The NNMi Causal Engine and Object Status

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The Causal Engine sets the Status on relevant network objects. Status indicates the overall health of an object and is determined from the outstanding Conclusions. Every Conclusion has a Severity associated with it. The Status reported is the most severe of all outstanding Conclusions. In addition, Conclusions inform the user of the underlying cause (or reason) for an object's Status.

See the Conclusion Tab information for each object form in Accessing Device Details for information about possible Conclusions for each NNMi object.

When determining object status for all objects except Node Groups, the Causal Engine uses the most severe Conclusion for the object. Possible Status categories in decreasing order of severity are as follows:

Unknown

Disabled

Critical

Major

Minor

Warning

Normal

No Status

Node Groups only. By default, NNMi propagates the most severe Status of all Node Group Members to the Node Group Status. When propagating Node Group Member Status to the Node Group, the Causal Engine uses the following Status categories in decreasing order of severity. For more information about configuring Node Group Status, see Configure Node Group Status.

Critical

Major

Minor

Warning

Unknown

Normal

No Status

To determine why an object is not polled (No Status), do the following:

• Select the object from the table or map view and access Actions → Configuration Details → Monitoring Settings.
• Select the node of interest or the node that is hosting the object of interest from the table or map view and access Actions → Configuration Details → Communication Settings.

NNMi analyzes a variety of network objects using either the SNMP protocol or ping to retrieve information about the network object. The following list shows the network objects that NNMi monitors and analyzes. Click each object for more information.

• Aggregator Interface (NNMi Advanced)

  An Aggregator Interfaces is a set of interfaces on a switch that are linked together, usually for the purpose of creating a trunk (high bandwidth) connection to another device. Aggregator Interfaces have designated Aggregation Member Interfaces.

  NNMi reports that Status of an Aggregator Interface as follows:

  Unknown	The Status of all Aggregation Members of the Aggregator Interface are Unknown.
  Critical	The Aggregator Interface, or all of the Aggregation Members, or both are operationally down. This means ifOperStatus is down.
  Minor	Some Aggregation Members (but not all Aggregation Members) of the Aggregator Interface are operationally down. This means the ifOperStatus is down.
  Normal	All Aggregation Members of the Aggregator Interface are operationally up. This means ifOperStatus is up.
  No Status	All Aggregation Members of the Aggregator Interface are not polled.

• Aggregator Layer 2 Connection (NNMi Advanced)

  An Aggregator Layer 2 Connection is a connection with endpoints that are Aggregator Interfaces. These are usually high-bandwidth connections that link switches. Aggregator Layer 2 Connections have Aggregator Interfaces and Aggregation Members.

  Click here to see example Link Aggregations.

  On a Layer 2 map, a thick line with a superimposed ellipse represents a Link AggregationProtocols used on Switches to configure multiple Interfaces (Aggregation Member Interfaces) to function as if they were one (an Aggregator Interface). When two Aggregator Interfaces establish a connection, that connection is an Aggregator Layer 2 Connection. The Aggregator Layer 2 Connection appears on Layer 2 Neighbor View maps as a thick line with an Interface icon at each end (representing the Aggregator Interface). or Split Link AggregationLink Aggregation with more than two endpoints. Some vendors refer to this as Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation, SLAG, MLAG, or MC-LAG. (group of multiple Layer 2 Connections that are functioning as one). The icon representing an Interface at either end of the thick line is an Aggregator Interface (a logical interface comprised of many physical interfaces that are functioning as one).

  Two endpoints:

  Three endpoints:

  More than three endpoints:

  NNMi reports the Status of an Aggregator Layer 2 Connection as follows:

  Unknown	The Status of any Aggregation Member of the Aggregator Layer 2 Connection is Unknown.
  Critical	The Aggregator Interface, the Aggregation Member, or both are operationally down. This means ifOperStatus is down.
  Minor	Some Aggregation Members, but not all, are operationally down. This means ifOperStatus is down.
  Normal	All Aggregation Members of the Aggregator Layer 2 Connection are operationally up. This means ifOperStatus is up.
  No Status	All Aggregation Members of the Aggregator Layer 2 Connection are not polled.

• Card

  A card is a physical component on a device which generally has physical ports that contain one or more interfaces used to connect to other devices. A card can also contain sub-cards. The card containing another card is known in NNMi as the Parent Card. The sub-card is known as a Daughter Card. NNMi supports Daughter cards one level deep.

  NNMi reports the status of a Card as follows:

  Unknown	Indicates the SNMP Agent associated with the Card does not respond to SNMP queries.
  Disabled	The Card or Child Card is administratively down or disabled. This means the cardAdminStatus is down.
  Critical	The Card is operationally down. This means the cardOperStatus is down.
  Minor	The Card is neither up nor down. This means the cardOperStatus is unknown or other.
  Normal	The Card is operationally up. This means the cardOperStatus is up.
  No Status	The Card is not polled.

