Gilat Satellite Networks TotalNMS
The purpose of this connector is to monitor the Gilat Satellite Networks TotalNMS platform over HTTP using its northbound interface (SkyEdge II-c NBI).
The physical devices of the system are called CPE (Customer Peripheral Equipment) devices. This connector arranges CPE devices based on CPE groups, with managed groups as a subsection. For each CPE instance, a separate dynamic virtual element (DVE) will be created, which will display more detailed information (see Gilat Satellite Networks TotalNMS - CPE).
About
Version Info
| Range | Key Features | Based on | System Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0.x [SLC Main] | Initial version | - | - |
Product Info
| Range | Supported Firmware |
|---|---|
| 1.0.0.x | SkyEdge II-c NBI v5.5P2 |
System Info
| Range | DCF Integration | Cassandra Compliant | Linked Components | Exported Components |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0.x | No | Yes | - Generic Ping connector version 3.1.2.5 or higher (supported from version 1.0.0.2 of this connector onward) | Gilat Satellite Networks TotalNMS - CPE |
Configuration
Connections
SNMP Connection - Traps
This connector uses a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) connection to be able to retrieve alarm traps and requires the following input during element creation:
SNMP CONNECTION:
- SNMP version: SNMPv2
- IP address/host: The polling IP of the platform.
SNMP Settings:
- Port number: 162
- Get community string: public
- Set community string: private
HTTP Connection
This connector uses an HTTP connection to be able to interact with the NBI and requires the following input during element creation:
HTTP CONNECTION:
- Type of port: TCP/IP
- IP address/host: The polling IP of the platform.
TCP/IP settings
- IP port: 443
- Bus address: ByPassProxy. This must be filled in to bypass any possible proxy that could block the HTTP communication.
Initialization
A newly created element will only start polling data when both User Name and Password are filled in on the General page. In case no data traffic is shown in Stream Viewer, verify if both are correctly filled in.
By default, the communication between the element and a different element that runs the Generic Ping connector is disabled. This means that no ping-related data will be available. To make ping-related data visible, follow the steps mentioned in the "Settings Page" section below.
Redundancy
No redundancy is defined in the connector.
Web Interface
The web interface is only accessible when the client machine has network access to the product.
How to Use
The connector uses SOAP calls to retrieve most of its data. Alarms are retrieved via SNMP traps and ping information is collected through the Generic Ping connector. To be able to retrieve alarms, make sure that SNMP traps are enabled on the TotalNMS platform.
This connector can export a child connector based on the retrieved data (see "Exported Components" above).
To see the actual traffic between the element and the device, a built-in DataMiner tool called Stream Viewer can be used. You can access it by right-clicking the element in the Surveyor and selecting View > Stream Viewer. A healthy element will show Groups 900-903, Groups 905-907, and Group 915 in Stream Viewer. Optionally, Group 904, Group 914, Groups 908-910, and Groups 912-913 can also be shown.
General Page
The General page contains the Login field, where you can enter the credentials needed to perform a valid request to the NBI. When both username and password are accepted by the TotalNMS platform, data will start entering the element and tables will be filled in.
Below the Login field, the total Number of CPEs and Active CPEs are displayed. Each row of the Active CPEs table represents the corresponding managed group.
The connector can request basic CPE information using different approaches, depending on the number of CPE devices. If this number is less than or equal to 100, the GetCPEsByManagedGroup bulk API call is used. When more CPE devices are available, the GetCPEbyID API call is used.
Topology Page
The Topology page shows a tree structure of all the components and their parent/child components. Select a component to view more detailed information on the right side of the page.
Network Segments Page
This page contains data regarding the network segments. This includes the general Network Segments table, the VLANs table, and the FWD Links table. Both the NS VLANs table and the FWD Links table are linked to the Network Segments table by means of the Network Segment ID.
Profiles Page
This page contains the SLAs table, which contains basic SLA information.
CPEs Page
This page contains a table listing the CPE devices that are currently known to the TotalNMS platform.
If a CPE device was known earlier but no longer seems to be present in the CPEs table, you should check the CPE DVEs table. You can find this table by clicking the CPE DVEs Configurations page button at the bottom of this page.
CPE DVEs will be created for devices for which the DVE Created parameter is set to Enabled. For new CPE devices that are added to the table, this parameter is set to Disabled by default. You can change this parameter setting on the Settings page.
After startup, the Severity column can indicate the Unknown state. This is expected behavior, caused by the fact that the Severity column will only be updated when an alarm trap is received. For example, when a Major Open alarm comes in, Major will be the severity. When after a number of minutes the same alarm comes in with the Cleared state, the new severity will be Normal.
To see the Subscriber Public IPv4 address, make sure a valid VLAN ID is selected. The VLAN ID can be selected on the Settings page. In case the dropdown list is empty, open Stream Viewer and wait until Group 906 is displayed in the column on the left. When Group 906 has been executed successfully, try again. The dropdown list should now contain the available IDs. There is no need to change the other parameters located on that page.
