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Ring Monitor is an application that lets you view statistics and errors that are specific to Token Ring and FDDI networks. You can display information about the ring status, the position of active stations on the ring, the number of insertions on the ring, and the enter and exit times for each station. You can also see an error summary for the ring, and remove stations from it.
To begin working with Ring Monitor, you must be logged in to TrafficDirector, and have the TrafficDirector main window displayed on your screen. Select the Traffic radio button to display all the TrafficDirector applications that are related to the traffic level of your network. See Chapter 1, "Overview."
Before you can launch Ring Monitor, you must select a Token Ring or FDDI agent. You can launch Ring Monitor in one of the following ways:
The available views and options differ, depending on the type of agent you select. You can view the following agent information when you launch Ring Monitor:
| Token Ring | You can view the standard ring status, error summary information for the ring, and configuration information for individual stations on the ring. See "Monitoring Token Ring Networks." |
| FDDI or CDDI | You can view the ring status, and get information about individual stations on the network, such as node class, topology state, and so on. For more information on FDDI monitoring options, see "Monitoring Token Ring Networks." |
You can launch other applications to help you track trends and diagnose problems on your Token Ring or FDDI network directly from the Ring Monitor application. Depending on the topology of the network you are monitoring, you can launch the following applications:
To launch another application from within Ring Monitor, select an application from the Application menu.
When you use Ring Monitor to view Token Ring statistics, you can choose the types of statistics grouped into different views. This section shows you how to view all the stations seen by the Token Ring agent since it was booted, and the error summaries and configuration information for each station on the ring. This section also describes the different types of errors, and describes how to use Ring Monitor to remove stations from the ring.
Two Ring Monitor views are available:
To change the agent view, take the following steps:
Step 1 Launch the Ring Monitor application, if it is not already running. See "Launching Ring Monitor."
The Ring Station List window with the default status view opens (Figure 20-1).
Step 2 Select View. A check mark indicates which view is currently displayed.
Step 3 Do one the following to change the current view:
The view you selected opens.
The Ring Station list box shows different information about the stations on the ring, depending on the view you selected. Table 20-1 lists the list box information for the status view.
| Heading | Information |
|---|---|
| Ring Order | The order of this station in the ring |
| Station | The name of the station |
| Address | The address of the station |
| Last Enter Time | The last time the station entered the ring |
| Last Exit Time | The last time the station exited the ring |
| RIns | The number of times a station has been inserted into the ring |
| Dups | Duplicate addresses |
| Status | Whether a station is active or inactive |
Table 20-2 shows the list box information for the summary view.
| Heading | Information |
|---|---|
| Ring Order | The order of this station in the ring. |
| Station Address | The address of the station. |
| Last NAUN Address | The address of the NAUN1 of the station (specified in the Station Address field). |
| Soft Errors | The soft errors that occur normally in the ring. Soft errors do not cause the network to go down, and are one of two types: isolating and nonisolating. An isolating soft error is either an input or output error that can be traced to a single station. |
| Hard Errors - Beacons | A beacon. The equivalent of a ring reset, a beacon indicates a serious problem and can bring the ring down. There are two types of beacons: input and output. |
You may want to see data only for active stations or stations currently on the ring. If a station was on the ring at some point, but is now off, it is inactive. To view only the active stations on the ring, select View>Active Stations Only.
The display is updated to show only the active stations on the ring.
You can change how TrafficDirector sorts the information in the window list box. Table 20-3 lists the variables you can use to determine the sort order.
| Variable | Sort by |
|---|---|
| Ring Order | The position of the station in the ring. This is the default sort variable when you first launch Ring Monitor. |
| MAC Order | MAC addresses, sorted in descending order. |
| Enter Time | The last time the station entered the ring, sorted in descending order. |
| Exit Time | The last time the station exited the ring, sorted in descending order. |
| Hard Errors (summary window only) | Sums the two types of hard errors for the station, In and Out, and sorts in descending order. See "Understanding and Viewing Errors." |
| Soft Errors (summary window only) | Sums the three types of soft errors for the station, In, Out, and Non (nonisolating), and sorts them in descending order. See "Understanding and Viewing Errors." |
To change how the information is sorted in the Ring Station list, select a sort order variable from the Sort menu.
The window is displayed with the values sorted according to the variable you selected.
Use the Ring Monitor View Config option to see the group address, MAC address, last update time, and functional address for a station. To display the station configuration, take the following steps:
Step 1 Launch Ring Monitor for a Token Ring agent. See "Launching Ring Monitor."
Step 2 Select a station from the Ring Station list.
Step 3 Select View>View Config or click View Config. The Station Configuration window (Figure 20-2) opens.
Step 4 Click Update to update the configuration information for this station. The Station Configuration window closes and the agent gets the latest configuration from the station. To display the updated information, repeat Step 3.
Step 5 Click OK to close the window.
You can use Ring Monitor to remove a station from the Token Ring. To remove a station from the Token Ring, take the following steps:
 | Caution This procedure removes the selected station from the Token Ring. Use with caution. |
Step 1 Select the station you want to remove.
Step 2 Select Edit>Delete or click Delete. A confirmation window opens.
Step 3 Click Yes to remove the station. Click No to cancel.
TrafficDirector uses two types of Token Ring errors: soft errors and hard errors. This section shows you how to view Token Ring errors and provides a brief overview of the errors. See the applicable Token Ring reference manuals for a complete explanation.
A soft error occurs during normal ring operation. It does not cause the ring to come down. There are two types of soft errors: isolating and nonisolating.
A hard error is the equivalent of a system reset. It is a serious error that can bring the ring down. Hard errors are specific to a single station on the ring. There are two types of hard errors:
You can view Token Ring errors in the following ways:
To view a detailed list of errors for a particular station, take the following steps:
Step 1 Select the appropriate agent from the TrafficDirector main window.
Step 2 Click the Ring Monitor icon in the TrafficDirector main window. The Ring Monitor Station List window opens.
Step 3 Select the station for which you want to see errors from the list box.
Step 4 Select View>View Errors or click View Errors.
The Station Statistics window opens (Figure 20-3) and displays Ring Station information and soft and hard errors.
Step 5 Click OK to close the window.
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