System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2 - Configuring Network Device Monitoring - Part 10

Hello Everyone,

In this post, I will sharing monitoring process for Network devices through SCOM.

SCOM is capable of monitoring below networking devices:

• Routers
• Switches
• VLANs
• Hosted Standby Router Protocol Groups
• Firewall
• Load Balancers
• Internal interfaces & ports.

SCOM monitors devices using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) V1, V2 or V3. 
Let's see detailed information about network monitoring & process...

Part 1: To see SCOM Prerequisites & Installation Process, Click Here!

Part 2: To see SCOM Post configurations, Click Here!

Part 3: To see SCOM Console Overview, Click Here!

Part 4: To see SCOM Agent Installation Process, Click Here! 

Part 5: To see PRO-Tips configuration between SCVMM & SCOM, Click Here! 

Part 6: To see configuring monitors & rules, Click Here! 

Part 7: To see about Reports, Click Here!

Part 8: To see about Dashboard & creating custom Dashboard, Click Here!

Part 9: To see Default Dashboard & SCOM Integration with Visio, Click Here!

SCOM Network Monitoring Capabilities:

Below are the capabilities which SCOM monitoring will provide for network:

• Connection Health status if healthy or not.
• VLAN Health status on switches 
• Hosted Standby Router Protocol Groups health
• Port/Interface status about - up or down, % of utilisation, drop/broadcast rates, inbound & outbound traffic status.
• Processor utilisation status
• Memory utilisation status

Monitoring Strength:

• Using 2 resource pool - 2000 Network Devices & Approx. 25000 network ports
• Using 1 resource pool with 3 or more Management Servers - 1000 Network Devices & approx. 12500 ports.
• Using 1 resource pool with 2 or more gateway servers - 500 Network Devices & approx. 6250 ports.

Management Pack Required:

Two MP are required:

• Microsoft.Windows.Server.NetworkDiscovery
• Microsoft.Windows.Client.NetworkDiscovery

Network Discovery Rules:

There are 2 main rules:

• Explicit Discovery: This discovery will only search those devices which are directly accessible successfully. Rules may used either of methods: ICMP, SNMP or both depending on configuration of rules.

• Recursive Discovery: In this, rule will attempt to discover those devices that you explicitly specify in the wizard by IP address, as well as other network devices that are connected to the specified SNMP v1 or v2 device and that the specified SNMP v1 or v2 device knows about through the device’s Address Routing Protocol (ARP) table, its IP address table, or the topology Management Information Block (MIB).

Network Discovery Phases:

There are 3 Phases:

• Probing: In this phase, Operation Manager trying to contact devices using any specified protocol: 

              -> ICMP Only - Ping the device

              -> ICMP & SNMP - Use both protocols.

              -> SNMP Only - Use the SNMP GET Message.

• Processing: Configure all process of network devices like ports, interface, memory etc.

• Post Processing: Complete post configuration steps like configuring port connections to servers etc.

Configuring Network Device Monitoring - Step by Step:

Open SCOM Console, Click on Administrator Tab, Expand Network Management, Click on Discovery Rule & then Click on Discover Network Device in Task menu on right hand side:

Give name, available management server & available resource pool:

NOTE: If You created 1 Rule with 1 Management Server in 1 Resource Pool then You can not create another rule... because for 1 Rule, 1 Management Server is already assigned. For such scenario, You have 3 options: 

• Add multiple management servers in 1 Resource Pool, or
• Discover all network devices at once, else
• When discovery for some network devices is completed then delete the rule & re-create new rule for other devices.

Select Recursive Discovery & Click Next:

Click Create Account:

Click Next:

Select Type, Give Name, Description & Click Next:

Give community string & Click create:

Click Next:

Click Add:

Provide IP Address (I have given Physical Server & Virtual Machine IPs):

You can add as many IPs by clicking on Add button & then Click Next:

Click Next:

Click Next:

Click Next:

Click Create:

Click Yes:

Click Close:

Click on Run:

Click Close:

Check in "Network Discovery Pending Management" to see the status:

NOTE: Time to discover network is less than a minute so if taking more than that time then check configuration by checking properties & clicking on Submit Rediscovery.

Network Device is discovered successfully:

Click on Monitoring Tab, Expand Network Monitoring & Click on Network Device:

NOTE: Above mentioned section in Green mark show which all options are available for monitoring network devices.
Click on different Network Dashboard & Daigram view from Task view on right hand side:

Network Vicinity Dashboard:

Network Node Dashboard:

Diagram View:

Performance View - ICMP Ping Response Time:

This is all about Network Device monitoring through SCOM.

In next post, I will show how to configure Live Monitoring Dashboard for different monitored objects on single dashboard using Visio with attractive looks...

Happy Reading!!!

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