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. You can use these statistics for performance management.

You can collect the following statistics by using SNMP collection tasks that poll the SNMP management information base (MIB):

• Interface statistics. See Table 1 for details.

• LSP statistics. See Table 1 for details.

  Note

  If the LSPs are part of a P2MP group, the P2MP group information is displayed in the P2MP Group tab in the network information table that is located at the bottom of the topology view.

• Class of service (CoS) statistics. See Table 2 (Juniper devices) and Table 3 (Cisco devices) for details.

  Note

  You can collect CoS statistics only for Juniper and Cisco devices.

• Table 1 describes the specific object identifiers (OIDs) that are collected for interface statistics and LSP statistics.

  Table 1: OIDs for Interface and LSP Statistics

  OID Name	Counter	Vendor Type (Generic refers to all vendor devices supported in NorthStar)
  1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2	ifDescr	Huawei
  1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.3	ifType	Huawei
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.1	ifName	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
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.10	ifHCOutOctets	Generic
  1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.13	ifHCOutBroadcastPkts	Generic
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.2.5.1.1	mplsLspInfoName	Juniper
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.2.5.1.3	mplsLspInfoOctets	Juniper

  Table 2 describes the specific OIDs that are collected for CoS statistics for Juniper devices.

  Table 2: OIDs for CoS Statistics - Juniper Devices

  OID Name	Counter
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.3.1.2	jnxCosFcIdToFcName
  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
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.5.1.1	jnxCosIfIndex
  1.3.6.1.4.1.2636.3.15.5.1.2	jnxCosIfstatFlags
  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 describes the specific OIDs that are collected for CoS statistics for Cisco devices.

  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

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 and Connectivity Testing for detailed instructions on setting up devices with SNMP parameters, and also on testing SNMP connectivity to those devices.

Run Device Collection

You must run device collection before attempting to run SNMP traffic collection. This is necessary to establish the baseline network information including the interfaces and LSPs. Once 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.

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 offers you the opportunity to collect SNMP traffic for all devices, select devices, or groups. Figure 2 shows this window.

   Figure 2: SNMP Collection Task, Device Collection

   

   Note

   You would deselect devices for which you are using Cisco MDT.

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.