Why are interface item names wrong in NetOps Portal ?

Products

• CA Performance Management - Usage and Administration
• DX NetOps

Issue/Introduction

Why are the Interface Item Names in NetOps Portal showing the wrong values?

How does NetOps Portal determine Interface Item Names?

How does the High Speed Interface Vendor Certification generate item names?

We have Nexus 9508 devices that are managed in NetOps Portal. When we select the Interface Health context view that contains the list of interfaces we see Interface Name with a prefix of "ii".  For example, what are these interfaces with prefix "ii" in the screenshot below.

Environment

All supported DX NetOps Performance Management releases

Cause

Device MIB data contains the offending values in the ifDescr OID values for all interfaces.

Resolution

The High Speed Interface Vendor Certification (VC) uses the following Names metric expression to generate item names.

<Expression destAttr="Names">(isdef(ifName)&&ifName!=empty)?ifName:((isdef(ifDescr)&&ifDescr!=empty)?ifDescr:"Interface " + ifIndex)</Expression>

It looks for ifName OID values first. If they are not present, or the OIDs have no value, we look for ifDescr OID values.

The OID Attribute definitions from the VC are:

<Attribute name="ifName" type="OctetString">
<Documentation/>
<IsKey>false</IsKey>
<Source>1.3.6.1.2.1.31.1.1.1.1</Source>
</Attribute>

<Attribute name="ifDescr" type="OctetString">
<Documentation/>
<IsKey>false</IsKey>
<Source>1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2</Source>
</Attribute>

In a MIB dump from the problem device we see empty or missing ifName OID values. In the same MIB dump we see the problem ii value in the ifDescr OID values. All interfaces have the same ii value. These are the first few index samples shown as examples.

1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2.1241513984, OctetString , ii1/1/1
1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2.1241513985, OctetString , ii1/1/2
1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2.1241513986, OctetString , ii1/1/3
1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2.1241513987, OctetString , ii1/1/4
1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2.1241513988, OctetString , ii1/1/5

The device admin or vendor will need to assist with providing better ifDescr values.

Additional Information

How to generate a MIB dump? See the steps in the "How to generate a MIB dump using sapwalk2" Knowledge Base article.