SNMP Monitoring Tool receives the alarms generated by vCenter Server in HEX format and do not contain readable text information

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Some alarms received from vCenter Server are not properly decoded and appear in hexadecimal format in Netcool.
  
  
• Below is an example of a trap received from vCenter. In this case, OID4 contains additional fault details, but the data appears in hex format and is not properly decoded:

enterprise:        .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3
generic-trap:      6
specific-trap:     203
UpTime:    120481784
Uptime:    13 days, 22:40:17.84
community: public
IPaddress: ###.###.###.###
PeerIPaddress:     ###.###.###.###
ReceivedPort:      162
ReceivedTime:      1738208383
Protocol:  UDP
SNMP_Version:      1
OID1:      .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3.308.0
1: 4
1_raw:     4
1_text:    4
1_hex:     4
.1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3.308.0:       4
OID2:      .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3.304.0
OID4:      .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3.306.0
OID4:      .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3.306.0
4: 61 6c 61 72 6d 2e 48 65 61 6c 74 68 53 74 61 74 75 73 43 68 61 6e 67 65 64 41 6c 61 72 6d 20 2d 20 45 76 65 6e 74 3a 20 53 74 61 74 75 73 20 63 68 61 6e 67 65 20 28 32 37 30 31 34 29 0a 53 75 6d 6d 61 72 79 3a 20 76 73 70 68 65 72 65 2d 75 69 20 73 74 61 74 75 73 20 63 68 61 6e 67 65 64 20 66 72 6f 6d 20 79 65 6c 6c 6f 77 20 74 6f 20 67 72 65 65 6e 0a 44 61 74 65 3a 20 30 31 2f 33 30 2f 32 30 32 35 20 30 33 3a 33 39 3a 34 33 20 41 4d 0a 55 73 65 72 20 6e 61 6d 65 3a 20 56 6d 6f 6e 75 73 65 72 0a 41 72 67 75 6d 65 6e 74 73 3a 0a 20 20 20 20 63 6f 6d 70 6f 6e 65 6e 74 49 64 20 3d 20 76 73 70 68 65 72 65 2d 75 69 0a 20 20 20 20 63 6f 6d 70 6f 6e 65 6e 74 4e 61 6d 65 20 3d 20 76 73 70 68 65 72 65 2d 75 69 0a 20 20 20 20 6e 65 77 53 74 61 74 75 73 20 3d 20 67 72 65 65 6e 0a 20 20 20 20 6f 6c 64 53 74 61 74 75 73 20 3d 20 79 65 6c 6c 6f 77 0a 20 20 20 20 73 65 72 76 69 63 65 49 64 20 3d 20 76 73 70 68 65 72 65 2d 75 69 0a
OID5:      .1.3.6.1.4.1.6876.4.3.307.0

• After Decoded Data from OID4:

Alarm: HealthStatusChangedAlarm - Event: Status Change (27014)  
Summary: vsphere-ui status changed from yellow to green  
Date: ##/##/#### 03:39:43 AM  
User: Vmonuser  

Arguments:  
  - componentId = vsphere-ui  
  - componentName = vsphere-ui  
  - newStatus = green  
  - oldStatus = yellow  
  - serviceId = vsphere-ui  

 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

The issue is related to how monitoring tool (e.g., Netcool) interprets or processes SNMP trap data, rather than a problem with trap format itself.

Broadcom Engineering Team has conducted extensive testing using SilverCreek SNMP Monitoring tool, which successfully decoded and displayed SNMP trap data without requiring any changes on vCenter Server side. This confirms that SNMP traps are being generated and sent correctly by vCenter.

Resolution

We recommend contacting Monitoring (eg:Netcool) application vendor to review and update SNMP trap data interpretation logic.