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Monitoring Token-Ring Networks Using Ring Monitor

Monitoring Token-Ring Networks Using Ring Monitor

In this chapter you will learn how to use Ring Monitor to configure, display, and print Token-Ring statistics collected using Group 10 of the RMON MIB.


Note The RMON MIB is defined in RFC 1757. The Group 10 Token-Ring specific extensions are defined in RFC 1513. Group 10 is enabled automatically whenever a Token-Ring agent is powered on and finishes its initialization sequence.

Using Ring Monitor

This section describes the procedures you will use to monitor your Token-Ring network with Ring Monitor.

Viewing the Ring Station List for a Token-Ring Agent

Use the following procedure to launch Ring Monitor from the TrafficDirector main window and display the Ring Monitor Ring Station List for the agent you select.

Step 1 Log in to the network management station where TrafficDirector is installed, and run the TrafficDirector application.

Step 2 Select a Token-Ring agent from those shown in the Agents [All] list, or select the agent group containing the Token-Ring agent you want to monitor.

Step 3 Click the Ring Monitor icon in the TrafficDirector window, or select Application>Ring Monitor from the menu bar.

The Ring Station List window showing the default status view is displayed (Figure 9-1). The status view shows a list of the stations the agent has seen since it was powered on. You can sort this listing in a number of ways. The status view is the default view. You can also select a Summary view, shown in Figure 9-2.



Figure 9-1: Ring Station List Window (Status View)

Selecting Views

You have a choice of two Ring Monitor views: status view and summary view. A description of each view follows:

Status Provides a list of the stations the agent has seen since it was powered on and provides basic information about each station. This is the default.
Summary Provides an error summary for each station.

To select a view, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select the View menu.

Step 2 Click either Status or Summary. One of the following is displayed:


Figure 9-2: Ring Station List (Summary View)

Understanding the Ring Station List

The Ring Station List contains several headings with the following values. The Ring Station List shows different information about the stations on the ring, depending on the view you selected.

This list describes the Ring Station List display when you choose Status:

Ring Order Shows the order of this station in the ring.
Station Shows the name of the station.
Address Shows the address of the station.
Last Enter Time Shows the last time the station entered the ring.
Last Exit Time Shows the last time the station exited the ring.
RIns Shows the number of times a station has been inserted into the ring.
Dups Shows duplicate addresses.
Status Shows whether a station is active or inactive.

This list describes the Ring Station List display when you choose Summary:

Ring Order Shows the order of this station in the ring.
Station Address Shows the address of the station.
Last NAUN Address Shows the address of the nearest active upstream neighbor (NAUN) of the station (specified in the Station Address field).
Soft Errors Shows soft errors that occur normally in the ring. Soft errors do not cause the network to come down and are one of two types: isolating and non-isolating. An isolating soft error is either an input or output error that can be traced to a single station.
Hard Errors-Beacons Shows 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.

Selecting Active Stations Only

You may want to see data only for active stations--stations currently on the ring. If a station was on the ring at some point but is now off, it is referred to as inactive. To view only the active stations on the ring, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select the View menu.

Step 2 Click Active Stations Only. The list updates the display to show only the active stations on the ring.

Sorting List Information

You can change the way TrafficDirector sorts the information provided in the window's list. You can use any of these variables to determine the sort order:

Ring Order The position of the station in the ring. The default variable.
MAC Order MAC addresses in descending order.
Enter Time The last time the station has entered the ring. The sort is in descending order.
Exit Time The last time the station has exited the ring. The sort is 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 the "Understanding and Viewing Errors" section.
Soft Errors Summary window only. Sums the three types of soft errors for the station, In, Out, and Non (non-isolating), and sorts them in descending order. See the "Understanding and Viewing Errors" section.

You can use the following procedure to change the list sort order.

Step 1 Select Sort from the menu bar.

Step 2 Click the sort order variable you want. The window is displayed with values sorted according to the variable you selected.

Refreshing the Station Information

You can refresh the station list information to display the most recent data. Click the Refresh button, or select Tools>Refresh from the menu bar, and TrafficDirector updates the list data.

Viewing Station Configuration

The Ring Monitor View Config function lets you see a selected station group address, MAC address, last update time, and functional address. To view a station configuration, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select the appropriate agent from the TrafficDirector main window.

Step 2 Select the Ring Monitor icon in the TrafficDirector main window. The Ring Monitor Station List window is displayed.

Step 3 Click the View Config button, or select Tools>View Config from the menu bar. The Station Configuration window is displayed (Figure 9-3).


Figure 9-3: Station Configuration Window

Step 4 You can update the configuration information for this station at any time. To do so, click the Update button from the Station Configuration window. The agent gets the latest configuration from the station. To see the latest update, again click View Config from the Ring Monitor window.

Step 5 Click OK when you are finished viewing the station configuration.

Viewing Host Information

You can launch the TrafficDirector Host List from both the Ring Station List window and from the Source Routing Monitor application, explained in the "Using Source Routing Monitor to See Inter-Ring and Intraring Traffic" section.

