Network port monitoring on switch or router in DCE?

[DCIM_Support]

This question was originally posted on DCIM Support by Boris Majdandzic on 2019-02-25

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Hi, Is there a way to monitor the state of idividual port on network gear?

I need this for Cisco routing & switch devices.

Thanks in advance.

(CID:140707689)

[DCIM_Support]

This answer was originally posted on DCIM Support by Steven Marchetti on 2019-02-25

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Hi Boris,

StruxureWare DCE monitors devices using SNMP or Modbus over IP. If a switch or router were to output their port status via the monitoring protocol, DCE, during it's poll, should be able to monitor that status. This is of course providing that the status of the port we were on wasn't down.

That being said, networking gear is not the main focus of DCE.

Steve

(CID:140707740)

[DCIM_Support]

This comment was originally posted on DCIM Support by Boris Majdandzic on 2019-02-25

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Hi,

I will check if the equipment is able to send port states & ddf configuration.

I hope this will satisfy customer.

(CID:140707882)

[DCIM_Support]

This answer was originally posted on DCIM Support by Ed Tarento on 2019-02-26

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Hi Boris

How many of each device do you have now, and expect to have in say 12 months?  How many staff do you have monitoring these devices?

Its almost certain that the Cisco gear you mention supports SNMP and you will be able to view port status via SNMP standard OIDs (as well as additional port info via Cisco specific ones).  There is a huge amount of port info available on Cisco devices..  As Steve rightly advises, DCE will monitor these OIDs with the appropriate DDF. 

As the Cisco device changes port status, it can be configured to send an alert (SNMP trap/inform) to a monitoring system but sadly DCE will not do anything with these alerts (but will for APC brand devices)r.  DCE will only show state changes (e.g. port up/down) after regular or user initiated poll.  So if a Cisco port goes up and down within one DCE poll cycle, you wont see it.  You can bring one or more DCE device/s toward the top of the poll queue to give a more up to date port status view.

If you have options other than DCE to monitor your Cisco devices, even an open source offering, I would recommend you consider this.  You may even be able to bring DCE alerts to the same software for a combined view.

But if you have no other option but to use DCE, and can live with the delayed, and possibly missed port status changes and/or teach your users to always update the device status manually, then you'll at least get some visibility into Cisco port status. 

Cheers

Ed

(CID:140708120)

[DCIM_Support]

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