SNMP Environmental Monitoring

An introduction to SNMP

Most networks of any size and age have lots and lots of equipment from many different manufacturers.

If each manufacturer implemented their own management systems, managing the network would quickly become a nightmare. Each manufacturer’s equipment would need its own management system. None of the different manufacturer’s management systems would talk to each other.

All told an expensive, inflexible mess.

To that end the manufacturers agreed to create a single management protocol called Simple Network Management Protocol or SNMP that they could all implement on their devices.

You would then only need a single SNMP based management system to manage your network. The management system would then be able to talk to all of the devices on a network from any compliant manufacturer.

What has SNMP got to do with environmental monitoring?

If you wish to create a point tool for your environment monitoring without any integration into your existing network management system then you don’t need to worry about SNMP.

However, if you wish to integrate your environmental monitoring efforts into your existing network management system then SNMP support is essential.

SNMP is a great integration and interoperability protocol.

SNMP enables your environmental monitoring devices to integrate into your existing network management system.

Your network management system can be anything from a Big 4 enterprise solution like HP OpenView or IBM Tivoli, a mid market solution like Ipswitch What’s Up Gold and Solar Winds Orion or open source tools like MRTG and Nagios.

All of the above mentioned tools use SNMP to fetch performance information. The systems then, to various levels of sophistication, log, trend and correlate the information.

Open Protocols set your Data Free

One of the sneakier tricks manufacturers sometimes try to pull off is keeping your data proprietary.

That way, if you want to access your information you need to buy software that is available exclusively from the manufacturer. The software usually comes with a hefty price tag and usually doesn’t have the features you want.

Make sure that any environment monitoring equipment you buy has a set of publicly documented standard interfaces from which you can access your data.

The data needs to be in a format that can be converted into a form that can be easily manipulated, visualised and reported. Formats like Microsoft Excel, CSV and the like should be supported.

The ultimate interoperable protocol in network management is, of course, SNMP.

Environment monitor alarms

Network management systems typically have highly functional alarm sub-systems. At the very least you should be able to create alarms that respond differently at different times of day.

During the working week when you have IT people on site, you will probably want a different set of actions than at night and weekends.

Many larger data centres have security people on site at all times. When problems crop up out of hours you are likely to wish to inform them of a problem so that they can then take appropriate steps, like ringing the duty IT person for instance. During the day it is unlikely you’d want the security people to be informed. It is more likely that an email or text to your IT staff would be more appropriate.

One of the problems with integrating your environment monitor with a network management system is that you are required to do the integration yourself.

Some network management systems have plug-ins which greatly speed up the process. But where a plug-in is not available, you are likely to require an understanding of SNMP. Most SNMP devices do come with a MIB which does make integration much easier.

Logging Environmental Data

Most of you are motivated principally by a desire to be informed of extreme environmental events in your data centre.

One area you shouldn’t forget about is logging your environmental data.

Fortunately, it is very easy to do. In fact, a system set up for performing alarms will give you the logging for free. Nor is the logging functionality restricted to a high end monitoring system, all of our solutions provide both alarming and logging.

Why is having a record of your environmental readings important?

Data centres are dynamic places. Equipment is constantly being installed and decommisioned on a regular basis to cope with changing business requirements.

By monitoring your data center you can see how changes are affecting the environment your servers are operating within.

By spotting trends early, you can plan future infrastructure upgrades in good time, before the server room environment becomes a problem.