Introduction
The Network plug-in monitors the main performance statistics of the network interfaces on a host running Netprobe.
These statistics can be used to gain an indication of the network traffic the host is generating or receiving, as well as other problems, such as a high number of collisions.
Views
The network plug-in produces a single view, the contents of which will vary depending upon the operating system. An example of the output for each system is shown below.
view
This screenshot shows an example dataview produced on a Linux host. Each network interface is displayed as a separate row.
NETWORK Table Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| interfaceName | Name given to the interface by the host operating system. |
| ipAddress | IP address configured for this interface. |
| ipv6Address | IPv6 address configured for this interface. |
| status | Status of this network interface, and additionally whether this is a virtual interface or not. |
| percentCollisions | Number of collisions detected on the interface, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| percentSendErrors | Number of send errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| percentRecvErrors | Number of receive errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| packetSendRate | Number of packets sent per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetRecvRate | Number of packets received per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| cardSpeed |
Current operating speed of the network interface card (NIC) in Mbits/sec. If the Network sampler is configured not to use the NIC tool, then the Netprobe gets the data from If these files are not accessible, the Netprobe gets the additional data from the system commands |
| duplex | Current duplex mode of the network interface card (NIC). |
| kbyteSendRate | Amount of data sent in Kb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Mb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| kbyteReceiveRate | Amount of data received in Kb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Mb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| packetSendDrop | Shows a count of the number of sent packets which have been dropped. |
| packetReceiveDrop | Shows a count of the number of received packets which have been dropped. |
| link | Link level status of a network card. |
view
This screenshot shows an example dataview produced on a Solaris host. Each network interface is displayed as a separate row.
Note: This configuration enabled the Show absolute option in Gateway Setup Editor > Network plug-in > Advanced tab.
NETWORK Table Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| interfaceName | Name given to the interface by the host operating system. |
| ipAddress | IP address configured for this interface. |
| status | Status of this network interface, and additionally whether this is a virtual interface or not. |
| groupName | The IPMP groupname for this network interface, if configured. |
| collisions | Number of collisions detected on the interface, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| sendErrors | Number of send errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| recvErrors | Number of receive errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| packetSend | Number of packets sent per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetRecv | Number of packets received per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| crcErrors | Number of packet CRC errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage. |
| framingErrors | Number of packet framing errors, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| cardSpeed | Current operating speed of the network interface card (NIC) in Mbits/sec. |
| mbitSend | Amount of data sent Mb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Kb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| mbitReceive | Amount of data received in Mb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Kb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| link | The link state at the local end of the connection, based on the kernel statistics. This can take the value "Up", "Down" or "Unknown". |
| duplex | Current duplex mode of the network interface card (NIC). |
| autoNegotiation | Whether the card is capable of auto-negotiation (of link speed and duplex mode). |
| packetSendDrop | Shows a count of the number of sent packets which have been dropped. |
| packetReceiveDrop | Shows a count of the number of received packets which have been dropped |
x86 view
This screenshot shows an example dataview produced on a Solarisx86 host. Each network interface is displayed as a separate row.
Note: This configuration enabled the Show absolute option in Gateway Setup Editor > Network plug-in > Advanced tab.
NETWORK Table Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| interfaceName | Name given to the interface by the host operating system. |
| ipAddress | IP address configured for this interface. |
| status | Status of this network interface, and additionally whether this is a virtual interface or not. |
| groupName | The IPMP groupname for this network interface, if configured. |
| collisions | Number of collisions detected on the interface, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| sendErrors | Number of send errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| recvErrors | Number of receive errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| packetSend | Number of packets sent per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetRecv | Number of packets received per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| crcErrors | Number of packet CRC errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage. |
| framingErrors | Number of packet framing errors, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| cardSpeed | Current operating speed of the network interface card (NIC) in Mbits/sec. |
| mbitSend | Amount of data sent in Mb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Kb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| mbitReceive | Amount of data received in Mb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Kb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| link | The link state at the local end of the connection, based on the kernel statistics. This can take the value "Up", "Down" or "Unknown". |
| duplex | Current duplex mode of the network interface card (NIC). |
| autoNegotiation | Whether the card is capable of auto-negotiation (of link speed and duplex mode). |
| packetSendDrop | Shows a count of the number of sent packets which have been dropped. |
| packetReceiveDrop | Shows a count of the number of received packets which have been dropped |
view
This screenshot shows an example dataview produced on a Windows host. Each network interface is displayed as a separate row.
