Documentation forSolarWinds

Network Performance Monitor tool

The Network Performance Monitor tool in ETS for the Desktop is a real-time network monitor able to track network latency, packet loss, traffic and bandwidth usage, node and interfaces status, and other critical data points.

What Network Performance Monitor offers

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides two different levels of monitoring:

  • Devices that support SNMP can be monitored for network latency and packet loss, provide traffic statistics, and supply detailed management information.

  • Devices that do not support SNMP can provide network latency and packet loss information.

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides an ideal solution for the following needs:

  • Monitoring the bandwidth utilization of your WAN circuits.
  • Isolating traffic bottlenecks within your network.
  • Graphing real time results.
  • Identifying high traffic nodes.
  • Building customized reports.
  • Alerting on any of over 150 network properties.
  • Posting charts and reports on the web using the HTML Publish feature.

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides an easily navigated, Windows explorer-like interface with a tree view in the left pane and a results view in the right pane.

  • ETS for the Desktop provides detailed statistics collection for analysis, troubleshooting, and diagnostics. The embedded database is not intended for long-term monitoring of networks with more than 500 network elements and has a 2GB limit on stored data.

    If you have a larger network or require data retention longer than 30 days, we recommend upgrading to SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM). NPM is the perfect complement to ETS for the Desktop real-time network analysis and diagnostic capabilities. NPM supports thousands of interfaces, provides virtually unlimited storage using a Microsoft SQL database, and includes a web-based interface that can access network availability and both real-time and historical statistics.

  • Devices are not required to be on the same network.

Open the ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor tool

  • To launch the tool from the Toolset Launch Pad, locate the Network Performance Monitor tool and click Launch.

  • You can add the tool to a tab in the Workspace Studio, and access it from there.

  • To launch the tool from the Windows Start menu:

    1. Click Start > All > SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset.

    2. Right-click Network Performance Monitor, click More, and click Run as administrator.

Add nodes and interfaces in ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor

A node is defined as any device with an IP address. Network Performance Monitor nodes typically include routers, switches, e-mail servers, application servers, and workstations. Nodes are not required to be on the same network, but they must be reachable from the computer where Network Performance Monitor is installed.

  1. Click Nodes > Add Node.

    To add an interface, click Interfaces > Add Interface.

  2. Enter or select the device name or IP address, and then click Next.

    To support dynamic IP address assignment, select Device uses a dynamic IP address (DHCP or BOOTP).

  3. If the device supports SNMP version 1 or version 2, click Community string, and then enter the community string.

    If you specify a community string that has not been saved previously, you are prompted to save the credentials. Select yes to make the community string available in other tools that support the shared credentials database. To be able to shut down an interface remotely, you must provide a read and write community string.

  4. If the device supports SNMP version 3, complete the following procedure:

    1. Select a credential set from the list, or click Add to create a new credential set and save it in the shared credentials database.

    2. If you are adding a new credential set, specify the information:

      Credential set

      The name that represents the credentials you specify on the Add Credentials window.

      This name is displayed in the SNMP Version 3 list in ETS for the Desktop tools that support the shared credentials database.
      Context

      A named designation, similar to a group or domain name, to which the user name belongs.

      Context is mandatory if it has been defined for the object being managed.
      User name The name of the user with access to the device.
      Authentication type The authentication to use for logging on to the device, for example, MD5.
      Authentication password/key The password or key that corresponds to the authentication selected.
      Encryption type The encryption used when communicating with the device, for example, AES (128 or 256 bit) encryption.
      Encryption password/key The password or key that corresponds to the encryption selected.

  5. To be able to shut down an interface remotely, you must provide read and write credentials.

    If the device does not support SNMP, click Device does not support SNMP.
    You can monitor latency, packet loss, and availability of a node without SNMP support.

    To add your selections to the database and begin monitoring, select the options on the Resource window, and then click OK.

    If you have provided valid SNMP credentials, you can select CPU and memory utilization resource monitoring, volume, disk-based virtual and physical memory utilization, and interface traffic and error charting. If your device does not support SNMP or you do not have the credentials, the device is added to the left pane without displaying the Resource window.

