SNMP Integration

This section describes the following SNMP integrations. It includes the following sections:

SNMP Integration for Flow Sources

SNMP Integration for Device Management of SteelCentral Components

SNMP Integration for Sending Traps

SNMP Integration for Flow Sources

When devices send data flow, standard SNMP interface identifiers (ifindex values) indicate which interfaces the data flow traverses. You must map the interface identifiers to names and descriptions to identify them on the NetProfiler. You must also obtain the link speed information so you can convert raw bandwidth numbers to link utilization percentages. The NetProfiler, NetExpress, and Flow Gateway gather the following information using standard SNMP from all devices sending standard flow or SteelFlow Net:

Device name

Interface names

Interface descriptions

Interface capacities

Ensure that you configure firewalls between the NetExpress or Flow Gateway and flow-reporting devices to enable SNMP access between the NetExpress or Flow Gateway and remote device. If there are any access rules on the flow-reporting devices, you must enable these access lists to allow SNMP access from the NetExpress or Flow Gateway.

For more information about configuring of the NetProfiler and NetExpress for SNMP collection of these items, see the SteelCentral NetProfiler and NetExpress User’s Guide.

SNMP Integration for Device Management of SteelCentral Components

You can monitor the status of SteelCentral through SNMP from an external SNMP manager. Currently, the NetProfiler, Flow Gateway, and NetExpress generally support the industry-standard UCD-SNMP-MIB. For more information, see http://www.oidview.com/mibs/2021/UCD-SNMP-MIB.html.

When you use SNMP, it is normal to detect high CPU and memory use. This does not mean that the appliance is experiencing a problem. Because SteelCentral are appliances and not standard servers, processes tend to hold the entire CPU for normal use (100 percent CPU utilization is normal) and make efficient use of available memory resources.

For the Enterprise NetProfiler, you can poll each physical component separately.

Because the NetProfiler reports a broken connection with a Flow Gateway or NetShark, a best practice is to configure your SNMP manager to send health traps and only poll the NetProfiler Event Manager module.

SNMP Integration for Sending Traps

The NetProfiler can send traps through SNMPv1 or SNMPv3 to third-party trap receivers. You can customize which types of traps to send to which devices within the notifications pages of the NetProfiler UI. Some of the use cases for sending SNMP traps are as follows:

Sending the NetProfiler or NetExpress health messages to a third-party network manager or SNMP device manager

Sending service and performance and availability events to a third-party network manager

Sending security events to a security event manager (SEM)

You must configure the third-party device receiving the trap with the NetProfiler MIB (labeled Mazu-MIB). This MIB is available from either the Riverbed Support site or NetProfiler help downloads page.

You can route the appropriate events to the appropriate devices by first configuring recipient groups within the NetProfiler and then configure which events are sent to which recipients. Recipient groups can contain email recipients and SNMPv1 or SNMPv3 recipients. For more information about how to configure these notifications, see the SteelCentral NetProfiler and NetExpress User’s Guide.