Expanding Monitoring Coverage with Device Self-Certification in DX NetOps

For most network operations teams today, there are a dizzying array of technologies in play, and more keep getting added to the mix. To efficiently manage these multi-vendor, multi-technology environments, it is vital to leverage network observability solutions that provide comprehensive coverage. This post examines how DX NetOps by Broadcom helps address this imperative. The sections below outline how the solution offers self-certification capabilities that facilitate fast, efficient monitoring of technologies that aren’t supported out of the box.

Introduction: Comprehensive coverage that’s easy to expand

DX NetOps provides comprehensive, constantly expanding coverage. Today, the solution supports thousands of devices and technologies from hundreds of vendors. (Customers can access a complete listing of all current certifications at the Device Certification Portal.)

In addition, support for new devices is added frequently. By staying current with updates, customers can continue to gain access to this expanding set of devices and technologies.

However, even if a device you’re using isn’t currently supported, there’s good news: You can make a request to have a specific device added by opening a support case. Even better news: If your team would want to immediately start monitoring a device that’s not currently supported, DX NetOps provides self-certification capabilities that make the process fast and easy.

With DX NetOps, users can do self-certification to classify and identify devices in the network that may not be tracked out of the box. This enables teams to expand and adapt monitoring coverage to their specific requirements and environments.

Self-certification: Key capabilities and uses

With DX NetOps, teams can accurately discover devices, collect inventory, map topology, and aggregate faults and performance metrics. Customers can use the solution’s self-certification capabilities in the following ways:

• Identify devices that haven’t been sufficiently classified.
• Define or redefine device type, model class, and model type for a specific system object identifier (OID).
• View more accurate classification and identification of self-certified devices.

Out of the box, DX NetOps can monitor a whole range of devices that haven’t been monitored before, provided they adhere to industry standards and they are discoverable by the solution via SNMP.

In addition, self-certification can be used to update calculations for derived metrics. Many metrics are derived by making calculations based on raw data being collected. For example, usage metrics are captured, and then calculations are made to generate a metric like interface utilization. These calculations can vary by vendor and device.

Coverage

With its self-certification capabilities, DX NetOps can help with the following efforts:

• Device discovery. Teams can correctly detect the devices in the network.
• Inventory development. The solution enables teams to establish a complete inventory of monitored elements, identifying and classifying components. A range of details can be captured, including device vendor, model, and class (that is, whether the device is a router, switch, server, etc.)
• Topology mapping. DX NetOps can accurately include the identified device in topology maps and specify any connectivity to neighboring devices. This also allows the solution to factor the device into its fault isolation processes, helping to reduce alarm noise.
• Fault capture. The solution can detect fault conditions and generate appropriate alarms on the device through various supported mechanisms, including SNMP polling, SNMP traps, syslog message capture, and API ingestion.  
• Performance monitoring. The solution can do performance monitoring, including of standard metrics, vendor-specific implementations of common metrics, and vendor-specific implementations of metrics from new technology types. Teams can collect key indicators from the device to ensure optimal performance and alert on any degradation.
• Configuration. The solution can leverage self-certification to collect device configurations, detect changes, and generate alerts. Teams can leverage these capabilities to enforce policies for ensuring optimal configurations.

Self-certification process

This section offers an introduction to the process for employing self-certification. First, it is important to understand the various components involved. Here’s a brief introduction:

• Component. This defines the class and presentation in the DX NetOps Portal.
• Metric family. This enables normalized collection of metrics related to a specific type of technology.
• Vendor certificate. This maps how a metric is collected from a specific vendor or technology via OIDs.

DX NetOps features support for two types of certifications:

• Simple. This enables device discovery and offers support for standard views. This certification type can also support the use of MIB (management information bases) and traps. It also enables interface modeling, fault isolation, and root cause analysis.
• Enhanced. This type of certification enables the collection of proprietary MIBs and traps. The solution offers a OneClick interface that gives users views of device-specific information, such as CPU and memory thresholds.

DX NetOps supports two types of certifications: performance certifications and fault management certifications. Performance certifications are done in one place, via web services. These web services enable the export, import, and update of metric families, vendor certifications, and custom components. Fault management certifications are done elsewhere, such as the OneClick interface. When a new certification is created, teams can use it to override an existing certification, for example to change a device type based on internal policies. They can also use this capability to add more details that weren’t made available in the original certification.

Once a certification is available, users can update monitoring policies to leverage its details. Operators may need to change priority to use new a certification, or they may need to remove it and rediscover it again in order to gather the information associated with a revised certification. Generally speaking, adopting the use of new certifications is a smooth transition; teams don’t need to update monitoring configurations or threshold profiles.

Conclusion

DX NetOps offers comprehensive coverage of a diverse set of vendors and technologies. In addition, the solution’s self-certification capabilities offer ultimate flexibility in enabling teams to expand and adapt their monitoring coverage.

To learn more, including a demo of the solution in action, be sure to watch our Small Bytes session, How To Use Device Certification to Expand Network Observability.

In addition, you can review these pages on the technical documentation site:

• Overview on Certification page
• Network Configuration Manager Self Certification page
• Self-Certification page