Re: [nv-l] how does netmon interact with the ARP cache?

[James Shanks <jshanks@us.ibm.com>]

The answer to  how netmon works
is exceptionally complex, but I think the answer you are looking for is
"lists of objects with similar polling characteristics gleaned from
the topology database"

The ARP cache is used for discovery,
that's all.  netmon determines what to check next by the xnmsnmpconf
database and the timestamps in the topology database ( managed by ovtopmd)
of when he did it last.  You can see what's in that with "ovtopodump
-rl", though I'd direct that to a file as it will be voluminous.

To really get a handle on how netmon
works, I suggest that you start with man page (man netmon) and then get
familiar with the "netmon -a<num>" commands.  They
cause him to dump the various lists he is working to the /usr/OV/log/netmon.trace
file.  And if you are really curious about how netmon handles a particular
scenario, then turn on the full trace "netmon -M -1", do the
thing, and then run off the trace "netmon -M -0" and read the
file.  Of course, there are also the books we ship, which have discussions
on discovery and polling and so forth in them.  You did install the
books, didn't you?  They are a separate installation from the actual
code.

James Shanks
Level 3 Support  for Tivoli NetView for UNIX and Windows
Tivoli Software / IBM Software Group