Enhancing automation with network growth

Thu Jan 21 06:13:34 UTC 2010

On 20/01/10 21:54 -0500, Steve Bertrand wrote:
>Can anyone offer up ideas on how you manage any automation in this
>regard for their infrastructure gear traffic graphs? (Commercial options
>welcome, off-list, but we're as small as our budget is).
>
>Unless something else is out there that I've missed, I'm seriously
>considering writing up a module in Perl to put up on the CPAN that can
>scan my RANCID logs (and perhaps the devices directly for someone who
>doesn't use RANCID), send an aggregate 'are these changes authorized'
>email to an engineer, and then proceed to execute the proper commands
>within the proper MRTG directories if the engineer approves.
>
>I use a mix of Cisco/FreeBSD&Quagga for routers, and Cisco/HP for
>switches, so it is not as simple as throwing a single command at all
>configs.

OpenNMS works great, but has a steeper learning curve than MRTG. It
supports auto discovery of devices, and can pull interface statistics for
all new devices/interfaces automatically.

I'm graphing all interfaces on around 4 dozen Cisco switches and
routers and various other devices on one fairly beefy Linux box.

It also has a RANCID integration module, which I haven't had a chance to
play with yet.

> it is not as simple as throwing a single command at all configs

Actually it is that simple. As long as the device supports the IF-MIB SNMP
table, then your SNMP system should have little problem discovering all
interfaces. All devices you list above should work, assuming you've got
net-snmp running on the freebsd box.

-- 
Dan White