Monitoring policies control how Cisco EPN Manager monitors your network by controlling the following:
What is monitored—The network and device attributes Cisco EPN Manager monitors.
How often it is monitored—The rate at which parameters are polled.
When to indicate a problem—Acceptable values for the polled attributes.
How to indicate a problem—Whether Cisco EPN Manager should generate an alarm if a threshold is surpassed, and what the alarm severity should be.
Monitoring policies are important because apart from controlling what is monitored, they determine what data can be displayed in reports, dashboards, and other areas of Cisco EPN Manager . Monitoring policies do not make any changes on devices.
Only device health monitoring (that is, the Device Health monitoring policy) is enabled by default. Interface Health monitoring is not enabled by default to protect system performance in large deployments. Note that the Device Health monitoring policy does not apply to the Cisco NCS 2000 and Cisco ONS families of devices. To monitor those device types, use the optical monitoring policies listed in Monitoring Policies Reference.
These steps summarize how you can configure a monitoring policy.
Use a monitoring policy type as a template for your monitoring policy, and give the policy a name that is meaningful to you. Policy types are packaged with Cisco EPN Manager and make it easy for you to start monitoring different technologies and services, such as Quality of Service, Optical SFP, and TDM/SONET. A complete list is provided in Monitoring Policies Reference.
Adjust your policy's polling frequencies or disable polling altogether for specific parameters.
Specify the threshold crossing alarms (TCAs) you want Cisco EPN Manager to generate if a parameter's threshold is surpassed. Some TCAs are configured by default; you can adjust or disable them, and configure new TCAs.
Specify the devices you want your policy to monitor. Devices are filtered depending on the policy type.
To view and administer monitoring policies, choose
.
Navigation |
Description |
Automonitoring |
Lists the policies that are enabled by default in Cisco EPN Manager . Only the Device Health monitoring policy is enabled by default. You can adjust the settings for this policy. |
My Policies |
The policy you create is listed here. When you choose a policy from My Policies, you can view the policy's details. |
The Device Health monitoring policy is enabled by default. It checks managed devices for CPU utilization, memory pool utilization, environment temperature, and device availability. This policy also specifies thresholds for utilization and temperature which, if surpassed, trigger alarms that are displayed in the GUI client.
To view the current settings for this policy, choose Automonitoring from the list on the left. You can also adjust the polling frequency and threshold for the different parameters. To adjust a polling frequency or threshold, use the drop-down lists that are provided in the GUI client.
, then selectYou might also want to create a device health monitoring policy that monitors specific devices—for example, devices of a certain type or in a certain geographical location. For instructions on how to do this, see Adjust What Is Being Monitored.
Interfaces are not monitored by default. This protects system performance for networks with large numbers of interfaces. Use this procedure to set up basic interface monitoring.
To set up and enable interface monitoring:
Step 1 | Choose My Policies from the list on the left. , then select |
Step 2 | Click
Add to create a new policy.
![]() |
Step 3 | Choose
Interface Health for generic interface monitoring.
If you are monitoring optical devices, choose
Optical 15 Mins or another optical policy (see
Monitoring Policies Reference).
When you select a policy, Cisco EPN Manager populates the window with the policy settings. |
Step 4 | Enter a meaningful name and description. |
Step 5 | From the Device Selection drop-down list, click the appropriate radio button and then select the devices or device groups you want to monitor. If you chose the Interface Health monitoring policy, you can also select port groups.
Cisco EPN Manager only lists the devices or ports applicable to the policy you selected in Step 3. Note the following:
|
Step 6 | To adjust how
often the interface is polled, select a value from the
Polling
Frequency drop-down list. Some policies allow you to set polling
frequencies for different parameters, while other policies have only one
polling frequency that is applied to all parameters.
