NetMRI uses the concept of Issues to quantify and report problems and events across the network.

The main Network Analysis –> Issues page provides both the Network Scorecard and the Select Device Groups right pane. To quickly narrow down possible sources of the largest numbers of Issues, simply click a device group in the page. The Scorecard and the Issues table refresh to show only the Issues contents for the chosen device group. As an example, one device group, such as Network Management, might have an Overall Score of 10.0, indicating no problems, while the Routing device group might have an Overall Score of 8.8, indicating a substantial number of Issues in that layer of the network.

The system classifies Issues in three severity levels, along with a fourth scripting-related classification as follows:

• Errors: These are important issues that may affect the smooth operation of the network. Generally, such Issues are clear signs that something is wrong.
• Warnings: These are intermediate level problems that should be addressed after the errors have been corrected. A warning may not be a real problem, depending on the design and operation of the network.
• Info: These issues are provided for information, and typically alert you to minor things that may or may not indicate a problem.
• CCS: These issues are directly related to the execution of a CCS script. CCS uses the Issues page for notification after a script executes. An example is Invalid User Account, which lists the non-Admin user accounts for a selected device or device group.

Issues are so important in NetMRI that a specific administrator user account is defined to manage them. For more information, see Understanding Users and Roles.

The Issues pages are probably the most frequently used of all NetMRI features, designed to quickly and conveniently monitor the overall health of the network. In the Network Analysis –> Issues tab, the Network Scorecard shows the results of the daily analysis process and all issues generated for the latest time period. You can also filter issues.

NetMRI performs analysis of collected data during specified periods or in real-time. For issues processed during an analysis period, the system analyzes all network data collected since the last analysis process, looking for anything that might indicate an issue. For real-time analysis, NetMRI checks for issues while it collects data from the device. If an issue is found, it is raised immediately. As a result of analysis activity, NetMRI generates a collection of issues that summarize the type of problem discovered and all the devices or interfaces associated with that issue. Issues are automatically closed every night just before the new analysis processing is performed. If the same problem persists, NetMRI generates a new issue.

Also see Issues, Changes, and Network Analysis.

Issues and the Network Scorecard

The Network Scorecard (Network Analysis tab –> Issues tab) provides a high-level performance metric for the managed network. NetMRI measures the network's daily stability and correctness and calculates the normalized Scorecard value based on a statistical analysis of all issues discovered for that day. Counts of the three primary Issue types (Info, Warning, and Error) also are shown.

The Network Scorecard shows the scorecard value for the current day and a two-color graph showing the stability and correctness values over the selected time period, which by default is the last day's measurement.

Stability and correctness values are two data sets that cumulatively add up to the Overall Score in the Scorecard. Each data set has a maximum value of 5.0.

Stability issues are caused by events such as excessive spanning tree topology changes, unstable links, congestion, and excessive CPU/memory utilization. Correctness issues are derived from configuration or design errors such as duplicate VLAN ID/name pairs or inconsistent routing protocol timers. Stability and correctness are measured across a variety of functional areas of the network.

The Network Scorecard table shows correctness and stability values by component area (hover over an indicator rectangle to see the numerical values). Stability and correctness "penalties" associated with each issue depend on the type and severity of the issue. Stability and correctness penalties for all components of the network combine to create the overall Network Scorecard value, expressed as the Overall Score in the upper right corner of the Scorecard.

The value in the Network Scorecard indicates trends, for the entire network, for a selected device group or for one of nine distinct Issue types. To make historical comparisons, the scorecard value is plotted in the Scorecard History chart. The scorecard value varies somewhat from day to day, but the desired trend over time should be rising, not falling. After two or three weeks of operation, the variability of the scorecard value should become evident.

Viewing the Issue List

The Issues page provides several different views based on the type of data you wish to view. Click the down-arrow menu for Issues and select from Issues by Type with Scorecard, Issues by Type, Issues by Device with Historic Chart, or Issues by Device. The Issues by Type page displays the currently active Issues list in a table sorted by priority — Errors, Warnings, and then Info. Issues by Device is helpful when you want to isolate issues appearing on a specific device.

The Issues by Device with Historic Chart view provides an adjustable view of Issue trends for any selected device group. The time period resides on the horizontal X-axis, and the measurement, in the number of issues, is on the vertical Y-axis. Click the Time Selector drop-down menu to change the X-axis time period for the Historic chart.

