Solutions

 





Remote Site Monitoring - Articles and Papers

 

 

<--See more White Papers

 

Common Holes in an SNMP Network Management System


Legacy, Non-SNMP and Non-Networked Devices

Budgets are tight in today's business environment. You may be asked to do more with less. Take a look through your equipment room. You may have several devices that work just fine, but they are not visible via your network management system (NMS). The devices are too expensive to replace, but at the same time, you need to be able to monitor them with your NMS. The Asentria SNMP-Link™ Remote Site Manager can provide the integrated monitoring capabilities you need at a small fraction of the replacement cost.


Many devices lack a network interface, but they have ASCII-based protocols that can help you monitor and control them. Asentria can develop special software tools for the SNMP-Link to communicate with these protocols in order to bridge the gap with your SNMP network. There are three levels of integrating legacy devices into an SNMP network.


Legacy, non-SNMP and non-networked devices

The first level is simply to read data alarms issued from the devices RS-232 serial ports. Typical alarms include: major and minor alarms; informational notices; and audit reports. With the SNMP-Link, you simply create a data alarm that recognizes particular alarm data strings. You can then configure the SNMP-Link to take actions appropriate to the severity of each data alarm. Sending an SNMP trap is the most common alarm action. This level of integration is said to be reactive - the SNMP-Link monitors the device and reports significant events. A reactive system may be acceptable for some users, but usually a network manager wants to exert more control over their network, and advance to a proactive level of integration.


At the second level of SNMP integration, the SNMP-Link is able to query a device for information through an RS-232 connection, enabling your NMS to become proactive. This requires more sophisticated integration because the SNMP-Link must be able to communicate in the protocol of your device. To achieve this, Asentria has special software, called a protocol engine, which executes the queries. Here's how it works. The SNMP-Link periodically asks your device for the values of its internal parameters (eg. free disk space, number of phone calls, voltage, signal strength, etc.). The SNMP-Link gets a value, then stores and/or sends the value in an "SNMP get response" to your NMS. Asentria can create special object IDs that represent the different device parameters.


The third level of integration takes the proactive system one step further. Not only can you proactively "get" values from your device, you can also "set" values on the device. To do this, the SNMP-Link must speak even more fluently in the protocol of your device. It translates the SNMP command you issue from your NMS, and converts your command into the protocol of the device in order to change the value on your device. An example might be to change a baud rate or alarm level.


Asentria expertly integrates non-networked devices into the control of an SNMP network management system. Asentria engineers can also create a "faux MIB" for the SNMP-Link that will use your company's SNMP enterprise number as its own. It can therefore appear on your network as the device it is proxying.


PBX (phone system) or Central Office Switch

PBXs enjoy long useful lives, so they're not always state-of-the-art. Phone systems are also expensive, so you do not want to replace them if you can help it. That creates a problem if you need to manage a non-networked phone system via your data network. But don't buy a new phone system to merge your voice and data networks. Implement an SNMP-Link to get your PBX on the network easily. Here's how.


First, the SNMP-Link can act as a terminal server. Your PBX may not have a network interface, but it certainly has an RS-232 maintenance port. Connect that port on your PBX to one of the I/O ports on a network-enabled SNMP-Link and you are all set. You can access the SNMP-Link via your network or out-of-band via modem, then pass through the SNMP-Link to make changes to your PBX. It's simple, and it requires only a Telnet session or terminal emulator.


Secondly, the SNMP-Link can monitor PBXs for alarms and translate those alarms into SNMP traps. The SNMP traps can be sent to your SNMP management system and handled along with your other trouble tickets. Due to our background in the TeleManagement industry, Asentria is uniquely familiar with a variety of industry's leading phone systems including the Nortel, Lucent and systems manufactured by other companies.


The Nortel Option 11, 61 and 81 produce a large number of alarms and messages. But of these alarms, there are approximately 50 to 100 important alarms. The SNMP-Link can easily recognize these alarms and translate them into SNMP Traps, Emails or pager messages to the technicians who can handle these problems. With timely alarm notifications, technicians will be able to correct problems more quickly.


