Setup for IT Service Vision Server

OpenView and NetView Appendix 2: Alternate Data-Logging Method

This is an alternate version of the task in Section 1, Task 3: Create a Test PDB and Process, Reduce, and Report on Your Data In this version of the task, you create your own snmpCol.conf file (the file of variables for which data are to be collected and the nodes on which the data are to be collected). You also manually stop and start the snmpCollect daemon.

Note: The procedures and the examples presented here are provided as a convenience to IT Service Vision customers. The methods outlined here are neither documented, suggested, nor supported by any Hewlett Packard documentation or IBM documentation. Although these procedures and examples have been tested with HP Open View Release 3.0 and NetView for AIX Release 4.0 and are used at SAS Institute, the Institute offers no official support for them.

Prerequisites

SAS is installed.
See Section 1, Task 1: Start the IT Service Vision Server Software.
The IT Service Vision server is installed.
See Section 1, Task 1: Start the IT Service Vision Server Software.
You know which nodes support at least Level 3 management and MIB-II.
See Section 1, Task 3: Create a Test PDB and Process, Reduce, and Report on Your Data.

Actions

Make copies of three files from the !sasroot/misc/cpe directory.
For illustration purposes only, the examples in this action assume that!sasroot is in /usr/local/sas and you are using /tmp as a work area.

Execute the following commands:

cd /usr/local/sas/misc/cpe
cp csgmkcnf /tmp/csgmkcnf
cp csghosts /tmp/csghosts
cp csgvars /tmp/csgvars

Note: The csgmkcng file contains a shell script that builds the snmpCol.conf file. The csghosts file will contain a list of host names of all the hosts from which you want to collect data. The csgvars file contains the recommended MIB metrics/variables in the snmpCol.conf format.
Make the csgmkcnf file executable.
Issue this command:

chmod 755 /tmp/csgmkcnf
Edit the csghosts file so that it contains the host names of all the hosts from which you want to collect data.
Each fully qualified host name must be listed on a separate line, starting in column 1. For example, the lines for nodes dimes, swimmer, and winter might look like this:

dimes.unx.sas.com swimmer.unx.sas.com winter.unx.sas.com
Create an snmpCol.conf file.
Issue this command:

/tmp/csgmkcnf
Back up the existing /usr/OV/conf/snmpCol.conf file.
The existing snmpCol.conf file contains your current collection configuration. (If you made any modifications in the configuration, see Section 1, Task 3: Create a Test PDB and Process, Reduce, and Report on Your Data, the changes that you made are included in this file. In this step you will save those changes but not use them.)

Issue this command:
```
cd /usr/OV/conf
cp -p snmpCol.conf snmpCol.conf.orig
```
During the following actions, monitor the contents of the snmpCollect trace file.
Messages are appended to the snmpCollect trace file as data collection takes place. The best way to monitor these messages is with the following steps:
1. Open a new xterm window.
3. Issue these commands in the new window:
```
cd /usr/OV/log
tail -f snmpCol.trace
```
  Messages will be displayed as they are appended to the trace file.
Begin logging data using the new snmpCol.conf file.
2. To stop the snmpCollect daemon, issue this command:
```
/usr/OV/bin/ovstop snmpCollect
```
3. To copy your config file over the existing config file, issue this command:
```
cp /tmp/snmpCol.conf /usr/OV/conf/snmpCol.conf
```
4. To restart the snmpCollect daemon, issue this command:
```
/usr/OV/bin/ovstart snmpCollect
```
Note: If at any time you want to return to using your former configuration, repeat this action except issue this command as the copy command:
```
cp -p /usr/OV/conf/snmpCol.conf.orig /user/OV/conf/snmpCol.conf
```
Watch the trace file as snmpCollect runs.
- You may see a message that looks like this:
```
Wed Aug 16 11:30:19 1995 : Next object after ipRoutingDiscards
        (.1.3.6.1.2.1.4.23) is not supported by agent on dimes.unx.sas.com.
        Use snmpwalk or MIB browser to verify the object exists on this node.
```
  In this example, the message indicates that snmpCollect will not be able to collect ipRoutingDiscards on dimes.unx.sas.com because dimes is not a router. The snmpCollect daemon ignores this metric for dimes and proceeds normally with collecting the rest of the metrics for dimes.
- Another kind of message you may see is like this:
```
Tue Jun 06 11:41:40 1995 : swimmer.unx.sas.com doesn't reply to a 100 object PDU,
        but responds to sysUpTime.  Be sure SNMP timeouts are not
        set too small (SNMP interval: 0.80s retry: 3).
```
  In this example, the message indicates that the swimmer host could not respond within the timeout period.
  
  The snmpCollect daemon bundles multiple requests in a single Protocol Data Unit (PDU). Depending on your network, the agent on the host may not be able to respond within the timeout and retry parameters. There are two ways around this problem:
  - The better fix is to reduce the number of requests that snmpCollect makes per PDU. The file /usr/OV/lrf/snmpCol.lrf specifies the number of requests that snmpCollect makes per PDU. The following steps describe how to edit the file and then replace the existing file with the edited file:
    1. Make a backup copy of /usr/OV/lrf/snmpCol.lrf by issuing this command:
      cp -p /usr/OV/lrf/snmpCol.lrf /usr/OV/lrf/snmpCol.lrf.orig
    2. Change the number of objects per PDU by editing the file /usr/OV/lrf/snmpCol.lrf. Specify the number nn of objects by adding
      -m nn
      to the third field on the second line of snmpCol.lrf. The value of nn to use depends on your network load. A larger number means snmpCollect can "batch" more requests and improve performance of snmp get requests.
      
      The updated file should look something like this:
      snmpCollect:/usr/OV/bin/snmpCollect: OVs_YES_START:trapd,ovwdb,ovtopmd:-m 20:OVs_WELL_BEHAVED:120:
    3. Stop the snmpCollect daemon with this command:
      /usr/OV/bin/ovstop snmpCollect
    4. Re-register snmpCollect with this command:
      /usr/OV/bin/ovaddobj /usr/OV/lrf/snmpCol.lrf
    5. Re-start the snmpCollect daemon with this command:
      /usr/OV/bin/ovstart snmpCollect
    6. Verify that snmpCollect was properly started:
      ps -ef | grep snmpCollect
      You should see an entry containing, for this example,
      snmpCollect -m 20
    7. Check the trace file, in the same way as described earlier in this action, for messages.
  - Another way to fix the timeout problem is to increase the global default timeout by following this path from the main menu in OVW:
    
    Options -> SNMP Configuration -> Global default -> change the value in the timeout -> Replace -> OK