    Resource

    What is monitored

    CPU

    CPU load as percentage of capacity

    Memory

    Memory and buffer utilization as total usage and percentage of capacity

    Volume

    Memory and buffer utilization as total usage and percentage of capacity

    Interface

    Bandwidth utilization, percentage of capacity, errors and discards, and total bytes transferred

Modify system settings

System settings can specify how your data is stored, how often data is collapsed, how often objects are polled and rediscovered, how often statistics are collected from objects, the behavior of charts, the timeout and retry intervals for ICMP and SNMP communications, and the appearance of the tree view.

  1. Click File > Network Performance Monitor Settings.

  2. Specify the information on the Database tab:

    • Nightly database maintenance runs at the specified time. Maintenance uses the values specified in Statistics Summarization to compact and delete data.

    • Statistics summarization provides four customizable retention periods:

      • Raw data retention
      • Hourly data retention
      • Daily data retention
      • Event retention

  3. Specify the information on the Polling tab.

    Polling determines availability, status, network latency, and packet loss, and is normally done more frequently than statistics collection. Intervals apply to all objects added after your changes. If you want to overwrite the current polling intervals for your nodes, click Apply these settings to All.

  4. Specify the rediscovery interval before leaving the Polling tab.

    Rediscovery validates the identity of monitored nodes, interfaces, and volumes and automatically adjusts for most changes in this information.

  5. Specify the information on the Statistics tab.

    Statistics collection retrieves data from your device, interface traffic and errors, volume, and CPU usage. To overwrite the current statistics collection intervals for your nodes, click Apply these settings to All.

    Statistics represent summaries, peaks, and averages collected over a period of time. Statistics represent not only the activity occurring at the time of the collection, but are calculated values summarizing total activity since the last collection.

  6. Specify the information on the Charts tab:

    • Specify whether or not to print charts in color or monochrome using differentiating symbols.

    • Specify the default font size.

    • Specify whether or not to automatically refresh charts.

  7. Specify the ICMP and SNMP timeout intervals on the Network tab.

    You can also specify the SNMP retry number. Adjust these intervals to take advantage of a fast network or account for a slower network connection. See ICMP settings and SNMP settings.

  8. Specify your icon choices for nodes, interfaces, and volumes on the Node Tree tab.

ICMP settings

The ICMP Timeout is the maximum amount of time (in milliseconds) Network Performance Monitor waits for a response from an IP address. Adjust this value to the minimum practical value possible to maximize performance. A good starting point is twice the maximum ping time across your network. A few days or weeks of observing your network response times will give you a good idea of what a practical minimum should be.

If no response is received, NPM changes the status of the node to a warning state. If the device remains unresponsive during the node warning interval, the node status changes to down. For more information about node warning intervals, see Modify advanced settings.

You can edit ICMP packet content to make sources identifiable or to adjust the size. The data payload size can vary from zero (0) to 200 bytes. Some network devices consider ICMP packets with data in the payload suspicious. Try adjusting the packet size to be less than 10 bytes or remove the data from the payload of the packet.

When adjusting ICMP payload data, a byte counter is provided above the Data Portion text box.

SNMP settings

The SNMP Timeout setting determines the number of milliseconds the Network Performance Monitor application waits for a reply before assuming the packet is lost and trying again. This setting should normally be twice the maximum ping time to any device you are monitoring. After observing the unique behavior of your network, you can adjust these values to the lowest time possible to assure responsiveness from an active device.

Modify advanced settings

Advanced Network Performance Monitor settings specify how to deal with the following actions:

  • When to baseline your nodes and interfaces.
  • How to calculate availability.
  • How long a node remains in a warning state.
  • How to calculate values after a monitored counter rolls over.
  • Automatically take XML snap shots of monitored object status and details.

Default values are selected for all of these options that work for most networks. Ensure you understand the implications of changing any of the values you decide to modify.

  1. Click File > Advanced Settings.

  2. Specify the information on the Baseline Calculation tab. See Baseline calculation.

  3. Specify the information on the Availability Calculation tab. See Availability calculation.

  4. Specify the information on the Node Warning Interval tab. See Node warning interval.

  5. Specify the information on the Counter Rollovers tab. See Calculate counter rollovers.

  6. Specify the information on the XML Snapshots tab. See Take XML snapshots.

  7. Click OK.

Baseline calculation

When ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor starts, current data is unavailable for your network. ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor creates a baseline. All Resources are polled immediately, and when the first poll is complete, the network is polled again. These two result sets are used to create statistics providing an immediate view of network performance.

