genRtrConfig

Summary

genRtrConfig is a profile generator for use with the Cricket network management system. It will create a unique profile based on the type of device being targeted.

It is a versatile and well integrated network script that exploits the power of Cricket to provide a fast and simple way to manage hundreds of network devices.

Note: genRtrConfig has been replaced by genDevConfig.

Sections

  1. Background
  2. Features and supported devices
  3. Supported devices
  4. Description of the command-line arguments
    • Suggested arguments
    • Optional device classification arguments
    • Optional arguments
  5. How to call genRtrConfig
  6. Simplifying the call to genRtrConfig (alias)
  7. Other options to explore
  8. Command-line arguments

Background

Originally created by Mike Fisher and based on earlier work from Tobias Oetiker and other developpers, genRtrConfig, has been further developped by Francois Mikus, founder of Acktomic.

Supported platforms

Supports a wide range of Cisco (IOS,CatOS), Juniper, Foundry, Netscreen based routing and switching products with extended statistics.

  • Cisco IOS series routers (800, 1×00, 2×00, 3000, 3×00, 4500, 7×00, 7500VIP, GSR, CRS-1)
  • Cisco IOS Catalysts (5K, with RSM/MSFC2)
  • Cisco CatOS Catalysts (4K, 5K, 6K)
  • Cisco IOS series switches (1900, 29×0, 3×50)
  • Cisco Altiga VPN concentrators (3015, 3030, 3060)
  • Cisco PIX firewalls (Full line 501 to 535, FWSM?)
  • Cisco wireless Aironet access points and bridges
  • Juniper Routers
  • Foundry ServerIron switches
  • Packeteer traffic shaping appliances
  • Netscreen firewalls

Supports all network devices using standard MIB-II.

  • System Description
  • Contact Information
  • Location
  • Basic interface stats (octets, packets and errors)
  • Global packet per second statistics
  • Interface descriptions based on ifAlias or ifName
  • Threshold application and monitoring

Recognizes and supports various technologies.

  • 802.1Q/ISL trunked interfaces
  • Frame-relay, DS3, ISDN, HDLC interfaces
  • Ethernet, FastE, GigE, 10GigE, ATM
  • Serial interfaces (T1/E1, T3/E3, TDM)
  • Service Assurance Agents using ICMP, HTTP, FTP, Jitter, udp-echo
  • Sub-interfaces
  • Chassis statistics (CPU, Memory, Temperature)
  • Layer2 switch fabric statistics(Cisco CatOS, Cisco IOS)
  • VPN Tunnels statistics (Cisco Altiga, Nortel Contivity)
  • Wireless Access statistics (Cisco Wireless products)
  • Firewall statistics (PIX Firewalls, Juniper, Netscreen)
  • Intelligent High-Capacity counters for high speed interfaces
  • CAR based QoS shaping statistics (Cisco IOS)
  • Class based QoS shaping statistics (Cisco IOS, Packeteer)
  • VIP/Server stats for load-balancers (Foundry)
  • MPLS statistics (Juniper)
  • and others

Other features of note

  • Intelligent SNMP v1 or v2c support detection
  • Interface speed detection (min and max)
  • Interface descriptions
  • Interface error breakdown
  • Interface queuing and queue drops (Cisco IOS only)
  • Interface types (Assign differentiated target types for threshold application or statistics collection)
  • Automatic threshold application and updating based on target type or target name
  • Storing of user defined informational data in the config-tree (defaults or chassis)

Description of the command-line argumentsThis online help file has been updated for use with genRtrConfig version 1.5.50.

Suggested arguments

-c <community>
–community <community> 		Set SNMP read community. (default: public)
-f
–framestats		 Report frame relay interface statistics if the device has any frame-relay interfaces.

The engine will try to add targets for frame-relay cloud congestion notifications in addition to the standard interface statistics. (BECN/FECN)
–communityrw <rw_community_string>
 Include the SNMP Read-Write community string in the configuration. The reason for this is to have the data available for cricket plugins to use it.

One such plugin is getRunningConfig.

getRunningConfig is an SNMP based script that will collect the system configuration from a network device using the SNMP version selected for the device within Cricket and using builtin functionality of the device to send the configuration back via tftp. A few major vendors platforms are currently supported (Cisco, Foundry, Alteon, Nortel, Bay Networks) Based on Pancho.