For example, the following shows a policy that will monitor Cisco ASR 9000 interfaces. It uses the Interface Health policy type, where all parameters are polled using the same interval. ![]() Alternatively, the following shows a policy that will monitor Cisco NCS 2000 interfaces. It uses the Optical 15 mins policy type, where each interface type has its own polling interval. You can edit the interval by double-clicking it. ![]() |
Step 7 | If the policy supports TCA customization, you can adjust the thresholds. See Change Thresholds and Alarm Behavior for a Monitoring Policy. |
Step 8 | Click: |
Cisco EPN Manager provides a variety of dashboards for monitoring your devices and network. The following are some examples of what dashboards can provide:
For information on dashboards, see Set Up and Use the Dashboards.
This topic explains how to get the following information:
Which policies are activated, their status, and their history.
The specific parameters that Cisco EPN Manager is polling, the frequency at which they are polled, and their threshold crossing alarm (TCA) settings.
Who created the policy and which policy type they used as its basis.
To find out what a policy polls, when the policy last ran, and whether the policy is currently active, choose My Policies. Cisco EPN Manager lists the monitoring policies you created or have access to, with the following information.
, then choose
Policy Field |
Description |
---|---|
Name |
Policy name (specified by the policy creator). To find out who created a policy, see the instructions that follow this table. |
Description |
Policy description (specified by the policy creator). |
Type |
Template (policy type) used to create this policy. For information on the policy types, see How Device Health and Performance Is Monitored: Monitoring Policies. |
Status |
Active or Inactive. |
Threshold |
Whether the policy monitors parameter thresholds and generates TCAs. If Yes is displayed, you can check the TCA settings using the instructions that follow this table. |
Activation History |
Active monitoring policy—Displays the number of times the policy was activated, and provides a hyperlink to an Activation History popup window that tells you:
Inactive monitoring policy—Displays Not Available. |
Collection Status |
Active monitoring policy—Provides a hyperlink to a Collection Status popup window that tells you:
Inactive monitoring policy—Displays Not Available. |
To view polling frequencies and TCA details, from My Policies, select a policy from the list on the left. Depending on the policy type, the following information is displayed.
![]() Note | The Optical 1 day and Optical 15 minutes policies do not display polled parameters in the web GUI. That information is provided in Monitoring Policies Reference. |
Policy Field |
Description |
---|---|
General Information |
Name, description, creator, status, policy type (Feature Category). For information on the policy types, see How Device Health and Performance Is Monitored: Monitoring Policies. |
Device Selection |
Devices which the policy is monitoring. |
Polling Frequency |
How often Cisco EPN Manager polls the device parameters. |
Parameters and Thresholds |
Which parameters are polled and their TCA settings, if any. To view the TCA settings, click the arrow next to the parameter name. For more information about viewing the parameters polled by the various policy types, see Check Which Parameters and Counters Are Polled By a Monitoring Policy. |
Check What Cisco EPN Manager Is Monitoring explains how to find out which monitoring policies are currently activated. To find out which parameters are being polled by a policy, follow this procedure.
![]() Note | Because Optical 1 Day and Optical 15 Mins parameters are not displayed in the web GUI, they are listed in Monitoring Policies Reference. |
From the Policies pane in the Monitoring Policies page, you can open a pop-up window that provides summary information and action links for the corresponding policy or policy folder. To open a pop-up window, place your cursor over the appropriate i (information) icon.
If you open the pop-up window for a policy, it displays information such as the policy’s type, status, and timestamp for the last time it was updated. From the Actions area, you can click links to edit, delete, or duplicate the policy.
If you open the pop-up window for a policy folder, it indicates the folder’s name and the number of policies that belong to it. From the Actions area, you can click links to delete the folder or add a new sub-folder. Note that you can only add and delete folders within My Policies. Also, when user-created folders are in place, you need to specify the destination folder whenever you create a new policy.
To check a monitoring policy’s threshold and alarm settings:
Step 1 | Choose My Policies. , then choose |
Step 2 | Select the monitoring policy and click Edit to open the policy details. |
Step 3 | To find out which devices the policy is monitoring, click the Device Selection drop-down list. Devices that are monitored are indicated with a check mark. To add or remove devices, see Change the Device Set a Policy is Monitoring. |
Step 4 | To find out the
polling interval the policy is using, check the
Polling
Interval setting. For per-parameter polling, you must expand the
individual parameters to see the setting. To adjust the polling settings, see
Change the Polling for a Monitoring Policy.
