SNMP monitoring PMON on remote

[tmalone]

I have a 3-computer architecture where the main OA project is on OAsvr computer. I have the mxProxy running on Proxy computer, and the webclient_http running on the OAweb computer.

After exposing this architecture to the internet, I see that I have a lot of "friends" trying to access the OAweb computer. Over time, they finally crash the process = 3 (blinking blue on PMON).

I would like to know when this manager dies and then I can send restart commands, etc.

A few questions:
1. is SNMP the right tool for this?
2. should I use the sendManagerStateChange = 1 for this (in the [pmon] section of the OAweb computer?
3. do I need to run the SNMP Manager or the Agent on the OAweb PMON?
4. do I need an SNMP agent at all?

My first attempt to setup like the help->drivers->SNMP->Example for the SNMP driver has failed totally, so I am guessing that there are some tricks to this architecture. This seems like a useful approach to this problem.

Todd Malone
Siemens USA

[mkoller]

I'd suggest you go with the crashAction script, which pmon starts in case of a manager dying.

[tmalone]

OK, I tried the script but since these systems tend to be in a rack somewhere, I would still like to setup the SNMP system to monitor and maybe setup a text to my phone.

A few questions:
1. is SNMP the right tool for this? (under review)
2. should I use the sendManagerStateChange = 1 for this (in the [pmon] section of the OAweb computer?
3. do I need to run the SNMP Manager or the Agent on the OAweb PMON?
4. do I need an SNMP agent at all?

[adaneau]

Hi Todd,

I may admit that you have strange "friends"

I would say that my first idea here is to protect the http server by using https and self made certificates to avoid those kind of "ddos" attacks.

For monitoring a manager in a sensible area, I would also go for SNMP v1/2 (unfortunately v3 isnt supported for pmon) with strong password.


1. is SNMP the right tool for this? (under review) IMHO yes it is
2. should I use the sendManagerStateChange = 1 for this (in the [pmon] section of the OAweb computer? Up to you, this is in order to have spontaneous state changed via traps. Otherwise you can just poll the good oid for your manager (and link dpconnect for your sms )
3. do I need to run the SNMP Manager or the Agent on the OAweb PMON? No need, pmon itself is already a snmp entity
4. do I need an SNMP agent at all? No, as said above, pmon with good config entries is enough


Hope you will succeed, it should be working fine ( I tested that few times). You can even send start commands via SNMP (same syntax as via TCP).

BR
ALex

[tmalone]

I think I get the pmon side concept, what the docs do not tell is what runs on each computer.

PMON runs on the computer you wish to monitor. What are your favorite config entires? (what is this LAProxyPortNr and do I need it?)

On the OA Server where I want to act on the issues, I run what manager? I assume the SNMP Manager (not the LiveAgent???) What would the config file entries look like on this computer?

Thanks, Todd

[adaneau]

Hi Todd,

Yes PMON has to run on monitored computer. LAProxyPortNr is the Port number of the Live Agent for which the pmon acts as a proxy, and as you dont need live agent, thus you can ignore this one.

On the OA server SNMP manager is all you need, no specific config entries.

BR
Alex

[tmalone]

I am not a big fan of examples in the help which are multi-functional, both a PMON and a LiveAgent, i can't seem to separate the different configurations.

Here is the config for system where only the webclient_http.ctl is running

[pmon]
allowSNMP = "yes"
SNMPPortNr = 4999
v1ReadCommunity = "public"
v1WriteCommunity = "admin"
v1TrapTarget = "192.168.2.38" #this is the IP address of the full OA server
sendManagerStateChange = "yes"

on the OA server where all of the rest of the managers are running

[snmpdrv]
enableTraps = "yes"

Driver configuration shows
manager ID = 2
agent ID = 1
Name = PmonAgent
Version 1/2

Looks great, I see agent = connected!

Now what??? This documentation does not say how to get these things.
I assume that I have to create some tags?
I am looking at the traps section but it does not hint what type the tags should be?
Do I need a different tag for each type of trap?

The example does not show anything like this!

[adaneau]

Hi Todd,

Now yes you need to create the tags. For the tags addresses you can refer to documentation :

Drivers/SNMP/MIB

Here you can see the WinCC OA mib, which list all available signals for PMON. You can also browse it when configuring address.

You of course need a tag for each signal you want to read. For the receiving mode you have 2 ways:

- polling ( classic way)
- spontaneous. using traps. (see Drivers/SNMP/Traps)

Good luck :silly:

[tmalone]

ok, so I read carefully the discussion about MIB and PMON.

I would like to key off of the manState 1.3.6.4.1.13828.2.1.10.1.6.? as it shows in the Help. I setup and int for poll. My webclient_http.ctl is running in the 3rd slot? ?=3 So, what is the idx?

What help does not tell anywhere is what type should the individual DPE be???
That one seems that it should be an integer because of the comment about 2...running
Others show a type of OctetString, but that does not seem to read anything.

So, I then carefully read the help on Traps.
sendManagerStateChange = "yes" got that
v1TrapTarget = "192.168.2.38" this is the IP address where the SNMP manager is running
I made string DPEs for each of the oid numbers specified, no values either. Again, the help does not say what DPE type these tags should be?

So, then I read about Traps and SNMP-Manager in the help.
I can see the internal datapoints for the SNMPManager.Trap.PayloadOID. Here are some different OID numbers
I created 3 string DPEs to match the OID number found in the PayloadOID: 1.3.6.4.1.13828.2.1.10.1.1.3, 1.3.6.4.1.13828.2.1.10.1.2.3, 1.3.6.4.1.13828.2.1.10.1.4.3
I get the values which are read on startup and never change again:
3 which is the slot number
WCCOActrl which is the manager type
5 which is the manager number
At least for this exercise, I get something, but still no realtime changes when the manager changes states.

This help is just not getting me to a solution. We need a clean example that does not mix two different solutions and focuses on one complete solution that a customer would actually use. I will write such a paper if I can only get this to work!

Todd Malone

[Gertjan van Schijndel]

I guess the idx is the pmonIndex. It is appended to the command line of each process that is started by the pmon. In the console there is also an index (shmIndex/last column), but the value is one too high (pmonIndex = shmIndex - 1).

If this does not work you could also read the entire column by adding the '' suffix at the address reference.