The CPEs table also contains some important reports such as Forward Data Throughput, Return Data Throughput, Forward Es/N0, and Return Tx Capability C/N0. The mechanism used to poll these reports can produce several log lines in the element logging. It can take a couple of minutes until these columns are filled in completely after an element restart. This is all expected behavior. If an entire report column indicates "N/A", check the CPE report polling toggle buttons on the Settings page. When a CPE report polling toggle button is set to Disabled, the corresponding column will show "N/A".
Similar to the report columns, it can take a couple of minutes until the columns Administrative State, Last Modification, Latitude, and Company Name are filled in completely after an element restart. Executing HTTP SOAP calls in a loop takes time and seems to put extra load on the NBI. From time to time, this results in responses that have an unexpected status code. If you notice that a column has been Not initialized for a while already, open the Stream Viewer and check which group contains a request with an unexpected status code.
CPE DVE Configurations Page
By default, the CPE DVEs table will contain the entries of all the CPE devices that were retrieved at least once after element creation. This table is used to generate the dynamic virtual elements. When a CPE device was returned earlier but is not currently known to the TotalNMS (because of maintenance for example), the corresponding entry in the CPE DVEs table will indicate Deleted (in the State column). Both the DVE and the data that has been retrieved for it will be kept in memory and can be reused when the CPE device returns.
The corresponding Delete button only becomes available when the State column indicates that a CPE is Deleted or Not initialized. This allows you to fully delete the entry, along with the DVE and all its data.
The Automatic DVE Removal toggle button at the top of the CPE DVEs Configuration page can be enabled to use the CPE DVEs table as an exact copy of the CPEs table. In other words, when this is enabled, the CPE DVEs table will constantly be in sync with the CPEs table. In this situation, when a CPE device was known earlier but is currently not returned by the TotalNMS, the corresponding entry will be removed along with all data that was retrieved for it.
In the View column, you can enter the name of the parent view you want to assign to the DVE. This view must be created in advance. Be careful to avoid unintentional white spaces in the name. When the view is left blank, the DVE will be created under the same view as the parent element.
Alarms Page
The alarms page contains the Alarms table. By default, when an alarm for example changes from the state Open to the state Cleared, the table will contain two entries. In this situation, the alarm will not be overwritten.
The Automatic Alarm Removal toggle button at the top of the page can be enabled to remove an alarm when its state changes to Cleared. That way, the table will only contain currently active alarms.
Note: The Alarms table will only show up to 100 alarms, and all alarms can be removed from the table at any time if needed.
Active Reports Page
Each row in the Active Reports table represents a report that is actively being polled.
If you click the Add Report button in the lower right corner of the page, a new entry will be added with a default element type and element name. Once the entry has been added to the table, select a Name and a Graph Type to start polling the report. For now, only the Element Type CPE is supported. By default, the report will be polled for all CPE devices. You can request a report for a specific CPE instance as well by selecting the corresponding element name.
All active reports can be removed from the table at any time if needed. You can also clear the entire table in one go with the Clear Reports button, located in the lower right corner of the page. When the Active Reports table is completely empty, Group 910 will not be polled.
Keep in mind that the TotalNMS database itself gets an update regularly. During such an update, it is not possible to poll a report, and the corresponding value will indicate N/A. After the next poll cycle, the value should contain a number again.
When a report seems to be missing even though it was present in the table at some point in time, check the CPEs table. The Active Reports table will be kept in sync with the CPEs table. This means that report requests configured for CPE devices that are no longer known by the TotalNMS will be removed.
Settings Page
An element that runs this connector is able to communicate with a different element that runs the Generic Ping connector (from version 3.1.2.5 onwards) in order to display ping information such as Average Success, Packet Loss, and the Jitter of a CPE device.
To set this up, follow these steps:
- Enable the Generic Ping Connection toggle button.
- Fill in the Generic Ping Element ID. You can find this ID by right-clicking the Generic Ping element name in the Surveyor and selecting Properties. The ID, e.g. 772/914, will be displayed in the Properties window.
- Select the VLAN ID assigned to the CPE devices you want to know ping information about.
When you have done so, new entries will be added to the Ping table of the element that runs the Generic Ping connector. Each entry represents a CPE device. If you want to retrieve the ping information for all CPE devices, select the VLAN ID that is assigned to all CPE devices. To do so, check the VLAN ID column of the CPEs table.
A log line will be added to the element log when a ping sync was triggered. A ping sync means that the Ping table of the linked Generic Ping element is synchronized with the CPEs table of the Gilat element.
For each report that is part of the CPEs table, a Polling toggle button is available. With these toggle buttons, you can disable or enable the polling of the CPE reports. For instance, if you disable the CPE Forward Data Throughput Polling toggle button, the CPE Forward Data Throughput will not be polled. This means that the Forward Data Throughput column of the CPEs table will show N/A and Group 908 will not be displayed in Stream Viewer.
Note that the minimum required version of the Generic Ping connector is 3.1.2.5.
On the Settings page, you can also find settings related to CPE DVE creation:
- Automatic CPE DVE Creation: Allows you to set the DVE Created parameter to Enabled for all future added CPE devices. By default, is set to Disabled.
- Enable/Disable All DVEs Allows you to set the state of all CPE devices in the table to Enabled or Disabled.