Baseline calculation requires a great deal of data gathering and data computation that can affect the performance of the ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor host and polled router. If you do not need statistics immediately upon starting ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor, select Disable Baseline Calculation at Startup on the Baseline Calculation tab.

Availability calculation

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides two methods for calculating device availability. The default method uses the status of the node, up or down. As long as the device responds to a ping within the warning interval, ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor considers the node up. For more information about the node warning interval, see Node warning interval.

The other method offered bases node availability on packet loss percentage. Unless you need packet loss percentage based availability calculations, we recommend that you retain the default method for availability calculation.

Node warning interval

Devices drop packets and fail to respond to polling for many reasons. When a device fails to respond, ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor changes the status from Up to Warning. The node warning interval can specify how long a device can remain in a Warning state before it is considered unreachable or Down. While a node is in the Warning state, the service performs fast polling, pinging the device every three minutes, to detect any change in node status.

If you see erroneous events or receive false alerts for down nodes, it is possible that the application is detecting intermittent packet loss within the network. If you do not want to diagnose the cause of the network flutter, consider setting the node warning interval to a higher value.

Calculate counter rollovers

Depending on the monitored device enter and your ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor settings, statistical information may be derived from 32-bit counters. These counters offer a maximum value of 2 to the 32nd power (4,294,967,296). You can decide how ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor compensates when a 32-bit counter reaches maximum capacity and rolls over to zero. The default method detects a counter rollover and ignores the zeroed value. Instead, a new sample is scheduled in 20 seconds. This method can cause slightly skewed total bytes transferred numbers.

The more advanced method, which produces skewed numbers when manual counter resets occur, detects a counter rollover and uses the following calculation to correct for the rollover to zero: currentValue + (maximumCounterValue - lastCounterValue). If manual counter resets are rare, this method produces the most accurate results.

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor can and does gather statistics from the 64-bit counters on network devices, if available. These counters have a capacity of 2 to the 64th power (18,446,744,073,709,551,616). While ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor fully supports the use of 64-bit counters, the implementation of these high capacity counters by some hardware vendors exhibit erratic behavior. If you notice peculiar results when using these counters, disable the use of 64-bit counters for the device and contact the hardware manufacturer.

You can enable and disable 64-bit counter use on the Node Details window. See View node data and modify node properties.

Take XML snapshots

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor can save periodic XML files of gathered data. This XML Snapshot can be used by other programs, most commonly Web applications, to display information about selected devices or interfaces.

Generating XML snapshots causes intensive CPU usage. Leave this option disabled unless you use the XML snapshots.

View node data and modify node properties

The Node Details window contains a live view of data from the node, including the following information:

  • Object specific information, enter, sub-enter, and node ID
  • IP address
  • SNMPv2 only
  • Community string
  • Node, System, and Reverse DNS name
  • Vendor
  • SysObject ID
  • Node and machine enter
  • Description
  • Location and contact information, if set on the device
  • Last boot time-date stamp
  • IOS information, if applicable
  • Status information (up, warning, down)
  • Polling information, including interval, next expected, and fast polling interval
  • Statistics collection and rediscovery interval
  • 64-bit counter state
  • Response time information, including current, average, maximum, minimum
  • Packet loss
  • CPU utilization
  • RAM, total, used, and percent used
  • Buffer information

The following information can be updated:

  • Name
  • IP address
  • Dynamic IP address designation
  • SNMP community string
  • 64-bit counter allowance
  • Node status polling
  • Node statistics collection

View and modify node properties

  1. Select the node in the tree, and then click Nodes > Node Details.

  2. Review the information in the Details window.

  3. Modify any of the properties, and then click Apply Changes.

  • Changing the name of a node only affects the way the node is identified on charts and graphs within ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor. It does not impact the device on the network.

  • Changes made in this window affect only the node being viewed.

