SNMP query

SNMP query

[susan jasinski]

[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 916 bytes --]

On the GUI SNMP panel, all customers that we tested told us that they want
the ability to test the manager host name or IP address that they provide
to be sure that it is accurate. Right now, the BMC does not have this
ability.

My team did some digging around on the internet and found this SNMP query
suggestion.
https://support.panorama9.com/hc/en-us/articles/203568188-Test-if-SNMP-devices-are-responding-correctly-to-SNMP-queries


I am looking for feedback on whether we *should* implement something
similar?
- If we get a response from an SNMP enabled device in the backend, then we
would provide a  validation message like "Device responded to the SNMP
query"

- If we do not get a response, then we would provide a validation message
like "Invalid host name or IP address, or the device did not respond to the
SNMP query"

I am open to suggestions for the messages.


[image: image.png]


-- Susan Jasinski

[-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 2586 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2: image.png --]
[-- Type: image/png, Size: 63988 bytes --]

Re: SNMP query

[Ed Tanous]

On 1/29/19 9:31 AM, susan jasinski wrote:
> 
> I am looking for feedback on whether we _should_ implement something
> similar?
It sounds like a pretty reasonable thing, and something that other types
of systems (non BMC) do today.

> 
> - If we do not get a response, then we would provide a validation
> message like "Invalid host name or IP address, or the device did not
> respond to the SNMP query"
> 

What would the backend of this look like?  I don't think we have any
example of anything that "tests" a given settings change without
actually applying it.  Would you make the settings change, then roll it
back if it didn't work?  If that's your flow, you could likely just do
it with the apply button, and drop the "test" button altogether.

The flow could look something like:
1. User clicks apply
2. Webui requests the change from the backend, then subscribes to the
log events.
3. Backend tests the new settings by "querying" the SNMP device
4. Backend logs a signal if the SNMP device didn't respond to a ping.
5. Javascript sees signal, and gives the user the appropriate message
(possibly through Rebeccas new "toast" messages, possibly through the
form validation if the page is still up.

The above flow likely saves you as lot of complexity in implementation,
as most of the infrastructure is already there, there's only a minor
interface change needed (to add the new signal type) and you don't have
to handle the rollback case.

Coming back to the test button idea, if that's the path you're looking
to follow, how would you overcome the HTTP timeout limits?  I believe
our http timeouts are set at 15 seconds, very similar to what the SNMP
timeouts are.  Would you do a "double" request and request the change,
then a second requests to see if it applied?  Would you use the
subscribe API?  How would settings be rolled back?

PS, This list tends to prefer text emails over HTML emails.  I'm not
sure how to configure that in gmail, but it must be doable.

Thanks,

-Ed

Re: SNMP query

[Ratan Gupta]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1825 bytes --]

Hi Susan,

On 29/01/19 11:01 PM, susan jasinski wrote:
>
> On the GUI SNMP panel, all customers that we tested told us that they 
> want the ability to test the manager host name or IP address that they 
> provide to be sure that it is accurate. Right now, the BMC does not 
> have this ability.
>
I wanted to get more info on this, Currently SNMP D-Bus service on the 
BMC does the validation for whether the IP is reachable or not as part 
of configuration.

Suppose if admin configures the hostname/ip which is valid end 
point(pingable hostname/ip) but not the SNMP trapdaemon, In this 
scenario what is customer expectation?

SNMP trapdaemon works on UDP, and the trapdaemon(162) listens only the 
trap messages not the SNMP agent messages.

*BMC uses the SNMP for sending the trap messages to the SNMP trapdaemon.*

Below link seems useful if BMC would have been SNMP client(sending 
messages to port 161) and SNMP agent is sitting outside the BMC and on 
BMC I run the command SNMPwalk to find that the configured IP address is 
SNMP agent or not which is not the case here.

>
> My team did some digging around on the internet and found this SNMP 
> query suggestion. 
> https://support.panorama9.com/hc/en-us/articles/203568188-Test-if-SNMP-devices-are-responding-correctly-to-SNMP-queries
>
>
> I am looking for feedback on whether we _should_ implement something 
> similar?
> - If we get a response from an SNMP enabled device in the backend, 
> then we would provide a  validation message like "Device responded to 
> the SNMP query"
>
> - If we do not get a response, then we would provide a validation 
> message like "Invalid host name or IP address, or the device did not 
> respond to the SNMP query"
>
> I am open to suggestions for the messages.
>
>
> image.png
>
>
> -- Susan Jasinski
>
Regards

Ratan


[-- Attachment #2.1: Type: text/html, Size: 4822 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2.2: image.png --]
[-- Type: image/png, Size: 63988 bytes --]

Re: SNMP query

[susan jasinski]

My team has decided to forgo the Test button on the SNMP panel.  We
plan to offer the same field validation affordances for the query, but
now the user will be notified after the Save Settings button is
clicked. And we will provide an affordance if the user has to wait
more than a few seconds for the response.

Thank you all for the feedback.

-- Susan


On Tue, Jan 29, 2019 at 12:53 PM Ratan Gupta
<ratagupt@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Susan,
>
> On 29/01/19 11:01 PM, susan jasinski wrote:
>
> On the GUI SNMP panel, all customers that we tested told us that they want the ability to test the manager host name or IP address that they provide to be sure that it is accurate. Right now, the BMC does not have this ability.
>
> I wanted to get more info on this, Currently SNMP D-Bus service on the BMC does the validation for whether the IP is reachable or not as part of configuration.
>
> Suppose if admin configures the hostname/ip which is valid end point(pingable hostname/ip) but not the SNMP trapdaemon, In this scenario what is customer expectation?
>
> SNMP trapdaemon works on UDP, and the trapdaemon(162) listens only the trap messages not the SNMP agent messages.
>
> BMC uses the SNMP for sending the trap messages to the SNMP trapdaemon.
>
> Below link seems useful if BMC would have been SNMP client(sending messages to port 161) and SNMP agent is sitting outside the BMC and on BMC I run the command SNMPwalk to find that the configured IP address is SNMP agent or not which is not the case here.
>
>
> My team did some digging around on the internet and found this SNMP query suggestion. https://support.panorama9.com/hc/en-us/articles/203568188-Test-if-SNMP-devices-are-responding-correctly-to-SNMP-queries
>
>
> I am looking for feedback on whether we should implement something similar?
> - If we get a response from an SNMP enabled device in the backend, then we would provide a  validation message like "Device responded to the SNMP query"
>
> - If we do not get a response, then we would provide a validation message like "Invalid host name or IP address, or the device did not respond to the SNMP query"
>
> I am open to suggestions for the messages.
>
>
>
>
> -- Susan Jasinski
>
> Regards
>
> Ratan

Re: SNMP query

[krtaylor]

On 1/29/19 11:31 AM, susan jasinski wrote:
> On the GUI SNMP panel, all customers that we tested told us that they 
> want the ability to test the manager host name or IP address that they 
> provide to be sure that it is accurate. Right now, the BMC does not have 
> this ability.
> 
> My team did some digging around on the internet and found this SNMP 
> query suggestion. 
> https://support.panorama9.com/hc/en-us/articles/203568188-Test-if-SNMP-devices-are-responding-correctly-to-SNMP-queries
> 

This won't work. We don't support snmp standard objects (no agent). We 
are only sending traps with log message payloads.

Kurt Taylor (krtaylor)