Use > Investigate and Diagnose Problems > Manage Incidents

Manage Incidents

Find a Node

As part of the investigation and diagnosis process, you might want to search the NNMi database for details about a specific node. One way is to use the Tools → Find Node option. This option is particularly useful when you want to search for a node by any of its IP addresses.

See Access Node Details for a description of additional ways to access node details.

To find information about a node: 

  1. From the console, select Tools → Find Node.

  2. In the Find Node dialog, enter one of the following case-sensitive known values for the node of interest:

    "Find Node" Options
    Possible Values Description
    Hostname

    The current value of the fully-qualified, case-sensitive Hostname attribute as it appears on the Node form.

    NNMi follows a set of rules to dynamically generate the value stored in the NNMi database for each Node's Hostname. Click here for details.

    • If the Node supports SNMP, NNMi requests the Hostname using the IP Address of the associated SNMP agent (the Management Address attribute value on the Node form).

      When the NNMi administrator chooses Enable SNMP Address Rediscovery  in the Communication Configuration:

      • If the SNMP Agent does not respond, NNMi checks for another Management Address to request the Hostname, and the Hostname could change.
      • If the SNMP Agent associated with the node changes, the Management Address and Hostname could change.

      When the NNMi administrator disables Enable SNMP Address Rediscovery  in the Communication Configuration, when the current management address (SNMP agent) becomes unreachable, NNMi does not check for other potential management addresses.

    • If the Node does not support SNMP, no Management Address is available. NNMi requests a Hostname starting with the lowest IP Address associated with the node (a Discovery Seed value or an IP address value gathered from a neighboring device). NNMi uses the first Hostname provided. The Hostname might change during a future discovery cycle.

    NNMi administrators can use NNMi property file settings to change the way NNMi determines Hostname values:

    • nms-topology.properties file settings:
      If DNS is the source of the Node's Hostname, there are three choices. By default NNMi uses the exact Hostname from your network configuration. It is possible to change NNMi behavior to convert Hostnames to all uppercase or all lowercase.
    • nms-disco.properties file settings:
      The Hostname is either requested from the Node's lowest loopback interface IP address that resolves to a Hostname or requested from the Node's designated Management Address (SNMP agent address). With either choice, when no IP address resolves to a Hostname, the IP address itself becomes the Hostname.
    IP address of any interface The IP address of any interface in the node.
    System Name The current value of the MIB-II sysName that is obtained from the node's SNMP agent (case-sensitive) as it appears in the System Name attribute on Node form. For example cisco5500.abc.example.com
    Name

    The current value of the Name attribute as it appears on the Node form.

    The NNMi administrator configures how NNMi populates this attribute through two configuration settings: (1) The Node Name Resolution attributes in Discovery Configuration (full or short DNS name, full or short sysName, IP address). (2) The Name might be converted to all uppercase or all lowercase (depending on how the NNMi administrator configured settings in the nms-topology.properties file).

  3. Click Find.

    NNMi searches the database to find a matching value in any of the attributes listed in the preceding table.

    NNMi displays the Node form of the first match. If no match is found, NNMi displays an error message.

    Find the Attached Switch Port

    Tools → Find Attached Switch Port helps you investigate and diagnose problems when you need to quickly determine which switch a problem End Node uses. For example, if an End Node in your network has a potential virus, you can identify the switch through which that End Node connects to your network. Then, you can prevent the virus from moving to other nodes in your network.

    (NNMi Advanced - Global Network Management feature) The Global Manager and the Regional Manager maintain separate sets of data. Conclusions about each Node are derived from the available data and can sometimes be different. Regional Managers forward the results of each Spiral Discovery cycle to the Global Manager. The Regional Manager can have a Node Group filter configured to limit the amount of data that is forwarded to the Global Manager. Filters are usually unnecessary for Global Network Management. Do not filter out nodes that are important for connectivity in your network environment to ensure NNMi has the data needed for accurate root cause analysis.

    • The Global Manager might know information about why a connection from one site to another is down, but the Regional Manager just knows that the router connected to that remote site has an interface that is down. Use Actions → Regional Manager Console to see the other perspective.
    • When troubleshooting a Node on the Global Manager, you can use Actions → Open from Regional Manager to see the latest Node information on the Regional Manager.

    You can also use the nnmfindattachedswport.ovpl command to find which Switch an End Node uses to reach your network.

    To find which Switch an End Node uses to reach your network: 

    1. From the console, select Tools → Find Attached Switch Port.

    2. Navigate to the End Node field, and enter one of the following case-sensitive known values for the end Node.

      "Find Attached Switch Port" Options
      Possible Values Description
      Hostname

      The End Node's fully-qualified, case-sensitive Hostname value.

