A few words of caution about relying on the Agent traps for interface down.
   I don't know about Cisco routers, but most IBM and 3com routers send
their agent traps via UDP.  UDP transport does not gaurantee trap delivery
as would TCP.  So if the packet is lost along the way, you'll never get it.
Netmon will poll the interface, and if it's down, you will know about it
within a polling interval.

   It is quite possible that you could not recieve any traps at all if
something happens to the link(s) between you and the router.  Sure there is
redundancy, but even that is not always perfect.  I have yet to meet a
router who can send a trap while powered off :-).

   It is quite possible, using Mid-Level-Managers, to get the status polling
intervals down to a minute or two.  Not quite real time, but close!


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of IBM NetView and POLYCENTER Manager on NetView et
> alia [mailto:NV-L AT UCSBVM.UCSB DOT EDU]On Behalf Of Owens, Blaine
> Sent: Thursday, September 03, 1998 9:03 AM
> To: NV-L AT UCSBVM.UCSB DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: Interface Down Events
>
>
> Actually, I was addressing the Link Up/ Link Down traps which are sent
> by the routers themselves - these are the traps we monitor as opposed to
> the ones generated as a result of netmon polling. In fact we don't even
> display the netmon interface up/down traps and rely on the Cisco traps
> which are "real-time". The $A in this case is most definitely the Cisco
> router - I use it to open Remedy Tickets, send email, pages, etc.
>
> Blaine Owens
> Eastman Chemical Company
> Email - bowens AT eastman DOT com
> Phone - (423)229-3579
> Fax     - (423)229-1188
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: James_Shanks AT TIVOLI DOT COM [SMTP:James_Shanks AT TIVOLI DOT COM]
> > Sent: Thursday, September 03, 1998 7:12 AM
> > To:   NV-L AT UCSBVM.ucsb DOT edu
> > Subject:      Re: Interface Down Events
> >
> > Mike -
> >
> > What level of code are you using?  $A is supposed to return the trap
> > sender, which should be the box reporting the down interface.  You are
> > correct that technically it is netmon reporting this but that trap
> > which
> > netmon sends says that the "agent" who sent the trap is the failing
> > box.
> > So Blaine is correct -- $A gives you the box with the failing
> > interface.
> >
> > James Shanks
> > Tivoli (NetView for UNIX) L3 Support
> >
> >
> >
> > Michael Dors <miked AT mtp DOT gov> on 09/01/98 02:06:38 PM
> >
> > Please respond to miked AT mtp DOT gov
> >
> > To:   NV-L AT UCSBVM.UCSB DOT EDU
> > cc:    (bcc: James Shanks)
> > Subject:  Re: Interface Down Events
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Owens, Blaine wrote:
> >
> > > Marc, if you are doing this via Event Configuration/Command for
> > > Automatic Action pass variable $A (agent reporting the trap).
> > >
> > > Blaine Owens
> > > bowens AT eastman DOT com
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Marc Russo [SMTP:mrusso AT AL.IISL DOT COM]
> > > > Sent: Monday, August 31, 1998 4:37 PM
> > > > To:   NV-L AT UCSBVM.ucsb DOT edu
> > > > Subject:      Interface Down Events
> > > >
> > > > Whenever an interface goes down on a router, it sends a trap to my
> > > > NetView
> > > > system.  I want to be emailed whenever this happens, and sometimes
> > > > paged,
> > > > depending on which interface is down.  The problem I am having is
> > when
> > > > I
> > > > pass this to sendmail, I can only pass the interface that is down
> > > > (i.e. $2),
> > > > but I cannot pass which node is reporting this.  Does anyone know
> > > > which
> > > > variable I can pass to sendmail (and eventually the paging
> > utility) to
> > > > let
> > > > me know which node is reporting an interface down?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > >
> > > > Marc Russo (mrusso AT al.iisl DOT com)
> > > > International Integrated Solutions, LTD
> >
> >   If this is a trap generated by Netview (via netmon) $A will return
> > the
> > hostname of Netview.
>