Interface Metrics display data in Octets or Bytes

Products

• CA Infrastructure Management
• CA Performance Management - Usage and Administration
• DX NetOps

Issue/Introduction

How can DX NetOps Performance Management be set to display Interface Metric data in Octets or Bytes?

How to display Interface metric data in bytes.

Environment

All supported DX NetOps Performance Management releases

Cause

Sometimes it is more useful to see actual data points rather than calculated percentages or averages.

Resolution

To enable the Bytes, Bytes In, and Bytes Out metrics for individual vendor certifications, extend the certification.

The XML to enable the metric is included in the following directory (default path):

/opt/IMDataAggregator/examples/vendorCertification/

• Select the file appropriate for your intended use.
  
  • Standard Speed Interface Vendor Certification? Use the bytes_ext_IfTableMib.xml
  • High Speed Interface Vendor Certification? Use the bytes_ext_IfXTableMib.xml

Once selected use the sample XML in an extension of the target Vendor Certification.

Further documentation details and links to instructions for extending a Vendor Certification can be found on the Create or Extend Vendor Certifications documentation page.

Additional Information

Additional Notes regarding the potential impact from enabling this feature:

• Impact is due to the need to calculate the values during polling cycles, send those to DA, and store them in DB. 
• If they are baselined metrics, we also need to calculate the baselines, same for 95% or other defined values as well as rollups for the data. 
• It's the same possible impact when adding any new metrics to the system. 
• The reason it's called out in this area, is the tendency for many more interface items being present in the system than other items that would be impacted when adding metrics or custom certifications. As a result applying the changes to great numbers of interfaces can show deeper impacts than other custom certifications and changes applied to smaller sets of items. 
• It's also called out as related to added overhead since we're already collecting bits data, and the bytes data is the same, just divide by 8. 
• There is no formal testing performed that would allow me to provide a reference for what to expect. 
• The decision to enable this comes down to:
  • Is the metric really needed when bits data is already available?
  • If it is required:
    • Set it up in a test environment.
    • Apply the change to a small set of interfaces to start.
    • Validate the metric data provides what is sought.
    • Expand the solution to more interfaces in sets vs. all at once, while also monitoring performance and resource usage.
    • Base production application of the change on those testing results.