• Card Redundancy Group

  A Card Redundancy Group is a set of card modules that are configured to provide card redundancy on the device. These cards are management modules on Cisco and s Procurve platforms. The number of cards supported in a group on both platforms is two. The Card Redundancy Group has one card acting as the primary member, the other acting as the secondary. If the primary card fails, the secondary card takes over as the primary card.

  NNMi reports the Status of Card Redundancy Groups as follows:

  Unknown	All cards in the Card Redundancy Group have an Unknown Status.
  Critical	Indicates either of the following: No Card is acting as the Primary member of the Card Redundancy Group. Both Cards are acting as the Primary member of the Card Redundancy Group.
  Major	At least one card in the group is reporting a state that indicates it is neither the Primary nor Secondary card.
  Warning	The Card Redundancy Group has no Secondary member.
  Normal	The Card Redundancy Group is functioning correctly.
  No Status	No Status - The Card Redundancy Group has not yet been discovered or is not being polled.

• Chassis

  A Chassis is a physical component on a device into which other objects are plugged, such as cards. A Chassis can also contain sub-chassis. The Chassis containing another Chassis is known in NNMi as the Parent Chassis. The sub-chassis is known as the Child Chassis. A Child Chassis can be one-level deep.NNMi supports the following scenarios:A single node running on one chassisMultiple nodes running on one chassis A single node running on multiple chassisChassis are connected by Inter Switch Links (ISL). A port used for the Inter Switch Link is designated with the Type IRF physical port and is associated with the card or chassis on which it resides.

  NNMi reports the status of a Chassis as follows:

  Unknown	Indicates the SNMP Agent associated with the Chassis does not respond to SNMP queries.
  Critical	The Chassis is operationally down. This means the operStatus is down.
  Major	The Chassis operStatus is not down, and all cards in the chassis have the cardOperStatus of down.
  Minor	The Chassis operStatus is not down, and more than one card but not all cards have the cardOperStatus of down
  Warning	The Chassis operStatus is not down, and one card in the chassis has the cardOperStatus of down.
  Normal	The operStatus of the chassis is up, and all cards in the chassis have the cardOperStatus of up.
  No Status	The chassis and all of its cards are not polled.

• Chassis Redundancy Group

  A Chassis Redundancy Group is a set of chassis that are configured to provide redundancy (for example, for switches). Each redundancy group member is discovered as a Chassis managed by a node. Each Chassis Redundancy Group member has one of the following roles:

  • Master - Indicates the chassis is the master member of the Chassis Redundancy Group.
  • Slave - Indicates the chassis is a slave member of the Chassis Redundancy Group.

  NNMi reports the status of Chassis Redundancy Groups as follows:

  Major	No Chassis in the Chassis Redundancy Group has a standby State value of SLAVE.
  Minor	Indicates either of the following: At least one of the Inter Switch Links (ISL) between the Chassis in the Chassis Redundancy Group is down. NNMi determined the following: One Chassis has a MASTER State One Chassis has a SLAVE State Other Chassis in the group are not in SLAVE State
  Warning	At least one of the Inter Switch Links (ISL) between the Chassis in the Chassis Redundancy Group is degraded.
  Normal	The Chassis Redundancy Group is functioning correctly.
  No Status	The Chassis Redundancy Group is not being polled.

• Connections

  Connections are Layer 2 physical connections and Layer 3 network connections. NNMi discovers connection information by reading forwarding database (FDB) tables from network devices and gathering data from a variety of Layer 2 discovery protocols (see the list of Topology Source protocols in Layer 2 Connection Form).

  NNMi reports the Status of Layer 2 physical connections as follows:

  Unknown	All endpoints of the connection have unknown status.
  Disabled	Any one endpoint of the connection is disabled.
  Critical	All endpoints are operationally down.
  Minor	Any one endpoint is down.
  Warning	Endpoints have unknown and non-critical Status.
  Normal	All endpoints are operationally up.
  No Status	All endpoints are not polled.

  Note  

  • Pseudo interfaces do not affect Connection Status.
  • Connections on Layer 3 maps never have status.
• Field Replaceable Units (FRU Card)

  A Field-Replaceable-Unit (FRU) card is a card that can be replaced on a device that is operationally active (not powered down). When an FRU card is removed from or added to the device, NNMi reports the occurrence with an incident. If an FRU card is not recognized by the device, NNMi reports the unrecognized card with an incident.