The Historic chart displays up to four data sets as follows:

• Adds: Indicates the quantity of new Issues for each time period.
• Same: indicates Issues the time period that remains from the preceding time period.
• Cleared: Indicates Issues that have been cleared from the system due to administrative remediation or other causes.
• Suppressed: Shows the relative quantity of Issues that have been suppressed due to admin configuration of Issues that may be deemed to produce excessive notifications in each time period. Issues count for each time an increment appear as stacked bars in the chart. Move the mouse over any colored bar section to view the count for that Issue type.

To see a longer description of any issue, hover over the hyperlink in the Title column. Columns that are displayed by default include the following:

Data columns that can be chosen for the Issues display but that are hidden by default include the following:

The data set shown in the Issues page can be filtered in the following ways:

• Clicking one of the Component links at the bottom of the Scorecard.
• Clicking the Filters button at the top right of the Issues list, and choosing the columns and values to match against.
• Click the Display button and choose one of the drop-down menu options: All, Current, New, Cleared, or Suppressed.
• Use the Search box at the top left of the Issues table to search for a characteristic phrase or word that appears as part of an issue title.

Other methods for filtering and reorganizing Issues data are discussed in Using the Issue Viewer.

The Device Viewer also provides a substantial Issues page, which reports Issues specifically for a single device. See Viewing Device Issues, Configurations and Changes for more information.

Viewing Issue Summaries

The Issues page (Network Analysis tab –> Performance tab –> History section –> Issues) summarizes the number and severity of issues, and shows historical trends over the last 30 days. The Issue Summary panel shows the total count of Error, Warning, and Info issues for the current day, and the change in counts from the previous day. The Issue Diff Summary panel breaks down issues by change type (adds, same, drops). Generally, most networks will have at least a couple of issues generated each day.

• Issue Summary: The table lists the total number of issues by severity for the reporting period, and differences from the previous reporting period.
• Issue History: The chart shows the number of issues for the 30 days before the selected date.
• Issue Diff Summary: The table shows the number of differences by difference type for the reporting period, and the difference from the previous reporting period.
• Issue Diff History: The chart shows the number of differences for the 30 days before the selected date.

Click the export CSV icon at the top left of the Issues table to open the current Issues list in a spreadsheet-formatted file.

Viewing Details of an Issue

View an issue's details by clicking the issue title hyperlink. The Issues Viewer opens in a separate browser window, which lists the network components affected by the issue along with any relevant details. Many Issue details appear in this window that does not appear in the main Issue table or in summaries. You use the Issue Viewer toolbar to suppress or unsuppress an Issue, schedule a job to address an Issue type, send an email summary, and other operations.

Click a component's IP address hyperlink to open the corresponding Device Viewer for that network component.

The Issue Viewer provides a History chart for the specific issue instance, indicating the number of components affected by the issue over the past 30 days. The chart measurement timeline can be adjusted to the standard Daily, Weekly, Monthly, 7-Day, and 30-Day increments. Click the Time Selector drop-down menu to change the X-axis time period for the Issue Viewer. Similar Issue information is also found for individual devices, under Device Viewer –> Network Analysis –> Issues. The History chart is useful for determining how often this issue occurs and how much of the network is affected.

Issue details include how the issue has changed since the last run, as follows:

• Adds: New instances of the issue, discovered by NetMRI.
• Same: Instances still present since the last NetMRI polling cycle.
• Drops: Instances no longer present, determined as such during the last NetMRI polling cycle.
• Suppressed: Instances that are suppressed, presumably to prevent excessive Issue notifications from display in the user interface.

For more instructions on working in this window, see Using the Issue Viewer.

Defining Issue Thresholds

You can control the thresholds NetMRI uses on certain device and interface related issues. Through the use of Device Groups and Interface Groups, you can modify the thresholds for any one of these issues to control when the issue is raised. This capability means th at the same issue can be raised for different devices, but each device can have a different threshold for the issue.

Set thresholds using the Criteria property available in the Settings icon –> Issue Analysis –> Issue Group Settings –> Device Groups side tab and Interface Groups side tab.
Click the Comprehensive Issue List under Additional Documentation in Online Help for more detailed Issue listings to assist in decisions on which issues to isolate to specific device groups or interface groups.

Managing Issue Notifications

Issues generated by NetMRI are strong indicators of potentially serious problems with the network. As such, you may want to be informed whenever certain issues are generated. The Issue Notification feature is provided for such purposes, allowing you to request one or more notifications to be sent via various protocols to various destinations. All notification messages can be fully customized and multiple delivery protocols are supported.

