
needing to be root but I still seem to need a .netrc file with the
root
password of my MLM system. This dependency on needing access to
root is
a complete no-no for some of my clients.
4) smconvert works fine (provided you ensure that your data
collection
files don't also have trap data in them - thanks Leslie!), but if
MLM
has been collecting EXPRESSIONS then the data files you end up with
in
the snmpCollect directory, have horrendous names, including the
decimal-ASCII representation of the expression mib
5) There is no capability for performing any data reduction at the
MLM
6) I setup my MLM MIB variables using APM which is absolutely great
when
it works but it does seem very quirky, particularly when you
unassign
collections from an APM. I often seem to end up with the wrong
nodes in
the list when I do a Distribute - a workaround seems to be to go
into
Node Status and then I can do distributes to specific nodes, but I
shouldn't need to do this.....
I would love to hear counter-arguments / workarounds to my
criticisms as
MLM is the only standard tool I have for making my network
management
data collection sensibly scaleable. If others have similar
reservations, perhaps we should be submitting a change request to
make
this really usable.
Many thanks for any contributions to the debate,
Jane
--
Tivoli Certified Enterprise Consultant & Instructor
Skills 1st Limited, 2 Cedar Chase, Taplow, Bucks, SL6 0EU, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1628 782565
Copyright (c) 1999 Jane Curry <jane.curry@skills-1st.co.uk>. All
rights
reserved.
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