The Nortel DMS central office switches pose special challenges for alarm management because of the unique characteristics of their alarms. Alarms from a DMS switch are multiple-line alarms, which can be difficult to interpret. Asentria has developed special software to capture these alarms and forward them to the technicians via multiple methods. DMS alarms are easy to prioritize. The alarms can be divided into informational, minor, major and critical messages. That means the alarms can be prioritized easily and treated accordingly: sent via different notification strategies or simply logged for later use.


Collecting alarms from a Lucent switch poses its own challenges. Lucent switches do not issue alarms out a serial port. To manage these alarms, an SNMP-Link must search through several menus and then parse a screen in order to display a list of alarms. From this list, it finds the pertinent alarms to forward. Asentria has developed Custom Software Builds to achieve this, and the software can be customized for your customers.


Temperature

All electronic equipment is sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. If you look at hardware specifications, you will see an operating temperature that is often 50-95 degrees Fahrenheit (10-35 degrees Celsius). Check out the specs for all the equipment in your rooms. It is important that the ambient temperature does not exceed the limits of your most-sensitive equipment, or you will risk equipment failure and downtime. Every network manager needs a strategy to ensure that the temperature within an equipment room remains at a proper level. Here's how Asentria can help.


First, it is best to place sensors in key locations of each room to see if there are temperature fluctuations throughout the room. Ultimately you want to know the temperature of the environment that directly affects your equipment. So if your equipment is in a rack, your temperature sensor should be there, too. Electronic equipment generates its own heat, so it makes sense to place the sensors near your equipment. For similar reasons, it does not make sense to monitor temperature near your cooling source, or even at a distance from your equipment. If you have multiple equipment racks, or a room with multiple heating/cooling sources, you will want multiple temperature sensors.


Asentria designed SNMP-Link Model SL61 and EventSensor™ modules with this concept in mind to inexpensively monitor multiple points in an equipment room. Asentria offers a unique modular system that includes temperature sensors (among others). With a single SNMP-Link, you may daisy chain up to 16 inexpensive, external EventSensor modules. The SNMP-Link host unit monitors the connected EventSensor modules, provides power for the modules, and handles the communications back to your NMS. The system eliminates redundant hardware to keep system costs down for any site that requires scalability or multiple monitoring points. It also allows you to build a highly customized solution. Since electronic equipment generates heat, you should pay close attention to temperature fluctuations when you introduce new equipment into a room. It is a good idea to map temperature over time using software such as MRTG Multi Router Traffic Grapher, which is freely available as a download from the Internet. That way you can see exactly how new equipment can impact the "temperature signature" of your room. Also note that new equipment may offset the balance between your heating and cooling sources in certain areas but not others.

Your daisy chain does not need to run from one EventSensor to the next. The EventSensor port can be Y-cabled to allow sensors to go off in different directions. That way the SNMP-Link can talk to multiple EventSensor modules without having to wire all the way over from one to the next.


Humidity

Definition of relative humidity: The ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air at a specific temperature to the maximum amount that the air could hold at that temperature, expressed as a percentage.


While in some parts of the world humidity is not a problem, other places are plagued with difficulties due to humidity. Like temperature, humidity can cause electronic equipment to fail. In extreme cases, it could even destroy the equipment. As humidity approaches 100%, water can actually condense within sensitive equipment.


Asentria EventSensor ES-4 and ES-5 Environmental Monitoring Modules can help keep humidity under control by reporting the current relative humidity, or by alerting you when the humidity level has reached a dangerous level.


Water Sensors and Smoke Detectors

The Asentria SNMP-Link offers up to 16 on-board contact closure inputs, and when used with EventSensor modules, can provide 272 inputs for even more options. With simple paired-wire inputs, water sensors and smoke detectors can be implemented easily into your monitoring system.


Many equipment room managers rightly fear that a pipe above the equipment room will break and water will fill up their room causing hundreds of short circuits and damaging many dollars worth of equipment. With water sensors installed and connected to the SNMP-Link, this situation can be detected immediately, before great damage is done.