  NNMi reports the Status of an FRU Card as follows:

  Unknown	Indicates either of the following: The SNMP Agent associated with the card does not respond to SNMP queries. NNMi cannot determine the cardOperStatus or cardAdminStatus values.
  Disabled	The Card is administratively down. This means the cardAdminStatus is down.
  Critical	The Card is operationally down. This means the cardOperStatus is down.
  Minor	The Card is neither up nor down. This means the cardOperStatus is either unknown or other.
  Normal	The Card is operationally up. This means the cardOperStatus is up.
  No Status	The Card is not being polled.

• Interface

  An interface is a logical object that can be physical or virtual. Interfaces are used to identify connections between nodes. For example, the interface might represent a physical port, a virtual port, or an uplink provided by a hypervisorThe virtual machine manager in charge of delegating various aspects from a pool of resources to become virtual devices. The delegations might be static or dynamic, depending on the manufacture's implementation. The type of virtual machines being generated depends on the manufacturer's implementation..

  NNMi also uses Interfaces to represent virtual switches in network environments using hypervisor hosts. Also see Virtual Switch.

  Multiple interfaces can be associated with a single port. NNMi identifies interfaces using either of the following values:

  • ifName
  • ifAlias
  • ifType[ifIndex] (for example, ethernetCsmacd[17])

  Each port managed by NNMi is associated with one or more interfaces. NNMi identifies ports using the <Card-number / Port-number> value.

  NNMi reports the Status of Interfaces as follows:

  Unknown	Indicates either of the following: The SNMP Agent associated with the interface does not respond to SNMP queries. The Web Agent associated with the interface does not respond to the management protocol queries specified for the device. NNMi cannot determine the health because ifAdminStatus and ifOperStatus cannot be measured.
  Disabled	Indicates either of the following: Interface is administratively down. This means ifAdminStatus is down. The virtual port or interface is associated with a virtual machine that is either turned off or paused.
  Critical	Interface is operationally down. This means ifOperStatus is down.
  Normal	Interface is operationally up. This means ifOperStatus is up.
  No Status	Interface is not polled.

• IP Address

  An IP address is a routable address that responds to ICMP. IP addresses are typically associated with nodes.

  NNMi reports the status of a IP Addresses as follows:

  Disabled	The interface associated with this IP address is administratively down or disabled.
  Critical	IP address does not respond to ICMP queries (ping the device).
  Normal	IP address responds to ICMP queries.
  No Status	IP address is not polled.

• Node

  NNMi typically manages network nodes, reporting Status as follows:

  Unknown	Indicates the node is unresponsive due to either of the following circumstances: The SNMP Agent associated with the node does not respond to SNMP queries and the polled IP addresses do not respond to ICMP queries The polled IP addresses associated with the non-SNMP node does not respond to ICMP queries Additionally: If a Web Agent is configured for the node, the Web Agent also does not respond to the management protocol queries specified for the device.
  Disabled	Indicates a neighbor interface has been disabled, causing the node to be unreachable.
  Critical	Indicates any one of the following: The node is down as determined by neighbor analysis. The node is marked as important and is unresponsive (NNMi cannot access the node from the NNMi management server). The node is unconnected (it has no neighbors) and, therefore, is unresponsive. NNMi cannot determine if the node is down or if the incoming connection is down. At least one Custom Polled Instance associated with the node has a Status of Critical and Custom Polled Instances are configured to affect Node Status.
  Minor	A managed object in the Node has any of the following problems: The SNMP Agent associated with the Node does not respond to SNMP queries. The Web Agent associated with the Node does not respond to the management protocol queries specified for the device. The management address on the Node is not responding to ICMP. One or more interfaces on the Node are operationally down. This means ifOperStatus is down. One or more IP addresses on the Node do not respond to ICMP. NNMi is unable to measure the Status of one or more Cards on the Node. This means the cardOperStatus is either unknown or other. At least one Interface on the Node has a threshold outside the range specified for the device. At least one Custom Polled Instance associated with the Node has a Status of Minor and Custom Polled Instances are configured to affect Node Status. One or more cards in the Node are operationally down. This means cardOperStatus is down.
  Warning	A managed object on the Node has any of the following problems: At least one Card in a Card Redundancy Group associated with the Node is malfunctioning. At least one Custom Polled Instance associated with the Node has a Status of Warning and Custom Polled Instances are configured to affect Node Status.
  Major	Indicates NNMi detected any of the following: A fan (Physical Sensor) failure A power supply (Physical Sensor) failure A backplane (Physical Sensor) failure A memory (Node Sensor) failure At least one Custom Polled Instance associated with the Node has a Status of Major and Custom Polled Instances are configured to affect Node Status.
  Normal	All objects associated with the node are operationally up.
  No Status	The SNMP Agent or Web Agent, all interfaces, and all IP addresses of the node are not polled.

• Node Groups

  A Node Group is a logical collection of nodes created by an NNMi administrator.

