FAQ
This topic is for FAQs. Anyone may contribute. I have started with a FAQ from the nv-l mail list. If this list gets too big, we can split it into different categories.
Netview 7.1.4 and SNMP V3
No known support for SNMPV3 in Netview directly.
There is
a package that can be purchased
that will act as a frontend for Netview that will accept SNMPV3.
The company is SNMP RESEARCH.
Their site is
www.snmp.com
Loading SNMP V1 and V2 MIBs
There are a few differences between the format of Management Information Base (MIB) information between versions 1 and 2 of the SNMP standard. Using
NetView, either version can be loaded automatically using the "Tools -> Web Console MIB Loader" menu on either Unix or Windows. Such MIBs are loaded under the /usr/OV/www/mibs directory and are listed in the file mibserver.def in the same directory. They
MUST have an extension of ".mib". These MIBs can then be viewed in
NetView using the MIB Browser in the
NetView Web Console (or by using /usr/OV/bin/mibbrowser.sh / mibbrowser.bat). You will
NOT see these MIBs other than via the Web Console viewer.
For X-windows users or Windows native client users, the menus "Options -> Load/Unload SNMP V1 MIBs" or "Tools -> MIB -> Loader SNMP V1" (depending on Op Sys), provide a way to load SNMP V1 MIBs. The command line (CLI) behind these menus are /usr/OV/bin/xnmloadmib and \usr\OV\bin\loadmib.exe respectively. These MIBs can then be viewed from the "Tools -> MIB Browser SNMP V1" or "Tools -> MIB -> Browser SNMP V1", with CLIs xnmbrowser or browser.exe. The MIB sources are usually stored in /usr/OV/snmp_mibs. Once these MIBs are loaded, they end up in 2 files (a "source" and a binary version), /usr/OV/conf/snmpmib and snmpmib.bin. You will
NOT see these MIBs with the Web Console unless they have
also been loaded by the first method above.
Loading and viewing SNMP V2 MIBs from native GUIs has now disappeared from menus but is available via xnmloadmib2 / xnmbrowser2 on Unix and loadmibv2.exe / browserv2.exe on Windows - these commands could be put back on to GUI menus by editing the appropriate registration files (how long these commands will last, I don't know...).
The gathering of SNMP data via the "Tools-> Data Collection and Thresholds" / "Tools -> MIB -> Collect Data" menus, ONLY permits specification of MIBs loaded via the native SNMP V1 MIB loaders.
Loading SNMP V1 and V2 TRAPs
NONE of the MIB loader tools - V1 / V2 / Web loaders / native GUI loaders - load TRAPs - repeat
NONE.
If you have a MIB file that contains TRAP definitions, use the
mib2trap utility, available for both Unix and Windows. Don't forget that mib2trap is a 2-stage process. The first stage produces an output file with an addtrap statement for each TRAP. You then need to run that output file to actually configure TRAPs into
NetView's /usr/OV/conf/C/trapd.conf.
Be aware that Unix
NetViews support SNMP V2 style TRAPs (NOTIFICATIONs);
NetView on Windows does
not.
Collecting Data for SNMP V1 and V2 MIBs
The gathering of SNMP data via the "Tools-> Data Collection and Thresholds" / "Tools -> MIB -> Collect Data" menus,
ONLY permits specification of MIBs loaded via the native SNMP V1 MIB loaders. These menus modify the /usr/OV/conf/snmpCol.conf file (Unix and Windows).
To collect SNMP V2 data, you can edit this file manually. You will probably need to stop and restart the snmpCollect daemon to make him reread this file.
Check this link for some excellent tips from James on nv-l:
http://lists.skills-1st.co.uk/mharc/html/nv-l/2002-09/msg00249.html
reset_ci to re-establish NetView's own name / address
The
NetView database contains information about the
NetView box itself. It "knows" its own name and address and where the maps are located. If you move a backup to another machine, then all that has to be changed before the GUI will come up or the daemon configuration can be modified. And that's what reset_ci does. It resets the
NetView host specific info in the database to the machine one which they now reside.
reset_ci is the chicken soup of Netview. It can't hurt. Use it whenever there is a hint of an identity problem. Also see'mapadmin -f
' and 'ovorsutil -d'
Configuring TRAPs and making trapd take notice
TRAPs are configured to NetView via Options -> Event Configuration -> Trap Customization, or the xnmtrap command. When you exit xnmtrap, the FMTCHG event is sent to trapd to tell him to re-read the file. You can issue "event -e FMTCHG" at any time to make trapd.conf re-read his /usr/OV/conf/C/trapd.conf configuration file.
A NetView web console connects to a native NetView Unix GUI (ovw process) or to a netviewd process. If more than one of these options is available, the Web user is presented with a choice. Sometimes the web user is presented with more choices than REALLY exist. This is usually because an old maptreeserver process has not been terminated cleanly. Check to see how many maptreeserver processes exist (you may find that the orphan one(s) have a parent process id of "1"). Kill the spurious maptree processes. kill -9 will be required.
(With thanks to Francois Le Hir for this information via nv-l)
Poor performance on NetView web Console
One possible reason for this is unsufficienr resources on the NetView Server for the jetty webserver process. Increasing the size of the java VM from 64 to 128Mb can make a huge difference. Increase memory
allocation for the Java VM by editing /usr/OV/www/bin/jetty.sh and:
Change -Xm64m to -Xm128m (Bottom of file)
Then restart the webserver.
Thanks to Fawad Qureshi for the append on nv-l who commented "Before this, java was taking up an average of 50% CPU on the Netview server. Since modifying it has dropped significantly. "
Where to find MIBs
There are several places around the Internet to try to find MIBs. These are documented under the Hints and Tips section. Follow this MiBs link.
-- JaneCurry - 28 Jan 2004