Data Collection via SNMP

Data collection via SNMP is a useful alternative for collecting network statistics in systems where Juniper Telemetry Interface (JTI) is not available or in multi-vendor systems. Data collection via SNMP enables the following performance management features:

• Collection of interface statistics using SNMP collection tasks that poll the SNMP MIB (Juniper Networks and Cisco devices).

• Collection of LSP statistics using SNMP collection tasks that poll the SNMP MIB (Juniper Networks and Cisco devices).

  Cisco LSP statistics can also be collected by polling the interface MIB because in Cisco devices, an LSP tunnel is a special interface entry.

• Collection of P2MP LSP statistics by polling the Juniper LSP MIB for Juniper Networks devices, or by polling the standard IFMIB for Cisco devices. Even older Juniper devices are supported.

• Collection of class of service (CoS) statistics. To collect this data for Juniper Networks devices, the SNMP collector polls the JUNIPER-COS-MIB.

• The specific OIDs that are collected in SNMP collection tasks are described in tables Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3.

  Table 1: OIDs for Interface and LSP Statistics

  OID Name	Counter	Vendor Type
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.1	ifName	Generic
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.10	ifHCOutOctets	Generic
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.13	ifHCOutBroadcastPkts	Generic
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.6	ifHCInOctet	Generic
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.9	ifHCInBroadcastPkts	Generic
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.2.3.1.1	mplsLspInfoName	Juniper
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.2.3.1.3	mplsLspOctets	Juniper

  Table 2: OIDs for CoS Statistics - Juniper Devices

  OID Name	Counter
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.4.1.5	jnxCosQstatQedBytes
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.4.1.9	jnxCosQstatTxedBytes
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.4.1.23	jnxCosQstatTotalRedDropBytes
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.7.1.5	jnxCosIngressQstatQedBytes
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.7.1.9	jnxCosIngressQstatTxedBytes
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.7.1.23	jnxCosIngressQstatTotalRedDropBytes

  Table 3: OIDs for CoS Statistics - Cisco Devices

  OID Name	Table
  1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.166.1.1.1	CISCO-CLASS-BASED-QOS-MIB::cbQosServicePolicyTable
  1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.166.1.6.1	CISCO-CLASS-BASED-QOS-MIB::cbQosPolicyMapCfgTable
  1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.166.1.5.1	CISCO-CLASS-BASED-QOS-MIB::cbQosObjectsTable
  1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.166.1.7.1	CISCO-CLASS-BASED-QOS-MIB::cbQosCMCfgTable
  1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.166.1.15.1.1.10	CISCO-CLASS-BASED-QOS-MIB:: cbQosClassMapStats.cbQosCMPostPolicyByte64
  1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.166.1.15.1.1.17	CISCO-CLASS-BASED-QOS-MIB:: cbQosClassMapStats. cbQosCMDropByte64

The process involves the following tasks:

Installation of Collectors

The collectors are installed in the same machine as the NorthStar Controller application server (single-server deployment) by the install.sh script when you install the controller itself. Once installed, you can see the collector group of processes:

Configure Devices in Device Profile and Test Connectivity

Before you can run SNMP collection, you must configure login credentials and SNMP parameters for the devices. In the web UI, from the More Options menu, navigate to Administration > Device Profile. Select a device and click Modify. Click the Access Parameters tab to enter login credentials and the SNMP Parameters tab to enter SNMP parameters.

See Device Profile for detailed instructions on setting up devices with SNMP parameters, and also on testing SNMP connectivity to those devices.

Run Netconf Device Collection

You must run Netconf device collection before attempting to run SNMP traffic collection. This is necessary to establish the baseline network information including the interfaces and LSPs. Once Netconf device collection has been run, SNMP traffic collection tasks have the information they need to poll the interfaces and the LSPs.

See Scheduling Device Collection for Analytics via Netconf.

Schedule and Run SNMP Data Collection Tasks

1. Click Add in the upper right corner. The Create New Task window is displayed as shown in Figure 1.

   Figure 1: Create New Task Window

   

2. Enter a name for the task and use the drop-down menu to select the task type as SNMP Traffic Collection. Click Next.

   The next window displayed does not offer any options because at this time, liveNetwork is the only device profile available. Figure 2 shows this window for SNMP traffic collection.

   Figure 2: Device Collection Task, Step 2 for SNMP Traffic Collection

   

3. Click Next to proceed to the scheduling parameters. The Create New Task - Schedule window is displayed as shown in Figure 3. At least two collections are necessary for the calculation of statistics. We recommend setting up automatic recurrence of the task every 10 to 20 minutes.

   Figure 3: SNMP Collection Task, Scheduling

   

   Instead of scheduling recurrence, you can select to chain the task after an already-scheduled recurring task, so it launches as soon as the other task completes. When you select the “Chain after another task” radio button, a drop-down list of recurring tasks is displayed from which to select.

4. Click Submit to complete the addition of the new collection task and add it to the Task List. Click a completed task in the list to display the results in the lower portion of the window. There are three tabs in the results window: Summary, Status, and History. An example of the Summary tab is shown in Figure 4. An example of the Status tab is shown in Figure 5.

   Figure 4: Collection Results for SNMP Traffic Collection Task, Summary Tab

   

   Figure 5: Collection Results for SNMP Traffic Task, Status Tab

   

   Note

   You can have only one SNMP traffic collection task per NorthStar server. If you attempt to add a second, the system will prompt you to approve overwriting the first one.

By default, NorthStar only collects statistics from the following interfaces when running SNMP traffic collection:

• Physical, logical loopback, or logical management interfaces that can be associated with nodes in NorthStar

• Logical interfaces associated with links in NorthStar

• Logical interfaces belonging to a VRF

The interface types that can be discovered on devices and that should be used by traffic collection can be modified by editing the /opt/northstar/data/northstar.cfg file. Use a text editing tool such as vi, and use a comma as a separator. For example:

• physical: Physical interfaces, expressed as the interface name without a dot (.) in it.

• loopbackMgmt: Loopback and management interfaces expressed as the interface name starting with lo, fxp, me, or em.

• vrfIf: Interfaces with which a VRF is associated.

• linksIf: Interfaces on links.

• all: All interfaces

These supported interface types are also commented in the northstar.cfg file.

Access the Data from the NorthStar Planner

You can access the collected data from the NorthStar Planner for planning and simulation purposes. In the NorthStar Planner, navigate to Traffic > Traffic aggregation. You can aggregate the traffic by hour and create a 24-hour traffic load file for each hour, aggregating the data for that particular hour across multiple days. The resulting file can be used as input into the traffic matrix solver.