  • While ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor fully supports the use of 64-bit counters, the implementation of these high capacity counters by some hardware vendors exhibit erratic behavior. If you notice peculiar results when using these counters, disable the use of 64-bit counters for the device and contact the hardware manufacturer.

  • Change the IP address or community string only if they change on your network.

Unmanage a device

If you need to perform maintenance on a device, you can set a maintenance window in which ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor stops polling the device, does not create events about the device, and does not trigger alerts. All interface and volume statistics cease to be collected. When the time specified is reached, ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor begins normal polling of the device again.

  1. Select the node in the tree, and then click Nodes > Node Details.

  2. Click UnManage.

  3. Specify the time stamp in the following format: mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss AM|PM.

  4. Click OK.

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor immediately stops managing the node.

Unmanaging is not granular. You cannot specify an interface or a volume. The entire node must be unmanaged.

View interface data and modify interface properties

The Interface Details window contains a live view of data from the interface, including the following information:

  • Object specific information, enter, sub-enter, node ID, interface ID, and name
  • Interface index (ifIndex)
  • Interface name, ifName, and alias
  • Interface enter
  • Interface description
  • Interface enter (numerical)
  • 64-bit counter state
  • MAC address
  • MTU
  • Port speed
  • Status, operations status, administrative status
  • Actively responding to SNMP
  • Last change time-date stamp
  • Polling information, including interval and next expected poll
  • Statistics collection and rediscovery interval
  • Transmit and receive bandwidth setting, actual bits per second, utilization percentage, packets, average packet size, unicast and multicast packets
  • Peak received and peak transmitted, including time
  • Transit and receive errors and discards

The following information can be updated:

  • Name
  • Transmit bandwidth maximum
  • Receive bandwidth maximum
  • Interface status polling
  • Interface statistics collection

Each Interface on a managed device must have a unique name. Some switches name all interfaces Ethernet. For ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor to collect traffic and error statistics on each interface, you must assign unique names.

  1. Browse to and then select the interface in the tree.

  2. Click Interfaces > Interface Details.

  3. Review the information in the Details window.

    An interface index (ifIndex) of zero indicates that the interface is no longer present on the node.

  4. If you want to modify any of the properties, do so, and then click Apply Changes.

  • Changing the name of an interface only affects the way the interface is identified on charts and graphs within ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor. It does not affect the device on the network.

  • Changes made in this window affect only the interface being viewed.

  • Transmit and receive bandwidth are used to calculate percent utilization and trigger alerts.

Transmit and Receive Bandwidth values

Transmit and Receive Bandwidth values govern percent utilization calculations. ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor sets these values when the interface is added and does not dynamically update them. Because you may want to set these values lower than the actual bandwidth full dedication or because you may want to set the values independently for asymmetric circuits (ADSL or CATV interfaces, for example, with different upstream and downstream data rates), these values are manually customizable.

During customer circuit monitoring, consider setting thresholds that reflect allowed and allowable transmit and receive bandwidth settings. For example, a customer may have a 10 Mbps connection (via Ethernet), but may only be paying for 512 Kbps with overcharges when they exceed the 512k limit. You can set the Transmit and Receive Bandwidth settings to 512000 and display Percent Utilization charts for the circuit in terms of 512 Kbps.

Enable and disable interfaces

If you have provided a read and write SNMP community string or an SNMP version 3 account with the permissions at the node level, you can remotely enable and disable interfaces from the ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor console.

  1. Select the interface in the tree, and then click Interfaces.

  2. Click the action on the Interfaces menu:

    • Administratively Shutdown Interface
    • Administratively Enable Interface

Do not disable the interface you are using to connect to the device.

View volume details and modify volume properties

The Volume Details window contains a live view of data from the volume, including the following information:

  • Object specific information, enter, sub-enter, node ID, volume ID, and name
  • Volume index and description
  • Volume enter
  • Status
  • Actively responding to SNMP
  • Last change time-date stamp
  • Polling information, including interval and next expected poll
  • Statistics collection and rediscovery interval
  • Volume size, bytes used, and bytes available
  • Volume errors

The name of the volume can be updated on this window.

  1. Browse to and then right-click the volume in the tree.

  2. Click Volume Details.

  3. Review the information presented on the Details window.

  4. Modify the name of the volume, and then click Apply Changes.

  • Changing the name of a volume only affects the way the volume is identified on charts and graphs within ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor. It does not impact the mounted device.