      The End Node can be either of the following:

      • A device in your network environment that has not been discovered by NNMi (no corresponding Node object in the NNMi database).

      • A Node previously discovered by NNMi. The Hostname you provide must match the current case-sensitive value of the end Node's Hostname attribute on the Node Form. See Access Node Details for methods of looking up the current Hostname value.

        NNMi follows a set of rules to dynamically generate the value stored in the NNMi database for each Node's Hostname. Click here for details.

        • If the Node supports SNMP, NNMi requests the Hostname using the IP Address of the associated SNMP agent (the Management Address attribute value on the Node form).

          When the NNMi administrator chooses Enable SNMP Address Rediscovery  in the Communication Configuration:

          • If the SNMP Agent does not respond, NNMi checks for another Management Address to request the Hostname, and the Hostname could change.
          • If the SNMP Agent associated with the node changes, the Management Address and Hostname could change.

          When the NNMi administrator disables Enable SNMP Address Rediscovery  in the Communication Configuration, when the current management address (SNMP agent) becomes unreachable, NNMi does not check for other potential management addresses.

        • If the Node does not support SNMP, no Management Address is available. NNMi requests a Hostname starting with the lowest IP Address associated with the node (a Discovery Seed value or an IP address value gathered from a neighboring device). NNMi uses the first Hostname provided. The Hostname might change during a future discovery cycle.

        NNMi administrators can use NNMi property file settings to change the way NNMi determines Hostname values:

        • nms-topology.properties file settings:
          If DNS is the source of the Node's Hostname, there are three choices. By default NNMi uses the exact Hostname from your network configuration. It is possible to change NNMi behavior to convert Hostnames to all uppercase or all lowercase.
        • nms-disco.properties file settings:
          The Hostname is either requested from the Node's lowest loopback interface IP address that resolves to a Hostname or requested from the Node's designated Management Address (SNMP agent address). With either choice, when no IP address resolves to a Hostname, the IP address itself becomes the Hostname.
      IP address of any interface

      The current value of any IP address associated with the End Node.

      (NNMi Advanced.) Either IPv4 or IPv6 allowed.
      MAC address

      The current value of the MAC (Media Access Control) address of any interface in the End Node.

    3. Click Find. NNMi searches existing data in the NNMi database for a match, searching through all known Layer 2 information previously gathered from switch forwarding tables in your network environment. NNMi does not generate SNMP traffic to gather additional data for this search.

      NNMi displays a report about the Switch attached to the specified End Node:

      • Hostname of the Switch (click the Hostname link to open the switch's Node form).
      • Interface Name value (click the Interface link to open the switch's relevant Interface form).
      • VLAN Id and Global VLAN Name, if any.

Display End Nodes Attached to a Switch

This action helps you investigation and diagnosis problems. You might need to determine the end nodes attached to a switch. For example, to upgrade a switch, you might need to check which servers are attached to the switch so that you can fill out the change request properly.

(NNMi Advanced - Global Network Management feature) The Global Manager and the Regional Manager maintain separate sets of data. Conclusions about each Node are derived from the available data and can sometimes be different. Regional Managers forward the results of each Spiral Discovery cycle to the Global Manager. The Regional Manager can have a Node Group filter configured to limit the amount of data that is forwarded to the Global Manager. Filters are usually unnecessary for Global Network Management. Do not filter out nodes that are important for connectivity in your network environment to ensure NNMi has the data needed for accurate root cause analysis.

  • The Global Manager might know information about why a connection from one site to another is down, but the Regional Manager just knows that the router connected to that remote site has an interface that is down. Use Actions → Regional Manager Console to see the other perspective.
  • When troubleshooting a Node on the Global Manager, you can use Actions → Open from Regional Manager to see the latest Node information on the Regional Manager.

When using this feature, note the following:

  • To ensure that NNMi is using the most current data available for its analysis, first use nnmconfigpoll.ovpl on the switch for which you want to view end node information.
  • Only one node must be available on a port for the node to qualify as an end node. This can be an issue when managing Voice Over IP phones that are also attached to lap top computers. If both devices respond as a node on the same port, neither device is reported.
  • The SNMP information that NNMi has available for its analysis depends upon the switch activity. For example, if an end node has not had recent activity on the switch, it might not have the required SNMP data available for NNMi to include the node in the results. This means that results of Show Attached End Nodes might vary in time.

To display the end nodes attached to a switch using the NNMi console Actions menu, do one of the following:

  1. Navigate to the view or form of interest and select the switch that has attached end nodes you want to display.

    • Navigate to a table view and select a switch:

      1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Inventory.
      2. Click the view that contains the switch that has attached end nodes you want to display; for example Nodes.
      3. From the table view, select the row that represents the switch of interest.