Many smoke detectors and building fire management panels have contact closures installed to help in the notification process. These contact closures can be connected to the SNMP-Link, which can notify key personnel via email, pager, SNMP trap, or Asentria AlarmManager software.


Door sensors

Door sensors are easy to install, reliable and very affordable. With a simple reed switch and an SNMP-Link it is easy to monitor when a door has been left open for an extended period of time, or know that a door was opened after work hours. A reed switch can be wired to the contact closure inputs of an SNMP-Link or EventSensor.


Battery (Power) Sensors

Many equipment rooms have banks of batteries that supply power to the equipment in case the power goes out. The design of the banks varies based on the size of the equipment room. Negative (-)48 Volt battery banks are very common, particularly in telecom rooms. They are typically comprised of 24 two-volt batteries. How do you know when one of these 2-volt batteries goes bad, even if the overall voltage remains acceptable? You can divide the batteries into two groups and monitor the voltage output of each half. If you compare the voltages, you can quickly determine if a cell has gone bad because the voltage on one half of the battery set will be unbalanced with the other half. The Asentria SNMP-Link, loaded with battery monitoring software and an EventSensor ES-7, can notify you when the batteries are unbalanced. You will know about a battery failure before the whole system is affected.


Air Conditioning Units

Air conditioning units generate water. When they cool the air, water in the air is released during the cooling process. Even though air conditioners are designed to contain the water in a tray, they also are designed to notify people when there is a problem with this process. Many air conditioning units have contact closures that open/close when water collected in the trays reaches a high level. This helps to warn of an overflow so a technician can handle the problem before water spreads across the floor of an equipment room. Simply wire these contact closures to the SNMP-Link and the SNMP-Link can notify your personnel when a problem arises.


Carbon Monoxide Sensors

Carbon monoxide sensors are becoming more common and they definitely can save lives. Some models of carbon monoxide sensors do more than buzz when there is problem, they can close a contact closure. The SNMP-Link can recognize this event and automatically alert personnel that there is a problem.


The Asentria SNMP-Link offers up to 16 on-board contact closure inputs, and EventSensor modules provide eight, 32 or 64 additional inputs per EventSensor. With simple paired-wire inputs, carbon monoxide sensors can be implemented easily into your monitoring system.


Receiving Alarms with Asentria Alarm-Manager Software

There are a number of tools in the marketplace that can receive SNMP traps and work with them. They vary in price from free to tens of thousands of dollars. They are designed to manage large networks of equipment and monitor for traps from many different devices. The problem for small installations, or installations where staff are not necessarily SNMP experts, all the software choices become overwhelming. To alleviate this burden, Asentria developed a simple software tool called AlarmManager that can receive and display alarms from Asentria devices. It is easy to install, it can operate on many different PC's and it is free.


Output Relays

If you receive an alarm, it may be possible to correct the problem immediately without sending a tech to the site. To help you achieve this, Asentria added remote start/stop capabilities via the EventSensor ES-9 and ES-10 Output Relay Modules. The ES-9 module has 8 relays on-board that can each handle 30 watts of power. These relays can be controlled manually via SNMP or automatically triggered as alarm actions in order to turn on lights, sirens, cameras, pumps (to remove water), fans (to cool an area) or other devices. The ES-10 is similar to the ES-9 except it offers a controllable output of 0 or 5 volts rather than just closing or opening a switch.


The Company

Asentria develops remote site monitoring and telemanagement solutions that enable providers of critical communications infrastructure to more efficiently and reliably run their networks. Asentria’s products help ensure quality of service and lower operational costs, while making it easier to provision, maintain and support remote equipment. Our strategic solutions fit both large and small communication networks and provide high-value, cost-effective and competitive differentiators to our customers.


Asentria helps administrators cost-effectively manage their call reporting data and remote site infrastructure, while extending confidence and security to ensure availability, integrity and performance. Asentria enables administrators to avoid failures from poor performing equipment that threaten end-user service expectations, while providing better control to predict the performance of remote infrastructure. These new levels of protection shield end-users from remote site equipment failure. Our service provider and enterprise customers trust their remote equipment sites to Asentria. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

 

abercrombie & fitch