Smarts NPM: Receiving "AuthTypeMismatch" events; What do these events mean?

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

This article explains the meaning of Smarts NPM AuthTypeMismatch alerts and how to identify the mismatch in Smarts NPM and in the SNMP walk of the OSPF device objects.

Receiving AuthTypeMismatch alerts in Smarts NPM at or near the same time that a device DOWN alert was sent:

SMARTS: OSPFNetwork | AuthTypeMismatch | OSPF-NET-x.x.x.x-255.255.255.240 [BROADCAST/2] | There is at least one OSPF interface in this OSPF network that has Authentication Type configuration problem.

 

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - SMARTS

Cause

The AuthTypeMismatch error indicates that the OSPF endpoints do not have the same AuthType attribute configured.

Resolution

To address this issue and prevent the AuthTypeMismatch error, you must make sure both of the OSPF endpoints have the same AuthType value configured. The AuthType value can be configured to one of the following:

• None
• simplePassword
• MD5

The following sections explain how to determine the current AuthType attribute value configured for an OSPF endpoint, using either the Smarts console or the SNMP walk of the OSPF device objects.

In the Smarts Console
To determine the current AuthType attribute value configured for an OSPF endpoint using the Smarts console, do the following:

1. Navigate to the Smarts NPM domain in question.
2. Open the OSPFInterface object and select the OSPF relationship in question
3. In the attribute window to the right, select AuthType.
4. The Value field displays the AuthType configured for the selected OSPF interface. The following screenshot shows an OSPF interface configured to use the MD5 AuthType:

  

 
 
In the SNMP walk
To determine the current AuthType attribute value configured for an OSPF endpoint in the SNMP walk of the devices, check the ospfIfAuthType OID (1.3.6.1.2.1.14.7.1.20) and compare the OspfAuthenticationType setting for the two OSPF endpoints:
 

Object	ospfIfAuthType
OID	1.3.6.1.2.1.14.7.1.20
Type	OspfAuthenticationType 0:none 1:simplePassword 2:md5
Permission	read-create
Status	current
MIB	OSPF-MIB ;   -   View Supporting Images
Description	"The authentication type specified for an interface. Note that this object can be used to engage in significant attacks against an OSPF router."