    • Navigate to a map view and select a switch:

      1. Navigate to the table view.

      2. From the table view, select the row that represents the switch of interest.

      3. Select Actions → Maps → Layer 2 Neighbor View, Layer 3 Neighbor View, Node Group Map, or Path View.

        You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.
      4. In the map, click the map symbol representing the switch of interest.

    • Navigate to a form:

      1. From a table view, double-click the row that represents the switch of interest.
      2. From a map view, click the switch of interest on the map and click the  Open icon.

  2. Select Actions → Show Attached End Nodes.

    NNMi displays the following for each end node that it determines is attached to the switch:

    • The Name of the Interface to which the Node is attached
    • The identification number of the VLAN (VLAN ID) to which the Node belongs
    • The name of the VLAN to which the Node belongs
    • DNS-resolvable hostname
    • MAC address of the connected interface
    • IP address

    If the end node does not have a DNS-resolvable hostname, NNMi uses the node's IP address for both the Hostname value and the IP Address value.

    If NNMi is unable to locate any information about end nodes attached to the selected switch, NNMi displays a message that no end nodes were found.

  3. Click any object name link to open the form  for the selected object.

    If the object name appears without a link, this indicates NNMi has not discovered the node or interface.

Test Node Access (Ping)

You can verify that a node or IP address is reachable using the ping command from the NNMi console Actions menu.

NNMi uses the packet size used by the current operating system. NNMi displays the ping results, including reply times and ping statistics.

From an incident view:

  1. Select the row representing an incident that has a source node you want to ping.

  2. Select Actions → Node Access → Ping (from server).

    You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.

    NNMi pings the Source Node of the incident. It does not ping the source object. For example, if the incident is related to an interface, NNMi pings the node in which the interface resides, not the interface itself.

    (NNMi Advanced) If the Global Network Management feature is enabled and you are signed into a Global Manager:

    • Node managed by the Global Manager = Actions → Ping issues an ICMP request from the Global Manager (NNMi management server).

    • Node managed by a Regional Manager = Actions → Ping accesses that Regional Manager (NNMi management server) and issues the ICMP request.

      You must sign into that Regional Manager unless your network environment enables Single Sign-On (SSO) to that Regional Manager through the Global Manager.

From other views or forms:

  1. Navigate to the view or form of interest and select the node or IP address you want to ping.

    Navigate to a table view and select a node:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Inventory.
    2. Click the view that contains the node or IP address that you want to verify is reachable; for example Nodes.
    3. From the table view, select the row that represents the node or IP address.

    To navigate to a map view and select a node:

    1. Navigate to the table view.

    2. From the table view, select the row that represents the node or IP address.
    3. Select Actions → Maps → Layer 2 Neighbor View, Layer 3 Neighbor View or Path View.
    4. In the map, click the map symbol representing the node of interest.

    Navigate to a form:

    1. From a table view, double-click the row that represents the node or IP address of interest.
    2. From a map view, click the node of interest on the map and click the  Open icon.

  2. Select Actions → Node Access → Ping (from server)

    (NNMi Advanced) If the Global Network Management feature is enabled and you are signed into a Global Manager:

    • Node managed by the Global Manager = Actions → Ping issues an ICMP request from the Global Manager (NNMi management server).

    • Node managed by a Regional Manager = Actions → Ping accesses that Regional Manager (NNMi management server) and issues the ICMP request.

      You must sign into that Regional Manager unless your network environment enables Single Sign-On (SSO) to that Regional Manager through the Global Manager.

Find the Route (traceroute)

When investigating and diagnosing network problems, you might want to trace the route path using the traceroute command. Using traceroute also lets you identify bottlenecks along the destination path provided. You can access the traceroute command from the NNMi console Actions menu.

Note the following:

  • You can also use Path View to display the routing path between two nodes that have IPv4 addresses. See Path Between Two Nodes that Have IPv4 Addresses for more information.
  • The starting node is the NNMi management server on which you are running the traceroute command.
You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.

To access the traceroute command:

  1. Do one of the following:

    Navigate to an Incidents view and select the incident that has the source node's route you want to trace:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Incident Management.
    2. Click the view that contains the incident that has the source node's route you want to trace; for example My Open Incidents.
    3. From  the table view, select the row representing the incident that has a source node's route you want to trace.

    Navigate to a table view and select a node:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Inventory.
    2. Click the view that contains the node that has the route you want to trace; for example Nodes.
    3. From  the table view, select the row representing the node that has the route you want to trace.

    Navigate to a map view and select a node:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Topology Maps.
    2. Click the view that contains the node that has the route you want to trace; for example Initial Discovery Progress or Network Overview.
    3. From the map view, click the node that has the route you want to trace.