Optical policy polling frequencies cannot be changed; they can only be disabled. |
Step 5 | To find out the
thresholds and alarm settings the policy is using, expand the parameter in the
Polling
and Thresholds area. To change the threshold and alarm settings,
see
Change Thresholds and Alarm Behavior for a Monitoring Policy.
Optical policy thresholds cannot be customized. |
To make adjustments to what Cisco EPN Manager is monitoring, use the guidance in the following table to find the best method for your needs.
If: |
See: |
|
---|---|---|
Cisco EPN Manager is collecting the data you need, and... |
... you want to change the polling frequency | |
... you want to adjust the alarm behavior |
Change Thresholds and Alarm Behavior for a Monitoring Policy |
|
... you want to adjust which devices are monitored | ||
Cisco EPN Manager is not collecting the data you need, and... |
... a similar monitoring policy already exists | |
... no similar monitoring policies exist, but one of the policy types contains the parameters you want to monitor |
Create a New Monitoring Policy Using Out-of-the-Box Policy Types |
|
... no similar monitoring policies exist, and none of the policy types contain the parameters you want to monitor |
Create a Monitoring Policy for Unsupported Parameters and Third-Party Devices |
|
... you want it to monitor unsupported or third-party devices |
Step 1 | Check what is currently being monitored to verify that you need to create a new policy. See Check What Cisco EPN Manager Is Monitoring. |
Step 2 | Create the duplicate. |
Step 3 | Make your
changes to the duplicate.
|
Step 4 | Click: |
Step 1 | Check what is currently being monitored. See Check What Cisco EPN Manager Is Monitoring. |
Step 2 | Choose Add. , then click |
Step 3 | Select the policy type template you want to use from the Policy Types menu. To check which policies can be applied to port groups, see Check What Cisco EPN Manager Is Monitoring. |
Step 4 | Configure the
new policy:
|
Step 5 | Click: |
You can design custom MIB polling policies to monitor third-party or Cisco devices and device groups. You can also create custom MIB policies to monitor device features for which Cisco EPN Manager doesn’t provide default policies. Using this feature, you can:
This feature allows you to easily repeat polling for the same devices and attributes and customize the way Cisco devices are polled using SNMP.
You can create a maximum of 25 custom MIB polling policies.
To create a custom MIB polling policies, follow these steps:
Step 1 | Choose My Policies and click Add. , then choose | ||
Step 2 | From the Policy Types menu, select Custom MIB Polling. | ||
Step 3 | Enter a name for the policy. | ||
Step 4 | Under the
MIB
Selection tab, specify the polling frequency and enter the MIB
information.
| ||
Step 5 | To test the policy you created on a device before activating it, click the Test tab and select a device on which to test the new policy. | ||
Step 6 | Click Save and Activate to immediately activate the policy on the devices specified. | ||
Step 7 | To view the MIB
polling data, create a generic dashlet on the Performance dashboard using the
name of the policy that you created.
|
To check a monitoring policy's past data collection:
You can customize how often monitoring information is gathered (polling interval). Not all policies have all of these settings; for example, a policy may only collect statistics, so it would not have any thresholds or alarms associated with it.
You can customize how often monitoring information is gathered (polling interval). Not all policies have all of these settings; for example, a policy may only collect statistics, so it would not have any thresholds or alarms associated with it.
You can customize the threshold value that indicates a problem and whether Cisco EPN Manager should generate an informational event or an alarm (of any severity) when a problem is detected. Not all policies have all of these settings; for example, a policy may only collect statistics, so it would not have any thresholds or alarms associated with it.
When you run a performance test, Cisco EPN Manager connects to the network devices in real time to retrieve the information. Reports, on the other hand, use historical data that is saved in the database. See these topics for more information, depending upon the type of test you want to run:
Cisco EPN Manager also supports running OTDR performance tests on OTS optical links. For more information, see Run a Performance Test on a Link (OTS Link).
An Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) test enables you to remotely diagnose OTS link related issues (such as degraded devices, splices and bends in the cables) and supports troubleshooting. OTDR test can be initiated only on the OTS links that are connected to the OTDR port in the TNC card.
User Group |
Can view OTDR scan?1 |
Can run and analyze OTDR scan?2 |
Can configure OTDR scan?3 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|
Web GUI |
Root |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Super Users |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Admin |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Config Managers |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
System Monitoring |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
1. Users who can only view the scan results are not allowed to run the scan or perform any configuration changes.
2. Users who can run and analyze the scan results are not allowed to set baseline or perform any configuration changes.
3. User who can configure the scan are allowed to perform all the actions such as viewing the scan results, setting baseline and so on.
The following procedures describe how to configure and run the OTDR test in the OTDR ports of the TNC cards:
Step 1 | Configure OTDR Port Values
|
Step 2 | Provision OTDR Scan Recurrence
|
Step 3 | Run the OTDR Test
|
Step 4 | Export the OTDR Scan Result
|
This task configures the OTDR equipment values on TNCS cards for each sector required for the OTDR scan.
Step 1 | From the left sidebar, choose . | ||
Step 2 | Select the
OTS link, click
Actions,
and then click
OTDR scan.
| ||
Step 3 | In the
Configure
tab, select a device from the
Device
drop-down list. A table is displayed listing all the sectors with the default
values for the following columns:
The OTDR measurement ranges are categorized based on the fiber spans defined for each sector. Following are the OTDR measurement sectors:
| ||
Step 4 | To modify the OTDR settings, click the Device OTDR Settings hyperlink. For more details on the OTDR settings, see the 'Configuring OTDR Auto Scan' section in Provision Optical Interfaces. | ||
Step 5 | To edit the sector parameters, select the required Distance Profile in the table, and click Edit. A popup window is displayed. | ||
Step 6 | In the popup
window:
To enable absolute threshold, you need to select Absolute Fiber Pass Fail Criteria check-box in the OTDR Settings page. | ||
Step 7 | Click Save. |
Follow the below procedure to set up OTDR scan recurrence on the selected ports:
Follow the below procedure to run the OTDR test on an OTS Link:
Step 1 | Select the required sector from the Distance Profile drop-down list. | ||
Step 2 | In the Scans tab, under Scan Direction, select the direction of the test by clicking on the relevant arrow. Note that above each direction arrow is information indicating when the last scan for that direction was run. | ||
Step 3 | Click
Start Scan.
![]() | ||
Step 4 | (Optional)Click Set Baseline to set an OTDR test baseline. Setting a baseline helps you to compare with the last scan results. | ||
Step 5 | To export the scan results, see Export the OTDR Scan Result. |
You can export the scan results to your local.
You can view the OTDR scan results in the context of the geo map in order to pinpoint the location of the fiber issues. For example, if the OTDR test reports a concentrated loss 20 km from the link endpoint, you can visualize on the map where this is geographically located.
Prerequisites:
KML file containing fiber data and coordinates must be imported so that the fibers are visible on the geo map. See Import Location Data from a KML File.
The OTS link on which the OTDR scan is run must be associated with a fiber. See Associate Links to Fibers.
The A- and Z-side devices must be mapped on the geo map. See Place Unmapped Devices on the Geo Map.
Cisco EPN Manager provides a variety of reports to help you monitor your network's performance. The following are some examples:
Environmental temperature, CPU and memory utilization
Interface errors and discards
For Carrier Ethernet devices—IPSLA Ethernet OAM, PWE3, QoS, and other CE reports
For Optical devices—Ethernet, OTN, SDH/SONET, and other optical reports
When you run a performance report, retrieves historical data that has been saved in the database. Reports can only display data that Cisco EPN Manager has been configured to collect—in other words, data that is collected and monitored using monitoring policies. (No monitoring policies have to be enabled for event and alarm-related reports; that data is collected automatically.) For information on which monitoring policies must be enabled for the different reports, see Available Reports.