Re: Backbone Monitoring Tools

[Jon Lyons <jlyons30 () yahoo com>]

Do you need generate alerts? Or provide trending information to measure performance?
   
  I said mrtg or rrd because you can create graphs based on the ping repsonse time & packet loss between the 
datacenters, you could also create a graph showing how long it takes to transfere a file to remote site. Basic mrtg and 
a few simple scripts and a webserver. 
   
  If you need something that alerts you with e-mail/pages, then nagios, but you'll spend a lot of time in setup and 
trying to export the nagios checks to into a someting that makes pretty graphs if you need that.
   
  I thought the Internap FCP is only for bgp setups, also it doesn't provide the informatoin you're gonna want, at 
least not that I can tell yet.. :)
   
   
   
   
   
  

Ashe Canvar <acanvar () gmail com> wrote:
  
Thanks for the quick responses. Perhaps I should have been more explicit.

I already use "remstats"
(http://remstats.sourceforge.net/release/index.html) for interface b/w
monitoring. I have worked with nagios and openview int he past.

I have an ospf based network. The specific monitoring problem I am
trying to solve is :

1. actively test the currently active path for packet loss and transfer
i.e. draw a latency grid between every datacenter and every other
datacenter

2. actively detect routing changes / failover to redundant paths
using traceroutes
i.e. alert if SFO->CHG->NYC changes to SFO->LXE->HOU->NYC
( link state protocols suck as far as testing backup paths go)

3. actively transfer a fixed file
i.e. draw a datarate grid between every datacenter and every other datacenter


So, I am not looking for a generic graphing/alerting NMS. Does anyone
use a specific tool that is capable of doing this ?

I am in a buy vs. build debate with my boss ;)

Regards,
Ashe.






On 3/28/06, Josh Cheney wrote:
> I have had a decent amount of success with Nagios. It is not trivial to
> setup, but once it is up and running, it has always handled our
> dependencies and such very well. Additionally, because it calls external
> programs to do the checks, it is pretty simple to write a script that
> measures whatever value you would like to monitor. As I said before, it
> is a pain to set up initially, but after getting it set up, I couldn't
> be happier with it.
>
> Ashe Canvar wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I want a simple backbone monitor for my 5 datacenters. My "backbone"
> > consists of redundant IPSEC/GRE tunnnels.
> >
> > At the very least I want to ping, traceroute and transfer a small file
> > every few minutes over all IPSEC links. I am sure there are products
> > that do this already, but I am having a hard time finding any.
> >
> > The display format should be noc-friendly. A basic grid with green/red
> > status indicators at the least. Geographical maps a plus.
> >
> > Do most of you use a home grown tool for this monitoring and alerting ?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Ashe
> >
> > .
>
> --
> Josh Cheney
> jcheney () mfx net
> http://www.joshcheney.com


                
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