How to easily find all models that have a DCM Timeout value set to something other than the default value of 3000 milliseconds?

Products

• CA Spectrum

Issue/Introduction

We continue to get alerts for "COMMUNICATION ATTRIBUTES DIFFER ON PORT OR APPLICATION". I know They are due to the DCM Timeout values which differ from the parent device model. Currently our DCM Timeout configurations are all over the place. Some devices have the timeout set to the default of 3000 milliseconds, while others are set to 5000 to 7000 milliseconds. I would like to get this all models back to one global setting, in order to clean up our environment and determine which truly need to be adjusted. Is there a way to do a mass change or by groups?

Environment

Release:
Component:

Resolution

Typically, we see the “COMMUNICATION ATTRIBUTES DIFFER ON PORT OR APPLICATION” alarms because there is either a port model or application model has an SNMP Communication attribute set differently than what is found on the parent device model. The most common attribute that tends to be out of sync is the "DCM Timeout" value. Other attributes you may want to check could include the "DCM Retry Count", "Agent Port", and "Community Name".

 

To help identify which models are not using the default value, you may want to create a “Models” search for all Models that are set to something different than the default 3000 value, and also add the DCM Timeout as a new column in the Locator Search results field. This should allow you to see if there are any Port or Application models that have a different DCM Timeout setting than the parent device model.

 

Attached is a copy of a custom "table-searchresults-config.xml" that contains the common SNMP configuration attributes for SNMP capable models.

 

Place this file in the $SPECROOT/custom/topo/config directory on your OneClick Web Server. There is no need to bounce Tomcat. The xml file is read in when the OneClick client is launched. Therefore you will need to close out of any open OneClick clients and launch a new client before the custom columns will be available to your OneClick client.

To create the custom Models search:

1. In the OneClick client select the Locator Search tab

2. In the Navigation Pane, expand and select the Models folder

3. Click the Create Search Icon (looks like a pair of binoculars with a +) to open the “Create Search” dialog window.

4. In the “Create Search” dialog window, select the “Attribute…” button to launch the “Attribute Selector” dialog window.

5. In the “Attribute Selector” dialog window, expand the “Device” folder and select any of the device model types listed. It should not matter which model type is selected, since all device models, port models, and application models all use the same common attribute for DCM Timeout, which should have the name “TimeOut” and attribute ID 0x11c04. On the right-hand side of the window filter on “TimeOut”.

6. Select the TimeOut attribute and click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window. The “Attribute Selector” dialog window should close, and you should see the TimeOut attribute in the “Create Search” dialog Window.

7. In the “Create Search” dialog window, set the Comparison Type to “Not Equal”. Select the “Prompt when Launched” radial button on the right-hand side of the window. This will cause the search to prompt you for a value to use as the comparison, which makes the search more versatile than hard-coding it to a single value.

 

8. Click the “Save As..” button to open the “Save Search” dialog window. Give the new search a Name. You can also provide a description if you wish. Click “OK” to save the search and close the “Save Search” dialog Window.

 

 

9. Click “OK” to close the “Create Search” dialog window.

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10. You should see the new search under the Models folder in the Navigation Pane

 

11. Run the new search.  This could take some time since it will return all models (device, port, applications, etc) that meet the search criteria.

12. In the Contents Pane/Results Tab you should see the results of the new search. Right click on the Column Headers to launch the “Table Preferences” dialog Window.

13. Scroll to the bottom of the “Table Preferences” dialog window, and find the new “DCM Timeout” column. Select the “DCM Timeout” column by checking the box, and click “OK” to close the “Table Preferences” dialog window.

 

14. You should now see the DCM Timeout column at the right end of the results table. You can click the DCM Timeout column header and drag this to the desired position in the table.

15. Since Spectrum uses the parent device model’s name as part of the name of the child models, you can sort the results by “Name” to group all the models according to their parent device.

16. The “Model Class” column can be used to identify the device (Router, Switch-Router, etc), as well as the port or application models belonging to the parent.

17. All Port and Application models should be using the same DCM Timeout value of the Device model. And differences should be corrected to reflect the same value set on the device.

 

 

To change all the models that show something other than the default 3000 value.

1. Do a “Ctrl A” to select all the models found by the search.

2. Then right click anywhere in the results table to bring up the Spectrum Menu options.

3. Select Utilities -> Attribute Editor to launch the Attribute Editor.

4. In the Attribute Editor dialog window, expand the “SNMP Communication” folder and select the “DCM Timeout (ms)” attribute.

 

5. Move the “DCM Timeout” attribute to the right-hand side of the window by clicking the right arrow button.

 

6. Un-check the “No Change” check box, and type 3000 in the field to the right. Do NOT select the “Set As Default” check box unless you know someone has made changes to the default value, and you need to reset the default value back to 3000.

 

 

7. Click “Apply” to Apply the change. You will see am “Attribute Edit Results” dialog window open. Here you have the option to undo any or all the changes made by Selecting the ones you want to undo, and click the “Undo” button. To accept the changes, click the “Close” button.

8. Click the "OK" button to close out of the "Attribute Editor" dialog window.

 

Additional Information

For more information regarding the "COMMUNICATION ATTRIBUTES DIFFER ON PORT OR APPLICATION" alarm see KB000051357 - "What does this Spectrum alarm mean: COMMUNICATION ATTRIBUTES DIFFER FROM PARENT"