Issue notifications are listed and created, in the Settings icon –> Notifications section –> Subscriptions page. Notifications can be sent in one of three ways:

• E-mail: E-mail notifications can be sent to one or more network personnel.
• Syslog message: Syslog messages enable integration with other network management tools, and allow NetMRI issues to be logged with other network activities. A syslog notification is a single formatted text line sent to a syslog server using UDP (usually to port 514).
• SNMP traps: SNMP notifications are sent as SNMP traps, which are fixed formatted SNMP messages defined by a corresponding SNMP MIB. In this case, the MIB defines the format of the notification trap because NetMRI is generating the trap.

The Settings icon –> Notifications section –> Defaults page enables users with appropriate privileges to define the settings used for all new notifications. Generally, the formatting defaults provided by NetMRI are sufficient, but the default servers and destinations are network-specific.

Using the Issue Viewer

The Issue Viewer appears in a new window when you click any issue hyperlink. By default, the Issue Viewer displays all issues of the selected type in a table, that occur across all NetMRI-managed devices. You can also filter the issue instances that appear in this window. Below the table, two important tabs appear.

The History tab provides a chart showing recent activity for the issue. The Issue Viewer is not device-specific: it is Issue-specific, which means that all devices that exhibit the issue may be listed in the Viewer, in the Components Affected by Issue table. The instance shown to the left lists a single device, but this will not be the case for many Issue instances. Devices are listed by their IP address and device name. The Issue Viewer's Components Affected by Issue table also shows a set of data columns crafted to match data reporting for the specific Issue.

History displays the stacked bar chart showing the following four data sets:

• Adds: Shows new instances of the specific Viewer issue.
• Same: Reflects issue instances still present since their first appearance.
• Drops: Shows instances no longer present.
• Suppressed: Shows instances that are suppressed.

The time span for the History chart can be adjusted as for other chart instances.

The Description tab explains the issue. The Description is taken from the Comprehensive Issue List.

To filter issues displayed in the Issue Viewer, go to the In list in the page header, and select the Device Group. All instances of the specific Issue across all related devices in the Group will be listed in the Issue Viewer.

To filter the issue instances table by activity type, complete the following:

1. Open the Display menu (above the column headers).
2. In the drop-down menu, click the activity type you want to see in the table. Choices include:
   • All: Displays all instances during the selected time period. For example, if a device goes down, then comes back up, then fails again. All shows both Device Down instances, while Current only shows a single Device Down instance.
   • Current (default): Displays all issue instances open for today, or all issue instances open at the end of a given time period if before today.
   • New: Displays all new instances during the selected time period.
   • Cleared: Displays all instances that have cleared instances during the selected time period.
   • Suppressed: Displays all Issue instances that have been suppressed during the selected time period.

To suppress an issue type for a device, click the check box for that device, and then click Suppress Issues below the table.

To unsuppress an issue type for a device, uncheck the check box for that device, and then click Unsuppress Issues below the table.

To schedule a job (i.e., run a script) for a device, perform the following:

1. Click the check box for the device.
2. Click Schedule Job below the table. The Edit Job dialog appears.
3. Enter a Job Name.
4. Select a Script Name.
5. Enter a Description (optional).
6. Click Edit Schedule..., then specify the job schedule.
7. To run the job against other devices or device groups, click the Edit Groups/Devices... button, then select other devices and/or device groups.
8. Click Save. The job is listed at Config Management –> Job Management –> Job History tab.

To execute a command or commands on a device, perform the following:

1. Click the check box for the device.
2. Click Execute Command below the table.
3. In the Run Configuration Command Script dialog, enter one or more valid configuration commands.
4. Click OK.

To send a notification about this issue, click the Notifications button.

Creating Custom Issues

Create and manage custom issues from the Config Management tab –> Job Management –> Custom Issues page.

Perl and CCS Scripts can reference custom issues to bring attention to conditions discovered during script processing. Check the Comprehensive Issue List under Additional Documentation in online Help for more detailed Issue listings. It is possible that an Issue already exists for script reporting purposes.

To create a new custom issue, complete the following:

1. At the top right of the page, click New. The Add Command Script Issue window opens.
2. Enter a unique Issue ID. Spaces are not permitted within this field. Underline characters are permissible. This value appears in the Issue ID column of the Custom Issues table.
3. Enter a Name for the issue.
4. Enter a Description for the issue. This text will appear in a pop-up when the cursor hovers over the issue's name where it appears in a table.
5. Select a Component to which this issue applies.
6. Specify an optional penalty by enabling Correctness and/or Stability. If enabled, this issue is included in analysis calculations for the specified Component.
7. In the Detail Columns field, specify the name(s) and type(s) of columns that will appear in the details table for the issue.
   