  An NNMi administrator can also configure Node Group Status calculations. The out-of-the-box configuration propagates the most severe Status as follows:

  Critical	At least one node in the Node Group has Critical Status.
  Major	No nodes have a Critical Status, and at least one node in the Node Group has Major Status.
  Minor	No nodes in the Node Group have Critical or Major Status, and at least one Node in the Node Group has Minor Status.
  Warning	No nodes in the Node Group have Critical, Major, or Minor Status, and at least one Node in the Node Group has Warning Status.
  Normal	No nodes in the Node Group have Critical, Major, Minor, or Warning status, and at least one Node in the Node Group has Normal Status.
  Unknown	No nodes in the Node Group have Critical, Major, Minor, Warning, or Normal Status, and at least one Node in the Node Group has Unknown Status.
  No Status	All nodes in the group have No Status.

• Node Sensor

  Some network devices enable SNMP Agents to monitor certain aspects of ongoing usage such as buffers, CPU utilization, disk utilization, and memory utilization. NNMi administrators can monitor the health of these by configuring node sensors to alert their team members when any of these aspects of operation are marginal or failing.

  NNMi reports the status of Node Sensors as follows:

  Critical	The monitored node health attribute is not functioning properly.
  Normal	The monitored node health attribute is operating properly.
  No Status	The node health attribute is not currently being polled.

• Physical Sensor

  Some network devices enable SNMP Agents to monitor internal components such as backplane, fan, power supply, temperature guage, and voltage regulator. NNMi administrators can monitor the health of these components by configuring physical sensors to alert their team members when any of these components operate marginally or fail.

  NNMi reports the status as follows:

  Critical	The monitored Physical Component is not functioning properly.
  Normal	The monitored Physical Component is operating properly.
  No Status	The Physical Component is not currently being polled.

• Router Redundancy Groups (NNMi Advanced)

  A Router Redundancy Group is a set of routers that are configured to provide redundancy in the network. Such groups use the following two types of protocols:

  • Hot standby router protocol (HSRP)
  • Virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP)

  Router Redundancy Groups usually have a single device acting as the primary, a single device acting as a secondary, and any number of standby devices. If the primary device fails, the secondary device should take over as primary, and one of the standby devices should become secondary. The router groups employ either the HSRP or VRRP protocol to designate the primary, secondary, and standby routers.

  NNMi reports the Status of Router Redundancy Groups as follows:

  Critical	The Router Redundancy Group has no acting Primary router.
  Major	The Router Redundancy Group's Primary device is not properly configured (for example, multiple Primary routers exist).
  Minor	The Router Redundancy Group' Secondary device is not properly configured (for example, no acting Secondary router exists).
  Warning	The Router Redundancy Group is functioning, but is in some way degraded.
  Normal	The Router Redundancy Group is functioning properly.
  No Status	The Router Redundancy Group is not yet fully discovered or populated.

• SNMP Agent

  An SNMP agent is a process interacting with the managed node and providing management functions. The SNMP agent is responsible for SNMP communications with the managed node. An SNMP Agent can be associated with one or more nodes.

  NNMi reports the Status of SNMP Agents as follows:

  Critical	SNMP Agent does not respond to SNMP queries.
  Minor	The address associated with the SNMP Agent is not responding to ping.
  Warning	A high or abnormal ICMP response time from the NNMi management server to the selected node is reported.
  Normal	SNMP Agent responds to SNMP queries.
  No Status	SNMP Agent is not polled.

• Virtual Switch (NNMi Advanced)

  NNMi also uses Interfaces to represent Virtual Switches in hypervisor network environments. When the Interface Form provides details about a Virtual Switch, two additional tabs appear:

  • Uplinks
  • Virtual Ports

  The Virtual Switch is identified with the Virtual Bridge capability.

  NNMi reports the Status of Virtual Switches as follows:

  Unknown	Indicates any of the following: The SNMP Agent associated with the interface does not respond to SNMP queries. NNMi cannot determine the health because the Administrative State and Operational State cannot be measured.
  Disabled	All of the Uplinks on the Virtual Switch have an Administrative State of Down.
  Critical	The Virtual Switch has an Operational State of Down.
  Minor	All of the Uplinks on the Virtual Switch have an Operational State of Down.
  Warning	At least one Uplink on the Virtual Switch has an Operational State of Down.
  Normal	The Virtual Switch has an Operational State of Up.
  No Status	The Virtual Switch is not polled.

  Web Agent (NNMi Advanced)

  The Web Agent represents a management service running on a device and contains the settings NNMi uses to communicate with the device.

  NNMi reports the Status of Web Agents as follows:

  Critical	Web Agent does not respond to the management protocol queries specified for the device.
  Normal	Web Agent responds to the management protocol queries specified for the device.
  No Status	Web Agent is not polled.

Related Topics

The NNMi Causal Engine and Incidents