7/17/2019 6:55 PM

9/2/2022 4:47 PM

Description  

Universal Device Pollers  are what customers can use to poll 'anything' about an SNMP device. They are not meant to replace Orion's built-in pollers, but rather to supplement what Orion does not normally poll. See Create a Universal Device Poller (UnDP).

Understanding UnDP Settings  

Define the Statistic 

Scalar and Table values
Scalar objects in the MIBs are also known as “Leaf” values. They can contain a single variable, and are usually polled with a Get or a GetNext request. A Table entry can contain multiple “Leaves”, which could be thought of as column names. Each entry in the table could be considered a “row” in the table.

 

For example, the Interfaces Table above will have an entry on every interface on a device. Many vendors will also include Virtual Interfaces in this table. By examining and polling the Interfaces table, you can poll the Speed, Administrative Status and Operation status of each interface entry. 

The “Get Table” option allows you to poll for all values in the column of a particular table. You can also use another column as your labels for these values. Using the Interfaces table as an example, this would allow you to poll the Operation status of each interface, and then label these with the name of each interface.

Orion Platform

Scoping the Issue  

What to Ask 

Here are a few questions to ask before jumping into the problem. You don't have to stop at these questions. Different scenarios might need you to probe differently, but this is a good starting point.

• What is the purpose of the Universal Device Poller?
  • What type of data is desired and how should it be interpreted?

• What are the expected results?
  • For example, if it's a temperature OID, the results would be in Celsius, and nominally between 20-50. If it's a status OID, it could be 0 or 1, or some enumerated value such as 'Red' or 'Green'.
  • Obtain the SNMPWalk  to show exactly what is available, and to verify that the OID the customer wants to monitor is actually returning data. See Run SolarWinds SNMP Walk.

• Understand the Environment
  • Is this a relatively common device (such as a Cisco switch), or some unheard of device from an unfamiliar manufacturer?

• Narrow the focus
  • Figure out if the issue is in the creation of the poller, or the data it's returning, or if it's returning data at all.
  • It is possible the customer put in the wrong OID. 

• Other Tips
  • In the UnDP program, if the OID configured is returning a test result of 'OID Not Supported', all this means is that the device itself is not providing information on that configured OID. Do an SNMPWalk  to verify if data exists there or not. See Run SolarWinds SNMP Walk.

• Adding MIBs
  • Customers might state that they need to 'add a MIB' to Orion. This is certainly a possibility, and you can do the MIB submittal process, but not having the MIB has absolutely -no- bearing on whether or not you can monitor an OID with a Universal Device Poller. All the MIB will do is provide the 'human readable' translation for display and browsing in the MIB tree. You can still manually input the OID and configure it as needed. 
  • See the following about adding MIBs: Add MIBs to the SolarWinds MIB database.

• OID Not Supported
  • Make sure that the Poller is set for Get Next, or Get Table. 
    If the OID still comes back as unsupported, then the Device is not responding to the OID that you have set. 
    The best way to see what your device responds to is to use SNMPWalk and check the OID. 

Services Involved 

The Orion Web Console is made of several dependent services, each responsible for different information displayed on a page. The table below explains these relationships in detail.
 

Service Name	Description	Software Package	Role
Collector Service	It does any necessary calculations on the data, then stores the results to the database.	Solarwinds Orion Core /Platform	The collector takes the polling results from the MSMQ It does any necessary calculations on the data, then stores the results to the database.
MSMQ	Provides a messaging infrastructure and development tool for creating distributed messaging applications for Windows-based networks and programs. If stopped, distributed messages will be unavailable. If disabled, any services explicitly depending on it will fail.	Microsoft Windows	The Job Engine Workers send polling results to MSMQ.
Information Service/ SWIS	Communication Service for READ ONLY SQL data	Solarwinds Orion Core /Platform	Used for Subscriptions, Notifications, Dependencies, Containers (Groups), Orion Authentication, EOC Communication, NCM Communication and Limitations
Module Engine	Service used to launch module engine plug-ins for all SolarWinds Orion products	Solarwinds Orion Core /Platform	Used for Core Licensing and Module Specific operations. Each Orion Module will use this service differently. Common examples are Topology and Manage Nodes operations
Job Engine V2	Polling Execution Engine for all SolarWinds Orion products	Solarwinds Orion Core /Platform	Executes all polling tasks used for Orion products. Each module will use this service differently. Features like Poll Now, Test Credentials and List Resources are common examples of Web console operations using JE2

Examine the Logs 

Orion produces numerous log files. For Universal Device Poller issues, these are the log files that would likely yield clues.

Polling Services Logs 

See Orion Platform Troubleshooting MSMQ/Collector/Job Engine (Polling Issues)

• UnDP logging is now in the Collector
• Issues with UnDP Polling failures can be treated in the same way as SNMP statistic polling failures - see the Orion Platform Troubleshooting - Polling article.

Orion Platform Troubleshooting Guide - Services - SWIS 

•    This log file is also referred to as SWISv3 logs

•    Shows connections to SQL, from the Data Processor, and to/from the Module Engine (Business Layer Host)

•    Remember that the Information Service READS but does not WRITE to SQL

 

Likely Root Causes  

Depending on the issue, there could be many causes.

Make sure to fully understand what it is the customer is doing and what is or is not working. Go through the logs and look for any relevant errors, UnDPs by default poll at the same rate as the node itself, so you would be looking for an error 10 minutes apart with default polling intervals. You can increase the polling interval of the UnDP itself to something like 1 minute, so you can see a faster refresh in the logs. 

Configured Incorrectly 

• The most obvious incorrect configuration will be that the device is responding with 'OID Not Supported', which means it does not support the chosen OID.
• Has the UnDP been configured with the correct OID for this information? An SNMPWalk may help you to confirm this, and also let you see exactly what information the device is responding with from that OID.
• Has it been configured with the correct polling settings, using the correct data types? Checking the MIB definition for this OID will tell you the expected data type, and help you to determine if the settings are correct.

Returning Incorrect Data 

• Has it been configured with the correct polling settings, using the correct data types? Compare the MIB definition for this OID to the settings used for polling this OID. 
• Does the data need a transform?
• Does the device support this OID correctly? An SNMPWalk will help you to determine this.
• Is the data correct in the database? If the data is correct in the database, we're polling and storing the data correctly - the issue may lie with how it is being displayed or used after this (see Charting, Alerting and Reporting)

Polling Issues 

• For polling issues, see Orion Platform Troubleshooting - Polling.