  • Changes made in this window only affect the volume being viewed.

Poll on demand

Polling requests data from the object. If the object has SNMP communication enabled, the manual poll pulls statistics. If SNMP is not available, the manual poll uses ICMP communication and returns only those values. You can see the immediate results of a manual poll on the details window of the object you poll.

Poll a node

  1. Select the node in the tree pane.

  2. Click Nodes > Node Details.

  3. Click Poll.

Poll an interface

  1. Browse to and then select the interface in the tree pane.

  2. Click Interfaces > Interface Details.

  3. Click Poll.

Poll a volume

  1. Browse to the volume in the tree pane, and then right-click the volume you want to poll.

  2. Click Volume Details.

  3. Click Poll.

Rediscover on demand

Rediscovery of an object enables you to verify and update identity information (for example, the name or IP address of a node).

Rediscover a node

  1. Select the node in the tree.

  2. Click Nodes > Node Details.

  3. Click Rediscover.

Poll an interface

  1. Browse to and then select the interface in the tree.

  2. Click Interfaces > Interface Details.

  3. Click Rediscover.

Poll a volume

  1. Browse to the volume in the tree, and then right-click the volume you want to poll.

  2. Click Volume Details.

  3. Click Rediscover.

Events

An event is defined as any change to the state of a monitored object or an action in response to a state change. Review the following list to better understand the type of events you can expect. This list is not inclusive of all possible events.

Node events Down, Up, Warning, Deleted, Added, Unmanaged, Manage, Rebooted, and Changed.
Interface events Down, Up, Shutdown, Enabled, Unknown, Added, Deleted, Remapped, and Changed.
Volume events Remapped, Changed, Added, Deleted, Disappeared, and Reappeared.
Monitoring Started and Stopped.
Failover Failover and Failback.
Alert Triggered and Reset.

View a detailed log of unacknowledged events

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides a detailed list of current unacknowledged events that includes the time stamp, the type, and the full text of the event.

  1. Click Events > Event Details.

  2. Confirm that Current Events is selected in the lower-left of the Events window.

Acknowledge events

Acknowledging an event removes it from the default event window (Current Events) and from the event summary. The event is not removed from the event database. See View a detailed log of all events.

  1. To acknowledge a single event, click the X in the Ack column of the Current Events window.

  2. To acknowledge multiple events, complete the following procedure:

    1. Select multiple events using Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click.

    2. Right-click a selected event, and then click Clear Selected Events.

  3. To acknowledge events by enter, right-click within the Current Events window, and then click one of the following options:

    • Clear All Events
    • Clear Informational Events
    • Clear Node Up Events
    • Clear Node Down Events

View a detailed log of all events

Acknowledging an event removes it from the Current Events window, but it does not remove the event from the SolarWinds Network Performance Manager database.

  1. Click Events > Event Details.

  2. Click Past Events in the lower-left of the Events window.

  3. Specify the time period for which you want to display events.

  4. Specify the event categories you want to display.

  5. Specify the network objects for which you want to display events.

  6. Click Search, and then review the events.

Network Performance Manager keeps events in the database for the number of days specified on the Database tab of the Network Performance Monitor Settings window. See Modify system settings.

View a summary of logged events

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides a summary view of all currently unacknowledged events. This view is not constrained to the ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor window and does not minimize with the ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor window,. This enables you to keep your eye on your network events as you continue to work on other issues.

Click Events > Event Monitor.

To acknowledge an entire category of events, click the X.

Views

Views provide a number of ways to analyze your real-time data. A view consists of network object information provided in a table that reflects the most recently collected data. ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides over 20 predefined views created with the help of network engineers in the field. If you do not find a view that meets your needs, you can create custom views.