(only useful with the getRunningConfig Cricket script)
(which is used for backing up network device configuration within a configuration version management system.)
-m
–monitors

 This is a powerful mechanism for monitoring thresholds within the Cricket network management framework.

This option activates the application of the thresholds defined in the monitorConfig file onto matching target types. This applies to any valid target within Cricket.

To create your own monitoring thresholds just edit the monitorConfig file and add your own Cricket thresholds. Only a basic set of thresholds is provided with genRtrConfig, look for a more detailed one in the future.

(Configured in ./lib/monitorConfig)
-n
–nounused		 Drop unused (commented out) interfaces from the
configuration entirely. This also affects interfaces
commented out with –namedonly.

Useful to unclutter devices that have lots of unused interfaces, and makes accessing and reading the displays easier.
-r
–rtragents		 Collect data on all active Cisco SAA (RTR) Agents. These are agents that run on Cisco IOS routers that “ping” using a variety of methods from the router to another destination. If the feature is supported by the device it will be included in the configuration.

Very useful to validate specific paths through chosen interfaces on the router. When combined with threshold monitoring it will alert when specific logical network paths are not available. (testing redundancy)

(only useful on Cisco IOS routers)
–vendorint Get extra interface stats from the proprietary Vendors MIB. This uses more data sources in the resulting RRD.

This option replaces –ciscoint, you can still use the old syntax but it will disappear in the next major point release.
–loglevel <level> Default level is “warn”.

Valid values include: debug, logmonitor, info, warn, error
-2
–snmpv2c		 Use SNMP version 2c and retrieve high capacity counters for devices that support the feature.

This should always be enabled to query devices with interfaces speeds of 1000Mbit interfaces(Gigabit), 155Mbit (OC3) or 622Mbit (OC12) interfaces and higher.

Of course some devices just don’t support correctly v2c counters and they will never show up in the config, that is normal, as genRtrConfig is bright enough to known when to use or not use v2c counters.
   

Optional device classification arguments

–access Specify that this device is an access switch. Meaning that it provides service for non-critical servers or workstations.

Activate only minimal monitoring thresholds on any 10/100 ports.
Activate full monitoring thresholds on 1000Mbit (gigabit) and faster ports.

Optional arguments

–b
–bytes		 Report speeds in bytes/second rather than in bits/second.

How to call genRtrConfig

Minimal calling arguments for genRtrConfig

genRtrConfig -c <community> <HOSTNAME>

Recommended calling arguments for genRtrConfig

genRtrConfig -c <community> –framestats –monitors –nounused –rtragents –vendorint –snmpv2c <HOSTNAME>

Simplifying the calling of genRtrConfig

Add an alias to your favorite shell that includes the most common arguments.

bash shell example:

alias genRtrConfig=`/pathxxx/genRtrConfig -c community -f -m -n -r –vendorint -2 $1`

Just add the line above, to your .bashrc, .chsrc, .tcshrc, etc.

Exit your shell and re-enter, or just execute the command:

source ~/.bashrc

You can now execute genRtrConfig from the commandline with either just the HOSTNAME as an argument or other funky options.

# genRtrConfig HOSTNAME

# genRtrConfig -C othercommunity HOSTNAME

#genRtrConfig –info serverteam:newyork HOSTNAME

* You can provide feedback via the mailing list on the cricket.sourceforge.net users forum.

Note: In genRtrConfig_1_5_40,41,42 The script genRtrConfig is broken and will exit when trying to process SAA agents. Do not use release 40. 41 and 42 have broken ftp SAA agents.

Note: In genRtrConfig_1_5_38 The script genRtrConfig is missing. Do not use this release.

Note: In genRtrConfig_1_5_35 There is a syntax error at line 1192. Replace the [] brackets with squiggly {} brackets.

Note: In genRtrConfig_1_5_29 There is a problem with Cisco-7200-Router Target-type which includes extraneous information in the Defaults file. Just remove the rra definition for that target type and it should resolve the warning messages for that specific Target-type. No other problem is known at this time.

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