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Re: [nv-l] Switch management and port status monitoring

To: nv-l@lists.us.ibm.com
Subject: Re: [nv-l] Switch management and port status monitoring
From: Konstantin Starodubtsev <kostya@ptc.spbu.ru>
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 13:14:13 +0400
Delivery-date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 10:35:36 +0100
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> I'm back with another short survey regarding switch management/layer 2 
> support to better understand how customers might use port status 
> monitoring. Participation is voluntary. Your responses will be very 
> helpful in determining future design direction.
> 
> 1.  How many switches do you have in your network environment?

~60 cisco switches 

> 2.  If you could, how many switches would you like to monitor?

all of them

> 3.  If you could do port status monitoring on your switches, How would you > 
> like to specify the switches to monitor? For example, by hostname, IP 
> address, OID, wildcards, others?
> 
> a. If you could prioritize a particular mechanism for specifying switches, 
> 
> 1.  What method would be the most important to you? 

  IP address
  
> 2.  What method would be the least important? 

  hostname
  
> 3.  Are there particular combinations that are most important in your 
> environment?

  none
> 
> b.  Briefly describe the approach you would like to use to configure the 
> switches you would like to monitor. 

  I'd include all devices under given network/mask plus devices with
  given ip address.

> 4.  What types of ports would you want to monitor on a switch? For 
> example:
>  All ports, Trunk ports, Ports connected to another switch or router, 
> Ports assigned to specific VLANs... 
> What combinations are most important to you? 

  all ports

> 6.  What other type of information is important to monitor about a switch?

vlan list for each trunk port and for whole switch,
mac addresses visible on (port,vlan) pairs, 
errors and drops number,
bandwidth utilization

> 7.  How do you work with VLANs today?

About 150 vlans scaled from 5 to 50 computers distributed between 
switches in whole campus. Often uniting workgroups in different
buildings.

> a.  What type of information would you like to see regarding VLANs?

computers ip/mac pairs in the given vlan,
switches this vlan is terminating on,
trunk ports and VTP domains this vlan is exists on.

> 8.  Would you want to monitor different information for a switch if you 
> were monitoring it for one of your customers, rather than a switch within 
> your own company's infrastructure? If so, what would you do differently?

no
 
> 9.  What tools do you currently use to monitor your switches? What 
> valuable information do they provide?

self-written snmp tools, NetView+ITSA.

> 10.  How do you currently diagnose problems with your switches? What tool 
> helps the most, and how does it help?

SNMP traps received by NetView from switches, error counters, syslog messages 
from switches.

-- 
MBR,
 Konstantin Starodubtsev


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