Predefined views provide the data about all the objects that match the purpose of the view. For example, you will not find CPU load information in the interface errors and discards view, just as you will not find errors and discard information in the CPU load table. Consider the following list of predefined views:

  • Buffer Errors This Hour
  • Buffer Errors Today
  • CPU Load
  • Current Packets per Second
  • Current Packet Size
  • Current Traffic
  • Errors and Discards This Hour
  • Errors and Discards Today
  • Fast Polling Status for all Nodes
  • Interface Bandwidth Settings
  • Interface Polling Intervals
  • Interface Status
  • Interfaces
  • IOS Image and Version
  • Last Time each Node Rebooted
  • Last Time Each Interface Changed
  • Maximum Traffic Load Today
  • Memory Utilization
  • Node Polling Intervals
  • Node Status
  • Nodes View
  • Percent Utilization
  • Response Time
  • SNMP Community Strings
  • Volumes

View real-time data

Views provide a valuable, table-based view of your network objects.

  1. Click View > Display View, and then select the view you want to display.

  2. To rearrange the column in a view, drag the column to the location.

  3. To sort on a specific column, click the column heading.

  4. To take action on an object displayed in a view, right-click the object and select an action.

Create views

By creating new views, you display the information you need.

  1. Click View > New View.

  2. Enter the name of the new view in the View name field.

  3. Select the properties you want to display in your view, and then click OK.

Print views

You can print entire views or selectively include columns.

  1. Arrange the columns and sort the view as you expect to print it.

  2. Click File > Print.

  3. Select the columns to include, and then click OK.

Export view data

You can export view data in a number of other formats:

  • Comma-delimited text
  • Plain text
  • HTML
  • MHTML
  • Excel
  • PDF
  • Image

To export a view:

  1. Arrange the columns and sort the view as you expect to export it.

  2. Click File > Export.

  3. Select the columns to include, and then click OK.

Export to Excel Spreadsheet saves an XLS file. Export Directly to Microsoft Excel saves and then opens the file in Microsoft Excel.

Charts

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor provides charts for viewing both object-wide summaries and specific object statistics.

View charts

  1. Browse to the location in the tree.

    For example, to view a summary chart, expand Summary Charts. To view a chart for a specific SNMP enabled node, expand the node, and then expand the category of the property, for example, expand CPU Load and Memory Use.

  2. Click the chart you want to view.

  • You can zoom into a section of a chart by drawing a box around the area of interest.

  • To ensure the most up-to-date data is displayed in the chart, click Autorefresh . Autorefresh also returns the chart to the default state.

  • Select or specify a time period by clicking the tab below the chart. Click Custom Period to specify a time period not included as a tab.

  • If your chart contains data generated prior to data summarization, you will see a single value for minimum, maximum, and average values. After summarization, this data is available as two distinct values.

Customize charts

Chart customizations are available to ensure your charts display what you want, in the detail you want.

  1. Open the chart you want to customize, and then click Custom in the toolbar.

  2. Specify the customizations you want on the different tabs, and then click OK.

    For example, you can change the number of places beyond the decimal point to display in the Numeric Precision grouping of the General tab.

Export charts

You can export charts in different formats.

  1. Open the chart you want to customize, and then click Custom in the toolbar.

  2. Click Export.

  3. Specify the format, destination, and size, and then click Export.

Add value tables to charts

You can add a table of data along the bottom of the chart by clicking Table in the toolbar. The values displayed in the table depend on the viewed chart. For example, adding the table to a Min/Max Average CPU Load provides a table of minimum CPU load, maximum CPU load, and average CPU load. Values in the table are aligned with the time displayed at the bottom of the chart.

Alerts

ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor generates alerts for network events you want to monitor. You can customize alerts in many ways:

  • Notify different people on different days.
  • Notify at different times of the day.
  • Notify different people for different events.
  • Notify using any combination of times, events, and people.

You can set alerts to notify people or other monitoring programs using several different modes:

  • Send an e-mail or page.
  • Play a sound on the NPM machine.
  • Log details to a file.
  • Log details to the Windows Event Log.
  • Send a Syslog message.
  • Execute an external program.
  • Execute a Visual Basic script.
  • E-mail a webpage.
  • Change the value of an interface or node property.
  • Play a text to speech output.
  • Send a Windows Net Message (net send).
  • Dial a Paging or SMS Service.
  • Send an SNMP trap.
  • Post a URL to a web server.

Create alerts

  1. Click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then click New Alert on the Configure Alerts window.

  2. Enter the name of the alert to be created, and then select Enable this Alert.

  3. Click Property to Monitor, and then select the property you want to monitor.
    You can alert on only one property at a time.