    Navigate to a Node form:

    • From a table view, double-click the row representing the object that has the route you want to trace.
    • From a map view, click the node of interest on the map and click the  Open icon.

  2. Select Actions → Node Access → Trace Route (from server).

    NNMi displays the output from traceroute, including the lists of routers that are traversed to reach the destination node.

Establish Contact with a Node (Telnet or Secure Shell)

When investigating and diagnosing network problems, you might need to establish a connection to a node to view or change configuration information. You can establish a connection to a node using the Telnet or Secure Shell (ssh) command from the NNMi console Actions menu.

If you cannot access Telnet or ssh from your Web browser, your operating system or Web browser might not enable Telnet or Secure Shell by default. If you are an NNMi administrator, see the "Configuring the Telnet and SSH Protocols for Use by NNMi" chapter of the Network Node Manager i Software Deployment Reference for more information.

To establish contact with a node using Telnet:

  1. Do one of the following:

    Navigate to an incident view:

    1. Select the row representing the incident that has the source node you want to access using Telnet. 

    2. Select Actions → Node Access → Telnet (from client).

      NNMi uses Telnet to access the source node of the incident. It does not use Telnet on the source object. For example, if the incident is related to an interface, NNMi uses Telnet to access the node in which the interface resides, not to the interface itself.

      You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.

    Navigate to a table view and select a node:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Inventory.
    2. Click the view that contains the node you want to access using Telnet; for example Nodes.
    3. From the table view, select the row representing the node you want to access using Telnet.

    Navigate to a map view and select a node:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Topology Maps.
    2. Click the view that contains the node you want to access using Telnet; for example Initial Discovery Progress or Network Overview.
    3. From the map view, click the node you want to access using Telnet.

    Navigate to a Node form:

    • From a table view, double-click the row representing the node of interest.
    • From a map view, click the node of interest on the map and click the  Open icon.

  2. Select Actions → Node Access → Telnet (from client).

To establish contact with a node using Secure Shell:

  1. Do one of the following:

    Navigate to an incident view:

    1. Select the row representing the incident that has the source node you want to access using Secure Shell. 

    2. Select Actions → Node Access → Secure Shell (from client).

      NNMi uses Secure Shell to access the source node of the incident. It does not use Secure Shell on the source object. For example, if the incident is related to an interface, NNMi uses Secure Shell to access the node in which the interface resides, not to the interface itself.

    Navigate to a table view and select a node:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Inventory.
    2. Click the view that contains the node you want to access using Secure Shell; for example Nodes.
    3. From the table view, select the row representing the node you want to access using Secure Shell.

    Navigate to a map view and select a node:

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the workspace of interest; for example, Topology Maps.
    2. Click the view that contains the node you want to access using Secure Shell; for example Initial Discovery Progress or Network Overview.
    3. From the map view, click the node you want to access using Secure Shell.

    To navigate to a Node form:

    • From a table view, double-click the row representing the node of interest.
    • From a map view, click the node of interest on the map and click the  Open icon.

  2. Select Actions → Node Access → Secure Shell (from client).

NNMi displays a browser window and a Secure Shell window.

Check Status Details for a Node Group

NNMi can generate a Status Details report about the a particular Node Group showing how many nodes are currently within each possible status (see Status Color and Meaning for Objects). The Status Details window automatically refreshes Status Detail information every 5 minutes:

  • Using a table view, check the status details for a Node Group.

    1. Navigate to the Node Groups view of interest (see "Node Groups View (Inventory)" or "Node Groups View (Monitoring)").

    2. Select the row representing the Node Group of interest.

    3. Select Actions → Status Details.

      You can also right-click any object in a table or map view to access the items available within the Actions menu.

    4. For the Node Group selected, NNMi shows the following information:

      • Node Group name
      • Overall Node Group status
      • Number of nodes in the group with each possible status
      • Percentage of nodes in the group with each possible status

  • Using a map view, to check the status details for a Node Group.

    1. From the workspace navigation panel, select the Topology workspace.
    2. Select Node Group Overview.
    3. Select the  Node Group symbol of interest.
    4. Select Actions → Status Details.

    5. For the Node Group selected, NNMi shows the following information:

      • Node Group name
      • Overall Node Group status
      • Number of nodes in the group with each possible status
      • Percentage of nodes in the group with each possible status

When diagnosing and troubleshooting problems, you might want to check the status for only a particular set of nodes. Your network administrator can group sets of nodes into Node Groups. For example, all important Cisco routers or all routers in a particular building. See About Node and Interface Groups for more information about how your NNMi administrator sets up Node Groups. See "Filter Views by Node or Interface Group" for more information about filtering views using Node Groups.

Send Help Center feedback