   Enter one column name and type per line, delimited by a comma. For example, Host, integer. Do not insert any spacebar characters between the column name and type, or you will receive an invalid type message from NetMRI. Column names are referenced by the script (via the Issue-Details attribute) to specify the information to include in the details table. Valid types are string and integer.

To copy a custom issue, complete the following:

1. In the Actions column, click the icon and choose Copy from the menu.
2. In the Copy Custom Issue dialog, enter a unique custom ID (spaces not permitted) for the copy, then click OK. To edit a custom issue, go to the Actions column, click the icon and choose Edit from the menu.

To delete a custom issue, go to the Actions column, click the icon and choose Delete from the menu then confirm the deletion.

Adding a Device Viewer Hyperlink to a Custom Issue

1. In the Detail Columns field of the Add Command Script Issue dialog (see above), enter IP Address, string.
2. In the Issue-Details section of the CCS script, add "IP Address" $ipaddress (including the quotation marks). The resulting CCS issue contains the IP address with a hyperlink to the Device Viewer.

Creating Custom Issue Help files

Custom issue help files provide NetMRI users with organization-specific information for individual issues. All issue help files associated with an issue are accessed via hyperlinks in the See Also section of the Issues Viewer. Multiple help files can be associated with an issue.

Help files can be stored in any format (for example, .pdf, .doc, .txt, .jpg, etc.) that can be rendered by the web browser. Also, help files can be written in any language supported by NetMRI, enabling the user to view them in the language defined for the console.

Custom Issue Help File Storage

Issue help files are stored in the Backup/IssueHelp directory as a collection of subdirectories, with each subdirectory devoted to a single issue. This allows multiple help files to be associated with each issue, and allows help files to be written in multiple languages.

The subdirectory name associated with each issue consists of the issue title with all non-alphanumeric characters removed. For example, the help files associated with the "Cisco Running Config Not Saved" issue would be stored in the CiscoRunningConfigNotSaved subdirectory, while the help associated with the "Bad Telnet / SSH Password" issue would be stored in the BadTelnetSSHPassword subdirectory.

All the help files stored in the subdirectory associated with a given issue are displayed as hyperlinks in the list. Each hyperlink label is derived from the name of the issue help file it references, and includes any spaces and special symbols.

Issue help file names must conform to the Unix file name convention, which does not allow certain characters, notably "/".

Help File Multi-language Support

Multiple languages are supported for Issue help files in the two following ways:

• Translation of hyperlink labels based on the current language.
• Display of help file based on the current language.

This enables help file authors to install different sets of help files for different languages when a system is deployed, while allowing users to choose their preferred language when accessing the system.

By default, the issue help file name is used as the hyperlink label displayed in the Issue Viewer. To display a different hyperlink label, one or more link translation files can be stored in the IssueHelp\LINKS directory. A link translation file maps an issue help file name to a hyperlink label.

Example: Suppose there are two help files associated with the "Cisco Running Config Not Saved" issue:

• 01Information.txt
• 02SavingConfig.doc

The link translation file for English, en_US.txt, contains these entries:

• 01Information=Additional Information About Saved Configurations
• 02SavingConfig=Procedure for Saving Cisco Configuration

The link translation file for Traditional Chinese, zh_TW.txt, contains these entries:

• 01Information=
• 02SavingConfig=

In these examples, the file names are pre-pended by an index number, which specifies the order in which the hyperlinks are displayed in the See Also list.

The link translation files define how the issue help file names should be displayed in the hyperlink labels based on the user's current language selection. NetMRI will automatically use the appropriate link translation file if one is defined. If NetMRI doesn't find a link translation file, the issue help file name is shown as the hyperlink label.

Issue help files and the issue link translation files in this example are organized in the following manner: NetMRI uses the contents of the zh_TW directory if that is the language selected by the user. If no subdirectory exists for the current language, then the files in the CiscoRunningConfigNotSaved directory are used.

Installing Custom Issue Help Files

The InstallHelpFiles command performs a series of checks to ensure that the issue help directory names are properly formatted, that all link translation files are properly formatted and that there is an entry for each issue help file in the corresponding link translation file.

