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CatOS Port Descriptions

As I'm happy with the updates in the new versions of Orion that come out I am increasingly more frustrated with the fact that the CatOS port description problem has still not been addressed. I for one have been asking for this over a year now.

The information is there in the CISCO-STACK-MIB (OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4 portName).

We are slowly migrating to IOS switches but CatOS is not going away and will be around for quite some time.

BB

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Network_Guru

I actually sent this request to Solarwinds Support back in March 2003.
I then sent this to Don a year ago - on his request;

I did a MIB walk on one of our Cisco6509 CatOS switches last night.
Here are the results for the PortName MIB we would like Orion to put in the database:

MIB OID Name Value
RFC1213-MIB 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.0 sysDescr.0 Cisco Systems WS-C6509
Cisco Catalyst Operating System Software, Version 6.3(5) Copyright (c) 1995-2002 by Cisco Systems

<SNIP>

CISCO-STACK-MIB 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4.1.1 portName.1.1
CISCO-STACK-MIB 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4.1.2 portName.1.2
CISCO-STACK-MIB 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4.2.1 portName.2.1
CISCO-STACK-MIB 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4.2.2 portName.2.2

<SNIP>

CISCO-STACK-MIB 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4.4.10 portName.4.10 servername1
CISCO-STACK-MIB 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4.4.11 portName.4.11 servername2
CISCO-STACK-MIB 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.5.1.4.1.1.4.4.12 portName.4.12 servername3

It is the same OID as the 5500's. It looks like a proprietary Cisco MIB.
Can you let me know if and/or when this would be implemented?

I have not heard anything back.

-=Cheers=-
NG

aLTeReGo

Agreed. I have many Cat6000 switches and it's hard to not only update descriptions for the 100+ interfaces on the Cat6000, but to do it again for Orion is a major pain in the ass. When, if ever, can we expect to see interface description populated from a CatOS box in Orion?

FormerMember

I can't agree more with you. I am evaluating ORION for a large company that has over 200++ CAT 6500 switches. I manually put in the port names for 8 switches. Talk about labor intensive. I can't see doing 5000 plus interfaces and trying to keep them updated.

iceman

It's also very fustrating for us to maintain our 6500 interfaces.

In fact to combat this, we are moving from Hybrid Mode to Native IOS.

Eventually Cisco will dump the CATOS to force the same thing.

Isaac

Mr. Becker

I wouldn't expect to see this functionality until the kids at SolarWinds implement custom mibs. So if we all want our happy CatOS port descriptions (I have 12 CatOS switches 6500 and 4000 series) we should be pushing hard for custom mib support. They would solve not only this issue, but a host of other issues related to the monitoring of various network devices.

Be fantastic

FormerMember

Why don't you upgrade to IOS on the 6500's?

Network_Guru

That's not the point.... Easier said than done.
When you have a whole COrporate Enterprise data center running on 3 - 6513's running CatOS, it's not so simple scheduling down time. Wouldn't it be easier to just upgrade the Monitoring software to support this?

-=Cheers=-
NG

BryanBecker

quote:Originally posted by Network_Guru

That's not the point.... Easier said than done.
When you have a whole COrporate Enterprise data center running on 3 - 6513's running CatOS, it's not so simple scheduling down time. Wouldn't it be easier to just upgrade the Monitoring software to support this?

-=Cheers=-
NG

Exactly. Upgrading would only mask the issue in my mind. In our environment we have alot of CATOS switches. Good news is we add new switches in the network they are running Native IOS. We don't have the time to upgrade all the CATOS boxes and to do so would be a hugh undertaking.

BB

aLTeReGo

Also not all CatOS features are supported under IOS at this time.

FormerMember

CAT 6509/13 switches are a major part of our 600,000 network elements currently using another NMS. We have about one percent of these using ORION. We don't see any major ORION expansion due to the CAT port names not being able to be discovered. We can not manually cut and paste 200,000+ port names. ORION needs to be able to discover the CAT port names and also update them when a rediscovery happens.

Converting this very large national network from CAT to Native IOS is not an option to be considered.

We hope custom MIB's will be coming soon; however we will not hold our breath. Looks like customers have been asking for it for years.

Isaac

Hello all,

There is hope. We can't be so pessimistic. Custom MIB support is being developed and will be released within the next six to nine months. Or so the kids at SW say.

Right after they get done with the new alerting engine they will be able to tackle some of the problems associated with custom MIBs. So when you see the alerting engine update you will know that nirvana is not far away.

Be fantastic.