NT-NETWORK Headline Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| tcpRetransmissionRate | The number of TCP segments retransmitted per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| tcpConnectionCount | The number of TCP connections, in either the ESTABLISHED or CLOSE-WAIT state. |
NT-NETWORK Table Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| interfaceName | Name given to the interface by the host operating system. |
| ipAddress | IP address configured for this interface. |
| addressType | How the IP address has been configured - either "static" or "dhcp". |
| byteSendRate | Number of bytes sent by the interface per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| byteReceiveRate | Number of bytes received by the interface per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetSendRate | Number of packets sent per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetReceiveRate | Number of packets received per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| utilisationPercentage | Percentage of the network card maximum bandwidth currently being used. |
| packetReceiveDiscardedRate | Number of discarded packets received per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetSentDiscardedRate | Number of discarded packets sent per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetReceiveErrorRate | Number of receive errors per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetSentErrorRate | Number of send errors per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| speed | Current operating speed of the network interface card (NIC) in Mbits/sec. |
| packetSendDiscarded | Shows a count of the number of sent packets which have been discarded. |
| packetReceiveDiscarded | Shows a count of the number of received packets which have been discarded. |
AIX view
This screenshot shows an example dataview produced on an AIX host. Each network interface is displayed as a separate row.
NETWORK Table Legend
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| interfaceName | Name given to the interface by the host operating system. |
| ipAddress | IP address configured for this interface. |
| status | Status of this network interface, and additionally whether this is a virtual interface or not. |
| percentCollisions | Number of collisions detected on the interface, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| percentSendErrors | Number of send errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| percentRecvErrors | Number of receive errors detected by the interface device driver, as a percentage of the total number of packets. |
| packetSendRate | Number of packets sent per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| packetRecvRate | Number of packets received per second, averaged over the sample interval. |
| cardSpeed | Current operating speed of the network interface card (NIC) in Mbits/sec. This is unknown for virtual adapters. |
| duplex | Current duplex mode of the network interface card (NIC). This is unknown for virtual adapters. |
| kbyteSendRate | Amount of data sent in Kb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Mb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| kbyteReceiveRate | Amount of data received in Kb/s, averaged over the sample interval. The rate can be shown in Mb/s alternatively, using the showMBits setting. |
| packetSendDrop | Shows a count of the number of sent packets which have been dropped. |
| packetReceiveDrop | Shows a count of the number of received packets which have been dropped |
| link | The link state at the local end of the connection. This can take the value "Up", "Down" or "Unknown". |
Plug-in Configuration
The network plug-in can be configured to run on any Netprobe host. Configuration is placed in the "network" XML setting, and by default no other settings should be required.
showVirtualInterface
The showVirtualInterface setting can be used to show or omit virtual (or bonded) interfaces from the data view. Omitted rows and their contents will not be published, and thus cannot be used in rules or actions on Gateway. This is a Boolean setting, and so valid values are "true" or "false".
showLoopback
The showLoopback setting can be used to show or omit the loopback interface from the dataview. If omitted, the loopback interface will not be available in Gateway for rules or actions. This is a Boolean setting, with valid values of "true" or "false".
Note: This setting will only take effect when showVirtualInterface option is set.
showMBits
This setting controls whether the send rate and receive rate should be shown in mbits (true) or kbytes (false).
showAbsolute
Whether values which are shown as rates (such as byteSendRate, byteReceiveRate, packetSendRate, packetReceiveRate), and instead show them as how many (bytes/packets) are sent/received between consecutive samplings.
private
The private configuration section holds settings used for debugging the network plug-in.
Please contact ITRS support if you require assistance with this plug-in.
nicTool
On Linux, network interface information is obtained by using a system utility to query the network settings. This section allows you to specify the command used to obtain this information. This is typically used when system utilities are restricted by access control programs (e.g. sudo or powerbroker).
Note: This section will be ignored for network plug-ins not running on Linux. Thus you can configure a single sampler descriptor for UNIX network plug-ins.
nicTool > type
This setting specifies the type of tool being run to collect additional network interface information.
Possible values:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| ethtool | Tool output is from (or has the same format as) that from ethtool. Supports all hardware. |
| miitool | Tool output is from (or has the same format as) that from miitool. Supports only 10/100M NICs but can handle some older NICs that ethtool can't. |
Note: miitool and ethtool are required on Linux servers only and need to be run with root privilege to return network card speed and duplex state. If the Netprobe is running as a non-root account and 'pbrun' or 'sudo' are not being used as described above, then it will be necessary to modify the miitool or ethtool binary to be owned by root and have the setuid bit set, as in:
chown root ethtool chmod u+xs ethtool chmod o+x ethtool
nicTool > command
The setting specifies the actual command to run when querying additional network interface. The custom command should precede the ethtool or mii-tool command and contain no additional parameters. Netprobe will add the interface names to query after this command.
For example, the command could be configured as "pbrun mii-tool" or "sudo ethtool".
