[mrtg] Maybe this will be a better question...

[Rick Horowitz]

Thinking along the lines of the "teach a man to fish" parable, I thought I'd
ask a different kind of question that might help me in finding the things I
want to track.

I found this software called MG-SOFT MIB Browser Professional Edition.  It
has this RMON-MIB in it, and I trace down through the tree of that to what I
think I want to monitor.  Forgive me if this notation is wrong, or I sound
like I don't know what I'm doing, because I don't; SNMP/RMON stuff is still
something like a foreign language to me.

As an example, I basically trace through these things:

iso->org->dod->internet->mgmt->mib-2->rmon->statistics->etherStatsTable->eth
erStatsEntry->etherStatsCollisions

And then I right-click on etherStatsCollisions, and choose "Info".  This
pops up a screen that shows a long list of which part looks like this:

Name                          Syntax      Value
etherStatsCollisions.44651    cntr32      0
etherStatsCollisions.44713    cntr32      0
etherStatsCollisions.46469    cntr32      0

And so on.

Now, if I right-click on, say, etherStatsCollisions.44651, I see a submenu
which has a bunch of stuff in it, but the important part seems to be this:

(13)  etherStatsCollisions
(1)   etherStatsEntry
(1)   etherStatsTable
(1)   statistics
(16)  rmon
(1)   mib-2
(2)   mgmt
(1)   internet
(6)   dod
(3)   org
(1)   iso

Another counter for etherStatsPkts looks the same, but has a 5 instead of a
13.

So I figure if I create this:

Target[collisions.superstack.44651]:
1.3.6.1.2.1.16.1.1.1.13.4651&1.3.6.1.2.1.16.1.1.1.5.44651:mycommunity at myswit
ch
MaxBytes[collisions.superstack.44651]: 1250000
LegendI[collisions.superstack.44651]:  Collisions
LegendO[collisions.superstack.44651]:  Packets In
Legend1[collisions.superstack.44651]:  Collisions
Title[collisions.superstack.44651]: CORPMISW00000XX (Unit 3/Port 1)
PageTop[collisions.superstack.44651]: <H1>Collisions vs. Packets In Analysis
for Some Unit/Some Port
 </H1>
 <TABLE>
   <TR><TD>System:</TD><TD>CORPMISW00000XX</TD></TR>
   <TR><TD>Maintainer:</TD><TD>rickh at ValleyYellowPages.com</TD></TR>
   <TR><TD>Interface:</TD><TD>Some Unit/Some Port</TD></TR>
   <TR><TD>IP:</TD><TD> </TD></TR>
   <TR><TD>Max Speed:</TD>
       <TD>12.5 MBytes/s (ethernetCsmacd)</TD></TR>
  </TABLE>

Then when it runs, it should provide the information regarding collisions
for that particular port.

Is this a correct assumption?  May I make similar assumptions regarding how
to obtain the correct OID for collecting other info?  That is, simply find
the thing I want in the MIB browser, right click it, and trace the numbers
all the way like I did above, then plug them into some MRTG.cfg file?

If this all works, then how do you learn what all these things actually are
worth tracing?  For example, I see this thing there called hostOutPkts, and
I right-click it, select "Info", and I get this really long list (I've
trimmed it down to four lines here, but it's very very long):

hostOutPkts.8.6.0.16.75.147.150.203      cntr32  4367240
hostOutPkts.8.6.0.16.75.148.96.173       cntr32  1081228
hostOutPkts.8.6.0.16.75.148.96.233       cntr32  798986
hostOutPkts.8.6.0.16.75.148.96.250       cntr32  1036996

Is this what I think it is?  The number of packets sent out by a machine
that routes through this switch?  If so, is there a way to figure out which
machine is which?

Also, if I select "enterprises" and choose "walk" I see tons of entries, one
of which looks like this:  enterprises.43.10.1.14.4.1.1.3.51563 (int32) 14

How can I find out what stuff like that is?  Is this specific to some MIB
file, and if I find that file, I'll trace down through all those numbers,
and it will tell me what I'm looking at?  (That's what I'm thinking, but I'm
not sure.)

Finally, I apologize for the length of this note.  And, if these questions
aren't really appropriate to this list, please feel free to flame or answer
me privately.  I promise to delete all the flames without response; you
won't hurt my feelings.  I figure although these questions don't relate
directly to the MRTG program, the answers might help me, and many other
people, learn how to make better use of MRTG.

Thank you.

Rick Horowitz                          Cisco Certified Network Associate
Network Administrator                   Microsoft Certified Professional
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Valley Yellow Pages                                 AGI Publishing, Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Direct:    (559) 251-8888 x290                      1850 N. Gateway Blvd
Toll Free: (800) 350-8887                          Fresno, CA 93727-1600
Fax:       (559) 251-4806               http://www.ValleyYellowPages.com
========================================================================

--
* To unsubscribe from the mrtg mailing list, send a message with the
  subject: unsubscribe to mrtg-request at list.ee.ethz.ch
* The mailing list archive is at http://www.ee.ethz.ch/~slist/mrtg