You can use Host List to view a complete list of the hosts and host activity detected by the selected Token-Ring agent. You can use Host List to verify the number of hosts in a domain or simply that a host is included in a particular domain.

To launch Host List from the Ring Station List window or from the Source Routing Monitor main display, click the Host List button, or select Tools>Host List from the menu bar. When you do so, the RMON Host List main window is displayed (Figure 9-4).

You can now work with the Host List application as described in the "Monitoring and Troubleshooting Single Domains" chapter.


Figure 9-4: TrafficDirector RMON Host List Window

Removing a Station from the Token Ring

You can remove a station from the Token Ring using Ring Monitor. To remove a station from the Token Ring, use the following procedure.

Caution This procedure removes the selected station from the Token Ring. Use it with extreme caution.

Step 1 Select the station you want to remove by highlighting it in the list.

Step 2 Click the Remove button, or select Tools>Remove from the menu bar. A cautionary dialog prompts you to confirm that you want to remove the station.

Step 3 Click OK to remove the station or Cancel to quit without removing the station.

Printing the Contents of the List

You may want to print the contents of the Ring Monitor list (in either status or summary view) for future reference.

To print the contents of the list, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select Print from the menu. The Print Options window is displayed (Figure 9-5).


Figure 9-5: Print Options Window

Step 2 Do one of the following:

Step 3 Click Apply.

Exiting Ring Monitor

To exit Ring Monitor, select File>Exit from the menu bar.

Understanding and Viewing Errors

In this section, you will learn how to view Token-Ring errors. This discussion provides only a brief overview of these errors. See the applicable Token-Ring reference manuals for a complete explanation.

TrafficDirector looks at two types of Token-Ring errors: soft errors and hard errors. There are other Token-Ring errors, but this section covers only those that TrafficDirector uses.

About Soft Errors

A soft error is an error that occurs during normal ring operation. It does not cause the ring to come down. There are two types of soft errors: isolating and non-isolating.

Isolating Errors

An isolating error is a soft error that can be traced to a single station. There are two types of isolating soft errors:

Input An input isolating error is calculated by summing Line Errors plus Burst Errors. Input isolating errors usually indicate a problem with the station's NAUN.
Output An output isolating error is calculated by summing Line Errors, Burst Errors, Internal Errors, AC, and Abort Errors. Output isolation errors usually indicate a problem with the station itself.

Non-Isolating Errors

A non-isolating error is a soft error that cannot be isolated to a single station. A non-isolating error is calculated by summing Lost Frames, Congestion, Frame Copied, Token, and Frequency Errors. Non-isolating errors do not indicate a problem with a particular station but rather with the ring itself.

About Hard Errors

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:

Input The number of beacon frames sent.
Output The number of beacon frames with this station as NAUN.

Viewing Errors

There are two ways to view Token-Ring errors:

To view a detailed list of errors for a particular station, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select the appropriate agent from the TrafficDirector main window.

Step 2 Click the Ring Monitor icon from the TrafficDirector main window. The Ring Monitor Station List window is displayed.

Step 3 Select the station you want from the list in the Ring Monitor window.

Step 4 Click the View Errors button. The Station Statistics window is displayed (Figure 9-6). This window lists Ring Station information, soft errors, and hard errors under corresponding headings.

Step 5 Click OK when you are finished viewing the station statistics.


Figure 9-6: Station Statistics Window (Errors Displayed)

Using Source Routing Monitor to See Inter-Ring and Intraring Traffic

You can see a detailed summary of both traffic passing in and out of the ring, as well as traffic within the ring, using the Source Routing Monitor. To use the Source Routing Monitor to view a summary of ring traffic, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select the appropriate agent from the TrafficDirector main window.

Step 2 Click the Ring Monitor icon from the TrafficDirector main window. The Ring Monitor Station List window is displayed.

Step 3 In the Ring Monitor window, select the station you want a traffic summary for.

Step 4 Click the SR Monitor button, or select Tools>SR Monitor from the menu. The Source Routing Monitor window is displayed (Figure 9-7).


Figure 9-7: Source Routing Monitor Window

Selecting the Sample Interval

You can select the sample interval, which is how long TrafficDirector waits before polling the agent and updating the display with the new ring information. The range is from 15 seconds to 5 minutes. To select the sample interval, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select Sample from the menu bar.

Step 2 Click the sample interval you want.

Getting Agent Information

You can get system and interface information about the selected agent directly from the Source Routing Monitor window. To do so, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Click the Agent Info button, or select Tools>Agent Info from the menu bar. The Agent Information window is displayed (Figure 9-8).

Step 2 Click OK when you are finished viewing the agent information.


Figure 9-8: Agent Information Window

Printing Source Routing Information

You may want to print the contents of the Source Routing Monitor window for future reference. To do so, use the following procedure.

Step 1 Select Print from the menu bar. The Print Options window is displayed.

Step 2 Do one of the following:

Step 3 Click Apply.

Exiting the Source Routing Monitor

To exit the Source Routing Monitor at any time, select File>Exit from the menu bar.

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