4 Operation

This chapter:

  • Describes how to start and monitor the status of the Agent.

  • Lists the various ACSLS SNMP traps.

  • Describes the various diagnostic utilities supplied with ACSNMP 2.4.

Starting and Stopping the ACSLS Agent on Solaris

Since acsnmp is a sub-agent to the net-snmp master agent, it is necessary to ensure that net-snmp is enabled. On Solaris you can start net-snmp with the command:

# svcadm enable net-snmp

To check status:

# svcs net-snmp

The ACSLS application must also be running before the ACSLS Agent becomes fully functional

To start the ACSLS agent, the SMF command is svcadm enable acsnmp. Once enabled, the service remains enabled, even after a system reboot.

To stop the agent software:

# svcadm disable acsnmp

A restart command may be useful whenever you change configuration settings

# svcadm restart acsnmp

Starting and Stopping the ACSLS Agent on Linux

Since acsnmp is a sub-agent to the net-snmp master agent, it is necessary to ensure that the master agent daemon, snmpd, is enabled. Use the Linux service command to start the master agent:

To start the ACSLS agent:

# service acsnmp start

To check status:

# service acsnmp status

To stop the agent software:

# service acsnmp stop

A restart command is useful whenever you change configuration settings:

# service acsnmp restart

Verifying ACSLS Agent Operation

  • agent

    After starting the agent, you can check its status using the agent command.This utility is found in the ACSNMP/utils directory.

    # cd $ACSNMP_HOME/utils
# ./agent status

    This command shows the status of all prerequisite functions, including the net-snmp Master Agent and the ACSLS application. It discovers the configured community and sends a V1 snmpget request to the Agent, asking for the Agent software version. A response of v2.4 confirms full function of the Agent, including all system prerequisites.

    Note:

    If the command, agent status, is run too quickly just after starting the Agent, you may see the message, There is no such variable name in this MIB. Wait a few seconds and retry the agent status command.

  • walker

    The walker utility enables you to scan the entire ACSLS MIB, showing the value or status of each library object reported by ACSLS.

    # cd $ACSNMP_HOME/utils
# ./walker

    The normal display shows the alpha-numeric OID of each object identifier.To display the full numeric ID of each identifier, use walker -n.

  • translate

    The translate utility gives you the alpha-numeric identifiers and their translated equivalents from the ACSLS MIB. This useful tool reveals the actual ACSLS object names behind the numeric OIDs. To view the translated objects with their full numeric OIDs, use:

    # cd $ACSNMP_HOME/utils
# ./translate -n

Setting up a Trap Listener

Any host in the data center that is equipped with net-snmp includes a trap listener daemon. The listener, snmptrapd, can be found in /sbin/ or /usr/sbin.

You can set up a listener on the ACSLS host with the following command:

# snmptrapd -f -Le -m $ACSNMP_HOME/AcslsMib.mib

It helps to include the -m option with a MIB file to translate the trap messages as they are received by the listener. If you set up a listener on a remote host, transfer a copy of the AcslsMib.mib file to the remote host, placing it in a suitable directory.

Before any listener can receive trap messages from the ACSLS Agent, the hostname of the listener must be included in the DEST:; field of the AcslsAgtd.cfg file in the ACSNMP top-level directory on the ACSLS server. You must restart the ACSLS SNMP Agent any time you add a listener to the configuration file.

You can send a test trap to any listener you set up. In the ACSNMP/utils directory, you find send_system_trap_test. If you run this command without an argument, it sends a system trap message to any listener on the localhost. To send the same message to any other host, simply add the hostname or ip address of the listener as an argument.

# ./send_system_trap_test <i.p. address or hostname>

This test does not originate from the ACSLS Agent. It is a Cold Start Trap test that originates from the Master Agent through the community that you have configured in snmpd.conf. It is intended solely to verify that your listener is set up correctly.

If your listener did not receive the message, you should check the configuration settings in the snmptrapd.conf file on the system receiving the traps. This file is typically found under /etc/snmp or /etc/net-snmp in the same directory where you found snmpd.conf. You will find a SNMP V1 sample of both of these files in the ACSNMP/install directory.

Once your trap listener is operational, the quickest way to send test traps from the ACSLS Agent is to restart the Agent. On Solaris, the command is svcadm restart acsnmp. The Linux equivalent is service acsnmp restart. You can also test the Agent's ability to respond to an offline event in ACSLS. Using cmd_proc in ACSLS, vary any library resource (such as a drive or CAP) from an online state to offline. Within seconds, the trap listener should reveal the status change.

Notice that traps are sent under the following circumstances:

  • When the ACSLS SNMP Agent first starts (all trap levels).

  • When ACSLS and any ACSLS resource in the MIB comes online (trap level INFO).

  • When any ACSLS resource (ACS, LSM. CAP, Drive) goes offline (trap level WARNING and above).

  • When the Agent fails to communicate with ACSLS (trap level ERROR and above).