Documentation forSolarWinds

Real Time Interface Monitor tool

The Real Time Interface Monitor tool in ETS for the Desktop simultaneously displays statistics from routers and switches.

Open the Real Time Interface Monitor tool

  • To launch the tool from the Toolset Launch Pad, locate the Real Time Interface 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 Real Time Interface Monitor, click More, and click Run as administrator.

Statistics groups

You can select from over 30 statistics groups that include over 400 standard and proprietary statistics. The following is a list of statistics groups:

  • Traffic
  • Interface/Port status
  • Broadcast/Multicast
  • Errors/Discards
  • Interface/Port configuration
  • Time data was last Received/Transmitted
  • ARP cache
  • Ethernet statistics
  • Ethernet collisions
  • Token ring statistics
  • ATM AAL5 traffic
  • Frame relay configuration
  • Frame relay traffic
  • DS1 line status
  • DS1 last 15 minutes snapshot
  • ADSL configuration
  • AppleTalk configuration
  • 802.11 access point configuration
  • 802.11 access point power levels
  • 802.11 frame rates
  • 802.11 access point last client
  • 802.11 access point antennas
  • Wireless clients (Cisco APs)
  • Wireless access point SSID (Cisco APs)
  • Wireless bridges and repeaters (Cisco APs)
  • ISDN line configuration
  • Traffic rates (Cisco only)
  • Queue errors (Cisco only)
  • Slow vs. Fast switching
  • Protocols (Cisco only)
  • IGRP settings
  • Cisco discover protocol

All of these groups contain statistics specific to the grouping and baseline the statistics. For example, in the Traffic grouping, the receive and transmit percent utilization statistics need a baseline before they can be displayed. Baselines are taken automatically. Updates to statistics occur every 30 seconds, by default.

Monitor interfaces on devices

Real time monitoring requires an SNMP community string. To modify an interface (for example, enable or disable), you must provide a read and write community string or SNMP v3 credentials.

  1. Click Select device.

  2. In the Device Credentials window, specify the information, and then click OK.

  3. Click Monitor.

  4. In the Statistics Group list, select the statistics to view.

Modify statistics of update intervals

To extend or shorten the statistics update intervals, remember that shortening the interval causes more traffic and more load on your monitored devices.

  1. Click File > Settings.

  2. Click the General tab, and then adjust the slider in the Statistics Update Interval grouping.

  3. Click OK.

Enable synchronous SNMP queries

You can improve the performance over a WAN and improve the refresh rate of the data provided on the Real Time Interface Monitor window by allowing synchronous SNMP queries. Though, this may also cause increased CPU load on some routers and switches.

  1. Click File > Settings.

  2. Click the General tab, and then select Execute Synchronous SNMP Queries to the Target Device.

  3. Click OK.

Customize statistics groups

In Real Time Interface Monitor you can create your own statistics groups. This provides you with the ability to create a single view that displays the information you most often want to see. This also limits the load imposed on your device by switching between statistics groupings.

  1. Click File > Settings.

  2. Click the Statistics Groups tab

  3. To modify an existing statistics group, complete the following procedure:

    1. Select the group to modify, and then click Edit Selected Statistics Group.

    2. Select the statistics to add to the group in the left pane.

    3. Click OK.

  4. To create a new statistics group, complete the following procedure:

    1. Enter a name in the New Statistics Group field, and then click Add Group.

    2. Select the statistics to add to the group in the left pane.

    3. Click OK.

  5. Click OK.

You can rename, delete, and reset groups to their defaults on the tab.

Export, print, and copy statistics

While monitoring a device, Real Time Interface Monitor enables you to transfer statistics to other tools through exporting and copy and paste capabilities. You can also print the discovered information.

To export statistics:

  1. Click File > Export, and then select the type of export.
  2. Select the information to export.
  3. Name the path for the exported information.

To copy statistics, click Edit > Copy.

To print statistics, click File > Print, and then select the information to print.

Publish to the web

Real Time Interface Monitor statistics can be published to a static HTML page containing all the statistics for a specific statistics group.

  1. Click File > Publish to Web.

  2. Select the fields you want to include, and then click OK.

  3. Name and choose a location for the file, and then click Save.

Automatically publish discovered information in HTML

Real Time Interface Monitor enables you to schedule an automatically-generated HTML file containing the monitored statistics. For example, you can save this report to your inetpub root directory and provide an automatically-refreshing list of statistics on your website.

  1. Click File > Settings.

  2. Click the Auto-Publish tab, and then select Enable Auto-Publishing to the Web.

  3. Specify the file name and directory where location to save the HTML files.

  4. Specify the publishing interval.

  5. Click OK.