HP Virtual Connect 4.01 Update: SNMP and sFlow enhancements
HP has released a significant firmware update to its Virtual Connect line of HP Blade chassis switches.
This is part 5 of a 6 part post on HP Virtual Connect 4.01:
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: What’s New
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: Dual-hop FcOE support
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: Min/Max Bandwidth Optimisation
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: Priority Queue QoS
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: SNMP and sFlow enhancements
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: RBAC and Multicast + some more
SNMP MIB enhancements
HP has added a number of enhancement to SNMP for VC 4.01. A number of old traps have been depreciated and new traps added to provide more granular error reporting.
A trap is sent for each VC managed element state change (domain, enclosure, module, port, network, fabric, server or profile). Each trap describes what changed and what caused the change. There is also improved correlation between Traps, SIM events and the VC system log.
For example, pre-4.01 you would only get a Domain status notification with a very generic message saying the status of the domain has changed for a number of different reasons, say when a network port is disconnected.
In 4.01, three traps will be received when a port is disconnected which will result in Network, Profile and Domain managed status traps being sent to management stations.
The network trap will show the network degraded and has a minor managed status because the network port is disconnected (unlinked) as there are multiple uplinks.
The profile trap will show the server profile connection is abnormal and has a minor managed status because the network port is disconnected.
The domain trap will also show a minor managed status because the network port is disconnected.
The VC domain status page will then display the Cause and Root Cause of each object in an abnormal state which makes it far simpler for you so see what is affecting the domain status.
New VC SNMP Domain MIBs are required to receive and interpret the traps. HP recommends updating SNMP management stations with the HP MIB Kit version 9.30 which is already bundled with HP SIM 7.2 before upgrading to VC 4.01.
sFlow monitoring
As part of the enhancements for SNMP, HP has added sFlow support. sFlow is a technology standard for monitoring and troubleshooting network usage with network flow statistics. This allows continuous application level traffic monitoring at wire speeds on all interfaces simultaneously.
sFlow Agents run in the VC domain and collect the data which is sent to a sFlow Collector such as HP Intelligent Management Center (IMC) or InMon Traffic Sentinel and sometime in the future Solarwinds for analysis and reporting.
To configure sFlow in VC, you add a receiver and define your port monitoring sampling rate and interval
HP has created a (silent!) video showing how the data is visualised.
Next up: HP Virtual Connect 4.01: RBAC and Multicast + some more
HI,
I’m very interested in getting sflow setup. I’m using VC 4.01 on the flex-10 (455880-B21) and when I look in VCM the sflow option isn’t there ?
Did you have to do anything special to get these sflow options ?
Regards, Daniel
Hi @Daniel ,
Unfortunately my test environment isn’t running 4.01 any more so I can’t do a quick check. It may be worth posting your question on the HP forums and somebody may be able to check.
@Daniel
Hi Daniel,
Did you ever find out? I’ve just updated mine to v4.10 and still no sflow. Interestingly not mentioned in the userguide , cli guide either. Can’t find the buttons shown in the pictures.
QoS is there, just no sFlow..
Regards,
Andrew
@Andrew
On Monday, 19 August 2013 10:31 AM
I received confirmation from HP as per below:
“I have been updated by HP pre sales that the Virtual Connect firmware version 4.20 will be release early first half 2014, which will have sFlow capabilities.”
Regards, Daniel