  4. Click Monitored Network Objects, and then select the monitored object.

  5. Click Alert Trigger, and then specify the trigger and reset values. Values are based on the property you choose to monitor.

    For example, if you select IP address for a node, there are no selectable alert triggers. ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor notifies you when the IP address changes. If you select Received bits per second for an interface, you can select a threshold and another threshold at which the alert resets.

    When an Alert triggers, the trigger action is not repeated until the reset condition has been satisfied.

  6. Click Time of Day, and then specify the time the alert should trigger, including days of the week.

  7. Click Alert Suppression, and then specify the alert suppression settings.

    Selecting one of the suppression options provides the ability to add conditions under which alerts are suppressed.

  8. Click Actions, and then click Add Alert Action and add the actions to trigger for this alert.

    For example, sending a page. You can configure multiple actions for a single alert. Depending on the action selected, ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor prompts you for more information. For example, when configuring an e-mail alert, you are prompted for the e-mail addresses, the e-mail address to use in the From field, the SMTP server address and port, the message, and the reset message.

  • Some pager systems require a valid reply address in order for the page to complete.

  • To suppress the e-mail for either the alert trigger or reset condition, remove the text from the subject and message fields on the corresponding tab.

  • When e-mailing a website link, you must specify the URL and any required user ID and password in the corresponding trigger and reset tabs.

Test the alert action

  1. Click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then click Test Alert on the Configure Alerts window.

  2. Select the network object to trigger the alert.

  3. Select the alert to test, and then click Test Alert Trigger or Test Alert Reset.

  4. Review the Alert Error Log and modify the alert actions, if necessary.

To edit a tested alert, double-click the alert name in the display.

Edit alerts

After you create alerts, editing to correct alert action issues or to update time periods or any other property is a simple task.

  1. Click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then select the alert to be edited on the Configure Alerts window.

  2. Click Edit Alert, and then update the property you want to modify. See Create alerts for more information about each property.

  3. Click OK.

Copy alerts

After you configure an alert, consider using it as a template for other alerts. For example, you might not want an alert to fire during work hours. To create this alert, you already had to create all of the suppression, alerting, and reset features and exclude the 9-to-5 weekday time period. By copying this alert, you can change only the Time of Day tab to update and include the entire weekend. You might also consider creating disabled template alerts that contain working e-mail alerts, to avoid having to enter the SNMP information again. You might want to notify a different individual on different days. Copying an alert can be useful in all of these scenarios.

  1. Click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then select the alert to edit on the Configure Alerts window.

  2. Click Copy Alert, and then update the properties you to modify.

  3. To save the copy of your new alert, click OK.

View current alerts

The Active Alerts window provides an easily sorted table view of your alerts that have not met reset conditions.

  1. Click Alerts > Active Alerts.

  2. Select a category to group alerts, either Type of Alert or Node.

To sort the alerts by that column, click a column header

Disable alerts

When troubleshooting a device, it is easy to disable an individual alert or all alerts.

Click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then clear the alert to disable.

To disable all alerts, click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then select Temporarily Disable all Actions for All Alerts.

Alerts continue to be recorded in the log and displayed in the Active Alerts window.

Delete alerts

Deleting an alert permanently removes it from the system. To retain the alert configuration, consider disabling the alert instead of deleting it entirely.

Click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then click Delete.

Alert suppression

Error conditions in a network can trigger multiple alerts from a single event. Likewise, some network issues may not need to trigger an alert if they occur alone, but should trigger an alert if they occur with other conditions. Alert suppression can create conditions that take into account complex situations, and alert you with the information you need to determine the root cause of the problem.

By design, alert suppression is not configured by default. Before enabling alert suppression, review the following guidelines:

  • Give considerable thought to each scenario and the ways in which alert-triggering events can occur.
  • Work with a diagram of your network.
  • Extensively test any scenario to which you apply suppression.

Proceed with caution when configuring the alert suppression. It is possible to suppress important alerts on the status of your network.

There are two choices for activating Alert Suppression:

  • Suppress the alert if any of one or more conditions exist.
  • Suppress the alert if all of two or more conditions exist.