1. Copy the issue help files into the proper directories in the NetMRI Administrative Shell account. The Administrative account can be accessed using any SSH-based client application, such as WinSSH, WinSCP, PuTTY, etc.
2. Execute the InstallHelpFiles command in the Administrative Shell account. This verifies the correctness of the files, installs them in the NetMRI runtime environment, and restarts the NetMRI server.

After successful installation and server restart, hyperlinks to the help files will automatically appear in all corresponding issue details displays, and the help files are displayed when a user clicks those hyperlinks.

Issue Analysis in NetMRI

Pages in the Issue Analysis section (Settings icon –> Issue Analysis) enable you to cross-check issues for device groups and interface groups, review issue suppression status, adjust reporting threshold values, and suppress issues that NetMRI can safely ignore.

Issue Group Settings

The Issue Group Settings pag e (Settings icon –> Issue Analysis –> Issue Group Settings) shows the relationships between issues, device groups, and interface groups. Group settings for Issue reporting or Issue suppression can be organized in three ways: By Issue, By Device Groups, and/or By Interface Groups. These three groups are represented in the side tabs under Settings icon –> Issue Analysis –> Issue Group Settings.

• By Issue: Issue reporting is organized into functional categories such as Configuration, Devices, Routing, and Security. Individual Issues can be singled out within each category in the Group Settings for Issue panel.

• By Device Groups: Issue reporting is organized into the defined Device Groups in the NetMRI system. By default, all issue types are associated with all device groups. Suppression of issues within specific groups has some utility here; Many Issue types do not appear on certain device types and do not need to be suppressed.
  
  Nested device groups will inherit all of the Issue processing settings of their parent. Each nested device group can override its Issue Group settings locally. You may need to pay attention to Issue settings for device groups with a highly specific focus, such as suppressing Cisco-specific Issues that are inherited by a device group dedicated to Juniper routers.
• By Interface Groups: Issue reporting is organized per network interface group. As with Device Groups, Issue suppression can be a granular and time-consuming activity.

To determine groups associated with an issue, complete the following:

1. Click the by Issue side tab.
2. In the Issues panel, expand the tree and choose the issue of interest. Associated groups are listed in the Group Settings for Issue table.
3. To edit a group's settings for that issue: Click Edit for the group.

To determine the issues associated with a group, complete the following:

1. Click the by Device Groups or by Interface Groups side tab as appropriate.
2. In the left panel, click the group name. Associated issues are listed in the Issue Settings for Group table.
3. To edit an issue's settings for that group, click Edit for the issue.

Performing Issue Suppression

Issue suppression enables users with Issues: Modify Suppression Parameters privileges to indicate which issues should be ignored by NetMRI for purposes of reporting and scorecard generation. Suppressed issues are still analyzed internally (because the associated analysis may be looking for multiple issues), but they are not displayed (by default) or used to compute scorecard values.

Issue suppression status is listed at Settings icon –> Issue Analysis section –> Suppression. The table in this page lists all issues defined in the system, and the analysis and penalties associated with that issue. The check box at the left end of each row indicates suppression status. If checked, the issue is suppressed.

To suppress an issue, click the check box for that issue. Settings are committed automatically.

To see a full description of an issue and review suppressed instances, click the hyperlink in the Issue Name column. To view analysis task details, click the hyperlink in the Analysis Task Name column.

Details of Issue Suppression

Suppressed issues continue to be analyzed internally, because the associated analysis may be looking for multiple issues. Although, they are not automatically displayed or used to compute scorecard values.

NetMRI supports two styles of issue suppression: full and partial.

• Fully suppressed issues will not appear in any issue list, nor will they be used in any network or group scorecard calculation. A specific issue can be suppressed in the Settings icon –> Issue Analysis section –> Suppression page.
  Doing so suppresses reporting for that issue throughout the NetMRI system.
• Partially suppressed issues are suppressed on specific devices using check boxes in the Issue Viewer. issues can be partially suppressed through Device Groups and Interface Groups at Settings icon –> Setup section –> Collection and Groups –> Groups tab. For groups, issue instances can be suppressed before issues are even raised for a device or interface, because group settings are dynamic and dictate which issues should be suppressed.

Partially suppressed issues appear in issue lists and are used in all Scorecard calculations containing at least one unsuppressed issue detail. If all issue details are suppressed, then the issue will not appear in issue lists and will not be included in Scorecard calculations.

Partially suppressed issues can be used to temporarily ignore known problems that won’t be fixed for some time, while still tracking the problem. The issue instances are still recorded in the database and can be seen at any time by un-suppressing that instance, at which point it will appear in all past and future issues.