Review the following scenarios for help with understanding when to create alert suppression rules. The location of the ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor computer is integral to these examples.

Failure of redundant servers

In the following diagram, both WServers are identical in order to provide fail over, redundancy, and load balancing. If WServer4 fails and the other server is still functioning, you may want to be alerted immediately during business hours, but not paged in the middle of the night. In this case, configure the alert for the failure of one WServer to be suppressed unless the other also fails.

Apparent failure of dependent nodes downstream of a failed device

In the following diagram, dependencies exist among devices. If Router C fails, Switch 3 and all four Workstations become unreachable by NPM. You want to know that the Workstations have failed, but only if Router C and Switch 3 have not failed. Configure the alerts for failure of the Workstations to depend on Router C and Switch 3 being operational.

Failure of a network link when a redundant link remains functional

In reference to the previous diagram, during some hours, you may want to be notified of the failure of the link between Router B and Router C only if the alternative link through Router A is also down.

Failure of load balancing between devices

If you configured your network to balance traffic across your web servers, consider configuring an alert that notifies you of very high CPU utilization only if one or more is experiencing much lower usage.

The suppression of Alerts does not preclude knowledge of critical events. Network events will still be logged in the database whether or not alert suppression is enabled.

Example of a dependent node alert suppression

This example assumes that you have configured an alert which notifies you when nodes on a subnet become inoperative. In this specific case, you configured an alert to notify you when workstations on a segment of your network on the other side of a particular router are unavailable. You want to be alerted to Node failures only if the router is still operational.

The router should not be included in the group of monitored objects. The failure of the router is the trigger for suppressing the alert. Create another alert to be notified of the failure of the router.

  1. Configure an alert that triggers on failure of devices downstream of the router that serves the subnet (Node Down Alert.) Downstream is relative to the location of the computer running ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor.

  2. On the Alert Suppression tab, click Suppress this Alert if ANY of the selected Suppressions are Active.

  3. Click Add.

  4. Select the property to monitor.

    In this example, Node Status.

    You can select only one property per suppression condition.

  5. Click the Network Object tab, and then select the router between NPM and the subnet for which you have configured the Node Down Alert.

    The object types available on the Network Object tab depend on the choice you made on the Properties to Monitor dialog. If you chose to monitor an interface-related property, you would see a list of available Interfaces. You chose a node-related property, ETS for the Desktop Network Performance Monitor presents a list of nodes.

  6. Click the Suppression Trigger tab, and then select Down, Warning, and Unknown from the list, and then click OK.

  7. Select the new suppression condition.

    Suppressions are enabled automatically.

  8. To add another condition, repeat this procedure starting with Step 3.

Example of a failure of a load balancing alert suppression

If you have multiple servers configured to load balance your website, knowing how your load sharing scheme is performing is very important to site stability. Within this example, assume that you want to be alerted when the CPU load on two servers exceeds 80 percent, but only if one shows a CPU load of 40 percent or less. If the second server reports greater than 40 percent utilization, the alert is suppressed.

You must configure two alerts: one alert for each server. These alerts are identical, except for the servers monitored.

  1. Click Alerts > Configure Alerts, and then on the Configure Alerts window, click New Alert.

  2. In the Name of Alert field enter an alert name.

  3. Click the Property to Monitor tab, and then in the Node Statistics section of the tree, select % CPU Utilization.

  4. Click the Monitored Network Objects tab, and then select the server to monitor.

  5. Click the Alert Trigger tab, and then enter the percentage for Alert and Reset triggers.

    Enter 80 percent to follow the scenario.

  6. Click the Time of Day tab, and then select the time of day parameters, if necessary.

  7. Click the Alert Suppression tab, and then click Suppress this Alert if ANY of the selected Suppressions are Active.

  8. Click Add.

  9. On the tab, select % CPU Utilization.

  10. Click the Network Property to Monitor Object tab, and then check the second server of the load balanced pair.

  11. Click the Suppression Trigger tab, and then select Greater Than and enter 40 in the text-entry field

  12. Click OK.

  13. Select the newly created suppression condition to activate it.

  14. Repeat the procedure, but reverse the server choices made at Steps 4 and 10.